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

[sony12]

All of these same things were said about Paula Welden when she went missing from the Long Trail near Bennington College in 1946: she was running away from something, left to start a new life in Canada, had a secret boyfriend she was meeting, was depressed and went off to do the old squaw walk in the cold woods, etc. And guess what? There was nothing to any of it. Police zeroed in on a suspect immediately and kept an eye on him for decades but were never able to build a strong enough case to charge him. This happens ALL THE TIME.

Whatever Maura was TRYING to do is irrelevant, as she had an accident and didn't reach her destination. (And what this destination might have been, nearly 14 years later we still don't know, which indicates strongly that she was traveling alone.) She fled the scene on foot and despite an exhaustive search, no evidence was ever found that she went off the road at any point. Ergo, the most likely scenario is that someone picked her up, that this someone was a stranger (again, no evidence she was traveling with anybody), and that this stranger probably killed her and disposed of her body.

That's not leaping to conclusions. That's simply what the optics of this disappearance point toward as being the most likely scenario.

p.s.
For the record, I'm not endorsing Claude Moulton as the responsible. But he can't be ruled out and he has a documented history of violence and impropriety with young women /teenage girls going back to the 1970's.

What Maura was trying to do is not irrelevant when you are dealing with a missing person who had a history of theft and alcohol abuse. When she just a couple days earlier wrecked her dad's car (likely because she was driving under the influence) and she got into the accident the night she disappeared likely because she was driving under the influence again. At that point if she was found she was probably facing jail time. Probably would have been kicked out of her second school.

Maura was an avid hiker and I believe it is said that she knew that area well. If she wanted to create a situation where it would be hard to ever find her she would probably know how to pull that off.

 

[PaulR]

All of these same things were said about Paula Welden when she went missing from the Long Trail near Bennington College in 1946: she was running away from something, left to start a new life in Canada, had a secret boyfriend she was meeting, was depressed and went off to do the old squaw walk in the cold woods, etc. And guess what? There was nothing to any of it. Police zeroed in on a suspect immediately and kept an eye on him for decades but were never able to build a strong enough case to charge him. This happens ALL THE TIME.

Whatever Maura was TRYING to do is irrelevant, as she had an accident and didn't reach her destination. (And what this destination might have been, nearly 14 years later we still don't know, which indicates strongly that she was traveling alone.) She fled the scene on foot and despite an exhaustive search, no evidence was ever found that she went off the road at any point. Ergo, the most likely scenario is that someone picked her up, that this someone was a stranger (again, no evidence she was traveling with anybody), and that this stranger probably killed her and disposed of her body.

That's not leaping to conclusions. That's simply what the optics of this disappearance point toward as being the most likely scenario.

p.s.
For the record, I'm not endorsing Claude Moulton as the responsible. But he can't be ruled out and he has a documented history of violence and impropriety with young women /teenage girls going back to the 1970's.

Those are very different cases, though. Welden was attending Bennington College; she went for a hike on a local trail. There really wasn't much evidence at all that she was in any kind of mental distress before vanishing, most of that was just theories that people made up without much backing.

Murray, as others have mentioned, was having a lot of difficulties with her life, getting kicked out of one school, almost certainly driving under the influence several times resulting in car wrecks (and drunk drivers do not just do it once or twice, they do it all the time but just don't get caught all the time), buying a large amount of alcohol for a road trip, then deciding to just plain run from her life for reasons that still aren't entirely clear. Her life was falling apart.

 

[sony12]

It is entirely possible that Maura never intended on killing herself. She very possibly could have just decided to hide out for awhile until the alcohol wore off/things cooled down with her family. And then come back. However she may have underestimated the effects the weather would have on her.

 

[Ssouth84]

Hello! I am new to WS but wanted to give my input. Does anyone else think that it is possible that she wrecked and panicked because she was possibly driving under the influence. During her panicked state, she thought she should hide the alcohol in the woods. Then maybe some horrible accident happened in those woods. She could have fallen of a ledge or fell and hit her head. I am so lost on this one but I think this scenario is plausible.

 

[Ozoner]

She fled the scene on foot and despite an exhaustive search, no evidence was ever found that she went off the road at any point. Ergo, the most likely scenario is that someone picked her up, that this someone was a stranger (again, no evidence she was traveling with anybody), and that this stranger probably killed her and disposed of her body.

That's not leaping to conclusions. That's simply what the optics of this disappearance point toward as being the most likely scenario.

While I agree that a sexual homicide is possible in this case, I respectfully disagree with the conclusion that it's the most likely scenario. There was no evidence found that Maura entered the woods, but there wouldn't have been much evidence if she simply walked into the woods to find a tree stump to rest on (or whatever). Searchers likely underestimated how far she might have traveled before entering the woods.
Just like there's no evidence that she entered the woods, there's also no evidence that she was harmed.
If she was raped and murdered, I think it was probably by someone who spotted her from a house and hopped into a car to go after her. I say that because no sexual predator in his right mind would have been tooling around seeking a victim on a cold winter's night; very few people woud have been out and about.
A completely unscientific, intuitive estimate is that there's a 2/3 chance she died alone in the woods and only a 1/3 chance that she was abducted, raped, and murdered.

 

[sony12]

Hello! I am new to WS but wanted to give my input. Does anyone else think that it is possible that she wrecked and panicked because she was possibly driving under the influence. During her panicked state, she thought she should hide the alcohol in the woods. Then maybe some horrible accident happened in those woods. She could have fallen of a ledge or fell and hit her head. I am so lost on this one but I think this scenario is plausible.

Her running to avoid another DUI is an extremely likely scenario. Infact that is probably why she refused help from the individual that talked to her right after her car went off the side of the road and lied about calling anybody is because she didn't want to get another DUI charge.

Her trying to avoid a DUI charge is probably why she abandoned the car in the first place is because she probably knew the people who asked her if she needed any help would call the police. Maura trying to sleep her drunken state off may have been exactly what she was trying to do. And she had the things to do it as well. Only problem is that trying to do that in freezing or near freezing temperatures is extremely dangerous. You may fall asleep and never wake up again.

 

[Pettibon Junction]

While I agree that a sexual homicide is possible in this case...no sexual predator in his right mind would have been tooling around seeking a victim on a cold winter's night; very few people woud have been out and about.

Tell that to Barbara Agnew.


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[Ozoner]

Tell that to Barbara Agnew.


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That comment is facile and not meaningful. You're talking about one example; I'm talking about likelihood.

 

[sony12]

Tell that to Barbara Agnew.


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You seem to try to dig for stuff in order to prove a point.

When we get down to it there are only a few facts with this case.

Those facts are that there was a young woman who was having trouble with school and was having trouble with her family life. She had a drinking problem as well which was causing her to get into car accidents. Her mother was dying of cancer. Substance abuse ran in her family. And to top it all off she seemed to be having trouble with her boyfriend.

Then as a lot of those things were culminating together (recently wrecked her dads vehicle and was fighting with her boyfriend) she disappeared.

When you look at those facts it paints a clear picture of a girl who would be wanting to get away from her life. Now maybe she did run into a predator (that possibility is always out there}. However it has been over a decade since she went missing and the best people can come up with in regards to a suspect relies completely on hearsay. There aren't really any actual crimes people can pin on the person these documentaries and podcasts are accusing of bringing Maura into his house and murdering her in a closet.

There is simply much stronger evidence at this point that Maura died on her own than her actually getting picked up by someone and murdered. Sure it is always possible she was murdered. But murder claims in this case rely totally on people's imaginations. Where as saying she committed suicide or simply ran away and died on her own is a much stronger theory when you are basing your theory off of the facts we do have.

 

[Ibiz]

While I say that because no sexual predator in his right mind would have been tooling around seeking a victim on a cold winter's night; very few people woud have been out and about.

Very good observation. Also it's very unlikely that someone would have looked out their window and saw a person walking or running and decided to go out and kill them.

On another note I can tell you that I was a window cleaner who had to work outside when it was 0 degrees, and I can tell you that the longer your out there the more you get use to it. So once again, she did not sucome to the elements.

I do believe she could have hitched a ride at some point.

 

[Ibiz]

Also, it's safe to say that it was probably her who left the breathing message on her boyfriends cell phone. Which means she made it to wherever she was going.

 

[Ibiz]

The most logical explanation is usally the right one. Plane and simple

 

[Ibiz]

Case closed. Thanks for sharing folks.

 

[Pettibon Junction]

You seem to try to dig for stuff in order to prove a point.

When we get down to it there are only a few facts with this case.

Those facts are that there was a young woman who was having trouble with school and was having trouble with her family life. She had a drinking problem as well which was causing her to get into car accidents. Her mother was dying of cancer. Substance abuse ran in her family. And to top it all off she seemed to be having trouble with her boyfriend.

Then as a lot of those things were culminating together (recently wrecked her dads vehicle and was fighting with her boyfriend) she disappeared.

When you look at those facts it paints a clear picture of a girl who would be wanting to get away from her life. Now maybe she did run into a predator (that possibility is always out there}. However it has been over a decade since she went missing and the best people can come up with in regards to a suspect relies completely on hearsay. There aren't really any actual crimes people can pin on the person these documentaries and podcasts are accusing of bringing Maura into his house and murdering her in a closet.

There is simply much stronger evidence at this point that Maura died on her own than her actually getting picked up by someone and murdered. Sure it is always possible she was murdered. But murder claims in this case rely totally on people's imaginations. Where as saying she committed suicide or simply ran away and died on her own is a much stronger theory when you are basing your theory off of the facts we do have.

It’s not digging, nor am I being facile, as one poster suggested. Once she left the scene of the accident, Maura became just another young woman out walking. Too many women to list have met with foul play under identical circumstances. (As I’ve said before, Gerald Stano’s biography was called ‘I Would Find a Girl Walking’ and he’s far from the only one who operated that way.) And given the cold, the probability of alcohol in her system, and the fact that she had just committed a crime, she was particularly vulnerable to the first normal looking guy who came along and offered to help.

Believe me, I’d love nothing more than to be wrong and Maura’s bones to be found by the river somewhere but nipping at the heels of that scenario is foul play. That cannot be dismissed because it happens all the time.

So what needs to be done? IMO We need to forget about UMass, widen the search radius (10 miles at least, following the river back to the road in a thorough grid), while at the same time reinterviewing suspects and POIs. Too much time has passed already but I don’t think this case is necessarily unsolvable.


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[Ibiz]

Junction: if she was wondering through the middle of Chicago or Detroit then your theory might hold some air, but like one poster already pointed out to us: given the location she was at; it would be HIGHLY UNLIKELY that she would have bumped into a murderer.

 

[Ibiz]

It would just be too ironic if she was planning to comite suicide, but instead bumps into a murderer. That would be something right out of a cheasey college horror movie.

 

[sony12]

It would just be too ironic if she was planning to comite suicide, but instead bumps into a murderer. That would be something right out of a cheasey college horror movie.

Lol. Yes. And if that was the case I would fully expect Maura to have stripped down to her skimpies before running off to get axed just like all those girls from those movies do, lol.

 

[skeptik]

The search was not really what I would consider "exhaustive". There were several searches that I am aware of, I was on 2 of them. The first search was 2 days after she went missing and was primarily contained to the area surrounding the crash site and major roadways a few miles from there.

When I think of 'exhaustive' I think of the search for Patrik McCarthy or Beth Upton, to name just a few. These were searches conducted within hours of last known sighting, with a massive amount of personnel, dogs, and technology on scene within the first 12 hours. Those were exhaustive searches, and we still didn't find either person alive.

It is important to understand that in both of those cases the person who went missing was not demonstrating any intent nor had any real capability of putting significant distance between themselves and the the point of last known sighting.

With Maura we can say without a doubt at that last minute we are certain of that she had every intent, and was very capable, of putting distance between herself and the crash site. If you consider that alone you can almost certainly assume that she would not have gone into the woods within a mile or so of the crash site.

People either refuse or are unable to grasp the distance that a frightened person can run/jog/walk in say 30 minutes. Add adrenaline to a very fit athlete with a long distance running background and she could easily have been 5 miles away in 40 minutes.

 

[skeptik]

Also, it's safe to say that it was probably her who left the breathing message on her boyfriends cell phone. Which means she made it to wherever she was going.

So the fact that the police traced that phone call to a number other than Maura doesn't mean anything to you?

It is absolutely amazing how factually incorrect people can be in the face of decades old facts. Wow

 

[Ibiz]

So the fact that the police traced that phone call to a number other than Maura doesn't mean anything to you?

It is absolutely amazing how factually incorrect people can be in the face of decades old facts. Wow

Okay, who was it traced to, and why were they breathing on the guy's phone?

I'm just going by what I read in Wikipedia. I have not been following this case from the beginning and only learned about a few months ago on this forum. So, if you know some inside secrets let me know, but as far as I can see, this woman set out on a suicide mission, and apparently succeeded. My point being: she certainly did not sucome to the elements around the crash site, and was very unlikely pickup nearby by the town murderer.