Gary Lee Schaefer was an auto mechanic in Springfield, Vermont, a Navy veteran and a member of a churchgoing family when he was arrested in April 1983, soon after the killing of Catherine Richards, an 11-year-old Springfield girl known as Katy, who was taken while walking with a friend and found dead about 18 hours later. Schaefer was convicted of her murder, with other charges, on a plea of no contest and sentenced to 30 years to life.
Two other Springfield girls had died, in 1979 and 1981. Under his plea agreement Schaefer confessed to the 1981 killing of Theresa Fenton, 12, and was never prosecuted for it. In 1985 prosecutors dropped a murder charge against him in the 1979 death of Sherri Nastasia, 13, after a judge ruled that the confession he had given police in that case was improper evidence. Vermont sent him to a maximum-security prison in Kentucky in May 1985. He died there on November 26, 2023, at 72, still serving his sentence.
The Bennington Banner, reporting on his death in 2023, described him as a U.S. Navy veteran who came back to Springfield after his service and worked as a car mechanic. VTDigger also described him as having worked in town as an auto mechanic.
His family belonged to the Christadelphian Church of Springfield, and the Banner reported that he and his family were active members. The forensic psychologist Tom Powell, interviewed by WCAX in 2023, described him as a fundamentalist Christian who led a double life and fooled his congregation. "He was able to convince members of his congregation he was a good guy, he was helpful, pious, honest," Powell said. "And, of course, nobody knew his secret."
Powell also pointed to a pattern in Schaefer's past before the 1983 killing, including arson and a kidnapping charge. Little is on record about his early life, including his date and place of birth and his schooling.
The first of the Springfield girls to die was Sherri Nastasia. She was 13 when she went missing in August 1979. The Chester Telegraph reported that she was found about three months later in the area of Rockingham, and the Bennington Banner reported that she was believed to have been killed in Rockingham.
Theresa Fenton was 12. In August 1981, according to the Chester Telegraph, she was kidnapped while riding her bicycle near her home in Springfield. She had been beaten, and she died in a hospital the next day.
Catherine Richards, called Katy, was 11. In April 1983 she was taken while walking with a friend in Springfield, WCAX reported. She was found dead in Springfield about 18 hours later.
Little more is on record about the three girls than their ages, their hometown and the months in which they died.
The friend who ran from the car was a witness, and her account, together with other evidence, led police to Schaefer, WCAX reported. He was 31 when he was charged with kidnapping in April 1983 in the abduction and death of Katy Richards. The Chester Telegraph reported that he was arrested soon after her killing.
The Bennington Banner reported that Schaefer was also a suspect in a kidnapping in November 1982 in which the person taken escaped. Powell, speaking to WCAX, counted a kidnapping charge before the murder among the signs in Schaefer's history.
On the two earlier deaths, William Bos, then the Windsor County prosecutor, made a point at the time that WCAX quoted again in 2023: "You can't charge a man with murder because it's similar to another murder."
The Richards case did not go to a jury. Schaefer pleaded no contest, according to VTDigger, which summarized his record in 2023 this way: he "pleaded no contest to one murder, confessed to another one and was a suspect in a third, all involving girls from Springfield."
The 2023 reports differ on the year. The Bennington Banner said he was convicted in 1983; WCAX said he was convicted a year after his arrest. The Vermont Department of Corrections said he was serving a sentence of 30 years to life for murder, with other charges. WCAX described the term as a life sentence.
The plea agreement brought a confession in the Fenton case. Under it, the Bennington Banner reported, he admitted killing Theresa Fenton. The Chester Telegraph reported that he admitted the August 1981 killing after his sentencing but had been granted immunity in that case. He was never charged with her death.
The third case went further but ended without a trial. Schaefer later confessed to a Vermont State Police detective that he had killed Sherri Nastasia, the Bennington Banner reported, but a court threw out that confession. VTDigger, citing an article in the Brattleboro Reformer, reported that prosecutors dropped a first-degree murder charge against him in her death in 1985, after a judge ruled that the confession was improper evidence because it had been obtained under hypnosis.
Because the charge was dropped, Schaefer was not convicted in Sherri's death. In 2023 the Bennington Banner and WCAX described him as a suspect in the deaths of all three girls. In law he stood convicted of one killing.
Vermont has no maximum-security prison of its own, a Department of Corrections spokesperson, Isaac Dayno, told VTDigger. The state houses a small number of prisoners who need higher security or protection in other states under the U.S. Interstate Corrections Compact. Schaefer was one of them. He had been held at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, a maximum-security prison, since May 1985, according to the department.
The Chester Telegraph, citing a 2020 population report, said the department held about 15 percent of the people in its custody in other jurisdictions.
Dayno told VTDigger that Schaefer had served his minimum sentence but was not eligible for release, because he had not completed the treatment and rehabilitation programs the state required.
Shortly after midnight on November 26, 2023, staff at the Kentucky State Penitentiary found Schaefer during a routine cell check experiencing what the Vermont Department of Corrections called an acute medical event. Medical staff took him by ambulance to a nearby hospital, where efforts to save him failed. He was 72.
The department announced the death on November 28, 2023. It said it had notified the Office of the Defender General, as its protocol requires, that the Kentucky Department of Corrections was providing updates, and that "The death does not appear suspicious at this time."
Jenney Samuelson, Vermont's secretary of human services, told Vermont Public that the state had not yet confirmed a cause of death. "But unfortunately even with life-saving mechanisms he was pronounced dead shortly thereafter," she said. Vermont Public noted that at least a dozen Vermonters had died while incarcerated in 2023 by that point.
Matthew Valerio, the defender general, whose office oversees the Prisoners' Rights Office, told VTDigger that his office was seeking details and would conduct its own investigation into the death.
WCAX put that question to Powell after Schaefer's death. "I think it's probably a certainty," Powell said. "Two confessed murders, likely a third, and who knows how many others?" He told the station that Schaefer had grown careless and taken greater risks over time, and that this led to his capture in the Richards case.
The court record is narrower. Schaefer was convicted, on a no contest plea, of one murder: that of Katy Richards. He confessed to the killing of Theresa Fenton as part of his plea agreement and was granted immunity for it. He was charged in the death of Sherri Nastasia, and that charge was dropped after his confession was ruled inadmissible.
The Nastasia case. Schaefer's confession in Sherri Nastasia's death was thrown out because it had been obtained under hypnosis, and the charge was dropped in 1985.
The 1982 kidnapping. The Bennington Banner described Schaefer as a suspect in a November 1982 kidnapping in which the person taken escaped. How that case ended in court has not been reported.
The year of the plea. The 2023 reports give 1983 (Bennington Banner) and about 1984 (WCAX, a year after the April 1983 arrest) for his conviction. The exact dates of the plea and sentence have not been reported.
The day of his death. The Vermont Department of Corrections gave the date as November 26, 2023, which VTDigger and Vermont Public reported as a Sunday. WCAX reported that he died on a Monday.
August 1979: Sherri Nastasia, 13, of Springfield, Vermont, goes missing; she is found about three months later in the Rockingham area.
August 1981: Theresa Fenton, 12, is kidnapped while riding her bicycle near her Springfield home; she dies in a hospital the next day.
November 1982: a kidnapping in which the person taken escapes; Schaefer is later reported as a suspect.
April 1983: Catherine "Katy" Richards, 11, is taken while walking with a friend in Springfield and is found dead about 18 hours later.
April 1983: Schaefer, 31, is arrested and charged with kidnapping in the Richards case.
1983 or 1984 (reports differ): he pleads no contest in the Richards case and is sentenced to 30 years to life; under the plea agreement he confesses to the killing of Theresa Fenton and is granted immunity for it.
1985: prosecutors drop a first-degree murder charge in Sherri Nastasia's death after a judge rules his confession, obtained under hypnosis, improper evidence.
May 1985: he is moved to the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville under the U.S. Interstate Corrections Compact.
November 26, 2023: found during a routine cell check shortly after midnight having an acute medical event; he dies in a nearby hospital, aged 72.
November 28, 2023: the Vermont Department of Corrections announces his death and says it does not appear suspicious; the defender general says his office will conduct its own investigation.