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

[MassGuy]

With all of the initial media attention and stories on this case, why wouldn't at least 1 bone have been found by now?

Speaking for myself, I’m not the least bit surprised.

That’s a rural area, and Maura could have wandered for some time.

Foliage, water runoff, animals, brush, there are lots of things that can conceal a body, or scatter the remains.

They could search an area where she is located, and easily miss her.

 

[sony12]

The Maura Murray blog run by James Renner has the indictment of Bill Rausch.

He was just charged today.

There is a warrant out for his arrest.

Good deal. Unless all those things that I have heard about the guy are completely made up than he is an absolute sexual predator that probably needs to be taken off the streets for a period of time.

Does make you wonder though that if Maura liked him than she may have really been into the 'bad boy' type. And whose to say that there wasn't another guy out there similar to Bill Rausch that she may have been socializing with?

 

[HeartOfGranite]

With all of the initial media attention and stories on this case, why wouldn't at least 1 bone have been found by now?

Not necessarily. Depending on where someone entered the woods, they could wander for miles--a lot of that area is National Forest land. Even if it was just a few yards, hidden from the road, wildlife would scatter bones. Without knowing where to look, it's entirely possible no trace of a person would ever be found, or might be found years later by hikers or hunters.

If Maura decided to leave the accident on foot, which seems very plausible since she was, by many accounts, troubled about something, probably worried about getting in trouble as she had a couple of recent incidents, and possibly had been drinking, if she continued in the direction she was going and ran/jogged, she could have been at least a mile away by the time police arrived at the accident scene. If she ran in the road, tracks might not have been evident if the snow was covering them, depending on when the road had been plowed and how deep fresh snow was before and after she left.

Just a bit of speculation here, but I'm guessing LE spent at least a few minutes searching for her closer to the accident scene, at surrounding houses, etc. That maybe buys her another mile. Every mile further east she gets, the more remote the area. If she hid when she saw headlights, even just a bit off the road or in a driveway, she'd be hard to spot in the dark, and if she ran a little further each time the car passed and was out of sight, she could have gotten a few miles up the road. If she had gone into the woods that far away, even if someone had seen footprints, would they connect them to Maura if they were 4-5 miles away? Prints may have filled with snow by morning and appears older than they were.

I think if she was taken by someone, it's more likely that that someone saw her when she stopped (I think it was at a store in Woodsville or North Haverhill, IIRC?), did something to her car while she was in the store that caused it to break down/go off the road, and followed her. Or, that person followed her from Amherst, if you want to go for even more sinister. Perhaps that's why she was running in the first place. I still think exposure is the most likely, followed by suicide, but this seems more likely to me than a chance meeting on a remote road on a snowy night when most locals would be in for the night.

 

[jaejae]

Here is a link to what I think is a recent Podcast about the case:

107 Degrees - Maura Murray - 107 Degrees - Maura Murray - TopPodcast.com

 

[iluvmua]

I wonder if he was like this when he was dating Maura?

 

[sony12]

I wonder if he was like this when he was dating Maura?

He was probably just as big of a control freak but hard to say if he would have gone out and raped a total stranger when he was 20 or 21. Often times that type of behavior is developed over a period of time and experiences. Similar to how a shy guy will gain confidence to go up and talk to girls with the more experiences he gets a sexually aggressive guy who enjoys controlling women will also gain the confidence to do the things that give them thrills as they get more experienced.

As a personal experience I get a kick out of dating women older than me. It started out with me just going out with women a couple years older and at the time felt them simply 'officially' being older than me was a big deal. But the age gap started increasing as time went on to the point now where I havn't dated anyone less than 10 years older than me in probably six or seven years.

As far as Rausch's and Maura's relationship I doubt she ever felt like she was raped by him. A lot of girls in their late teens and early twenties like those real aggressive 'bad boy' types. To them at the time instead of feeling like the guy is controlling or abusive they feel like the guy will protect them. Also if they have some self confidence issues (which many of them do) they feel like they won't have to make any decisions when they are involved with guys like that.

It generally isn't until later after they have matured quite a bit that they realize that those types of guys don't treat them right in many instances.

 

[Laughing]

Didn't they meet at the military academy? She would expect structure, order, control; in a structure that includes aggression on many levels.

Don't know how this would figure into their relationship, but could be factors?

Was her theft of the make-up an attempt to get away from that environment -- or certain people within it?

As a successful athlete, Maura likely was 'coachable,' accepting of what others ask her to do.

We may never know. At least we have each other to endlessly discuss the details!

 

[sony12]

Didn't they meet at the military academy? She would expect structure, order, control; in a structure that includes aggression on many levels.

Don't know how this would figure into their relationship, but could be factors?

Was her theft of the make-up an attempt to get away from that environment -- or certain people within it?

As a successful athlete, Maura likely was 'coachable,' accepting of what others ask her to do.

We may never know. At least we have each other to endlessly discuss the details!

Lots of people can be structured and disciplined in certain areas of their lives but complete messes in other areas. Her being in a military academy or her being a college athlete means virtually nothing when you are strictly looking at what her personal life may have been like. Especially regarding her playing a college sport. Those people are often only disciplined when it comes to athletics and in keeping their body in shape for their particular sport. But really aren't any different than any other college kid in pretty much every other area of their life.

I have been around military people in the past and for some of them outside of that military setting they were some of the most immature people I knew at the time.

 

[jaejae]

This is a regular Podcast series of course in Maura's continuing and apparently at the moment never ending mystery and is episode 101. It has Maura's brother talking and it is always good to see family members involved rather than on the outside of these cases:

 

[minazoe]

every time this thread pops up on my feed my heart stops.

 

[sony12]

This is a regular Podcast series of course in Maura's continuing and apparently at the moment never ending mystery and is episode 101. It has Maura's brother talking and it is always good to see family members involved rather than on the outside of these cases:

Think I will skip this one. They had him on just six months ago and he wouldn't really say anything new other than how the family feels about the news of the dig.

 

[nyonge]

That near-brush with a solution for this case and the resulting failure to find one left me, a casual observer, back to where I started, believing she wrecked then wandered off, frightened and drunk, and nature took its sad but natural course.

 

[jaejae]

Think I will skip this one. They had him on just six months ago and he wouldn't really say anything new other than how the family feels about the news of the dig.

I tend to agree with you and if I am being honest I did not listen to it but I wanted to give the case another bump. The point I was making at the moment Maura's disappearance is still that permanent internet mystery with Podcast after Podcast and I do have a great deal of sympathy for her family who are looking for some kind of answers.

 

[sony12]

I tend to agree with you and if I am being honest I did not listen to it but I wanted to give the case another bump. The point I was making at the moment Maura's disappearance is still that permanent internet mystery with Podcast after Podcast and I do have a great deal of sympathy for her family who are looking for some kind of answers.

Yeah but to be honest I am not sure why the Murray family really has anything to do with those guys from the MMM podcast. They clearly are trying to profit from the case (maybe even to the point that they are attempting to make a living off of it) and in my opinion the small reach that those guys have isn't worth acknowledging them and giving a thumbs up to the benefits they receive from covering the investigation.

 

[jaejae]

Yeah but to be honest I am not sure why the Murray family really has anything to do with those guys from the MMM podcast. They clearly are trying to profit from the case (maybe even to the point that they are attempting to make a living off of it) and in my opinion the small reach that those guys have isn't worth acknowledging them and giving a thumbs up to the benefits they receive from covering the investigation.

I do not really know anyone but that sounds like some valid points. My experience looking on from the outside is stating the obvious victims loved ones just want their loved ones cases solved and some answers and really no one deserves more answers than the Murray family and in particular her Dad. In some cold cases victims relatives appear pleased if the case gets some attention when I suppose in the Maura Murray case you could say it gets a lot of attention but at the moment not many definite answers.

 

[harvgr81]

Yeah but to be honest I am not sure why the Murray family really has anything to do with those guys from the MMM podcast. They clearly are trying to profit from the case (maybe even to the point that they are attempting to make a living off of it) and in my opinion the small reach that those guys have isn't worth acknowledging them and giving a thumbs up to the benefits they receive from covering the investigation.

So are you saying that people who have podcasts shouldnt cover true crime and leave it to the "professionals" like MSM who receive money from advertisers?
I never heard such negativity about people trying to get the word out on various cases...

Chloe from Crawlspace: Logical Fallacies by Special Guest, Greg Overacker!

I suggest reading about 4-5 paragraphs down.

 

[sony12]

So are you saying that people who have podcasts shouldnt cover true crime and leave it to the "professionals" like MSM who receive money from advertisers?
I never heard such negativity about people trying to get the word out on various cases...

Chloe from Crawlspace: Logical Fallacies by Special Guest, Greg Overacker!

I suggest reading about 4-5 paragraphs down.

It's not much different than the youtube culture in how people want to do youtube full time so they don't have to work a regular job. If you think there aren't any ulterior motives with these people and they simply are doing it for the good of the case than you are kidding yourself.

If you think Tim and Lance aren't suspicious in their motives let me ask you what are these guys doing in their regular jobs. Have you ever heard them say anything about what they do for a living? Because I sure havn't. From what I have seen they are doing this MMM podcast thing full time.

 

[Threshold]

It's not much different than the youtube culture in how people want to do youtube full time so they don't have to work a regular job. If you think there aren't any ulterior motives with these people and they simply are doing it for the good of the case than you are kidding yourself.

If you think Tim and Lance aren't suspicious in their motives let me ask you what are these guys doing in their regular jobs. Have you ever heard them say anything about what they do for a living? Because I sure havn't. From what I have seen they are doing this MMM podcast thing full time.

I didn't suspect that in the beginning, but does it strike anyone else as odd how it hasn't ended? Unconcluded had a season on JK. It ended. In the Dark had a season on JEW. It ended. The MMM podcast just keeps going and going and going despite the fact that nothing really new has come out in quite a while (except this basement dig). I stopped listening to it even though I thought it was well done because I don't have an hour to waste every week or three to hear the same old facts regurgitated by yet another repeat guest on the show.

 

[sony12]

I didn't suspect that in the beginning, but does it strike anyone else as odd how it hasn't ended? Unconcluded had a season on JK. It ended. In the Dark had a season on JEW. It ended. The MMM podcast just keeps going and going and going despite the fact that nothing really new has come out in quite a while (except this basement dig). I stopped listening to it even though I thought it was well done because I don't have an hour to waste every week or three to hear the same old facts regurgitated by yet another repeat guest on the show.

Well not when you look at what the MMM thing really is. Just two guys running their own channel and putting that content up on youtube and whatever other media they have. The two examples you gave I think are a little more professional than just your regular youtube account.

When you just look at it in the context of youtube what they are doing isn't uncommon at all. For youtubers it isn't strange at all for them to take the same bit of information and find several different ways to spin it so they can have all that many more videos to upload. It's how many youtubers build a following. Because for them the most important thing isn't to have relevant info to talk about. It's simply to have regular content to view as the more videos you have the better the chances are that people will start paying attention to your channel.

 

[jaejae]

Here is a recent post on You Tube about the case and features a panel including Mike Morford who was involved in helping the victims relatives in the Golden State Killer case as well: