New Hampshire student likely strangled, suffocated; actor suspected

Her body has not been found, but an actor and martial-arts instructor was charged with second-degree murder Monday in the disappearance of New Hampshire college student Elizabeth “Lizzi” Marriott.

Seth Mazzaglia, 29, of Dover, is accused of either strangling or suffocating the 19-year-old marine biology student to death sometime after she disappeared after class last Tuesday night, according to charges read against Mazzaglia by a Dover District Court judge on Monday.

How the authorities reached that conclusion is less clear, as searchers still haven’t found her body, and investigators remained tight-lipped on what evidence led them to Mazzaglia.

Marriott had been living in Chester, N.H., and was last seen in Durham, N.H., for a Tuesday night class. She was believed to have been going to visit a friend in Dover at the time of her disappearance.

Officials have been searching for a body around Peirce Island in the Piscataqua River at Portsmouth. Search efforts were paused Sunday due to dangerous water conditions, but Seacoastonline.com reported seeing police searching the area again on Monday morning.

“This is the worst parents’ nightmare, a missing child and with an unfavorable outcome,” Marriott’s family said in a Sunday statement, in which they requested privacy. “Please pray for the dedicated rescue professionals who continue to look for Lizzi. We need them to find her and bring her home.”

Mazzaglia, who is being held without bail, didn’t speak or enter a plea at the arraignment. Friends have expressed surprise at the accusations against him.

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