I snipped the part out about " personalities" trying to profit in some way from this unsolved missing person case.
What you've said about MM not being a truly upstanding young nursing student hits kind of hard. I've just now read that she had unopened bottles of liquor in her car, bottles she put in her car- to drink while driving or what? I don't know.
I wonder if she had a serious alcohol abuse problem..
There's one thing no one really brings up. If she had a drinking problem and was not doing well in school, then she was NOT going to become a registered nurse, period.
I'm almost certain they were going to flunk the girl and she had to know it.
So, I agree with those who've said she was leaving college behind. She'd burned almost every bridge from what I have read.. Friends mad over missing money, dad ticked off about his car, the entire dysfunction that was her life.
If a person's running away from one thing, they're going towards something else, it stands to reason. Whether deliberately going on a course of action or aimlessly wandering, they are still propelling themselves because they are running away from something they believe is worse than the unknown in front of them.
Is it possible that Maura traded some or all of the liquor she had for a ride with someone? Maybe not in the middle of the night, but after walking/ running for most of the night, if she didn't succumb to hypothermia, would she have attempted to hitch a ride after daybreak the next AM and bartered with whatever booze it was she had in her backpack that wasn't opened yet?
I don't think she had money, from what I've read, but she apparently did have something of value to some people- the bottles of some type or types of spirits. ( I don't know what, specifically).
Of course, I think it's a foolhardy thing to do to offer booze to a person driving a vehicle who's also a stranger, but I think this girl lacked good judgment, period.
If she did hitch a ride, it's to parts unknown, right? I read in older threads that there was supposedly a BF or male pal with a plan to meet up somewhere else. Is that a credible theory now?
I don't think most WSers have any agenda of their own. We are supposed to be unbiased and consider all viable options in a missing persons case, because all manner of twists and turns can sometimes happen to those who get into the desperate situation Maura was in.
My belief is she's likely deceased, considering the long time she's been missing, but I hope not. Why was she on such an apparently desolate road instead of a major interstate highway? I've never even known that.
I realize she could have died in any location out in the open that first night, and there's also the possible added factor of alcohol intake which hastens hypothermia onset a great deal. But, if she didn't die of exposure to the elements, what is a viable theory of what happened to her? I keep reading how fast and far she could have run, but to where? What happened to her when she stopped running in the light of day, if she made it that far?
Thanks to any case experts who can get me up to speed on what's actually provable and what else is likely.