NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 - # 8

[McSpy]

I remember reading on Renner's blog about the list of documents Maura's father received after his lawsuit. On the list were Grand Jury supoenas. This has always interested me. It suggests LE suspects someone, but may not have enough evidence for an arrest and prosecution. I could be wrong, but why would there be a Grand Jury on this case? Maybe there was a suspect, but LE now thinks the guy has nothing to do with her disappearance. Sometimes they do get on the wrong track, but at the very least, it seems they think foul play may have happened. JMO

 

[HSLD]

I remember reading on Renner's blog about the list of documents Maura's father received after his lawsuit. On the list were Grand Jury supoenas. This has always interested me. It suggests LE suspects someone, but may not have enough evidence for an arrest and prosecution. I could be wrong, but why would there be a Grand Jury on this case? Maybe there was a suspect, but LE now thinks the guy has nothing to do with her disappearance. Sometimes they do get on the wrong track, but at the very least, it seems they think foul play may have happened. JMO

The subpoenas were for an Investigative Grand Jury session, not seeking an Indictment. It does not mean that LE has a suspect or even a POI.

 

[scoops]

Interesting opinions on here, I see there are 2 clearly different "camps" on what may have happened to MM. Seems to be a common theme.

Welcome aboard HSLD

I am definitely one that has been more of the suicide theory camp than believing that maura met foul play, however, and i say with a big HOWEVER, I currently find myself puzzled by fred's written statement (done two weeks after maura went missing) that james released on his blog.

I was always quick to dismiss any sort of attempt to tie maura to petrit vasi and the hit and run that may have occured on the same thursday night that maura was working and went into a zombie-like state as described by her supervisor.

Not many things in life would make someone go into a zombie-like state, but I know personally, if i just struck a person and then left the scene, i would have a hard time focusing at a security desk and would probably allow people to walk on by as i stared into space, because my nerves would be shot and i would be a mess.


Back to fred's statement and his time line of events that saturday night.

It makes no sense in the world that Maura would have his car that night. They were all at the Amherst brew pub and the girls wanted to go attend a dorm party at their own dorm (therefore they need no car that night), yet instead of fred dropping them off a block away from the pub, he has maura drive him seven miles to his hotel (after she had been drinking) then she and her friend drive back to the dorms to attend a party that they would just go on to their rooms and sleep once the party ended.

I am very troubled by this bit of info we heard from fred. It makes no sense to me at all.

He in any tv interview I have seen, has always made it clear that it was very routine for him to come visit his daughter at school (but I wonder if it really was that routine)

the fact that he swoops into town to look for a new car for her just two days after this hit and run allegedly took place, is somewhat disturbingly coincidental.

Everyone always says maura had no opportunity to hit this guy because she was working at the time he was found lying in the road. But for one, her security desk is less than a mile from where this took place. you literally walk out of the dorm go to the end of the street and make a right and you are on the same street he was found. I know supervisors check up on the security desk workers, but I bet there are plenty of time gaps in between visits.

I don't know what to think if she is indeed tied in to the vasi angle. Obviously even if they were able to get her a new car that Saturday (they would not successfully have gotten rid of her old car) so taking it out of state and wrecking it to cover up previous wreck evidence is plausible (all though it sounds way too movie-like I know)

I don't know. If it can ever be proven that she had nothing to do with the hit and run, then I stick to a suicide theory. If she was involved in the hit and run then all bets are off and I say she was met by foul play or succumbed to the elements.

It's odd that police have no clear answer on what happened to vasi. he was in a coma for months and did not recall himself what took place that night. Yet if they had done a proper investigation at the time, they would have evdience from a car striking him. Yet they were always open to the fact that he may have just been jumped by a bunch of people and struck in the head. When he finally did come out of his coma he noticed his wallet was emptied so that is where the whole he might have been jumped theory came from.

sorry for the rambling

 

[scoops]

just a bit more on the petrit vasi angle:

I was wrong about one thing. Vasi was in a coma for a month not two months like i stated above. I was going off of memory.

Here are absolute facts about what is known followed by a follow-up story that was done back in the day on vasi from the school's newspaper.

PROVEN FACTS
-----Petrit Vasi found lying in the road (intersection Triangle/Mattoon) at 12:20 a.m. on Friday Feb 6. 2004

------Maura's area supervisor finds maura in a zombie-like state at Melville Dorm security desk (supervisor estimates time being 1:30 a.m. to 1:45 a.m.)
******NOTE: mass confusion was created when she first was interviewed on James Renner's blog. She later came back and clarified the times as she had forgot that on thursday night's the shifts ran much later and her shift ended at 2:30 a.m. and she came across maura 45 minutes to an hour before her shift was done, therefore the 1:30 a.m. to 1:45 a.m estimate.



--------Melville dorm to the intersection of Triangle/Mattoon (according to Google Maps) is right at 1.0 miles. (take a right off N. Massachusetts (also known as N. hadley) and turn onto N. Pleasant which becomes Triangle and intersects with mattoon


Here is the story from the UMASS Newspaper with quotes from Vasi.

In the wake of several hit and run accidents this academic year involving University of Massachusetts students, one lucky student is back in school to finish his senior year after an accident last winter left him in critical condition.

After being found unconscious in the middle of the night, spending a month in a state of comatose, followed by months of rehab, Petrit Vasi of Dorchester, Mass., says he plans to graduate in the spring.

At 12:20 a.m. Friday, February 6, 2004, Amherst Police found Vasi on the side of the road at the intersection of Triangle and Mattoon Streets in Amherst.

Vasi spent over a month at Spaulding Hospital in what he describes as a, “state of comatose.” Vasi said that he could hear people speak to him, and was able to speak fragmented sentences, but could not open his eyes.

When asked about the accident, Vasi scratched his head and stated, “I can barely remember anything about that night.” From what he does remember Vasi had been out with a friend and, “had been drinking.” Vasi also remembers going back to his friend’s house and waiting for a car to pick him up. That was the extent of Vasi’s memory of the night of the accident.

Police stated that Vasi’s injuries were consistent with being struck by or falling from a moving vehicle. When asked if he could remember which one it was Vasi replied, “I can’t confirm or refute that I was thrown from a car, but I think that I was hit.”

Vasi gave reasons for believing he was hit including the fact that his injuries were all on his right side of his body, and also that the friend that was supposed to pick him up and according to Vasi, “the only person I would have ridden with,” came to the hospital the next morning.

However, Vasi also stated that there was no money in his wallet when he was found, but he dismissed the idea of being robbed and confirmed that he usually does not carry much money in his wallet anyway.

Vasi continues to speculate on the circumstances surrouding his accident, “It would be more of a story for me to tell you that I got thrown from a car,” he then smiled and said, “It would be more notorious, but because of the injuries, I am confident that I was hit.”

Police would not comment further about the incident because it is still under investigation.

When Vasi as he called it, “woke up,” in early March from his “state of comatose”, he remembers not knowing where he was and thinking that he had been in a comatose for much longer than a month. “When the doctors asked me how old I thought I was, I said 27.”

After waking up Vasi went through rigorous physical therapy. Confined to a wheel chair for the first week, Vasi then graduated to a walker, and from the walker a cane. Now over six months after waking up, Vasi can walk without the support of a cane, but still admits it is hard work, “walking to me now is like running used to be to me, and it’s a pretty funny sight to see my try to run,” Vasi said. Vasi’s memory is still recovering as well, and is, according to Vasi, “still a little shady sometimes.”

As several students have been the victims of car accidents this year alone, including Lisa Shiozaki and Ciara Tran, both of whom were left in critical condition, Vasi’s accident proves not to be an isolated event, and his recovery proves to be very fortunate.

Vasi reflected on the incident with a positive outlook saying, “I am just happy to be alive, this whole thing has really put things in perspective for me, and has matured me faster than I would have normally.”

 

[telemag]

I've got to admit, this sounds plausible.

 

[scoops]

After thinking some more on this.

I have to go back to reintroducing the suicide theory.

Even if the vasi hit and run angle proves to be correct, I think she might have been so depressed or scared or both that who knows what she would've done once she left the accident site in new hampshire.


ODD THINGS that need to be cleared up IMHO

Why don't police have an idea what happend to Vasi? --- There is a big difference from someone being thrown from a car to being struck by one and even a bigger difference from someone getting jumped by people. I don't know of any hit and run case where there isn't something left behind by the vehicle, paint chips, plastic glass, etc.... parts of the car would be on vasi himself

Why does fred come from hours away (from his work) and then spend all day saturday looking for used cars with Maura, yet come away with nothing at the end of the day? (Although it has been reported that they did pick out a car, a 2001 used geo prism, but while reported, this to my knowledge has never been proven a fact.

Was maura's car in hiding on the saturday that fred came to visit? We hear that her car was in such bad shape and maura was afraid to drive it (yet it was apparently in good enough shape to make it hours away on the following Monday). I wonder if anyone at her dorm saw her car much after the thursday night incident.

 

[McSpy]

After thinking some more on this.

I have to go back to reintroducing the suicide theory.

Even if the vasi hit and run angle proves to be correct, I think she might have been so depressed or scared or both that who knows what she would've done once she left the accident site in new hampshire.


ODD THINGS that need to be cleared up IMHO

Why don't police have an idea what happend to Vasi? --- There is a big difference from someone being thrown from a car to being struck by one and even a bigger difference from someone getting jumped by people. I don't know of any hit and run case where there isn't something left behind by the vehicle, paint chips, plastic glass, etc.... parts of the car would be on vasi himself

Why does fred come from hours away (from his work) and then spend all day saturday looking for used cars with Maura, yet come away with nothing at the end of the day? (Although it has been reported that they did pick out a car, a 2001 used geo prism, but while reported, this to my knowledge has never been proven a fact.

Was maura's car in hiding on the saturday that fred came to visit? We hear that her car was in such bad shape and maura was afraid to drive it (yet it was apparently in good enough shape to make it hours away on the following Monday). I wonder if anyone at her dorm saw her car much after the thursday night incident.

BBM

I bought a used car at a dealership last year and had them hold it for me with a small deposit. We made arrangements for another date for me to pick up the car. Before I picked up the car, I had to get insurance. They also had the registration plates and state inspection ready at that prearranged date, so I could drive it away after signing the papers and handing over the money. I paid for the car in full on that day. This all happened in a span of a week from deposit to full purchase. All in all, this is what I recall. It was actually a painless process.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Please continue here:

NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 - #9 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community