A woman called her husband on Tuesday saying she had been kidnapped and was in trunk of her car, and spoke to both him and police before she was found dead on Wednesday night. But now Rita M. Maze’s story is unraveling, according to NBC News.
Maze’s body was found in the trunk of her car shortly after midnight on Wednesday in a parking lot outside Spokane International Airport in Washington. The cause of death was a gunshot wound to Maze’s chest and abdomen.
Maze’s death was initially ruled a homicide, but her manner of death is characterized now as “pending an investigation,” according to NBC. And while investigators originally said they had a person of interest, that person has apparently been ruled out.
On Thursday, Spokane Country Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich told the local NBC affiliate station that investigators are not ruling anything out at this point. Meanwhile, Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Mark Gregory told the Associated Press that they “do not believe there is any imminent danger to the community.”
“We know where the body was located; we know where she started out. What happened in between? Don’t know,” Knezovich said.
The Spokesman-Review reported that Maze kept a gun in her car, which was found next to her body in the trunk. The keys remained in the car’s ignition and there was a purse on the front seat. The AP reported that there was also an iPad in the car. Maze’s daughter Rochelle Maze still believes her mother’s original story, she told the Spokesman-Review.
“I believe she was abducted,” she said. “She did not hit herself, stuff herself in the trunk and drive all the way to Spokane and shoot herself.”