NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 - #11

DNA Solves
DNA Solves
DNA Solves

New Posts

Status
Not open for further replies.
If I had to guess at this point, I also think they will eventually find her remains close to where she disappeared. There are certain places where she would have been found by now, but if she got a decent distance away, I could believe it. It is hard to find a body, and as has been said, searchers often miss it. Not because they didn't try, but because there are so many places to look and sometimes it is an area not easily visible to passersby.
 
Fireweed said:
Jeri, I agree with a lot of what you said. We do not actually know if Maura was an alcoholic or a bulimic. BTW, bulimics are not overly thin. Bulimia and anorexia do not function the same way. Bulimics can be anywhere from underweight to obese. If Maura was thin, it was because she was a distance runner, not from being bulimic. Also, she was 21. Most people are still quite thin at 21, even eating pizza all the time.

I also feel that if Maura was bulimic or alcoholic, then we sometimes get the cause and effect of Maura's problems reversed. Maura was suffering from alcoholism and bulimia because she was overly stressed; she was not stressed because she was suffering from alcoholism and bulimia. Now of course eventually all these things just turn into a never ending cycle, but the stress and anxiety puts the whole thing in motion.

I know I have said here before that I had an ED when I was younger. One of the things that I remember from those times was constantly fantasizing about a different life; about living somewhere else. I think I was not as aware of what I was doing to myself because I was very good at creating m own "escapism" when I needed to. I read later that this is common in bulimics. Again, we do not really know if Maura was bulimic, but if she was then I would not be surprised if she fantasized a lot especially about a different life.
Click to expand...

BBM ^^^ me, too. [Although I would add that my ED, or at least the practical consequences of it (e.g., amount of money spent on food, or time spent bingeing and purging when i really didnt have either time or money to spare) certainly added to my stress.]
 
Fireweed said:
Just as a counterpoint, when I used to drink, I almost always took sleeping pills too. Drinkers wake up a lot in the night full of guilt and remorse. A lot of drinkers already have sleeping issues to begin with. It is not quite as dangerous as it sounds. The tylenol part is not that great, but an OTC sleeping pill mixed with alcohol will not kill you. Trust me I did this for years.
Click to expand...

Same with Ativan (I assume? That this generalizes to other anxiolytics.)
 
Honestly, whether or not "thorough" searches were conducted might not even mean much. We could discuss countless cases, but look at the Holly Bobo case. Her remains were found in an area right off the road that had been searched but was just too dense and wooded. It's easy to miss the exact spot, even if you search a huge radius, or even to search right in that area but not notice the remains for whatever reason. It's hard to know EXACTLY where to search, even if you have the right general area, and in a case like Maura's it's pretty much a needle in a haystack without cadaver dogs used right off the bat.
 
Lolacat said:
Not necessarily. My 2 cents is that the key to finding Maura is to be found in the week prior to her disappearance. Something happened, and it was something significant and big that we dont yet know about. I personally believe that Fred has an idea or an inkling of what that *secret* might be, but I genuinely dont think he knows where Maura is now.


Fred is holding something back- for whatever reason, be it potentially noble or suspicious reasons, he simply does not want to talk about it. Hence, his insistence that the days before her appearance "do not matter".

I used to think Maura had been abducted and murdered. However, having spent time here and on JR's blog, I now believe that Maura either:

1. Went up to the mountains to commit suicide, OR
2. To run away from her life and has started a new life elsewhere.

Either way, she was running away. From what? I wish I knew :(
Click to expand...

I don't know this for sure, but I believe that Fred may think that the authorities wouldn't be so inclined to search as aggressively for a girl intent on suicide, as they would for a girl that's been abducted-and he seems to have taken pains to steer LE away from the possibilty of suicide. My feeling is that he wants to find his daughter, and thinks he won't if she is considered to have taken her own life. This might be the secret he's got-he believes she did.
 
Jmoose said:
I don't know this for sure, but I believe that Fred may think that the authorities wouldn't be so inclined to search as aggressively for a girl intent on suicide, as they would for a girl that's been abducted-and he seems to have taken pains to steer LE away from the possibilty of suicide. My feeling is that he wants to find his daughter, and thinks he won't if she is considered to have taken her own life. This might be the secret he's got-he believes she did.
Click to expand...

This has always been my theory. It's clear that LE will not take this case as seriously as it should if they believe Maura committed suicide. This is why he searches the mountains, and along the roads. If he believed Maura was abducted why would he do this? If she was abducted she would have been forced into a strangers vehicle and lead away to an undisclosed destination. Not driven into the woods.
 
Murkywaters said:
This has always been my theory. It's clear that LE will not take this case as seriously as it should if they believe Maura committed suicide. This is why he searches the mountains, and along the roads. If he believed Maura was abducted why would he do this? If she was abducted she would have been forced into a strangers vehicle and lead away to an undisclosed destination. Not driven into the woods.
Click to expand...

This is a really good point. I hadnt thought about it that way before, because of course I have heard stories of bodies being dumped in the woods...but I think you're right.
 
PlainJaneDoe said:
Same with Ativan (I assume? That this generalizes to other anxiolytics.)
Click to expand...

Not the OP, but I take that for sleep but I stay away from alcohol when on it and vice versa. In large doses, the combination can definitely kill you, but tons of people do it all the time and live. Taking 1mg while drunk probably is probably quite common - but if you are addicted to large quantities of sleeping pills and alcohol, that is a disaster waiting to happen. OTC sleeping pills are way less strong and almost never would cause death due to being mixed with alcohol. It makes me too paranoid though - mixing downers is scary. So I stay away from it at all costs. I'm more comfortable with taking a bunch of either than mixing one of each. Predictability.
 
Oh for sure! I should clarify...I was taking 0.25 to 0.5 mg, so not a high dose. Definitely not medical advice!
 
Jmoose said:
I don't know this for sure, but I believe that Fred may think that the authorities wouldn't be so inclined to search as aggressively for a girl intent on suicide, as they would for a girl that's been abducted-and he seems to have taken pains to steer LE away from the possibilty of suicide. My feeling is that he wants to find his daughter, and thinks he won't if she is considered to have taken her own life. This might be the secret he's got-he believes she did.
Click to expand...

I completely agree. Look at his reactions-his very first reaction to her going missing was that she killed herself- (the "we'll find her drunk and naked up there" comments about the white mountains), then he publicaly appealed to her directly basically saying that whatever trouble she's in they can work it out together, THEN later on, the local dirt bag theory emerged.
 
Lolacat said:
I completely agree. Look at his reactions-his very first reaction to her going missing was that she killed herself- (the "we'll find her drunk and naked up there" comments about the white mountains), then he publicaly appealed to her directly basically saying that whatever trouble she's in they can work it out together, THEN later on, the local dirt bag theory emerged.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, but it could be that the local dirt-bag theory emerged when he discovered that there was, indeed, at least ONE local dirt-bag living in the vicinity of where the accident occurred.

Personally, I go back and forth on the suicide theory. She may well have been suicidal and there's plenty of evidence to suggest that. However, being suicidal and actually going through with the act of killing yourself are two very different things and because it's NH and there are so many unsolved murders and disappearances up there, some of which can be attributed to a minimum of two uncaught serial killers, it's kind of necessary to remain agnostic with regard to the possibility of a stranger abduction. This is especially so if you believe Forcier's account placing an individual matching Maura's description on foot some distance from the crash site.
 
How did I miss this case/thread? Off to spend 9 hours reading it. :)
 
Pettibon Junction said:
Perhaps, but it could be that the local dirt-bag theory emerged when he discovered that there was, indeed, at least ONE local dirt-bag living in the vicinity of where the accident occurred.
Click to expand...

That may be true but his first instinct, his first reaction for the first few days was that she harmed herself. There must be a reason for that. If any of my children came up missing, suicide would not be my "go - to" thought as to what happened to them.

Pettibon Junction said:
Personally, I go back and forth on the suicide theory. She may well have been suicidal and there's plenty of evidence to suggest that. However, being suicidal and actually going through with the act of killing yourself are two very different things and because it's NH and there are so many unsolved murders and disappearances up there, some of which can be attributed to a minimum of two uncaught serial killers, it's kind of necessary to remain agnostic with regard to the possibility of a stranger abduction. This is especially so if you believe Forcier's account placing an individual matching Maura's description on foot some distance from the crash site.
Click to expand...

BBM
The number of unsolved murders and missing people in NH is very low compared to most of the rest of this country. Number 3 on the list of safest states to live in the US. This comment just makes people think of all the locals here as deviant criminals, and that is the furthest from the truth. You would be hard pressed to find any specific area anywhere in the world that did not have a dirtbag in the vicinity of any given spot. NH is no different but it is still a bit safer than most of the country. As a NH resident, and local to the Maura accident site and a non-dirt bag, I take exception to this characterization of my state.
 
Fred probably has a suspicion that Maura committed suicide, but there's no way he would know that for sure. Even if she was suicidal, something else could have happened. It must be awful to go so long without knowing. He probably just wants some answers. I can't fault him for going back and forth on his theories. I would do the same if a loved one went missing. I would just want to know.
 
I'm not trying to paint NH as a haven for creeps, I'm merely stating a fact - none of the CT River Valley murders were never solved, nor was the killer of Kempton and Little ever caught. Neither of these series are ancient history. Plus if Forcier's account is to be believed, then the window for her to have met with foul play becomes much wider.

Sexually motivated pattern crimes are an aberration and occur literally everywhere. New Hampshire is hardly unique in that. But the ratio of unsolved homicides given the state's resources and comparatively low violent crime rate does not reflect well on local law enforcement. Fred's not wrong about that. All I'm saying.
 
Pettibon Junction said:
I'm not trying to paint NH as a haven for creeps, I'm merely stating a fact - none of the CT River Valley murders were never solved, nor was the killer of Kempton and Little ever caught. Neither of these series are ancient history. Plus if Forcier's account is to be believed, then the window for her to have met with foul play becomes much wider.

Sexually motivated pattern crimes are an aberration and occur literally everywhere. New Hampshire is hardly unique in that. But the ratio of unsolved homicides given the state's resources and comparatively low violent crime rate does not reflect well on local law enforcement. Fred's not wrong about that. All I'm saying.
Click to expand...

It seems to me that LE in NH gets outsmarted easily. I think it is because they play their cards too close to their chest. They get it in their heads that they can solve crimes without releasing any information to the public and then of course the end result is that the crime goes unsolved. I dunno, personally I am under the impression that LE in this case got outsmarted by the Murrays and other people close to Maura.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

DNASolves

Who is Escambia County John Doe (1989)?

Staff online

Members online

... and 204 more.
Total: 1,743 (members: 205, guests: 1,538)

Online statistics

Members online
205
Guests online
1,538
Total visitors
1,743
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
599,391
Messages
18,095,271
Members
230,858
Latest member
friesandchips
Back
Top