Maze’s family rejects the theory that she committed suicide.
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Her cell signal faded in and out.
Maze’s daughter, Rochelle, said her mother called Tuesday evening saying she had been overpowered by a man who had her gun.
She had been carjacked around noon Tuesday at a Montana highway rest stop between Great Falls and Helena, and now her abductor was driving her east. She knew he had her gun. “We don’t know if she hung up or what”. She told her husband at 11:35 a.m. she might stop by and see her mom before heading back to Great Falls, south on I-15.
Two shell casings were found in the trunk – one by Maze’s left arm and one by her right arm. The 47-year-old wife and mother was dead in the trunk.
She was believed to have been taken to Washington state by the time she last made contact after 10 p.m. and was found in the trunk of her vehicle around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday near Spokane International Airport, Sheriff Leo Dutton told the Daily News.
Maze worked for years as a cook at Morningside Elementary in Great Falls. No further information has been released on whether or not law enforcement is still seeking a suspect.
The newspaper reported that investigators confirmed they have a person of interest in the Maze’s slaying.
There is no apparent motive, according to authorities, who said it could have been a random attack on a woman making a routine road trip.
“I’m getting married in nine months”, an emotional Rochelle Maze said.
Maze had not shown up at home when expected, so her husband notified authorities late Tuesday morning according to Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Office. An officer called the number Maze used to call her family, heard gunshots and then nothing.
The vigil will start at 8 p.m. and the family asks people to bring flowers, pictures, and any memories they have about Maze.
About two hours later, Rita Maze called again.
In the hours before her death, a Montana woman was able to tell her family that she had been abducted and that she loved them.
“And then the phone shut off”. Her family learned her bank card had been used to make purchases of about $25 at gas stations in the towns of Kingston, Idaho, and Ritzville, Washington.
Maze’s body was found in the trunk of her vehicle outside of Spokane early Wednesday.
Police are now viewing surveillance video taken from a shop and the Federal Bureau of Investigation is also investigating as the kidnapping crossed state boundaries.
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“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.
