NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 - # 1

[PrayersForMaura]

While I realize this is a discussion of sorts and that everyone is entitled to their opinions, I do wonder why you are so angry, cyberlaw, and why it seems you have so much hatred for Maura??
It's a bit bothersome to me, thought I'm trying not to let it bother me.
I just really would like to know why you are so angry? Are you involved in the case in some way other than being a sleuther? Did you know Maura?

 

[Peabody]

OMG, the FBI gets involved in criminal cases. In a criminal case you need a victim of crime. Evidence also.]


Cyberlaw, the FBI gets involved in missing person cases as well as criminal cases. Please just check out their website



IT IS A FACT THAT THE THE FBI *OFFERED* THEIR ASSISTANCE TO NH LE IN MAURA'S CASE ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11. It seems unlikely they would have offered their assistance IF legally they could not get involved AND unless they felt they should be involved.

The FBI's offer was the result of Lt. Bill Rausch, Maura's boyfriend contacting them regarding a call from a prepaid calling card very early the morning of 2/11/04. Lt. Rausch was going through airport security and had his cell phone 'off'. The missed call went directly to his voice mail. The very short "message" consisted of a female voice shivering and crying softly ending with a muffled sob.


The fact that Lt. Rausch is certain that it was Maura crying in the "message' AND that she has never called again IS one of the countless reasons that those that love her FEAR that that she is a victim of foul play. Do you seriously doubt that anyone that loves her would rather that she ran away than to have been harmed? They are not that selfish and those that love Maura know her selflessness and compassion - while they believe it a ridiculous notion that she ran away, they know that anything is possible; BUT they also have relationships with Maura which you do not AND they know that if for reasons unknown, that she chose to run away, she WOULD HAVE LET FAMILY AND BOYFRIEND KNOW THAT SHE WAS OK...........you have no understanding of her thoughtfulness, kindness and compassion. It takes a detached and selfish personality to separate ones self from all of his/her relationships........Maura was the opposite of these traits.



The prepaid calling card call is ANOTHER bone of contention with the investigative ability of the NH SP regarding the investigation:

Det. Todd Landry told Lt. Rausch on the evening of 2/11/04 that the call orignated from the American Red Cross. At the time, Both Lt. Rausch and his mother disputed the logic in that information because neither of them had provided the AMRC with his phone number......further, the AMRC had already confirmed on the evening of 2/10/04 that they had contacted his commander in arranging his emergency leave from the US Army to go to NH.....the only phone numbers that the AMRC needed to contact the ARMY was the commanding officer's number and Mrs. Rausch's number to confirm the leave had been arranged. As strange as it seems, Lt. Rausch was completely out of the loop with communicating with AMRC. It is just not possible to conceive that the AMRC had a method of obtaining Lt. Rausch's cell phone number when they had no reason to call him AND that they never did call him. However, NH SP insisted that the call was from AMRC.

After returning home from the search for Maura, the Rausches used 2 separate personal resources in attempts to trace the prepaid calling card. They used a second resource after the first resource because of wanting to confirm information that the first resource provided: PREPAID CALLING CARDS CALLS CANNOT BE TRACED....this information has since been confirmed by numerous resources. THEREFORE, NH SP WERE INCORRECT IN STATING THAT THEY HAD BEEN ABLE TO TRACE THE PREPAID CALLING CARD CALL TO LT. RAUSCH'S CELL PHONE......this just cannot be done!

During the first 10 days or so of Maura's missingThe FBI was very helpful to the Murray and Rausch Families. They provided direction as to the correct course of action to take and stressed that they must work through NH LE, always reminding the Murrays and Rausches to be sure to extend to NH LE the information that the FBI was willing upon invitation to assist in the case. The FBI even gave them personal cell phone numbers as contacts.

........however, after about 10 days of communicating with the FBI, the family received a phone call from the head of the New Hampshire regional office of the FBI stating that the NH SP did not want their assistance and as a result all communication with the FBI should cease..........wonder where that directive came from ??? The Murrays and Rausches were told that because the FBI was not an official part of the investigation, they were sorry, but they would no longer be permitted to communicate regarding the case.


Of course, the invitation to the FBI from NH LE to actively assist in the investigation has never been given. Because Fred Murray let it be known through the media that the FBI was willing to assist, and in an attempt to placate Fred Murray, Lt. Scarinza asked the FBI to interview family and friends in Maura's hometown of Hanson MA.

The FBI was not involved in any investigation at UMass - the UMass Campus Police handled that end of the investigation........by the way, an investigation in which Maura's family and Lt. Rausch were very pleased.

some supporting links: http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2004/02/20/news/news02.txt

please note that in this story, even Lt. Scarinza admits that there was no search for Maura for 36 hours........he uses the excuse that Maura was drinking and that she was driving her father's car........wouldn't the police be obligated to look for any person supposed to be intoxicated when they were near a National Forest where there were no homes AND the temp was 12 degrees and falling?

And why was the car being Fred Murray's an issue in the delay in the search???? ........according to Butch Atwood, he reported the 'missing person' was a "young woman about 20 years old".......why wouldn't the police call the owner of the car to see if he knew something about this young woman? Seems to me that any policeman would logically assume that a young woman of about 20 missing from a car registered to a man Fred Murray's age would be a relative. And the car was had a UMass parking registration permit that was in Maura's name - if checked, that would have confirmed the connection with at least the surname.

Another Link re: the FBI - this one had the specific spin by NH LE that they had invited FBI for assistance.....but remember it was only in interviewing Maura's family and friends to determine if she was a likley runaway, something which everyone who knows her says is not likely.

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BG&p_theme=bg&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_text_search-0="maura%20murray"&s_dispstring=maura%20murray%20AND%20date(2/1/2004%20to%2012/31/2005)&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=2/1/2004%20to%2012/31/2005&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date&xcal_useweights=no

From the Boston Globe - you can order complete article for $2.95

WITH NO NEW LEADS, FBI JOINS SEARCH FOR MISSING STUDENT
Published on February 20, 2004
Author(s): Peter DeMarco, Globe Correspondent

The FBI has joined in the search for missing college student Maura Murray, but without a single lead in the nearly two-week old case, New Hampshire authorities said the additional investigators might not make a difference.


HOW CALLOUS AND BOASTFUL THAT NH LE SAYS THAT " ADDITIONAL INVESTIGATORS MIGHT NOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE".............what would it have hurt for them to ask for their help when offered????



Hopefully, you are right Cyberlaw and Maura is alive somewhere.


But, unfortunately, any unbiased person has to admit to a severe stretch of logic to deny that something smells very fishy about the handling of Maura's missing by NH LE.

 

[KatherineQ]

Peabody - I don't think it's true that prepaid calling cards can't be traced. They apparently are DIFFICULT to trace (as in, they don't show up on calller ID or *57, when used by the call recipient), but law enforcement can trace them by getting the phone records.

http://artofhacking.com/files/BEATCID.HTM

I think it's irrefutable that Maura Murray intended to run away, for at least a couple weeks, and not tell anyone at all where she was going - not her friends, not her roommates, and not her family. That much I think is absolutely crystal clear and as far as I know, no one disputes it. That something may have happened to her in the course of her running off voluntarily seems like a real possibility.

It must jsut be unimaginable hell to be in her family's shoes, and not know. They don't know where she was intending to go, and why, so they don't even have a starting place to find out whether she's made it there as she intended. Very sad.

edited to add: I haven't been following this case completely, but it seems to me that NH LE must be in a very difficult position of trying not to violate Maura's right to privacy, in the face of the fact that she was clearly trying to leave secretly (which is her right) and trying to accommodate her family who are worried to death over her. Where does the state draw the line, and decide to violate the privacy rights of one person because they ache for the family who is worried? It seems to me that Maura would have every right to sue the state for going through her private records, if she turns up safely and has decided to distance herself from her family and friends.

 

[Peabody]

Katherine,


Thank you for your insight..........all I know is that numerous agencies were contacted about tracing the prepaid calling card call. All agreed that the call could not be traced.

The family was told by all contacts in an attempt to trace the call that unless they knew the number of the calling card it was impossible to trace. Of course, Lt. Rausch's cell phone has the record of the number through which the call was routed. This is not the same as having the card number and owner: ie ATT, Walmart, etc.

I will forward the link that you have provided to the www.mauramurray.com website for the family.

The family DOES DISPUTE that she was running away for a week or two with the intention of telling no one.

She called Lt. Rausch twice on the day that she disappeared. His position in the army prevented him from being available. Then she sent an email which I have posted before......it was printed in the June 2004 issue of Seventeen Magazine. She also had an appointment arranged to call her father the evening of her disappearing...........Both Lt. Rausch and Fred Murray have repeatedly said that Maura would not have left them phone messages saying she was going away.........she would only have told them persoanlly SO AS NOT TO CAUSE THEM UNDUE CONCERN. She and Lt. Rausch spoke or left messages with each other daily.

Lt. Rausch and Fred Murray AGREE that they did not know Maura was planning to go away and that she made that decision sometime during the night of Sunday, Feb 8 or the morning of Monday, Feb 9 when she started making arrangements to go away.....them not knowing of her plans does not mean that she did not intend on telling the at the first opportunity of speaking in person.

 

[KatherineQ]

Peabody - this case is heartbreaking, for sure.

I can't really imagine, probably because I don't know her, under what possible circumstances Maura would have packed up her things and left her dorm room after telling her professors she was leaving because of a death in the family - and NOT tell her boyfriend and her family but in fact INTEND to tell them in person. I would think, Maura would assume that within an hour or two of her cleaning out her belongings someone would have called her family to demand what was going on - it doesn't sound like that happened, but that would be the reasonable thing to think - and then they'd surely be very, very worried about her. What could she be doing that she didn't even mention in brief in the days before, and yet, her family believes she did intend to tell them where she was going - when she hadn't mentioned even the slightest peep of her intent to leave in her contacts with them in the days prior. If she was going somewhere totally legit and she was about to tell her father all about it, did she intend to arrive drunk and tell him? If she didn't have some other clear method of getting out of the pickle she was in - freezing weather, and a wrecked car, and night approaching - why did she refuse help? She must have had some other resource that she knew was on the way.

I don't understand why her family can't locate the number that she called second to last before her disappearance, that is mentioned on her website - it seems like if they got the student directory they could just go through the painful process of looking down each page of numbers and finding the one that matched, even though that person would have "moved on" by now, they'd have a name to match the number. But that too is puzzling - SURELY that person knew Maura went missing and yet they didn't come forward with information, that she had called them.

Anyway, prayers that she will be found safe.

 

[Peabody]

Maura's family did continue researching the second phone number until they located to whom it belonged.


The number belonged to the fellow nursing student who had been giving Maura rides to nursing clinicals because of Maura's mechanical problems with her car.

Maura's family learned that she called and left the fellow nursing student a message about not being in school. This student was an acquaintance of Maura, not a good friend - they had simply been assigned the same schedule for the remainder of the school year.

Maura had a private dorm room. There would be no reason for anyone to report the room was packed and Maura was gone..........there is still the question as to if the room was packed or simply not unpacked since school had resumed for less than 2 weeks, including only 2 weekends, one of which Maura had spent working and the other with her father before she decided to leave school for a week.

There is still no proof that Maura was drinking - the busdriver says he did not report that she was intoxicated and that he saw no behavior from her to indicate that she was.....his report is the only one we have. Yes, there were alcoholic beverages in the car, but this does not mean that she was drinking, although I could not say she was not.

As to Maura refusing help from the busdriver: that simply means for reasons known only to her that she was not comfortable in accepting his help.....that does not mean that she had other resources. Even he and his wife said that he has a frightful appearance.........since Maura has never been in contact with anyone since speaking to the busdriver, the possibility of her being abducted before the police arrived is one of the fears of the family.

I thank you for your prayers as I am sure the Murray and Rausch families thank you also.

 

[KatherineQ]

Prayers for them all. None of it makes any real sense, does it, the more you think about Maura's story, the more confusing it gets. It's so hard to believe with such a very close family, and a fiance, that NONE of them knew where she was going when she cleaned out her dorm and her bank account and headed off in a car she didn't think ran reliably.

It just seems like there are those - her friends, maybe, her family, maybe - who know more than they're willing to admit, even to themselves.

 

[gatetrekker44]

I too have questioned the absolute viciousness of CyberLaw's posts regarding Maura-and also asked the question as to whether he/she had some sort of involvement because of his/her absolute singlemindedness in trying to make Maura look like a drunken idiot that got what she deserved and his/her attacks on Fred Murray. What everyone should remember is that there is NO PROOF that Maura was driving under the influence-just as there is NO PROOF that she was meeting anyone or that the few "facts" about her case are accurate since there is no corraboration of the statements given by the few witnesses that have have come forward. And the longer Maura is gone, and the longer LE has dug in its heels in its stance that no crime has been committed makes me seriously wonder if there is a more sinister agenda here-like MAYBE someone in LE was POSSIBLY involved in her disappearance? It would certainly explain the shoddy police work done to date-and why LE is resisting help from other agencies like the FBI and have left the family to do its own investigating-which by the way has turned up more concrete proof of what transpired up until the accident than anything LE found! AND it would also explain their reluctance to turn over their info(such as it may be) to the Murray family. :banghead:

 

[Peabody]

If you actually familarize yourself with, this is a hard word to understand FACTS, you will see that Fred Murray will not get the files that he requested. Not a "legal chance" in heck. They are of an "investigative" nature and are subject to exception of the FOIA.

QUOTE]

Cyberlaw,

I believe that you are absolutely correct: I see no way that Fred Murray is legally entitled to information from Maura's case as long as the NH SP have it listed as an open investigation.

 

[audrey77]

I agree.

If it's still considered "part of an investigation" they don't have to release it.

Even if it has personal information in it...- alot can be redacted- more than you think. I had a hard time getting a school district's administrative record b/c of it.

 

[hydemi]

FYI there is a reply by Mrs. Rausch, posting under Sharon, on the website mauramurray.com which goes into more detail on the attempts to trace the phone call received by her son on Feb. 11th of 2004 as he was passing through security at the Okla City airport.

She also says, "I had given Maura several prepaid calling cards in November."

Again without the complete card info there is no way of knowing whether the call was made with the aid of one of these cards, which would of course prove that the caller who left the message of breathing & sobbing was indeed Maura.

But it is worth speculating what was the situation if Maura was calling her boyfriend thirty six hours or so after her disappearance.

Was she being held against her will? Was she thinking of talking to Lt Rausch, but unable to leave a message, as she decided to keep running? Was she simply so upset that she could not focus enough to leave a message?

Presumably she would have used the prepaid card either because her cellphone battery had drained or because she still was not in an area where it had a signal.

This untraced call is the one frustratingly unverifiable piece of evidence that suggests that she not only survived her frigid trek on Monday night Feb 9th but that she also kept running and was still upset, unable or unwilling to contact her family or Lt. Rausch.

It has impressed me strongly that the Rausches have remained adamant in their conviction that this untraced call came from Maura, that the voice was hers--alas the actual voice message was later deleted.

 

[Chavon]

I agree with you Hydemi. One of the most salient points to me that argues that she had not met with foul play after the 2nd car accident was the fact that her car door was locked. Also, the dogs had traced her scent up to the highway and then her scent dissapeared. This means that she had more than likely hitchhiked to her destination. The man down the street said he left and came back in about what was it, 7 to 8 minutes? This sounds like someone to me who was completely bent on escaping from yet another emotionally draining episode given her past history. This girl seems to me overloaded emotionally and wanted to escape at all costs. We don't know the whys all we have are the actions. The part that worries me is that she may have met with foul play in the interim after leaving the 2nd accident. I have been worried about her and only hope that she has constructed a new life somewhere where she can reassess her life and find herself.

 

[Grassyknoll2]

Also, the dogs had traced her scent up to the highway and then her scent dissapeared.

What highway...while Route 112 is apparently a state road...it is a rural road.......very dark and pretty isolated. The dogs didn't 'trace' her scent for about 36 hours...

 

[hydemi]

Dear G,

the road at the crash scene by the Weathered Barn is surprisingly wide and open, with a number of houses nearby.

The spot where the dogs lost the scent (to be accurate) is right in front of Butch Atwood's, the schoolbus driver's house.

There are road signs on Atwood's side of the road listing the distances as seven miles back to Wells River and seventeen miles east to N. Woodstock.

Of course it was dark, so she could easily have hidden nearby when the Haverhill police arrived and waited to depart after seeing which way Atwood and Officer Smith went in search of her.

They went back west, it appears, so presumably she went east.

 

[Peabody]

Dear G,

the road at the crash scene by the Weathered Barn is surprisingly wide and open, with a number of houses nearby.

The spot where the dogs lost the scent (to be accurate) is right in front of Butch Atwood's, the schoolbus driver's house.

There are road signs on Atwood's side of the road listing the distances as seven miles back to Wells River and seventeen miles east to N. Woodstock.

Of course it was dark, so she could easily have hidden nearby when the Haverhill police arrived and waited to depart after seeing which way Atwood and Officer Smith went in search of her.

They went back west, it appears, so presumably she went east.

Hydemi,

The photos and television reports certainly agree with your description of the crash scene being "surprisingly wide and open, with a number of houses nearby".

However, surpisingly wide and open for a rural area is not the same as being *wide and open* Also, as you mentioned, there are a "number of homes nearby". But again, I have been told that if you go east, it is only a very short distance until you enter the White National Forest where there are NO homes. If Maura went east, then she was facing at least 16 miles of uninhabited roadside.

Hopefully, Maura was in a condition to cover those miles safely - but IF she was drinking, she would have been more prone to hypothermia - it was snowing which may have made her wet and it was 12 degrees at the time of the accident and getting colder by the minute; there is no doubt she was shaken....this is substantiated by Atwood, so who knows if she even saw the highway signs to which you refer.

...when one considers that she MAY have been drinking and was definitely shaken by the accident - the physical as well as the emotional aspects - along with the very dark and uneven road surface in an unfamiliar area, it is hard to believe that Maura was able to cover distance in the routine times that her running records indicates might be possible.

The area is lightly traveled, but it would only take one motorist to offer Maura a ride.......ONE lone motorist that would have no prior connection to Maura and could easily harm her in her vulnerable condition leaving no one with any knowledge of her ties to him

- it would seem that if a motorist had given her ride to another location, that with NH LE insisting that she was either suicidal or a run away that they would be willing to come forward, report their act of being a GOOD SAMARITAN *and* collect on the $40,000.00 Reward.


Also, according to Maura's family, while Maura had frequented the Bartlett NH area, she had never visited there with an approach from the west........therefore even if she saw the sign that stated Woodstock was 17 miles, she would not know that once she left the populated scene of the accident that she would be entering a forest with no homes.

I pray each day that Maura is safe somewhere and starting over. But, as I have mentioned before, I am acquainted with people who know Maura. They are all in agreement that for Maura to deliberately choose to leave to start a new life is totally out of character for her.

Have you ever been in a position where you thought "If only people knew everything about this particular situation, they would feel/know differently?"

There are too many things that the public does not know - not secret things, but about Maura - traits that made Maura so endearing.

Sharon Rausch, the boyfriend's mother, is known to have repeatedly said both BEFORE and AFTER Maura's missing that Maura was no doubt the "easiest person to love that I have ever met.".....I cannot exactly quote the remaider of her statements, but she spoke of Maura's adoration for her son; of her kindness, concern and consideration towards ALL people; of her positive nature; of her constant smile and positive attitude regardless of the circumstances; of her outstanding work ethic; of her appreciative nature; of her genuineness; of her intelligence, but of the childlike trust she placed in everyone....I believe there was more - I saw her on television and had one of my acquaintances tell me that had been Mrs. Rausch's description of Maura from the early days of her dating the boyfriend.... Those that know Maura better than Mrs. Rausch are in total agreement........it just doesn't add up to a young woman who would turn her back on everyone she knows.

My tragic belief that Maura is the victim of foul play is the result of this logical thinking COMBINED with the description of those people who know her best.

The facts that I have been provided from those who had relationships with Maura convince me that it defies logic to assume that she wanted to get away from everyone: .......her parents were divorced for many years - she had an easy opportunity to turn to one and exclude the other.........or turn to brothers sisters, aunts, or a grandmother if she was fed up with both parents - I know of more than one family where individuls have been "disowned" and members do not speak or associate;........ if she wanted out of the relationship with the boyfriend, he was in the west, all she had to do was send a dear john letter -she didn't even have to speak to him, let alone break away from all of her family and lifelong friends with the him 2000 miles away....with the boyfriend in the army, there would have been no way that he could stalk her or do much of anything besides call her; .......a change of phone numbers, not a change of identity, would have solved that problem.
:doh:

 

[hydemi]

yes it seems unlikely that she made it all the way along that stretch of road on that night--although the contractor sighting story not reported to police until April 29 placed her about five miles east one hour or so later near the junction of 112 & 116 only eleven to twelve miles from N. Woodstock.

And there are some homes and buildings along route 112 starting in the Wildwood area--and more along route 116 up the hill in Benton.

And the call on Lt Rausch's cellphone came 36 hours later.

And I recall somewhere in the posts it being said that Fred Murray initially believed she could have made the seventeen miles given her fitness level and her being used to running in cold weather.

So the real question about her running away in the first place has yet to be answered--why she left U Mass so suddenly, why she fled from the crash scene once she knew that police were on the way?

More unanswered questions, I know--but what did she have to tell her Father
when she was trying to drive over to his hotel at 3am in the morning of Feb 8, presumably something about what was upsetting her on Thursday night or Friday after 1am when she was allegedly crying and so shaky that she was walked back to her dorm by her supervisor?

If we knew why she left campus that Monday Feb 9th, we might be able to judge if she had reasons for not contacting anyone and going into hiding.

I have speculated above that a possible reason was involvement in the Petrit Vasi hit and run on Thursday night Feb 5th around midnight, but to date there is no public acknowledgement of any details which could prove this to have been her reason for leaving campus. Something overwhelming and troubling had happened to her, causing her to flee--only that is clear until we know more of what really happened.

 

[Peabody]

yes it seems unlikely that she made it all the way along that stretch of road on that night--........

So the real question about her running away in the first place has yet to be answered--why she left U Mass so suddenly, ........

Yes, the question about why she left UMass has yet to be answered.


The fact that she left UMass DOES NOT mean that she was running away.


The ONLY need to know WHY Maura left UMass IS to learn IF SHE WAS RUNNING AWAY.................any other reason DOES NOT MATTER.


I realize I have an advantage by having first hand knowledge of Maura's personality and characteristics albeit through those who know her. However, one does not need to know anything about her to understand that her email to the professors and the employers that she would be gone for a week due to a death in the family is THE excuse given when any student doesn't want questions and needs an excused absence which Maura would have needed for her school work. I saw a recent poll that stated the percentage of not only students, but also of workers who falsely provided "death in the family" as an excuse for work or school. The poll percentages were very high ......near 90 I believe; sadly, lying is something too many in society do and think nothing of it, IT is not the evidence to prove that someone was running away.


It is a fact that Maura lied to her p's and boss about WHY she was leaving, but the only evidence that she was not planning on coming back in one week as she said was the "packed" dorm room..... this "evidence" is at the least questionable because of her extremely full class schedule, nursing clinical schedule, part time work for two employers AND school having been underway for only two weeks to the day that Maura went missing.........combine this with the fact that out of two weekends back at UMass, she spent one entire weekend with her father.......there are those who are convinced the room was UNPACKED due to lack of time - not that it was PACKED for her to run away. As to the reports that I read that the room was "neatly packed", again I have the insight of those who knew Maura extremely well: Maura was known to be compulsively neat.

It is a fact that in Maura's abandoned car was barely a week's worth of clothing. The only spare shoes she had with her were her running shoes. What woman runs away with only ONE PAIR OF SHOES?


On television and in newspaper reports during the first week after Maura went missing, the boyfriend said that Maura had tried to call him several times on Monday BEFORE she left UMass. When she could not reach him (for those who do not know, he is a LT. in the army), she emailed him and promised to call that evening. The email was published in the June issue of 'Seventeen'. She told him she loved him.


I think that EVERYONE would have to admit that calling and emailing your sweetheart who is 2000 miles away is NOT the action of a person who is going to run away and disappear.


AND, let's go ahead and agree that Maura was drinking the night of the accident: A DUI is not reason enough to run away and disappear. Her fear of a citation MAY BE the reason she chose to evade the police IF she made that choice. BUT, we don't know for sure that Maura tried to evade the police. WE KNOW that she was missing from the accident scene: Perhaps she was abducted at the accident scene.


One still needs to give some thought to the crying incident: It is reported that Maura IS NOT an emotional person. But, I think most, if not all of even the most stoic women can think of a time that they just broke down and cried.......very often for no particular reason, usually just a feeling of being overwhelmed. Do you really think that ONE crying jag is reason to run away and disappear?


As I mentioned in a post somewhere online (may have been in the posts that were deleted here at Websleuths) after Maura went missing, to my extreme surprise, my daughter told me that during her college days that there were a few times when she "got up early, left for school and work, arranged to be off both, and drove around all day and evening" - she didn't go anywhere, do anything or visit anyone - she drove through parts of the state that she had never visited.......she was literally on the road for 8-10 hours. She says that her friends, both male and female have similar stories........did they do this on a regular basis? No, BUT they did without anyone's knowledge leave school when they were physically, mentally, or emotionally drained........ out of the desire or perhaps what they perceived as the need for time off.

That is what I believe explains Maura's spur of the moment trip that was un-announced to her family and boyfriend. She felt the desire to just get away - perhaps to make decisions, perhaps just to rest, but most of all just to be away.....don't most of us have that desire at least a few times a year?


I am convinced by the evidence that has been released to the public through television and newspaper reports combined with the information provided to me about Maura by those who know her that she would have told the boyfriend about her trip/plans had she reached him by phone on Monday.....and it makes sense to me that she planned on telling her father THE EVENING that she disappeared: It is a fact that Maura picked up duplicate forms to be completed for the first accident in Hadley MA on Sat. night.......she had arrangements to call her father on Monday evening (the night that she vanished) for his assistance in completeing them. The forms were found in her car.

It seems obvious that she never called the boyfriend that evening as promised in the email and that she never called her father as she prearranged BECAUSE she was prevented from calling. IF she was evading the police out of fear of a DUI, once she reached a location with a cell phone signal or a telephone, she would have called the boyfriend even if she was afraid to call her father because of the previous car accident.

It seems to me that these facts, while they cannot be defined as definite proof, are at the least VERY STRONG INDICATORS that Maura WAS NOT RUNNING AWAY.

 

[hydemi]

or at least indicators that the runaway theory has holes in it like the others do.

I appreciate your candid remarks. I understand why you are left with the abduction theory as the others (suicide, hypothermia, runaway) seem less supportable to you.

So I wonder if,

1) you do believe the contractor sighting around 8pm the night of 2/9 was a for-real sighting of Maura?

2) that she got a ride afterwards either from an abductor or otherwise such that she survived that night and was the caller to Lt Rausch on Wed am?

3) that the NHSP have some details and evidence as yet unrevealed which could alter our views of Maura's fate quite radically?

4) that there was something else bothering or upsetting her which she intended to tell her Dad about at 3am Sunday morning when she damaged his car, that she intended to tell Lt Rausch about on Monday?

More in line with your remarks about college kids needing a break and taking off for a while, there is a comment in the early media stories from one of Maura's friends (Sara, I think) that her favorite movie was "Bottle Rocket" which my college age son tells me is about kids escaping and running away from their "normal" lives but in a harmless funny slapstick way.

Believe me when I say that as a parent I have no axe to grind here other than some hope that she may after all be alive--that would be the best outcome whatever the tonnage of words on these websites.

 

[Grassyknoll2]

I realize that your questions are directed towards Peabody, but I'll add my 2 cents....

1) you do believe the contractor sighting around 8pm the night of 2/9 was a for-real sighting of Maura? I believe that if the police questioned neighbors as they say they did soon after the crash, that it is very difficult for me to believe that this person didn't remember for almost four months that he saw somebody walking in 12º weather...this is a rural area...it is not lighted and although I'm sure there are a few who might be out walking I suspect it is not the norm in February.

3) that the NHSP have some details and evidence as yet unrevealed which could alter our views of Maura's fate quite radically? I don't know about Peabody, but if LE have details or evidence they don't seem to be giving Maura's family much hope of anything from media reports.

More in line with your remarks about college kids needing a break and taking off for a while, I have had coworkers tell me that they too took off for a few days more than once while in college and that their sibling and friends did too...it would appear it is not that uncommon.

I'm curious as to why you bring up Petrit Varsi....I believe that even an administrator has decided that there could not have been involvement in the accident involving another UMASS student because of timing issues….I am left questioning why it is repeatedly implied that Maura was involved. Police in that case have never, to my knowledge, been able to determine whether he was hit by a car or thrown from a vehicle………..even Petrit isn’t sure…and we are left with his seemingly empty wallet…….The streets mentioned in articles about him are not on campus.

And, I have to go back to my belief that we have to stop treating adult missing persons cases as runaways initially. I was reading a story earlier about Molly Bish and was stuck by a couple of sentences:
MOLLY BISH



Police at first suspected that Molly had simply abandoned her post to go and hang out with her friends. But for people who knew Molly, that sounded almost impossible.



“She never would just leave her job. We knew it,” says Magi. “We knew. And I kept saying something is very wrong.”



Later that afternoon, when it finally became clear to police that Molly wasn't with her boyfriend or any of her buddies, they moved on to what they considered the next logical possibility. "They were saying she drowned and I was saying there's no possible way,” says her brother, John.



http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/01/48hours/main586143.shtml

LE took the same approach with Brianna Maitland for months and whatever LE found out later, Brianna is now listed on the FBI's website.......there was a delay in even identifying the fact that Brianna was in the car, initially, LE said there was no sign of a struggle, but then VTSP actually did forensic tests on her car...NHSP released Maura's car within two weeks.

BRIANNA MAITLAND



Kellie Maitland is upset because state police have said they believe her daughter just took off. …..She doesn't understand why state police are treating this as a young woman taking off. http://www.caledonianrecord.com/pages/top_news/story/af2eddba5

Like Fred Murray and other family members, Molly's and Brianna's families did not believe their daughters took off.......no matter what LE told them. This happens all the time all over the country...

 

[gatetrekker44]

and I'll say it again-since Maura refused to go to Bruce Atwood's home to await LE (this by his own statement to LE) HOW is it that Maura's scent was supposedly tracked to his door 36 hours later? This has never made any sense to me since she supposedly stayed in the car while he was there and he never got into the vehicle? And as for the guy who supposedly "remembered" seeing someone resembling Maura four months later-I too would seriously question the veracity of this statement. And I can't see someone who is planning to disappear calling about room availability less than 10 hours before vanishing! And the whitewash investigation by LE-all of this leads me to believe foul play is involved-by person or persons unknown!