Lanesborough Search for Lewis Lent Evidence Comes Up Dry
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Massachusetts and New York law enforcement officers searched for evidence linked to serial killer Lewis Lent Jr. at a local property on Tuesday.
Nothing was found.
According to the Berkshire County District Attorney's Office, the town property has previously been searched in connection with the same case.
"No additional evidence was recovered during yesterday's search," DA spokesperson Julia Sabourin said.
Lent, 74, is serving a life sentence for the 1990 murder of 12-year-old Jimmy Bernardo of Pittsfield and the later killing of Sara Ann Wood in Herkimer, N.Y. Over a decade ago, he confessed to the 1992 murder of James Lusher.
“On Tuesday, June 18th a joint law enforcement effort conducted a search of a property in Lanesborough, Massachusetts in connection to unsolved crimes allegedly committed by Lewis Lent in the 1990s. The property has previously been searched before in connection to the same case,” Sabourin wrote in a statement.
“Law enforcement bodies are in regular communication regarding the unsolved crimes to have allegedly been committed by Lewis Lent. Today's search is a part of an ongoing effort to solve cases involving missing children that may have been among Lent's victims. Law enforcement in both Massachusetts and New York are dedicated to bringing justice for the children who remain missing and will continue to investigate all leads until their cases have been solved."
News outlets have reported that the search was focused on a Summer Street property where police questioned Lent in 1994 after an attempted kidnapping of 12-year-old Rebecca Savarese.
"This early 1800s Summer Street house was searched repeatedly in 1994 looking for evidence in the 1993 disappearance of Sara Anne Wood," local historian Joe Durwin wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
"Lent spent a great deal of time at the house in the early 90s and assisted with a basement renovation around that time. A vehicle owned by the home's owner was used in the attempted 1994 Pittsfield abduction that led to Lent's capture."
He reported that more than a dozen personnel were on the premises and sections of concrete walkway and basement had been cut up.
The law enforcement response included the New York and Massachusetts State Police units; the Westfield and Lanesborough Police Departments; the New York State Department of Transportation; the Lanesborough Fire Department; the Berkshire and the Herkimer (N.Y.) District Attorneys' Offices.
In 2013, Lent confessed to the 1992 murder of Lusher. The Westfield teen was last seen riding his bicycle to his grandmother's home in Blandford.
Police subsequently searched Greenwater Pond in Becket for three days, as Lent had said he disposed of Lusher's body in the pond. No clues were found.
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