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4 grand is not enough to start a brand new life.
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Had Atwood not lived so close to the scene, I'm sure she would have been more likely to consider help from him. But taking refuge with him meant basically sitting there until the police come.
She could have told a stranger a number of things "My car died" or "I hit some ice" either way, if a person was to stop they would already be likely to give her a ride - I doubt much explaining would be necessary. She could have expected a warm place to stay, a phone to use but with the wrong person things could have gone downhill quickly.
I tend to lean more towards that because simply going into the woods to hide would have been foolish, IMO. I mean, one could easily hide out on the edge of the road unseen by police, but going further and further into the dark woods always seemed like an insane decision.
Sure, one could argue she went in there because she was suicidal, but I've never been truly convinced of that. It's possible, but I would think if she was depressed enough she would have sought out any easier way in MA to end her life, instead of planning a trip and then suddenly becoming suicidal after an accident. Again, it's possible but I don't think that is the case here. And the idea this trip was solely based upon suicide, I don't know about that either. She really didn't have anything in her possession that screamed suicide.
We are 12 years into this mystery, it's pretty clear to me that she either somehow was able to conceal her own body, or, more likely to me, that someone else was able to conceal her body.
Sometimes people get away with ghastly crimes, maybe she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Look at the boy from Minnesota...the only thing that solved the case was essentially a confession from the perpetrator. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case here.
I'm really wondering if she's actually alive somewhere. The father giving her money, the idea of turning down Atwood in favour of a longer ride... Makes sense to me.
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I agree with your reasoning, but I'm more like 75-25 in favor of exposure.I'm about 50-50 on whether she ended up with someone who killed her or she ended up in the woods and died of exposure.
So to keep up appearances, he searched for her almost every free moment he had? Every weekend he worked with John Smith and Rick Graves to search for Maura and find leads from locals even though he knew where she was?
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From Renner's blog.Does anyone really believe Maura left that day without telling a single other soul where she was going?
I know the quick, easy social-justice-warrior response to this is, "she was a grown woman, why would she have to tell anyone where she was going?"
http://mauramurray.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/simple-glaring-detail.html#comment-form
From Renner's blog.
Firstly, I just want to roll my eyes at Renner using the phrase 'social justice warrior'. He's using that as a way to shut people out of the discussion. Anyone who disagrees with him on that point is now an EVIL SJW! which is just the latest internet bogeyman. Incredibly disappointing he's stooping to that level. "Oh, you don't agree with me? Well you must be a SJW, and EVERYONE HATES THEM! Get 'em, boys!"
Secondly, he's misrepresenting the argument of why she might not have told anyone where she is going. It's not "I'm a strong independant woman who don't need no man/friends to know where I'm going!", like he is presenting it. She could have very deliberately not told people where she was going, in order to keep a secret. Maybe she was concerned someone would try to stop her going, for example. Maybe somebody would insist to come with her, and she didn't want them to. Maybe deep down she knew what she was doing was a bad (or rash) idea, and didn't want to be talked out of it.
He's not thinking in terms of someone who, by all accounts, was in a very rough frame of mind and situation. I have, in the past, been in a very serious situation, and kept my whereabouts quiet while I sorted it.
Thirdly, he is asking women whether they would tell anyone if they were going to take a trip for a days, and they are all saying they would. Well, guess what? If you frame it to them as 'going to take a trip for a few days', then of course they would all tell someone. What do they have to hide? Present it as 'you need to escape a dangerous situation on your uni campus', or 'you need to get a secret abortion', or 'you want to check out other nursing schools in the area without alerting your friends', or 'you ran someone over and need to put distance between you and the site of the crime', or 'you're planning to commit suicide', or 'you're planning to run away with your secret boyfriend', or any of the other many, many possibilities discussed over the course of these threads, and you might see some different answers.
http://mauramurray.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/simple-glaring-detail.html#comment-form
From Renner's blog.
Firstly, I just want to roll my eyes at Renner using the phrase 'social justice warrior'. He's using that as a way to shut people out of the discussion. Anyone who disagrees with him on that point is now an EVIL SJW! which is just the latest internet bogeyman. Incredibly disappointing he's stooping to that level. "Oh, you don't agree with me? Well you must be a SJW, and EVERYONE HATES THEM! Get 'em, boys!"
Secondly, he's misrepresenting the argument of why she might not have told anyone where she is going. It's not "I'm a strong independant woman who don't need no man/friends to know where I'm going!", like he is presenting it. She could have very deliberately not told people where she was going, in order to keep a secret. Maybe she was concerned someone would try to stop her going, for example. Maybe somebody would insist to come with her, and she didn't want them to. Maybe deep down she knew what she was doing was a bad (or rash) idea, and didn't want to be talked out of it.
He's not thinking in terms of someone who, by all accounts, was in a very rough frame of mind and situation. I have, in the past, been in a very serious situation, and kept my whereabouts quiet while I sorted it.
Thirdly, he is asking women whether they would tell anyone if they were going to take a trip for a days, and they are all saying they would. Well, guess what? If you frame it to them as 'going to take a trip for a few days', then of course they would all tell someone. What do they have to hide? Present it as 'you need to escape a dangerous situation on your uni campus', or 'you need to get a secret abortion', or 'you want to check out other nursing schools in the area without alerting your friends', or 'you ran someone over and need to put distance between you and the site of the crime', or 'you're planning to commit suicide', or 'you're planning to run away with your secret boyfriend', or any of the other many, many possibilities discussed over the course of these threads, and you might see some different answers.
When I first started researching this case, I thought that she had run into the woods, but I don't think the evidence matches that at all. Despite Renner's blog being a lot of him inserting himself into the situation aggressively, I still appreciate how much information he lays out in such an organized way (or at least, initially). But now, there's a disconnect in his blog that I think people are misunderstanding. He has his own opinion just like we do and it's prevalent recently because there's no movement in the case, but people are still expecting content.
I personally think that she planned to run away from all the wrongs she had done and wanted to cut ties with Billy and her dad (rag in tailpipe, leaving all her stuff behind, she was a very shady and secretive person, about to get kicked out of another school for theft, didn't want to stay with Billy, her dad probably pushing her to improve her life, open alcohol in the car either drank or staged, packed up her stuff at school - not planning on coming back, possible hit and run, dog lost scent in the middle of the road, she didn't want help from the bus driver).
Although the one thing that confuses me is the cop stating that one man won't let them X-ray a concrete slab he kept pouring for no reason in his yard. Does anyone know more about this?
I think a lot of the good articles were covered locally by Maribeth Conway for the local newspaper, she was also in the Disappeared episode as well, though I can't remember how her name is spelled.
But she did a lot of good reporting in the first few years and even later on, which brings up some of those points. The newspaper I believe is the Whitman Hanson Express.