NH student's disappearance, death detailed in docs

FILE - This undated file photo provided by her family shows University of New Hampshire student Elizabeth "Lizzi" Marriott. The death of Marriott, according to court documents unsealed in May 2013, shows a tangled tale involving a karate instructor, his girlfriend, and a young victim described by a family member as gullible. (AP Photo/Britney Atwood, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2012 file photo, the New Hampshire Marine Patrol searches the Piscataqua River near a cliff on Pierce Island for the body Elizabeth "Lizzy" Marriott. Her body was not found. The death of 19-year-old Marriott, according to court documents unsealed in May 2013, shows a tangled tale involving a karate instructor, his girlfriend, and a young victim described by a family member as gullible. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)

DOVER, N.H. (AP) — Lizzi Marriott left a message saying she'd be home by midnight.

Five weeks into her first semester at the University of New Hampshire, the sophomore planned to attend a Tuesday night lab class that would end at 9 p.m. She wouldn't have to hurry — she was staying with her aunt and uncle only about a half-hour drive from the campus where she'd transferred to study marine biology.

At 8:55 p.m., the 19-year-old sent a text saying she was going to visit a new friend, a co-worker at a department store near campus.

Less than two hours later, the former prom queen died with a rope around her neck.

The man charged with killing Marriott in October says her death was an accident during a night of consensual sex. Prosecutors call it murder. Either way, Marriott's body is gone — dumped in a river that pours into the Atlantic Ocean.

The circumstances of Elizabeth Marriott's death remain a dark mystery involving a couple who authorities say trolled fetish websites in search of sex slaves.

Thirty-year-old Seth Mazzaglio was a 2006 graduate of UNH with a degree in theater and a fourth-degree black belt in karate who taught at the dojo he started attending as a child in Kittery, Maine. Nineteen-year-old Kathryn McDonough is a former honors student who dropped out of high school in February of last year.

Authorities describe them as bondage enthusiasts who frequented fetish sites — him under the monikers "DarkKaiser" and "Enigmatic Shadows" and her as "Rouge Temptress."

The appeared together in a play — "Last Rites" — in July 2011 at a theater in Portsmouth. Eventually, they moved in together, sharing an apartment in Dover.

Police affidavits describe a text message Mazzaglia sent to McDonough in August. It described in lurid detail a bondage sexual encounter and suggested McDonough include a friend, someone to "offer" to him.

Authorities believe Marriott may have been that offering, lured to their apartment after class on Oct. 9 — not long after McDonough met her at work.

Marriott's disappearance set off a full-scale search in the seacoast region that is home to the UNH campus. But it didn't take long before Marriott's last text message — telling a friend she was going to "Kat's" — had investigators looking hard at McDonough and Mazzaglia.

Recently released court documents describe the couple's interviews with police starting three days after Marriott disappeared. First Mazzaglia said Marriott had never made it to their place that night — he had gone out for a run, hurt his ankle and was slow returning to the house. McDonough told police she went to a nearby cemetery in hopes of capturing images of ghosts with her digital camera.

But Mazzaglia's story soon began to change.

In an interview later the same day, he talked of bondage and sadomasochism. He implicated McDonough and another couple in harming Marriott, saying when he arrived home Marriott had a ligature mark around her neck. He suggested another man had done something terrible, but he wouldn't say what.

Finally, police said, Mazzaglia admitted he was involved. He and McDonough were playing strip poker with Marriott and that led to intercourse. Mazzaglia said he was having sex with Marriott — and tightening a rope around her neck — when she had a "seizure."

Mazzaglia told investigators neither he nor McDonough tried to revive Marriott or summon help. Instead, he told them, he put a grocery bag over her head and tied it at the neck.

A police affidavit describes interviews with another couple McDonough called the night Marriott died.

Roberta Gerkin said McDonough sounded "shaken" when she called asking Gerkin to come over at 10:49 p.m. When Gerkin and her housemate arrived, they both told police they saw a white female lying on the floor, a grocery bag tied over her head.

Gerkin told investigators when she used a box cutter to remove the bag, the woman's face was blue. Gerkin and her housemate told investigators they overheard the couple talking about "dumping the body."

Mazzaglia told investigators he and McDonough used Marriott's 2001 Mazda to take her body to Peirce Island in Portsmouth, where they threw it and her cellphone into the Piscataqua River. When Marriott's torso remained above water, he said, McDonough went into the water and pushed it under, making a joke about "Davy Jones' locker."

The pair then drove Marriott's car to UNH, left it in a student lot and discarded her belongings in trash bins, authorities allege.

Mazzaglia was arrested Oct. 13 — a day after he was interviewed — and McDonough on Christmas Eve. He is being held without bond, charged with first-degree murder. She has been indicted on charges of conspiracy and hindering prosecution. She was released on $35,000 bond on the condition she live with her parents in Portsmouth.

Trial dates haven't been set for either defendant.

Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney John Lewin, who has secured five first-degree murder convictions in all five "no-body" homicides he's tried, said such cases can sometimes give prosecutors greater latitude at trial to explore the character of the victim — showing how she wouldn't voluntarily leave family, friends and career behind.

While he would not discuss the Marriott case, he said defendants often convict themselves by giving multiple stories of what happened.

"You only have so much credibility," Lewin said. "You can't come in and argue five different things. But I want a jury to believe him because, when they find out half an hour later from his own mouth that he's a liar, it's three times as bad."

Attorneys for Mazzaglia and McDonough did not return calls seeking comment, nor did a lawyer for McDonough's parents.

Marriott's family has declined to discuss her death. Through a family spokesman, they have railed at that notion she died during consensual sex with Mazzaglia. Prosecutors say there was nothing consensual about Marriott's death but won't say what evidence they have to back up their contention.

Family members describe Marriott as "gullible" — someone who easily could be taken advantage of because of her trusting nature. One family friend from Westborough, Mass., where Marriott grew up, called her naive.

"She was just a good girl. That's probably what got her in trouble," Dawn Downey said. "She was too trusting and she was beautiful. Those two things will kill you."

Protest in Paris against France's gay marriage law

PARIS (AP) — Tens of thousands of people protested againstFrance's new gay marriage law in central Paris on Sunday, and police clashed with right-wing demonstrators.

The law came into force over a week ago, but organizers decided to go ahead with the long-planned demonstration to show their continued opposition as well as their frustration with President Francois Hollande, who had made legalizing gay marriage one of his keynote campaign pledges in last year's election.

Marchers set off from three separate points across Paris, and by early evening they filled the Invalides esplanade just across the Seine River from the Champs Elysees.

As night fell, several hundred protesters clashed with police, throwing bottles and chasing journalists.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls said police had arrested around 100 far-right protesters who refused to leave following the end of the demonstration.

Meanwhile, in southern France, the 66th Cannes Film Festival gave the Palm d'Or, its top honor, to "Blue is the Warmest Color: The Life of Adele," a French film about a tender, sensual lesbian romance.

Police estimated around 150,000 people took part in the demonstration in Paris, but march organizers claimed on their Twitter account that more than a million people did.

A similar protest in March drew about 300,000.

‘It Brought Tears to Our Eyes’: American Describes Witnessing Thousands in Paris March Against Gay Marriage

Sandy Glass from Naperville, Illinois, was in Paris and witnessed the parade unexpectedly, telling TheBlaze she and her husband estimated more than 250,000 people were present.

"It brought tears to our eyes," Glass, a conservative and Glenn Beckfan, said in a phone interview.

"We go to France a lot and thought it was another left wing protest," she said later, recalling that last year they found themselves in the middle of a Socialist rally.

When they followed the noise and witnessed what she described as "pro-family" signs, Glass said she realized "oh, we're not the only 'crazy' ones," explaining that it is "sometimes very difficult to be on the right in America."

The Associated Press reported there being about 5,000 police present for the demonstration, due to clashes that have occurred in other anti-gay marriage protests.

But Glass said the event was very well organized and even seemed to have its own security detail.

"Nobody bothered these people," she said, noting that people on the street were giving thumbs up and people in balconies were cheering. "

Here are some photos from the event:

"It was such a show of force that was pro something, not against something," she said. "I think it was awesome."

The plan of French protesters, according to Glass, is to vote out lawmakers with whom they hold opposition in 2014.

This video shows some of the march:

Violence erupts at the end of an anti-gay marriage demonstration in Paris. Paul Chapman reports.

Video: France gay marriage protest violence

After Maoist massacre in India, fear of worse to come

Maoist insurgents killed 29 people in an ambush of a political party's convoy in eastern India. The massacre had the government vowing a stepped up counterinsurgency and analysts worried about more violence.

A massacre by Maoist guerrillas in eastern India that killed 29 people Saturday placed a spotlight on the group's insurgency and ignited fears of more violence heading into an election.

Among the victims of the attack were senior leaders of India'sCongress party in the eastern state of Chattisgarh and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh indicated the government will step up its offensive against the Maoists. "We have to be more determined in fighting Naxal (Maoist) extremism. These lives should not go in vain. This incident should be treated as an inspiration in our fight against forces of extremism and violence," he said. The attack occurred in the Darbha Valley in the Bastar plateau of Chattisgarh. The Communist Party of India (Maoist), whose members are also known as Naxalites, controls large parts of territory in the tribal-dominated Bastar region. On Saturday, a group of 250 guerrillas ambushed a convoy of 25 cars carrying leaders and workers of the Congress party. The convoy was part of voter mobilization for the state elections due in October.

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The chief target in Saturday's attack was a tribal leader, Mahendra Karma, who in 2005 had founded a state-supported anti-Maoist militia known as the "Salwa Judum" meaning "Peace March" which has been criticized for human rights violations and hiring child soldiers. The Supreme Court of India disbanded the Salwa Judum in 2011, calling it unconstitutional.

"Since the disbanding of the Salwa Judum, Karma had become a symbolic target whom they had tried to kill before as well," says documentary filmmaker Sanjay Kak, whose recently released film, Red Ant Dream, shows damning footage of Karma organizing the Salwa Judum militia, contrary to his claims that it was a spontaneous Gandhian rebellion against the Maoists.

An eyewitness claimed that the guerrillas danced over Karma's body after spraying him with bullets. The attack also killed the state chief of the Congress party and his son, and critically wounded a senior central-level Congress leader, VC Shukla. The Congress party's national president, Sonia Gandhi, called it "a cowardly act" and "an attack on democratic values".

Sociologist Nandini Sundar, one of the petitioners against the Salwa Judum, says this was a massive security failure on the part of the government. "The government should have expected a response like this to their increased offensive against the Maoists in recent weeks," she says. On Mahendra Karma, she says, "If India had democratic values he would have been behind bars."

Anticipating an escalation of violence from both sides in the months ahead, Sundar said it would be "disastrous for villagers and the government should exercise caution."

Security analysts, however, are calling for an expanded military offensive against the Maoists, who are present to varying degrees in the forests of eastern India through what is called the "red corridor," spanning a third of India's 600 districts.

"The government's own data shows the Maoists have been busy consolidating their hold with arms and tribal mobilization," says Ajai Sahni, director of the Institute for Conflict Management in Delhi. "Casualties have reduced because the government hasn't been going on an offensive and the absence of violence made the government under-estimate the threat," he says.

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Neighbors in Lebanese city fight Syrian proxy war

In this Friday, May. 24, 2013 photo, a Sunni sniper takes aim during clashes that erupted between supporters and opponents of the Syrian regime, in the northern port city of Tripoli, Lebanon. Fighting between Bab Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen, which goes back to Lebanon's civil war, has become more frequent since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, with the neighborhoods backing opposite sides. And the latest round over the past week has been the longest yet and has left tens dead and hundreds wounded, the highest toll so far. The rifle was handed down from the snipers' grandfather who was killed during fighting with Jabal Mohsen in 1979. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

In this Friday, May. 24, 2013 photo, Lebanese Mahmoud Bakish, left, 20, who was injured during clashes that erupted between supporters and opponents of the Syrian regime, receives treatment at a clinic in the northern port city of Tripoli, Lebanon. Fighting between Bab Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen, which goes back to Lebanon's civil war, has become more frequent since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, with the neighborhoods backing opposite sides. And the latest round over the past week has been the longest yet and has left 29 dead and more than 200 wounded, the highest toll so far. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AP) — In a rundown district of Lebanon's second largest city, residents have adapted to waging war with their neighbors.

Whenever violence breaks out, they string large cloths across intersections to block snipers' view, sleep in hallways to take cover from mortar shells and abandon apartments close to the front line.

The sectarian fighting between the two neighborhoods stretches back four decades to Lebanon's civil war. But it has become more frequent and increasingly lethal since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011. The two districts support opposite sides.

The latest round between Bab Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen over the past week has been the bloodiest yet, leaving at least 28 dead and more than 200 wounded.

Bab Tabbaneh is mostly Sunni, while Jabal Mohsen is home to most of Tripoli's Alawites, followers of an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

An 18-year-old with a patchy black beard and a Kalashnikov assault rifle had nothing good to say about Jabal Mohsen. "They don't fear God, they are bad people," he said of his neighbors.

The teen said he is one of 10 brothers who have taken up arms, including one who tried to join the Syrian rebels but was captured and killed by Assad's troops.

Lebanon, a fragile patchwork of more than a dozen religious and ethnic groups, has withstood many sectarian flare-ups since its 15-year civil war ended in 1990.

But there are signs the spillover from the Syria conflict is getting more serious. In addition to the Tripoli fighting, gunmen from rival religious sects are increasingly engaged on opposite sides in Syria.

Over the weekend, Lebanon's Shiite Muslim Hezbollah, which has been fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces, said it would do battle until victory over Syria's rebels, most of them Sunni Muslims. On Sunday, two rockets struck Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut, apparent retaliation for Hezbollah's support of Assad.

In Syria, Shiite-dominated Iran and Hezbollah have lined up behind Assad, an Alawite, while Sunni states like Saudi Arabia support the rebels.

In Bab Tabbaneh, many say they are caught in the same kind of proxy war between the region's Sunni and Shiite powers.

"Their problems are being played out here," Bab Tabbaneh resident Mohammed Bukhari, 53, said.

Bukhari's second-floor apartment faces Jabal Mohsen, just a few dozen meters (yards) away. On May 19, when fighting broke out again, Bukhari moved with his wife, five children and two grandchildren into an empty apartment facing away from Jabal Mohsen.

"My own apartment is very dangerous," he said, pointing to bullet holes in a wooden cabinet and an interior door.

Many leave for safer areas during the fighting.

Those who remain behind try to cope. They've strung large sheets of tarpaulin across streets that are otherwise exposed to snipers from Jabal Mohsen, blocking their aim.

One family, near the Bukharis, climbs out a second-floor back window and down a ladder to reach the street because the front entrance faces the front line.

Tempers flare quickly. On a recent morning, a young bread vendor who tried to set up his tray of goods near the local Harba mosque was quickly spotted as an outsider. A crowd of men, shouting and pushing him, accused him of being a Syrian spy and marched him to the mosque, where he was locked in a room.

Jabal Mohsen sits on a slope above Bab Tabbaneh. The Lebanese army has set up checkpoints around the Alawite neighborhood. Heading there is risky because of snipers.

Bab Tabbaneh is more safely accessible from the center of Tripoli. The Lebanese army moved two armored vehicles to the edge of Bab Tabbaneh over the weekend, but the deployment seemed largely symbolic.

During a visit Friday, local gunmen controlled the streets.

Some sat in groups on plastic chairs along the sidewalk of Syria Street, a main thoroughfare just a block from Jabal Mohsen. They were on a break, smoking and talking. Most of the fighting takes place after dark, when combatants fire machine guns, mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades at each other.

Their current battle coincides with an offensive by Syrian troops and Hezbollah on Qusair, a predominantly Sunni town in western Syria.

The fighters offered a range of reasons for shooting at their neighbors, from defending their district to taking revenge for previous bloodshed or letting off steam against Assad and Hezbollah. But beyond inflicting as much pain as possible on the other side, there seemed to be no clear objective to the fighting.

Khaled Shahsheer, a 42-year-old taxi driver wearing camouflage, said unemployment and poverty in Bab Tabbaneh are feeding sectarian tensions.

Two others, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said they are also settling old scores.

"We have a long blood account open with them," said a 28-year-old money changer with an M-16 sniper rifle. "It's not just about Qusair."

The neighborhood forces clashed repeatedly during Lebanon's civil war. They fought again in 2008, after Hezbollah overran several Sunni neighborhoods in Beirut for a week and Tripoli's Sunnis retaliated. Since the start of the Syria conflict, there have been more than a dozen rounds of fighting.

The money changer's sniper position — a sandbag-reinforced hole poked into the wall of the neighborhood's dilapidated "Andalus" cinema — goes back to the 2008 fighting. He said his grandfather was killed in clashes with Jabal Mohsen in 1979.

Tripoli's Alawites feel they face an existential threat. "The Alawites are being subjected to an organized campaign that aims to eliminate them on all levels," Ali Feddah, a community leader, said earlier this month.

Alawites make up just 2 percent of the population in Lebanon and are surrounded by a large Sunni majority in Tripoli, a city of half a million people about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Beirut.

In Bab Tabbaneh, some said they can empathize with those on the other side.

"They also have children," 45-year-old Bab Tabbaneh housewife Sahar Ashrafiyeh said of the Alawites. Bullets have hit her balcony and bedroom wall, and her exposed kitchen has made it hard for her to cook for her family of nine.

The Ashrafiyehs fled the neighborhood in 1985, after her husband Mahmoud was shot in the leg, she said. The family settled in Germany but returned in 1992, a decision her husband now bitterly regrets, she said.

Lebanese leaders have expressed concern about the risk of escalation. Referring to the clashes in Tripoli, President Michel Suleiman warned last week that "with our own hands we are turning Lebanon into an arena (of conflict)."

The Lebanese army has not been able to act decisively, in part because of Lebanon's complex political constellations and because it does not have a monopoly on power — Hezbollah's militia is a powerful rival.

In Tripoli, the government is particularly weak and the army, perceived here as Shiite-dominated, has to ensure local political support before moving in.

Some in Bab Tabbaneh take the fighting in stride. A Syrian refugee family living in two small rooms next to the Andalus cinema said Tripoli is still preferable to Homs, the battered Syrian city they fled 18 months ago.

In Homs, no one was safe from raids by pro-regime forces, said the father, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to endanger relatives back home.

"It's better here," he said. "They attack each other, but everyone stays in their place."