SOLVED MYSTERY

On 5/29/73, LEESA JO SHANER was kidnapped from the parking lot at Tucson, Arizona, Airport. She gave birth to her son six weeks previously. Her son and her daughter, 2 years old, were born at Davis Monthan Air Base Hospital, Tucson, AZ. LEESA returned to Tucson from Okinawa for the birth of her son anticipating the discharge of her husband, GARY SHANER, from the USAF, assigned to Kadena AFB, Okinawa. GARY called LEESA at the MILLER residence the eve of 5/29/73 and advised he would arrive in Tucson aboard a TWA flight from San Francisco at 10:15 PM. A family celebration was in progress to celebrate GARY and their daughter's birthday. LEESA wished to meet GARY alone; thus left the MILLER residence at 9:25 PM driving SA James MILLER's 1972 cream over bronze American Motors Javelin, Arizona License RLH-291.

About 10:30 PM, GARY called and reported LEESA had not met him. SA MILLER immediately left for the airport assuming LEESA had car trouble en route. Other family friends searched alternate routes. GARY and SA MILLER searched TWA arrival area then found the Javelin in the airport parking lot; driver's window partially down, and LEESA's purse with money lying open on rear seat. Vehicle keys nor parking ticket stub were located. LEESA was 22, 5'9", 115 pounds, blue eyes, medium blond hair, shoulder length, parted in middle. She was wearing sleeveless Navy blue pullover blouse, with white trim, white levi's and brown sandals. No leads were developed in immediate searches by Tucson FBI, Tucson PD and Pima County Sheriff's Offices

LEESA's unclothed remains were located on 9/16/73 in the remote Garden Canyon area of Fort Huachuca, in a shallow grave, in a dry stream bed adjacent to the rifle ranges. After autopsies, the cause of death could not be isolated.

In 2003, FBI Director Mueller affirmed that the case will remain in an Open and Active Status until resolved. Former Special Agent James Miller passed away in 2007, but before he died he was promised that this website would remain until this case was solved.

On August 28, 2009, authorities unsealed a federal indictment charging William Floyd Zamastil, an inmate at a Wisconsin prison, with the murder of Shaner. Zamastil, 57, was arraigned and pleaded not guilty at a hearing in Tucson, AZ, according to a U.S. Attorney's Office press release. Zamastil is facing a life sentence if he is convicted of the murder. He is already serving a life sentence in a Wisconsin prison after his 1978 conviction for the kidnapping, rape and murder of a woman in that state. He also was convicted in 2003 of killing a brother and sister and leaving their bodies near a dirt road south of Barstow, Calif., in March 1978. They had been missing for a month. Zamastil was a suspect in the Shaner case in 1973.

SUSPECTS

Two incidents relating to possible suspects have not been resolved. The case was worked as a Bureau Special after the body was discovered. No positive information was developed in spite of investigation and reward offers, nor after SA MILLER made pleas on local TV and Spanish language stations . Efforts to have the case presented on National TV programs met with no success. Soon after 5/29/73 an elderly Hispanic woman reported seeing a female answering LEESA's description attempt to escape from the presence of two males on the night of the disappearance. This incident occurred at the intersection of Hughes Access Road and Old Nogales Highway South of the Tucson Airport. The woman was reinterviewed under hypnosis 5/21/79 (REPEAT 1979) described the female as LEESA and gave additional details regarding the males and vehicle. No identifications resulted. On 7/6/73 an anonymous collect caller from a telephone booth in Detroit, Michigan who behavioral SAs at Bureau later believed to be a sincere young black male, offered to "Tell where they are" in a later call to SA MILLER at home. The caller was never identified.

In 1990 Detective DON CAHILL, Prince William County, Virginia, made GREGORY RICHARD BARKER as the subject of a 1982 murder of victim HILDA ROCHE. CAHILL's investigation placed BARKER as a former Vietnam vet, assigned as a civilian employee at Fort Huachuca on 5/29/73 and worked near the Garden Canyon area. CAHILL believes BARKER to be a probable serial killer who buried his victims in shallow graves. His investigation also lead to making BARKER as the subject of three ten-year-old Las Vegas bank robberies. "Unsolved Mysteries" ran a segment on BARKER concerning the ROCHE case on 4/24//91. The program concluded by stating "BARKER is also a suspect in killing the daughter of an FBI Agent in Arizona." BARKER was arrested as a result of the program by FBI Agents in Phoenix, Arizona on 4/25/91. On arrest, he said "You got me" and asked for an attorney. He has made no other statement. BARKER was tried and convicted in Federal Court on the BRs. Thereafter he was returned to Virginia where the only real evidence developed by CAHILL was a footprint of the victim's shoe developed from inside the trunk of BARKER's car. Nevertheless, BARKER plea bargained a sentence of 50 years to avoid the remote possibility of a death sentence.

BARKER finished serving his Federal sentence at the Federal maximum security facility in Florence, Colorado in February, 2003. He was transferred to the custody of the State of Virginia where he is currently incarcerated as Felon Number 199179. He will be eligible for parole in about 2024. Barker was said to have had a girlfriend in California, but reportedly received no visitors, no telephone calls nor correspondence at Florence. He finally agreed to take a lie detector exam in January, 1997, after admitting that he was at Fort Huachuca when LEESA was murdered and that he had "heard" of the case. Otherwise he has denied any knowledge or participation in the murder. The FBI conducted the exam. The report was that BARKER "showed deception." To date no evidence has been developed to connect BARKER to LEESA'S murder; however, in 2003 FBI Director Mueller affirmed the case will remain in an open and active status until resolved. Former SA Miller continues to offer a personal reward of $10,000 for information leading to the identification and prosecution of LEESA'S killers.

"Leesa Jo Shaner's children know her only through photographs and their family's memories.

They don't remember her smile or her sparkling blue eyes. Krista Shaner was 2 and Brady Shaner was a newborn when their mother went to the airport one May night 25 years ago. She never made it back. Her body was found nearly four months later, buried in a shallow grave in a Fort Huachuca wash. Autopsy results proved inconclusive, but authorities believe the 22-year old was strangled and raped. The case remains an open FBI file, but without any new leads in the case it is likely to stay unsolved.

For James Miller, 73, time hasn't erased the pain of his daughter's death or eased the unrest that comes with knowing that her killer remains unpunished.

'It's an everyday thing with me,' said Miller, a retired FBI agent. 'I haven't put it away. I will never put it away until I know for sure.' Miller vividly remembers May 29,1973 - the last night he saw his daughter alive.

She left his home about 9:30.pm. to pick up her husband,Gary Shaner, who was returning from an Air Force base in Okinawa, Japan. She had been living abroad with him, but had returned to the states to give birth to Brady. She was excited to see her husband and insisted she meet him alone, Miller said.

But Leesa wasn't there when Gary Shaner stepped off the plane. He called Miller's home, where a welcome home and birthday party was under way. The two men found Miller's cream and bronze 1972 American Motors Javelin, which Leesa Shaner had borrowed for the trip, in the airport parking lot. Her purse, with money inside, was open on the back seat, leading investigators to rule out robbery as a motive. Miller went on television to make pleas to anyone who may have seen his daughter's abductors.

A woman came forward and said she had seen a young woman try to escape from a car near Hughes Road and Old Nogales Highway, Miller said. The witness said two men dragged the woman back into the car, he said. In September, 1973, two soldiers looking for American Indian artifacts in a remote area of Fort Huachuca came across Shaner's body. FBI officials say the Shaner murder is still an active case and that there is a suspect in her killing.

They would not elaborate, but Miller said that suspect is Richard Gregory Barker, 51.

Another murder investigation placed Barker at Fort Huachuca working as a civilian near the area where Shaner's body was found, at the time of her death.

Barker was a suspect in the 1982 murder of a 42-year-old woman in Prince William County, Va. said Prince William County police First Sgt. Don Cahill.

Hilda Roche, an acquaintance of Barker's, was found dead in the woods in a desolate area. She had been shot once in the head and raped. 'The only reason anyone had ever looked at him (in the Shaner slaying) is because there were some similarities in the two cases and the fact he was in Tucson at the time,' Cahill said.

Cahill's investigation also linked Barker to three 10-year old Las Vegas bank robberies.

He is serving time for those robberies at the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence, Colo. His projected release date is Feb. 18, 2003, said Chris Eichenlaub, a prison spokesman.

After that he will be transferred to a Virginia prison to serve time for killing Roche. He accepted a 50-year sentence for the murder in a plea bargain to avoid the possibility of a death sentence, Miller said. Barker had said he was at Fort Huachuca at the time of Shaner's slaying and had heard about it, but denied any part in the murder, Miller said. In January, 1997, Barker agreed to submit to an FBI-conducted lie detector test regarding Shaner's murder, Miller said. The results showed deception, but investigators have found no physical evidence tying him to the murder, he said.

Barker did not respond to written interview requests. The Pima County Attorney's 88-CRIME line is offering a cash reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to the arrest and indictment of the person or persons responsible for Shaner's death. 'We're hoping anyone will call us and tell us something, no matter how insignificant it seems,' said Carolyn Emerine, the program's director. 'It may be just the piece that FBI is looking for.' Cahill said he believes there may come a time in Barker's life when he may be ready to clear his conscience in prison, where the 51-year-old will most likely spend the rest of his life. 'My only wish is that if he's not the person who did it, the person who did would come forward so the family could put closure to this thing,' Cahill said."

As an observation, NBC Program "Extra" reported on June 24,1998, the FBI was offering a $20,000 reward in a California abduction case. Such a reward offer was never extended to the victim of an active FBI family. Miller had offered a personal $10,000 reward in a Tucson paper in September, 1996.