id, oh, mom, lisa's missing. what do you mean lisa's missing? this is just unfathomable. she can't be missing. we started an immediate search of the surrounding area.

things happened so fast. we need to find her. so her body was found-- right in here. why would anyone do this? motives were thrown out, like jealousy, some kind of love triangle. did you keep getting new tips in all the time? tips were coming in. but kept hitting dead ends. hitting dead ends. a massive law enforcement project that had gone on over 25 years. god, could you give us a little something here? we just got to keep going. for the first time, we had a face to put with the boogeyman. what are you thinking? i took a big, deep breath, and my mind began racing. your jaw must have dropped. to say the least. i picked up a rose, and i put a card on it. it just said, "lisa, it's done." [theme music]

andrea canning (voiceover): it's a pretty little thing, whimsical, frivolous. but three decades ago, this music box became something else-- a symbol of deadly intent. did that give you chills, seeing that music box? absolutely. andrea canning (voiceover): a gift from an evil soul. he had bought the music box prior to her being abducted. andrea canning (voiceover): and a clue for the homicide investigators who never gave up on this case. women grew up afraid, having heard this story. and they deserved an answer. the whole community deserved an answer. andrea canning (voiceover): agawam in western massachusetts is the home of six flags, new england's biggest theme park. the town itself is small with a wholesome vibe. generations of families have grown up here. but on april 16, 1992, agawam was in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. is this just like any typical day?

you're on your way to work? exactly, just another typical day. andrea canning (voiceover): just another typical day until it wasn't. sophia maynard, back then a clerk at brittany's card & gift shop, noticed something strange as she pulled up to the store that thursday morning-- a parked car that shouldn't have been there. it belonged to lisa ziegert. lisa worked evenings at the store. during the day, she was a teacher's aide. drove in, and really couldn't quite figure out why she would be there. at that time, she would be at the agawam middle school teaching. was that odd, seeing her car? definitely was odd, yes. andrea canning (voiceover): sophia parked and went inside. the door was unlocked, and the music was on. the lights were on. so that's weird. yeah, like maybe she had opened the store. maybe she forgot something there and maybe had a break between classes or whatever. something, maybe. andrea canning (voiceover): she called lisa's name. no answer.

went up and down the narrow aisles, past the coffee mugs, the porcelain knickknacks, the music boxes and cards. i walked around the counter where the cash register was, and her purse was there. so then i started thinking that's odd. it's odd. why would her purse be there and she's not? exactly. andrea canning (voiceover): she checked the back of the store, saw that one room was a mess. were you worried that you were going to look into one of these rooms and possibly find lisa in there? that was the first thought in my head was if something had happened to her that i was going to find her there. andrea canning (voiceover): but 24-year-old lisa ziegert wasn't there, wasn't anywhere in the store. so is your heart pumping? are you just-- yes, i was pretty panicked at that point. i knew something obviously happened to her. so i just-- my first instinct was to just run and call the police. andrea canning (voiceover): she ran to a store

across the road to call 911. they told me that i needed to go down right away to brittany's card shop. andrea canning (voiceover): detective wayne macey of the agawam police department was assigned the case. you head over there right away? did. i did. how much information do you have? very little at this point? not at the time, just that somebody was missing from that store. andrea canning (voiceover): once inside, macey saw lisa's coat as well as her purse, the messy store room, the untouched cash register. and it doesn't take a detective even to know when someone's belongings are all left behind like that, it's not a good sign. right, it's not. you know in your heart and in your mind that when those kinds of things are left behind, obviously this is not going to be a good thing. andrea canning (voiceover): macey and his colleagues had their video camera out, searching for clues. meantime, the news spread to lisa's mom, dee ziegert. i got a phone call first from the school. andrea canning (voiceover): the school where lisa worked

during the day as an aide. she said, hey, dee, do you know where lisa might be? she didn't come in. and i said, i don't know. maybe she overslept. andrea canning (voiceover): dee didn't think anything of it. but then lynne rogerson, lisa's older sister, got a call, this one from a friend who told her that lisa was nowhere to be found. my anxiety was through the roof. i was completely freaked. right away. from the phone call onward. is this because her personal belongings were left behind and her car. and the store was open. yeah. she would never do that. she would have never left that store at risk by leaving it unlocked, ever. andrea canning (voiceover): lynne raced over to her mom's office. when lynne came to the office to tell me, she said, oh, mom, lisa's missing. and poor lynne, my response was, what do you mean lisa's missing? this is just unfathomable. yeah. it's just unfathomable. what do you mean, she's missing?

she can't be missing. just not at all what you're ever expecting to hear in agawam, massachusetts. no. - no, not at all. - no. andrea canning (voiceover): but what was coming was even more incomprehensible and almost more than they could bear. coming up-- we started looking in the store for clues as to what could have happened there at the scene. andrea canning (voiceover): detectives turn up evidence of a fierce struggle in the gift shop, triggering a massive search for the missing lisa. there was a door that actually had what appeared to be a heel mark in it. and there was a little bit of blood spattering. you don't know what you're going to find, but you just keep looking. andrea canning (voiceover): and later, a picture of a killer painted by dna. it doesn't tell you who the killer is, but it can tell you what the killer looks like. correct. andrea canning (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. ♪♪ when you have moderate to severe eczema, it's okay to show off. with dupixent, show off your clearer skin and less itch.

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during her evening shift at a gift shop. detective wayne macey was called to the store the next morning. you're worried immediately? very much so. so we started looking in the store for clues as to what could have happened there at the scene. andrea canning (voiceover): police swarm the place. and it was a back room. there was a door that actually had what appeared to be a heel mark in it, where somebody might have kicked it. the boxes were actually flattened down, like somebody might have been on those boxes. and there was a little bit of blood spattering on some of the boxes. so you're looking at the beginnings of an abduction. yeah. andrea canning (voiceover): they believed the boxes, the dent in the door, and the blood spatter all pointed to a struggle. we started an immediate search of the surrounding area-- dumpster areas, back alley areas behind-- this was a strip mall type area, and there was a lot of little nooks and crannies that somebody could put somebody.

did your team find anything? no. andrea canning (voiceover): they talked to everyone who was in the area that night. did anyone see anything? there were-- not of any significance. andrea canning (voiceover): detectives developed a timeline. what time are you thinking this happened? we're thinking somewhere between 8:30 and 10 minutes to 9:00 on that evening. that's a really accurate, small window. andrea canning (voiceover): the last transaction on the cash register was at 8:20 pm. a customer told police she came into the store at 9:00, but it was empty. she thought she heard a noise in the back and left. so she was about 40 minutes from closing when this happened. - yes. andrea canning (voiceover): they soon had a working theory of what happened. there was an assault that took place in that store to gain some kind of control over lisa. there was also a side door, and the side door led to an alley. and they probably went out the side and just pulled a car out and left from there. and then just vanished. and then just vanished.

andrea canning (voiceover): but where was she now? the agawam pd, the massachusetts state police, and the fbi launched an intensive search. lisa's parents, dee and george, her siblings and friends gathered at the family home to wait. they were terrified. who would hurt their fun, friendly lisa, the girl with the cornflower blue eyes? she was bubbly. and as lynne would be quick to say, when she'd laugh, she'd laugh like this. she always covered her front teeth. but if she was laughing, you were laughing too. she had an infectious giggle. and she was small, but her personality was pretty big. i did hear she has a bit of a mischievous side to her. oh, yeah. she does. in fact, we found a paper where she had written-- when she was supposed to be writing a poem for an assignment, and she obviously had writer's block, so she wrote this whole paper, piece of paper, on why she was wasting time, and she just wasted an hour on this piece of paper

and she wasted a piece of paper. and she had nothing done-- nothing, nothing, she said. andrea canning (voiceover): lisa's life was full, packed with her many interests. so this is lisa's artwork. yes. yes. yes, some of it. some is from college. some is from high school. these are pretty colors. it has to have blue. everything has to have blue in it, according to lisa. she was always sketching in her spare time. yes. this is just something she loved to do. she did. andrea canning (voiceover): something else-- lisa loved to dance. here she is at her parents' anniversary party a year before she vanished. kim murray, one of her oldest friends. we would go out to clubs, and we would listen to music and dance, and she had her favorites. but if we were in a car even driving, and and a song came on that she loved, she would pull over to the side of the road into a parking lot, and just turn up the radio, and get out and dance. really? yeah, no. she really would. she would pull the car over? yes. this sounds like a dance like everybody's watching. yeah, kind of like that. instead of dance like no one's watching.

yeah. andrea canning (voiceover): the middle school kids lisa taught were drawn to that zany, fun-loving spirit. david ziegert is her younger brother. i think that she decided to become a teacher because she always liked to be around children. i mean, she was a big kid herself. she was ready to enjoy life and see the silliness in things, and you to be able to relate to kids that well. andrea canning (voiceover): at the time she vanished, lisa was in love. her boyfriend, blair massoia, worked with computers. he lived in a house with a bunch of roommates, including ed borgatti. was your house the gathering place for all the friends, parties, dinners? yes, we were young, so yeah. i mean, all the friends would come there, and we had a lot of fun. we had a lot of different parties, and had family over a lot, which was unusual for kids our age. andrea canning (voiceover): ed and blair were good friends and co-owners of the house. were you happy that lisa and blair found each other? oh, absolutely. i've never seen him happier. she seemed really happy.

they were great together. everyone talked about it. andrea canning (voiceover): lisa's sister lynne was another roommate. so you all knew each other. this was a tight-knit circle of friends. yes, very. yep. so had lisa spent a lot of time at your house? yes. andrea canning (voiceover): in the days after she went missing, lisa's friends formed their own search parties. ed went out with lisa's boyfriend. i remember it was raining, and cold, and we walked through the woods, and he didn't want to stop looking. and i said, we're soaking wet. and he didn't want to stop looking, and i wasn't going to stop. so we just kept looking. what was the mood like? it was stressful, like that sick feeling that you don't know what you're going to find, or you wonder why are we doing this, or what happened. she must be somewhere, but you just keep looking. did you think that maybe she was ok, or were you starting to lose hope? i don't know. things happened so fast.

we just were-- it was just we need to find her. those were probably the longest days of our lives. i mean, there was a lot. in order to help the police, there was constant calls from them with questions, and could you come down and look at this, or you know does any of this sound familiar to you? i think there was so much of that that your anxiety was on high all the time. and that was especially hard for her group of friends. andrea canning (voiceover): four days passed in a heart-thudding, hand-wringing, miserable blur. and then on easter sunday, the ziegerts got the news they never wanted to hear. coming up-- there were tire tracks that had been going in and coming out of here. possibly from the person who took lisa here? very possibly, yeah. andrea canning (voiceover): one mystery about to be solved, another just starting. this could be someone you knew. yes. that's a scary feeling. it's very scary. our parents were horrified, and they started not letting us walk to our cars after dark alone.

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it was easter sunday 1992, four days after lisa ziegert disappeared. i think we were all in disbelief at the time. andrea canning (voiceover): stephanie barry, who later became a reporter for the local newspaper, "the republican," was just 20 years old when lisa disappeared, working at a restaurant in town. and of course, we were trying to sort through, is it really true, sifting through the rumors. we just couldn't really believe it because agawam is such a sleepy little town, and it's very insular. andrea canning (voiceover): detective wayne macey was worn out that day. he and his team, along with the state police and the fbi, had been working long days searching for lisa. then they got the call that changed everything.

the call came through at dispatch that a man walking his dog after dinner had actually observed what he believed to be a female body laying in the woods on a small hill. and do you head right over there? yes, the four of us jumped in a car, and we headed over there to that location. andrea canning (voiceover): it was a scant three miles from the gift shop where lisa had been abducted. when they got there, they found a dirt path leading into the woods. but a path that you could easily miss if you're just driving past here. yeah, especially at night, simply a curb cut. and we we suspect that the suspect knew exactly where he was going, because you'd have to go right by it otherwise. andrea canning (voiceover): the landscape has changed since that gray spring day. it was much more open back then, and muddy. and it had been rained on for basically three days, and some sleet, and a little bit of snow. so what we did was, the four of us that came in here, we walked in each other's tracks all the way down. not to disturb the ground.

right. we were about up to our ankles in mud. - wow. - going out here. and there were tire tracks? there were tire tracks that had been going in and coming out of here. possibly from the person who took lisa here? very possibly, yeah. that's what we figured. andrea canning (voiceover): they didn't have to go far before they came upon a grisly scene. so her body was found-- right in here. --right in this area? right in this area, yeah. and what is the scene telling you? well, she is partially clad. she had a pair of boots on, and some of her clothing had been pulled down. sexual assault? obvious sexual assault. defensive wounds on the hands, things like that. do you believe she was still alive when she came here? there was evidence that there had been a scuffle in this area, and that she had ended up over there. and that's where the assault actually took place where she was killed. how did you know for certain it was lisa? we had a description of her on that particular evening,

what she was wearing, and also a particular charm bracelet that we all were aware of, and the charm bracelet was still there. andrea canning (voiceover): a young woman with her life ahead of her brutally assaulted and stabbed multiple times, detective macey had the dreadful task of telling the family. i can remember jumping into the car, and racing at a very high rate of speed down to the ziegerts' house. because i thought that if i ever slowed down or stopped, i might turn around and let somebody else do it. andrea canning (voiceover): but he kept his nerve, and kept driving until he got to the ziegert house. and when i got there, as i was walking up to the door, i can remember thinking to myself, what is the the easiest, the safest, the best way to say the word dead? andrea canning (voiceover): dee ziegert spared him that. wayne came to the front door, and i looked at him. and i said you found her?

he said yes. i said, she's dead, isn't she? and to this day, i think how brave he was, what courage that took, to come. i just-- i went down to my knees, and it was something you really didn't expect to hear. your mind doesn't let it go that far. it's always like, it could be this, it could be that. but it's not going to happen. it's not going to happen. i actually did something similar to mom, and i almost went to my knees. and then i took a deep breath in, and said to myself, i got stuff to do. andrea canning (voiceover): there was a lot of stuff to do, sad stuff, hard stuff. that night, investigators brought lisa's body out of the woods, and the ziegerts began making arrangements so a shattered community could say its goodbyes. how many people do you think came out? strangers, loved ones, friends? - thousands. - thousands? and it was raining. they stood in the rain. yeah, they stood in the rain outside the funeral home

and were so good. and you couldn't talk with anyone, but yet you didn't feel like talking. andrea canning (voiceover): for lisa's brother david, who had flown home from california, it was a reminder of the tight-knit community he knew as a child. when big tragedies happen, communities join together, and have each other's back. and agawam was no different. they did that. they did that for us. they put themselves in our position. imagine if my daughter, or my sister, or one of my family members had this happen to them. how would i feel? andrea canning (voiceover): a sleepy little town learned about real fear after lisa's murder. our parents were horrified, and they started not letting us walk to our cars after dark alone. some of the parents wouldn't let their daughters even go to work for a few days after she was kidnapped. andrea canning (voiceover): everyone knew there could be a killer living among them, someone who knew the area, its side alleys,

its unmarked pathways. this could be someone you knew. yes. it could be a resident of agawam. right, right. that's a scary feeling. it's very scary. it changed the way all of us functioned, definitely had a huge impact on our safety, feeling safe, feeling safe alone, feeling safe just being a woman. andrea canning (voiceover): many women felt the same way, signing up for self-defense classes and carrying mace. i know that i stopped talking to many of my male friends at that time. i was afraid to even carry on friendships with people because i didn't know what had happened to her. andrea canning (voiceover): investigators worked flat out for months. little did they know that decades later, they'd still be at it. coming up-- we found dna, and the analysis came back. so this could be your ace in the hole.

this could be our suspect, exactly. andrea canning (voiceover): a possible motive. motives were thrown out like jealousy, some kind of love triangle. andrea canning (voiceover): and a possible suspect. i would hear definitively that he was the one who killed lisa ziegert. andrea canning (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. my mental health was better. but uncontrollable movements called td, tardive dyskinesia, started disrupting my day. td felt embarrassing. i felt like disconnecting. i asked my doctor about treating my td, and learned about ingrezza. ♪ ingrezza ♪ ingrezza is clinically proven for reducing td. most people saw results in just two weeks. people taking ingrezza can stay on most mental health meds. number-one prescribed ingrezza has simple dosing for td: always one pill, once daily. ingrezza can cause depression, suicidal thoughts, or actions in patients with huntington's disease. pay close attention to and call your doctor if you become depressed, have a sudden changes in mood, behaviors, feelings or have thoughts of suicide.

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richard louis with the news update. 40 people are dead in the wake of hurricane helene. the path of destruction to the parts of the florida panhandle and left neighborhoods, including this hospital in tennessee, underwater. staff members were rescued from the landslide blocking major highways and dams in danger of bursting from heavy rainfall. the storm is expected to linger over the ohio, tennessee valley potential for localized flash flooding for now, back to dateline.

across t patch of land, searching for anything that would help them catch lisa's killer. at this time, we're analyzing all of our evidence. we're continuing to follow up on leads, and we have investigators assigned to work around the clock. the first piece of evidence we have is a button. andrea canning (voiceover): they found buttons from lisa's clothes and her denim skirt. they took molds of the tracks spotted on the pathway, and they studied the autopsy report which said lisa died of knife wounds to the neck. but her body had another story to tell them. did you find male dna on her? we found dna, and the analysis came back. we always assumed at the time that it was going to be a male. so this could be your ace in the hole. this could be our suspect, exactly.

andrea canning (voiceover): as they questioned lisa's circle of friends, investigators asked the men to give dna samples. they scrutinized the boyfriend closely, as they always do in cases like this. but blair's dna wasn't a match. and he had an alibi. they ruled him out. the ziegerts and their friends, for their part, never once suspected him. was there any part of you or anyone else who had to at least look at blair? no. just because? i mean, no. i can honestly-- no, never, ever. andrea canning (voiceover): in fact, as investigators drilled deep into lisa's life, there seemed to be nothing troubling. did you learn anything about lisa, as far as like maybe an angry ex-boyfriend, an enemy, somebody that may have wanted revenge on her? no. a lot of cases, we find out that there were some difficult situations in the relationships. with lisa, that wasn't the case. she was just a regular person, a school teacher, person who worked nights.

she had a lot of friends. she had a great family. andrea canning (voiceover): one account did give them pause. lisa's good friend kim murray told investigators that lisa often talked about an eerie feeling that she was being watched. yeah, that night, or thursday night before all of this happened, i stopped by the store. and she was there alone, and i remember standing in front of the big windows in the store, and she said that she was having that feeling again. that someone was watching her. yeah, and i said, there's nobody out there. we never really got much more information out of kim or anybody else in regards to the particulars about that feeling. in this particular case, it was probably significant. andrea canning (voiceover): significant maybe, but not enough to go on. and anyway, agawam's detectives were swamped with tips. they followed up on every one. you found lisa. your job now is to find her killer. right. that's correct. and i can't imagine what else was much more important

than that in agawam. nothing at the time that was going to be more important than this particular homicide. you have to understand, as a small as we were, we still have a lot of other information coming in about other things that are happening that have to be investigated. but we had a dedicated force of officers that were just specifically assigned to this case. and we worked around the clock. sometimes 6 am until 2:00 am we would go home and get a few hours' sleep, and shower up, and come back at 6:00 am, and do the same thing for six, seven, eight weeks in a row, seven days a week. andrea canning (voiceover): but as the days passed without an arrest, some of the locals became obsessed with the terrible thing that had happened in their town. they would gather at the little coffee counter. andrea canning (voiceover): stephanie barry. and at the time, you could smoke in a restaurant. so they would smoke endless cigarettes, and drink endless cups of coffee, and just talk about theories endlessly.

andrea canning (voiceover): one theory about the killer's identity tore through town. i do vividly recall people saying that kid, his father owns e.b.'s. oh, he did it. e.b.'s was a popular restaurant in town, just steps from the gift store where lisa was working when she was abducted. the owner of the restaurant was ed borgatti. his son is ed borgatti jr. i would hear that definitively, that he was the one who killed lisa ziegert. andrea canning (voiceover): the same ed who owned the house with lisa's boyfriend. the same ed who helped search for her, who comforted her family after her death, and who helped carry the coffin at her funeral. motives were thrown out like jealousy, some kind of love triangle. people were calling and stating that he might have been involved in this crime in one way or another. why did they believe he might be involved? well, in a small community, there's a lot of imagination and a lot of active minds.

and i think a lot of people assume some things about people and then start to make decisions in their mind about what could have happened because of these assumptions. andrea canning (voiceover): detective macey says many of the callers pushed the love triangle theory. but it was a triangle with a twist. the rumor that was coming in from an awful lot of people was that ed had a relationship with lisa's boyfriend, and that at one point, lisa might have come home and found them in a compromising position, both ed and blair, and that now something would have to be done with lisa. this is what we were getting. the possible motive. exactly. and everything had to be investigated to its fullest. andrea canning (voiceover): ed borgatti was so close to the ziegerts, he was like one of their own. could this be possible? coming up-- people were calling from agawam stating that it was because his father was a police chief, which he wasn't,

that we were hiding it. andrea canning (voiceover): a link to police leads to accusations of a cover-up. the dad was a detective. he was a detective, and we're going to cover it up because of somebody's relationship with somebody on the police department? that is a direct and serious allegation against you. all of us that wear the uniform to think that anybody would do that. andrea canning (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. dangerous ladders. gutter muck. yuck. no wonder you hate cleaning your gutters. good thing there's leaffilter. our patented filter technology keeps leaves and debris out of your gutters forever. guaranteed. call 833- leaffilter to get started. and get the permanent gutter solution that ends clogs for good. they took the time to answer all of our questions. they really put us at ease. end clogged gutters for good. call 833.leaf.filter, or visit leaffilter.com today.

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ed borgatti was one of lisa helziegert's close friends,xt. but now many in the community believed he may have killed her. did you have anything to do with lisa's death? absolutely not. andrea canning (voiceover): but ed says he understands why the police had to look at him in those early days after lisa was killed. i mean, that's what the police have to do, and they had to talk to all of us. i mean, you've got to start somewhere, and i was more than happy to talk to them,

tell them anything i could tell them. andrea canning (voiceover): while ed was cooperating with police, the rumor mill went into overdrive. one of the rumors that persisted was that you were in a relationship with blair, and that lisa caught you together, and so you had to get rid of her. for that reason. what's your reaction to that? the reaction is ridiculous. it's a rumor, and that's all i'm going to say. it's just even ridiculous to even address that. andrea canning (voiceover): the borgatti family name was well known in town. ed's father, ed sr., was not just the owner and namesake of the family's restaurant, he was also a retired agawam police detective and a prominent member of the community, says his daughter shelley. my father was on the town council. he has a park named after him. he did a lot for this town. so i think i was an easy target-- easy name to remember because the name was known in town, and then it just spread. it just snowballs it out. so i really think that's what happened. andrea canning (voiceover): shelley says the rumors about her brother were hard to ignore, particularly

whenever someone called the restaurant to threaten or confront him. we're going to egg his car. why did he do this? and what's the frustrating part is you can't stop it. you can't stop it, and they didn't even have social media. i don't know how it went around that fast. andrea canning (voiceover): making it even more frustrating, says shelley, is that she knew it was impossible for her brother ed to have killed lisa. where was your brother that night? he was here working with me and a whole crew of people. never left? never disappeared for a time? never left. no. no, absolutely not. he was here working with all of us. there was plenty of witnesses. andrea canning (voiceover): not only did ed seem to have a solid alibi, he also had the ziegerts' support. so how did you feel when his name started emerging in public as the person who may have killed lisa? i was angry with people who were making the comments, very angry. because i knew he never did it.

andrea canning (voiceover): but the chorus of accusations against him was almost deafening, says detective macey. when you have everyone beating the drum in the town that this guy did it, you can't ignore that. no, we wouldn't until we absolutely were sure that he had no involvement in it. andrea canning (voiceover): they had to follow up on information that his truck was similar to a suspicious vehicle seen by witnesses. and of course, they had to ask him for dna. you took a dna sample from ed borgatti? yes. was it a match? no, it was negative. and his father, who i knew very well, ed sr., had come up and said, wayne, can't you just go forward and let the community know that ed didn't do it? and i told ed, you know i can't do that. the policy of the department is not to admit to who your people of interest are-- period. because at some later date, something happens, and you have to change a story. andrea canning (voiceover): they had to consider whether ed might have had an accomplice or that evidence could surface implicating him later.

he wasn't crossed off the list. but it was so frustrating when you're in that position, and they're spending the time on you, and you're thinking to yourself, this guy's getting away. andrea canning (voiceover): but for those who thought it was ed who was getting away with lisa's murder, the rumors turned into conspiracy theories. so many people were calling from agawam stating that it was eddie borgatti, and that it was because his father was the police chief, which he wasn't, that we were hiding it. the dad was a detective. he was a detective. and we're going to cover it up because of somebody's relationship with somebody on the police department? that is a direct and serious allegation against you. all of us that wear the uniform, to think that anybody would do that. andrea canning (voiceover): many in agawam continue to believe ed borgatti was involved in lisa's murder, but detectives had to move on. they had other tips to follow, other leads to pursue, hoping that one of them would reveal lisa's killer.

coming up-- there was one thing missing in the abduction of lisa. and that was a key off of her key ring. so we assumed that very possibly the suspect had the key. andrea canning (voiceover): detectives may have unlocked the mystery. one of his keys fit the lock. that's kind of an aha moment. well, yeah. then i'm saying bingo. did you think that you might be looking at the killer? absolutely. andrea canning (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. [ music playing ] hey, flo. cool leg warmers. thanks. they are just for the bus ride to work. they are not part of the official uniform. no tunes today? no. my apartment was robbed last night. took my cable ready tv, vcr, portable cassette player. yup. all the latest tech. if only progressive had renter's insurance like their home insurance. then we could bundle our cars and get the same 24/7 protection. -i think we just invented that. -huh. this is the best day ever.

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despite having dna from lisa ziegert's likely killer, detectives tasked with solving the case had so far come up empty. but it wasn't for a lack of grit. we had 10 to 12 in our immediate detective bureau meeting on a daily basis. andrea canning (voiceover): and it also wasn't for a lack of tips. those kept pouring in.

each one of those tips had to be followed up and discounted or kept going, one of the two. andrea canning (voiceover): one such tip led investigators to bring a local man in for an interview. along with the questions they had for him was an unusual request. they wanted to see his keys. there was one thing missing in the abduction of lisa, and that was a key off of her key ring. that key belonged to her apartment. so we assumed that very possibly the suspect had the key. andrea canning (voiceover): detectives had taken the lock from lisa's apartment and brought it to the station. whenever they interviewed someone, they would see if one of the person's keys fit the lock. and this time, it worked. one of the other officers came in, and whispered in my ear that the key fit the lock. ooh. one of his keys fit the lock. that's kind of an aha moment. well, yeah. then i'm saying bingo.

i came up with the key, and i said, what is this key for? and he said that's the key to my apartment. and i said, well, then let's go to your apartment. did you think that you might be looking at the killer? absolutely. andrea canning (voiceover): but when they got to the man's apartment-- the key fit his lock. it was the key to his apartment. wow. andrea canning (voiceover): turns out the man's key also fit lisa's lock because their buildings were run by the same management company, which sometimes used the same locks. it was a deflating moment. we had so many of those moments. andrea canning (voiceover): like the call about a man who seemed fixated on the women coming in and out of lisa's health club, or the tipster who said a man borrowed his truck only to return it with blood stains all over the inside. detectives determined neither of those men killed lisa. just let your whole body relax. andrea canning (voiceover): they also used hypnosis to help two women try to recall the license plate of a suspicious vehicle they'd each seen the night lisa was abducted--

nothing. and with the help of interpol, they traced an suv from agawam all the way to russia to check its tires against the tracks left at the crime scene-- no match. macey even met with fbi profilers, hoping they could help focus the search. so what were they telling you as far as the profile of who this could be? it would have been somebody between the ages of 22 and 30, probably on the lower end of that age, who was from around the area of where the dump site was, where he left lisa, and also the card shop. andrea canning (voiceover): but the fbi profile didn't get them any closer to lisa's killer. in an investigation, you usually start out getting this much information. and eventually it starts to go like this, and you come to the point where you actually have the person involved. this investigation kept going like this. it was getting bigger. getting bigger and bigger, and sending us in different directions.

and every one of those directions has to be followed up. andrea canning (voiceover): whether they wanted to or not, detective macey and his team found themselves tangled up in bad breakups and ugly divorces, as numerous women called in tips pointing to their husbands and boyfriends as lisa's killer. some of them had ulterior motives, whether their husband had beat them or abused them, or the ex-boyfriend had gone with another girl. like revenge reporting. right. and we actually had to make a determination here as to what we were dealing with. andrea canning (voiceover): case in point, the call that came in from an attorney across the country in seattle. he stated that both he and his private investigator had come across some things that they thought might be of interest to us. andrea canning (voiceover): kevin healy was that attorney. he was calling on behalf of his client, joyce schara, who confided in him her darkest fears about her estranged husband gary. she thought he was involved in a murder.

andrea canning (voiceover): lisa's murder. the couple lived in massachusetts when lisa was killed, one town over from agawam. and despite having no connection to her or the ziegert family-- any time any news came out, she said that he would be glued to the television. he needed to know every single little detail about the murder and the progress of the case catching the murderer. andrea canning (voiceover): joyce and her husband were going through a nasty divorce, fighting over custody of their young son. and healy knew full well the lengths spouses sometimes go to gain the upper hand. but he says it was different with joyce. everybody makes allegations, but she had a visceral response that was so pained it was clear there was something more to it. it wasn't like she was just pulling something out of the news to use it as ammunition in a custody battle. it was real for her. andrea canning (voiceover): that's why healy felt compelled to reach out to the agawam police department.

this is the first time you're hearing about this man. right. andrea canning (voiceover): detective macey wanted to speak with gary schara. he didn't wait long, because the same day healy called, so did gary. he calls the station and wants to know if he is, in fact, a suspect. andrea canning (voiceover): eager to clear his name, gary said he'd come by the next day to meet with macey. but instead, macey heard from another lawyer. this time it was gary's divorce attorney. she said gary wouldn't be talking to police because the accusations against him were a setup concocted by his estranged wife. and you had seen a bunch of those before. oh, yeah. we had seen a number of those. with all these girlfriends you talked about calling in and saying their boyfriend had done this or that. at some point, the credibility of the witness comes into question. andrea canning (voiceover): that credibility took another hit after detectives spoke with gary's friends, who described the demons joyce was struggling with. she was an alcoholic. she was depressed. so many things entered into this.

so where does this lead go then, at this point? at this point, we take it as far as we can. and barring anything else coming in, we don't have enough to get a search warrant or a subpoena to get gary in and have him give us his dna. so it goes on the back burner. andrea canning (voiceover): another name, another accusation with no direct evidence implicating him in the murder. and so it was filed away among the boxes of expanding case files, and the detectives moved on to other leads. in the fall of 1993, a year and a half after lisa's murder, the investigation got a national boost when the tv show "unsolved mysteries" aired a segment devoted to the case. narrator: agawam, massachusetts near the western connecticut border is a small town. did the show give you hope? it did. it has such a wide reach, and it was a popular show. we were ecstatic when they agreed to do the show. we picked it up because it was

the family who was affected and the town that was affected. i mean, the more we looked into it, it became a crime against the town. andrea canning (voiceover): the show generated hundreds of tips, many again pointing to ed borgatti. were you aware that after "unsolved mysteries" aired that more tips were called in about you again? i was aware of that. and again, that frustration of their spending all that time answering the phone about me, when you just want them to get tips on somebody else. like, move on. but for some reason, it just wouldn't. i don't know why. andrea canning (voiceover): ultimately, the show failed to provide the breakthrough investigators were hoping for. at this point, we're getting used to letdowns. we've just got to keep going and keep moving ahead with any and all information that's coming in. andrea canning (voiceover): while investigators kept searching, kept following leads, filling more boxes-- i want to thank you so much for coming out.

andrea canning (voiceover): --lisa's family kept hope and her memory alive. we want people to know that we will not forget, we will not give up. someone knows something, and we hope that they will find the courage to come forward. andrea canning (voiceover): coming up-- sometimes you have to know when to pass on the torch and to give it to somebody else. andrea canning (voiceover): --a new face on the case. even after 10 years, did you keep getting new tips in all the time? tips were coming in. but kept hitting dead ends. hitting dead ends. but then you'd pick up another, file and you run with that. andrea canning (voiceover): and later, a message from the killer himself. your jaw must have dropped. to say the least. andrea canning (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. [coughs] when caroline has a cough, she takes robitussin. so, she can have those one on ones again. hey jim! can we talk about casual fridays? oh sure. what's up? get fast, powerful cough relief with robitussin,

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it's started. it's... the side hug. tween milestones like this may start at age 9. hpv vaccination—a type of cancer prevention against certain hpv-related cancers, can start then too. for most, hpv clears on its own. but for others, it can cause certain cancers later in life. you're welcome! now, as the “dad cab”, it's my cue to help protect them. embrace this phase. help protect them in the next. ask their doctor today about hpv vaccination. andrea canning (voiceover): helpthe years moved slowlyext. for the ziegert family, each anniversary of lisa's murder

marked by a vigil with no arrest, chronicled by nbc affiliate wwlp. they come every year to sing, to pray. it was six years ago today that agawam native lisa ziegert disappeared from a card shop-- the investigation into lisa ziegert's murder is an act of one, despite the passage of nine years. andrea canning (voiceover): the ziegerts found touching ways to mark the milestones. lisa should have been the maid of honor at lynne's wedding. my husband and i went to the cemetery and brought her a bouquet that she would have carried. that is a really nice way to include her in your wedding. yeah. they all had an extra bouquet for lisa. andrea canning (voiceover): the family raised money for scholarships in lisa's name, and helped dedicate memorials to her. there's memories and reminders of lisa everywhere. yeah, she still makes a difference. andrea canning (voiceover): at every vigil, every press conference, every event, there was

lisa's mom standing front and center, the face of a determined family. we want people to remember lisa for what she was, and also to remind people that this is an unsolved case. no one has led the charge more than you to ensuring that it stayed active, and that people cared, and people were paying attention. this is a real mother's love right here. i never refuse an interview. i never refuse working on something. so that if they saw me, then they saw lisa. they remembered about lisa. i think it was helpful in keeping lisa's story relevant. it kept it very real to everyone. for a number of years, we did a memorial golf tournament. and we raised money for scholarships for kids at agawam high school. andrea canning (voiceover): but lisa's brother david says at times the family paid an emotional price for their efforts. it became so much of a mental drain for my family,

because all it reminded us is, oh, another year has gone by, and we still have no answers. she's gotten no justice. so it just became too much, and we stopped it. andrea canning (voiceover): lisa's unsolved murder also weighed heavily on detective wayne macy who, with the passage of time, had grown close to lisa's parents, dee and george ziegert. this family that started off as strangers really became like family to you. from that first day sitting on their steps, from that day on, i have so much respect for both george and dee, mainly because i don't know how dee does it. andrea canning (voiceover): and lisa herself held a special place in his heart. i never met lisa, but i know her. i know her picture because it's been in my mind. and i am-- i visited the grave quite often during the investigation, just talking to her, letting her know we're not giving up. andrea canning (voiceover): but after a decade of investigating, macy had still not

been able to solve the case. did this case haunt you? it did. there were eight murders in agawam that i remember. and we had seven arrests and seven convictions. lisa's was the only one that was unsolved. andrea canning (voiceover): macy had worked tirelessly to find lisa's killer. investigators had crossed oceans running down leads. they had built a massive case file filled with names of potential suspects, names of people who had been cleared, names of people who had refused to submit dna samples, all those boxes and file cabinets proof that the case never went cold. it was never far from all of our thoughts, in the forefront, really. because even though you have a larceny, or a bank robbery, or whatever other crime you're going after, lisa's the number one case. andrea canning (voiceover): the effort wasn't lost on lisa's family. i think that you do feel like, well,

they can only give resources to it for so long. it's not their fault that there is nothing there to find. so i think it was always astounding and yet a comfort every time that they would remind us that this will never be a cold case. andrea canning (voiceover): but despite macy's best efforts, he would never see an arrest on his watch. you retired in 2003 with this case unsolved. that's a bitter pill to swallow, as you walk out the door of that police station for the last time. i had thought about that in thinking about not retiring, but i had truly had enough. sometimes you have to know when to pass on the torch and to give it to somebody else with some fresh energy, some new ideas. just give it to them, and let them fly with it. andrea canning (voiceover): that somebody was sergeant mark pfau. you were a patrolman on this case from day one. and now fast forward 10 years, you're in charge

now of the whole case. that's correct. wayne macy retires, and i get promoted. and then when he leaves the detective bureau, the case is assigned to me. so much to do? so much to do. so much to do with regards to where the case stands. andrea canning (voiceover): now faced an enormous task of combing through file cabinets and boxes filled with evidence and leads, rereading every note and document that was gathered. throughout the years, a lead, a tip, a phone call would come in, and the investigators would take it, and they would start a file and that individual. and they'd work that file as far as they could take it at that time. so even after 10 years, did you keep getting new tips then all the time? tips were coming in. but kept hitting dead ends. hitting dead ends. but then you'd pick up another file, and you'd you run with that. how frustrating was that, hitting so many walls? it was very frustrating, because you saw the time

and effort of the previous investigators, and your team are working hard. and you kept the faith that the answer was in these files, and it was just going to be a matter of time. andrea canning (voiceover): time, it turns out, was on their side. another decade passed, but then a groundbreaking tool in dna analysis emerged, and investigators were about to take a giant leap toward identifying lisa's killer. coming up-- these facial images represent a new and significant development in this investigation. andrea canning (voiceover): a picture of a killer drawn by dna. what were the physical characteristics and traits coming from this profile? brown hair, brown eyes, fair skin, and european ancestry. for the first time, we had a face to put with the boogeyman. andrea canning (voiceover): who would it lead to? what do you think when you see that sketch? "when "dateline" continues.

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it was 2015. anthony gulluni was the newly elected district attorney for hampden county. gulluni may have been new to the job, but he was no stranger to the ziegert case. how old were you when this murder happened? i was 12 years old, and i grew up in an adjacent place. you remember the case? i do. andrea canning (voiceover): as a lifelong resident

of western massachusetts, gulluni understood what was at stake. that i now have inherited this investigation and have an opportunity and a responsibility to investigate this case and make my best efforts and my team's best efforts to bring justice for lisa and her family was a remarkable realization at the time. andrea canning (voiceover): gulluni also realized the asset he had in detective pfau. detective pfau had more experience certainly with this case, and had an institutional and historical perspective on the case that very few had at the time. andrea canning (voiceover): gulluni decided their best chance to crack the case would be to match pfau with an investigator who could bring with him a new perspective and the latest investigative tools. enter state trooper noah pack. you're the newest member to this investigative team. mm-hmm. what did you think about the case? i thought it was a massive law enforcement project that had gone on over 25 years.

hundreds if not thousands of reports, hundreds if not thousands of witness statements, hundreds of dna samples had been taken. dozens of law enforcement investigators had worked on it. quite frankly, it was overwhelming. what are you seeing with your fresh eyes? i'm seeing a lot of names, names coming out of files, names of people who have come up. and it becomes a task of trying to figure out whether or not we've looked into these people, if they've been eliminated, and whether they should be looked into in greater detail. andrea canning (voiceover): pfau and pack got to work, seamlessly combining their different skill sets and years of experience to focus on finding lisa's killer. i love the dynamic, too, of the young guy gets paired with-- please forgive me-- - that's ok. --the old guy. yeah, yeah. and you guys come together and both have unique approaches to this that complement each other perfectly. it really did. it really did. and it was a friendship that was formed as well.

i mean, it was a partnership, but a true friendship that was formed, and a lot of respect to the young kid, and a lot of respect coming back to the old guy. and he did get called my dad on an airplane once. we can leave that out. no, we can't. andrea canning (voiceover): along with a fresh approach to the investigation came a new take on how to approach the dna. the da decided to try something called phenotyping. so dna phenotyping is essentially reverse engineering dna. it doesn't tell you who the killer is, but it can tell you what the killer looks like. correct, certain characteristics like hair color, and eye color, and skin tone, including ethnic background. andrea canning (voiceover): gulluni had the dna from the crime scene analyzed by parabon labs, the leaders in dna phenotyping technology. but with a nearly 25-year-old sample, there was no guarantee the process would work. if it did, parabon would be able to create a composite sketch of what the person with that dna might look like. the authorities hoped they or someone

would recognize the sketch. morning. andrea canning (voiceover): it took a year and a half, but parabon was able to complete its report. thank you all for coming. thank you in particular to the ziegert family, who's here. there was all of this intrigue. we have a big announcement regarding the lisa ziegert case. so we're all on pins and needles. today, i am releasing the snapshot and composite sketches as developed by parabon to the public. andrea canning (voiceover): two composite sketches were generated, one of the person at age 25 and the second of what he may look like today. these facial images represent a new and significant development in this investigation. andrea canning (voiceover): could these sketches help id lisa's killer? when they released that sketch, perhaps because i didn't understand the science behind it, i will confess, i rolled my eyes. like, that guy looks like lots of people. i was expecting more from this big announcement. what do you think when you see that sketch? disappointment that i didn't know

who it was by looking at it. watching movies and tv shows, you think that you're going to see this profile picture, and you're going to say, i know that guy! and then i looked at the picture, and i went, nope, i got nothing. he doesn't look like anybody that i can recall. so that was a little deflating thing after being so anxious to see what this picture looked like. andrea canning (voiceover): but david says the sketches still made a huge impression on the family. for the first time, we had a face to put with the nebulous-- the boogeyman, for lack of a better term, this mystery person who had done such a horrible thing and then disappeared into the mist. what were the physical characteristics and traits coming from this profile? brown hair, brown eyes, fair skin, and european ancestry. and that effectively statistically eliminated people who didn't meet that criteria. so that's a helpful tool. very. andrea canning (voiceover): the authorities, like the ziegerts, weren't able to match the sketches to any single individual, but plenty of people around town

felt they could. we got somewhere to the tune of 170 tips that came in after the initial press release related to parabon. did ed borgatti's name get called in again on a tip? it did. anything different from before? no, just basically the same stories that just would never go away with regards to his involvement in the case. andrea canning (voiceover): but soon after taking office, da gulluni finally dismissed those stories. there were suggestions that ed had romantic relationships with people around lisa. lisa's boyfriend. that was something that was explored and found to be totally false. andrea canning (voiceover): false as well were those rumors linking his truck to the suspicious vehicle seen that night. there was concrete forensic evidence against that theory of the case. andrea canning (voiceover): ed borgatti, accused and hounded for 2 and 1/2 decades, had nothing to do with lisa's death.

did you tell ed borgatti this? no. no. law enforcement does not make statements eliminating suspects prior to the case being resolved. andrea canning (voiceover): but investigators felt they were now one step closer to that resolution. armed with an idea of what lisa's killer might look like, they went back to those file cabinets started by macy and his team and took a long look at all those names. they culled the names down to only those men who matched the parabon profile but had refused to submit a dna sample. here's one. where do you go from there? because these individuals had refused to provide their dna voluntarily, we were essentially going to go to the court through a grand jury proceeding to essentially compel them to provide their dna sample. andrea canning (voiceover): the grand jury voted to order the men to provide their dna. 11 men were in the first batch. trooper pack began knocking on doors, serving the papers. some of the men were more familiar to investigators

than others, including one who made quite an impression over the years. andrea canning (voiceover): coming up-- we did a short interview with him, with the hopes of getting a sample from him. and he was cordial. he was polite. andrea canning (voiceover): polite up to a point. he says, i got no problem sitting and talking to you people, but i'm not giving my dna. andrea canning (voiceover): a bizarre reason for not providing dna. he stated he was afraid of cloning. that's got to be a new one, a first for you. it was a first and last. andrea canning (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. [coughs] when caroline has a cough, she takes robitussin. so, she can have those one on ones again. hey jim! can we talk about casual fridays? oh sure. what's up? get fast, powerful cough relief with robitussin, and find your voice. ♪robitussin♪

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to get it was august 2017. a grand jury decided 11 men who fit the parabon profile should turn over their dna to investigators. one of the 11 was gary schara. trooper pack went to his home. schara wasn't there, so pack asked his roommate to deliver a message. we have some important paperwork that we need to serve him. here's my card. please have him call me as soon as possible. andrea canning (voiceover): no one had matched schara's face to the sketch, but schara's name wasn't new to detectives. remember, police looked into him in 1993, months after lisa was murdered. gary schara's name first was reported to the agawam police department by an attorney who was representing gary's soon-to-be ex-wife.

andrea canning (voiceover): her name was joy schara, and she suspected that her husband murdered lisa. there were a number of concerns that she had represented to her attorney that then got relayed back to us about his potential connection to this case. andrea canning (voiceover): one of her concerns was that he had an unusual interest in the case. any time the news was on-- ziegert's body was found-- --and this story came on. officials say they've got several leads and are hopeful for a break in this case. --he would come running in from the other room to see what was being said on tv. andrea canning (voiceover): back then, he wouldn't talk to police, and detectives were told joyce wasn't credible. they also received lots of similar calls. you had a lot of ex-wives, girlfriends seeking almost like revenge on their partners or ex-partners. - yes. andrea canning (voiceover): so the tip from joyce's attorney went into the massive file along with all the others. it went on like that for years, investigators methodically following up on hundreds of persons of interest.

it wasn't until 2002, 10 years after lisa's murder, that sergeant pfau followed up on that tip and called gary schara in for an interview. what happens? he's willing to talk this time? in 2002, he was willing to talk. we did a short interview with him with the hopes of getting a sample from him. and he was cordial. he was polite. andrea canning (voiceover): the detective brought up lisa's murder. schara was vague. he danced around it in a sense. like, i think i remember that. i think i remember reading about it in the paper. andrea canning (voiceover): and when the detective asked for dna, schara refused. what's your gut telling you that he's not willing to give up his dna? well, it was odd, but yet it wasn't odd. because it's your constitutional right not to give it. and numerous people through the years refused to give it. now, his reasoning was odd. he stated he was afraid of cloning.

that's got to be a new one, a first for you. it was a first and last. andrea canning (voiceover): that made an impression on the detective, but schara had no criminal record, no connection to lisa, and there was no evidence linking him to her murder. so schara remained in their file, and investigators again moved on. six years later, in 2008, detectives spoke to him again. the list is getting smaller, and names are coming. back up again. and gary schara's name comes back up again. so let's let's try to get him back in again. do you do the interview this time? i talk to him out in the lobby, but i do not conduct the interview. and as we walked in, he says i got no problem sitting and talking to you people, but i'm not giving my dna. and i was like, that's fine. we just want to go over a few things with you. and put him in the interview room, and two other investigators did the interview. andrea canning (voiceover): this time, it was recorded. investigators kept it friendly, low key,

hoping he'd change his mind about the dna. ok, thanks. andrea canning (voiceover): schara appeared relaxed, even friendly. he was a very personable guy. andrea canning (voiceover): while schara said nothing about lisa, he said plenty about his ex-wife. andrea canning (voiceover): schara told them about his relationship with his wife, her drinking problem, and their acrimonious divorce and custody battle.

was that just a normal thing, i guess? somebody venting about-- yeah, he was the ex-husband, so he's not going to talk favorably with regards to the ex-wife. anything jump out at you? he was afraid of the dna. he would not touch anything. he kept his hands to himself. i mean to the point where he wouldn't even lean in and have any part of his torso touching the table. andrea canning: would he accept a drink of water? mark pfau: no drinks. the investigators came back with three bottles of water, i think with the hopes of if they started drinking, he would start drinking. i mean, he didn't even push the water aside. he just left it where the investigators

put it on the table. andrea canning (voiceover): nine years after that interview, trooper pack was standing outside schara's door, delivering the message to his roommate. pack had no idea if schara would turn out to be lisa's killer or just another dead end. coming up, a suspected killer friends never suspected. just a regular, everyday person. by all accounts, gary lived an unremarkable life. he kept to himself. he worked a low profile job. he lived in a low profile location. andrea canning (voiceover): and a musical clue. he had claimed that he had purchased it in that shop. andrea canning (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. alright, sandworm's out of the basement and the furnace has been exorcised. another progressive home and auto bundle fully protected from the unexpected. beetlejuice caused quite a ruckus, huh. -jamie! don't say his name. -beetlejuice? saying his name three times is how you summon him. riiight. what if i say other words in between?

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hi, i am richard louis with breaking news at this hour. leaders say, they have killed the leader of the militant

group has the law. was the target of a series of targets in beirut friday, those bombings killed at least six people and injured nearly 100. vice president kamala harris visited the u.s.-mexico border friday, where she highlighted her tough stance on migration of proposed new order restrictions in an effort to address one of her biggest political vulnerabilities. harris mentioned, she would embrace a bipartisan solution to this crisis. for now, back to "dateline." "dateline." ra really was the killer, he'd done a great job of hiding it. by all accounts, gary lived an unremarkable life. he kept to himself. he worked a low profile job. he lived in a low profile location. andrea canning (voiceover): aside from the months he was in seattle, schara lived most of his life near agawam. he was a shuttle car driver for a rental car company, but in the past he'd also worked in bars and restaurants. just a regular guy, just a regular, everyday person.

andrea canning (voiceover): schara worked in joe steven's restaurant in the late '90s, after lisa's murder. joe knew schara's father. that's how he first met him. his dad was an executive for a local company, said, i have a son, and he says he's looking for a job. i said, well, send him by. just a great, handsome young man, very outgoing. andrea canning (voiceover): schara also had rave reviews from another restaurant, so joe hired him. he was one of our dining room managers. for about 2 and 1/2 years he was with us. andrea canning (voiceover): schara got on well with his customers. they enjoyed him. he was very personable to everyone, good conversationalist, could talk. he was big into sports, loved his sports. and he could converse with almost anyone. andrea canning (voiceover): not only did his customers take to him, steven's daughters did too. well, they would play together. gary would chase them around the dining room.

they would be giggling. he'd pick them up, throw them up in the air. andrea canning (voiceover): but remember, there was a very different side to gary schara. if you believed his ex-wife, gary was a monster. not only did she tell her attorney she thought gary killed lisa, she also told her siblings, jeff and janice mcdonald. janice says joyce called her the morning after lisa disappeared. and she told me gary got home really late, and he seemed really amped up, and he couldn't give her a definite answer where he was. he kept saying, i was just out. i was just out. her instincts were i think he was up to something no good. she's convinced that he had something to do with the disappearance. i remember her telling me that night that he came home super duper late, in the middle of the night. he was really wild, i guess. she knew that he was absent at approximately the time that the murders happened. andrea canning (voiceover): joyce's attorney, kevin healy.

she knew that he came back with unexplainable cuts on his hands right after what turned out to be the death of lisa. so again, over a couple of weeks, two or three weeks, it all started coming together of maybe there actually is a link. andrea canning (voiceover): and there was more. joyce shared her suspicions about a gift she received from her husband, a music box. she said he told her it came from brittany's gift shop. it was a little carousel music box with a blue horse. and joyce loved trinkets, but she said that was the only trinket that she never liked because she felt like it had something to do with lisa's disappearance. that stood out to her. he had claimed that he had purchased it in that shop before the actual murder of lisa. andrea canning (voiceover): and healy says gary described the woman who sold him the music box. well, he told joyce, as she told me, that it was a little old lady, gray-haired,

which apparently doesn't fit an employee that was there. were you able to confirm that it came from brittany's card shop? we were never able to confirm that definitively. we wound up interviewing an employee who had worked at brittany's card shop around the same time. she did say that this was consistent with the type of music box that was sold at brittany's at that time. andrea canning (voiceover): so was that schara's connection to lisa? the detectives didn't know. but even if it was, it wasn't enough. if they were going to prove gary schara was lisa's killer, they needed his dna. trooper pack, who went to share his home to deliver court papers, was waiting for him to call. does he call? no. the next thing that happened with gary schara was we had a surprise visit at a state police barracks in westfield. andrea canning (voiceover): coming up, a special delivery. he wrote in his note that he had been fascinated by certain types of violence for his entire life.

what are you thinking? i took a big, deep breath, and my mind began racing. andrea canning (voiceover): and a suspected killer on the run. we just knew that this was the guy. it was just that feeling in your gut. we had to find him for two reasons. the first is now he's a fleeing murder suspect. and the second is he was thinking about harming himself. so we had to find him before he was able to end his own life as well. andrea canning (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. protect against rsv... with arexvy. arexvy is a vaccine used to prevent lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients. those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and joint pain. arexvy is number one in rsv vaccine shots. rsv? make it arexvy. ♪♪ only purple's gel flex grid passes the raw egg test.

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gary schara never called trooper noah pack after the detective visited his home.

but what happened next was straight out of a cop show. schara's girlfriend showed up at the state trooper barracks the very next evening. she had a stunning story to tell them. she told us that she left early in the morning to go to work. he was expected to leave after her to go to work. and when she came home at the end of the day, his personal belongings, which he normally would have taken with him, were on the counter, and she found the letters left behind for her. andrea canning (voiceover): those letters left detectives reeling, and cracked the case wide open. there were three separate letters. one of them was essentially a confession letter. andrea canning (voiceover): the confession was staggering. it said, "i abducted, raped, and murdered a young woman approximately 25 years ago. i had no intention of killing her when i grabbed her, but events spun out of my control. i have never regretted anything so much." were you shocked by this? yes, we knew that we were going to solve this case with a dna match. we didn't expect to solve this case by somebody's

writing confession letters. andrea canning (voiceover): schara added "i hated what happened. i despised myself. i thought of turning myself in hundreds of times over the years, but i truly am a coward." another letter was a last will and testament. he also left a apology letter for the ziegert family. andrea canning (voiceover): it was short. "i can never apologize enough for taking your daughter and sibling from you." he said, "i have regretted it and hated myself every day since." you read the letters, you just knew that this was the guy. it was just that feeling in your gut. you had been chasing an unknown attacker for decades. for 25 years, and here we are with the state police, in the state police barracks with these notes in front of us. it was a surreal feeling. was there one thing that stuck out from those notes, aside from the obvious, which is a confession? the violence. he wrote in his note that he had

been fascinated by certain types of violence for his entire life. that stood out to us as being very unique. andrea canning (voiceover): "i've never really been or even felt normal," he wrote. "from a very young age, i was fascinated by abduction and bondage. i could never keep it too far from my mind for long. on that fateful day, i let myself do something terrible." did he say why now, why lisa? the notes didn't say why he had chosen lisa as a victim. there was some indication that she was chosen perhaps to fulfill one of his fantasies that he had clearly struggled with. your jaw must have dropped. to say the least. i was at home, and i received a phone call on my cell phone. what are you thinking? i gasped first. i took a big, deep breath, and my mind began racing. andrea canning (voiceover): then he received the letters on his cell phone. i got very emotional, very excited, and very hopeful that this was the moment that was going to take this case

in a different direction. dozens of investigators had worked thousands of hours and sleepless nights on this case. and after 25 years, we finally knew who did it, and we just had to go out and get him. andrea canning (voiceover): it was a race against time because in his confession letter, schara also wrote that he knew detectives were closing in on him. "the state police were at the house with some important papers for me. that will be a warrant to take dna, and that will send me away for life. today, it will all end. i'll either take my own life, or face the music, as it were." we had to find him for two reasons. the first is now he's a fleeing murder suspect. and the second is he was thinking about harming himself. so we had to find him before he was able to end his own life as well. so we started pinging his phone, and investigators located him down in connecticut. andrea canning (voiceover): it was almost 10:00 at night, four hours after reading those letters when police found schara's car in a hospital parking lot. they saw a suicide note on the dashboard of the empty car.

the note read "to whomever finds my body, i apologize for any psychological trauma incurred. call mass state police. thank you." it was an ominous note. did it mean there would be no justice for lisa? coming up, a race was on to catch a suspected killer before it was too late. did someone find him in time? and a long road finally reaches an end for a family-- i went, really? it's been 25 and 1/2 years. it's like you're stunned. andrea canning (voiceover): and a detective. i picked up a rose, and i put a card on it. it just said, "lisa, it's done. rest in peace." andrea canning (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis held me back... now with skyrizi,

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then i started taking lipo flavonoid. with 60 years of clinical experience, it's the number one doctor recommended brand for ear ringing. and now i'm finally free. take back control with lipo flavonoid. police found gary schara's car in a hospital parking lot. inside the car was a suicide note. there was no body, but investigators soon found schara. he was in the emergency room. he took a large quantity of over-the-counter pills. did someone find him in time? he actually drove to the hospital, and parked his car, and walked into the emergency room, basically checking himself in. andrea canning (voiceover): while schara was recovering in the hospital,

detectives searched his home. even with that confession, they still needed his dna to prove he was lisa's killer. they took his toothbrush and had it tested. the result came back the next day. the lab representatives worked around the clock. did you have your match? we had our match. when i got that call, it was unbelievable. blue denim skirt. andrea canning (voiceover): it was gary schara's dna at the crime scene. the da and his team delivered the news to dee and george ziegert and their family. there was about six of them that came in to our kitchen. did you faint? no, i sat there like this, and i went really? it's been 25 and 1/2 years. it's like you're stunned. "stunned" is is the word. and they're waiting for us to jump up and down, and we're going, are you sure? it's almost too good to be true. exactly. it's like after all this time, it's really going to happen? i grew up in the town of agawam.

the ziegerts represent agawam. and so to be able to say to them that we found him, it was powerful. andrea canning (voiceover): september 18, 2017, da gulluni made the announcement. today, i am informing the public that the search for lisa's assailant is over. an arrest warrant was issued for gary e. schara, and the 25-year long search for answers is over. we waited for this day for a long time, but it came. did anyone at the press conference know the name gary schara? no. no, not our friends, no. gary, did you do it? did you kill lisa ziegert? sir, it's alleged you did commit murder, aggravated rape, and kidnapping. andrea canning (voiceover): now he was behind bars. but despite the rock solid evidence against him, his confession, his dna, gary schara pleaded not guilty.

the detectives had to get ready for a trial. after gary schara's arrest, we had to essentially work the case backwards. andrea canning (voiceover): that meant traveling to the west coast, where the scharas had lived briefly after the murder. we're trying to create a picture of who gary is and who gary was before he was arrested. andrea canning (voiceover): the detectives reviewed thousands of pages of court documents from the scharas' divorce and custody case, and they discovered a remarkable statement from joyce. she wrote, "gary claimed that he could only have sex with me if he was controlling, was wearing his batman costume, and held a knife to my throat. gary has proven himself to be vicious, and merciless, and often sadistic." at the time, schara denied it. but decades later, the similarity to lisa's brutal death was eerie. knife-related sexual violence was emerging as a theme in gary schara's relationships

with women. yeah. and he had written 25 years later, "from a very young age i was fascinated by abduction and bondage." it's very possible that this was an expression of gary's deviant fantasies that he wrote about in that letter. andrea canning (voiceover): as gary schara languished in jail, both sides got deep into trial preps. but then a bombshell. do you solemnly swear that you will give true answers to the questions the court shall ask of you, so help you god? - i do. thank you. andrea canning (voiceover): september 2019, almost two years to the day after gary schara pleaded not guilty to lisa's murder, he was back in court, this time acknowledging the mountain of evidence against him. yes, sir. tell me then in your own words why we're here. we're here to make a change-- to make a change of plea. to guilty to murder in the first degree. do you understand that? - yes, sir. i do. - all right. andrea canning (voiceover): it was huge. gary schara was changing his plea to guilty.

the ziegert family was there to watch him do it. as the proceedings began, dee and lynne were nervous. there was a lot of anxiousness around the fact that until he actually said the words, he could change his mind at any moment. that was his right to do that. andrea canning (voiceover): finally, they heard the words they longed for. just so we're clear, you're pleading guilty to murder in the first degree of lisa ziegert. is that correct? that is correct. andrea canning (voiceover): 27 years after lisa vanished, after dee got the awful news on her front porch, 27 years after the agawam police force got the case, her family finally got justice. it was really good to hear him say the words that we know that would put him into jail for the rest of his life without chance for parole. anything further? no, your honor. it's like, you're done.

you're done. andrea canning (voiceover): but one question lingered. schara never explained why he targeted lisa. i think we'd all like to know more about what happened in the store, why gary went in the store, and why lisa was chosen. we can speculate as to what he went in there with the intentions of doing, but what matters is that the outcome resulted in lisa's death, and it was a very violent crime. the estranged wife of gary schara is the hero in this. gary's ex-wife is definitely an unsung hero in this case. if she had not made the initial report to her attorneys with her concerns back in the early '90s, he might not have come up any other way. andrea canning (voiceover): sadly, joyce wasn't there. she died in 2014. my sister knew all along. she was unfairly painted as just a person with struggles that was just trying to blame him.

you were the 12-year-old boy who followed this case. and now more than two decades later, you're the district attorney who helped solve the case. surreal, just an incredibly gratifying moment as i realized that this was coming to an end, and a very gratifying process to bring justice to the ziegert family. andrea canning (voiceover): there was one more ordeal for dee that day, after all the years of speaking out, thanking law enforcement and rallying the community. it was her turn to talk publicly in court about her private pain. she is gone. i'll never hold her, talk with her, laugh with her, or share important occasions with her. this never gets better. we just handle it better. one does not get over the death of a child. andrea canning (voiceover): lisa's friends were in court that day too, kim murray. do you still think about lisa all the time?

i do all the time. i talk to her when i'm in the car going somewhere. what do you say to her? or if i'm having a bad day. i just talk to her like she was there. she's with you. with any of us, i think, i really believe. andrea canning (voiceover): ed borgatti was also there. what would you say to lisa's family for standing by you when not everyone did and the rumors got really bad? i'd say thank you, and i just-- they don't even know how much i appreciate them, and i can't-- just i appreciate it. andrea canning (voiceover): when it was all over, detective wayne macy, who caught the case the day lisa went missing and tried so hard to push it over the finish line, had some business to take care of.

first, he went to the ziegert home. and we hugged, and we cried. and we just talked about how great this was, that it happened, and that the guy was finally caught. and i went to stop & shop, picked up a rose, put it in a little wrapping, and i put a card on it. it just said "lisa, it's done. rest in peace." and i put it on her stone. and it was done. andrea canning (voiceover): the young woman with the cornflower blue eyes, the dancer, the artist,

the teacher, lisa ziegert, full of fun and laughter, at peace at last. i suppose i want people not to think of the horrible thing that happened to her. i want them to think of her as smiling, smiling down on all of us, and giving the joy that she shared when she was here. that's what i want. hi. hi. having fun? [theme music] hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline."vestt somebody over to me, saying this is our violent crime advocate.