BY PORTSIA SMITH
After 17 years, Joe Marto can finally lay his daughter to rest.
A memorial service for murder victim Lisa K. Gaudenzi of Caroline County will be held Thursday at South Florida National Cemetery in Lake Worth, Fla., her father said.
A moment of silence will be held on the 17th anniversary of her death and she will be honorably recognized by the U.S. Army as Lisa Marto, her maiden name, he said.
Lisa Gaudenzi was last seen with her husband, Lawrence, on Jan. 26, 1995, in Ruther Glen. She was reported missing when she failed to show up for scheduled officer training school with the Army.
Her disappearance had been a cold case for 13 years until Caroline Commonwealth’s Attorney Tony Spencer announced in 2008 that he would be prosecuting Lawrence Gaudenzi for murder following a Virginia State Police investigation.
According to online missing-person reports, Gaudenzi told police he dropped his wife off at a Greyhound bus station in Richmond for a trip to Fort Lee. Police later determined, however, that there was no bus that took that route, according to the reports.
On the third day of his jury trial in May 2009, Gaudenzi pleaded guilty to second-degree murder; he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He claimed Lisa fell down and broke her neck.
Her remains remained missing until June 2010, when Gaudenzi led investigators to a remote area off Massaponax Church Road in Spotsylvania County. The site was about 30 miles from the couple’s home in Lake Land’Or.
Investigators were able to find remnants of the sleeping bag Gaudenzi used to wrap his wife’s body after her death. They also found at the scene several plastic bottles that had held brick-washing acid.
Gaudenzi had put the sleeping bag inside a metal drum and then filled the drum with the powerful acid, investigators said.
A porcelain dental bridge that she received after a car accident when she was a teenager was all that was left of her remains.
Portsia Smith: 540/374-5419
psmith@fredericksburg.com
