Kidnapped US woman found dead after phoning family from car trunk

Rita Maze spoke with her family and with police after being hit on the head and abducted from Montana, but was found dead in her car 523km away

A woman was kidnapped at a Montana rest stop in broad daylight managed to speak with her family and police on her mobile phone before she was found dead in the trunk of her car, 523km away from where she disappeared.

Rita Maze, 47, called her husband on Tuesday evening and said she had been struck on the head and that she was in the trunk of her car, Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton said.

Maze’s husband reported her missing. Dutton said that he spoke with her several times on the phone.

“She didn’t know her location, but she was able to talk to them over her phone, sporadically, as coverage faded in and out,” Dutton said.

Law enforcement tracked the use of her mobile phone and eventually found the vehicle with her body in the trunk near Spokane international airport at 12:30am on Wednesday.

Dutton said there was a person of interest in the case and authorities were looking at surveillance video from a convenience store.

The FBI was reportedly investigating because interstate travel was involved.