But it was too late.
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Was Rita Maze murdered or did she take her own life? She wasn’t answering phone calls from family members.
“She was talking to my dad and had told him ‘help me, help me, ‘ she was in the trunk of her auto”, Rochelle told KRTV.
Mrs Maze stayed on the phone to speak to her husband and a Helena police officer as her mobile signal faded in and out.
Finally, at 10:25 pm, Rita called her husband, saying, “Help me”, explaining she was taken and that the person she was with had her gun.
“She traveled with a gun, and she knew he had her gun, and she was terrified”, Rochelle told the Great Falls Tribune. It is believed she was inside the auto for as long as 12 hours.
But for 47-year-old Rita Maze, there was not enough time.
A woman who was kidnapped at a Montana rest stop in broad daylight was able to talk with her husband and daughter by cellphone several times and even talked with police, but by the time investigators found her, she was dead, authorities said. “No one would have any reason to do this to her at all”, said Rochelle. They also found blood on the ground.
Authorities said they have a person of interest, but did not provide additional information.
He suggested this may have been a random attack. “She fueled up and was headed back to Great Falls and stopped at a rest area which she thought was south of Craig some place”, Dutton said.
Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Office says the woman was found deceased in the trunk of her black Pontiac Grand Prix.
It was the last contact they would have with her. Nothing seemed amiss during that call; but then Maze went silent for hours, Dutton said.
Police said they have not been able to establish a motive behind the abduction.
“I told her that I loved her”, Rochelle said.
“And then the phone shut off”.
Knezovich told the Spokesman-Review people should not call her death a homicide “until we actually find out what is going on”.
Her body was found inside the vehicle a few hours later.
A Montana woman abducted on September 6 was found dead the following day inside the trunk of a vehicle in Washington State.
Police began investigating the disappearance of Rita Maze as a missing persons case.
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Right now, the family of Rita Maze is simply trying to come to terms with her tragic, senseless death. Taking us on park days and always being a kid with us.
