A terrified Montana woman who called her husband from the trunk of a car before she was found dead may not have been abducted after all, authorities said.
Rita Maze was found in her closed trunk early Wednesday with a handgun and two spent shell casings next to her, according to an application for a search warrant.
There was blood on the ground, and her purse, containing $50, was on the passenger side floorboard in the locked car. The keys were in the ignition, and an iPad was found on the rear floorboard.
Her call had set off a frantic search by her family and law enforcement that ended when her body was found in her car, abandoned near Spokane International Airport in Washington state.
Investigators are still trying to trace how Maze ended up dead more than 320 miles away from a rest stop north of Helena, Montana, where she told her family she had been abducted.
Maze, 47, had been shot to death, a medical examiner said Thursday. However, investigators are no longer pursuing a possible person of interest, and are not ruling out any possibility, including suicide.
The case is classified as a death investigation, not a homicide.
Asked Thursday if Maze's version of events she gave to her family before she died should be questioned, Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said, "yes, you should," according to the Spokesman-Review.
"We know where the body was located; we know where she started out," he told the newspaper. "What happened in between? Don’t know."
Knezovich told the Spokesman-Review people should not call her death a homicide "until we actually find out what is going on."
"I believe they shot her and left the gun and keys in there to make it look like she killed herself,” Rita Maze's 23-year-old daughter Rochelle told the newspaper on Thursday. "I know she did not."
Bob Maze reported his wife of 26 years missing Tuesday night after she he had not returned to Great Falls from a trip to her hometown of Helena, Mont., 90 miles to the south. She wasn't answering phone calls from family members.
"It makes no sense," Rochelle said. "They could have taken the car, could have taken money from her. And then they leave the car there, and that's because this is an evil monster of a person."
While Rita Maze was on the phone with her husband, Rochelle called the officer who had taken the missing person report.
Authorities pinged the cellphone to help determine her location. Her family learned her bank card had been used to make purchases of about $25 at gas stations in Kingston, Idaho, and Ritzville, Wash.
Investigators believed they identified a suspect from the convenience store videos, but that person has since been ruled out.
Rochelle Maze said her mother told her that she was overpowered by a "massive guy" who was 6 feet, 5 inches tall and wearing a black hoodie. Her mom was terrified because he had access to her gun — a Ruger she kept in her purse for protection, she said.
"I believe she was abducted," Rochelle told the Spokesman-Review. "She did not hit herself, stuff herself in the truck and drive all the way to Spokane and shoot herself."
Authorities were checking the vehicle for fingerprints and DNA to see if they could find a match to someone with a criminal record, Rochelle Maze said.
"My mom had no enemies," she said. "Nobody would want to hurt her. There's an outpouring in this community that you would not believe."
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