NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 - #10

[BillNH]

For those who do not believe Fred really came to Amherst to look at cars to buy for Maura-- does anyone know if this part of the story was or was not corroborated by whatever local car lot(s) Fred said he and Maura went to?

That seems like basic police work to me, I would hope it would be either proven or disproven long ago.

If the story was corroborated, it was not publicly disclosed.

 

[Fireweed]

I highly doubt if LE in this case corroborated anything Fred said about the car shopping. However, I do think that the rift that occurred between Fred and the police had to do with Fred's lying and not being honest about Maura's life and her troubles.

 

[OldSteve]

2 car deaths in Boston tied to carbon monoxide
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...om-blizzard/dcSmZDfjRSohNDCsAdtBqM/story.html

Seeing this article, I thought of MM and the rag in the tailpipe...
We've speculated about, would blocking the tailpipe lead to CO2 backup into car...

 

[Fireweed]

Maybe the car was smoking a lot from the accident and Maura did not want to draw anymore attention to it so she stuck the rag up it.

 

[Vinny]

Interesting case, I don't know what to think.

If she died from exposure, I believe she'd have been found by now.

Runaway? Seems pretty far out there but I suppose it's possible.

Picked up by a stranger seems most likely to me.

Seems like this case has been at a dead stop for some time. Is LE still actively working this? Seems to me like strangers from the internet have done more work on this case than they have.

 

[Fireweed]

Picked up by a stranger seems most likely to me.

Or she was picked up or met up with someone she knew.

 

[Lolacat]

Ive been thinking a lot recently about one of Maura's last ever telephone calls. The one she made to her tutors saying that there had been a "death in the family". I can't help but find this really very odd. If you are looking to skip out of work/college why not use the simple, non-complicated excuse of "I've got food poisoning/upset stomach/flu/bad cold/cough" etc. That way, when you return to work/college all you have to say is, "I'm feeling much better thanks". Thats it. Its simple and effective. It gets the job done.

Claiming that one of your relatives has died is in no way a simple excuse at all. When you return there will be questions to be answered and you will have to continue the charade for even longer, and its certainly not a comfortable act if its a lie. When I was in the last year of my degree I actually did have a death in my family and I took some time off. When I returned to college my tutors were very concerned to make sure I was ok. They asked me about what happened, was I ok? did I have support?, did I need to talk to anyone about it? did I need any extensions for my essays etc.. I cannot imagine how ashamed I would have felt by their obvious concern if I had made the whole thing up. Not to mention, the risk of my friends finding out about it and knowing that it was a blatant lie. Why didnt she just say she was sick?

I always assumed that Maura wanted a temporary break but I am really beginning to come around to the idea that she simply did not plan to return to Umass. That way, her excuse doesnt matter- she never planned to see them ever again so the consequences of her lie just wouldn't matter....

 

[KenShabby]

Ive been thinking a lot recently about one of Maura's last ever telephone calls. The one she made to her tutors saying that there had been a "death in the family". I can't help but find this really very odd. If you are looking to skip out of work/college why not use the simple, non-complicated excuse of "I've got food poisoning/upset stomach/flu/bad cold/cough" etc. That way, when you return to work/college all you have to say is, "I'm feeling much better thanks". Thats it. Its simple and effective. It gets the job done.

Lolacat — The "death in the family" notion might be yet another one of those "facts for the case" that is not exactly true. Apparently, one of Maura's work supervisors, interviewed last year, said that the message referred to a "family emergency," and not a "death in the family." Can anyone else on the forum back this up or add clarity?

 

[Lolacat]

Lolacat — The "death in the family" notion might be yet another one of those "facts for the case" that is not exactly true. Apparently, one of Maura's work supervisors, interviewed last year, said that the message referred to a "family emergency," and not a "death in the family." Not that the difference between the two statements is all that extreme. Others in this forum might be able to bring more clarity to this.

Ah- ok. That DOES make a difference. There is a huge difference between those two statements. I always thought the "death in the family" excuse was correct because sharon commented on it in the Disappeared programme when she said thats what Maura had said and then stated, "Maura wasnt a liar, but she did lie" etc

 

[Nordicpete]

Ah- ok. That DOES make a difference. I always thought the "death in the family" excuse was correct because sharon commented on it in the Disappeared programme when she said thats what Maura had said and then stated, "Maura wasnt a liar, but she did lie" etc

I've been following this sad case for a good number of years by now and can only confirm that there seems to be no agreement regarding whether Maura actually referred to a "death in the family" or a "family emergency".
I wish we knew for sure as I do believe that the exact wording could give us a clue as to Maura's mindset.

 

[Lolacat]

I've been following this sad case for a good number of years by now and can only confirm that there seems to be no agreement regarding whether Maura actually referred to a "death in the family" or a "family emergency".
I wish we knew for sure as I do believe that the exact wording could give us a clue as to Maura's mindset.

I agree- its a relatively small detail but what it implies are two very different things. I think thats whats so frustrating about this case- so many details have become distorted over the years.

 

[neverletgo]

The Caring Family
Saturday, February 1, 2014

Snipped:

I spoke to a few people this week who attended West Point with Julie and Maura Murray. I'll be posting an interview soon.

There is also a photo at the link:

http://mauramurray.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-caring-family.html

 

[Gene S.]

I think it's quite possible that Maura had a second cell phone--either a prepaid one that she got herself or one that someone else had provided her. Given that the bills for the phone we know about went to Billy's mother, I can't imagine that she'd want Sharon and Billy to be aware of all of the numbers she was calling if she was having relationships with other men, as is claimed on James Renner's blog.

If she did have a second phone, she could have been in communication with someone during her drive to New Hampshire and, indeed, could have arranged to be picked up by someone after her accident. I don't know enough about the area where she had her accident to know whether in 2004 cell coverage was truly nonexistent or was just spotty.

 

[Nordicpete]

I think it's quite possible that Maura had a second cell phone--either a prepaid one that she got herself or one that someone else had provided her. Given that the bills for the phone we know about went to Billy's mother, I can't imagine that she'd want Sharon and Billy to be aware of all of the numbers she was calling if she was having relationships with other men, as is claimed on James Renner's blog.

If she did have a second phone, she could have been in communication with someone during her drive to New Hampshire and, indeed, could have arranged to be picked up by someone after her accident. I don't know enough about the area where she had her accident to know whether in 2004 cell coverage was truly nonexistent or was just spotty.

Gene S,

I pretty much agree with you there. As far as I know cell coverage was apparently more or less non-existent at and near Maura's crash site on Rte 112 in Swiftwater,NH, back in 2004.
Even so, Maura could certainly have been picked up by someone she knew at or near the spot of her accident provided she was driving "in tandem" with someone.

 

[JamesRenner]

I wonder if that "londonderry ping" could have been Maura accidentally calling her cell number on a burner phone. Maybe checking messages or something.

 

[Gene S.]

I wonder if that "londonderry ping" could have been Maura accidentally calling her cell number on a burner phone. Maybe checking messages or something.

That I don't know, nor do I know whether she could have gotten cell coverage a mile or two from the crash site to call someone who picked her up.

But there seems to be an assumption that we know her "final" phone calls based on the cell phone we know about. Given that the bills for that phone went to her boyfriend's mother, if she were trying to hide a relationship from her boyfriend I can't imagine she'd use that phone to make calls to the person with whom she's cheating on Billy. Even in the ancient days of 2004, prepaid cell phones like Tracphone existed or someone could have given her a cell phone that wasn't in her name

It's certainly quite plausible that she had a second phone--a phone that wasn't known to Billy or her family--and she used that phone on the day she disappeared. I would guess that back in 2004 she would have had at least some coverage on I-91 as she headed north. I know there was coverage in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and probably much further north.

 

[JeannaT]

Maybe the car was smoking a lot from the accident and Maura did not want to draw anymore attention to it so she stuck the rag up it.

That's an interesting "out of the box" idea, and I like that kind of thinking.

But the fact that she stopped her car at a gas station and went in, in my opinion, it would give a predator the amount of time needed to stuff that rag in her exhaust.

And her car broke down at the expected distance that it would have if the rag were placed there while she got gas.

I just think it's so likely that someone did that, and then followed her until she was stranded, and then nabbed her.

It seems that LE sat on that incredible clue until it was too late to figure out who was there at the gas station with her.

Puzzling, puzzling case. I wonder how long Fred will have to wait for them to give him the case information. As abrasive and irritating as Fred is, I think LE there should be more professional and not withhold information.

 

[Fireweed]

My theory is that, based upon the time Maura left Amherst and when she had the accident, that she did not go up 91. I think Fred is telling the truth that Maura's car was in bad shape. That is why I think that Maura did what many women would have done in that situation - she took the small side roads that parallel the freeway. It is far less scary to have your car stall on smaller road with a lower speed limit and a place to pull over.

Does anyone have the exact address of the liquor store were Maura was last seen and when she was seen there? I bet you anything that if you put in that address on google maps to with directions to the accident scene, and clicked "avoid highways," that you would have close to a perfect timeline. I am also leaving so room that Maura may have briefly gotten on the freeway, decided it was too scary, and then taken the side roads the rest of the way.

So anyway, I guess my point is that if you are going with the dirtbag/stalker theory, then if you go with my theory that she took side roads up there, then there are a lot more places where she could have encountered a weirdo than just at the local gas station.

 

[scoops]

I think it's quite possible that Maura had a second cell phone--either a prepaid one that she got herself or one that someone else had provided her. Given that the bills for the phone we know about went to Billy's mother, I can't imagine that she'd want Sharon and Billy to be aware of all of the numbers she was calling if she was having relationships with other men, as is claimed on James Renner's blog.

If she did have a second phone, she could have been in communication with someone during her drive to New Hampshire and, indeed, could have arranged to be picked up by someone after her accident. I don't know enough about the area where she had her accident to know whether in 2004 cell coverage was truly nonexistent or was just spotty.

Just a couple of notes:

The phone bill went to BILLY and not to his mother.
Once Maura went missing, billy gave the phone records to his mother to investigate numbers.

There is not one shred of proof that Maura had a second phone. So introducing one into the picture will never prove anything. If we are going to start introducing things, then I get dibbs on the Yeti. I think Maura encountered a yeti the night she went missing.

The Londonderry ping (oh brother, where to start).

A ping is used to track someone, not someone's phone number. Cell phones submit pings when they are turned on (back in 2004) which bounce off of cell towers and reveal the location of the physical phone at the time and place it communicates (vie ping) with a particular cell tower.

What james is bringing up has nothing to do with cell phone pings.

Maura's last known activity vie phone came at 4:37 p.m. Monday where she checked for messages.

That means that shortly after 4:37 p.m., Maura turned off her phone again and it never was turned back on.

It also means that Maura had her phone turned off up until the point she checked for messages at 4:37 p.m.

So her entire trip up north, Maura intentionally had her cell phone turned off with the exception of a few minutes late in the afternoon at which time she checked for phone messages (and at which time her phone sent a ping to a nearby tower).

True story.

 

[Fireweed]

I guess I do not understand this Londonderry ping thing very well. Does it mean that Maura's phone had to be within 22 miles of the tower, or it could it be that only the person calling her has to be within 22 miles?