NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 - # 3

I think that your posts are very interesting. To me, this story really is an unsolved mystery. I still think that someone may have been with her. I'm wondering if she told the bus driver that she had already called for help because the other person with her had already gone for help. The reported amounts and types of alchohol bother me. It makes me think she was buying for more than herself. Also, the fact that the car was not in good enough shape to drive long distances, makes me think that someone else could have been with her.


I also have a question about LE. I read that they told the family that they didn't know that a girl was associated with the car because it was registered to her father. But, if they talked to the bus driver that night, and they they went looking for her, how could they not know a young woman was involved. If anybody could shed some light on this I would greatly appreciate it.

I agree with most of what you say.

The new stress financially speaking was not the student loan, of course, but the two car accidents and the cost of repairs & claims etc.

Again we do not know how much money she had with her.

Everyone has assumed from the get-go that she got a quick ride except, it seems, her Dad initially and SearcherMe on the Maura site who spent endless hours investigating the roads for evidence of her travelling on foot.

and of course she was on foot if the contractor sighting story is true.

And it appears the temperature that evening was in fact in the 30's not ten or twelve as reported--so her going on foot would be more credible

There really is no evidence of her planning to leave UMA before that weekend after the first accident with her Dad's car.

She was mapquesting that night (Sunday, 2/8/04) right when she talked to her Dad at 11.26pm to ask about him getting home to Weymouth.

Please keep digging and posting! I only care about finding out the facts which will ultimately lead to finding her.

hydemi said:

The new stress financially speaking was not the student loan, of course, but the two car accidents and the cost of repairs & claims etc.

Everyone has assumed from the get-go that she got a quick ride except, it seems, her Dad initially and SearcherMe on the Maura site who spent endless hours investigating the roads for evidence of her travelling on foot.

and of course she was on foot if the contractor sighting story is true.

And it appears the temperature that evening was in fact in the 30's not ten or twelve as reported--so her going on foot would be more credible

There really is no evidence of her planning to leave UMA before that weekend after the first accident with her Dad's car.

She was mapquesting that night (Sunday, 2/8/04) right when she talked to her Dad at 11.26pm to ask about him getting home to Weymouth.

Please keep digging and posting! I only care about finding out the facts which will ultimately lead to finding her.

Click to expand...

As badly as I am sure Maura felt after those car accidents and that added expense, I can't see that being much of a significance in some emotional breakdown that would lead to disappearing on her own accord. I can see the first accident being a stressor for her crying at work, but not for disappearing. This girl is a very level headed girl, even in the midst of crisis I dont think she would make such a rash and thoughtless move as to leave her life and loved ones behind wondering endlessly.
The reason that people have assumed that she was picked up at the scene was because the dogs were unable to track her beyond the bus drivers driveway.
Whether she was picked up there or down the road, my scenerio still stands. And I think that the weather wasn't much of an issue either way because she was probably dressed somewhat warmly, she was an avid runner and ran for miles daily regardless of the temperature.
I agree with you about the planning of the trip completely.

Thanks for taking my thoughts into consideration!

Before I comment further let me say welcome to the recent posters. I am glad to read your thoughts. I may at times argue a different view but I respect you and your thoughts and thank you for posting them.

My main problem with the theory of a stranger abduction of Maura is that it requires that a murderous stranger happen along at just the narrow 10 minute (or less) slot of time from when she was sighted to when the cops got on the scene. He or they nab Maura and drive off quickly, thanking their lucky rabbits foot all the way for their good fortune.

The odds against that happening would seem to me to be higher than would be the odds that she already had someone following the same route with the idea of helping her leave and to be there following the same route in case the car should break down. Also the stranger abduction theory requires that we pretty much ignore the money she withdrew from her account and the other things she did that were indicative of her going away.

Side note: It is entirely because her death-in-the-family excuse is the "oldest trick in the book" that she knew it would not work but it might just mislead/lull investigators into thinking this was only a temporary outing and that she would soon return. They might not look so hard for her and she might have had time to complete her disappearance. Everything I have read about Maura indicates she was not the least bit stupid and certainly would have figured a better lie to tell about taking time off if she felt it was needed.
In this case the "stupid" lie suited her purpose.

However, I can't completely rule out a stranger abduction so I think it is good to look at all possible angles of the case.

Actually the "crying at work" occurred Thursday night after midnight, which would be around 1am on 2/6/04 at Maura's dorm security job. She was said to be so upset that she was escorted back to her dorm Kennedy Hall by a supervisor. At first police thought the cause of her being upset was a cellphone call Maura had with her sister Kathleen who described a big fight she had had with her boyfriend, and Maura urged Kathleen to stick it out & stay with him. This occurred around 10pm according to Maura's cellphone bill received for Feb 04 by Sharon Rausch whose son Bill shared a cell account with Maura.

So this account of her being upset is another mystery (some even think it was staged or faked).

Yes, she could have been picked up by a passerby including the construction worker or an accomplice as Doc supposes somewhere down the road from the accident scene in Woodsville.

Yes, she ran all the time in cold weather so temperatures in the 30's should not have bothered her. She left brand new gloves on the front seat of her car, evidently little worn, which were used for the scent dog on Wednesday possibly not doing the trick very well because she hadn't worn them much.

While I agree with Doc that the greater odds still favor the original police theory of her running away of her own accord--the main argument that she was harmed has been that everyone just knows she would never go away without contacting her family or Lt R or anyone else in her life for two years--
we still are just theorizing as to her plans for leaving UMA for good and where she might have gone and how she pulled off starting a new life.

Ok, I inadvertently gave you guys false information. I talked to my husband more in detail and it seems that we misunderstood eachother. Maura didn't owe West Point any money. The way it works is once you attend the first class of your Junior year you are committed. At that time if you opt out you owe 50,000 for every year attended. If you opt out before than you owe nothing. SO sorry about giving you guys false information, and I am so glad that I talked more to my husband tonight about it so I could set the record straight. Normally I don't go blabbing my mouth without first knowing for certain that the information I am putting out is accurate, but I definately set you all wrong this time! Again, sorry.

Dear AW,

at the very least it shows that Maura knew she had to leave WP when she did--she had completed three terms--otherwise she would be in the pickle of owing if she started a fifth term after summer 2002.

If you read Peabody's posts back in November on her leaving West Point, I would be interested in any comments or impressions you have.

The obvious thought is that if she left West Point because she did not want to do the five year required service after graduation...did she have similar second thoughts about whatever was ahead for her staying at UMA?

This is the post with the questions about WP that I found. Were there more?

First of all, I have verified that LT Rausch did graduate in 02.

WP isn't for everyone, and people do transfer out. Also, the commitment to the Army after graduation isn't for everyone. I don't think that it was a quick decision at all to leave. I think she had thought about it for awhile. It isn't something that you discuss with instructors because if you decide to stay in, you really don't want them thinking less of you or your desires to be an officer of the US Army. West Point takes those desires very seriously. They don't want half hearted officers graduating from there. The educate and train the best of the best. It is a school that goes far beyond the norm in every category, but especially when it comes to belief and integrity in what you are doing. Their honor code is probably the strictest thing protected there.
I think she thought about it a lot, and perhaps kept it totally to herself until she realized that her true desire was to leave.

were there more questions that I didnt get to?
I would have read more but my kids came home from school.

Dear AW,

thanks again.

just to be sure the specific post I am mentioning is quite long as a response to me, dated 11-28-05 on this site written at 12.59 am by Peabody who is a friend of the Murray family and a prolific poster & advocate for Maura.

It strikes me that if Maura thought so long and hard (keeping things to herself) about transferring from WP she probably did the same in considering her taking off from UMA even if it has seemed that she just suddenly left, somehow triggered by her weekend during which she wrecked Dad's car.

I doubt this--she seems such a careful deliberate person.

Anyway this is the post I meant--the most information I have seen to date about Maura's time at West Point including how she met Lt Rausch.

hydemi said:

Dear AW,

thanks again.

just to be sure the specific post I am mentioning is quite long as a response to me, dated 11-28-05 on this site written at 12.59 am by Peabody who is a friend of the Murray family and a prolific poster & advocate for Maura.

It strikes me that if Maura thought so long and hard (keeping things to herself) about transferring from WP she probably did the same in considering her taking off from UMA even if it has seemed that she just suddenly left, somehow triggered by her weekend during which she wrecked Dad's car.

I doubt this--she seems such a careful deliberate person.

Anyway this is the post I meant--the most information I have seen to date about Maura's time at West Point including how she met Lt Rausch.

Click to expand...

Peabody is completely right about the way WP works.
As far as her taking off from UMA, I don't believe she packed up anything that she wasn't taking. I don't believe she unpacked. She was a busy girl and hadn't been back long. Her weekends since she got back had been busy. If you don't have time to totally unpack, unless you can live in an incredibly unorganized room with comfort, you just opt NOT to unpack until you have time.
I am also in complete agreement about not staying in the same dorm room. Sometimes you move every semester, other times just every year. When the holdays come and school is out, the dorms close and everything has to leave because nobody will be there to make sure all is secure....a perfect time for someone to come and steal everything.
My opinion is that she didn't choose to leave UMA. She chose to take a week off. She went on an adventure to clear her mind. I don't even think that she had much soul searching to do because she was doing what she loved, she wasn't far from graduating, she loved her boyfriend, her parents weren't overbearing, etc. I think she just needed to blow some steam, she was running on overload. I don't believe it was some big secret that she was taking off. She was probably going to call her dad that night, as was planned. She was checking messages to see if her boyfriend called her back. When she stopped for the night I am positive that both of those calls would have been made. Something stopped that.
I wanted to say too that I am willing to bet that her boyfriend paid all of her plane tickets to come see him. I know my husband did, as a 2nd LT just out of WP. While the pay isn't that outstanding yet, he was single. In addition to his pay, he also receives his housing allowance (BAH basic housing allowance) which more than covered my husbands rent even when he was a 2nd LT. This was before we were married, he had a corvette at that time, that isn't cheap upkeep, he paid atleast 200 dollars in long distance phone bills monthly because we talked so much, he paid all of my expenses for coming down there, and he still was saving money from his paycheck. Also, when you become a junior at west point you get a substantial loan from USAA with very very low interest. The cadets don't pay on this until they graduate. Most cadets invest this right away and by the time they get out of WP they have substantially more money than their loan was that they can get to at any time. With all that my husband spent monthly, he still didn't have to touch that. Oh, and he wasn't just buying 1 plane ticket but also one for my 4 year old daughter...

Very helpful, thanks.

To summarize:

Maura had not unpacked yet, as she was too busy the last ten days

She took just what she needed (running clothes, stuff for 3-4 days) and the jewelry because she was concerned about room security?

She was only taking a break to blow off steam after the accident with Dad's car,
was not seriously upset about anything, pretty much ok & normal

She was planning to call Lt R and her Dad that night as promised, had both her cellphone chargers as needed (my addition from another Peabody post)

She would have returned and resumed at UMA after 3-4 days after her little adventure break in the White Mtns, no one the wiser and did not worry about the "death in the family" excuse causing any problems

Is this a fair summary?

I wonder:

Was she upset about something else on the Thursday night when she had to be escorted back to her dorm room from her security job?

Was there something else she was upset about which she did not tell Lt R during the 4.59am phone call to him on Sunday morning?

Was she concealing how upset she was from her Dad that weekend?

Why didn't she return Lt R's calls or answer his messages on Sunday and Monday till the early afternoon when she was leaving UMA--she did get her cellphone back at 8.30pm Sunday from Sara Alfieri's room, yet she says in her email to Lt R around 1pm Monday "I didn't feel much like talking to anyone."

She calls him after 2pm Monday as she is planning to leave, and doesn't mention her plans for departure--why not?

If she was the caller to Lt R's cellphone on Wed am as he believes, why didn't she leave any message or call back?

Obviously I believe there was more going on than her just taking a break for a few days, but I am asking these questions which I have puzzled over for many months as I think they hold the key to her disappearance--and the last one is really the most important as her being alive and calling Lt R on Wed am is the most baffling and crucial clue in figuring out what happened after she left the Woodsville NH accident scene.

See Sharon's notes on 2/11 in the Case Info section timeline dated 10/22 on the Maura site for the best account of the Wed am phone call and her disputing the statement by NH police that it came from the ARC, also her post just a few days ago on the Maura site clarifying that this phone call definitely did not come from the ARC office in Ohio as claimed by NH police.

I've been reading for hours, catching up on this case.

To me, the simplest explanation is she continued toward Woodstock on foot. She was headed east; her footprints led east; she knew the area to the east; and the police, who came from the west, didn't pass her.

Somewhere along the way, she either froze to death, or someone picked her up.

I mapped the accident site, plus the place she was supposedly seen an hour later. She should have reached the next town at midnight. The first things she would come to, according to Google Earth, would be the Carriage Motel and Truants' Taverne.

It would be good for someone to follow her footsteps on a similar night. Is it doable? At what point would you give up and start looking for a ride? An empty cabin? A shortcut through the woods?

One more clue would be how she dealt with her previous accident. Did she call AAA from the scene? Did she call police at the scene? Did she knock on someone's door nearby to use their phone? Accept a ride from a passing stranger? Or did she walk to a "safe" place, and only then, after calling her boyfriend, or someone she trusted, start dealing with the accident?

hydemi said:

Very helpful, thanks.

To summarize:

Maura had not unpacked yet, as she was too busy the last ten days

that would be my assumption.

She took just what she needed (running clothes, stuff for 3-4 days) and the jewelry because she was concerned about room security?

Yes, maybe she took her jewelry for security reasons, I would never leave anything of value in a dorm room. Maybe she took it because she always took her jewelry that her boyfriend gave her when she went away for any amount of time. It meant a lot to her. I do that very same thing when I go anywhere. My husband gave me a 7000 diamond tennis bracelet (I know how much only because we insured it) and I wear it every day, even when I wear jeans. ESPECIALLY when he is deployed or away.

She was only taking a break to blow off steam after the accident with Dad's car,
was not seriously upset about anything, pretty much ok & normal

She was upset about the accident, and she was stressed out from school and the busy holiday that had been far from relaxing. She needed time to herself. But that certainly didn't mean that she intended to permanently flee. She worked things out on her own, it was her nature. She was probably more stressed than she had ever been, again this isn't a reason to permanently flee but it is a good reason to just go away for a bit and be alone. She tried working her problems out in other ways... just doing things like drinking irresponsibly which led to driving... which only led to more stress. I am sure she tried to run it off quite a bit but it was just more than she was used to dealing with. Not to the point of fleeing. It takes a different kind of person to do that I think.


She was planning to call Lt R and her Dad that night as promised, had both her cellphone chargers as needed (my addition from another Peabody post)

Yep. But I think she wanted to hold off telling them where she was going UNTIL she got there so they wouldn't worry about her. She would have called them both that night.

She would have returned and resumed at UMA after 3-4 days after her little adventure break in the White Mtns, no one the wiser and did not worry about the "death in the family" excuse causing any problems

As far as her professors were concerned yes. I mean how would they find out there was no death in the family? I went to a major university and I didn't have to provide proof for any kind of excused absence as long as I informed them ahead of time. Especially when I excelled in my classes anyway. And how would her employers find out? I have never heard of an employer requesting proof of a death in the family. Her family and Billy would have known, she was going to talk to them later that evening.

Is this a fair summary?

I wonder:

Was she upset about something else on the Thursday night when she had to be escorted back to her dorm room from her security job?

Even the least emotional woman in the world has times when everything builds up. She was probably just thinking about all of the stressors in her life and just became emotional. If you were a very down to earth girl who didn't want people to think that you were an emotional time bomb, and you began to cry at work, then someone asked you what was wrong, would you tell them that you are an emotional basketcase at the moment?

Was there something else she was upset about which she did not tell Lt R during the 4.59am phone call to him on Sunday morning?

I don't believe so, just on emotional overload and she wasn't comfortable feeling as though she was feeling sorry for herself....which only makes this type of person feel more stressed.

Was she concealing how upset she was from her Dad that weekend?

While I don't think she was trying to CONCEAL anything, I also don't think she wanted him to worry about her.

Why didn't she return Lt R's calls or answer his messages on Sunday and Monday till the early afternoon when she was leaving UMA--she did get her cellphone back at 8.30pm Sunday from Sara Alfieri's room, yet she says in her email to Lt R around 1pm Monday "I didn't feel much like talking to anyone."

She was a private person as far as emotion and dealing with it on her own. She cared about people tremendously, especially Billy, and didn't want him to worry about how stressed she really was. I'm also leaning toward thinking that she didn't want to tell anyone she was leaving until that night when she got there... thus eleviation the worry factor.

She calls him after 2pm Monday as she is planning to leave, and doesn't mention her plans for departure--why not?

Same answer as above.

If she was the caller to Lt R's cellphone on Wed am as he believes, why didn't she leave any message or call back?

LT Rausch's mother stated that his cell wasn't working right. At times she would call him and it wouldn't even ring, but rather it would go through like she hadn't dialed correctly. I don't think she realized that it rang, or that his voicemail picked up. I believe that she was abducted by that time and her phone had been taken. However maybe in her pocket were her phone cards that she had gotten for Christmas. Perhaps when she left her room she had just shoved them in her pocket as a last minute thought. She could have had a very narrow window of oppertunity to use one and make that call... unfortunately Billy couldn't answer. I am sure that haunts him.

Obviously I believe there was more going on than her just taking a break for a few days, but I am asking these questions which I have puzzled over for many months as I think they hold the key to her disappearance--and the last one is really the most important as her being alive and calling Lt R on Wed am is the most baffling and crucial clue in figuring out what happened after she left the Woodsville NH accident scene.

See Sharon's notes on 2/11 in the Case Info section timeline dated 10/22 on the Maura site for the best account of the Wed am phone call and her disputing the statement by NH police that it came from the ARC, also her post just a few days ago on the Maura site clarifying that this phone call definitely did not come from the ARC office in Ohio as claimed by NH police.

Click to expand...

Honestly I see this as far more likely than any scenerio involving her willfully disappearing. The reasons just weren't there for her to flee. She had decided to devote her life to helping people. To do that she had to deeply care about people.
She loved her family and her boyfriend. She wanted nothing more than to spend her life with him.
I am positive that she was affected emotionally by the accident. She loved her dad, and she felt that she let him down, I am sure. She was so close to her dad, and no matter what a "daddys girl" does wrong she always knows her daddy is still loving her and would be lost without her. I speak from experience.

T-Rex said:

I've been reading for hours, catching up on this case.

To me, the simplest explanation is she continued toward Woodstock on foot. She was headed east; her footprints led east; she knew the area to the east; and the police, who came from the west, didn't pass her.

Somewhere along the way, she either froze to death, or someone picked her up.

I mapped the accident site, plus the place she was supposedly seen an hour later. She should have reached the next town at midnight. The first things she would come to, according to Google Earth, would be the Carriage Motel and Truants' Taverne.

It would be good for someone to follow her footsteps on a similar night. Is it doable? At what point would you give up and start looking for a ride? An empty cabin? A shortcut through the woods?

One more clue would be how she dealt with her previous accident. Did she call AAA from the scene? Did she call police at the scene? Did she knock on someone's door nearby to use their phone? Accept a ride from a passing stranger? Or did she walk to a "safe" place, and only then, after calling her boyfriend, or someone she trusted, start dealing with the accident?

Click to expand...

They found footprints? I thought they found nothing, not a trace, of what happened to her next except some scent dogs appeared to trace her a short distance to the next road.

If they found her footprints leading away from her accident, then surely the bus driver is "off the hook" - but so many have suspicions of him.

Yes, Sharon's notes in the Case Info timeline section on the Maura site for 2/11 quote officer Cecil Smith as saying that there was "one set of footprints" leading from her car up next to the snowbank.

Yes, AW has offered the same explanation the Rausches offer for the missed phone call--that she was being "held" and only had a limited opportunity to try to make a call. This is why Lt R describes the call as a "chilling voicemail" in his CNN interview with Soledad O'Brien on 2/17/04.

Sharon did say on the Maura site in reponse to me in the last few days that she believes one of the cards she gave Maura for prepaid calls back in November was an ATT card,and investigating the call done for the family did determine that the call was made using an ATT card--but no pin number or code to further identify & trace the call.

Yes busdriver Atwood and the construction worker have been touted as the likely suspects on the Maura site for months now--all I can say is that two years later no real evidence of abduction has been presented or found.

That doesn't mean there isn't any, which may be known to the "ongoing investigation" by NHSP but we simply don't know.

Thanks, Hydemi. I'm dense here - what's AW?

Why did Lt. Rausch erase the voice mail, do you know?

I also don't understand how there could be two different opinions as to where the phone call came from. It was Rausch's phone, surely he is entitled to the information on the whereabouts of the call placed to his phone. Why is there an argument over that, do you know? It seems quite black and white, it came from the Red Cross or it didn't, how hard can that be to nail down?

sorry, AW is ArmyWife who has been posting here.

The difficulty tracing the phone call as Sharon explains on the Maura site is that without the pin & card number these prepaid card calls cannot be traced.

I believe that Sharon has demonstrated that the call did not come from ARC in Ohio--she gave them info, not Lt R's cell number; he already had the leave, no further contact was needed; she called them back, they had no record on file of any other contact than 2/10; why would they use a prepaid card and why would ARC be sobbing-breathing-crying into the phone?

Why NHSP would make such an error? Why did they make all the other errors in this case?

As to the Rausches believing from the start that the call was from Maura, all one can say is they have never wavered.

Sharon had given prepaid cards to Maura a month or two earlier to help save on bills (remember Maura and Lt R shared a cellphone account together), and
the call was determined by private investigation to be from an ATT card. She says in a post this week that she thinks one of the cards given to Maura was an ATT card.

I believe he had deleted the message which had to be refreshed every two weeks on his phone sometime within the first two months or so, as he said according to Sharon that he could not stand listening to it and found it too upsetting and "chilling" (his word).

Thanks, Hydemi.

I read through some of that site case information this morning, and found it intruiging that with Rausch's phone, often you couldn't tell that the message recorder was on. So if she were trying to call him, and felt like the call didn't get through, she could be sitting there waiting for it to connect and sniffing and crying waiting to leave a message.

Which makes 1000 times more sense, to me, than thinking she intended to leave a crying message with no words. But to not know she's being taped and is just waiting to connect, I get that completely. It's a surprise to me, though, that Rausch didn't have the message professionally copied on to some other source, because that's all the evidence they had of what happened to her. That's it. To erase that message, when a grown man would know it could probably be enhanced to provide clues and compared to other recordings of her voice, and perhaps background sounds could be enhanced - frankly this is a stumper why he erased it.


EDITED TO ADD: I keep thinking about the tracing of this call to the red cross. That would have been a landline - a much easier call to confirm. Does LE have both the trace from Rausch's cell phone, and do they claim they have corresponding phone records from the Red Cross land line that confirm that a call was made at that minute to his cell phone? Does anyone know? This is bugging me because this one piece of information seems like it wouldn't be that hard to confirm for sure, yes or no, did it come from the Red Cross.

One interesting post from the MM web site:

"The elevation at the accident scene is 883 ft. above sea level. About 6 winding miles later at the intersection of Rte. 118 the elevation is 1141 ft. 4.5 miles beyond this intersection is the height of land beneath Mt. Moosilauke, with an elevation of 1,875 ft. The run from there to Woodstock brings you to an elevation of 732 ft."

Maura wouldn't have passed many roads after leaving the accident scene. By Rte. 118, she would have been going uphill for a little while, and would see that she was about to have to really go uphill. In my opinion, this is where she would start having second thoughts about walking. There are three roads she could have turned off on there, Kingman Ridge Dr., Russell Farm Rd., and Mountainside Rd. I think those would be really good places to look.

Here's a map that shows topography. (Ignore the red.)
The accident would have been on Route 112, a little after where it says "Swiftwater" on the map.
http://www.portlandvelo.com/Moosilauke_tour.jpg