NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 #15

[Queasy Gumshoe]

I'm not so sure.. all signs point to Maura not wanting to be found by the officers and not wanting the help of strangers. As a pedestrian in a remote area at night, it's very easy to hear and see a car coming before they see you. So in Maura's position, if I were walking or jogging along the road and wanted to avoid contact with anyone, I'd step off the road until the car passed by, and then continue my journey.

The search for Maura didn't escalate right away - she could have gotten literally miles from the scene before resting. This is a fit young woman who is a noted athlete. Intoxication, cold and a slippery road are factors, but if separating herself from the accident scene was her goal, then IMO, accomplishing it would have been... trivial.


It was cold outside, but I've assumed the bus had been running so was still warm. Purportedly this was Butch's habit, to do the paperwork in the bus. I can imagine lots of reasons why this might be practical but not certain what Butch's rationale was.

all signs point to Maura not wanting to be found by the officers and not wanting the help of strangers. That is an assumption created by hearsay - There is only a record of Butch reporting that no - one else can verify what she was doing/thinking/feeling
And can you tell me where I can find the report on Butch's habit of doing paperwork on the bus being his routine? I have never heard that before.

 

[KindMind1ofA]

And can you tell me where I can find the report on Butch's habit of doing paperwork on the bus being his routine? I have never heard that before.

Interestingly, all references just tie back to Butch's statements, so I cede your point!

 

[sony12]

I still say that if any of the general residents from that area were involved in the disappearance in anyway than this case probably would have been solved around 2004/2005.

 

[annpats]

Butch didn't live at this house by himself, I believe his mother and her partner also lived at the home too.
They were both at the residence that evening, so it's unlikely Butch would've kidnapped or killed Maura.
I doubt any neighbours did either, Maura would've screamed and shouted for help and in a quiet snowy village like that, any little noise draws attention.

After all, the lady in the house opposite heard her crash the car and looked out of her window to call 911.

 

[sony12]

And there really isn't any solid evidence at all that any of the locals were involved. A lot of those theories largely stem from Maura's dad saying that he thought someone local might be involved.

 

[pittsburghgirl]

I largely attribute her seemingly having drinking and driving issues to her being 21. Not necessarily because she was intentionally trying to harm herself.

I think the reason she left her car very well may have been because she didn't want to get caught while drunk. I think she was mainly just a college kid who lacked a lot of maturity. Not someone who was wanting to hurt herself.

She didn't have to necessarily be drunk--it would be scary enough to have police show up with a breathalyzer if she had been drinking without being over the limit.

 

[pittsburghgirl]

Hard to argue with that.

If she had been drinking at all, that would have compromised her in any attempt to walk or jog out of there.

 

[pittsburghgirl]

I'm not so sure.. all signs point to Maura not wanting to be found by the officers and not wanting the help of strangers. As a pedestrian in a remote area at night, it's very easy to hear and see a car coming before they see you. So in Maura's position, if I were walking or jogging along the road and wanted to avoid contact with anyone, I'd step off the road until the car passed by, and then continue my journey.

The search for Maura didn't escalate right away - she could have gotten literally miles from the scene before resting. This is a fit young woman who is a noted athlete. Intoxication, cold and a slippery road are factors, but if separating herself from the accident scene was her goal, then IMO, accomplishing it would have been... trivial.


It was cold outside, but I've assumed the bus had been running so was still warm. Purportedly this was Butch's habit, to do the paperwork in the bus. I can imagine lots of reasons why this might be practical but not certain what Butch's rationale was.

He might have kept his paperwork in the bus. Maybe it was required in case of being stopped.

 

[Oculus]

If she had been drinking at all, that would have compromised her in any attempt to walk or jog out of there.

Takes quite a bit to compromise walking... Maybe that's just me.

 

[KindMind1ofA]

Takes quite a bit to compromise walking... Maybe that's just me.

I'd tend to think the same.. someone who is a young athletic runner would need to be really, really drunk to not be able to cover a couple miles when motivated.

 

[Darkness]

I'd tend to think the same.. someone who is a young athletic runner would need to be really, really drunk to not be able to cover a couple miles when motivated.

She was a real deal runner so even if she was just jogging at an eight minute mile pace in 20-25 minutes that puts her 3 plus miles away.....Road is fairly dry and lots of snow on the sides of the roadway.

What bothers me is that listening to her sisters media pressure podcast is that the family was there within hours searching for footprints off the road and none were found.

I would think that the family would have been out at least 3,4,5 miles east on rt 112 looking for those footprints going off the road....again none were found.

That tells me that she probably accepted a ride from somebody offering help. She took that ride just to quickly get away from the scene....then she could be anywhere 10s of miles away......

I have always hoped that the back pack would be found by a hiker someday....but if a ride was accepted from the wrong person those hopes are fading for me....

 

[KindMind1ofA]

She was a real deal runner so even if she was just jogging at an eight minute mile pace in 20-25 minutes that puts her 3 plus miles away.....Road is fairly dry and lots of snow on the sides of the roadway.

What bothers me is that listening to her sisters media pressure podcast is that the family was there within hours searching for footprints off the road and none were found.

I would think that the family would have been out at least 3,4,5 miles east on rt 112 looking for those footprints going off the road....again none were found.

That tells me that she probably accepted a ride from somebody offering help. She took that ride just to quickly get away from the scene....then she could be anywhere 10s of miles away......

I have always hoped that the back pack would be found by a hiker someday....but if a ride was accepted from the wrong person those hopes are fading for me....

Agree.. anyone's guess on which of the possibilities actually happened I do think it's realistic that if she did jog several miles on the road, that family and searchers would have been lucky to find prints.. that's just such a large area to cover and she could have gone off-road at any point; cross streets, driveways, or patches of ice, etc.. also fwiw it doesn't sound like any significant searching took place for 36 hours, which exacerbates the issue.

 

[Oculus]

She was a real deal runner so even if she was just jogging at an eight minute mile pace in 20-25 minutes that puts her 3 plus miles away.....Road is fairly dry and lots of snow on the sides of the roadway.

What bothers me is that listening to her sisters media pressure podcast is that the family was there within hours searching for footprints off the road and none were found.

I would think that the family would have been out at least 3,4,5 miles east on rt 112 looking for those footprints going off the road....again none were found.

That tells me that she probably accepted a ride from somebody offering help. She took that ride just to quickly get away from the scene....then she could be anywhere 10s of miles away......

I have always hoped that the back pack would be found by a hiker someday....but if a ride was accepted from the wrong person those hopes are fading for me....

I agree. The apparent lack of footprints has always bothered me as well.

 

[carbuff]

I agree. The apparent lack of footprints has always bothered me as well.

If she was walking or running along the highway in winter, snowplow ridges (even small ones) would probably push her to travel mostly on the pavement. She wouldn't leave many prints on the hard surface, as compared to in the snow. (General comment about winter road conditions in New England--I don't know what the specific conditions were on the pavement that night.)

 

[KindMind1ofA]

If she was walking or running along the highway in winter, snowplow ridges (even small ones) would probably push her to travel mostly on the pavement. She wouldn't leave many prints on the hard surface, as compared to in the snow. (General comment about winter road conditions in New England--I don't know what the

Agree... and since searching didn't begin in earnest for 36 hours, it almost doesn't matter if there was snow on the roadway... If there was, it'd have been plowed before the search.. if there wasn't, no footprints to be found. Seems like the footprint angle is a non-starter

 

[Oculus]

If she was walking or running along the highway in winter, snowplow ridges (even small ones) would probably push her to travel mostly on the pavement. She wouldn't leave many prints on the hard surface, as compared to in the snow. (General comment about winter road conditions in New England--I don't know what the specific conditions were on the pavement that night.)

I agree. Prints would only be found leading INTO the woods from the road, generally.

Here's what the scene looked like about 4 days after the disappearance:

 

[Tarik]

I have a question after watching episode 7 of Julie Murray's Media Pressure podcast. Around the 24th minute mark, she mentions that her and her family were accosted at conventions, mocked at vigils honoring Maura (wtf???), publicly called 'the worst humanity had to offer'. What's that all about and who did this? I had never heard about this stuff...

 

[KindMind1ofA]

I have a question after watching episode 7 of Julie Murray's Media Pressure podcast. Around the 24th minute mark, she mentions that her and her family were accosted at conventions, mocked at vigils honoring Maura (wtf???), publicly called 'the worst humanity had to offer'. What's that all about and who did this? I had never heard about this stuff...

There are some pretty dark tunnels you can go down in this case regarding the who's and the why's.. I tend to think the simpler answers are apt to be correct, but some untethered people I'm sure have latched onto those more outlandish theories... like all good conspiracy theories, there are some nuggets of truth in there, too..

 

[sony12]

One thing Julie Murray has done by being as active on social media as she has been is that she has turned herself into a public figure. And that kind of reaction kind of comes just as much with the territory of being a public figure as people who support her do.

And to be completely honest I wouldn't blame some folks for being mad at the Murray family as the Murray family really has been the driving force for claiming someone local was involved. If I lived local to the area that would kind of tick me off a bit as well.

 

[Tarik]

I'm pretty sure the things Julie talks about around the 24th minute mark in her podcast's episode happened BEFORE she became more of a public figure.

I don't think anyone local in New Hampshire is mad at the Murrays for claiming someone local was involved, at least I haven't seen any evidence of it. And plus there are also locals who think a local was involved.