Found Deceased MT - Rita Maze, 47, Wolf Creek, 6 Sept 2016 #1

[bluesneakers]

Didn't police say they have a POI

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Yes.

[Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo] Dutton said there is a person of interest in the case and that authorities are looking at a surveillance video from a convenience store.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/st...ed-montana-woman-found-dead-spokane/89960296/

 

[Gardener1850]

She would lie about him having the gun if there were no "him."

Again, I am not saying this is what happened, but I am saying it is possible she never was carjacked.

Nothing released so far convinces me one way or the other...I'm on the fence.

jmo

So if she wasn't carjacked and she drove the car herself to the location she was found, how do you think someone else got her credit card to use it at the gas station? I'm sorry, I'm just not seeing how this could be something she made up.

 

[JaimeInLA]

I'm sure they do know way more than they are saying, especially since the "promised" sketch/photo of the POI was not released last night and they are keeping mum.

I may be alone in this camp, but at this point I'm leaning toward suicide. And since she didn't call her family into late into the evening, she may not even really have planned on it, but was just driving aimlessly all day, thinking about things. Wonder what was purchased in Ritzville.

You aren't alone. I am voting suicide too.

 

[Inthedetails]

So if she wasn't carjacked and she drove the car herself to the location she was found, how do you think someone else got her credit card to use it at the gas station? I'm sorry, I'm just not seeing how this could be something she made up.

Do we know who used the card? If so, please post a link as I missed that.

If we do know someone else used the card, then yes, I think she was carjacked and I would be off the fence. Clue me in if we know someone other than her used the card.

jmo

 

[ninij9]

Would her position in the trunk make a difference?

Just thinking.

I pictured fetal position perhaps?

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[Gardener1850]

Do we know who used the card? If so, please post a link as I missed that.

If we do know someone else used the card, then yes, I think she was carjacked and I would be off the fence. Clue me in if we know someone other than her used the card.

jmo

We don't but police have said they have a POI. How else would they have a POI if not from CCTV footage? And if they suspected suicide why would they even say they have a POI?

 

[JaimeInLA]

We don't but police have said they have a POI. How else would they have a POI if not from CCTV footage? And if they suspected suicide why would they even say they have a POI?

Technically the POI could be her, if she caused her own death.

 

[ninij9]

If all is as it seems, this kind of crime just puzzles and disgusts me! He had no need to take her, he had no need to kill her. At the end of the day Rita is found dead in her own car?!? Such a senseless crime. A life lost and the perpetrator has gained nothing.
The perpatrator must be mentally deficit or something else is in play here.

Which is exactly why this case had me scratching my head. Almost feels like murder for hire (if suicide ruled out). As far as we know there was no sexual assault (thank God), no large amount if money stolen, the car was abandoned. I mean wth. Totally senseless.

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[bluesneakers]

We don't but police have said they have a POI. How else would they have a POI if not from CCTV footage? And if they suspected suicide why would they even say they have a POI?

POI is not necessarily a suspect.

 

[Inthedetails]

We don't but police have said they have a POI. How else would they have a POI if not from CCTV footage? And if they suspected suicide why would they even say they have a POI?

Because they are investigating.

They have someone that might be involved or know something, and that person is a POI. That person will be cleared or not cleared.

Having a POI is not the same as a suspect and it's not the same as someone being charged. It's just "someone" LE wants to investigate.

Again, I'm not "sold" on suicide....I'm just willing to keep it on the table until it's ruled out. Nothing so far released rules it out for me.

Would love more info on the POI and the photo that LE said they would release yesterday. The fact they didn't release it leads me to guess that the POI from yesterday is not a POI today.

jmopinion, with what we know now, subject to change

 

[Gardener1850]

Technically the POI could be her, if she caused her own death.

Why would they promise to release a photo if she was a POI in her own death? No, a "person of interest" always means a person they think was involved in a crime from every case I have ever followed. If I'm wrong about that definition, please point mean to a source for that. Thanks.

 

[TTF14]

Why would they promise to release a photo if she was a POI in her own death? No, a "person of interest" always means a person they think was involved in a crime from every case I have ever followed. If I'm wrong about that definition, please point mean to a source for that. Thanks.

Maybe they were lying? Maybe they jumped the gun in saying that based on an eye-witness account that turned out to be nothing?

 

[ninij9]

I'm sure they do know way more than they are saying, especially since the "promised" sketch/photo of the POI was not released last night and they are keeping mum.

I may be alone in this camp, but at this point I'm leaning toward suicide. And since she didn't call her family into late into the evening, she may not even really have planned on it, but was just driving aimlessly all day, thinking about things. Wonder what was purchased in Ritzville.

Your not alone in this theory. Only thing making me doubt my instinct here would be why would she torture her family with that phone call? Why not just kill herself? Which makes me really think hard on murder for hire.

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[Gardener1850]

Because they are investigating.

They have someone that might be involved or know something, and that person is a POI. That person will be cleared or not cleared.

Having a POI is not the same as a suspect and it's not the same as someone being charged. It's just "someone" LE wants to investigate.

Again, I'm not "sold" on suicide....I'm just willing to keep it on the table until it's ruled out. Nothing so far released rules it out for me.

Would love more info on the POI and the photo that LE said they would release yesterday. The fact they didn't release it leads me to guess that the POI from yesterday is not a POI today.

jmopinion, with what we know now, subject to change

Ok. gotcha. thanks.

 

[TTF14]

So if she wasn't carjacked and she drove the car herself to the location she was found, how do you think someone else got her credit card to use it at the gas station? I'm sorry, I'm just not seeing how this could be something she made up.

We don't know who used the credit card, and it was used prior to the car ending up in Spokane with her dead inside of it.

 

[AmyPond]

She would have been travelling towards the left of the screen, ie northwards. Wolf Creek is only a couple of miles further on with a gas station and a cafe according to Google maps.

Since she was travelling from Helena (where she had been visiting family) to Great Falls (home) I would guess she was very familiar with the road and had travelled it many times. She would surely know, therefore, that Wolf Creek was so close which makes it stranger to me that she would choose to stop in a very isolated place (traffic notwithstanding) rather than drive the extra mile.

When you've gotta go...you've gotta go.

Cause of death has been determined, though the manner of death has not been.

This is so strange to me....

With the credit card being used in a place that is off the route, I'm wondering if there could be more than one person involved. Two people drive up to the rest stop and pretend they have car trouble. One person hits her over the head and takes her car, another follows for bit. Maybe the person in the other car takes her purse and they use her card while the hijacker is still driving her toward the Spokane airport. Maybe when LE says "things are not all as they seem" they mean when they checked CCTV footage of the gas station it was not a big man in a hoodie using the card. Maybe it was his accomplice and that person is a woman. I'm just thinking of possible situations here. There is no way I believe this could be suicide. There is no indication of financial issues or mental health issues on the part of the deceased. Nothing like suicide has been suggested by LE whatsoever. JMO.

With that theory...what exactly is the motive? Sounds like the person or people left the car. Most people don't carry much cash these days. No sexual assault that we've heard. So...why??

As far as no indication of financial issues or mental health issues...those are typically things people keep hidden. So if they did exist, I don't think we would have heard about them at this point.

For me, I am keeping an open mind on all possibilities because we still know so little.

 

[Inthedetails]

Why would they promise to release a photo if she was a POI in her own death? No, a "person of interest" always means a person they think was involved in a crime from every case I have ever followed. If I'm wrong about that definition, please point mean to a source for that. Thanks.

Why would they promise a photo and then not release it?

Perhaps because they determined the Person of Interest is not involved. Or maybe the POI on video was determined to be her.
Or maybe the POI is involved and they are busy investigating and we'll soon hear of an arrest.

We don't know yet.

jmo

 

[TTF14]

Your not alone in this theory. Only thing making me doubt my instinct here would be why would she torture her family with that phone call? Why not just kill herself? Which makes me really think hard on murder for hire.

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I don't know why someone would do that. It does seem especially cruel.

 

[wantjustice]

I don't think we know that for certain. As mentioned earlier, Wolf Creek to Spokane can be driven in just over 5 hours by the fastest route, mostly the I90, but it's possible he chose to use lesser roads which would have been slower but where he was less likely to be caught on CCTV.

He could, for example, have used the 200 to Missoula and then the 93 and 200 again to Sandpoint and then down to Spokane. After all, there do seem to be a few hours missing that are unaccounted for. The more remote route with poorer phone coverage might also explain why Rita did not call home earlier.

ETA that I missed the thing about him making a purchase in Idaho. Where did he stop?

True he could have used many different roads, highways etc. but I think if he was familiar to this area he would have taken I-90. He definitely could have gone all over and that might explain the purchases since both were at gas stations. However both purchases were made in towns right off of I-90, Kingston, Idaho and Ritzille. He seems deranged to overpower her, throw her in a trunk, drive for hours and kill her for what appears to be no reason. As a family member stated, Why couldn't he just take her belongings? Why did he have to kill her? Rita told her daughter a lot of details considering the circumstances. It appears he already double backed onto I-90 by going through Spokane to Ritzville and back to Spokane which makes me think that he may have used I-90 and gone back and forth in different directions. It seems that if he was driving all over and making unnecessary drives in Spokane and Ritzville that he would use I-90 in Idaho and Montana as well but all of it is of course speculation. This was reported yesterday on the KHQ during the 6 p.m. slot and now it is reported here: http://staging.hosted.ap.org/dynami...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-09-08-16-09-04
I first heard about this case via Spokane News FB page: https://www.facebook.com/SpokaneNews/posts/10153683418000706

I thought too that at the beginning stages of the investigation that the license plate was read at the Washington State border but I will have to find where I read that.

 

[ninij9]

Nobody though Cheryl DeBoer was suicidal either. And, we don't know enough about this woman or her family to say whether or not there were financial issues or depression, etc. She was visiting her ailing mother. If they are very close, that could be quite depressing.

Excellent point about Cheryl DeBoer.

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