“She was always swimming with us in the pool and throwing us around. She’s elderly and failing, so she was in Helena to see her”.
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After the short phone call with her family, Rita’s phone went dead and neither they or the police were able to contact her again.
The vehicle was found around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday on W Geiger Blvd and S Spotted Rd in west Spokane County according to Spokane authorities.
This was the last time Rita would ever speak to her family.
Police said they have not been able to establish a motive behind the abduction. It will be in the garden area of Gibson Park at 8 p.m. That’s when the missing woman reportedly called her family in a hysterical panic. She knew that a “large man in a black hoodie” had hit her over the head with something heavy, then stuffed her in the back of the auto.
The movement caused the signal to fade in and out, but it allowed law enforcement to track her location using signals from local cell towers, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office told NBC News. Her kidnapper put her in the trunk of her auto.
Rochelle and Bob passed the information on to the police, but it couldn’t save her.
Using mobile phone towers, investigators were able to pinpoint the car’s location to a vehicle park near Spokane International Airport, where the auto and Ms Maze’s body were discovered.
“Rochelle said her mother described the man as being large, of maybe African American or Native American descent, was about 6’5” tall and was wearing a black hoodie. Information about that person had not been released as of Wednesday evening.
Maze’s husband reported her missing.
Law enforcement officials say during the course of the investigation into the death of Great Falls woman Rita Maze, they have determined that preliminary reports of a possible person of interest are inaccurate.
A GoFundMe account has been created by Shanley Day to help the Maze family.
“I just hope they find him, I don’t know, there’s not a punishment that’s going to give her back to us, there’s not a punishment that’s going to bring her back.”
A description of the fundraising page reads: “We as a community will come together in this horrific time for the Maze family”.
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No cause of death was released, but Dutton said that Maze’s death was believed to have been a homicide and that she was believed to have been killed after the auto arrived in Spokane.
