GUILTY MA - Lisa Ziegert, 24, Agawam, 15 April 1992 *arrest*

Bargle

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I came across the following message on a site devoted to crime TV shows movies. The poster hadn't got an answer, so I thought I'd bring it up here. The original message follows:

In my small town, about 10 or so years back, a beautiful young teacher was raped and murdered. There didn't seem to be any evidence that pointed an accusing finger. That is, until the LBI (Local Bureau of Investigation) found a crumpled letter in her house. It stated that "If you tell so much as a single soul, Death itself will find its toll. Neither near nor far away, the Truth isn't a game that the weak can play. Watch for the shadows." Ten years later, the case has been left for dead. I'm clueless to how things will turn out in this game of "Truth"... She lived in Agawam, Mass. when she died. Someone help me out...

It sounds like an intriguing case. Ring a bell with anyone?

Some of the words in this post may be showing up as links. I don't know why or how to change it. Don't click on them, they don't lead to anything.
 
I grew up just over the CT border, not far from Agawam and have family who do live in Agawam. I never heard this before but now I am curious. I'm going to ask around and see if anyone remembers this.
 
This case comes to mind but I don't remember reading anything about the note you mentioned being connected with this case.
Lisa Ziegert
Lisa Ziegert, a 24-year-old aspiring teacher, kidnapped, brutalized, and murdered in the small town of Agawam. It happened in 1992, and there ...
**************
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~aherns/ahnws199.htm
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Still, Lisa Ziegert, Holly Paranian (ph), and Patti Gagne (ph), Jennifer Fay, Teresa Croley (ph), all of them unsolved.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0607/03/ng.01.html
**************
"Reward still unclaimed in slaying
Wednesday, April 19, 2000
By JACK FARRELL
AGAWAM — Eight years to the day after the body of Lisa M. Ziegert was found, her killer or killers remain at large despite a $100,000 reward posted a year ago.
Berkshire Power announced the reward on the seventh anniversary of the young assistant teacher's disappearance, renewing hope that the money would help solve a mystery that has long plagued police and residents, but more acutely, her family and friends. . ."
http://www.masslive.com/news/pstories/ag419lit.html
**************
In the Fog
by Giovanni Pascoli

". . .And a dog yelped and yelped, as if in fear,
I knew not where nor why. Perhaps he heard
strange footsteps, neither far away nor near— . . ."
http://www.poetrymagazine.org/magazine/0406/poem_177883_print.html

Written after the murder case but still the poem content is interesting when compared to the alleged note.
***********
 
My dad thought you might be referrring to Lisa's murder, too. He doesn't recall anything about a note though.
 
I'll pass the name on. I couldn't turn up any mention of a note in any of the stories on Lisa Ziegert, either.
Thanks, everyone who has answered so far.
 
pardilia said:
Maybe the person is confusing two different cases?
Quite possibly or the letter turned out to be a dead end, nothing to do with her murder.
 
I can tell you that there was no letter left in connection with Lisa's murder, and no indication that the murderer ever was where she lived. Hope that clears things up.

Dave Ziegert
 
http://www.reformer.com/localnews/ci_5692111

http://huffcrimeblog.com/?p=223

I just found this reference to a suspect that a few thought should be connected to Lisa's case. The Connecticut River Valley serial killer's M.O. certainly has some similarities to Lisa's case. I do know that the FBI has a DNA sample from the perp. Seems like another example of the usefullness of creating a national DNA database for these cases.
 
I can tell you that there was no letter left in connection with Lisa's murder, and no indication that the murderer ever was where she lived. Hope that clears things up.

Dave Ziegert

Thanks, Dave. Sorry for the delay in replying.
 
On April 15, 1992, Lisa Ziegert was abducted from her job at a gift store in Agawam, Massachusetts between 8:40 and 9:10. Her purse and jacket had been left behind. All the store lights remained on and the door was unlocked. Lisa's car was left in the parking lot overnight. Some blood was found on a wall in the store. Four days later on Easter Sunday, April 19, 1992, her body was found stabbed in the neck and sexually assaulted 300 feet from a dirt road off Route 75 in Agawam.

A full sized utility vehicle such as a Ford Bronco in a dark color, possibly red, with an external spare tire with a light cover over the tire is thought to be involved in the crime either as a witness or a suspect. A week after the murder a local car wash found a men's shirt with a blood stain on it and an eight foot piece of carpet from a truck or van stuffed inside a garbage bin.

Most LE and locals believe that this crime was committed by someone who knew the area since the area where the body was found is not a well known spot and was frequently used by people partying in the woods.

Six years after Lisa disappeared, a sixteen year old was abducted from Agawam, and was either thrown or jumped out of a car speeding down I-91. This case probably isn't related but is worth noting since it was the second girl abducted from the small town of Agawam in a relatively short period of time.

Police do have DNA evidence which can be used to identify the killer when he is found.

This case has been on Unsolved Mysteries, Nancy Grace, and some other crime shows but still is unsolved after 16 years.
 
Lisa Ziegert was 24 years old on April 15, 1992, and working a Wednesday night shift at a card shop on Walnut Street Extension when she was apparently abducted. An intensive, citywide search by local and state police failed to explain the mystery.

Four days later, on Easter Sunday, a passerby found her body in a stretch of woods off Suffield Street. She had been stabbed to death and sexually assaulted.

Hope soon faded that her killer or killers would be quickly found after hundreds of hours of investigative work failed to produce solid leads for detectives, although police continued to pursue any information that came in over the past several years.

The reward money did succeed in generating renewed interest in the case and even a few more leads.

"We've had some information. Not as much as we would have liked, but we have some things we're working on right now," said Sgt. Wayne K. Macey, the head of detectives. We're doing some further DNA testing as a result of that information," he said.

"Believe me, this is still very active," he said yesterday. "I'm definitely hopeful. This will get solved, because we have the evidence."
http://www.masslive.com/news/pstories/ag419liv.html
 
Additionally here is something about Ashley Turniak, the teenager who was thrown/ jumped from a car on I-91 in 1998.

November 9th 1998 at 8am, 16 year old Ashley Turniak was found dead on the breakdown lane of I-91 south in Longmeadow, Massachusetts just 1½ mile from the Connecticut border. The well liked teenager from Agawam had been seen in her high school parking lot before her first class started at 7:25 that morning. Less than an hour later, witnesses reported that she went feet-first from the passenger window of a car heading south towards Connecticut. Her backpack was found on Woodlawn Avenue in Enfield, Connecticut not far from a highway exit. At the time of her death witnesses reported that she was in a tan or light brown mid-size vehicle, possibly a late 80s model Ford Tempo or a vehicle similar to that. After Turniaks fall, the car was seen leaving I-91 at Exit 49 in Connecticut. More than five years later many questions persist, was she pushed or did she fall? Who was the driver? A still grieving family and Massachusetts State Police want to know. If you have any information about this case please call (413) 747-4809.
http://www.angelfire.com/ct3/unsolvedct/homicides.html
 
Sounds like she was forced out the window, I mean, who goes feet first out of a moving car WINDOW? I could see opening the door and going feet first. Wierd. No DNA on either case?
 
Sounds like she was forced out the window, I mean, who goes feet first out of a moving car WINDOW? I could see opening the door and going feet first. Wierd. No DNA on either case?

PSST! From the first post above...

Police do have DNA evidence which can be used to identify the killer when he is found.
 
:crazy:It would help if I wore my "aw shucks it's right there" glasses when I read some of these.
 
Yes they definitely have DNA evidence for Lisa Zeigert. The police have said many times that if they ever were to have the actual perpetrator they would very easily be able to convict him.

As for Ashley, it seems almost impossible that she "fell" from the car as was occasionally reported when the case first happened and it does seem unlikely that she would jump from the car, but LE think that she was in trouble in the car and perhaps jumping out the window was her only way to escape. In any event, police seem to think that she died from the blow of hitting the highway and was not killed while in the car.
 
I live in Agawam, which is a relatively small town. I have been here on websleuths since this summer, and have been doing my own questioning in local cases.

Last night I went to a friend's house for dinner, and conversation turned to Caylee Anthony. I told her about WS, and about the local cases I read about.

Ashley was actually her best friend in high school, and she is still traumatized by what happened to her, but she has no additional info on what happened.

regarding Lisa (who went to HS with my BIL), apparently the community knows that she was dating the son of a local cop, and had just broken up with him. It seems the general consensus is that he killed her, and it was conveniently covered up. This sounds about right for this town, but I am at a loss as to how to handle this. Is this a case where you just shrug it off?

ETA: i have only resided here for 2 years. I was not living here when these events happened, so all I have to go on is local lore.


ETA again: apparently at Agawam HS, policy is if you are late for school X amount of times you are suspended for the day. This happened, and Ashley was seen leaving the school itself (which is only FEET from the highway), but was not seen entering a car. None of her friends have any input, she wasn't dating someone they didn't know, had no history of hitchiking or running away, etc. If anyone has any additional info, I would love to speak to them.
 
Thanks for your input on this cjcord. I'm also from Western MA (not Agawam, but I've lived in neighboring towns) which is why I'm so interested in this case. I have heard the cop involvement theory as well. But it did seem like detectives were working hard to get this one solved... more so than a lot of other cases around here. If there was a coverup I feel like this case would fall on the back burner but it at least appears that they're working hard to get this one solved. Maybe that's just because the case is really high profile around here though.
 

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