January 7, 1994, started out like any other typical winter morning for Rebecca “Becky” Savarese of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. There was snow on the ground, and it was very cold when the 12-year-old walked to school. Then, at about 7:10, at one of the city’s busiest intersections, a man walked up to her. “He had a mustache, but he didn’t shave. He looked like a nerd to me,” Savarese said. The stranger quickly drew his pistol and arrested him.
Becky said the gunman threatened to die, she: “Just do everything I say, everything will be perfect OK.” Then he directed him to the truck and told him to get inside. But Becky refused. “I didn’t care if they shot me. I just knew I wasn’t going to get in that truck,” he told “48 Hours.”
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However, that’s when Becky says she has an idea that could save her life. He faked an asthma attack. She explained, “I was like, ‘Can I sit down? Can I sit down for a minute?’ I tried to take off my backpack … and he tried to grab me, and he got my backpack and I started running.”
The gunman jumped into the truck and drove away. Becky ran to a man clearing snow from the sidewalk who called the police. At the same time, the witness dialed the three digits of the truck’s number plate.
Police learned that a 43-year-old handyman and former cinema janitor named Lewis Lent had been driving the truck. He initially denied knowing about Becky Savarese, but he later admitted to trying to kidnap her.
When police searched Pasa’s truck, they found troubling evidence. New York State Police Detective Reece Treen said they found “Rebecca’s backpack. They found a gun. They found what Lou called” a seizure kit. Duct tape and a clothesline are basically the kidnapping kit they have.”
After Lent was arrested for trying to kidnap Becky Savarese, authorities wondered if Lent might have kidnapped other children – including a 12-year-old girl who had disappeared five months earlier. Sara Anne Wood, of Sauquoit, New York – 100 miles from Pittsfield – was last seen on her bike, leaving the church as she headed home less than a mile down the road.
New York State Police
When the authorities question him about loaning Sara, he finally confesses, in gruesome detail, that he kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed Sara. He also admitted to kidnapping and killing 12-year-old Jimmy Bernardo of Pittsfield.
Hunters have found Jimmy’s body in a rural and remote area 200 miles away from Pittsfield. But the detective did not know where Sara was buried. When questioning Pusta, authorities said he continued to lie about where he buried her.
The search for Sara and the cat-and-mouse game between the authorities and her killer to get people to reveal where she remains lies in the focus of “The Unending Search for Sara Anne Wood.” Correspondent Erin Moriarty reports on the season premiere of “48 Hours,” airing Friday, September 21 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
The authorities reward Becky for solving the case of Sara’s kidnapping. New York State Police Detective Frank Lawrence said, “He’s the key, he’s the linchpin. He’s the one who made everything happen… He got away… That’s what led us to Lewis Lent.”
Treen, who spent several hours interviewing Lent in prison, said Lent admitted he would drive miles hunting for abducted children. “(Lent) has a big hunting area. He says he’s got money and he’s got gas, so he’s going to do it … he’s going to go out and find vulnerable kids.”
New York State Police
But Becky Savarese’s courage and quick thinking changed all that. In 1995, Lent is blamed because he attempted kidnapping and was sentenced to 17 to 20 years in prison. In 1996, after pleading guilty, he was given a life sentence for the murder of Jimmy Bernardo. Later that year, Lent confessed to killing Sara Wood. In 1997, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for her murder. Fast will serve the rest of his life in prison. Sara’s brother Dusty Wood said, “He (Lewis Lent) would never hurt anyone.”
Herkimer County District Attorney Jeffrey Carpenter often wondered what would have happened if Becky hadn’t gotten away. “I think Becky Savarese didn’t just save herself, she saved countless kids because this guy (Lewis Lent) developed his skills. He got better. He beat him … and ended his reign of terror,” he said. “48 hours.”
Back in 1994, Becky’s mother, Chris, told “48 Hours” that she often lectured her daughter on the steps to take if she had been kidnapped: “kick, punch, bite, spit and do anything to escape. ” Becky had also been warned about the stranger by the police who came to her school the year before the incident.
Dusty Wood said Becky’s actions are an example of why educating youth about kidnapping prevention is so important. “If nobody had said anything to Rebecca … she would have had a different outcome.”
Every year, Dusty Wood and several family members participate in the “Ride for Missing Children,” a 78-mile bike ride created in Sara’s honor by her father Bob Wood. The riders stop at schools along the route to talk to children about how to stay safe. The riders also paid a silent tribute to the children who were lost and never came home and who are hoping to be found alive.
Dusty Wood says he can’t do anything to bring his sister Sara back, but he can try to make a positive difference by educating the community on how to keep children safe. He told “48 Hours,” “The most important thing for us as a family is to protect the children…
To learn more about how to educate children about abduction prevention, visit the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website missingkids.org.
