NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 - # 7

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There are two things that bother me. Well, there are quite a few, but two that I still haven't figured out.

The voicemail left for the boyfriend really bothers me. What does it mean that it was traced to a card issued to the American Red Cross? I can't figure that out. Depending on what this means (hopefully somebody can explain it to me), it's possible that it could have come from a friend who was calling regarding Maura's disappearance and was upset and crying rather than from Maura herself.

The other thing that troubles me is the sighting in the grocery store, where a girl who resembled Maura mouthed "help me" to another customer. Of course, these types of tips are very difficult to verify, and I don't mean actually verify as in the fact that it was Maura, but verify that this incident even happened at all, but I'm inclined to believe that it did. The customer said she (I believe it was a woman) didn't know about Maura's disappearance at the time, so she didn't think anything of it until she saw a picture of her later. That's really unfortunate, because I think this tip is very significant and could have been the key to solving the case if only the witness had known of Maura beforehand. By the time the tip came in, there was basically nothing whatsoever that could be done to investigate it.

I haven't read every single post in this thread, so perhaps this tip has been discussed in more depth already. It just bothers me because we will never know, and something tells me that was Maura. I feel like if she were dead anywhere in the area her body would have been found by now.
 
Maybe she was failing school thats why she gave professors the lie about a death. and i have never once heard about any closet ..and u did awnser one of my questions about the phone call i wanted to know why they couldnt say yes it was her because of her cell records but she used a card which the familly said she did all the time. but to use that wouldnt u need to use it at a phonebooth maybe not..I still think she told the bus driver to go because he was to much of an authority figure and she waved one of the next cars down .or they accidently clipped her maybe a couple of twenty something guys in a car they grabbed her and took her to wherever they took her bound her gaged her and the next day somehoe he got to a phone and all u do to use a phone card is punch in the code u dont talk to a operator . u put in the code it starts ringing and she gets her bf.s machine she is bound and gaged which is why she is whimpering in the phone or she hears them coming back...
 
I found this on Wikipedia, so I know it's true

In October 2006, volunteers led a two-day search within a few miles of where Maura's vehicle was found. In the closet of an A-Frame house, cadaver dogs allegedly went "bonkers," identifying the possible presence of human remains. A sample of the carpet was sent to the New Hampshire State Police.

The Menstral Blood doesnt make sense to me at all. The dogs wouldnt go crazy over someone elses scent. They said the house was abandoned, so why would there be a hamper with clothing. The dogs went crazy over her scent.
 
This was also on wikipedia....

*Maura packed all her belongings into boxes and removed the art from her room walls*.

she did in fact pack up her belongings, and you usually dont take things off the walls unless your moving out.
 
This was also on wikipedia....

*Maura packed all her belongings into boxes and removed the art from her room walls*.

she did in fact pack up her belongings, and you usually dont take things off the walls unless your moving out.

MOO that she never finished unpacking all her things in her doom room - so while it appeard she packed things up, she really hadn't....

MOO she feel her belonging were not safe in her doom room while she was away... so she took those things she wanted to protect.
 
I think she was very upset she wrecked her father's brand new car the night before. I'm sure he was upset and she was upset with herself as well. I don't think she got much sleep that night too. I believe her trip north was for a few days or a week at the most. I think she was impulsive and emotional and wanted to spend a few days by herself.

She didn't pack her dorm room. She just got back from winter break and didn't unpack from her visit at home. I think she told her professors that someone died in her family as an excuse to be absent from classes for a week. She couldn't think of a better excuse, so she used that one.

Just my opinion.

Good summary! I liked what Fred Murray had once said about all the speculation leading up to Maura's crash - the jist of it was that nothing really mattered, what really matters is what happened in those minutes after her crash.
 
I'm not too concerned about what Maura's plans were before the crash, either. It's all very odd, and who knows what she had been planning, but one thing we know is that she didn't plan the wreck. Regardless of what strange things were going on in her life and where she might have been headed, things changed once the wreck happened. I don't believe that whatever happened to her after the wreck had anything to do with her plans.

ETA: I should add that the only possible connection I could see would be if she were planning to run away forever and start a new life or something, in which case she still may have done that after the wreck. Otherwise, I don't think that where she was going or what was going on in her life had anything to do with what happened to her beyond her not wanting the police involved because she had been drinking.
 
I have been following this case since I first heard news of it. I grew up on the south shore of Boston, not far from Hanson, and Maura and I were the same age when she disappeared. I also know many people I went to high school with who were at UMASS-Amherst at this time.

I have read countless details on so many sites about what happened with this case. I feel almost certain at this point that Maura probably did not wander off into the woods of her own accord and get lost. The reason I feel this way is because of the message left on Billy's voicemail a couple days after her disappearance. Others have said this, but it would be too coincidental for the voicemail to be from anyone else, especially given the fact that we know Maura frequently used calling cards. The really telling piece, to me, though, is that she must have made that call from a land line, given the fact that 1) there was no cell phone service in the immediate area, 2) LE wasn't able to trace the call back to her cell phone, and 3) why would one use a calling card on a cell phone anyway? This leads me to believe that either 1) she made it to a location that had a pay phone/land line somehow and was calling because she felt sad about taking off and maybe wanted to hear his voice one last time, or 2) she was in fact taken by someone who meant to do her harm, and this person maybe allowed her one last phone call to someone she loved before killing her.

Going back to the days leading up to her disappearance though, I have always wondered how far back LE went in her computer records? To me, if someone is planning a getaway or an intentional disappearance, he/she would conduct months of research on the internet and there could be very telling search history and evidence on the computer dating back quite a ways. I would be curious to know how far back they went.

One more thing. It has always struck me as so strange that she would be in two almost identical car wrecks within such a short period of time. If she did plan this as an intentional disappearance, and the car wreck was part of the plan, would it not make sense that she might go through a "test run" to gauge the amount of damage both she and the car might sustain by running it off the road that way? Could the wreck she was in in her father's car have been premeditated in order to test out the same type of accident she was intending on having as part of her disappearance plan? Could she have concocted this part of the plan to throw those she didn't want to find her off the scent of what she was really running off to do?

If she did plan a disappearance though, it does seem hard to believe that she would allow her family to suffer all this time without contacting them in some way to let them know she was alive and well.
 
This was also on wikipedia....

*Maura packed all her belongings into boxes and removed the art from her room walls*.

she did in fact pack up her belongings, and you usually dont take things off the walls unless your moving out.

There is some speculation that she never unpacked her boxes from winter break. At that time winter break at UMass extended into the last week of January/early February.

Then again, maybe she was preparing to leave, but if she was planning to leave on the 9th why didn't she take her boxes that day? She instead took her books, which to me shows she had some intent to come back, even if she was "running away from college" for the week or a few days.
 
Her father states that her using a calling card was completly normal she did so all the time . her friends and her father and mother say that even though the things she did prior to leaving were maybe out of character but they werent anything that made anyone of her closest friends and familly and fiance think she was acting in a suspiscious way to run away and once again she did try to make plans she did try to rent the condo her and her dad stay in when they go to get away and do some hiking so she didnt just drive off she had called and talked to the lady to get that room but it was booked ,,so she has plans as someone said earlier the only thing that cant be figured out is what happened after that crash.
 
Wikipedia is not always reliable info. Info can be put in Wikipedia articles by anyone - the general public.
 
I found this on Wikipedia, so I know it's true

In October 2006, volunteers led a two-day search within a few miles of where Maura's vehicle was found. In the closet of an A-Frame house, cadaver dogs allegedly went "bonkers," identifying the possible presence of human remains. A sample of the carpet was sent to the New Hampshire State Police.

The Menstral Blood doesnt make sense to me at all. The dogs wouldnt go crazy over someone elses scent. They said the house was abandoned, so why would there be a hamper with clothing. The dogs went crazy over her scent.

The house was once lived in, but not at that time. Someone could have used that closet as a hamper for years, so the scent was embedded in the carpet. I'm not sure how it works, but the dogs were probably responding to blood--not Maura's scent. JMO
 
There are two things that bother me. Well, there are quite a few, but two that I still haven't figured out.

The voicemail left for the boyfriend really bothers me. What does it mean that it was traced to a card issued to the American Red Cross? I can't figure that out. Depending on what this means (hopefully somebody can explain it to me), it's possible that it could have come from a friend who was calling regarding Maura's disappearance and was upset and crying rather than from Maura herself.
The number is a general calling card number, which supposedly can't be traced. The police seem to have disregarded that call. I think they believe it was a wrong number. I don't know for sure. Supposedly, the Red Cross gives those cards out to people in the military. Maura's BF was in the military and Maura was a cadet at West Point at one time, so it could have been her, but LE doesn't believe it was her.

The other thing that troubles me is the sighting in the grocery store, where a girl who resembled Maura mouthed "help me" to another customer. Of course, these types of tips are very difficult to verify, and I don't mean actually verify as in the fact that it was Maura, but verify that this incident even happened at all, but I'm inclined to believe that it did. The customer said she (I believe it was a woman) didn't know about Maura's disappearance at the time, so she didn't think anything of it until she saw a picture of her later. That's really unfortunate, because I think this tip is very significant and could have been the key to solving the case if only the witness had known of Maura beforehand. By the time the tip came in, there was basically nothing whatsoever that could be done to investigate it.
I haven't read every single post in this thread, so perhaps this tip has been discussed in more depth already. It just bothers me because we will never know, and something tells me that was Maura.

Someone on this forum lives in the area of Maura's disappearance and had said that there is a local girl, who looks very much like Maura. It is believed this was the girl in the store–not Maura. Supposedly, it was a case of mistaken identity. LE couldn't verify the siting as well.

I feel like if she were dead anywhere in the area her body would have been found by now.

I'm not too sure about that. The area is very thick with woods and it is sparsely populated. It is a mountainous national forest. Snow and leaves could cover her body easily too.
 
Maybe she was failing school thats why she gave professors the lie about a death. and i have never once heard about any closet ..and u did awnser one of my questions about the phone call i wanted to know why they couldnt say yes it was her because of her cell records but she used a card which the familly said she did all the time. but to use that wouldnt u need to use it at a phonebooth maybe not..I still think she told the bus driver to go because he was to much of an authority figure and she waved one of the next cars down .or they accidently clipped her maybe a couple of twenty something guys in a car they grabbed her and took her to wherever they took her bound her gaged her and the next day somehoe he got to a phone and all u do to use a phone card is punch in the code u dont talk to a operator . u put in the code it starts ringing and she gets her bf.s machine she is bound and gaged which is why she is whimpering in the phone or she hears them coming back...

I think she could have been hit by a car and got thrown off the side of the road. Although, I do feel any driver on those roads who had spotted her, would have slowed down and asked her if she needed help, because the area is so dark and remote, especially if she had headed east. They would have wondered why she was running alone in the darkness of the forest. I don't think it was a common site. In my opinion, it is also possible someone looked at it as an opportunity to take advantage of her too.
 
Good summary! I liked what Fred Murray had once said about all the speculation leading up to Maura's crash - the jist of it was that nothing really mattered, what really matters is what happened in those minutes after her crash.

Thank you! I believe in Maura's case, one needs to keep her age in context with what lead up to her disappearance. To me, she was acting like a kid, who had disappointed her father. She was at a stage in life where drama reigns.
I wished she had slept on things before making any moves.
 
I have been following this case since I first heard news of it. I grew up on the south shore of Boston, not far from Hanson, and Maura and I were the same age when she disappeared. I also know many people I went to high school with who were at UMASS-Amherst at this time.

I have read countless details on so many sites about what happened with this case. I feel almost certain at this point that Maura probably did not wander off into the woods of her own accord and get lost. The reason I feel this way is because of the message left on Billy's voicemail a couple days after her disappearance. Others have said this, but it would be too coincidental for the voicemail to be from anyone else, especially given the fact that we know Maura frequently used calling cards. The really telling piece, to me, though, is that she must have made that call from a land line, given the fact that 1) there was no cell phone service in the immediate area, 2) LE wasn't able to trace the call back to her cell phone, and 3) why would one use a calling card on a cell phone anyway? This leads me to believe that either 1) she made it to a location that had a pay phone/land line somehow and was calling because she felt sad about taking off and maybe wanted to hear his voice one last time, or 2) she was in fact taken by someone who meant to do her harm, and this person maybe allowed her one last phone call to someone she loved before killing her.

i thought that maybe she found a land line phone up the road on the outside of a building or camp, but the call was made the evening of Feb. 11th. That was 2 days after her disappearance.

Here's additional info on the calling card:
http://southshorexpress.com//index....the-mysterious-phone-call&catid=912&Itemid=83

Going back to the days leading up to her disappearance though, I have always wondered how far back LE went in her computer records? To me, if someone is planning a getaway or an intentional disappearance, he/she would conduct months of research on the internet and there could be very telling search history and evidence on the computer dating back quite a ways. I would be curious to know how far back they went.

In my opinion, she left impulsively.

One more thing. It has always struck me as so strange that she would be in two almost identical car wrecks within such a short period of time. If she did plan this as an intentional disappearance, and the car wreck was part of the plan, would it not make sense that she might go through a "test run" to gauge the amount of damage both she and the car might sustain by running it off the road that way? Could the wreck she was in in her father's car have been premeditated in order to test out the same type of accident she was intending on having as part of her disappearance plan? Could she have concocted this part of the plan to throw those she didn't want to find her off the scent of what she was really running off to do?

I think she was tired and had too much to drink when she hit the guardrail with her father's car, and she pretty much did the same thing in her car in NH. The second accident was a mistake from the reaction to the first accident. In my opinion, she should have stayed at the dorm and got a good night sleep. I don't think she was planning to go away forever. Why go through all the drama to go away forever? Why not just disappear without the accidents?

If she did plan a disappearance though, it does seem hard to believe that she would allow her family to suffer all this time without contacting them in some way to let them know she was alive and well.

I agree. I can't see her not contacting anyone. She had 4 siblings and 2 parents, plus a boyfriend and friends. I think she would have contacted at least one of them. It would have been hard to keep the secret too, because Maura's mother was suffering with cancer and had died a year or so ago on Maura's birthday. If I was Maura's friend or sibling and knew she was alive and well, I wouldn't keep that secret!
 
I for one am totally disgusted with the handling of this case and the fact another year has passed with no answers. Not so long ago I inquired about what has been happening with this case and was rebuffed. I stated another year will pass and we will know nothing more about the whereabouts of Maura. All we would be looking at are headlines of NO new news. Well, this hit a nerve and I was sent a reply that I know nothing of what I speak. I do know this much, another year has passed and still not even the slightest bit of information or mention of Maura has come out. Perhaps the 75% chance mentioned in the reason for not releasing documents prior to this date is no longer valid. I think the investigators, State and Private need to rethink their strategy and get this case solved.

the arrogance of the NH LE involved in this case from the beginning has always bothered me. If you watch the interviews with Lt. Scarinza (sp?) he is SO SURE this is a suicide based on so little. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if someone is thought to be suicidal and goes missing, aren't they considered endangered and a cause for concern? I just couldn't believe how casual that Lieutenant was and what a lack of seriousness he showed from the very beginning. MP cases seem to get treated so differently depending on the state the person goes missing from, the LE agency involved, and even the responding officer's attitude - just comparing the initial reaction to Maura's disappearance with the LE reaction and investigation of Brooke Wilberger, Dru Sjodin, Taylor Behl, etc makes the NH LE look negligent.
 
Someone on this forum lives in the area of Maura's disappearance and had said that there is a local girl, who looks very much like Maura. It is believed this was the girl in the store–not Maura. Supposedly, it was a case of mistaken identity. LE couldn't verify the siting as well.
QUOTE]


Thanks for that information. I didn't know this. I just heard about the case for the first time (from a tag line on another poster's message, actually) a few days ago, so I haven't read everything yet. The "help me" part is a little odd, but I guess maybe it was nothing. Could have been one of those things where they saw a picture of Maura then in retrospect thought, "I think that girl in the store looked like she was mouthing 'help me' " when their memories were tainted by what they knew about Maura's case, while at the time even if she were mouthing something, they may not have read it as "help me," if that makes sense.

I also don't believe she was planning on being gone for long or that she had been planning this for a while. I agree that she left impulsively, with any planning done in the day or so before her disappearance. I also believe the car accidents were coincidental.
Either way, as odd as all this is leading up to the accident, I really don't think it had anything to do with what happened to her afterward, as I don't think the wreck was part of her plan.

The one thing I'm not sure about is the voicemail to the boyfriend. I understand the calling card now, as I've had friends in the military who would use them to call. The part I was confused about was the Red Cross, but I get it now. I don't know, maybe I'm crazy, but I just think a wrong number with somebody sobbing would be quite the coincidence, especially since Maura was known to use a calling card. What are the chances that someone else using a calling card would dial the number of her boyfriend? The other thing, though, is that I don't understand why she would use a calling card if he was not overseas. Wasn't he just in another state? Did she not have a cell phone? I guess, thinking back, in 2004 cell phones weren't as common as they are now for people that age. I'm three years younger than Maura would be today, and my friends and I didn't even think about cell phones until a year or two later. So, I guess, if she didn't have a cell phone then she probably was still using a calling card, which makes me think it was most likely her rather than a wrong number. I guess this is an insignificant thing to dwell on, though, since it's not able to be traced. All it would prove was that she was alive two days after the wreck, but we wouldn't know where, with whom or in what condition or circumstances.
 
Someone on this forum lives in the area of Maura's disappearance and had said that there is a local girl, who looks very much like Maura. It is believed this was the girl in the store–not Maura. Supposedly, it was a case of mistaken identity. LE couldn't verify the siting as well.
QUOTE]


Thanks for that information. I didn't know this. I just heard about the case for the first time (from a tag line on another poster's message, actually) a few days ago, so I haven't read everything yet. The "help me" part is a little odd, but I guess maybe it was nothing. Could have been one of those things where they saw a picture of Maura then in retrospect thought, "I think that girl in the store looked like she was mouthing 'help me' " when their memories were tainted by what they knew about Maura's case, while at the time even if she were mouthing something, they may not have read it as "help me," if that makes sense.

I also don't believe she was planning on being gone for long or that she had been planning this for a while. I agree that she left impulsively, with any planning done in the day or so before her disappearance. I also believe the car accidents were coincidental.
Either way, as odd as all this is leading up to the accident, I really don't think it had anything to do with what happened to her afterward, as I don't think the wreck was part of her plan.

The one thing I'm not sure about is the voicemail to the boyfriend. I understand the calling card now, as I've had friends in the military who would use them to call. The part I was confused about was the Red Cross, but I get it now. I don't know, maybe I'm crazy, but I just think a wrong number with somebody sobbing would be quite the coincidence, especially since Maura was known to use a calling card. What are the chances that someone else using a calling card would dial the number of her boyfriend? The other thing, though, is that I don't understand why she would use a calling card if he was not overseas. Wasn't he just in another state? Did she not have a cell phone? I guess, thinking back, in 2004 cell phones weren't as common as they are now for people that age. I'm three years younger than Maura would be today, and my friends and I didn't even think about cell phones until a year or two later. So, I guess, if she didn't have a cell phone then she probably was still using a calling card, which makes me think it was most likely her rather than a wrong number. I guess this is an insignificant thing to dwell on, though, since it's not able to be traced. All it would prove was that she was alive two days after the wreck, but we wouldn't know where, with whom or in what condition or circumstances.

This is good stuff right here.
She did have a cell phone, but could the battery have died? Was it left in the car, I can't remember? If either of those were true and she had no quarter, she must have had that calling card. I am about 90% sure that call was from Maura, I am with you and see it as a GIANT coincidence if it wasn't.
I think she survived the night somehow - made that call and then ??????
 
The one thing I'm not sure about is the voicemail to the boyfriend. I understand the calling card now, as I've had friends in the military who would use them to call. The part I was confused about was the Red Cross, but I get it now. I don't know, maybe I'm crazy, but I just think a wrong number with somebody sobbing would be quite the coincidence, especially since Maura was known to use a calling card. What are the chances that someone else using a calling card would dial the number of her boyfriend? The other thing, though, is that I don't understand why she would use a calling card if he was not overseas. Wasn't he just in another state? Did she not have a cell phone? I guess, thinking back, in 2004 cell phones weren't as common as they are now for people that age. I'm three years younger than Maura would be today, and my friends and I didn't even think about cell phones until a year or two later. So, I guess, if she didn't have a cell phone then she probably was still using a calling card, which makes me think it was most likely her rather than a wrong number. I guess this is an insignificant thing to dwell on, though, since it's not able to be traced. All it would prove was that she was alive two days after the wreck, but we wouldn't know where, with whom or in what condition or circumstances.

I believe the call was 2 days after her NH car accident, so it does change things if it was her. I agree that it is possible it could have been her. LE doesn't think so, but she was known to use calling cards in the past. Also, I think she even had Red Cross calling cards, which I think her boyfriend's mother gave her (I have to double check that info). She did have a cell phone, but the coverage was bad in that part of NH. She couldn't get a call out. Maybe, she had a calling card in her wallet and used it when she found a land line phone. However, it makes one wonder where she was for 2 days, if it was her. She couldn't have survived that long outdoors.
 
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