Gary E. Schara, a Longmeadow native who was 23 at the time, killed Lisa Ziegert in Agawam, Massachusetts in April 1992. The case stayed unsolved for 25 years until forensic DNA phenotyping helped investigators narrow their suspect pool in 2017. Schara confessed in writing before his DNA was formally tested, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in September 2019, and is serving life without the possibility of parole.1CBS Boston. Suspect In 1992 Agawam Rape, Murder Changes Plea To Guilty
What Happened in April 1992
Lisa Ziegert was 24 and working a second job at Brittany’s Card and Gift Shoppe in Agawam, covering weekday evening shifts from 5 to 9 p.m. On April 15, 1992, she was last seen alive during that shift. A coworker arrived the next morning to find the store still open, the lights on, and Ziegert’s car outside with her keys and purse inside. The back room showed overturned boxes and scuff marks on a rear door, signs of a struggle.
Searchers found her partially clothed body four days later, on Easter Sunday, in a wooded area off Route 75 roughly four miles from the shop. The county medical examiner determined she had been sexually assaulted and stabbed in the neck, and ruled the death a homicide.
Why the Case Went Unsolved for 25 Years
Agawam Police, Massachusetts State Police, and the FBI worked the case from the start. Investigators recovered DNA from the scene, but early-1990s technology couldn’t match the profile to anyone in existing databases, and the investigation stalled without a named suspect.
A significant lead surfaced in 1993. Schara’s estranged wife, Joyce McDonald Schara, told investigators she suspected her then-husband was involved after finding disturbing writings or a diary. A family member later admitted she initially doubted Joyce’s account, attributing it to Joyce’s struggle with alcoholism. The tip wasn’t enough to force a DNA sample, and Schara remained a person of interest with nothing on file to test against the crime scene profile. Joyce died before he was arrested.
The DNA Phenotyping Breakthrough
In September 2016, Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni authorized a first-of-its-kind step for Massachusetts: sending the crime scene DNA to Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia company that specializes in forensic DNA phenotyping. Phenotyping doesn’t compare a sample to a database. It predicts a person’s physical appearance directly from the genetic material.
Parabon’s Snapshot system generated predictions for the suspect’s ancestry, eye color, hair color, skin color, freckling, and face shape, then produced composite sketches of what he likely looked like as a young man and as a middle-aged adult.2Hampden District Attorney’s Office. Composite Sketches of Suspect in the Murder of Lisa Ziegert Released
Schara didn’t closely resemble either sketch. But the phenotyping gave investigators a framework for re-examining their list, and a grand jury ordered 11 men, including people of interest who had never provided DNA, to submit samples. Schara, still flagged from the 1993 tip, was on that list.
The Confession and Arrest
On September 13, 2017, a Massachusetts State Police officer went to Schara’s apartment in West Springfield and left a message with his roommate that the state would be seeking a DNA sample. Schara understood what the visit meant.
The next morning, someone close to him turned over a set of handwritten documents: a confession letter, a will, and an apology to the Ziegert family. In the confession, Schara wrote, “You are going to find out some awful things about me today. They will tell you I abducted, [redacted] and murdered a young woman approximately 25 years ago. It is true. All of it.” He wrote that he had been “fascinated by abduction and bondage from an early age,” that the attack on Ziegert was the only time he acted on it, and that he had considered turning himself in hundreds of times but called himself a coward. He offered no explanation for why he targeted her.
Schara was found at a Connecticut hospital after a suicide attempt and arrested on September 16, 2017. His DNA matched the crime scene evidence. He was charged with murder, aggravated rape, and kidnapping.
Guilty Plea and Sentence
Schara initially pleaded not guilty. On September 25, 2019, he changed his plea to guilty on first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.1CBS Boston. Suspect In 1992 Agawam Rape, Murder Changes Plea To Guilty Lisa’s father, George, told reporters, “It’s like people would feel when they won the ‘big money.’ We got the big answer.”
Who Was Gary Schara
Schara grew up in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, and was 23 at the time of the murder and 48 at his arrest. High school classmates recalled almost nothing about him. Friends from his inner circle described him as likable, with offbeat interests like Dungeons and Dragons and Batman. He was athletic without joining teams, didn’t drink heavily, and didn’t use drugs. “Nothing you’d consider ‘weird,'” one friend told reporters.
That he sat on a suspect list for 24 years without being compelled to give a DNA sample is the hardest fact in the case. It took a technology that didn’t exist in 1993 to close the gap between suspicion and proof.