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Um, yeah. I taught the poem for 20 years.I doubt that Frost was sitting in a sleigh in a snow storm in the dark writing about the woods.
Try not to take art so literally.
His poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" was about a man facing his mortality - about people left to see and about things left undone. About how there will always be things left undone - miles to go before I sleep, AND miles to go before I sleep. Twice, because there are always so many things still to do. But I have promises to keep. To people, to God, or whomever.
"He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake."
His horse represents those who love and will miss him, but no, there's no mistake, this man (whomever he may be), knows it is his time. So happy is his peaceful end to go with an easy wind and downy flake, with someone who understands. How could he be alone while with someone who was paying attention?
But again, Frost was not alone in the woods dying when it was written. It wasn't about that.
MOO
At least 2 NH LE officials have alluded to searches showing no signs she went in the woods.
There is absolutely no evidence that Frost intended to lie down and die in the swamp. Is there any evidence that Maura was suffering from unrequited love? In fact Frost married White upon her return to Massachusetts.Um, yeah. I taught the poem for 20 years.
Perhaps "Stopping" was his Great Dismal Swamp experience reworked and tidied.
There are a lot of grown men who run the blogs, books, documentaries, podcasts, secret research, etc when it comes to this case. I just want one of them to go up to Haverhill on a night like the one when Maura went missing (going up there in July to gauge the conditions won't count) and then I want them to walk straight into the woods all by themselves without a flashlight or any clue where they are going. Here is the thing: even for a grown man that will be scary. I know, I know, they are going to argue that Maura was suicidal blah, blah, blah but I must seriously question if even suicidal people do not still have a great many of their human instincts intact. I would bet my life that the vast majority of suicides by far occur either in daylight or indoors with the lights on.
I once went camping by myself in the woods and it was really, really scary and I am never doing it again. During the day it was a lot of fun, but at night you realize just how alone you are. Human beings have a deep instinct to not be alone in "dangerous" places.
I get your gender views and I appreciate that. I took a solo camping trip as a retreat on the Kanc just after Hurricane Irene in August 2011, Most roads were closed and my campground was devoid of people. This was about the darkness, the solitude and etc. I would gladly do it again. Yeah it was scary given the signs announcing bear activity, LOL. But it would not have been my first close encounter.
I have been up there in December, April and May but only snow shoeing or XC skiing or at the time-share then driving up through the pass. Often wondering, deeply pondering
I once took a separate retreat in my tree house in February. The temp those nights were in the 20's. I believe I would have perished without my kerosene heater.
I drove through Haverhill at night in February. I go that way to go to the "Brick Store" or on to Woodsville for dinner. I would not want to stop my car and climb, trudge, or stumble into those woods. As with every area in the White mountains, even if you don't get a stick poked into your cornea, the snow just gets deeper and deeper and deeper and harder and harder to trudge through.
IMO Maura Murray was smarter than that even if she were plastered.
I think the male thing needs to be taken in context, but it seems that by calling it out may suggest that a woman may be more scared and emotional. That is not my experience with athletic, fit and experienced women.
I may have mentioned that my niece is currently scaling, and recording the 4000's and 5000's up there. Solo. My respect for that woman is enormous. She is just over 30. Just this weekend she did Mt Willey and Mt Field. I dunno even where they are, LOL
She would be carrying me back haha.
MOO
I do not think that women are necessarily more scared or weaker than men. What I meant is that the people publicly running all this are grown men. I want them to go out in those woods on a February night and see how they really feel. I am sure that all of them are convinced that they are not craven and that they would easily handle it. I just want them to see what it is really like. I think that women in general would be more cautious before proceeding. We would not necessarily feel entirely confident whereas plenty of men would (falsely).
Whether Maura was male or female, I do not think that as an experienced white mountains hiker that she would just walk straight off into the woods. If she wasn't suicidal she would know how dangerous it was; if she was suicidal she would know that there was a very real possibility of survival.
My feeling is that this will end simply - she will be found in the woods some day. I think the hiding from cops and falling asleep or passing out is most likely. Passing out somewhere not easily visible. Maybe falling and being unable to get up. She didn't have to be suicidal - just drunk, panicked, desperate, in a bad mental state, adrenaline and possible head injury - she wouldn't have had to go far and she would've known it was dangerous to keep going. But maybe in the cold she just waited too long and then didn't know what to do once they'd left - too confused. That's what keeps coming to my mind. But of course other possibilities remain open to me.
I've long thought that if Maura perished that night, then this is likely what happened. She fled the scene because she was drunk and as her past would show, Maura must have been terrified about getting into trouble again. Let's say she jogged a ways up the road and when she was out of sight of homes, she hid behind a tree. Did she decide to stay there for a few hours until she thought that the cops would not be looking for her? Maybe she decided to head back to town at midnight and as you say got up and fell, or perhaps she was hit by a drunk driver who hid her body so as to cover up his crime.
Thanks for clarifying.
The thing that I don't get is if a person calls Maura while in the area of Londonderry...that persons cell pings that tower. So if that person called, didn't get through.... wouldn't it register as a missed call and in turn be on Mauras cell phone bill?
Or is it an issue where Maura had no service and simply had no idea she missed the call. If That's the case I wonder how police became aware of it?
The only reason I ever weighed in on this issue to begin with, was because the finding of this affidavit request has been reported (unintentionally IMO) as some big bombshell piece of evidence to this case (and imo, it is not).
I wanted to make very clear that if were going to use some random police standard procedure form to try and read into it some big clue, we better understand the context of it first, which IMO, the context of that affidavit request has never been established by any sleuther or investigator.
We are trying to say that police are trying to locate a person that may have called Maura that afternoon, and that doesn't jibe to me at all as being common sense.
Every case I have ever heard about in which law enforcement is using someone's cell phone to gather information involving pings and cell towers, it is strictly to trace movements by using the phone's built it tracking ability because the phone communicates through pings with cell phone towers.
Whether police are looking for a missing person or looking for the movements of a particular suspect, they are interested in that subject's cell phone to follow that person's movements.
Back in 2004, as along as Maura had her cell phone turned on, it would've left a trace to whatever tower she was driving by.
This idea that police are interested in calls coming into a missing person's phone, doesn't make a lot of sense, unless they were specifically anticipating someone to call Maura at a certain time and maybe then, they would seek help in trying to secure whether or not that phone call was ever made.
But if police were to assume someone called Maura and it just didn't register on her phone bill because she never answered and voice mail didn't pick it up ... that seems like very backwards and guestimating type investigating. How can you be interested in calls (as an investigator) you don't even know someone received.
I still contend that Maura checked her phone for messages in the late afternoon she went missing (on her drive up to New Hampshire). that is what has been reported as being her last known activity.
If she took I-91 North to get to the White Mountains, she would've been in the vincinity of Londonderry Vermont at the time she dialed in to check her phone for messages.
IIRC, Trooper Landry was talking to Maura's cell carrier about tracking the phone via "ping" when the security person he was talking to mentioned that someone attempted to call her the day she disappeared. The callers phone went through the Londonderry, NH tower. They could not give Landry the persons name without a warrant, which is the reason for the affidavit. I don't think there was an error on the affidavit, but I do believe the call was irrelevant to her disappearance. If there was a POI that came of it it seems we may have heard about it, but maybe not. Since it didn't lead to an arrest it probably was insignificant or didnt lead anywhere.