NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 - # 2

The Case Info timeline on the Maura Murray website says that Maura used her Dad's cellphone to call her boyfriend at 4.49am not pm. I had questioned this am time (2.49am in Ft Sill?) but it remains on the timeline.

Elsewhere the Dad says he had to spend much of Sunday arranging things to get his car and himself back to Weymouth, which he did and the Case Info says that Maura called him at 11.26pm making sure evidently he was home ok, after picking up her cellphone around 8.30pm which had been left in Sara A's room.

Yes it is true according to the Case timeline that Maura called Lt. Rausch at 2.18pm on Monday telling him she was ok, exactly when she was getting ready to take off from Amherst.

Yes it has elsewhere been stated that a fellow student was able to verify that Maura was at her campus security job during the time of the hit and run accident near the UMA campus at midnight Thursday (I was one of those who questioned this coincidence of timing).

There are many other timeline issues in Maura's disappearance, and hopefully the new investigating team will be able to pinpoint these as the ultimate truth of Maura's disappearance is discovered.

CyberLaw said:

And, again I ask you, CyberLaw, (for you have yet to reply) is it fair to accuse the Murray family of being the cause for Maura's missing? There is no evidence to support that Maura ran away because of her family or her boyfriend. It is very misleading for you to state that she did because you are/were a runaway from your family.........(this is from earlier posts that were mistakenly deleted by the moderator when the new forum was established)


Well let me review the timeline here. Lets just look at the facts after the accident in her Dad's new car, that caused 10K in damage, with alcohol as a factor. (bold for emphasis added by Peabody)

<snip>

If I recall correctly in the early days, I can't remember whom, but there was information that Maura was depressed. Often depression in a young adult is anger turned inwards............often depressed young adults will abuse and use alcohol. (italics for empahsis added by Peabody)

If you have any other question, please feel free to ask. If I can answer them, I will. But remember I don't have a crystal ball..............

Click to expand...

First, it seems to me that you are using some type of information that even the family does not have - even if it is not a crystal ball :twocents: I have mentioned before that I am acquainted with those who know Maura well......you most often report *facts* that they vehemently deny. Actually, that is why I reply to you so often. They refuse to go public, but I see their pain and frustration over misleading and unrebutted information.

Secondly, there is absolutely NO EVIDENCE to support "alcohol" was "a factor" in Maura's first accident that caused damage to her dad's NEW car. Please check with the Hadley MA public records. Maura WAS NOT cited for DUI or any other citation involving alcohol in this accident. You have stated this before, but there is a difference between fact and fiction. Seems to me that if an accident involves $10,000 AND the police are called to the scene that the driver IS GOING TO BE CITED. Again, I repeat, Maura was not cited for the accident late Sat; early Sun on Feb 2/7 - 2/8

Thirdly, I can find no public record of Maura's family or friends stating that she was depressed. Will you please post that link? The interviews that I have seen and what little in print has been written about her, indicates that she was a very happy young woman.

I do recall that the family agreed that Maura must "be distressed" for reasons unknown for her to leave school for a week. Feeling overwhelmed or burned out, or just needing a break IS NOT the same as being depressed to the point of abusing alcohol; the fact that Maura is a social drinker does not mean that she abused alcohol.

There is an article in a MA paper wherein Sara A, a friend of Maura's at UMass, says that Maura and Kate M were in her dorm room drinking the night of the first accident. Sara says she passed out, so it stands to reason that she would not know how much Maura drank......and referencing my comment about Maura NOT BEING CITED FOR DUI or DWI, it would seem that surely the police officer would have conducted a sobriety test. The fact that Maura had something to drink DOES NOT MEAN that she drank enough to be intoxicated or above the legal limit of drinking.

Please keep to the facts.

In reply to Cyberlaw:


I simply do not have the time to respond to each of your allegations and that is exactly what they are.

Maura had remained VERY CLOSE with a group of young women who got together for social events, Christmas gift exchanges, shopping trips, gettaways, etc. Since they had known her since she was a child, I am sure that they would have noticed changes. They reported none.....(not in the papers, but I know some of these young women)

I do not know when the boyfriend/fiance proposed to Maura. I *do know* that he was looking at rings over Christmas of 2003...... I even saw his mother in an interview (or perhaps in print??) say that he took her to get her opinion on the one he had picked out. I know that the boyfriend/fiance said in an interview that he was planning on giving the ring to her in the summer of 2004 and that they had planned a wedding after her graduation in May 2005.

I know that the boyfriend/fiance, his mother and Fred Murray repeatedly called NH SP regarding LT. Scarinza's remarks about Maura leaving a note to her boyfriend in her dorm room - there is a rebuttal about this remark by Sharon Rausch on the UMass Collegian website - I know the family finally received a call saying that Lt. Scarinza *meant there was a note from the boyfriend to Maura* This correction was actually published in a Press Release that was posted on the VT SP WEbsite regarding the meeting of authorties regarding Maura and Brianna Maitland. However, that link is no longer there.

I can refute everything you have to say; I just don't have the news links to back them all up - what I have is direct connections to the case; these people are not white washing anything.

For any of you interested in supporting Maura's case and her family, I humbly ask that you not tire of posting. If we all refuse to post our thoughts because of the fatigue generated by some posts, we lose the ability to help to do good for Maura's case. I am convinced that the numbers that come here to read and post about Maura has helped to generate publicity in her case. Let's not let her down.

And Let's All Pray that Maura is Alive and Well.

Peabody, I sent you a private message on this site yesterday, thanks.

The more I look at the timeline as it is being filled out on the Maura Murray website starting the weekends Oct 15/22 in the Discussion section, the standout item to me regarding Maura's side of things is her continued effort to communicate with her boyfriend--her chief confidante.

She called him at 4.49am on her Dad's cellphone the morning of 2-8-4, noted receiving messages from him evidently after picking up her cellphone at Sara A's that night around 8.30pm, sent him an email mentioning his messages around 1pm on Monday, promising to call, and called him around 2.18pm on her cell, telling him she was ok even as she was almost ready to leave Amherst, checked again for messages on her cell at 4.37pm as she left UMA--and I believe Lt Rausch is probably correct that she was the mystery caller to his cellphone (as he was still in Okla City) by prepaid card on Wed am 2-11-04, which if true is her last contact with family or friend.

Clearly he was on her mind, and was her "first call" so to speak.

Yet she clearly had more to tell him that did not get communicated; we simply don't know what that was. She went from being upset during the 4.49am call on Sunday to "not feeling like talking to much of anyone" in her email to him on Monday around 1pm.

This suggests ambivalence and mixed feelings on her part--she held back something that she wanted to convey, a very different picture from that of rejecting either her boyfriend or her family.

hydemi said:

Peabody, I sent you a private message on this site yesterday, thanks.

The more I look at the timeline as it is being filled out on the Maura Murray website starting the weekends Oct 15/22 in the Discussion section, the standout item to me regarding Maura's side of things is her continued effort to communicate with her boyfriend--her chief confidante.

She called him at 4.49am on her Dad's cellphone the morning of 2-8-4, noted receiving messages from him evidently after picking up her cellphone at Sara A's that night around 8.30pm, sent him an email mentioning his messages around 1pm on Monday, promising to call, and called him around 2.18pm on her cell, telling him she was ok even as she was almost ready to leave Amherst, checked again for messages on her cell at 4.37pm as she left UMA--and I believe Lt Rausch is probably correct that she was the mystery caller to his cellphone (as he was still in Okla City) by prepaid card on Wed am 2-11-04, which if true is her last contact with family or friend.

Clearly he was on her mind, and was her "first call" so to speak.

Yet she clearly had more to tell him that did not get communicated; we simply don't know what that was. She went from being upset during the 4.49am call on Sunday to "not feeling like talking to much of anyone" in her email to him on Monday around 1pm.

This suggests ambivalence and mixed feelings on her part--she held back something that she wanted to convey, a very different picture from that of rejecting either her boyfriend or her family.

Click to expand...

Is it confirmed that the last call to Rausch was Maura? I think we've all had weird calls in our lives, that if we were missing someone, we might decide that was the missing person who called. I've had awful calls, from a payphone that I can't trace, that I thought were my boys in horrible situations, my mother has a caller who's called 3 times who sounds just like me, except she's crying really hard when she calls, Beth Twitty had a call she was sure was Natalee but was determined by voice analysis not to be her. This could quite possibly be a red herring, it seems.

No, this has not been verified.

Scarinza and NH police said the call to Lt R's cellphone was from the American Red Cross, which if you read posts by Sharon (mother of Lt R) on the mauram website, you will see that the Rausches disputed this immediately.

there is a summary of this phone call on the Case Info timeline on the mm site.

All that has been verified is the calling card number and that it was an ATT card--and of course the time of the call. Lt R later deleted the call on his phone.

The Rausches have remained adamant in saying they believe Maura was the caller, and I have seen no reason to argue with their conviction.

Although I have a separate theory on this case, I am wondering how many peolpe think that the cell phone call to her boyfriend was in fact Maura. If it is, wouldn't that mean she walked away from voluntarily from that accident? I am very curious as to how the others think of this call.

I've never known quite what to make of the phone call. I know the Rausch's believed it was Maura. The big but is that although the police seemed to believe that Maura was alive and had perhaps run away, they were the ones who determined in whatever way that it was someone from the Red Cross who had made the call. I say in whatever way, because the call was made on a calling card (not from Maura's cell phone) to her boyfriend's cell phone and from all I've read it is very difficult to find out who is calling on a prepaid calling card...supposedly why drug dealers use them.

The posts by Sharon (Mrs Rausch) have the most detail on the mauramurray website relating to this unexplained phone call. These can be dug out by looking through her posts on the member list.

The sounds of sniffing, crying, hard breathing as if the caller were suffering from cold or exhaustion (according to Mrs R) were less than a minute in length. The caller did not call back. Mrs R supposes that problems with her son's phone may have resulted in the caller's not realizing there was in fact a connection made.

I find most convincing the argument that the ARC could not have called Lt R without knowing his cellphone number and it was Sharon who gave it to only the post commander. ARC had already granted emergency leave and had no reason to call Lt R again.

It is hard to say anthing about these sounds which both Rausches insist somewhat like the stories in "Blink" they just knew were from Maura.

As this call occurred some thirty six hours after the accident in Haverhill NH it is tantalizing to suppose it was Maura, somehow somewhere still alive.

I also have a question about the area where her car was left. I read thru several boards about the area, but I am not understanding. I understand this is a rural road, but how far would she have had to walk to get to a business or business district. Either going the way she was going or going back the other way. Also, are there any car rental places in the area? I think my question stems from the theory that I read stating she maybe had a friend following her wherever she was going. That just doesn't make much sense to me. But I guess it could have happened.

Anybody please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong...but I believe it is about 5-7 miles to North Haverhill about the same to Wells River, VT (both to the west) and 17 miles to Woodstock, NH (to the east). If the witness who remembered seeing her after almost four months is to be believed, Maura was headed east on foot. There is nobody (known to the public or the family) who has come forward and said that they either picked Maura up or saw her get into another car....though there are those on this site who have that theory.

Ok, I am thinking that maybe she was with someone else. Everything I read so far seems to indicate that this was a spur of the minute thing. I am just thinking out loud here, but is it possible that maybe she had a male friend who contacted her, told her he was upset, in trouble, etc and they decided to take a trip to get away for a while. Just to relax or talk, or whatever. The reason why I say that is because.... the call to the condo (someplace to get away), the alcohol (some way to drown sorrows, or have a good time and forget problems) also the fact that there was different types of alcohol sounds like she was buying for someone also. And then there is the BD saying that she said she called AAA or something, is it possible that she had someone with her who had already gone for help.

Also, if the person she was with was a male, I can see why she wouldn't have wanted anyone really knowing about it since she was engaged. But is it possible that she was trying to be a good friend to whoever and they had something else in mind?

As I said just thinking out loud. But for me this story has always bothered me because there seems to be no real reason why she left town in the first place. It seems that if that could be figured out, maybe this mystery would be solved.

Also, I want to add, I am not at all saying she had a boyfriend or anything. What I am thinking that maybe she had a male friend who wanted something else and then later hurt her.

This whole thing bothers me because I think that we would know more if LE would have investigated this in the first place. Asked some kind of questions like any strange men in the area or something like that. By all accounts it seems that when they did start looking they were only looking for her.

Maura's father is suing the police to get the file.The judge will decide today what happens.Maura's father feels that there could be overlooked clues in the file that the police compiled.

dark_shadows said:

Maura's father is suing the police to get the file.The judge will decide today what happens.Maura's father feels that there could be overlooked clues in the file that the police compiled.

Click to expand...

dark_shadows,

Thanks for reminding us of the hearing date regarding Fred Murray suing the NH authorities for information regarding Maura's missing.

For all of you prayer warriors 'out there', I am asking that you please keep this matter in earnest prayer.

My guess is that the judge will not issue a ruling during the hearing. Regardless of when he announces his decision, he must go by the law. However, the law is not always black and white; when the case law falls into a gray area, the judge makes the determination. Let's pray that he be guided to do what is best for Maura.

Hi Peabody,

Thank-you for your post.We are all hoping for the best.

Father Sues for Police Files

...
"It's a missing person, it's my daughter and I want to find her," said Fred Murray before he left the courthouse.

There is no time frame for when the judge will issue a decision.


More: http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=4380027&nav=4QcS

Father Sues for Police Files

...
"It's a missing person, it's my daughter and I want to find her," said Fred Murray before he left the courthouse.

There is no time frame for when the judge will issue a decision.


More: http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=4380027&nav=4QcS

From the Union Leader:



Dad fights for documents in disappearance of daughter

By LORNA COLQUHOUN
Union Leader Correspondent



Haverhill — The pile of documents relating to the disappearance of a Massachusetts woman nearly two years ago contains 2,500 pages, and her father wants to take a look at them.

Fred Murray, whose daughter, Maura, vanished from a rural road in Swiftwater in February 2004, was in Grafton County Superior Court yesterday morning, asking a judge to release those documents, a move he believes will help him in his own search.

“We want to take a fresh look and start over,” Murray said after a brief court hearing on his request for release of information pertaining to the case. “This gives me my best hope and my only hope. There might be something in there that means something to me that might be the key.”

<SNIP to CONFORM TO COPYRIGHT LAWS>

Citing Supreme Court cases, Ervin said the fact that the case has always been categorized as a missing person, rather than a criminal matter, is significant.

“The state has never characterized this as an ongoing criminal case,” Ervin said, and investigators have never given any reason as to why documents cannot be released. “The overriding concern is that she has been missing for two years and there is still no information about what happened.”


<SNIP to CONFORM TO COPYRIGHT LAWS>

Assistant Attorney General Daniel Mullen, who was accompanied by Jeff Strelzin, the head of the state’s homicide bureau, said the investigation is ongoing and that it “could have criminal overtones.”

<SNIP to CONFORM TO COPYRIGHT LAWS>

A team of private investigators is taking up the case of the disappearance, and Fred Murray said there is basic information he needs, such as dispatch logs, that would help create a timeline of what happened between the time his daughter was involved in a minor car accident and the time the first police officer arrived at the scene.

“I’m standing here trying to move every stone I can budge,” Murray said before leaving the courthouse yesterday. “Maybe I can get a break. I could sure use it.”


COMPLETE STORY AT LINK
http://unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Dad+fights+for+documents+in+disappearance+of+daughter&articleId=5983fc10-8f4d-4665-83f1-9bc48bb75c0c

By LORNA COLQUHOUN
Union Leader Correspondent



Haverhill — The pile of documents relating to the disappearance of a Massachusetts woman nearly two years ago contains 2,500 pages, and her father wants to take a look at them.

Fred Murray, whose daughter, Maura, vanished from a rural road in Swiftwater in February 2004, was in Grafton County Superior Court yesterday morning, asking a judge to release those documents, a move he believes will help him in his own search.

“We want to take a fresh look and start over,” Murray said after a brief court hearing on his request for release of information pertaining to the case. “This gives me my best hope and my only hope. There might be something in there that means something to me that might be the key.”

<SNIP to CONFORM TO COPYRIGHT LAWS>

Citing Supreme Court cases, Ervin said the fact that the case has always been categorized as a missing person, rather than a criminal matter, is significant.

“The state has never characterized this as an ongoing criminal case,” Ervin said, and investigators have never given any reason as to why documents cannot be released. “The overriding concern is that she has been missing for two years and there is still no information about what happened.”


<SNIP to CONFORM TO COPYRIGHT LAWS>

Assistant Attorney General Daniel Mullen, who was accompanied by Jeff Strelzin, the head of the state’s homicide bureau, said the investigation is ongoing and that it “could have criminal overtones.”

<SNIP to CONFORM TO COPYRIGHT LAWS>

A team of private investigators is taking up the case of the disappearance, and Fred Murray said there is basic information he needs, such as dispatch logs, that would help create a timeline of what happened between the time his daughter was involved in a minor car accident and the time the first police officer arrived at the scene.

“I’m standing here trying to move every stone I can budge,” Murray said before leaving the courthouse yesterday. “Maybe I can get a break. I could sure use it.”


COMPLETE STORY AT LINK
http://unionleader.com/article.aspx...f1-9bc48bb75c0c

He makes a good point. If this is not an open criminal case, where wrong doing is suspected, then why are they withholding the documents from the parents?
Prayers that they will open the case up to the parents.