Inmate Accused In Bethesda Woman's Murder Hangs Himself In Jail

BETHESDA, MD — Prison officials in Maryland say an inmate hanged himself in his cell hours after he was publicly linked to a decades-old disappearance.

Montgomery County Police held a press conference April 13 to publicly announce that Fernando Asturizaga, a former Maryland teacher, is a person of interest in the high-profile murder case of Alison Thresher, who disappeared from Bethesda in May 2000. That night, police were notified that Asturizaga was located dead in his jail cell.

Police said Asturizaga hanged himself at Western Correctional Institution in Cumberland. A correctional officer located Asturizaga unresponsive in his jail cell at about 8:45 p.m.

Asturizaga was serving an over 100-year sentence for the sexual abuse of Thresher's daughter, who he babysit and taught Spanish to at the Friends Community School in College Park.

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Thresher went missing in May 2000, and in February 2001 police said the case was being investigated as a homicide. She was 45 at the time of her disappearance, and a divorced mother of two.

Police announced Asturizaga was a person of interest at a Thursday press conference, based on a recent forensic analysis of evidence that was gathered in Thresher's Sangamore Road apartment at the time she went missing.

In 2010, Hannah told the Montgomery County Police Department that Asturizaga had victimized her by becoming "involved in an inappropriate and illegal sexual relationship with her from approximately 1999 to 2001, when he was a teacher and she was a student at the school." police said.

Hannah was ten-years-old at the time of the abuse, while Asturizaga was 32.

Police charged Asturizaga with multiple counts of second-degree rape, second-degree sexual offense and child abuse. He was sentenced to well over 100 years for these crimes in 2012.

Detectives believe Thresher "had suspicions that her daughter was being victimized by Asturizaga and had notified the school, her ex-husband James Thresher, and Asturizaga of her concerns," police said.

"Soon after (Thresher) made her suspicions known, she disappeared," Hannah said at the press conference. "A few months later, when I expressed frustration at his lack of empathy towards my grief over the loss of my mother, FA said to me: 'I thought things would be easier for us now that she's gone.' At the time I didn't think anything of it. After nine or ten years of reflection I started to question if his words meant something more."

Detectives believe Thresher may have been murdered inside her apartment. They think her body was moved to an unknown location, as it has not been located. Detectives also think Thresher's car was moved from her apartment complex and abandoned by the suspect(s) on Broad Street in the Brookmont neighborhood, about a mile from her residence.

Photos via MCPD