NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 - #14

[Moosebegoose]

As much as I love Dogs and are amazed what they can be trained for - I wouldn't put too much investment into the sniffer dogs for this case.

 

[Oregonmama]

Teens make mistakes, young adults make mistakes and adults make mistakes BUT the circumstances in this case get me suspicious of things that might have happened. Sounds like the case was treated as an accident at first and I think a lot of precious time was missed investigating the hard facts! JMO I personally think she was abducted and the scene was staged......

 

[Lavinia]

What do you mean the scene was staged? I believe she crashed her car, panicked, left the scene and was either abducted or ran into the woods/succumbed to the elements.

Teens make mistakes, young adults make mistakes and adults make mistakes BUT the circumstances in this case get me suspicious of things that might have happened. Sounds like the case was treated as an accident at first and I think a lot of precious time was missed investigating the hard facts! JMO I personally think she was abducted and the scene was staged......

 

[folieadeuxnola]

Reward may soon be offered in cold case of missing UMass student

Reward money will soon be offered for people with knowledge about the whereabouts of Maura Murray, a University of Massachusetts nursing student who disappeared without a trace after traveling from the flagship campus to New Hampshire in 2004.

New York-based journalist Maggie Freleng, who served as the host of Oxygen channel’s six-part series “The Disappearance of Maura Murray” last fall, recently launched a campaign.

“We think this is the best way to get information that will lead to Maura Murray,” Freleng said.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Friends, family of missing UMass nursing student Maura Murray hope funds will lead to answers

 

[sekrah]

Just caught up on this case, but as I say in many of these.. People underestimate how far people can travel by foot. These search areas that are conducted for missing people are entirely too narrow. They do it for obvious reasons (money, personnel available to search, etc..), but people can travel FAR when they are out and about and get lost. It's absolutely nothing to walk 3 miles in an hour, even in mountains.

I always remind people of James Kim whose car broke down with his family in the Oregon Mountains during a snowstorm. He was cold and hungry and managed to walk 16 miles away from his vehicle looking for help through the snow and rugged mountain terrain.

Could she have been abducted by an opportune sexual predator? Of course. But there's lots of evidence pointing towards a distraught, troubled person with alcohol issues that ran away from a DUI accident.. IMO, odds are strongly in favor of an exposure/hypothermia case here and her body is further from the crash site than what has been searched so far.

I feel 80% that she ended up dying in the woods vs 20% was picked up and killed by an abductor.

 

[2Hope4]

I keep hoping that "today's the day" and Maura will be found.

 

[alrightyrichie]

21-year-old Maura Murray disappeared on Monday, February 9, 2004 following a minor 1-car accident on Route 112 near Woodsville, New Hampshire.

Previous threads:
#1#2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13

Other links:

Maura Murray Missing - http://www.mauramurraymissing.com/

NamUs - Missing Person Case

Charley Project - http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/murray_maura.html

 

[alrightyrichie]

Both are probable causes. Hypothermia CAN happen at temperatures just below 40 from long exposure especially at night with no sun. It’s a bit strange to me that the K9 dogs couldn’t track a scent very far which makes me believe she may (or may not) have been picked up by a passing car. A bit of a more far fetched (but also probable) theory is that the entire incident was planned and the accident was actually an accident. Meaning Maura knew she was leaving town thus explains the emails to her teachers. She withdrew money possibly for gas or a bus to Vermont which explains the directions to Stowe, and en route to her destination she may have become drunk and the crash could have confused her. Again, only a theory in midst of hundreds of others. I would love to know the contents of the last phone call she made to her boyfriend, along with more infomation about a call from the American Red Cross some sources say her boyfriend received not long after. I’m sure her boyfriend knows much more than he’s telling, at least having the knowledge of where she was going and why. I’m not sure how many times if any he was interviewed and what was taken from the interview but I would love to see that as well. I understand he has an alibi but that does not mean he didn’t know her motives. Personally I believe Butch Atwood, the bus driver that lived near by should be taken much more seriously as a supsoect and not so much a witness because he is quite possibly the last person to see Maura before she disappeared. A few sources stated the little of a scent the dogs got, lead down the road and not into the woods. Which makes me believe more that she got into a car wether it was willingly or non willingly. I do not believe maura left on her own accord from the crash site, but then again i’m not very informed on scene investigations and evidence. Just food for thought.

 

[sony12]

I listened to a podcast the past couple weeks in which James Renner said that Maura's bf is currently facing abuse charges. He has a new running theory that Maura and her bf were together that weekend (or at least interacted face to face) and that he may have killed Maura in a heat of the moment argument.

 

[sony12]

James Renner on Twitter

 

[TristanP]

Just caught up on this case, but as I say in many of these.. People underestimate how far people can travel by foot. These search areas that are conducted for missing people are entirely too narrow. They do it for obvious reasons (money, personnel available to search, etc..), but people can travel FAR when they are out and about and get lost. It's absolutely nothing to walk 3 miles in an hour, even in mountains.

I always remind people of James Kim whose car broke down with his family in the Oregon Mountains during a snowstorm. He was cold and hungry and managed to walk 16 miles away from his vehicle looking for help through the snow and rugged mountain terrain.

Could she have been abducted by an opportune sexual predator? Of course. But there's lots of evidence pointing towards a distraught, troubled person with alcohol issues that ran away from a DUI accident.. IMO, odds are strongly in favor of an exposure/hypothermia case here and her body is further from the crash site than what has been searched so far.

I feel 80% that she ended up dying in the woods vs 20% was picked up and killed by an abductor.

I agree with you and I’m more like 99% woods, 1% abduction.

 

[alrightyrichie]

Anyone hear about a passing motorist seeing a woman describing Maura and her clothes traveling quickly on foot heading east around 8/9 pm on that night? Only heard it once or twice, but it was mentioned a while after she was reported missing which makes me believe the witness isn’t so credible.

 

[sony12]

Anyone hear about a passing motorist seeing a woman describing Maura and her clothes traveling quickly on foot heading east around 8/9 pm on that night? Only heard it once or twice, but it was mentioned a while after she was reported missing which makes me believe the witness isn’t so credible.

Yep. Heard that one. Problem is is that many of the rumors we have heard were made later after people's minds had become pretty foggy over the situation. That night it wasn't any big deal and it was just a routine deal where someone wrecked her car because she likely had a little too much to drink. It wasn't until later on when people realized she had disappeared that they tried to start thinking back about what they saw.

 

[zencompass]

Friends, family of missing UMass nursing student Maura Murray hope funds will lead to answers

Thank you, JerseyGirl, for letting us know about this fund which is offering hope to all who search for Maura. Not only hope, but keeping Maura's disappearance in the news which is vital.

I was glad to see this as well about the reward money (in above article):

"If it is not claimed in two years we will donate it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children."

 

[The Farm]

I thought of something that I read quite a few years ago in "Not Without Peril".
The book list many deaths through the years on Mt.Washington and through out the area. There was one female and of course I can not possibly remember her name but it was nine years before her body was found.
People who are not from the area and have never been there do not realize the rock crevices, small caves etc. that inhabit the place. Tuckermans Ravine, Huntingtons Ravine still have snow in May most times.
I actually hiked Tuckeramans in my much younger day which was so many years ago I hardly remember it but know I have pictures somewhere and count myself lucky nothing like an avalanche happened as I can remember people skiing but it was maybe June?
I still feel to this day that she perished somewhere in the woods, possibly crawled into a crevice etc. and has yet to be found. I only came to that conclusion after years of her being searched for. She might be hidden and no one has come upon her location.
That is only my conclusion because of the time that has passed on this case.

 

[Moosebegoose]

People who are not from the area and have never been there do not realize the rock crevices, small caves etc. that inhabit the place. Tuckermans Ravine, Huntingtons Ravine still have snow in May most times.

I have always thought it has to be the woods. I am convinced there is probably so much you can't see in those woods.

My other thing is, if it was the woods, why didn't she come out again? Or did she fall and injure herself?

So many questions...

 

[folieadeuxnola]

Soil scanned on property could help in NH cold case

After 14 years, there are still no answers in the search for Maura Murray. The 21-year-old vanished on a stretch of Route 112 in Woodsville, New Hampshire, while on a mysterious trip she never told anyone about. Now, a new push to find clues in her disappearance has a crew returning to the area.

In Woodsville, New Hampshire, a high-tech gadget is scanning the ground using radar. The property it's checking was one of interest in the Maura Murray case 14 years ago. All these years later, her father is still looking for answers and says he's thankful for the people who still support him in his search.

"This something that has to be done and it's in a place that absolutely has to be ruled out," dad Fred Murray said.

 

[folieadeuxnola]

Search renewed for Hanson woman, missing since 2004

An unsolved mystery in Grafton County, N.H. is getting renewed attention and some high-tech equipment was brought to New Hampshire’s mountains in the hopes of uncovering new clues.

In February 2004, 21-year-old Maura Murray of Hanson, disappeared after crashing her car on Route 112 in Woodsville. The Hanson native was a nursing student at UMass Amherst at the time. Fourteen years later, her father, Fred Murray, is still looking for answers.

A survey crew on Sunday scanned a property on the Bath-Woodsville line where a trailer once stood.

 

[sony12]

Soil scanned on property could help in NH cold case

After 14 years, there are still no answers in the search for Maura Murray. The 21-year-old vanished on a stretch of Route 112 in Woodsville, New Hampshire, while on a mysterious trip she never told anyone about. Now, a new push to find clues in her disappearance has a crew returning to the area.

In Woodsville, New Hampshire, a high-tech gadget is scanning the ground using radar. The property it's checking was one of interest in the Maura Murray case 14 years ago. All these years later, her father is still looking for answers and says he's thankful for the people who still support him in his search.

"This something that has to be done and it's in a place that absolutely has to be ruled out," dad Fred Murray said.

Unfortunately these investigations are still being headed by (at best) people who don't have a clue what they are doing or (at worst) people who are doing it for their own personal career interest

If Maggie Freleng truly wants to do any good for this case she needs to start working closer with police and stop trying to set up these fly by night investigations (which I have a hunch she is doing largely in order to help build her own personal resume).

All it seems they are doing is checking out places that Fred Murray has deemed suspicious over the years. For the heck of it lets just assume that one of these supposed 'suspicious' individuals that lived in these places did have something to do with it. If they did are they really going to be burying the body in their yard?? I seriously doubt it. They would put the body some place that wouldn't automatically make them or their family a suspect.

Quite honestly I think they need to start looking at the people who were already in Maura's life more than they do these random locations near the area where she disappeared at. Particularly the boyfriend/boyfriends.