SPRINGFIELD – Authorities are planning on using DNA phenotyping to lead them to a suspect in the unsolved homicide of Lisa Ziegert, an Agawam woman killed nearly a quarter-century ago.
The announcement was made Wednesday morning by Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni.
Ziegert, a teacher’s assistant at Agawam Middle School, was abducted on the night of April 15, 1992, while she was at her night job at a card shop in Agawam. The following morning she was reported missing by the store’s day clerk.
DNA phenotyping provides authorities with a detailed report and profile that includes eye color, skin color, hair color, face shape, and information on the ancestry of the person who left the DNA. Authorities found DNA at the crime scene.
Upon arriving in the morning the clerk found the store open, the lights on, and the victim’s car parked where it was the night before. The money in the store’s cash register as well as the victim’s purse and school materials appeared undisturbed.
Ziegert’s body was discovered four days later in a wooded area approximately four miles from where she was abducted.
