He Killed Her, Now He Wants World to Know Her Sex Life

Rapist Seth Mazzaglia fights to make Lizzi Marriott's sexual history public
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 24, 2016 3:15 PM CDT
Woman's Killer Fights to Make Her Sexual History Public
Lizzi Marriott was murdered and raped in 2012. Now her killer is fighting to make her sexual history public.   (AP Photo/Courtesy Britney Atwood, File)

Parents whose 19-year-old daughter was strangled, raped, and thrown in a river in 2012 are having old wounds reopened as the man serving a life sentence for the crime fights to reveal their daughter's sexual history to the world, the Huffington Post reports. Seth Mazzaglia was convicted in 2014 of the rape and murder of Lizzi Marriott, whose body has not been found. He said the University of New Hampshire sophomore died accidentally during consensual sex. According to CBS News, Mazzaglia's girlfriend at the time said she brought Marriott to Mazzaglia as a "sexual offering" and he killed her when she wouldn't have sex with him. During the trial, Marriott's sexual history was deemed inadmissible due to New Hampshire's rape shield laws.

But the state Supreme Court in June ruled that those records be made public as part of Mazzaglia's appeal, the New Hampshire Union Leader reports. Both the state and Marriott's parents filed emergency motions and they're now going to court to try to keep any documents regarding Marriott's sexual past sealed. "This has completely traumatized her family, who ... was just starting to heal," their attorney, Rus Rilee, tells HuffPo. The family is joined by more than a dozen organizations, including the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence. They argue the state Supreme Court's ruling would destroy rape shield laws around the country, as victims of sexual assault would be less likely to report it if they knew their sexual histories would become public on appeal. A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 21. (More rape stories.)

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