Bones Found in N.Y. Aren't From Lent Victim
Update 10:44 a.m.: A sharp-eyed reader has alerted us that an update saying that the bones found earlier this week in northern Saratoga County are not those of Sara Anne Wood.Wood, 12, has been missing since 1993. Lewis Lent was convicted of her abduction and murder but her remains have never been recovered.
According to the Saratogian, the skull fragments found earlier this week have been identified as 18-year-old Jennifer M. Hammond of Colorado, missing since 2003. Police are treating the case as a homicide.
Original post:
Bones Found in N.Y. Could Close Lewis Lent Case
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Investigators in New York State are trying to determine if skull fragments found earlier this week belong to Sara Anne Wood, victim of serial killer Lewis Lent.
Lent was living in North Adams and working as a janitor when he was arrested. He was convicted of two murders and suspected of others.
The Utica Observor-Dispatch reports that the fragments were found in a wooded area in northern Saratoga County but about a 100 miles from Raquette Lake where Lent claims he buried the body of the 12-year-old girl in 1993.
Lent was sentenced to 25 years to life in 1997 after admitting to abducting Sara Anne in August 1993 as she was walking a bike near her Frnkfort houme in Herkimer County. Excavations where Lent claimed her buried her failed to uncover her remains.
Although charged and convicted in New York, Lent is serving a life sentence in Massachusetts for the murder of James Bernardo, 12, of Pittsfield.
Bernardo was found murdered after being reported missing in 1990. Months later, after an attempted kidnapping failed and the intended victim gave a detailed description of the vehicle driven by her would-be abductor, Lewis Lent was arrested and charged with Bernardo's death and that of Wood.
It will be weeks before the bones are identified. They could also be those of Jaliek Rainwalker, also 12, who disappeared two years ago, said the Observor-Dispatch.
