A jailed pedophile has been named as a person of interest in the 2000 disappearance of one of his victim’s mother, a Washington Post copy editor who vanished after confronting him about his treatment of her daughter.
Alison Thresher, 45, disappeared in May 2000 after confronting Fernando Asturizaga over his treatment of her daughter Hannah in Maryland.
Asturizaga was a teacher at the school Hannah attended and had also been employed by her father to babysit occasionally. When Alison disappeared, police did not outrightly deem it suspicious, despite the fact she was excited about a new position at the newspaper.
In 2010, her daughter Hannah, now 31, came forward to tell police that years earlier, before her mother went missing, Asturizaga had raped her repeatedly.
She said the abuse began in 1999, when she was 12, and went on until after her mother vanished but that she did not connect the dots that he may have been involved in her disappearance until recently.
Asturizaga was jailed on child sex offences in 2012 but now faces a murder charge if police take their investigation into his role in Alison’s disappearance any further.
Now, authorities say Alison was murdered, even though they have not found her body.
Alison Thresher vanished from her Maryland home in 2000 aged 45. She was a copy editor for the Washington Post
On Thursday, police named Fernando Asturizaga, 51, who is in jail for raping Thresher’s teenage daughter between 1999 and 2001, as a person of interest in Alison’s disappearance. He will not say where she is or if he even knows
It is not clear if Montgomery County police, which investigated the woman’s disappearance in 2000, looked into Asturizaga at the time.
Not only had she confronted him about it, but she went to the school where he worked and described her concerns in journals.
It is not known if the school ever told police what Alison had warned them of.
Montgomery County Police were not available for comment on Thursday afternoon.
At a press conference on Thursday where Hannah Thresher spoke and where police named Asturizaga as a person of interest, they did not indicate if it had ever been explored.
Asturizaga is refusing to cooperate with their investigation and will not speak about Alison Thresher’s disappearance.
‘We’re hoping through this announcement that anyone with information about the case will come forward.
‘We’re seeking information about Asturizaga’s activities at the time of Alison’s murder, any additional instances of inappropriate behavior by Asturizaga, anyone who knew Asturizaga when he taught at the Friends School and any information about places that Asturizaga may have frequented and any information about the case in general,’ Montgomery County Police Chief Tom Manger said.
At a press conference on Thursday, Hannah Thresher (pictured left) spoke and police named Asturizaga as a person of interest
Thresher’s daughter Hannah (above together) reported the rapes to police in 2010 and says she now wants the full truth about her mother’s disappearance. Hannah spoke at a press conference on Thursday and
In a diary entry from March 18, 2000, two months before she vanished, Alison said she was worried about the babysitter being around her daughter
In a journal entry before she vanished, Alison expressed her worries about the man.
‘Mad about my thoughts re F. He is a teacher. Many people have concern about male babysitters. Sometimes teenage too stimulating for them,’ she wrote on March 18, 2000, almost two months to the day before she disappeared after dinner with her family in Georgetown.
Alison and her husband James were going through a divorce at the time of her disappearance.
On May 23, she returned to her home after having dinner with her family and wrote a final email at midnight. It is not clear if her children were there at the time or if they were with their father.
Alison is pictured with her son Sam and daughter Hannah. Both appeared at a press conference on Thursday demanding answers over her disappearance
A neighbor later reported that they heard screaming coming from her apartment between 4am and 5am that morning. Another call from someone else reported a suspicious man running through the area at around 6am.
Her Volvo was found later around a mile from the home but there was no sign of her.
For a year, police investigated without great urgency, saying there were no signs of foul play.
In 2001, they began treating it as a homicide but turfed up no leads.
The abuse was still going on of her daughter and Asturizaga relished the fact that Alison was no longer around to stop him, Hannah said.
‘Soon after she made her suspicions known, my mother disappeared.
‘A few months later, when I expressed frustration at his lack of empathy towards my grief over the loss of my mother, Mr. Asturizaga 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. But after nine or 10 years of reflection I started to question if his words meant something more,’ Hannah, said on Thursday.