Sara Wood Missing Person Case

Apr 15, 2010

Nov 13, 2023

Sara

Wood

45

12

60 inches

96 lbs

White / Caucasian

Female

On a summer afternoon, August 18, 1993, 12-year-old Sara Anne Wood vanished while riding her bicycle home from Norwich Corners Church in a rural area of Litchfield, New York. She was a joyful and intelligent child, known for her love of dancing, poetry, and country music. The daughter of a pastor, Sara was an active member of the church community. On the day she disappeared, she was wearing a pink t-shirt with "Guess Who" embroidered on it, turquoise shorts, and brown sandals. The last time her brother saw her, she was happily singing a Dolly Parton song as she rode off on her bike. Her disappearance, less than half a mile from her home, quickly sparked a massive search effort involving law enforcement and numerous volunteers who scoured the surrounding woods and fields. The initial search yielded few clues, though her bicycle and some personal belongings were found, leading investigators to believe she had been taken by someone in a vehicle. The case garnered widespread media attention, with over a thousand leads pouring in from across the country. For years, Sara's whereabouts remained a heartbreaking mystery for her family and the community. The breakthrough came in 1996 when a man named Lewis Stephen Lent Jr. was arrested for the attempted abduction of another young girl in Massachusetts. During the investigation into that crime, Lent confessed to abducting and murdering Sara Wood. He also admitted to the 1990 murder of another child, 12-year-old James Bernardo. Lent claimed to have buried Sara's body in the Adirondack Mountains and even provided a map to the location, but extensive searches of the area proved fruitless. Despite his confession and subsequent conviction for Sara's kidnapping and murder, for which he received a sentence of 25 years to life, he has never revealed the true location of her remains. In the years following her disappearance, Sara's family founded the Sara Anne Wood Rescue Center, which later became a part of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, to help other families facing similar tragedies. The tragic loss of Sara Wood left an indelible mark on her community and led to increased awareness and preventative measures regarding child abduction. The case remains a painful open wound for her loved ones, as the search for Sara's remains continues, a testament to a family's unending hope for peace and a community's refusal to forget.

Aug 18, 1993

Litchfield

New York

Herkimer County

27060

New York State Police - Marcy

Marcy

New York

Oneida County

13403

9017 River Road, New York

3153666000

State

Law Enforcement

DNHT05889

New York State Police - Marcy

Brown

Blue

Blue

09/27/2026