DAUGHTER OF SA JAMES A. MILLER,
TUCSON RA, PHOENIX DIVISION.
DAUGHTER OF SA JAMES A. MILLER,
TUCSON RA, PHOENIX DIVISION.
On 5/29/73, LEESA JO SHANER was kidnapped from the parking lot at Tucson, Arizona, Airport. She gave birth; to her son 6 weeks previously. He 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 daughters 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 Javelinin 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, blueeyes, medium blond hair, shoulder length, parted in middle. She was wearing sleeveless Navy blue pullover blouse, with white trim, white levis and brown sandals. No leads were developed in immediate searches by Tucson FBI, Tucson PD and Pima County Sheriff's Offices
LEESA'sunclothed 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 web site 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.
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