Lent also described a "master plan" involving turning kidnapped children into sexual hostages in a cell he was building at his home, said Berkshire District Attorney David Capeless.
Updates a story posted Monday at 11:30 a.m.
WESTFIELD — State police divers will search a pond in Becket today for the remains of one of Lewis S. Lent Jr.’s victims as investigators renew efforts to connect the child serial killer to unsolved murders in Western Massachusetts and beyond.
At a news conference Monday announcing Lent’s confession to killing Westfield teenager James “Jamie” Lusher in 1992 , Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni said the North Adams janitor and handyman has re-emerged as a suspect in other, unspecified cases.
“Lent is someone who law enforcement here and in other places is very interested in,” said Mastroianni, who declined to provide details. “The new information (provided by Lent) has reinvigorated investigations.”
Lent, currently serving a life sentence for a 1990 killing, recently agreed to help investigators find Lusher’s remains in exchange for not being prosecuted for the Nov. 6, 1992 killing.
Ending two-decades of speculation over Lusher’s disappearance, Lent admitted abducting the 16-year old near the boy’s Holyoke Road home, killing him and dumping the body in Greenleaf Pond in Becket.
Lent also described a “master plan” involving turning kidnapped children into sexual hostages in a cell he was building at his home, said Berkshire District Attorney David Capeless, who joined State Police Colonel Timothy Alben, retired state police detective Peter Higgins, Westfield Police Captain Michael McCabe and others at the news conference.
Lusher’s sister, Jennifer Nowak, said the family never stopped grieving for her brother, who vanished while riding his new bike to his grandmother’s house.
Speaking at the news conference at Westfield Middle School, Nowak said her brother’s disappearance has haunted her every day for 20 years.
“We walked down the halls of this school together,” she said, adding the loss was “like a hole in your heart.”
The state police dive team will begin searching for Lusher’s remains in the 88-acre lake between Rte. 91 and Rte. 20, according to Alben, who said the size of the lake and the passage of time will make the recovery difficult.
“We remain hopeful; we remain optimistic. But we also have to be realistic,” Alben said, adding the search is scheduled to last 3 days.
The agreement to not prosecute Lent for the killing was the turning point in the case, offering Lusher's family an explanation for his disappearance and a chance to recover his remains, Mastroianni said.
Why Lent decided to cooperate now, two decades after the boy’s disappearance, remains unclear, Mastroianni said.
“I don’t know what’s in his mind,” the district attorney said, adding that Lent was given no other considerations in exchange for the information. “He’s going to die in prison,” Mastroianni said.
Lent is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the 1990 kidnapping and murder of James Bernardo, 12, of Pittsfield, whose body was found in the woods of New York State some 250 miles from Pittsfield.
He also pleaded guilty in New York to the kidnapping and murder of Sara Anne Wood, 12, of Frankfort, N.Y., who disappeared in 1993.
In Westfield, Lusher’s father said he was never convinced that Lent was his son’s killer. For a long time he suspected the boy got into a fight with other kids, James Lusher said.
“I now believe 99 percent that this is what happened,” he said.
Lusher said he has avoided the media attention that often surrounds parents of murdered children. But there is no avoiding the grief of losing a child, especially given the circumstances of his son’s death.
“You can’t imagine what it feels like,” Lusher said.
“To this day, when I see a kid, a 16-year-old kid on a bike with black hair, I will instinctively look,” he added.