Sex Crimes

Woman testifies that she watched her ex-boyfriend strangle New Hampshire coed with a rope

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Seth Mazzaglia is led from Strafford County Superior Court in Dover, N.H., Monday, June 2, 2014, during lunch break in his trial. Mazzaglia is on trial for the murder of University of New Hampshire student Elizabeth "Lizzy" Marriott in his Dover N.H. apartment on Oct. 9, 2012. (AP Photo, Foster's Daily Democrat, John Huff, Pool) (The Associated Press)

Seth Mazzaglia is led from Strafford County Superior Court in Dover, N.H., Monday, June 2, 2014, during lunch break in his trial. Mazzaglia is on trial for the murder of University of New Hampshire student Elizabeth "Lizzy" Marriott in his Dover N.H. apartment on Oct. 9, 2012. (AP Photo, Foster's Daily Democrat, John Huff, Pool) (The Associated Press)

A woman says she watched her ex-boyfriend strangle University of New Hampshire coed in 2012.

Kathryn McDonough appeared on the witness stand in Strafford Superior Court on Tuesday morning.

The 20-year-old McDonough is the key witness against 31-year-old Seth Mazzaglia, who is charged with first-degree murder. Prosecutors say he raped and killed Elizabeth "Lizzi" Marriott of Westborough, Massachusetts, after she rebuffed his sexual advances.

McDonough was asked point-blank who killed Marriott. She answered: "Seth Mazzaglia." When asked how, she replied, "He strangled her with a rope," and said that she was there.

Mazzaglia's lawyer told jurors that McDonough killed Marriott during rough sex involving restraints. They say Mazzaglia helped dispose of her body and initially took blame out of his obsessive love for McDonough.