Transcription
Most people don't just disappear. They leave behind something. A call, a message, a reason. Lizzy always made sure of that. She never left anyone guessing. Until one night, she did.
She walked out to meet a friend, someone she trusted, and promised she'd be back home by midnight. But she never came back. And what actually happened that night wasn't random. It wasn't a stranger. It was planned. And it started with someone that Lizzie thought was safe.
Elizabeth Marriott, known to everyone as Lizzy, was born in Westboro, Massachusetts in 1993. She had a clear plan for her future. Lizzie wanted to study marine biology. She loved sea life and she wanted to build a career around it. After graduating from Westboro High School in 2011, she moved to New Hampshire to attend the University of New Hampshire. And if you asked anyone who knew her, they'd all tell you the same thing. Lizzy was kind, easy to talk to, the kind of person that made most people feel comfortable instantly. She was always smiling and always bringing energy into whatever room she came into. She loved meeting new people, and sometimes it was a little too much.
At the time, Lizzie was living with her aunt and uncle in New Hampshire while her parents remained back in Massachusetts. And when she moved in, their house kind of changed. It felt brighter and lighter, like everything just had a little more life to it. Her aunt and uncle loved having her around, and they could not have been happier for her to be living with them. Well, she quickly settled in, getting a job at Target while also volunteering at the New England Aquarium in Boston. Even at work, everyone noticed how cheery she always was. She was personable, outgoing, and just the kind of person that made everybody feel welcome.
Well, Lizzie was also in a relationship with a woman named Britney. Everything about her life seemed like it was moving forward. It was steady and it was normal and safe. But that trust, that openness with people would end up putting her life in the path of someone who saw her very differently. And in October of 2012, Lizzy Marriott vanished.
It was October 9th, 2012, and the day was pretty normal for Lizzy. She had classes in the evening, and she wanted to go and meet a work friend after. Pretty standard stuff. So, she attended her classes, then texted her girlfriend Britney about meeting up with a friend over at her apartment in Dover. Not only this, but she also told her aunt and uncle that she was meeting this friend. So, it wasn't like it was anything last minute or secret. She left a note for her aunt and uncle at the table in her signature handwriting that she was out and she'd be back by around midnight, give or take.
Now, Lizzie had a decent social life, but that didn't mean she was the type to just not inform anyone of where she was going. She would always let her aunt, uncle, friends, and parents back home know where she was. So her aunt and uncle thought nothing of it. But midnight came and went and October 9th then turned into October 10th. But Lizzie didn't return home. Her aunt and uncle woke up and they were shocked to find that she still wasn't home. She wasn't in her bedroom. Her stuff was untouched. And to their surprise, they found out she'd never even made it back to work. She had a shift at Target that morning and then her classes would be held in the evening at night. But Lizzy hadn't made it to work, which only made her loved ones even more concerned. She also hadn't reached out to Britney or even her parents since that previous night. And this was really weird. Britney and everyone else were starting to get this this sinking feeling. And they just knew that they had to involve Lizz's parents and the police quickly. This was not like her. She wouldn't just skip work and not call or text anyone for such a long span of time.
And luckily, the police took note of 19-year-old Lizz's disappearance immediately, and they got her reported missing and immediately began their search. Her parents also made the 2-hour drive to New Hampshire, and they immediately started asking people everywhere. A reward was put up for any possible leads, and they looked everywhere they could possibly think of. And meanwhile, the police had a lead of their own. They knew that Lizzie was going to meet a friend. And with that information, at that moment, the friend might have been the last person to have seen or interacted with Lizzy. So, they headed over to that friend's house.
Finding this friend of Lizzy's was easy for investigators. Everyone knew who it was. It was a woman by the name of Catherine McDonald. And she was not only Lizz's friend, but also her coworker at Target. See, Lizzie had just recently started hanging out with Catherine. And being the friendly and approachable person she was, she made friends with everyone. Catherine had invited Lizzie over to her apartment and do over and the plan was to have dinner, kill some time, and run some errands. Well, the police had a little chat with Catherine, and according to her, Lizzie never showed up there either. Now, Catherine was kind of bummed out about it, to be honest. She invited Lizzie to her home, and she waited and waited, but she was a no-show. This caused Catherine to go run the errands on her own. So for investigators, this was yet another dead end. They felt sure that Catherine would have had something for them, literally anything to tell them where Lizzie had gone, but she was just as stumped as they were. So they were back to square one.
But the police were truly baffled by this point. So they even called in the help of the FBI. And see, the thing is, even if they couldn't track down Lizzy, well, at the very least, the police just wanted to find her car. She'd driven it to go meet her friend, so surely her car would have some kind of clue. But her car had vanished just as mysteriously as she had. So this was much easier said than done. But the police doubled down on the search for her car, and before long, they managed to find it. But it was in a very peculiar place. See, her car was found abandoned in the parking lot of the University of Durham. This kind of corroborated Catherine's version of events. So, did she not go to Dover to even meet up with Catherine at all? And what was she doing at the University of Durham? And most importantly, where was she when her car was well here of all places? The police did ask her parents, relatives, and friends if she knew anyone at the University of Durham. But they were all confused. She didn't know anyone who went there, at least as far as they knew. So, what was her car doing in a place so far away from where she was supposed to go? The police and everyone else needed answers because time was running out and Lizzy was still missing.
After finding Lizz's car, but not Lizzy, the police then looked at her phone records and her phone's location. And this is where a key piece of evidence came up in her case. According to her phone's location, Lizzy was in the Dover area at around 1000 p.m. or a little after that. Now, this was weird because according to Catherine, she hadn't seen her that night because she never came to do. But now, her phone location was saying something entirely different. The police also searched nearby bodies of water and used advanced sonar and camera technology to find something, anything that could lead them in the direction of solving Lizz's case. But still, nothing turned up.
The police were now highly suspicious of Catherine by this point, thanks to the new revelation about her phone's location. They just weren't able to find anything incriminating against her yet. But that was until some time passed and an arrest was made. But it's not what you think. Catherine wasn't the one who was arrested. It was a 29-year-old man and his name was Seth Mazaglia. But it wasn't like Seth was just some stranger. No, he and Catherine actually knew each other very well because Seth was Catherine's boyfriend. And according to him, he was also present that night at the apartment with Catherine. Contrary to what Catherine had been pledging all of this time, claiming that Lizzie never showed up at her apartment in Dover, Seth had something else to say. According to Seth, Lizzy was at the apartment that night that she went missing. But what's actually going on here? Who's lying? And who's telling the truth? And if Lizzy was at the apartment like Seth said, where was she now?
Well, this was where things took a very dark turn. See, Seth was also a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, just like Lizzie was attending there. And he had actually studied theater. He was also a martial arts instructor and had a black belt in karate. But there was something much darker and more twisted about Seth that he only showed to the people close to him, such as his partners. Seth was someone who exercised and asserted control behind closed doors, and he liked meek and submissive partners. Now, Catherine knew about this, and a quick look into Seth's internet history proved that the adult websites that he visited, well, they proved what his desires were as well. And he went by the alias Dark Kaiser on these websites. So, it's safe to say things were pretty disturbing. And by the way, the name Dark Kaiser, well, in German, Kaiser essentially translates to ruler or emperor. And some might translate that as dominator.
Now, to top all of this off, it was reported that Seth was violent and abusive with his intimate partners. One of his ex-girlfriends actually came forward and stated that Seth would turn into someone else if his needs weren't met. Basically, Seth was someone who thought that women were obligated to give him whatever he wanted when he wanted it and however he wanted it. And if she declined for whatever reason, then Seth would turn violent and resort to force. So, this was Seth. Now, Catherine was his current girlfriend, and the two had visited various adult websites looking for another submissive partner to play out their fantasies in the bedroom. Now, considering Seth's past, we don't know if Catherine was fully a willing participant in all this or if Seth was forcing her hand. But the facts are the facts, and both she and Seth have been visiting these online chat rooms to try to find, best I can gather, a third person to bring in to their bedroom. But I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself because by now, the police had now arrested both Seth and Catherine both, and they were questioning them separately.
This was when Seth told the police that Lizzie was at their apartment. And according to him, in the beginning, everything was fun. The three watched a movie, they talked, and they engaged in a game of poker. But then, out of the blue, Seth suggested that they get intimate with each other, which they did. But it was during this act that something happened and Lizzie lost her life. Seth didn't explain what happened exactly. He just told the police that one moment she was alive and the next she wasn't. Now, this really scared Catherine and Seth, and they decided to get rid of Lizzie instead of calling the police so that the crime wouldn't be pinned on them both. But how they even came to this conclusion is beyond me. But anyway, when Seth and Catherine realized what had actually happened, or should I say what they had done, they decided to dispose of Lizzy and do their best to cover their tracks. So they took an unresponsive Lizzy to Pierce Island and they tossed her in the Piscatakqua River and then abandoned her car at some random university parking lot and just drove away.
If the police were shocked before, they were officially stunned. Now, seeing Seth describe this whole scene without any emotion or remorse was very hard to digest. It was like he was just recapping a movie that he saw last week. Nothing about his demeanor seemed to suggest that he'd taken someone's life. But that's exactly what he had done. But the police now knew this was this was devastating. Lizzy was gone and she wasn't going to be found alive or likely at all. See, the Piscataka River is huge and Lizz's remains could be anywhere by now, if they even still existed at all. Even though the police knew that this was likely a lost cause, they sent out teams and divers to search for Lizzy following this confession, but they were unsuccessful in finding her. This was a huge blow to her loved ones. The fact that she was missing, that was hard enough, but now this this was almost too much to bear.
But it was safe to say the police didn't believe everything that Seth was saying. Now, they believed that he did murder her, but they believed it was no accident. The police were sure, given Seth's violent history with women, that something bad had happened in that very apartment. But they believed that it was intentional. Because, get this, on the night Lizzy was at the apartment, neighbors of Catherine and Seth heard a woman's loud screams. And this obviously didn't amount to something that accidentally happened during some pleasant interaction. Whatever happened in that apartment was tragic. The police just needed to find out exactly what they were missing, and they did on Seth and Catherine's phones.
What they found on their phones was life-changing. While the couple was behind bars, and the police now knew for sure that Lizzy wasn't coming back, they built their case because this couple was due to stand trial. They'd given different versions of their stories, and without boring you with all the irrelevant details, both Seth and Catherine stressed that the relations between the three of them were consensual. And Lizzie tragically lost her life as a result of some accident during the deed. But here's the thing. Text messages between Seth and Catherine told an entirely different tale, and it was really disturbing. The part about Seth and Catherine's fantasies, that part was true. They were actively looking for partners to play out their fantasies in their bedroom. But this time around, Seth wanted Catherine to bring a friend of hers for a different experience. Basically, Seth wanted to engage in relations with Catherine's friend while she sat there and watched everything go down. Now again, we don't know for sure if Catherine was totally fine with this or if she was being forced to do this, but what happened happened. So abiding by Seth's request, Catherine suggested none other than her new work friend, Lizzy Marriott.
But here's the thing, Lizzy knew nothing about this arrangement. She was in an exclusive relationship with Britney. And as far as we know, she wasn't one to push boundaries. She was perfectly fine with the relationship and the course that they were on. So, when Catherine invited Lizzie to her apartment for a fun night in, Lizzy really thought the two were just going to be alone in the apartment and having a movie night or something. But we all know by now Catherine's invitation was anything but tame. Catherine didn't even bother to ask Lizzy about the fantasy they were about to engage in. She just thought by default that Lizzy would agree to anything since they were friends. All of this is just so hard to wrap your head around. But here we are.
So Lizzie arrived at the apartment and she got her first surprise of the evening when she realized Catherine's boyfriend would also be joining them. Now, she didn't think much of it because initially Seth didn't give off any creepy vibes. The three sat down. They watched a movie. But somewhere in between, the three started to play poker. And a rule was enforced in which the person who lost each time would have to remove a piece of clothing. But the thing is, Lizzy was not very good at poker. She was obviously losing. And this was when Seth suggested that Catherine and Lizzy, well, Lizzy drew a line right there. But with Lizz's refusal, Seth was quietly stewing. But he didn't do anything immediately. But after a few moments, he just quietly got up, went to his room, grabbed a rope and gloves, and came back to the living room where Lizzy and Catherine were. He then sat down behind an unsuspecting Lizzy, and when she least expected it, he made his move. He bound Lizzy, did what he wanted to her, and all the while, Catherine just watched. I can't even imagine how Lizzy must have felt just seeing her friend sitting across from her and doing nothing to stop this. She just sat there staring and watching as the worst night of her friend's life unfolded in front of her eyes and she did nothing.
Well, once the police got this whole story pieced together, they searched the apartment, which was a mess, by the way, and they managed to find clothing belonging to Seth with his and Lizz's DNA on it. But things were about to get even wilder because after ending Lizz's life, Catherine and Seth called up some of their friends to help with the cleanup. Just called them up like it was a casual Tuesday and they needed a hand moving a couch. But two people, Roberto Girkin and Paul Hickock, came to the apartment and they saw what Seth had done. And according to the two of them, Seth claimed that quote, "This time things had gotten too far because he quote blacked out." Now, luckily, the other people did not participate in disposing of Lizz's body, but they also didn't tell the police either. They just told Seth and Catherine to call the police, and they left the apartment, not involving themselves in this at all. I mean, good on them for walking away, I guess, but they should have called the police themselves. Now, this is no one's fault but Catherine and Seth's. But if only Robera and Paul had called the police, this case would have been solved much quicker. Let's just be honest. But that didn't happen.
When Seth and Catherine realized that they were going to have to deal with Lizzie themselves, they hid her in a suitcase, drove her car to the lake, and dumped her body in the water. They then proceeded to abandon her car at the University of Durham parking lot to throw the investigators off. And when they got rid of all the evidence, they just threw it all in dumpsters. This ordeal took them hours, and they finally reached home at around 6:00 in the morning on October 10th. According to Catherine, Seth was excited and pleased with what he had done. He had no remorse. This man was actually proud of himself. And this whole thing is just haunting. To think that Seth and Catherine would go this far to play out some stupid fantasy and target an innocent woman who wanted no part of it.
At the trial, the prosecution laid everything out. They even showed letters in court written by both Seth and Catherine. And in these letters, the two had plans of running away to a different country with no extradition treaties, but not before taking care of Roberto Girkin and Paul Hickok, the only two witnesses of the crime. It's seriously scary to think that these people didn't even stop to think about their actions. All they wanted to do was get away with murder. even getting rid of the sole witnesses.
At trial, Katherine did pull out the manipulation card. She told the court that it was all Seth's idea and she was forced to act on everything that he ordered her to do because she was scared for her life. See, Catherine had gotten into a serious relationship with Seth when she was only 18 and Seth was 29. So, it's safe to assume that Seth likely manipulated and brainwashed Catherine while she was younger. But still, it doesn't take away the fact that Catherine was a willing participant in all of this. Just because you've been led astray, that doesn't mean you don't have to work out your own redemption. But Catherine claimed that Seth controlled everything she did. She was forced to cut off all contact with her parents. And now, this was extremely heartbreaking for her and her family both. And it shouldn't have happened to her, but she had so many moments in which she could have stopped this crime from happening. And that's the real purpose of this whole trial. In terms of Catherine being led off course by this man, that's a story for a different day. All that matters right now is whatever path she took. And Catherine ended up where she did and how Lizzy had to pay for that with her life.
Now, let me be clear. I know good and well how difficult it can be to speak up against an abusive partner. I've seen how this plays out in real time. Fear is an astoundingly powerful motive error. But the fact that Catherine willingly brought someone else into this mess, knowing who Seth was and how he was likely to behave, that is a violation unlike any other. She could have saved Lizzie. She could have done something else and she could have stepped up. She could have at least tried to convince Seth to find someone that was willing to act on these fantasies voluntarily. But she did none of that. She just went along with it and watched as her boyfriend murdered her friend without so much as a single word against him. Catherine was just as involved as Seth. And she could even gone as far as, I don't know, making up a lie that Lizzie couldn't come over that evening, making up something. Maybe Lizzie was too busy. But she didn't. And she facilitated her friend's murder.
Well, in July of 2013, Catherine agreed to plead guilty to hindering prosecution, conspiracy, and witness tampering in exchange for testifying against Seth at his trial. And in exchange for a lighter sentence, and when I say lighter sentence, I mean that literally. She was given a whopping 1 and a half to three years in prison. Lizz's family was not happy at all about this. She practically laid out a trap for Lizzy to walk into and lose her life. Lizzy trusted Catherine. And look where it got her. Needless to say, her parents and loved ones expressed their disdain with very strong words and understandably so. The judge also directly addressed Catherine and told her she was a major reason that Lizzie is not among her loved ones today. Not the sole reason, but a major driving force.
But less than a year later, Seth's trial was held. His defense tried to pin everything on Catherine, which is always a classic move. And the star witness of his trial was none other than Catherine. She testified against him and the prosecution presented heaps of evidence including DNA evidence, his violent history and his tendencies with previous women. It was an open andsh shut case for the jury and the verdict was out and Seth was found guilty of the firstdegree murder of Lizzie Marriott. Seth was given life in prison without a possibility of parole and he'll stay behind bars for the rest of his life.
But Catherine, on the other hand, was released in 2016. This case is just even more painful to think about because Lizz's body was never even found. To this day, the police and volunteers have still been unsuccessful in finding Lizz's body. Her family is unable to say goodbye to her and lay her to rest. And this just intensifies their pain 10 times more. Lizzy always wanted to become a marine biologist, but she never got that chance. But in her wake, her family established the Lizzie Marriott Intrepid Explorer Fund, which allows students to pursue Lizz's dream and do all the amazing things that she was going to do.
You know what's particularly haunting is that Proverbs 1 almost literally gives a playbyplay of this case. It says, "If sinners entice you, do not consent. They will say, come with us. Let us lie and wait for blood. Let us ambush the innocent without reason. Let us like sh swallow them alive." But it later adds, "Do not walk in the way of them. Hold back your foot from their paths, for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood." James 4:17 tops this off perfectly by saying, "Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for them it's sin." Heat. Heat.