On January 7, 1994, Rebecca “Becky” Savarese of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, started out like any other winter morning. There was snow on the ground and it was freezing cold as the 12-year-old walked to school. Then, around 7:10 a.m., at one of the city’s busiest intersections, a man approached her. “He had a mustache, but he hadn’t shaved. He looked like a nerd to me,” Savarese said. The stranger quickly pulled out a gun and pointed it at her.
Becky said the gunman threatened her, “Do whatever I tell you, everything will be fine.” Then he led her to his truck and told her to get in. But Becky refused. “I didn’t care if he shot me. I just knew I wasn’t getting in that truck,” she told “48 Hours.”
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That’s when Becky had an idea that may have saved her life. She faked an asthma attack. She explained: “I asked him, ‘Can I sit down? Can I sit down for a minute?’ I was trying to take my backpack off… and he tried to grab me, he took my backpack and I started running.”
The gunman jumped into his truck and sped off. Becky hit a man who was shoveling snow on a sidewalk and who called the police. At that moment, a witness called and gave three digits of the truck’s license plate.
Police learned that Lewis Lent, a 43-year-old handyman and former movie theater janitor, was driving the truck. He initially denied ever hearing about Becky Savarese, but later confessed to trying to kidnap her.
When police searched Lent’s truck, they discovered some disturbing evidence. New York State Police Detective Reece Treen said they found “Rebecca’s backpack. They found a gun. They found what Lou called his ‘kidnapping kit.’ Duct tape and a clothesline. Basically, his kidnapping kit that he had with him.”
After Lent was arrested for the attempted kidnapping of Becky Savarese, authorities wondered whether Lent might have abducted 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 riding her bicycle, leaving church as she headed home less than a mile away.
New York State Police
When authorities questioned Lent about Sara’s disappearance, he eventually confessed, in gruesome detail, to kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing Sara. He also admitted to kidnapping and murdering 12-year-old Jimmy Bernardo of Pittsfield.
Hunters had found Jimmy’s body in a remote, rural area 200 miles (320 kilometers) from Pittsfield. But detectives had no idea where Sara was buried. When they asked Lent where he had buried her, authorities said he lied repeatedly.
The search for Sara and the cat-and-mouse game between authorities and her killer to get him to reveal the whereabouts of her remains are at the heart of “The Unending Search for Sara Anne Wood.” Correspondent Erin Moriarty reports on the season premiere of “48 Hours,” airing Saturday, September 21 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
Authorities credit Becky with breaking the case of Sara’s abduction. New York State Police Detective Frank Lawrence said, “She’s the key, she’s the linchpin. She made it all happen… She got away… That’s what put us on the trail of Lewis Lent.”
Treen, who spent long hours interviewing Lent in prison, said Lent admitted that he often traveled many miles looking for children to kidnap. “(Lent) had a large hunting territory. He mentioned that if he had money and gas, that’s what he would do … he would go looking for vulnerable children.”
New York State Police
But Becky Savarese’s courage and quick wit changed all that. In 1995, Slow was sentenced Lewis Lent was sentenced to 17 to 20 years in prison for attempted kidnapping. In 1996, after pleading guilty, he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Jimmy Bernardo. Later that year, Lewis Lent pleaded guilty to the murder of Sara Wood. In 1997, he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the murder of Sara Wood. Lewis Lent will serve the rest of his life in prison. Sara’s brother Dusty Wood said, “He (Lewis Lent) will never hurt anyone else.”
Herkimer County District Attorney Jeffrey Carpenter often wonders what would have happened if Becky hadn’t been able to escape. “I think Becky Savarese not only saved herself, but she saved countless children because this man (Lewis Lent) was developing his skills. He was improving. She outsmarted him … and ended his reign of terror,” he told “48 Hours.”
In 1994, Becky’s mother, Chris, told “48 Hours” that she often lectured her daughter about what to do if she was kidnapped: “kick, punch, bite, spit, and do anything to get away.” Becky had also been warned about strangers by a police officer who had visited her school the year before the incident.
Dusty Wood believes Becky’s actions are an example of the importance of educating young people about kidnapping prevention. “If no one had told Rebecca…she would have had a different outcome.”
Every year, Dusty Wood and some of his family members participate in the Ride for Missing Children, a 78-mile bike ride created in Sara’s honor by their father, Bob Wood. Participants stop at schools along the way to teach children how to stay safe. Participants also pay silent tribute to missing children who never return home and those they hope will be found alive.
Dusty Wood says there’s nothing he can do to bring his sister Sara back, but he can try to make a positive change by educating the public on how to protect children. He told “48 Hours”: “The most important thing for us as a family is to protect the children… and to make sure that if there’s anything that can be done to protect them from monsters like Lewis Lent, it’s done.”
To learn more about how to educate children about abduction prevention, please visit the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s website missingkids.org.
