I'm new here but have followed this case for a while.
It's very likely she would need extra throttle to maintain speed if the rag had been in for any length of time. But what if by giving the car more throttle it caused the exhaust to back up and the engine stalled(This happened to me from a clogged cat converter)? And if the engine did stall going into a curve she would have lost all power to the brakes and power steering. No power steering or brakes in those conditions guaranteed a wreck.
These are just my 2 cents worth for now.
My opinions only, no facts here:
In the old days, a mean trick was to shove a potato up the exhaust pipe to absolutely STOP A VEHICLE FROM RUNNING. And that is the point. In order for a rag to remain in the exhaust pipe of a vehicle for an extended period of time, it would have to be snug. This is because of the pressure of the exhaust from the engine trying to force the rag out. And if the rag was snug, the vehicle would likely not run at all. My judgement is that the rag would have been placed into the exhaust pipe AFTER the vehicle left the road. But why? It could be a crude attempt at suicide I suppose. It could be to keep piled-up snow from melting and draining into the exhaust pipe (the position of the vehicle and depths of snow pushed up around it are needed for that hypothesis). It could be to make it appear that a rag in the exhaust pipe was the cause of the accident.
But, I reiterate what I said in earlier posts. Regardless of the reason for the rag in the tailpipe, I treat it as "white noise" that befuddles the sleuth and detracts from what is significant. Maura drove off the road. She walked 100 yards to the junction with Bradley Hill Road at about 1 Wild Ammonoosuc Road. There her fate became intertwined with someone else. None of the prominent names cited in the case are suspects in my opinion. I would rather look for someone else who has not yet been identified, a permanent or sometimes resident of the local area who had a prior criminal record that included violence against women. Even if such a person is found, they may be innocent of any involvement, but there will be a better batting-percentage with this strategy. Another thought- look for an incident in the area between 2003 and 2005 involving an attempted abduction or curious incident on the roadway after dark, where an intended woman victim escaped and provided a description of the suspect. Even expert serial criminals fail from time to time and failed criminal acts can be overlooked for their investigative value.
I almost never link cases, but I believe it is nominally possible that the whole Brianna Maitland affair is associated with the Maura Murray case. It is remarkable that neither of these women have been found (assuming that they are actually deceased-which is unproven). With the ground possibly being somewhat frozen during the Maitland disappearance, I wonder if someone found a good hiding place other than digging? A well? An old vertical mine shaft or cave? An outbuilding on the property they were operating from?
These are the odds I listed here sometime ago. I will repost them for your interest:
Maura was abducted by someone who was a sometimes-resident of the area- 3 out of 7.
Maura was abducted by someone who was a permanent resident of the area- 2 out of 7.
Maura was abducted by someone randomly passing through- 1 out of 7.
Maura wandered into the woods and died in a non-criminal manner- 0.5 out of 7.
Maura went on a marathon run down the road to places unknown- 0.5 out of 7.