It is painfully obvious to me that Maura set out to commit suicide that night. Whether or not she was intercepted by a stranger as she left the car + abducted is up for debate + honestly unknowable... but this was a seriously troubled woman and I think her family's in denial, honestly. She buys a book about hikers getting lost and dying in the mountains that apparently she brought in her car with her? Emotional instability leading up to the event? Credit card theft? Getting kicked out of West Point awhile back (while her family says she's transferred I've heard other stories)? Multiple car crashes? And then you have the fact that her mother somehow doesn't want to help out in this case at all (probably a seriously weird relationship), and Maura's absolutely pin-thin frame with her jutting out collarbone in photos and her sad eyes.
and THEN you have the fact that she bought tons of alcohol IMO obviously to numb the pain of intentionally freezing to death in the mountains, which has been done in quite a few suicides. I think Maura knew that suicide by freezing was somewhat painless because your body doesn't feel anything fairly quickly, and alcohol would expedite that process. It would be like falling asleep. she probably knew this from reading her 'favorite book.'
And then the fact that she called her boyfriend and left a voicemessage of her shivering and whimpering. I think she was having doubts about the suicide or wanted to say goodbye but didn't have the energy because her body was shutting down.
There's a few competing theories here that should be pointed out. I won't tackle them in any order, just the order they come to me.
The book - 'Not Without Peril'. I really don't think that Maura, a hiker, having a book about hiking, suggests any form of suicidal intent. I believe it was an exceptionally popular book, and relevant to Maura's interests, so I don't see that as suspicious at all.
The emotional instability is extremely interesting, but again to me does not point to suicide. I always believed Maura was going somewhere in order to do something to sort something out she couldnt do locally. Her wavering moods beforehand strike me as belonging to someone who needs helps but I think Maura set out to get that.
Getting kicked out of West Point? We dont know the full story there. I will point out, though, that it wasnt like that had put her life in any kind of desperate situation she was studying at UMass and by all accounts doing well. If anything, that was a hurdle Maura had already fully overcome. Did her family give her grief about it? Who knows.
I think the credit card theft may be related to what happened to Maura, if indeed it is true. She was in trouble. But dont forget, a lot of people manage to get in a lot of trouble before they turn to suicide.
Maybe she wanted to take the alcohol with her to wherever she was going? Considering she left most of it in the car, we cant really conclude she wanted to use it to numb the pain of death.
Comments on her appearance arent really helpful. Maura was a runner, so you might expect her to be slim. It doesnt really add anything to the case.
The voicemail has been disregarded. There is no signal in the mountains, and the call was traced back to someone unrelated to the case who needed to discuss military leave with Billy.
As I understand it, Maura's mother was not a well woman. Laurie Murray died a few years after Maura went missing, and I believed she suffered from very poor health before that. I would not translate her lack of physical searching as a coldness towards her daughter or the situation.
Lastly, I always reasoned that since Maura was a nursing student, she probably had access to a hundred and one easier ways to kill herself that didnt involve making a long, miserable drive and a slow, cold death.
To claim she was planning to commit suicide in that way is also disregarding a lot of the evidence against that idea. There was no note, no contact with any friends or family members, an email stating she intended to return to UMass, she bothered to pack her things away (not at all usual for a suicide). Signs point to big changes in Mauras life, but not suicide, in my opinion.