A Montana woman who called her husband and daughter from the trunk of her own vehicle after being abducted from a rest stop was killed by a gunshot wound, officials said Thursday.
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Her body was found inside the auto shortly after midnight Wednesday in a parking lot outside Spokane, Wash., International Airport, Montana and Washington authorities said. She managed to use a cellphone from inside her own auto, reaching her family and a few investigators.
When her daughter, Rochelle, spoke with Maze on the phone she said her mother was hysterical and hard to understand, The Great Falls Tribune reported.
Dutton told reporters it is believed Maze was killed in Spokane.
Early Wednesday, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office discovered the body of Rita Maze, 47, in a trunk of a vehicle near the Spokane International Airport, about 325 miles west of Wolf Creek, Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton in Montana said.
“She traveled with a gun, and she knew he had her gun, and she was terrified”, Maze said.
The Lewis and Clark County Sheriff in Montana says police in Spokane found Maze’s remains in the trunk of her black Pontiac Grand Prix. Dutton said that he spoke with her several times as cell coverage allowed.
“I told her that I loved her and my Dad told her that he loved her and she said that she loved us and then the phone shut off”, she said.
The FBI is leading the investigation alongside officials from the Helena area and Spokane County. In a taping Thursday afternoon, Rochelle recounted her mother Rita’s frantic phone calls.
She was reported missing around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. “We don’t know if she hung up or what”. “He kept her in the trunk for 12 hours”. She was a child at heart at all times.
Rita Maze reportedly called him about two hours later.
Maze worked for years as a cook at Morningside Elementary in Great Falls. An FBI spokesperson has confirmed the agency’s role in the case but has not released any further information.
While Rita Maze was on the phone with her husband, Rochelle Maze called the police officer who had taken the missing person report.
Other family and friends have started a GoFundMe page to raise money for Maze’s funeral expenses, one that has drawn donations and condolences from across the country.
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“We need to do whatever it takes to make things easier for the family to grieve”, Shanley Day, the organizer, wrote in the description.
