Sumith Prasad
Apple TV+’s mystery series ‘Lady in the Lake’ revolves around the murder of Tessie Durst, an eleven-year-old Jewish girl who disappears out of nowhere, only for her body to be found in a swamp. After the body is discovered, the authorities arrest Stephen Zawadzkie, who runs the aquatic pet shop Tessie visits right before vanishing. Following his arrest and imprisonment, Maddie Schwartz starts to write to him for a story she wants to publish in The Baltimore Star. Similar to how Tessie is partially based on Esther Lebowitz, Stephen is a fictionalized version of a real-life person named Wayne Stephen Young.
Wayne Stephen Young Shook Baltimore’s Jewish Community
‘Lady in the Lake’ is a television adaptation of Laura Lippman’s mystery novel of the same name. The author wrote the work inspired by the disappearance and subsequent murder of Esther Lebowitz. Esther vanished without a trace on September 29, 1969, after a rabbi gave her a ride from her school to the shopping area located near her house. The little girl wanted to go to a drugstore to buy stationery. Esther never reached the store, and when she didn’t arrive at her home, her mother reached out to the cops. A search ensued, but she was not found. On October 1, her dead body was discovered by a patrolman around half a mile away from her house.
The inspection of Esther’s body revealed that she was sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death. Another major discovery was the fine gravel found on her body. The substance led the authorities to a tropical pet fish shop that was situated on the way to the drugstore where the little girl wanted to go. The investigators discovered a hammer, blood-stained handkerchief, and other vital evidence in the basement, paving the way for the arrest of Wayne Stephen Young, the shop’s owner, who was twenty-three at the time. During a polygraph test arranged by the police, Wayne reportedly admitted to killing Esther. However, he pleaded not guilty by “reason of insanity.”
The trial that followed mainly revolved around Wayne’s mental state. Several people considered the murder as the result of a schizoid break, while a psychiatrist put forth the theory that he killed the little girl to “destroy his mother,” who was allegedly “overbearing and controlling.” Regardless of these opinions and theories, the jury convicted him of murder, and he was sentenced to life in prison. It was noted at the time by the judge who presided over the case that Wayne wasn’t given the death penalty because of a conflict in the psychiatric testimony submitted in the court.
There are several obvious similarities between Wayne and Stephen. Both ran a tropical fish shop. As alleged in the case of the real-life individual, the character is beaten by his mother. However, Stephen enters the realm of fiction in the third episode, which depicts his correspondence with Maddie Schwartz, who is an entirely fictional character.
Wayne Stephen Young Died in Prison, Awaiting a New Trial
Ever since getting sentenced to life imprisonment, Wayne and his attorneys had tried for his release. He was denied parole twelve times. His freedom became a possibility when the Supreme Court of Maryland, in 2012, ruled that several jury members were given improper instructions before 1980, which resulted in unconstitutional convictions. In 2013, Wayne’s attorneys appealed for a new trial based on this ruling. In 2014, a Baltimore Circuit Judge ruled that another trial wouldn’t be granted since the jurors were “adequately advised” on the case to reach the verdict. The court found the instructions given to the jury members “sufficient and constitutionally sound.”
However, in November 2015, the second-highest court of Maryland granted Wayne a new trial. The decision enraged the local Jewish community. “He [Wayne] is a cold-blooded killer who murdered a defenseless 11-year-old,” Neil Schachter, President of the Northwest Citizens Patrol, said following the ruling, as per The Baltimore Sun. The trial did not materialize as Wayne died before it could take place. On December 23, 2015, he died of natural causes in a prison in Jessup, Maryland, at the age of 69. “The community had been holding its breath on this because of what he [Wayne] did and how he did it. We are breathing a sigh of relief,” Schachter told Baltimore Jewish Life in the wake of the death.
Even though Stephen was conceived drawing inspiration from Wayne, the reality behind the latter only serves as the former’s foundation. The intricate relationship he forms with Maddie and its aftermath are not connected to the real-life individual at all.
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