Oct. 18--PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- New Hampshire police deployed four boats and a helicopter yesterday to scour Portsmouth Harbor in search of the body of a college student who authorities say was murdered by a 29-year-old actor.
"They are using a lot of different tools to locate her," New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Jane Young said of three of the Marine Patrol vessels rigged with high-tech cameras and sonar equipment to scan the water and seabed for Elizabeth Marriott, 19, of Westboro.
The search continued throughout the day, taking advantage of calm seas and clear skies -- "conditions that were described to me as excellent," Young said. Crews also used computer software to determine the "tidal paths" for the harbor, Young said, hoping they will lead them to the University of New Hampshire student who disappeared Oct. 9.
A fourth boat was used for a visual search along the shoreline of Peirce Island, where her body was believed to have been disposed off, while a helicopter flew overhead, covering a larger area along the New Hampshire and Maine coastline.
Young said no other charges have been filed against anyone else in the "ongoing investigation." Prosecutors on Saturday arrested Seth Mazzaglia, 29, of Dover, a UNH grad and karate instructor who also is as an actor in seacoast playhouses.
Mazzaglia was arraigned Monday on a second-degree murder charge that accuses him of "strangling and/or suffocating" Marriott, a commuter student who worked at a Target in Greenland. UNH is planning a gathering today to remember Marriott.
Prosecutors have remained tight-lipped about the murder. Several media outlets have filed a motion asking a judge to unseal a police affidavit filed in court.
Young said yesterday that her office has 10 days to decide whether to oppose the motion or unseal the affidavit. She was not sure which direction she would take.
"I have to read (the motion) to see what they want," she said.
Copyright 2012 - Boston Herald
