NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 #15

[sony12]

I largely attribute her seemingly having drinking and driving issues to her being 21. Not necessarily because she was intentionally trying to harm herself.

I think the reason she left her car very well may have been because she didn't want to get caught while drunk. I think she was mainly just a college kid who lacked a lot of maturity. Not someone who was wanting to hurt herself.

 

[KindMind1ofA]

I largely attribute her seemingly having drinking and driving issues to her being 21. Not necessarily because she was intentionally trying to harm herself.

I think the reason she left her car very well may have been because she didn't want to get caught while drunk. I think she was mainly just a college kid who lacked a lot of maturity. Not someone who was wanting to hurt herself.

Agree.. my inclination is that she initially wanted to get away for a little while, not forever.. and when this crash occurred she didn't want police involved because she had been drinking. Beyond that, though, there are so many layers to this mystery that after dozens of hours now trying to catch up I don't feel qualified or compelled to even speculate..

The drama, conflict and accusations between personalities with differing opinions on what might have happened to Maura is shocking and sad. A lot of impressive research has been done even if it's not all comfortable to contemplate.

 

[sds71]

Concord, NH – Attorney General John M. Formella announces that today the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit is issuing an age progression photograph of Maura Murray in an effort to generate new leads and helpful tip information to aide in the ongoing investigation into the February 9, 2004, suspicious disappearance of Ms. Murray from Haverhill, New Hampshire.

“We are continuing to work with our local, state, and federal partners, including the FBI, to identify resources to try to advance this case,” said Attorney General Formella. “It is our hope that this twentieth anniversary of Ms. Murray’s disappearance will bring renewed attention to the case that might ultimately lead to justice and closure for the Murray family.”

The new age progression photograph, produced by our partners at the FBI, is being issued to reinforce ongoing investigative efforts in the disappearance of Maura Murray. Issuance of the photograph is consistent with missing person investigations and not based on a change in the investigative posture of this case or new information. The photograph represents an FBI analysis and projection of what Ms. Murray might look like in 2024.

Maura Murray (age 21 at the time of her disappearance) had been a nursing student at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and left the college on February 9, 2004. At approximately 7:30 p.m. that night, Ms. Murray's car, a black-colored Saturn 4-door sedan, was involved in what appeared to be a single-car accident on Route 112 (Route 112 is also known as Wild Ammonoosuc Road) in Haverhill, New Hampshire. Shortly after, a private citizen saw and spoke to a female, believed to be Ms. Murray, at the accident scene. However, when the police arrived, she was not there and has not been seen nor heard from since. Ms. Murray was last seen on surveillance footage earlier in the day at an ATM wearing a dark jacket and jeans. Ms. Murray did not share with others her pending trip to New Hampshire, which was about 2.5 hours away from UMASS-Amherst. Maura Murray received prior education at the United States Military Academy at West Point, was an avid runner, and enjoyed hiking in the White Mountains. In the years since Ms. Murray went missing, numerous searches of the area at and around the accident scene have been conducted by law enforcement authorities and private citizens, with no positive results.

Due to the ongoing investigation, no additional information will be released at this time. Anyone with information about Maura Murray is asked to call the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit at (603) 271-2663 or email them at ColdCaseUnit@dos.nh.gov.

20th Anniversary of Maura Murray’s Disappearance from Haverhill, NH | News Releases | NH Department of Justice

Attorney General John M. Formella announces that today the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit is issuing an age progression photograph of Maura Murray in an effort to generate new leads

www.doj.nh.gov

 

[maamager]

I really feel like 2024 will be Maura’s year! I follow her sister Julie on socials and it’s inspiring to see her advocate for Maura after all this time.

 

[nadia90]

At least they are still putting in effort!

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Police in New Hampshire took part in another search in the case in the summer of 2022.

Now, her sister Julie has started a podcast that debuted this week, called, "Media Pressure: The Untold Story of Maura Murray." In it, she takes control of the narrative, breaking down the details of the case from her unique perspective and sharing emotional and raw interviews with her family members.

"There were many times where I was interviewing my dad and my brothers and we were just breaking down in tears, and it was very emotional. But at the end of that, it was this collective sigh of relief, you know, thinking we finally did it. We gave Maura a voice in her own story," said Julie.

The family will be holding vigil from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. for Murray in New Hampshire near where she was last seen, with a candle lighting at 7:30 p.m.

20 years after disappearing, Maura Murray's family continues to push for answers

A woman from Hanson, Massachusetts, went missing 20 years ago and was never to be seen again. Maura Murray, 21, crashed her car in northern New Hampshire on Feb. 9, 2004, and hasn’t been seen since. Her sister, Julie, said her family continues to actively search for her — even 20 years later. “I...

www.necn.com

20 years after disappearing, Maura Murray's family continues to push for answers

A woman from Hanson, Massachusetts, went missing 20 years ago and was never to be seen again. Maura Murray, 21, crashed her car in northern New Hampshire on Feb. 9, 2004, and hasn’t been seen since. Her sister, Julie, said her family continues to actively search for her — even 20 years later...

www.nbcboston.com

 

[tarabull]

New age progression photo of Maura Murray released on 20th anniversary of mysterious disappearance

A new age progression photo has been released of Massachusetts college student Maura Murray to try to prompt new leads on the 20th anniversary of her disappearance.

abcnews.go.com

 

[sony12]

Age progression photos are pretty limited in terms of how they can depict how someone might look. That photo might look like Maura if she continued to have the same type of metabolism that she had when she was 21 and continued to have the same type of hairstyle that she had when she was 21.

I'm around the same age as Maura and when I see recent photos of people that I haven't seen since late teens/early twenties a lot of times I probably wouldn't recognize them without their name attached to the photo.

Sometimes the difference can be even more significant with people who regularly work out when they were younger. Because if people ever stop working out their natural look starts taking over.

Not to mention if she did still happen to be alive somewhere she'd likely be trying to hide her identity.

 

[dotr]

Feb 9, 2024
Her suspicious disappearance is one of the most talked about cold cases in New Hampshire.

 

[KayyySmalls23]

There are a lot of mysteries about Maura's life. We really don't even know who many of her friends at the college were. And I believe the few people that we do know about have never been very active in this case. We basically know the name of her pretty shady boyfriend and the names of a couple gals that she supposedly went to a party with one night. And that's it.

It really doesn't seem like her family even knew that much about her personal life and that is one of the problems surrounding this case is that not only are there a lot of unknowns about her disappearance but also her life in general.

I agree! It's almost as if her entire life once going away for college became a mystery. It's as if she was living two different lives, the one she told her family she was living and the one she actually lived. I've always had suspicions about the BF and have bounced back and forth with what his involvement could have been or what motive(s) he would have had. Besides the party she "allegedly" attended with the few girls, do we know if they had ever gone anywhere else together? Did they study together, have class together, get coffee, or even attend any other parties?

No, we don't know. Like you say, both her disappearance and her life have so many unknown variables that it seems almost impossible to put together the pieces of this puzzle.

As I said on another thread about a cold case from 33 years ago, the answers we all seek lie within those that I believe have yet to come forward or those that no longer have a voice because they took what they knew to the grave.

 

[minazoe]

I think you have to rule out her being lured there...because she had an accident and disappeared...so unless the person was following her in a car this was not luring..it was random..also I wonder if she went in a different direction when she
left the car...if she really left the car, a different direction than they think..I'm thinking what people do..like would she go sit out behind a house to hide and fell asleep and died... If she wasn't murdered then I think she is somewhere near by , she's just hidden or in a place that no one has looked, a barn, a shed...something long ignored... where you could go and sit until the cops take off..she might have been afraid of the people watching out for any sight of her coming back to that car.
I mean here's a missing girl out in the cold..they should have been tearing around the area searching for her because of the danger to a young woman out there at night, possibly with a head injury or other injury from the accident.

mOO

 

[KayyySmalls23]

I think you have to rule out her being lured there...because she had an accident and disappeared...so unless the person was following her in a car this was not luring..it was random..also I wonder if she went in a different direction when she
left the car...if she really left the car, a different direction than they think..I'm thinking what people do..like would she go sit out behind a house to hide and fell asleep and died... If she wasn't murdered then I think she is somewhere near by , she's just hidden or in a place that no one has looked, a barn, a shed...something long ignored... where you could go and sit until the cops take off..she might have been afraid of the people watching out for any sight of her coming back to that car.
I mean here's a missing girl out in the cold..they should have been tearing around the area searching for her because of the danger to a young woman out there at night, possibly with a head injury or other injury from the accident.

mOO

I agree, I think the idea of her being lured or followed out to that area is out of the question. It has been said by residents that lived along the road she crashed on that it was not a highly travelled road. With it being dark already, I'm sure another pair of headlights would have been seen by residents in the area that were looking out there windows. If I am not mistaken (forgive me if I am; my mind is jumbled with different crime facts); one resident, a woman, said she heard the accident and looked out the kitchen window. I would like to believe if she had seen another set of headlights, she would not only remember but would have told investigators. I also think if someone was following her with ill intentions, they would have immediately stopped and snatched her after the accident; which we know didn't happen as there are multiple reports of people seeing her for some amount of time after the accident.

The barn or shed idea you have isn't a bad one but I think the probability of that happening is very low. For one, there would have been footprints or shoeprints in the snow showing which direction she walked. Also, if she had slipped into a barn or shed, no matter how old or run down it may have seemed, would still have been on someone's property. The chances of not finding a body or even skeletal remains at some point within the last 20 years by the property owners seems very slim to me. If she had indeed gone inside something like that to seek shelter until the police left the scene of the accident and wound up falling asleep and freezing, I'm sure she would have been discovered at some point over the years. Either during a sale of the property or even during a tear-down of an old, un-used building by the owner.

I do think that finding a place to shelter would have kept her out of the elements and would have at least kept her dry and somewhat warm if she had enough clothing on. Even if she had fell asleep for awhile, I would like to think she would have woken up and gone back to her car or at least asked one of the nearby homeowners to use their landline phone, as she could not get cell service in that area.

Once again, the mystery that is the disappearance of Maura Murray is still that...a mystery.

 

[Lacy Cagney]

I listened to a different (crime Junkies) podcast recently that talked about the new podcast with Maura’s sister Julie. It was my understanding that one of the police officers, I’m thinking it was the chief of police but I could be wrong, was seen in a PD SUV with the number 001 several times (4 times) in the area her car was found. But when they tried to confirm it another officer said he was in that particular vehicle. It was later discovered that this particular officer had given a ticket to a driver and was listed as being in a completely different vehicle. It sounds like the police completely dropped the ball on this investigation from everything I have heard so far. My heart goes out to her family.

 

[MysteryMaven]

I have been listening to Julie’s podcast, so far I have found it interesting. Although I think she walked down the road a bit, saw police lights in the distance and veered off into the woods to wait them out. It’s easy to see how she could have been disoriented and lost her way, and that is where she has been this entire time. I will be interested to see if the rest of the episodes change my opinion.

 

[Hestia's Fire]

I have been listening to Julie’s podcast, so far I have found it interesting. Although I think she walked down the road a bit, saw police lights in the distance and veered off into the woods to wait them out. It’s easy to see how she could have been disoriented and lost her way, and that is where she has been this entire time. I will be interested to see if the rest of the episodes change my opinion.

This is pretty much my theory as well. We've seen it time and time again. An area of the woods is searched over and over again with people and dogs and nothing is found, then years later a hunter stumbles over the body. It's maddening, but it's not uncommon. I believe one day she'll be found right there in those woods and everyone will be dumbfounded because they'll swear they searched *right there* and she wasn't there.

 

[minazoe]

I just think up there if her body was there especially in a thaw there would be birds circling...and people would be watching for something like that because everyone was always looking for any sign of her, so I even doubt my own theories based on this..but I'm not an expert. More Dogs would be useful. mOO

 

[MysteryMaven]

This is pretty much my theory as well. We've seen it time and time again. An area of the woods is searched over and over again with people and dogs and nothing is found, then years later a hunter stumbles over the body. It's maddening, but it's not uncommon. I believe one day she'll be found right there in those woods and everyone will be dumbfounded because they'll swear they searched *right there* and she wasn't there.

I agree with you.

 

[JerseyWasHome2]

This is pretty much my theory as well. We've seen it time and time again. An area of the woods is searched over and over again with people and dogs and nothing is found, then years later a hunter stumbles over the body. It's maddening, but it's not uncommon. I believe one day she'll be found right there in those woods and everyone will be dumbfounded because they'll swear they searched *right there* and she wasn't there.

That's for sure!

It would be great to have a map showing where searches took place in the past 20 years, that would highlight where duplicate or triplicate searches occurred as well. And now, given the 2 decades that have passed, with trees/shrubs/etc. growing, losing their leaves and branches, and/or falling, there could be a decent amount of mulch on top of anything that may have been visible 20 years ago...

 

[KindMind1ofA]

One thing that I don't think is given enough consideration is that Maura was a legit runner. I have no problem imagining her jogging several miles to get away from the scene of the accident before looking for shelter.

 

[BuySellTrade]

I think you have to rule out her being lured there...because she had an accident and disappeared...so unless the person was following her in a car this was not luring..it was random..also I wonder if she went in a different direction when she
left the car...if she really left the car, a different direction than they think..I'm thinking what people do..like would she go sit out behind a house to hide and fell asleep and died... If she wasn't murdered then I think she is somewhere near by , she's just hidden or in a place that no one has looked, a barn, a shed...something long ignored... where you could go and sit until the cops take off..she might have been afraid of the people watching out for any sight of her coming back to that car.
I mean here's a missing girl out in the cold..they should have been tearing around the area searching for her because of the danger to a young woman out there at night, possibly with a head injury or other injury from the accident.

mOO

Have attention to Maura gone missing since before a WS member and look in every several years (like now).

My theory is simple.

Maura had issues like the car accident, problem drinking, boyfriend, etc. Bugged out to somewhere familiar from past to catch her breath. Maura slid off the road because of road conditions and intoxication. Left the vehicle in a hurry and out of sight because she did not want a DUI. Took along booze in her depression and desperation. Food a place to hole up with some shelter, maybe a shed or under a rock overhang or whatever; depressed but thinking she would be sober when woke. Given her physical condition, Maura could be miles from the vehicle. Maura drank to oblivion and froze and has never been found.