NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 - # 2

[Peabody]

also thought that you might be interested in the reviews found at this link

http://www.parksandtourism.net/us-travel-books/1929173067/Not-Without-Peril-150-Years-of-Misadventure-on-the-Presidential-Range-of-New-Hampshire.html
........to me they shed light on the difference in the way a person unfamiliar with the mountain ranges may see the book and in the way a person familiar with the ranges may see it......also, remember, The White Mountains were Maura's "favorite place on earth."

This quote was in the media shortly after she went missing.


Bring Maura Home
www.mauramurray.com
www.spbowers.com\mauramissing.html

 

[docwho3]

. . .docwho3, I cannot see any reason for you to hesitate to share your opinions. . . . .

To do justice to the book and to my opinions of the import of the book would require both a long long post and also might involve posting more of the book than a copyright owner might approve of which might get me in trouble with the T.O.S. here. I chose instead to send a private message to the individual.

Your recent posting makes me think perhaps you have read that answer(was it forwarded? -if so its ok- I just wondered.) and possibly taken exception to part of it. If so you have evidently missed coming to the conclusions that I myself came to. In that message I was only sharing, in brief, some info that I thought might be helpful without quoting the book in public forum in some way that might open me to copyright troubles. On the other hand, if you have not read my message then you at least now know why I chose not to post much in public forum about the book itself. I may change my mind and later do so. Another concern I have is to not, by releasing partial info, predispose others in their own search into this matter.

Either way, I would rather do my own work up and then offer the info in its entire form along with my few conclusions and suggestions. I just have not yet decided whether to do this in a webpage format or just do several long posts here.
The webpage idea is a bit of a problem since I have not yet chosen a new web site host and restored my own web site which was removed when I dropped my old internet provider but html on a website would for an easier format for me. I will eventually resolve these difficulties and post.

Note to readers:I do not have a stake in the outcome of this case. I do not care what the final solution turns out to be (other than the fact that I care for the hurt suffered by Maura & her family.) I have a preference for happy endings in books but I don't have to have the solution to this case match what I expect it to be. I get the feeling some people would be very unhappy indeed if the final solution turns out to be other than they expected. I do not know a final and complete solution at this time. I just moved as far down each possibility branch that I could think of & looked for ways to try to verify things.

 

[pugsley]

Docwho3,

I hope you change you mind (fast), I am very intrigued by your post.

 

[Peabody]

Docwho3,


I have not read your pm to Lillyrush.........it just seemed apparent to me that your opinion after reading the book had more to do with death and dying in the White Mountains than with the historical and geographical nature of the book, which by all accounts by those who know Maura, was what attracted her to the book.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.......I always enjoy your posts.




Bring Maura Home
www.mauramurray.com
www.spbowers.com\mauramurray.html

 

[docwho3]

Docwho3,


I have not read your pm to Lillyrush.........it just seemed apparent to me that your opinion after reading the book had more to do with death and dying in the White Mountains than with the historical and geographical nature of the book, which by all accounts by those who know Maura, was what attracted her to the book.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.......I always enjoy your posts.




Bring Maura Home
www.mauramurray.com
[url="http://www.spbowers.com/mauramurray.html"]www.spbowers.com\mauramurray.html[/url]

Not sure how you got that idea since all I said was that I hesitated to post the info in public forum. However the death & dying parts of the book were not what I centered my attention on and I doubt those were the parts that Maura centered her thoughts on (but if anyone who reads the book thinks differently I could certainly understand. )

 

[hydemi]

Your post on Not Without Peril and links are first rate.

Both my Dartmouth son and I had read this book prior to 2/9/04 and we totally agree with your impresson of it being a huge favorite of North Country hikers and adventure seekers who love the area.

And actually having met Howe and getting his autograph speaks for itself.

I believe her nursing books being in the Saturn is a more important detail, especially in light of her apparent intention to leave U. Mass that week as I have just argued on the mauramurray.com website two days ago.

Why not leave the books in her room?

She wanted to keep up in case she decided to stay in school.

She did not want the books (quite valuable) to be stolen?

She might (I do not believe this) have been able to sell them for cash as well as the jewelry she brought with her (gift from boyfriend)?

Keep it simple--while she was intending to return to U. Mass and to withdraw that week, she was keeping her options open to stay and had her books.

 

[Grassyknoll2]

Tend to agree with Hydemi...big sticking point for me from the first I heard about Maura...why take your text books if you're a.)as police suggested, planning on comitting suicide b.) leaving school. Not sure just what books she may have had, but the fact is she had them and as Hydemi says, its important.

As to 'Not Without Peril'...I think way too much was made of the fact that it was in the car and a subtle way for police to suggest suicide....I have books in my car...had one on the self or whatever it is called in the back of my car near the window for years......it was meaningless...I had bought it and never even read it....faded...its probably still in my car somewhere.

I would like to read DocWho's impressions, though...surely they could be shared without revealing the book itself. Read the reviews of the book at the link posted above...seems Maura fit right in with those who loved it...a hiker, familiar with the area and had also met the author....presumably since she was a nursing student she also had medical text books...as I said, I think too much was implied by police about this book...just by mentioning it...why not give the names of the text books or whatever other books she might have had with her.

 

[docwho3]

I plan to post a few posts today about the case. I doubt I could get the whole thing in one post. I compromised about the amount of space I devoted to the book but I think I can sort of account for the school books and to some degree why some things were taken & why some left behind. I know my impressions may not agree with everyone but hopefully no one will lob rocks at me over it - lol.

Anyway I will try to post them in order and then the last one will say

*******************
End workup
*******************

 

[docwho3]

Maura Murray disappeared on February 9th/2004 in New Hampshire.

Maura had disappeared after a one vehicle wreck on a winter evening about 7:30 pm within 10
minutes of having been seen & talked to by a witness, a school bus driver named
Butch Atwood who was driving his bus home. Maura allegedly said she had already called AAA and so refused help.

A different person, a neighbor called police. I have not seen much mention of this 'neighbor' person and I wonder how they knew to call police if they had not spoken to Maura. This detail is not significant but it is one of those lose ends that I would like to tie up.

Within 10 minutes of being called the police were there but Maura was not.

This case would be more straightforward if the investigation had turned up no other details. . . but they did turn up details that make it seem there is more to this case more than first meets the eye.
This was Maura's 2nd car wreck within a few days. Without the details of the first wreck I don't know if alcohol was involved. Info revealed later might make one wonder if the first car wreck might have been a suicide attempt. But even if it turns out that it was an attempt it does not of itself convince me that she later ended her own life.

Maura had pulled money from her bank account prior to her disappearance (about $280)

continued in next post

 

[docwho3]

It was reported that on Thursday before she disappeared (on the following Monday)Maura received a call that reportedly upset her very much. This along with a few other facts seems to have convinced some that Maura meant to suicide. However, some reports say the call was between Maura & her sister. and afterwards Maura told some people she had to leave to attend to a death in the family.

Although some reports stated that the email & voice mail recieved on Monday that Maura sent to her boyfriend had not indicated anything wrong this was contradicted in an interview transcript of AMERICAN MORNING
conducted by SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR stated that the voice mail was indeed very disturbing.

The relationship was said to be good between Maura & her boyfriend but this info was quoted from boyfriends mother who also admitted there had been some rocky times between Maura & boyfriend in times past. Most couples have troubles from time to time so by itself it isn't all that significant unless more troubles had surfaced that we don't know about.

What was left behind in the car when Maura disappeared?: I read reports that said there was a box of booze bootles left behind with some missing from them. "Another neighbor called police, who arrived within minutes. They found the bag, some bottles of alcohol, and that was it." (source link)
What else was left behind?: "Clothes, CDs, makeup and a copy of ‘‘Not Without Peril,'' journalist Nicholas Howe's story about people who died hiking New Hampshire's Presidential Mountain Range." (source link)

"The chapter of Howe's book titled ‘‘A Question of Life or Death'' is book-marked with a Hallmark card and a photograph of Maura's brother Kurtis in a Little League uniform. Kathleen Murray got emotional looking it."
(source link)

Note to readers: I have read the book. I will say more about the book later in this workup but it contains more than just death.

Behind in her dorm she had left her things packed as if to soon be moved. (source link)

Continued in next post

 

[docwho3]

Maura Murray's fate could be any one of several possibilities. While I do not have a final solution, that was not my goal at this time. Instead I strove to look at the various possibilities and see what could be done to provide suggestions to help point to more answers which in turn might help.

Lets take the simplest possibility branches first:
From the moment Maura stepped out of the car and into
the twilight zone there are only two.
The possibilities are:
1. Either she is dead
2.or Maura is alive.

1. If she is dead then there are three main possibilities.

1.A.She was kidnapped & murdered

1.B.She committed suicide
(Note to readers: I use numbers for Major topics and Upper case letters to denote major subtopics and lower case letters to denote further subtopics within the major subtopic. I hope it isn't too confusing.)

1.C.She was injured and wandered off to die in the nearby
countryside.

1.A. She was kidnapped & murdered:
1.A.Is there any evidence that she was kidnapped?
1.A.a.One of our other websleuths has told me that on the night that
Maura disappeared one of the witnesses thought there might
have been two police cars that showed up right away but that
later the other car was not proven to have been part of the
investigation.

I have to say that I never saw any MSM reports that confirmed such a car ever existed BUT that does not mean it did not exist. I am just being careful about stating sources.
About the alleged car:If it existed and was not a real police car is that a far fetched possibility? Not really too far fetched since I was able to find several instances of people using fake police cars related to that area. (I posted several links to such info in a previous post in this thread.) Suggestion to verify:maybe a private investigator could work
up a lead more concrete to be tracked. If some of these fake police cars seem to be crossing state lines perhaps FBI might be interested if there is a solid lead to look at.

1.A.b.What about the bus driver possibly abducting Maura?
He had some opportunity to do so and if no other witness existed I would be very interested in this angle of the case.
BUT there was another witness that night. So unless this other witness was either not paying attention at all & the bus driver was a real risk taker in knowing his neighbor could be seeing or unless the two were working together then I don't see this as a likely thing. I can't rule it out 100% yet.

Suggest: A thorough background work up by private investigator could possibly help if he has a past. I don't think he took a lie detector test but it might help ease the family concerns if he had done so.

1.A.c.What if she was picked up by a stranger who offered her a ride?
There was only a narrow window of time for a stranger to pass through and pick her up so although I can not rule it out, I also can't rule it in on the available evidence. With the bus driver & also a neighbor present It is not impossible to have happened but their presence makes it less likely. Likely or not it is still possible until ruled out. I just do not know
how to rule that out at this time short of finding Maura.

continued in next post

 

[docwho3]

1.B.She committed suicide:
1.B.a. Could she have committed suicide? It is possible but the area was allegedly searched by air & by dogs & volunteers more than once. Maura's own father, who knows her hiking abilities best, searched the area.
while it is not impossible that her body was still missed it is less likely now than if her dad himself had not searched.

1.B.b.Could a friend have just picked her up and taken her to some place
where she could quietly suicide? It is possible but with no body turning up I would tend to discount this angle, especially since she left a particular book in the car. This book,Not Without Peril, was,I believe, meant to be used for
another purpose given the chapter marked and the fact that she brought her school books with her. Until I read Not Without Peril the school books, although explainable, were a puzzle since there were surely other things she had left
packed in her dorm that would normally be chosen over schools books to bring to a suicide.

1.B.c.She took over $200 cash with her. "You can't take it with you." so why withdraw so much of it? And why not close out the account unless she had not made up your mind completely?
Conclusion: She never intended to suicide. She packed clothing & took cash money but did not close the account and she left an excuse that was supposed to indicate she would soon return and she packed up her dorm as if to move it soon and she walked away from a car wreck but no body was ever found. None of these things indicate suicide to me
especially in light of the book with a special chapter & the schoolbooks she took with her.
More on that part later in this workup.

1.C.She was injured and wandered off to die in the nearby countryside:
1.C.a.What if she wandered off and died after the accident? Was there perhaps some injury either from the previous wreck or from the current wreck that might have caused her to wander off hurt and then die? I find this to be plausible but no body was found. Why was no body found? Well, it could be that searching eyes
just failed to see her body. If so then someday the body will be found. Could anything else have made her body hard to find? Having pondered this I have thought it remotely possible that her great physical conditioning as a "standout"
track athlete from highschool days might have enabled her to go much farther than the ground search went. I was never able to know for sure how far on the ground searchers went on foot looking for her. To know how far to search one would need to know her current state of athletic condition at the time. Some track runners could easily walk/jog for many miles. I figure her father would know her abilities and perhaps some of her college friends might know if she was still active in running alot.
Suggestion:Those who know should say if the search on the ground went far enough
for Maura's abilities or not. If it did not go far enough that might need to be redone.

1.C.b.If Maura had indeed jogged/walked a long way while being injured where might she go?
The only thing that came to mind for me was perhaps a familiar climb/hike or a recent one
would still be fresh in her memory. She might,if confused, think she was back in the middle
of that climb/hike and go forward a certain distance then turn at exactly the distance and places
as she had in the real hike/climb (like overlaying an internal map over the real terrain but wrong since
she was not really at the same exact location as the real event) and continue on until the elements
got to her.
Suggestion:If a ground search did not take this into account it might be tried.
Conclusion: This scenario does not fit with the totality of the rest of the facts in the case so I tend
to discount it unless further search indicates differently.

Continued in next post

 

[docwho3]

2.If Maura is alive:
2.A.a.What if Maura was not kidnapped but chose to disappear?
If she chose to disappear: Was the plan a last minute thing only meant to be temporary? There is
some evidence to suggest that she meant to disappear but only meant to be gone a short while.
Maura had pulled money from her bank account prior to her disappearance (about $280)
but did not close out the account.
It was reported that on Thursday before she disappeared (on the following Monday)Maura received a call that reportedly upset her very much. This along with a few other facts seems to have convinced some that Maura meant to suicide. However, some reports say the call was between Maura & her sister. and afterwards Maura told some people she had to leave to attend to a death in the family.

Conclusion: I do not think the plan was to temporarily disappear. Obviously she has remained gone.

Maura used an excuse that has been attempted by young people in years past to cover a temporary absence from work, sometimes to attend mardi gras, sometimes to go drinking etc. The idea is usually to cover yourself so you can return to your job later. It (death-in-the-family) was a common ploy way back when I began working many years ago (but it seldom works.) This death-in the-family excuse fails precisely because employers make you provide a program paper from the funeral, a newspaper clipping of the obituary listing you as immediate family and sometimes a signed note from the funeral director or pastor who performed the service. Maura was a junior year nursing student (not a highschool kid)and I doubt she was simple minded enough to have tried to seriously use such an excuse if she truly expected to return to work again. Her knowing this ploy would fail is nice to believe since it fits my impression of things but is not crucial to the case,as I see it, at this time. The thing this particular ploy told me about the case was that it was a staged detail. She could easily have used some other excuse that would better protect her job.

The nature of the call, Maura's reaction to it or both was probably faked by Maura to bolster her excuse for leaving. All faking it would require is for Maura, on her end of the call, to appear to weep and shake while talking on the phone. Her caller on the other end (if there really was a call at that time- there was some dispute about that) might even be innocent & not know what Maura looked like on the other end of that call. (Note to reader:This faking does not make Maura a bad person and I am sure this isn't the first time a young lady faked something over a phone.)

continued in next post

 

[docwho3]

Maura was planning to go somewhere since she took most of her bank account with her but she did not close out the account entirely which makes it seem she planned to leave the door open for her to return and this is important when taken into account with the fake temporary excuse. I believe these were both staged details meant to buy her time so she could disappear and not return. These things were meant to cause the L.E. (Law Enforcement) to consider this a temporary adult runaway type of thing and cause people to not take the case seriously enough to catch her before she got far enough away.

She packed up the stuff in her room but did not take it with her yet so if she intended to return to her room for the rest of her things something prevented her doing that. Could she have just been planning suicide? Sure, but you don't need to clean out most of your bank funds to do that. You take cash from bank because its not traceable and/or it is easy to spend on a bender. If you're going away forever why not take your cash with you? But more importantly $280 or so is about the right amount to take on a bender for a few days. . . . another staged detail.

I think this "escape to a new life" was a dream that became a cherished fantasy that started slowly and built over time until it became more real to her than her everyday life. Maura is not bad person or pedophile but I use this next example to explain what I think happened to her thought process: With predators & pedophiles a fantasy builds & builds until it is acted upon and they can't control themselves to not act upon it. In Maura's case she was not a sinister person but I think she had a similar build up of her escape fantasy until it consumed her to the point that she acted upon it to escape. Perhaps a psychiatrist could do more to tell of the possibility of that happening to someone.

I think every time she had to do something like clean up her room or study or watch her language or anything that stressed her she would dream of escaping to a new life. This would be similar to an over worked office worker dreaming of a long vacation in the Bahamas. Only in Maura's case I think the dream kept building and building until she began to act on it a little at a time. I suspect she got a new name and then one day she got a new document using the new name and then another & another of the documents you need to establish your new person and be able get a new job, and then on another day, maybe weeks or months later, she got a bank account and then maybe she set out to hunt for a new job. Maybe she got one.

I think one day she realized that she had a complete plan fantasized and had even managed to build it into a reality with a "new person" with a new life waiting as if on the other side of the looking glass. All she had to do was to plan how to stage the final scene and step through the looking glass into a new life.

Continued in next post

 

[docwho3]

I think the plan was to set up her disappearance to look as if it was a temporary one so as to buy time to get far enough away and not be hauled back in disgrace. She used an excuse that seems temporary on the surface but one that could not in reality have much chance of having saved her job. If she already had another bank account with funds in it she would not really need her cash from the old bank account but taking the amount she did made it look like she was only on a bender & also looked like she intended to soon return because she did not close it out.

She packed up her things to move, expecting to have more time to return for them before anyone tumbled to her disappearance. She took only the things with her when she left that would be needed to stage her disappearance.
She had wanted to get a hotel or motel room which she would allow her to set up a display of certain items that would send the message that she was not returning ever. She did not take the other dorm things because she did not plan to leave them at the rented room with the display. She planned to take the other dorm things to her new escape place.

The display she intended to leave at the rented room included bottles of booze, some tylenol PM, her schoolbooks, a book from her dad marked with a particular chapter,Halmark type card and a picture of her brother.
I think she had a friend who was helping her disappear & she knew this person was to follow her and pick her up after setting up the goodbye display and then take her to where her new car (her car she bought to escape to new life in - probably a used car.) Having a friend pick her up from the rented room (or wherever she planned to stage the goodbye scene) & take her to her waiting car was better since it kept her from having to preposition her new car at the hotel place and possibly have someone remember having seen it.
A car is what would be used in place of a bus ticket if she had planned this out over a long period of time. Bus tickets are a last minute type thing that say little planning has been done and would not be worthy of her elaborate escape fantasy. The cold-feet-bride in the news awhile back used a bus ticket to escape & came home when she ran out of money because she had no plan to provide other resources.

Even though Maura planned to set up this final goodbye display the accident made this impossible since she was seen by witnesses who would soon be calling police inspite of her attempt to dissuade a witness from doing so.
She had probably been drinking since even though escape was her long cherished dream it was still a very big step to take, requiring liquid courage, and also some of the bottles of booze were needed to set up the final goodbye display.
She had only minutes to perhaps grab up her backpack and walk back the way she came to meet her friend who had been driving behind her. She left the book and other items behind but was prevented from ever setting up her special display as she had planned. She was also prevented from ever going back to her dorm to get her things because now instead of buying time she had nearly botched her escape by the accident & had drawn attention to herself in the process.

Continued in next post

 

[docwho3]

Ok now some additional facts to mix in with my impressions of this case:
**************************************
The chapter of Nicholas Howe's book,Not Without Peril, which Mara had marked with a card was titled "A Question of Life or Death'' is book-marked with a Hallmark card and a photograph of Maura's brother Kurtis in a Little League uniform.

The intro to that chapter reads (I bolded parts for emphasis & transcribed as best I could. Please forgive any typos):
"We try to make our lives safe. For every hazard there are warnings and barriers,for every bold assertion there are fallback positions,for every fallible device there are back-up systems and redundancies. Children go forth to play girded with armor for their head,face,teeth,elbows,knees, and any other part that may suffer assault. I've seen a step ladder with eighteen warning labels pasted to it,another with a six part lesson on how to avoid falling off, with attendant diagrams. If all else fails we go to court;when a piece of bridge masonry fell through the top of a convertible,the driver sued the car company for making a cloth top that wouldn't keep out falling masonry. So when we talk about questions of life or death, we usually don't mean it.

There do come times,though,perhaps only once in a lifetime,when we're really up against it,when there're no manual or guide or precedent,when we really do have to answer a question of life or death. The crew at Madison Hut had to do that one evening just as they were serving dinner to a full house,they were all college age and they were up against it."
************************************
I think the intro tells why she brought the college books- to show they did not hold the answers to her need to escape.
The booze and the tylenol were to be left to show she could have suicided but chose not to do so. It was to say she felt she had to escape or die. Incidentally, the chapter that Maura Murray marked was about some people whose decisions all along the way could have changed their outcome between life or death and at one point they come to a trail that branches off in seven directions (pg 224).

Maura must have planned to stage a rented room with the Not Without Peril book & its bookmarks and the booze bottles & tylenol center stage, probably on the bed, and maybe the college books staged around in a circle or something.

Then she planned to have her friend follow a few minutes behind & pick her up and take her to her car so she could make her getaway and maybe have friend return to the room to retrieve her belongings. But the accident made those steps impossible to implement.

Instead her friend just picks her up on the road near the accident scene & takes her to her new waiting car and she is gone, seemingly without a trace. You might say Alice has stepped through the looking glass.
(Edited to add: When you dont' trust your car because its not running well you might well ask a friend to follow you when you have to move the car very far. I read that Maura's car wasn't running well & that would account for her having a friend follow her exact route only a few minutes behind- in case the car should break down.)

All of this is overly elaborate planning, which is in keeping with the long time fantasy theory.
In mild support of that theory: I read that one of her favorite movies was about someone who disappears to begin a new life. Maybe that's related or maybe not. But its a thought.

I think I have accounted for why she took the things she took with her in the car that night when she disappeared and why other things were not taken from the dorm but were left behind packed & ready.

I don't have a final solution but my overall impression at this time is that Maura is alive and that she may have suffered from a sort of mental condition that made her obsess about her escape fantasy until she was compelled to implement it and step through the looking glass.

She was involved with a one car accident where alcohol was present and she left the scene (as far as we can tell based on news reports.) I can not say when or if she will ever return. I think she probably did not go anywhere in the north but it is not impossible. I think she probably changed her hair color - maybe blonde? and that she probably went to be near a border of the U.S. probably someplace nice and warm and no mountains- the opposite of what she had been used to. But thats just speculation as is much of what I have presented here. At least I based that speculation on what few facts I had to work with.

That's all there is so far. I hope it helps.


[size=-1]Minor note:
Suggestion:One way to test whether Maura would likely have known that this ploy would not have worked is to actually have a student there take a survey of junior nursing students (without letting them know its in any way related to Maura's disappearance) and ask the junior level college students what they think would happen if they tried to use that excuse to go on a bender from work. And to ask them how the employer would or would not check up on that excuse.

(Side note about the mardi gras part of the reason for using the death-in-the-family excuse: I noticed the search for her possibly being in hotels was hampered by the fact that "All the hotels are full this weekend because we have Mardi Gras.")[/size]

*************************
End of Workup
*************************

 

[hydemi]

I lean toward believing Maura is alive, but for different reasons.

I would urge Doc first to familiarize himself more with the mauramurray.com website especially the CaseInfo timeline put up the weekend of Oct 15th, as well as the detailed and informed discussions.

Some points.

1) there was a PI hired early on by the Murray family who interviewed some of the witnesses and neighbors.

2) Maura set her high school record for two mile run in a time of 11.40, was used to running cold weather, and had kept running on her own even after quitting the track team at U. Mass (she had two jobs, clinicals, etc).

3) Was the $280 all she had saved from the two jobs (art gallery, campus dorm security)? Possibly, if she had extra expenses above her scholarship in the nursing program which she had to cover, as opposed to the full program at West Point.

If she had more money to siphon into a second account, why not get her car repaired instead of spending the weekend with her Dad looking for another used car (an older Corolla?) which he was helping her to buy?

There is no evidence of a confederate thus far; no evidence of a second car following her (such as cellphone contact); no indication of planning for her trip beyond checking her computer for resort info at Burlington & Stowe, and calling a condo rental phone number on Monday in Bartlett NH.

Her favorite movie "Bottle Rocket" (according to her U Mass friend) is about teens escaping and running away from an asylum, then supporting themselves with petty thefts. But they either get caught or go back home and it's funny.

Hard to construct parallels to Maura's disappearance in this movie.

 

[docwho3]

I lean toward believing Maura is alive, but for different reasons.

I would urge Doc first to familiarize himself more with the mauramurray.com website especially the CaseInfo timeline put up the weekend of Oct 15th, as well as the detailed and informed discussions.

I assume by that you mean there is information on the site to lead to a different conclusion in parts of this workup. Feel free to message me with the pertinent points. Thanks.

I did go to the site and used their links to lead to news reports on the case but I had not paid much attention to the discussion parts yet.

Some points.

1) there was a PI hired early on by the Murray family who interviewed some of the witnesses and neighbors.

Yes, I knew that about the P.I. from published news reports in msm but I don't know ALL the info that was gleaned and so I suggested that certain questions be looked into just to be thorough.
(I would be surprised if all the info was released by the P.I. to be placed on the website.)

2) Maura set her high school record for two mile run in a time of 11.40, was used to running cold weather, and had kept running on her own even after quitting the track team at U. Mass (she had two jobs, clinicals, etc).

Cool! So, my question would be how far could she go by a walk jog combo? (I know from my own ancient track days that even sprinters would jog/walk/run for far longer distances than their actual competition events.) And my next question would be:Was that max distance all searched on foot rather than doing some just by air?

3) Was the $280 all she had saved from the two jobs (art gallery, campus dorm security)? Possibly, if she had extra expenses above her scholarship in the nursing program which she had to cover, as opposed to the full program at West Point.

If she had more money to siphon into a second account, why not get her car repaired instead of spending the weekend with her Dad looking for another used car (an older Corolla?) which he was helping her to buy?

Maybe or maybe not bearing in mind that she had jewelry and also she could have found a job that she hadn't yet started. Some jobs such as nurse aide pay a sign on bonus. As to why she didn't get her car repaired:It would be looked for when she left so it had to be left behind. Not worth paying to fix it for just a one way trip to where she planned to have it found.

There is no evidence of a confederate thus far; no evidence of a second car following her (such as cellphone contact); no indication of planning for her trip beyond checking her computer for resort info at Burlington & Stowe, and calling a condo rental phone number on Monday in Bartlett NH.

(Edited to add: Actually a call was also reported in news reports as placed to another dorm room.) I submit that the accomplished act itself is a kind of evidence that planning was involved. Furthermore, the presence of a second car following her is implied given the facts. No evidence has been found? Well, actually it was reported in news reports that some cars did go by during that time. I just proposed that an accomplice was more likely to have hit that narrow time window when Maura was on that spot in the road than a total and evil stranger. And the car running poorly certainly makes it likely that her accomplice would be requested to take the exact same route.

Her favorite movie "Bottle Rocket" (according to her U Mass friend) is about teens escaping and running away from an asylum, then supporting themselves with petty thefts. But they either get caught or go back home and it's funny.
Hard to construct parallels to Maura's disappearance in this movie.

Well, you possibly have a point there and that movie in itself is not all that important to the over all theory. Then again, I was not drawing a parallel to the plot of the movie but was commenting on the fact that things involving disappearances did seemed to catch her attention. Actually the minor thievery you mentioned in the plot makes me even more inclined to think it might be attractive to someone with a fantasy about being opposite to what she had been. Whatever the relation or lack thereof between the movie and Maura's disappearance I am glad that she had a chance to laugh.

I realize that the accomplice has never surfaced and may never do so for all I know. But this helpers presence is in the facts much like a shadow tells the presence of the something obstructing the suns light. You may not see that object but the shadow tells you of the objects existence.

 

[hydemi]

I do think you are onto something or I would not have replied so carefully.

Getting up to speed on the MM website probably will not change your inklings or conclusions, but there is an awful lot there to digest.

Especially it is important to understand the family's view that they know of no reasons for her to run away and cannot otherwise fathom her failing to contact anyone than her being murdered by a predator. This is negative reasoning, I know, but I respect their viewpoint and deeply sympathize.

The PI (Stevens in Northampton Ma?) seems to have dropped from view.

A poster who is a professional searcher, SearcherME for Maine on this website and SMME on the Maura website, says in mid May 04 that he spent a weekend going from the 116 area(where she was allegedly seen) all the way to Lincoln much on foot, going down side roads etc.

Mr Murray and family members and volunteer searchers like SMME have been up and down the road many times.

Your theory about the second account and her having siphoned off money would be a blockbuster if true. Her boyfriend says somewhere that she was "extremely frugal" and so it seems in character for her to squirrel money.

Peabody says somewhere I think on this site that the second phone call on Monday afternoon was to the other nursing student with whom Maura was sharing a ride to clinicals because of her 96 Saturn being unreliable.

As to the confidante or accomplice, on 9/9/04 in the U Mass Daily Collegian Det. Scarinza of NHSP is quoted as saying that he is hoping someone from U Mass will come forward with information on the case, as evidently he had been pursuing this angle to support his runaway theory.

Oh, and according to Scarinza in his June 04 case summary there were five helicopter air searches with snow on the ground in Feb 04, with good visibility thanks to the two and half feet of snow (of tracks etc) and four ground searches in the immediate vicinity.

In mid July 04 there was a ground search again, reported in the Manchester Union Leader and other papers.

Lastly, one detail omitted in your theory is her promise/intention to contact her boyfriend and her Dad that evening. Of course had she made it to Bartlett or her destination and done so, we do not know what she was intending to talk about other than the 1st car accident or her leaving school.

 

[docwho3]

I do think you are onto something or I would not have replied so carefully. . . .

Thank you for being so kind in your responses! If I sounded mean spirited in my own responses it was not meant to sound that way and I apologize.

I did mean to respond in a thinking and reasoning manner about questions concerning certain points of the write up but I never meant to sound angry or mean about it. If I did sound that way I apologize. And again I thank you for being kind and reasoned in your own responses.

Getting up to speed on the MM website probably will not change your inklings or conclusions, but there is an awful lot there to digest.

You are right. There is alot to digest and that's why I asked if you knew of any pertinent posts I should look at & could message me about them. I tend to be a bit lazy at times especially when I have already read through what seems like mountains of news articles and so many posts both here and elsewhere. And then because the posting requirements here at websleuths don't accept another blog or web forum as a valid source I tended to just skim through or not read some of the forums rather than to read every scrap of info. However, since you seem to feel it is important in this case and I respect you,your thoughts and your thoughtful responses, I will try to find time soon to go read posts there.

Especially it is important to understand the family's view that they know of no reasons for her to run away and cannot otherwise fathom her failing to contact anyone than her being murdered by a predator. This is negative reasoning, I know, but I respect their viewpoint and deeply sympathize.

I do understand that family would feel that way and actually, given what I believe to have been Maura's mental state, it fits right in with what I would expect. But I will still read the posts as you requested.

The PI (Stevens in Northampton Ma?) seems to have dropped from view.

I would be very interested in what happened.

A poster who is a professional searcher, SearcherME for Maine on this website and SMME on the Maura website, says in mid May 04 that he spent a weekend going from the 116 area(where she was allegedly seen) all the way to Lincoln much on foot, going down side roads etc.

Mr Murray and family members and volunteer searchers like SMME have been up and down the road many times.

Up and down the road is good but I was hoping there had been foot search in the area of a circle with the radius being her max wlk/jog/run distance. If that was not done then we can't 100% rule out the possibility of a body being out there somewhere yet.

Your theory about the second account and her having siphoned off money would be a blockbuster if true. Her boyfriend says somewhere that she was "extremely frugal" and so it seems in character for her to squirrel money.

Thank you for that info!

Peabody says somewhere I think on this site that the second phone call on Monday afternoon was to the other nursing student with whom Maura was sharing a ride to clinicals because of her 96 Saturn being unreliable.

I also had read that somewhere and so it fits in with an accomplice being asked to follow along behind. I wonder if that person was the one or if she had to find someone else to follow her. It would seem to be something worth looking into.

As to the confidante or accomplice, on 9/9/04 in the U Mass Daily Collegian Det. Scarinza of NHSP is quoted as saying that he is hoping someone from U Mass will come forward with information on the case, as evidently he had been pursuing this angle to support his runaway theory. . .

Thank you again for that info!

Lastly, one detail omitted in your theory is her promise/intention to contact her boyfriend and her Dad that evening. Of course had she made it to Bartlett or her destination and done so, we do not know what she was intending to talk about other than the 1st car accident or her leaving school.

I did leave out that detail (but not on purpose.) It did not seem important to me at the time because she could have staged the disappearance & got her stuff all moved and still have made a phone call to them. Whether that call would have been made or not would be her choice. If she had made the call she could have sounded as if things were normal if she felt the need to keep them from suspecting so soon. But she could also easily have failed to make the calls at all. When they came looking she and her stuff would have all been gone.

But the clues left behind in her bank account and her excuse would have been the first things found and those would have indicated an overwrought young lady just taking a few days off. And remember, she had spoken to her fiance saying she was upset about the car wreck and it took quite some time for him to calm her down (Thats from an msm report.) So she had in effect set him up to believe that she was upset so he might also then believe she had left only for a few days to regroup- in light of the bank account info and work excuse info being found.

I think the plan was to have the room with the staged goodbye scene be found later. Perhaps someone would tip it from a payphone. I don't know.

In either case Maura would have been long gone by then according to plan.

The accident seems to have been what messed up her time table and uncovered things to the degree that it has. If she had not had the wreck & not been thought to be missing for even a day or two longer and if she had made the expected phone calls that night would anyone have even thought to look at her phone calls to that one dorm room in the preceding days when she was thought to be still "found" and still ok? And if they had looked at calls way back then would the significance of that one call have even stood out to anyone? I doubt it. I think that wreck was a Godsend to the parents & family.