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

[snowleopard]

Perhaps she hit someone with her car?

 

[scoops]

Okay, then let's assume that Maura's breakdown was sincere. What on earth could have made her catatonic she was so upset? I know some would point to Billy troubles, but it seems that Billy troubles were common enough in Maura's life. In fact, she seemingly was able to move on pretty fast when they went on breaks.

Was she just generally upset? She is sitting there alone in the middle of the night, thinking about her life and it turns into a full on emotional meltdown? But she gets over in time for dinner out that Saturday?

Something about the Thursday night meltdown coupled with her father's visit and subsequent disappearance makes me think that the whole thing was just part of the bigger plan.

But I am glad you agree that there was no phone call that triggered it.

Actually, I wasn't very clear at all.

The phone call that readers and folks interested in this case have learned about from old news reports and message boards (that is linked to Maura becoming upset at work) is not what led to Maura becoming upset, I am personally convinced about that.

The phone call between Maura and her boyfriend from 12:07 a.m. to 12:14 a.m. that very same work shift, has never been addressed publically by police investigators (it could very well be a direct cause of Maura becoming upset). It just has never been talked about and your standard reporters that wrote on the case WERE NOT PRIVY TO THAT PHONE CALL INFORMATION.

Now I know I have made it pretty clear over the years that I believe Maura took her own life that night she went missing and I also have not been able to rule out the possibility that she became disoriented and succumbed to the elements, however, I have also taken a lot of interest in the Petrit Vasi hit and run that took place the same night Maura had her meltdown at work.

Vasi was found lying in the road at 12:20 a.m. just a block away from where Maura was working.

Maura's phone call to her boyfriend was from 12:07 a.m. to 12:14 a.m.

I have always wondered if Maura may have been on a break (which would allow her to talk on her cell phone without getting in trouble). Could the shortness of her phone call with her boyfriend been because she struck a pedestrian while talking with her boyfriend?

Maura's shift was a full eight hour shift that night (By law, you are required breaks).

It's a very long shot and I wish I could've been able to rule her out, but every example given to me about how she could not possibly have been involved in the hit and run has proven to be pretty weak.

It would explain her father whisking to town just a day later and maybe the urgency to do something with her car.

But the reason I don't speak out more about this, is because it is so Hollywood story like of a scenario that it probably has no truth to it and it could be just an imagination running wild.

 

[lawstudent]

I'm in my mid-twenties, and I can tell you that at that age, it is not all that weird for a girl to have a sudden meltdown about something that seems pretty harmless to an outsider. Late teens-early twenties are a huge period of transition and little things can trigger fears about your whole life. It is also not uncommon to quickly snap out of it, or at least recover enough to go out and have fun. It's somewhat unusual to do it so publicly, and I have no idea what the cause could be. There are a lot of things that I can see triggering someone to fall apart and run even if they seem silly to others. Maybe not one big thing but some little thing that triggers a consistently building worry and causes a spiral. However, it is highly unlikely that such a person would stay undiscovered for so long, in any scenario. It is definitely mysterious.

 

[Jessen]

Scoops, I appreciate the hardwork you have put into this case and I enjoy reading your posts.

 

[Jerri Blank]

Now I know I have made it pretty clear over the years that I believe Maura took her own life that night she went missing and I also have not been able to rule out the possibility that she became disoriented and succumbed to the elements, however, I have also taken a lot of interest in the Petrit Vasi hit and run that took place the same night Maura had her meltdown at work.

Vasi was found lying in the road at 12:20 a.m. just a block away from where Maura was working.

Maura's phone call to her boyfriend was from 12:07 a.m. to 12:14 a.m.

I have always wondered if Maura may have been on a break (which would allow her to talk on her cell phone without getting in trouble). Could the shortness of her phone call with her boyfriend been because she struck a pedestrian while talking with her boyfriend?

Maura's shift was a full eight hour shift that night (By law, you are required breaks).

It's a very long shot and I wish I could've been able to rule her out, but every example given to me about how she could not possibly have been involved in the hit and run has proven to be pretty weak.

It would explain her father whisking to town just a day later and maybe the urgency to do something with her car.

But the reason I don't speak out more about this, is because it is so Hollywood story like of a scenario that it probably has no truth to it and it could be just an imagination running wild.

i know i've chimed in with this before and i guess my reasoning is weak to some, but having lived in that exact place at that exact time and knowing a few people who had that exact job at that exact point in time i can assure you there is a 99.99% chance maura did NOT hit vasi. honestly, at this point, i wish she had. it would be a reason at least... but *direct* involvement in that particular hit and run would have been a logistical long shot to say the least. i say *direct* because there is a (still remote) possibility that she lent her car to someone else and they hit vasi.

i agree with you that she is no longer alive and i think she died that night, but i can't quite commit to a theory of why she was where she was and what upset her.

 

[scoops]

i know i've chimed in with this before and i guess my reasoning is weak to some, but having lived in that exact place at that exact time and knowing a few people who had that exact job at that exact point in time i can assure you there is a 99.99% chance maura did NOT hit vasi. honestly, at this point, i wish she had. it would be a reason at least... but *direct* involvement in that particular hit and run would have been a logistical long shot to say the least. i say *direct* because there is a (still remote) possibility that she lent her car to someone else and they hit vasi.

i agree with you that she is no longer alive and i think she died that night, but i can't quite commit to a theory of why she was where she was and what upset her.

My only regret is that (when I had the opportunity) I didn't look into the vasi hit and run angle a bit harder because I was highly skeptical.

I stood right outside the door of the dorm Maura was working at that night when I visited the UMASS campus and I am 100 percent certain there was staff parking right by the door. What I didn't do was follow-up to see if dorm monitors were authorized to park there, because Maura (working a long shift) might have taken advantage of the parking perk that night if she knew she was going to drive around campus on her break as opposed to leaving her car parked in its normal spot which would be logistically far away from both the dorm she lived in and the dorm she worked at that night which were right next to one another.

IF She did park in the parking lot designated for staff and security, then she had ample time to be in the area that vasi was struck.

I would think she would have to make it back to work as well, because if she just didn't show back up and word got out that a block away a hit and run took place, that would make her look somewhat suspicious.

I would think she would have to park her car though somewhere not too visible, if she did have struck Vasi.

She would definitely IMHO, been in a zombie-like state if she did really strike him. Her head would be spinning, wondering about whether he was going to live or die and also about what was going to happen to her future.

I could see her saying something like "My sister" to try and get her supervisor from finding out what was really bugging her, just to get the supervisor to back off questioning.

Maura didn't go to bed either after being relieved from her shift around 1:15 a.m. (even though Maura would've had classes the next day) there was phone activity from Maura around 4 a.m.

I don't know what to make of it all, but to me the vasi hit and run angle can't fully be dismissed.

 

[Jerri Blank]

in this case can anything ever be fully dismissed? lol the more i read and think the more i am convinced that most theories out there hold at least a little water...

for the vasi angle, i can say this: the parking for staff is for resident life directors who live in apartments in the dorms, and the parking for security is (or at least in 2004) for campus police and security supervisors who traveled from building to building checking up on the people who checked ids at the door, like maura. those spaces outside the buildings were heavily monitored by campus police and they were ruthless about unpermitted drivers.

a friend who worked security in 2004 said she thinks it is possible that they could have gotten parking passes with special permission but she isn't sure as she didn't have a car. she remembers all female staff members were offered and encouraged to accept a campus police escort home after their shift. even if it was possible to get a pass though, mauara lived next door. there would be no need for that permit since she would ultimately have to return her car to a permit lot and walk way further if she were granted one. i just can't see umass doing that.

let's suppose though she somehow was granted permission to park out front. i think the thing that makes it just too improbable for me that she hit vasi is the problem of what to do with her car after the accident... she would have had to have left campus the moment her break began, and immediately hit vasi on the way to whatever errand brought her out and then turn around and get back to work. only an idiot would park a car they just used to hit someone in front of a dorm where police and security regularly patrol so she would have at minimum parked in her appointed lot. the closest lot she could have possibly had a permit for was still at least a 5 minute walk away and that is from the first row of spaces. trust me those lots sucked and finding a space took a while and it would make sense that she opted to park in the back away from lights to further hide her crime. and even if she found a parking space quickly and ran back to her post, it's still cutting it REALLY close.

i didn't work security at that time but i was in res life a few buildings over and i can tell you that we kept tabs on the security people. if they were slacking, our lives were worse for it. so if our security person disappeared for any major length of time it would have been noticed. i also knew several people on the res life staff in melville, they were the kind of people who would have noticed their security guard being awol.

out of curiosity, when did you visit campus?

i guess to sum it up it is possible that maura hit vasi, but only if every single thing went right for her timing wise which is why i leave that .01% chance she's involved... her behavior that evening certainly makes the vasi theory an attractive angle though.

 

[Jerri Blank]

wow that was way longer than i meant it to be... slow day at work i guess!

 

[scoops]

in this case can anything ever be fully dismissed? lol the more i read and think the more i am convinced that most theories out there hold at least a little water...

for the vasi angle, i can say this: the parking for staff is for resident life directors who live in apartments in the dorms, and the parking for security is (or at least in 2004) for campus police and security supervisors who traveled from building to building checking up on the people who checked ids at the door, like maura. those spaces outside the buildings were heavily monitored by campus police and they were ruthless about unpermitted drivers.

a friend who worked security in 2004 said she thinks it is possible that they could have gotten parking passes with special permission but she isn't sure as she didn't have a car. she remembers all female staff members were offered and encouraged to accept a campus police escort home after their shift. even if it was possible to get a pass though, maura lived next door. there would be no need for that permit since she would ultimately have to return her car to a permit lot and walk way further if she were granted one. i just can't see umass doing that.

let's suppose though she somehow was granted permission to park out front. i think the thing that makes it just too improbable for me that she hit vasi is the problem of what to do with her car after the accident... she would have had to have left campus the moment her break began, and immediately hit vasi on the way to whatever errand brought her out and then turn around and get back to work. only an idiot would park a car they just used to hit someone in front of a dorm where police and security regularly patrol so she would have at minimum parked in her appointed lot. the closest lot she could have possibly had a permit for was still at least a 5 minute walk away and that is from the first row of spaces. trust me those lots sucked and finding a space took a while and it would make sense that she opted to park in the back away from lights to further hide her crime. and even if she found a parking space quickly and ran back to her post, it's still cutting it REALLY close.

i didn't work security at that time but i was in res life a few buildings over and i can tell you that we kept tabs on the security people. if they were slacking, our lives were worse for it. so if our security person disappeared for any major length of time it would have been noticed. i also knew several people on the res life staff in melville, they were the kind of people who would have noticed their security guard being awol.

out of curiosity, when did you visit campus?

i guess to sum it up it is possible that maura hit vasi, but only if every single thing went right for her timing wise which is why i leave that .01% chance she's involved... her behavior that evening certainly makes the vasi theory an attractive angle though.

I was there in the summer of 2011. I actually parked my rental in one of those mentioned security parking spots, to quickly walk around the area of both Kennedy and Melville Dorms.

I then left there and went to the ACB Brew Pub and it was only while I was en route that I literally stumbled into the same intersection that the hit and run had taken place at.

I couldn't believe how close that intersection (Mattoon and Triangle) was to where I had just come from (Maura's residential dorm and the dorm she did desk security at that night)

The more I think about it too, if there is any traction to her being involved in the Vasi Hit and run, then I honestly think her biggest priority would've been just to get back to work as quickly as possible and she may not have made any real effort to hide her car.

I think she could've very easily gotten away with it as well because the vasi hit and run really never was investigated.

Police waited over a month for Vasi to come out of a coma to try and find out what happened to him.


Of course Maura wouldn't know that.

And again, that ties in nicely with her father swooping into town the next day and all of a sudden the two are interested in getting Maura a different car.

But again. This could just be my mind wanting to make this case way more Hollywood-esque than what it probably is.

And I have really never liked adding a bunch of things (unproven) to this case when the basic facts are still good enough to go off of to try and find the most simple solution to what happened to Maura.

 

[ManyAndFew]

Meh. I can tell you from first hand experience that someone cracking the back bumper
of a 2003 Pontiac by rearending you at low speed will make them need to replace the entire rear bumper, and it'll cost you $6000. So if she busted the front bumper and the quarter panel, I can see $8000 not being out if the question for replacing them rather than repair.

Yeah, it was stupid of me to bring this up here, and to be honest, I regretted it after I posted. Car damages will be a very relative experience for most folks, it depends a great deal of what type of car you drive. My friend, who works for Toyota, just felt like it was a high number for what one typically associate with that type of damage.

I read earlier ITT that a few people wrote about James Renner, the journalist/reporter. I personally have never viewed him as a journo in this regard. Although he is a reporter by trade and education, in the MM case he has a commercial interest. An interest that I always remind myself of when reading his blog. It's in his best interest to dramatize and sensationalize even the tiniest of details. At the same time I feel he has done some good work on this and in keeping this alive.

I haven't read any posts by scoops before today and I must say I'm impressed with his work here.

I'm spending two months in the US this coming summer and I really want to take a drive up there to the mountains, just see what it looks like up there. I've been thinking so much of this case and I just want to do it. Does that make my weird?

 

[Murkywaters]

Has Vasi ever commented on the incident or whether or not he believes Maura struck him?

 

[ManyAndFew]

Has Vasi ever commented on the incident or whether or not he believes Maura struck him?

http://dailycollegian.com/2004/10/19/student-still-faces-long-road-to-recovery/

 

[scoops]

Has Vasi ever commented on the incident or whether or not he believes Maura struck him?

Vasi's mom was quite blunt in one news article back in 2008 (New Hampshire Sunday News), here is an excerpt from her:

Vasi's mother, Aprhodite Vasi, said her son has recovered but still doesn't remember what happened to him that night at about 12:20 a.m. Mrs. Vasi was told at the emergency room her son was involved in a hit-an-run accident, but there was never a follow-up investigation, Mrs. Vasi said.

Mrs. Vasi said Petrit remained in a coma for two months and remained hospitalized for a month after that. He had to cut short rehabilitation therapy, she said, because his insurance ran out.

"He doesn't know what happened, and nobody investigated for him," Mrs. Vasi said.


Now Vasi has also gone on record (Vie message boards over the years) to say that the circumstances surrounding Maura Murray are sad and he would never want to think she could've been involved in the hit and run.

He doesn't want to know what happened at this point in his life. He just wants everyone to move on. (that's how I remembers interpretating his comments, I just can't find them at this time. But I posted them somewhere before.

 

[carpanthers]

Hello! First post, sorry it is so long.

I have long thought there is a strong possibility that Maura was simply going North to wait for word about possible charges that would be pending against her. Her packed dorm room and the printed e-mail from Billy were perhaps to excuse her absence from the dormitory, in case she later needed to deny that she had fled from charges. Her e-mail to her professors about a family emergency was to excuse her absence from classes for the same reason. The fact that she searched for lodging in both New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as the fact that she had printed directions to Burlington, VT in her car as she was allegedly driving towards Bartlett, NH seems to imply that she did not care with great specificity where she went, so long as it was out of state. Although a lack of concrete destination could perhaps also suggest suicide, I believe the steps she took to leave her life as intact as possible speak against this. This is not to say she was not suicidal, but I believe any serious suicidal ideation happened after the New Hampshire crash. I think it was simple: she wanted to go North, to an area she was familiar with, out of state, to have as many options as possible should charges in fact be issued. Remember that the Hadley officer stated in an interview with Renner that Maura most likely would have been issued a citation for failure to control her vehicle had she not disappeared. Maura did not necessarily know this for certain when she left, but probably felt an inkling that this could jeopardize her deal with the courts and she could face more serious legal repercussions. If charges did come down, she would already be out of the state. She could choose to remain in New Hampshire or Vermont, or even drive to Canada (Burlington,VT is a hop, skip and jump from the border). In the event that she did have to return to Massachusetts, she could claim that she was not fleeing prosecution, but simply went to the White Mountains because she was upset about Billy and needed to get away. If no charges were issued, she could return to her life and her classes, assuming her professors accepted her excuse for her absences. I think she went North to keep her options open while she waited to see if she would be charged.

If we take Fred Murray’s car shopping statements at face value, the charges that she may have been apprehensive about could have stemmed solely from the Hadley car accident. Perhaps her father did indeed come to Amherst to buy her a new car, and it was only after the Hadley crash she felt the need to wait out charges in the White Mountains.

I believe the evidence speaks against this. The behavior of both Maura and Fred indicates that there was a reason that Maura did not want to be in her dorm room. Could she have been physically fearful of an individual on campus? Unlikely, I think, since she was still willing to attend a party on campus at a dorm only feet away from her own. Could she simply have been embarrassed that her dorm-mates knew about her credit card fraud? Yes, but presumably nobody would be coming to her single dorm room in the middle of the night to harass her about it. The marginal risk of even encountering someone who knew of her activity doesn’t justify the risk she took in driving drunk to her father’s motel. I believe the most likely explanation is that she was fearful of someone who knew her campus address, yet her presence in Sara Alfieri’s dorm room seems to indicate that it was not a fear of physical harm. I believe this heavily suggests that she was afraid that the police would be knocking on her door.

I think it is not so unlikely that Maura could have had more legal issues than we are currently aware of. In the years following her disappearance, we have learned that she left West Point following an incident where she was accused of stealing makeup, and that she was facing credit card fraud charges in Amherst shortly before she disappeared. None of this was discovered until years after the fact. I don’t see any reason to assume that those are the only two times she ever stole anything. The fact that she was caught stealing again after facing such serious consequences at West Point suggests she engages in theft somewhat compulsively, and in light of her willingness to face those consequences for a second time in Amherst, I see no reason to assume that she stopped stealing after her Amherst arrest.

Many people believe that the damage to the Saturn is inconsistent with the NH crash. I believe (so far) that the evidence for this is somewhat lacking (although some have alleged that a car appraiser or a mechanic saw the Saturn with damage prior to the crash, this seems to be largely unsubstantiated information). Though I like to speculate as much as anybody, I am unwilling to assign much merit to the unqualified assessments of the vehicle itself, which are based largely on pictures taken several years after the crash; however, Fred did state that the car was "running on three cylinders," that he had advised her to stuff a rag in her tailpipe to deter law enforcement, and that she needed a new car because she had to drive to clinicals. This is the car she later drove all the way to New Hampshire in the dead of winter. I find it possible that the car did have damage, and that perhaps Maura had driven the Saturn away from the scene of an earlier accident. The car shopping story has always seemed a little contrived, but makes more sense when viewed in the light that Fred Murray was perhaps offering the police a reason that Maura could not have been driving the Saturn during a particular time period. It would further justify the search for a wrecker, had they performed one. Finally, it provides an excuse for the piecemeal withdrawals of $4000 from Fred Murray’s account during the week before Maura’s disappearance.

Though I wouldn’t quite call it impossible, I don’t believe Maura is responsible for the accident involving Mr. Vasi. I think her building security position almost definitely excludes her as a suspect, and I would only assign weight to this contention if there were proof that she somehow managed to leave her post. Nonetheless, this does not eliminate in any way the possibility that she had left the scene of some previous accident. Perhaps there was not even another driver involved, and it was solely a property damage issue. Still, she could have been concerned that the police investigating the damage would consider her a suspect, particularly if a parking officer happened to notice body damage to a car in a student lot. Three car accidents seem like a lot in such a short window of time, but we can say with reasonable certainty that Maura was involved in two accidents in less than 48 hours, and was intoxicated during both. This suggests that she had become, at least recently, a habitual drunk driver. I see no reason to assume that she could not have had an earlier accident, particularly given her proclivity to drink and drive during the time period in question.

Regardless, it is not necessary for us to conclude that Maura did anything criminal after her arrest; rather, it is quite possible that following her arrest the police began looking at her as a suspect in other reported credit card thefts. Perhaps she had reason to believe that the police suspected her or wanted to interview her in connection with other thefts, thefts she may have committed either prior to or subsequent to her arrest. This would explain her reluctance to stay in her dorm room, and provide a compelling reason to be out of state while the police finished any additional investigations they may have been conducting with regards to Maura Murray and decided whether or not to charge her with failure to control in the Hadley accident.

A scenario like this would also explain Fred’s deceptive behavior. At the time of her crash, Fred may have known that Maura was not only fleeing from the scene of a DUI crash in New Hampshire, she was also fleeing potential charges in Massachusetts. As her father, he would have a substantial interest in keeping this from the public, as this information would probably make her seem more like a fugitive than a missing person. With the benefit hindsight, eleven years with no contact from Maura or activity on her SS# does seem to suggest that she met with harm (although many people believe to this day that she is alive). Still, had the public known everything about Maura’s legal troubles at the time of the New Hampshire accident, I think it is likely that there would be markedly less concern about her whereabouts. This is a significant motivation for her family and friends to withhold information about her reasons for the trip.

This scenario seems the most likely to me. It requires no conspiracy between Fred Murray and Kate Markopolous. It requires no conspiracy between Maura, Kate and Sara. It requires no tandem drivers, medical researchers, confidential informants, pool orgies, secret boyfriends or sexual abuse. It requires no explanation of the behavior of her family and friends beyond the fact that they loved her, and wanted her to be found. Perhaps they simply correctly surmised that people would be less interested in searching for a small-time fugitive than a missing, innocent young college girl.

 

[TedMac]

I'm

Hello! First post, sorry it is so long.

I have long thought there is a strong possibility that Maura was simply going North to wait for word about possible charges that would be pending against her. Her packed dorm room and the printed e-mail from Billy were perhaps to excuse her absence from the dormitory, in case she later needed to deny that she had fled from charges. Her e-mail to her professors about a family emergency was to excuse her absence from classes for the same reason. The fact that she searched for lodging in both New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as the fact that she had printed directions to Burlington, VT in her car as she was allegedly driving towards Bartlett, NH seems to imply that she did not care with great specificity where she went, so long as it was out of state. Although a lack of concrete destination could perhaps also suggest suicide, I believe the steps she took to leave her life as intact as possible speak against this. This is not to say she was not suicidal, but I believe any serious suicidal ideation happened after the New Hampshire crash. I think it was simple: she wanted to go North, to an area she was familiar with, out of state, to have as many options as possible should charges in fact be issued. Remember that the Hadley officer stated in an interview with Renner that Maura most likely would have been issued a citation for failure to control her vehicle had she not disappeared. Maura did not necessarily know this for certain when she left, but probably felt an inkling that this could jeopardize her deal with the courts and she could face more serious legal repercussions. If charges did come down, she would already be out of the state. She could choose to remain in New Hampshire or Vermont, or even drive to Canada (Burlington,VT is a hop, skip and jump from the border). In the event that she did have to return to Massachusetts, she could claim that she was not fleeing prosecution, but simply went to the White Mountains because she was upset about Billy and needed to get away. If no charges were issued, she could return to her life and her classes, assuming her professors accepted her excuse for her absences. I think she went North to keep her options open while she waited to see if she would be charged.

If we take Fred Murray’s car shopping statements at face value, the charges that she may have been apprehensive about could have stemmed solely from the Hadley car accident. Perhaps her father did indeed come to Amherst to buy her a new car, and it was only after the Hadley crash she felt the need to wait out charges in the White Mountains.

I believe the evidence speaks against this. The behavior of both Maura and Fred indicates that there was a reason that Maura did not want to be in her dorm room. Could she have been physically fearful of an individual on campus? Unlikely, I think, since she was still willing to attend a party on campus at a dorm only feet away from her own. Could she simply have been embarrassed that her dorm-mates knew about her credit card fraud? Yes, but presumably nobody would be coming to her single dorm room in the middle of the night to harass her about it. The marginal risk of even encountering someone who knew of her activity doesn’t justify the risk she took in driving drunk to her father’s motel. I believe the most likely explanation is that she was fearful of someone who knew her campus address, yet her presence in Sara Alfieri’s dorm room seems to indicate that it was not a fear of physical harm. I believe this heavily suggests that she was afraid that the police would be knocking on her door.

I think it is not so unlikely that Maura could have had more legal issues than we are currently aware of. In the years following her disappearance, we have learned that she left West Point following an incident where she was accused of stealing makeup, and that she was facing credit card fraud charges in Amherst shortly before she disappeared. None of this was discovered until years after the fact. I don’t see any reason to assume that those are the only two times she ever stole anything. The fact that she was caught stealing again after facing such serious consequences at West Point suggests she engages in theft somewhat compulsively, and in light of her willingness to face those consequences for a second time in Amherst, I see no reason to assume that she stopped stealing after her Amherst arrest.

Many people believe that the damage to the Saturn is inconsistent with the NH crash. I believe (so far) that the evidence for this is somewhat lacking (although some have alleged that a car appraiser or a mechanic saw the Saturn with damage prior to the crash, this seems to be largely unsubstantiated information). Though I like to speculate as much as anybody, I am unwilling to assign much merit to the unqualified assessments of the vehicle itself, which are based largely on pictures taken several years after the crash; however, Fred did state that the car was "running on three cylinders," that he had advised her to stuff a rag in her tailpipe to deter law enforcement, and that she needed a new car because she had to drive to clinicals. This is the car she later drove all the way to New Hampshire in the dead of winter. I find it possible that the car did have damage, and that perhaps Maura had driven the Saturn away from the scene of an earlier accident. The car shopping story has always seemed a little contrived, but makes more sense when viewed in the light that Fred Murray was perhaps offering the police a reason that Maura could not have been driving the Saturn during a particular time period. It would further justify the search for a wrecker, had they performed one. Finally, it provides an excuse for the piecemeal withdrawals of $4000 from Fred Murray’s account during the week before Maura’s disappearance.

Though I wouldn’t quite call it impossible, I don’t believe Maura is responsible for the accident involving Mr. Vasi. I think her building security position almost definitely excludes her as a suspect, and I would only assign weight to this contention if there were proof that she somehow managed to leave her post. Nonetheless, this does not eliminate in any way the possibility that she had left the scene of some previous accident. Perhaps there was not even another driver involved, and it was solely a property damage issue. Still, she could have been concerned that the police investigating the damage would consider her a suspect, particularly if a parking officer happened to notice body damage to a car in a student lot. Three car accidents seem like a lot in such a short window of time, but we can say with reasonable certainty that Maura was involved in two accidents in less than 48 hours, and was intoxicated during both. This suggests that she had become, at least recently, a habitual drunk driver. I see no reason to assume that she could not have had an earlier accident, particularly given her proclivity to drink and drive during the time period in question.

Regardless, it is not necessary for us to conclude that Maura did anything criminal after her arrest; rather, it is quite possible that following her arrest the police began looking at her as a suspect in other reported credit card thefts. Perhaps she had reason to believe that the police suspected her or wanted to interview her in connection with other thefts, thefts she may have committed either prior to or subsequent to her arrest. This would explain her reluctance to stay in her dorm room, and provide a compelling reason to be out of state while the police finished any additional investigations they may have been conducting with regards to Maura Murray and decided whether or not to charge her with failure to control in the Hadley accident.

A scenario like this would also explain Fred’s deceptive behavior. At the time of her crash, Fred may have known that Maura was not only fleeing from the scene of a DUI crash in New Hampshire, she was also fleeing potential charges in Massachusetts. As her father, he would have a substantial interest in keeping this from the public, as this information would probably make her seem more like a fugitive than a missing person. With the benefit hindsight, eleven years with no contact from Maura or activity on her SS# does seem to suggest that she met with harm (although many people believe to this day that she is alive). Still, had the public known everything about Maura’s legal troubles at the time of the New Hampshire accident, I think it is likely that there would be markedly less concern about her whereabouts. This is a significant motivation for her family and friends to withhold information about her reasons for the trip.

This scenario seems the most likely to me. It requires no conspiracy between Fred Murray and Kate Markopolous. It requires no conspiracy between Maura, Kate and Sara. It requires no tandem drivers, medical researchers, confidential informants, pool orgies, secret boyfriends or sexual abuse. It requires no explanation of the behavior of her family and friends beyond the fact that they loved her, and wanted her to be found. Perhaps they simply correctly surmised that people would be less interested in searching for a small-time fugitive than a missing, innocent young college girl.

Good post and welcome to Websleuths!

 

[Fireweed]

I was wondering if we could all very tenuously agree on something: it would have been practically impossible for Maura to have left her post, driven somewhere, and returned to a non-employee parking spot near enough to the dorms and to have managed it in 15 minutes. I take that those dorms were just like my dorms in college: the only parking after 8 pm or so right near the dorms was only got by pure dumb luck. Can anyone who lived there confirm this? Moreover, would Maura have taken the risk of giving up a "good" parking spot and driving somewhere on her break, only to have to park really far away when she got back?

I dunno, to me if you had a job like that then on your break you would probably just go back to your dorm room for 15 minutes, or maybe walk outside to get some air.

 

[carpanthers]

I went to Umass in 2006. I find it almost impossible to believe that she could have gotten a good parking spot in the first place. You were assigned a ticket for a specific student lot. Maura was a transfer, so there is no way she would have had enough campus seniority to park anywhere better than Lot 22 (she might have had to park further away than that. You could park in other lots on the weekend. The town itself had very strict parking enforcement, and when I lived off campus (near fearing st.) you needed to get a parking permit from town hall for street parking on a lot of streets. I would say within 100 yards of the building she was working in, there were probably less than ten parking spaces she even potentially could have parked in. That is the biggest residential area at UMass, and I think it is almost mathematically impossible that she even could have gotten a parking spot there in the first place.

 

[stephsb]

@fireweed- I've always thought the Vasi angle was improbable because she was at work. I didn't go to school at Amherst, but where I did go to school, my roommate was one of the students who checked ID's at the entry to the dorms. From what I remember, they didn't usually work long enough shifts to warrant a break longer than 15 minutes, and even though we lived in the same building my roommate checked ID's in, she would rarely, if ever, come back to our dorm room, because she was afraid she'd get distracted and be late getting back. She'd usually just run to the bathroom or to the vending machine, and if she had extra time, she'd just work on homework she'd brought along. The only time she'd come up to our dorm room was if she had forgotten homework or her cell phone needed to be charged or something. That's why the Vasi theory never fit to me...15 minutes is not that long of a time period to be gone, I can't imagine why she would leave and then risk having to spend forever finding another parking spot, risking the chance of being late, which she would almost certainly be reprimanded for...besides the security risk of having no one there to scan ID's, I can't imagine students being happy if there was no one there to sign them in and they had to wait for whatever reason.

 

[scoops]

I was wondering if we could all very tenuously agree on something: it would have been practically impossible for Maura to have left her post, driven somewhere, and returned to a non-employee parking spot near enough to the dorms and to have managed it in 15 minutes. I take that those dorms were just like my dorms in college: the only parking after 8 pm or so right near the dorms was only got by pure dumb luck. Can anyone who lived there confirm this? Moreover, would Maura have taken the risk of giving up a "good" parking spot and driving somewhere on her break, only to have to park really far away when she got back?

I dunno, to me if you had a job like that then on your break you would probably just go back to your dorm room for 15 minutes, or maybe walk outside to get some air.

I do believe it would almost exclude her from the hit and run if her car was in its normal parking spot for the night.

However, there is a parking lot designated for staff/security right next to the front door of the dorm she was working at that Thursday night.

From her car to the desk she was working at would've literally taken 15 seconds to walk to.

Now did dorm monitors (that was Maura's official job title) park in those designated spots?

I didn't do any research on that when I visited UMASS and parked in one those designated parking spots myself. My mind wasn't even thinking about the vasi hit and run at that moment. My mind was thinking how far can I walk away from this car, before some campus police officer drives up and has my car towed.

She was only about a 25 second walk from the dorm she worked at to the dorm she lived in as they were literally next to one another.

But I contend that (if she knew she was going to have a break that night and wanted food as an example) that having her car moved to the security/staff parking space would make it possible for her to be able to get out and go right at the start of her break, whereas if her car was parked in its normal spot, then she would be stuck in the dorms during her break because of a lack of time to go anywhere.

She was on her cell phone talking to her boyfriend at 12:10 a.m. in the morning.

I know many people that the very second they get a break (from their job) they immediately get on their cell phone.


Nothing I speculate about proves anything, but IMO, I am not convinced the hit and run didn't involve her, even after all of these years have passed.


FYI:

Maura's shift that night was from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. (6 hour shift)

This is confirmed.

Part of her supervisor's list of duties include subbing out dorm monitors for breaks.

 

[carpanthers]

She had several other (sometimes lengthy) phone conversations that night. If I'm remembering correctly, the conversation with her sister was something like twenty minutes long. I would guess that her break happened during that phone call, as I think that is a long time for her to be on the phone at her security desk job, where she is expressly forbidden from using her phone. She clearly doesn't have too much of a problem breaking that rule, but I think twenty minutes is a long call, during a time when there probably would have been medium to heavy foot traffic entering and leaving the building. I think she had her break during her phone call to her sister.