The Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray...
Now, a unique thing about the Maura Murray disappearance case is that
it’s known for being called “the first crime mystery of the social media age”.
That is because Facebook was launched only 5 days before Maura went missing.
Of course, there is much speculation about her case,
some may say “the most highly speculated case of the 21st century”.
Maura’s disappearance remains a mystery that remains unsolved to this day.
Let’s talk about Maura Murray first and who she was. Maura was born in Brockton,
Massachusetts on May 4th, 1982 to parents Fred and Laurie Murray making her their youngest daughter.
Her father Fred was a medical technician and her mother Laurie was a nurse.
Maura had grown up in Hanson, Massachusetts which is a small suburb on the South Shore.
Her family was a typical working-class family, she had a lot of guidance from her siblings.
She had an older brother named Fred Jr.,
two sisters Julie and Kathleen, and her youngest brother Kurtis.
When Maura was six, her parents divorced.
Maura was described as being an overachiever who excelled both athletically and academically,
she was also a member of the national honor society.
Also at the same time, she was active in her local community,
where she would become known for her kind heart, signature dimples, and beautiful smile.
As if that wasn’t enough she also participated in nearly every sport available to her,
including competitive AAU basketball, which also allowed her to travel all over New England.
As a fierce competitor, Maura had consistently finished in the top tier of runners in the state
of Massachusetts and even broke several long-standing school records at the time.
She had graduated at the top of her class at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School with
her pick of colleges to choose from both athletically and academically.
But she ended up deciding to accept a congressional
nomination from the late Senator Edward Kennedy and would be joining her sister
Julie at the Prestigious United States Military Academy located at West Point.
Maura had continued to excel at the rigorous military and academic program
there and even established herself to be a force on the cross-country and track teams.
However, during the 2nd year, she was at West Point, she decided that military
life was not for her and then transferred to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
That is when she decided to pursue a career in nursing.
During Maura's freshman year at West Point, she received an
honor code violation for stealing some make-up from a Fort Knox commissary.
This incident didn’t formally expel her, however, that is when she
transferred into the nursing program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
There was another incident in November of 2003,
just 3 months prior to her disappearance she was caught ordering food with a stolen credit card.
Maura's arrest record showed that the charge would
have been dismissed after 3 months of good behavior.
In the days leading up to Maura’s disappearance,
on February 5th, 2004, she was working her evening shift doing campus security.
After a phone call with her older sister Kathleen, she was said to
have burst into tears and even had to have a supervisor escort her back to her dorm room.
When she was asked what was bothering her, Maura simply responded, “My sister,”
Kathleen claims that the conversation was about her drinking, abusing alcohol.
You see Kathleen had just been discharged from her rehab and she
then admitted to Maura that her fiancé had taken her to the liquor store.
On Saturday, February 7th Maura’s dad Fred, had arrived in town to help take her car shopping.
According to Julie, her sister, Maura’s car was in very rough shape
and she wanted something that was going to be more reliable.
That night, Maura had borrowed Fred’s car and attended a party that was going
on at the campus. At 3:30 AM, when she was driving back to Fred’s motel room,
she had hit a guardrail and caused about $10,000 worth of damage to
the car. The cops had arrived at the scene and drove her back to the motel.
There was no documentation of a sobriety test in the accident report.
Fred had rented a car and returned it to his home located in Connecticut on February 8th.
He then spoke to Maura on the phone at around 11:30 PM to remind her that she
needed to get accident forms from the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
This is what we know about the events of February 9th,
2004- it would be the last time that the 21 year old would be seen.
Just after midnight: Maura had searched MapQuest for directions
to the Berkhires and Burlington, Vermont.
1:00PM: Maura had emailed her boyfriend to let him know that she didn’t feel like
talking to anyone lately. She did promise to call him later though.
1:00-1:13 PM: Maura had made a phone call to check about
a condo rental unit located in Bartlett, New Hampshire.
She knew the area with the condos because her family had vacationed there in the past.
The phone call lasted about 3 minutes and at the end no rental plans were made for the condo.
Maura had then called a fellow nursing student.
1:24 PM: Maura had sent a nursing school supervisor to let them know that she would
be out of town for approximately a week because there was a death
in the family. However her family insists that there was no such death.
2:05 PM: Maura had called a number that provides pre-recorded information on
booking hotels in Stowe, Vermont. The phone call then lasted about 5 minutes.
2:18 PM: Maura then left her boyfriend a voicemail.
The call lasted about 1 minute and she said they would talk later.
Maura had packed her car with clothing, birth control pills, textbooks, and toiletries. With the
later searching of her dorm room, they found that most of Maura’s belongings were packed in boxes.
That her art had been removed from the walls and the police had found a printed email in the room
between Maura and her boyfriend at the time which indicated they were having relationship problems.
3:30 PM: Maura drove away in her 1996 Saturn sedan.
Classes that day were cancelled because of an impending snowstorm.
3:40 PM: Maura then withdrew $280 from an ATM and picked up
$40 worth of alcohol from a nearby liquor store.
Security footage at both the ATM and liquor store determined that she was alone.
Around 4:00-5:00 PM: Maura had left Amherst. Her
last recorded phone call was then at 4:37 PM to check her voicemail.
7:27 PM: Faith Wstman, of Woodsville,
New Hampshire, had called 911 to report an accident that was outside of her home.
She had heard a loud thump then saw a car along the snow bank on Route 112.
The car was pointing westward in the eastbound lane.
Faith’s neighbors Virgina and John Marrotte,
also noticed Maura’s car outside of their kitchen window.
The cars hazard lights were on and they noticed someone walking around the car too.
As the Marrottes were watching, another neighbor,
But Atwood, had pulled up to Maura in the schoolbus that he drove for his work.
Atwood then got out of his bus and asked if Maura needed him to call the police for her.
Maura said no, cleaning that she had already called AAA, so there was no need.
Atwood knew that the area did not have any cell phone service so he didn’t believe her story.
He then offered to let her wait at his home until the assistance could arrive,
but maura insisted she was fine just staying at her car.
Atwood then headed back home to call 911. He said initiually he had troubles
getting through to the dispatch because of the busy phone circuits,
however his phone call eventually went through at 7:43 PM.
7:46 PM: The Haverhill Police Sergeant Cecil Smith had arrived
at the scene, he was then dispatched at 7:29 PM following up on Westman’s 911 call.
However the car was locked but there was no sign of Maua.
The car’s carbags had been deployed and there was a crack in the driver’s side windshield.
Sgt. Smith spotted a box of Franzia (wine) behind the driver’s seat and also a empty beer bottle.
There was red liquid on the driver’s side door, the car’s ceiling and on the road too.
The later search found a coke bottle that was filled with a red drink that smelled like alcohol.
The Kahlua, Baileys and vodka that Maura had
bought earlier at the liquor store were not found in the car though.
Her cell phone, wallet and credit cards have never been located.
Sgt. Smith went to the Westman’s in order to ask about the incident,
then he stopped at the Atwoods to ask where the girl had gone to.
After explaining to the officer that he hadn’t seen anyone since he left the vehicle,
both Atwood and Sgt. Smith drove around the area in hopes of finding Maura.
10 minutes after Sgt. Smith’s arrival, both a fire truck and EMS had pulled up to the scene.
8:49 PM: The scene was cleared and Maura’s vehicle was towed away from the scene.
An APB was then issued for Maura after 12:00PM on February 10th and she was first considered to
be missing at 5:17 PM. Then the next day, the authorities had police dogs track her scent.
They got a hit on her scent about 100 yards east of where her vehicle
had been abandoned before the dogs lost the trail.
The FBI was called in at 10 days after her disappearance
and then it became a nationwide search.
At the 10 day mark the New Hampsire Fish and Game were brought in to conduct their
own ground and air searches using a helicopter that was equipped with a thermal imaging camera.
However, Maura’s family disputes these claims,
police repeatedly voiced concern that she was suicidal.
Many people have critizied the police for their lack of urgency during the initial days.
It was almost a full day by the time Maura had been announced as missing,
and even then, an official search wasn’t immediately commenced.
Here are some of the popular theories behind Maura’s disappearance:
Her intentions that day was to disappear.
She had been planning to meet up with someone,
and whoever the person was must of picked her up after the car crash.
She had been abducted.
She must of walked away from her car (possibly to flee the scene of the crash
because she was afraid of getting into trouble) and succumbed to the elements.
Maura had left that day to commit suicide alone in the mountains.
More on the first theory that Maura had intentions that day to disappear.
It’s worth noting the claims of James Renner, who is an investigative journalist.
He largely believes that the Maura in fact is still alive and she had
planned her own escape, because she was pregnant.
Maura did make a search online for the effects of alcohol on a fetus.
However, there were some of her nursing school
friends who later on said this was research for an assignment.
Journalist Renner had also reported that one of Maura’s friends sent him a email
that accused Maura’s boyfriend Bill, of being abusive with her.
However, recently Bill Raush was indicted by a Grand Jury on felony sex abuse.
There were also rumors that Maura had been in a relationship with a man by
the name of Hossein Baghdadi, who was an assistant track coach at the UMass.
Baghdadi has been open about the situation and has even told
detectives that Maura had hinted to him that she was thinking she may disappear.
The UMass Outling Club actually owns a cabin that
is in the White Mountains and that’s where some think that’s where she was heading to.
There’s been no report suggesting that Maura and
Baguhdadi had been communicating in the weeks leading up to her disappearance.
On James Renner’s blog, he bluntly accused Fred of having knowledge of what exactly
happend to Maura, citing his unwillingness to be interviewed by Renner as “suspicious.”
In a Boston Magazine article, Renner even states,
“there’s nothing that would please me more than to depose Fred in court under oath.”
In defense of Fred, it’s been over 16 years of non-stop searching for your missing daughter,
that could wear anyone down over the years and there are very few
avenues that he hasn’t investigated personally.
However Fred has no doubt that Maura had been abducted that day.
It was then in late 2004, when a man by the name of Larry Moulton had come
forward with a knife that he thought could have been the murder weapon.
The knife in of to his brother,
Claude who lived only ¾ mile away from the crash site in an A-frame house.
In 2006, Claude no longer lived at the house,
and the new owners let private investigators inspect it.
It was then that the cadaver dogs made a hit so they took carpet samples for testing.
However, the chain of custody has been unclear and the samples were lost!
Moulton’s knife was then turned over to the New Hampshire State Police,
and the results were never released.
The Missing Maura Murray podcast had returned to the A-frame house
in 2016. What they found when going back looked to be blood stains in a closet.
They ended up sending the wood chips to a molecular geneticist who was
then able to confirm the presence of human blood.
Unfortunately, the samples were too deteriorated in order to determine
with 100% certainly whether or not the blood was Maura’s.
There was another house however, that was near the scent dog’s trail that was searched back
in 2019 after the ground penetrating radar had showed a disturbance in that home’s basement.
The investigators had removed the concrete and searched several feet down,
but sadly no evidence was found.
The theory of an opportunistic killer might be statistically less probable,
but it can’t just be ruled out.
Just 1 month after Maura had gone missing,
a 17-year-old Brianna Maitland had disappeared in Vermont.
Some people feel like it could have been
possible that both of the women fell prey to a serial killer.
The authorities looked into the connection that
was between Maitland and a serial killer at the time Israel Keyes.
However this would later be ruled out by the FBI.
In the online sleuth community many believe Keyes is to blame.
That theory has a big problem with it though,
how small the window of opportunity was for a murderer to then take Maura avoiding being seen.
Butch Atwood only had a swift interation with Maura talking to her for only a few minutes,
so she couldn’t have been alone for more than 10-15 minutes when Sgt. Smith arrived.
It wasn’t a desolate heavily wooded area, afterall
there were at least 3 neighbors that could see her from their homes.
There is another name that is frequently brought up when talking about Maura Murray, Rick Forcier.
Forcier had been driving home from his job as a contractor on the night of February 9th,
that is when he spotted a woman walking into the woods that matched the description of Maura.
There are some people who find his story a little
suspicious because it was months later when he finally reported the sighting.
Forcier had told police officers that he hadn’t realized it was the
same night until he went back through his work calendar and that was in late April.
The Murray family are adamant in the fact that
Maura was not suicidal that is something we know already.
However we need to take the theory that she wandered into the woods and passed away from
the elements into consideration, could it of been Occam’s Razor?
Which is widely referred to by those who consider the simplest explanation.
When we set all of the assumptions about the case aside, the absolute facts are:
A young woman had crashed her car and was last seen outside in the freezing cold weather.
Which ever theory resonates with you one astounding thing is the
fact so many persons of interest were named.
Especially for a case that doesn’t have any true suspects that have been named by the authorities.
Recently there was a new search on Wednesday, July 13th, 2022 for Maura Murray.
Police personnel in two different New Hampshire
towns searched the areas of Landaff and Easton, N.H.
The ground search surrounded an area that was off of Route 112 and “is not the result of new
information in the case,” The New Hampshire Attorney General, John. M. Formella said in
a press release about the search “It is part of an ongoing investigative process and will consist
of a more extensive search of surrounding areas previously searched in a more limited fashion.”
Because the investigation is still ongoing, Formella and the State Police Col. Nathan
Nayes said that no more information could be released at this time and he asked the
public to respect the privacy of the communities and residents.
People should also remember to stay off private property.
“My family is aware of the search efforts and are working closely with
law enforcement at this time,” Julie Murray said, who is Maura’s sister.
“We ask the public not to interfere with the
investigation. We will share information as appropriate.
We are encouraged by the active efforts to find Maura and remain hopeful for a resolution.”
If there is anyone who has information about Maura Murray’s disappearance they are asked to call
the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit at the number 603-223-3648 or email Coldcaseunit@dos.nh.gov.
More information on Maura and the ongoing efforts to help find her
and bring her home may be found on the website mauramurraymissing.org.
Back in January 2022, the FBI then created
a Violent criminal Apprehension Profile in Maura Murray’s case.
Maura’s sister has stated in published reports that it is another method for
multiple agencies and other jurisdictions to share their information with one another.
In September 2021 there were bone fragments found at the base of Loon Mountain,
however, they were not connected to Murray.
The officials announced that the fragments could go back to date as far as the 18th Century.
The bone fragments had been found in “existing soil”, stated the New Hampshire State Police.
Radiocarbon dating had placed a 95% certainty the bones that were found
are from a person that died sometime between the years of 1774 to 1942.
On Maura Murray’s 38th birthday they launched
a website that offers the public never seen before pictures of her.
It is also a repository of news reports that date back to 2004 and is an opportunity for
people who are interested in the case to get to know Maura in an up close and personal way.
There is another feature of the blog post that is regularly updated,
so her family can put out information to help keep the community informed.
A contact tab allows visitors of the site to communicate with her family members,
plus a contact tab that provides people email updates on any important
case developments if and when they come out.
There is even a tip area that provides a place where people can provide any new information.
This is an unsolved mystery that has more twists
and turns than the route Maura had taken that fateful night.
Hopefully one day the record can be set straight
about what exactly happened to young Maura Murray that night.
603-223-3648 or you can email Cold Case unit at dos.nh.gov
More information on more and the ongoing efforts to help find her
and bring her home may be found on the website:
www.mauramurraymissing.org
Well friends...
There you have it!
I look forward to your comments.
But please, keep it friendly and respectful!
Join me again!
Be good to yourselves and each other!
As for me, I'll see you a little farther on down the trail!
I'm Steve Stockton and I'll talk to you next time - tell your pets I said hi!!!