MD MD - Alison Thresher, 45, Bethesda, 24 May 2000

[gaia227]

Alison was supposed to start her new job at the Washington Post as a copy editor on the day she disappeared. She emailed her employee around midnight the night before and was never seen again. Her car was found abandoned a few miles from her home the day after she vanished. In 2002 a check was mysteriously deposited into her checking account through the night depository.


http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/t/thresher_alison.html

 

[WholeLottaRosie]

Wow - what an interesting case. She looks so like a family friend it is eerie (uh, no chance it is her - have known her way longer). That bit about the check being deposited is very weird.

 

[WholeLottaRosie]

I just did some searching and found little more. There was a website at one time, alisonthresher.net but it is down now.

 

[gaia227]

Yeah, I saw the website and got all excited but it is inactive. It is so frustrating because I keep coming up with matches for different articles in the Washington Post but when I click the link it says they can't find it. I guess their archives do not go that far back.

 

[HollywoodBound]

I found this article which talks about the check being deposited:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/l...ck-with-her-signature-deposited-90782574.html

I wonder if LE tried to view the camera footage at the bank (I'm assuming there is a camera).

 

[theforgotten]

The check issue is really freaky. This person would have to show some type of I.D. I would think. Am I reading this right, this person cashed a check that was two years old? I didn't think that was possible. This brings about a lot of questions. I know the family says that she would never go off and leave her children, but maybe she did.:twocents:

 

[HollywoodBound]

The check issue is really freaky. This person would have to show some type of I.D. I would think. Am I reading this right, this person cashed a check that was two years old? I didn't think that was possible. This brings about a lot of questions. I know the family says that she would never go off and leave her children, but maybe she did.:twocents:

The person put the check in the night deposit box, so probably no ID was required. Also, it was deposited not cashed so maybe no ID was needed at all. Still I would think a night deposit box has a camera.

 

[EdinburghLass]

I just did some searching and found little more. There was a website at one time, alisonthresher.net but it is down now.

You can see what was on the website with waybackmachine

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://alisonthresher.net

Hope that works!

 

[bykerladi]

I wonder what evidence the police found that made them reclassify her case to a homicide, and why they won't release any more information...

 

[summer_breeze]

http://washingtonexaminer.com/local...hen-check-her-signature-deposited?category=16

By: Freeman Klopott | Crime Reporter | 04/14/10 3:00 AM

Within a year of her disappearance, Alison Thresher was declared dead. Montgomery County police had ruled it a homicide, and the judge's ruling allowed her family to start collecting Social Security benefits to be held for her two children.

 

[alb1on]

I stumbled across this case, made a quick search and am a bit surprised it has not been more prominent. It seems there have been significant developments since the last comment. In 2012 prosecutors named a man as a person of interest in this case during another case. The following link gives confirmation by the msm;

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Development-in-Bethesda-Cold-Case-Murder--139492728.html

However, much more detail is provided on the following blog;

https://soyoshiki.wordpress.com/201...will-be-sentenced-on-august-17-2012-we-watch/

It is also worth noting that the suspect, Asturizaga, matches the description of a person sought by police referenced in a Washington Examiner link in a previous post.

I have searched for any information on this link post 2012 but there seems to be nothing. This may be related to Asturizaga's appeal against the 2012 conviction which was scheduled to be heard in October 2014. I have not found the outcome of that appeal and it may still be pending. If he does know something I guess he will keep it for future dealing at least until the appeal outcome is known.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Police-to-Announce-Person-of-Interest-in-18-Year-Old-Cold-Case-479495573.html

Montgomery County police will announce Thursday that they have developed a person of interest in an 18-year-old cold case.

Police will announce the new development in Alison Thresher's case Thursday afternoon.

 

[alb1on]

It will be interesting to see if the person is Fernando Asturizaga. I have since found that his appeal (from conviction for abusing the daughter of Alison) was dismissed after my first post in March 2015, so that would explain why things were quiet at that time.

 

[cybervampira]

County Police Revisit Cold Case of Missing Bethesda Woman, Seeking Information About Man Who Abused Her Young Daughter
http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bet...tion-About-Man-Who-Abused-Her-Young-Daughter/
[...]
In the years since, neither Thresher nor her apparent killer has been found. But in 2010, her daughter, Hannah Thresher, now 30, came to police with an account of longtime abuse at the hands of her former Spanish teacher, starting when she was 10 years old. Fernando Asturizaga, now 51, was convicted of rape and child abuse and sentenced to more than 100 years in prison in 2012.
Police announced Thursday that detectives are now looking at Asturizaga as a "person of interest" in Thresher's disappearance and murder in 2000. They say Thresher had suspicions that the teacher was victimizing her daughter before she went missing. Though there's not enough information to label Asturizaga as a suspect, police are looking for information from him and from the community about him, Capt. Paul Starks, a police spokesman, said Thursday.
Montgomery County police Chief Tom Manger said Asturizaga "has not been helpful up to this point."

Fernando Asturizaga at the time of his 2010 arrest. Via Montgomery County police
Asturizaga, 33 at the time, had taught Spanish at the Friends Community School in College Park, which Thresher's daughter and son, Sam, attended. Thresher had suspicions that he had an inappropriate relationship with her daughter, and wrote a letter to him advising him to stop spending time alone with her and also notified the school about her suspicions.
[...]
The new evidence suggests Thresher may have been murdered in her apartment and her body was then moved to another location, according to police. Police now believe her red Volvo station wagon, which was found on Broad Street about a mile away from her apartment, was driven there and abandoned.
"We're seeking information about Asturizaga's activities at the time of Alison's murder, any additional instances of inappropriate behavior by Asturizaga, anyone who knew Asturizaga when he taught at the Friends School and any additional information about places that Asturizaga might have frequented and any information about the case in general," Manger said.
[...]
(Very long and detailed article)

 

[YESorNO]

Inmate hangs himself hours after being linked to decades-old cold case

"...Fifty-one-year-old Fernando Asturizaga was declared a “person of interest” last week in the 2000 disappearance of Alison Thresher. She was a copy editor at the Washington Post, and Asturizaga babysat her daughter. The Post says her disappearance has been treated as a homicide case despite the lack of a body.

Asturizaga was serving time for sexually abusing Thresher’s daughter, who appeared with Montgomery County police in calling for justice..."

https://nypost.com/2018/04/20/inmat...-after-being-linked-to-decades-old-cold-case/

Link: https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/i...Merlin_253624.jpg?uuid=EG6WRD6DEeiNU-ug7SNxzA
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[cybervampira]

Podcast at link.

Missing Pieces: The Search for Alison Thresher Episode 3: Everyone Has a Secret

We now know that Alison Thresher was trying to protect someone in the months before she vanished and many people were keeping secrets. Hannah Thresher, perhaps, was holding in the biggest secret of all. In an exclusive interview with FOX 5’s Melanie Alnwick, she reveals a painful past – which leads to more questions about who wanted Alison Thresher gone.

 

[dotr]

Cold Case Update: Detectives Investigating the 2000 Disappearance of Alison Thresher as Homicide; Name Person of Interest in Her Murder
"Cold Case detectives have developed the below timeline of Alison Thresher’s disappearance to assist the public in recalling any information that might be pertinent to this case. Please note that this timeline is not exhaustive.

TIMELINE OF ALISON THRESHER’S DISAPPEARANCE DEVELOPED BY DETECTIVES:

April 28, 1999: Alison writes a letter to ASTURIZAGA imploring him to not have contact with daughter. (Read contents of letter below)

June 9, 1999: Alison writes a letter to Friends Community School voicing her concerns about ASTURIZAGA having an “inappropriate relationship” with her daughter. (Read contents of letter below)

July 1, 1999: Alison writes a letter to her attorney advising she has heard from other parents who are concerned about ASTURIZAGA’s relationship with their daughters.

January 2000: Alison calls ASTURIZAGA and again voices concerns about his relationship with her daughter Hannah. ASTURIZAGA continues to babysit Hannah while she is in the custody of her father.

February 2000: Alison and ASTURIZAGA become involved in an altercation outside of Alison’s ex-husband’s (Hannah’s father’s) home about ASTURIZAGA continuing to babysit Hannah.

March 18, 2000: From an entry in Alison’s journal; “Mad about my thoughts about F (Fernando). Stress that lines of demarc-he is a teacher. Many people have concerns about male babysitters-teenagers. Sometimes too stimulating for them.” (see journal entry below)

May 23, 2000:

8 p.m. Alison leaves her parents’ home after having dinner there.

10 p.m. Alison speaks with a friend on the phone.

11:51 p.m. Alison sends an email to a friend.

12:17 a.m. Alison sends an email to a friend.

May 24, 2000:

Sometime between 4:00-5:00 a.m. A neighbor of Alison’s hears cries coming from Alison’s apartment.

6:00 a.m. A suspicious male is seen running through the Brookmont neighborhood away from the area where Alison’s car would later be located. The physical description of the subject matches that of ASTURIZAGA.

7:00 a.m. Alison fails to report to work at the Washington Post. It is to be her first day at the job.

10:00 a.m. A resident of the Brookmont neighborhood observes a red Volvo station wagon – Alison’s vehicle – parked on Broad Street. (The resident does not realize the importance of this observation until Alison’s missing person case is made public).

May 25, 2000: Alison is reported missing to the Montgomery County Police Department by her sister. Her vehicle is recovered by officers on Broad Street in Bethesda."

 

[tiffkinsadder]

This may be a repeat.

Cold Case Update: Detectives Investigating the 2000 Disappearance of Alison Thresher as Homicide; Name Person of Interest in Her Murder

ETA Her diary entries...

 

[EmilyHTX]

I came across this UID earlier today and, having seen a little about Alison's disappearance and a few photos, I wondered if they might be a possible match. Some things I'm unsure of, but the timeline makes a decent amount of sense. I might have my "justifying discrepancies because I keep running into dead ends" goggles on, though.

275UFWV
UID Stats:
Found: May 9, 2001 in Alta, West Virginia
Estimated Date of Death (Per Doe Network): 1998-2001
Partial skeletal remains
White female
37-47 years old
5'0" (60in) estimated
Possibly left handed, bore at least one child, may have been a smoker, evidence of healed fracture of the left humerus
History of quality professional dental care, chip in lower tooth present in life

 

[dotr]

I came across this UID earlier today and, having seen a little about Alison's disappearance and a few photos, I wondered if they might be a possible match. Some things I'm unsure of, but the timeline makes a decent amount of sense. I might have my "justifying discrepancies because I keep running into dead ends" goggles on, though.

275UFWV
UID Stats:
Found: May 9, 2001 in Alta, West Virginia
Estimated Date of Death (Per Doe Network): 1998-2001
Partial skeletal remains
White female
37-47 years old
5'0" (60in) estimated
Possibly left handed, bore at least one child, may have been a smoker, evidence of healed fracture of the left humerus
History of quality professional dental care, chip in lower tooth present in life

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  275UFWV - Unidentified Female
  
  
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  275UFWV