Missing N.H. college student believed to be dead; actor charged
A community theater actor and martial arts instructor was charged Saturday in the death of New Hampshire college student Elizabeth “Lizzi” Marriott, who went missing Tuesday.
Seth Mazzaglia, 29, of Dover has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder in Marriott’s death, said Assistant Atty. Gen. James Vara at a news conference posted online by Portsmouth Patch. But the search for Marriott’s body is ongoing, Vara said.
Friends and family had been desperately searching for Marriott, 19, last seen at the University of New Hampshire’s campus in Durham. Investigators had also been looking for her car, and Vara said that had been found in a parking lot on campus.
A website tied to Mazzaglia was not accessible Saturday afternoon, but Seacoastonline.com reportedthat the site had listed Mazzaglia as “an experienced actor, writer and fight choreographer who has worked both professionally and non-professionally in the theaters of southern New Hampshire for many years.”
He has appeared in multiple local theater productions over the years, according to the site.
A website for the city of Kittery, Maine, lists Mazzaglia as a black-belt karate instructor who has been teaching for several years. Robert Modee, a Kittery martial arts instructor, told Foster’s Daily Democrat that he had worked closely with Mazzaglia to instruct students at a community center.
“I don’t understand what’s going on right now,” Modee told the news site. “I’m completely floored with all this. I don’t even know what to think.”
A family friend described Marriott to the Associated Press as a beautiful young woman who was prom queen during her junior year of high school. She graduated from Westborough High School in Massachusetts in 2011.
Marriott was working at Target to help pay for college.
“She was just a good girl,” Dawn Downey said. “That’s probably what got her in trouble. She was too trusting and she was beautiful. Those two things will kill you.”
Mazzaglia is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Dover.
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