Top inset: Michael Maisner. Bottom Inset: Marisa Rodriguez. Background: The location where Maisner’s remains were found (WJET/WFXP).
A 37-year-old woman from Pennsylvania is potentially facing a life sentence after confessing to shooting and killing a 66-year-old man, subsequently using a chainsaw purchased with his money to “cut him up” and incinerate his remains in his backyard fire pit. Marisa Jean Rodriguez recently pleaded “guilty — mentally ill” to numerous felonies, including third-degree murder and corpse abuse in the 2023 killing of Michael Maisner.
Initially, Rodriguez faced a first-degree murder charge, but it was reduced following a plea deal with prosecutors from the Erie County District Attorney’s Office, as shown in court records reviewed by Law&Crime. She also pleaded guilty to charges of criminal mischief, possession of an instrument of a crime, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, theft, tampering with evidence, and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
In January 2024, a judge determined that Rodriguez was mentally incompetent to stand trial. However, in September 2024, the judge reversed that decision, declaring Rodriguez capable of contributing to her defense.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, the incident was uncovered on April 12, 2023, after Maisner’s family, worried about not hearing from him for approximately two weeks, visited his residence on the 7000 block of Crestview Drive in Summit Township. Although Maisner was missing, the family discovered Rodriguez in the attic, where she reportedly had been living for several months before the homicide.
The next day, authorities went to Maisner’s home for a welfare check.
Inside Maisner’s home, investigators uncovered missing sections of carpet and padding, potential human tissue, blood splatter, cleaning supplies, and bleach-stained clothes, according to Erie-based ABC/Fox affiliate WJET/WFXP reports citing the criminal complaint. Police also reportedly found peculiar writings on the home’s walls.
In the fire pit, investigators discovered an eyeglass frame piece, a picture frame, carpet foam, carpet, charred human remains, and burned bone fragments. These remains were later confirmed through DNA testing to belong to Maisner, as reported by Erie News Now reported.
After Rodriguez killed Maisner, she drove the victim’s Cadillac STX about 40 miles to his house in New York, where police arrested Rodriguez the next day on car theft charges. She was extradited to Pennsylvania to face murder charges. During questioning, she reportedly admitted living in Maisner’s attic for up to three months and made comments about him being dead, though she claimed not to know how he died.
The victim’s nephew, Adam Maisner, told Erie News Now that Maisner allowed Rodriguez to stay with him to help around the house.
“He was just a laid-back guy,” Adam Maisner said. “He was waiting to get his hips replaced, and all he was thinking about was golfing and riding his motorcycle after that. That’s all he wanted to do.”
Authorities said they linked the suspect to the killing through her online searches that included the phrases “Mike Maisner,” “how to shoot someone,” “how long does it take to burn a dead body,” “burn a body,” “if you shoot someone in the head they die instantly,” and “cutting a dead body with a chain saw,” WJET/WFXP reported.
In her online account, authorities allegedly found video of the suspect getting the PIN for Maisner’s debit card, a photo of a .357 revolver, and photos and videos of a dead Maisner in a pool of blood with a gunshot wound to the back of the head and torso, the station reported.
Authorities said that the videos show the suspect wearing the black and brown shoes found in Maisner’s car in New York, according to the complaint. She allegedly spent nearly $600 of his money at a Walmart on April 3, 2023, Erie News Now reported — including the purchase of a chainsaw.
During a preliminary hearing in August 2023, she reportedly interrupted testimony, saying, “Well, I’m guilty” and later saying, “Then I cut him up,” the Erie Times-News reported.
Rodriguez was initially found incompetent to stand trial in January. Citing court documents, a psychiatrist who diagnosed Rodriguez with schizophrenia during an exam in lockup reportedly said that Rodriguez had made comments about the Bible and “how cats were her best friends.”
The newspaper also reported that she wrote rambling handwritten letters to her lawyer in pencil while in custody at the Erie County Prison.
“I don’t know why I acted the way I did with the body,” she says in one letter. “TRAMITIZED. Still am.”
Rodriguez is currently scheduled to appear for her sentencing hearing on Oct. 13.
