Law enforcement officials have said Schara was identified as a person of interest as early as 1993. In a series of interviews, a relative of Schara's deceased ex-wife explained why.
Gary Schara's estranged spouse told investigators in 1993 that she suspected her then-husband had some connection to the brutal rape and slaying of Agawam teacher's aide Lisa Ziegert, according to a family member of the suspect's late ex-wife.
In a series of interviews, the relative -- who agreed to speak with a reporter on condition of anonymity -- said Joyce McDonald Schara sought refuge with family members after going on the lam with the new couple's young son that year.
The family member contends Schara's ex-wife stumbled across some disturbing "writings," or a diary, that frightened her and prompted her to alert authorities.
The relative said she is wracked with guilt because she doubted Joyce's story, initially suspecting Joyce's struggle with alcoholism had skewed her judgment.
"I always thought maybe she was just being a crazy drunk. But she wasn't. She was right. She was trying to save her son's life," the family member said.
Schara, 48, of West Springfield, has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, aggravated rape and murder in connection with Ziegert's death in April 1992. While relatives of Schara's ex-wife are reeling, close friends of Schara described a similar sense of disbelief in interviews with The Republican.
Soon after Schara's arrest on Sept. 14, law enforcement officials announced he first became a suspect in 1993, but refused to provide further details on the how and the why. They still decline to confirm how he became a person of interest.
A custody battle between the Scharas over the child unfolded over several years in the 1990s. The dispute was sporadically chronicled by police in Longmeadow, where Schara was raised. Schara sought their help in obtaining an arrest warrant for parental kidnapping for his ex-wife, which was never served and later dropped.
The same collection of police reports referenced an account by Schara's mother, who told local police her daughter-in-law was a "recovering alcoholic." The woman's family members confirmed that Joyce -- who transitioned back to the surname McDonald after the couple's split -- struggled with alcohol abuse up until the time of her death in 2014.
McDonald's tragic end was not swift, however.
She was intoxicated when she locked herself out of her Seattle apartment building in 1998 -- and then attempted to scale balconies to the fourth-floor unit to let herself back in, according her family. She clung to a railing as her elderly father, who lived in the same building, tried to haul her back up but failed, said the family member, who was not present for the incident.
McDonald tumbled to the ground and suffered grave injuries but survived, according to the family member and scant records The Republican was able to obtain.
"Joyce spent eight months in a medically induced coma at a specialty hospital," the relative told The Republican. "She came out of it, but had all kinds of injuries and was always in pain. ... She kept drinking and taking pain medication and isolated herself from the family and everyone else near the end."
McDonald died alone in her apartment in 2014, according to the relative. She was 48. The funeral was private. No obituary was published.
Her family member said McDonald's brothers helped raise her son over the years as she struggled with alcohol abuse.
McDonald came from a family of 10. They were a transient bunch, as their father was a freelance organ and piano business consultant and moved his family from state to state, according to the relative.
A records request with the Seattle Police Department confirmed McDonald's fall happened on June 16, 1998, in the middle of the day. No other information -- aside from a brief query result affirming that a call came in for an injured woman named Joyce McDonald -- was available. Other records related to the incident have been destroyed per a state-approved records retention schedule, the police department reported.
Similarly, paper filings and exhibits connected to Gary Schara and Joyce McDonald Schara's divorce and custody battle have been destroyed, according to another public records search.
The relative added that although McDonald inherited the family's complicated history with alcohol, she was smart, charismatic, loving and beautiful.
Neither family members of McDonald nor friends of Schara recall how the couple met, but agreed in separate interviews that they both worked in the hospitality industry.
There are no court or police records to indicate Schara mistreated their son or his wife. In fact, he was awarded custody in 1993 while his wife went out west -- initially without the boy -- then returned and absconded with the child, according to police records.
Ziegert was 24 when she went missing from her part-time job at a card shop in Agawam in April 1992. Her remains were discovered in a wooded area on Easter Sunday.
Cold case investigators with the state police assigned to the Hampden district attorney's office recently obtained grand jury subpoenas for DNA samples from a handful of remaining suspects. Those familiar with the investigation said police arrived at Schara's home on Lathrop Street in West Springfield a few days before his arrest. They informed his roommate they were interested in speaking with Schara.
The roommate relayed the message, but never saw Schara again.
According to Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni, Schara subsequently attempted suicide and left a note detailing the attack on Ziegert. Schara matched a crime scene DNA profile, Gulluni said.
His girlfriend of multiple years provided police the notes Schara left behind. That woman declined a request for an interview through her attorney.
Other friends and associates of Schara's also have refused public comment but some have spoken with The Republican on condition of anonymity.
Schara's close friends say they are completely bewildered and saddened by the allegations. They offered that Schara always appeared to be personable, gentle, socially well-adapted and even charming. In terms of his interactions with women, he was "kind and funny, gentlemanly and chivalrous," one reported.
Combing through their memories, they could not find a single thing that appeared amiss, they said.
"Nothing inappropriate. Nothing darkly suggestive; nothing out of bounds. We've seen Gary in a variety of social situations. In mixed company, in 'just the guys' company, at the local watering hole," a friend offered. "And at no time did we ever catch a whiff of violence or anger toward women. No subtly 'dark' jokes -- no misogynistic tendencies."
Investigators have interviewed other women Schara knew in his youth, according to those with knowledge of the ongoing probe.
High school classmates previously contacted by The Republican recalled virtually nothing about Schara, saying he was uninvolved in school. His inner circle of friends said he had interests some may consider offbeat -- including being a "Dungeons and Dragons" and "Batman" enthusiast -- but was well-rounded and likable. He also was a sports enthusiast and fairly athletic, though he never joined organized teams in high school.
"Nothing you'd consider 'weird,'" one friend said, adding that Schara didn't smoke cigarettes, drink to excess or use drugs.
While Schara was never on a power career track, he worked steadily in customer service since his youth, landing jobs including at Champions Sports Bar in Springfield, Storrowton Tavern in West Springfield, the defunct Wild Apples Cafe in East Longmeadow, Enterprise Rent-A-Car at Bradley International Airport (where he worked at the time of his arrest) and the Hofbrauhaus, a popular German restaurant in West Springfield.
His former boss, Hofbrauhaus owner Joe Stevens, similarly has said he found Schara to be competent and suited for the job of restaurant manager while Schara was employed there in the late 1990s.
"He was a good-looking kid, reasonably good personality," Stevens said during a previous interview. "There was nothing, nothing to suggest he did such a thing."
Schara has placed no outgoing calls and has not received any visitors since his transport to the Hampden County House of Corrections in Ludlow after his arrest, where he is being held without the right to bail.
A spokesman for Gulluni's office has told The Republican that Schara's DNA has been uploaded to a database to run comparisons with other unsolved cases.
Gulluni's office has refused to provide The Republican with Schara's alleged suicide note, citing the ongoing investigation. Similarly, the Agawam Police Department, where Schara was booked, said all case records including the booking video are impounded. The West Springfield Police Department had the same response when The Republican requested any records they may have in connection with Schara.
Like McDonald's relative but for different reasons, Schara's close friends said they are wrestling with a faint sense of guilt over never having detected the kind of depravity Schara allegedly displayed in the Ziegert killing.
Those close to him likened the disbelief they feel to the brother of Stephen Paddock, the Las Vegas sniper who killed 58 and wounded hundreds of other concertgoers from the 32nd floor of a luxury hotel Oct. 1.
Eric Paddock granted interviews with members of the media in the wake of the deadliest mass shooting in recent U.S. history, repeatedly saying the revelation that his brother was the shooter was like a "meteor coming out of the sky." He insisted his brother never showed violent tendencies.
"I feel some odd kinship with that brother," one of Schara's friends remarked. "Being both stunned and unbelieving at receiving such arresting news about someone he had known well. I know that feeling."
A pretrial hearing in Schara's case is scheduled for Nov. 21 in Westfield District Court.
