The FR is seeking information about Mary Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Bazzani. She died on or about January 19, 2017. She was 62.
Her death by drowning, ruled a suicide, is suspicious, knowing what we know about her guru.
The Swami Chetanananda
Liz was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1954. She was 5 feet 4 inches tall, 110 pounds. She had green eyes and met Michael Shoemaker when she was around 17. She became his student and followed him for 45 years – until her death.
In 1978, Shoemaker changed his professional name to Swami Chetanananda. He adopted the costume of a Hindu monk and pretended to be one.
Liz was a long-time resident of his ashram. She married Michael Bazzani and had two children and a grandchild. Michael also followed the Swami. They divorced, but remained friends. Michael was the ashram chef but decided to leave the Swami.
Liz Bassani with daughters Pia and Vanessa.
The crew with Michael Bazzani on his last day in the kitchen.
He left around the time Kristin left. Kristin went because, allegedly, she said Swami was trying to have sex with her 13-year-old daughter. Many people have left the Swami over the 50 years he has been a guru.
Liz was very fond and protective of Kristin’s daughter.
If the grave were to open or runaway voices unmuted, the cries of girls lured to his dark world we could hear. Of lives lost to drugs, debauchery, and chicanery – in the name of the great tantric guru.
Salman, Theresa and Swami
Liz’s sister, Theresa also follows the Swami. Teresa’s husband, Salman Khan follows the Swami.
Liz was not rich. She was a jewelry maker. She understood gems and their properties. She was marketing and sales manager of Lapchi, her sister’s rug business.
Liz also worked in the ashram kitchen and made meals for the Swami. She carried heavy pots up to his room not long before she died.
Liz Bazzani, daughter Vanessa, and granddaughter Vivi.
She was an excellent baker. She would bake dozens of pies for ashram events.
She often took care of her granddaughter at the ashram. Her granddaughter had her own bed in Liz’s apartment. Sometimes she was the only child in the ashram. She would make funny drawings and put them in people’s mailboxes.
In January 2017, Liz was 62. Her whole adult life was one of service to the Swami.
Before she died, the Swami complained about Liz. One of the Swami’s lovers spoke about this. He often commanded this lover to give blow jobs to strangers as he watched. She later attempted suicide.
This former lover said she never heard the Swami talk “crap” about Liz before. As all who know the Swami know, he talks ill of everyone. But she never heard him talk ill about Liz.
He was angry because Liz stayed close to someone who fell out with him and left the community. He expected 100% loyalty. She was in contact with someone who left the ashram. Someone she was not supposed to contact, which was anyone not loyal to the Swami.
It is unknown if she knew about the Swami’s alleged attempt to rape Kristin’s daughter.
No Farewell
The last time we knew of anyone seeing Liz was on January 18, 2017.
Heather George saw her. Heather was leaving the ashram and moving out. She was close to Liz.
She wrote, “We were talking about how much we were going to miss each other, but acknowledged that distance was not going to weaken our connection. [Liz] wished me well on my next adventure. And I wished for [Liz] to get the rest [she] needed. We hugged and said goodnight and how much we loved each other.”
Liz was tired? She was to work the next day. She disappeared that night. She left without proper clothing and identification. It was cold, and there was sleet. It was cold when she went out that night. She left by foot, they say.
The people in the ashram – her so-called ashram family – said Liz had been acting confused and disoriented. They said she experienced medical issues. Some alleged she had dementia. Others said she had depression and was suicidal.
We do not know what time she left the ashram. She left without anyone seeing her. She wore green Ugg boots, a blue sweater, and Indian cotton bell-bottom pants – or pajamas. She left behind all her belongings and identification. She didn’t leave a note.
She may have taken her cell phone. She texted no one.
Someone spotted her at 8 pm at the corner of NE 31st Ave and NE Hassalo Street in Portland, Oregon. Someone reported her missing on January 19, 2017, after she did not show up at work.
Her ashram “family” said she had a medical emergency. She was likely confused and disoriented.
The police missing person number was 17-18178.
One report::
“Liz Bazzani, 62, was reported missing after she didn’t show up for work in the Pearl District on January 19,” Portland police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said. “She left all her belongings at her Northeast Portland home,” Simpson said.
Her phone was reportedly pinged the following day. Her phone pinged to SW Taylor, and 2nd Ave in Portland, at 7:30 am on January 19.
This was reportedly near or at her sister’s business, Lapchi Rugs, one mile from the ashram.
A report:
“Liz Bazzani was reported missing after she didn’t show up for work in the Pearl District Thursday morning. Bazzani usually is in regular contact with her family, but she hasn’t been heard from in days.”
Days passed, and no one heard from Liz. She was feared dead.
Report:
“Police continue to search for a Portland woman who’s been missing since January 19. Family members tell KATU-TV 62-year-old Liz Bazzani left home without proper clothing, with no identification or money, and had been suffering some medical issues lately.”
Sharon Ward
Sharon Ward took her “cadaver dog” to find Liz. She said they stopped at the banks of the river.
On Saturday, January 28, Ward announced at meditation that she was confident Liz was in the river.
On January 30, a boater noticed a body in the water and called the police. Multnomah County’s river patrol pulled the body from the water at about 12:45 pm. January 30. The county medical examiner’s office took the body.
She drowned, according to the Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s Office. They determined Liz passed away on January 19, 2017, and ruled her death a suicide.
Did Liz walk into a river and drown?
The ashram family agreed Liz was suicidal. Did she also suffer from dementia? Was she depressed? Did she have cancer?
Was there an autopsy?
If Liz was sick, she could still care for her grandchild. If demented, she was still working.
They said she made “an irrational decision.”
So many stories.
They said her cancer returned. She knew she was going to die.
Some say people who take their lives because they aren’t well are methodical. They put everything together for those they leave behind. They think about who will find them. If someone finds them, they think about in what condition they will be found. When you have kids, you think about that.
They said, “she thought her cancer was back and didn’t want to go through the pain again”.
Did she not believe her Swami was a miraculous and gifted healer? Did she not seek his magical psychic powers?
Did his powers not alert him to Liz being in trouble?
The official story is suspect
The ashram people told outsiders she had dementia.
But her daughter left her child in the care of Liz at the ashram. But Liz was suffering from dementia? Someone with dementia wouldn’t show up for work in the morning.
This is the problem with this ashram. No one questions things that make no sense.
They said she did an “irrational act.” An irrational act is hanging yourself. Shooting yourself or immediately walking to the river and jumping in. Her phone pinged at 7:30 am. It suggests she wandered around in a “medium sweater” and pajamas in the cold for 12 hours.
Jess and Dan said they left around New Year’s. They lived with her until a few weeks before she died. They said they saw her carrying heavy pans up to the Swami’s room. How sick could she have been?
One woman told me,
When Liz Bazanni disappeared, I heard about it from my friend – a follower of the Swami. She told me all the going inside the gossip of the ashram for years. I was led to believe Liz was old, had dementia, and wandered off one day. That’s not the case obviously.
Another woman said, “Liz loved her granddaughter. To her, she was her life.”
Yet one day Liz left without notice. Left with nothing, no farewell message to anyone not even her beloved Swami.
She made the “irrational decision” to jump in the river?
One woman told me that she herself told the Swami she was contemplating suicide. The Swami seemed pleased. He told her – “go to it, and I will guide you to the other side.”
The woman did not commit suicide. She got advice from his disciples. They shook their heads and admitted its solemnity. It meant the Swami had no more need for you in this life. Your service to the guru has ended. What meaning can remain in life for anyone not needed by the Swami?
The faker in the orange clown outfit, this mocker of the ancient order of monks, plays with life and death. He plays with people’s well-being.
He cannot control his own drug, sex, and sadism addictions. How could he help anyone?
What happened to Liz Bazzani?
All with information may contact me. 305-783-7083 or frankparlato@gmail.com.
