NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 - # 3

[docwho3]

. . .Maura kept secrets and was not forthcoming about what was bothering her. I wonder why she "felt" that she could not confide in her BF or family about what was bothering her. What a person does not do is almost as telling as what they do. . .

Very true and an excellent point.

. . .So again, I firmly believe that this is still a "missing person" case, is being treated as such and that LE knows more about the missing person status then they are letting on as in "confidential entity". . .

Another interesting point and one I have also been thinking about.

. . .I also believe when a person is "burnt" out, they still know if they return to the previous sitaution at school they will still be in an "overwhelming" situation with the same stresses and schedule.

Nothing would change....she is still a full time student with two part time jobs, clinicals, homework, assignments etc. Long distance romances are difficult to "keep up" and put stresses on any relationship in addition to school.

It is not like if you "suddenly" go back you are not going back to the same and exact situation that you left.
I again firmly believe that Maura felt "trapped" and the only "escape" from her problems is to take off and leave all of the stresses behind. . .

Good points. It certainly looks as if Maura felt that way. Right or wrong, she may well have felt as if running was the only way to go.

. . .Has anyone ever considered that when Maura crashed, an items that was loose in the car was projected forward which left the "small" spider break in the front windshield, especially considering the location. After all she did have many items in the car that could be "projected" forward when a car hits a stationary object.....

I think someone did mention the possibility but I can't remember if it was here or at the mauramurray website. That's one of the drawbacks to trying to read multiple sites on the same subject. But you bring up some good points about the windshield. We really don't know, from public information, that Maura's head ever touched the windshield.

 

[questioning?]

the time line between suspected accident at 7pm (first call) and 7:49 call leaves a lot of time to be accounted for!...just a thought

 

[docwho3]

the time line between suspected accident at 7pm (first call) and 7:49 call leaves a lot of time to be accounted for!...just a thought

News reports were overly vague on the times, using expressions such as "around 7" or "about 7" for the crash and then in a separate sentence the reports may also speak of the call from witnesses without mentioning that time elapsed between the accident and the call reporting the accident. The maura murray website timeline lists the first call from a neighbor/witness at 7:29 pm and the second call as being at 7:43 pm from the bus driver.

First known officer on scene listed as arriving at 7:46 pm

http://www.mauramurray.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=163

 

[murraydwyer]

Has anyone ever considered that when Maura crashed, an items that was loose in the car was projected forward which left the "small" spider break in the front windshield, especially considering the location. After all she did have many items in the car that could be "projected" forward when a car hits a stationary object.....

While this is possible, it was reported to family that there was a picture envelope (like you'd get from the store) on the front seat...it seems doubtful that they would have remained on the seat if something else went flying into the window. Other than the possibility that the airbag did not function properly and Maura hit the windshield (even with her hand to brace herself) the most likely cause would seem to be the airbag cover.

To correct an earlier speculation, Kathleen (Maura's sister) did not live with her mother, and while it was Maura's legal address, she was at school most of the time. The call that was questioned was made on Maura's cell phone to a house phone at her sisters, not a cell phone. The call was made at 10:10 p.m. and there is no other call to or from that phone that night.

 

[docwho3]

. . .The call was made at 10:10 p.m. and there is no other call to or from that phone that night.

Thanks for the info.
How would you know who called to that phone to know that no other calls were made to that phone that night? Are we to understand Kathleen lived alone that night and that no one else was in the house that night?

 

[murraydwyer]

To clarify...there were no other calls on the night in question to that number on Maura's cell phone records and no other calls from that number to Maura's cell phone records.

 

[docwho3]

To clarify...there were no other calls on the night in question to that number on Maura's cell phone records and no other calls from that number to Maura's cell phone records.

So it would seem that if Maura had called from a landline (regular phone) at 1 am then no record would have been shown on the house phone bill.

That's one out of 2 questions answered. Thank you.

 

[CyberLaw]

The larger an object, the more likely it will "projectile" when a car comes to a sudden stop.

A balloon(like the weight of an envelope) might just shift, maybe as it is very light, but a heavier object would projectile forward into the windshield.

So the envelope may stay on the seat, but the heavier object in the back may be projected forward. Notice the crack in the upper left hand side of the windshield is not blocked by a seat or other object.

So since the "spider" crack is in the top left hand corner of the windshield, the air bag again is projected forward towards the driver, not backwards towards the windshield bypassing the dash and steering column.

The airbag is between the driver, steering wheel, dash and windshield.

People are assuming that the air bag did not work. But I have yet to see a recall notices or any information at all on the year and manufacturer of the car to indicate that the "air bag" problems was a defect that needed to be corrected.

So the air bag worked the way it was designed to and inflated upon impact to prevent any impact injury.

But Maura did pack up her car with loose items and even a loose book could be projected forward to create a spider impact on the windshield.

Could someone please explain to me how an airbag would not inflate or inflate late, the driver(who we will assume was not wearing a seatbelt)hits the steering wheel(in the centre of your chest) and then the dash and then the windshield in the upper left hand corner. Physically impossible...........

Look up a picture of a 1996 Saturn Sedan and look at the location of the "spider" break in relation to where the air bag comes out of the steering column.

www.vnews.com 2/19/04

She spun on the curve. She had no lights on, and it was a dark car. I could just about see it. I put my flashlight in the window. She was behind the airbag. All I could see was from her mouth up,” Atwood said yesterday as he stood in his driveway and pointed to the accident spot.

“I yelled in, and she said she was OK. She was shaking, as anyone would be if they'd just been in an accident,” the 57-year-old Atwood said. He described Murray's struggle to squeeze her way out through the driver’s door of the car that he said had sustained considerable front-end damage.

So when Maura was found by the BD she was behind the airbag, so the airbag did deploy exactly as it is surposed to do.

www. Boston.com - re: phone call from sister

On Thursday, Feb. 5, Murray was working at her campus job at a security desk in a UMass-Amherst dormitory when she received a phone call that made her cry, said her father and a high school friend, Andrea Connolly. She was so disturbed by the call that her supervisor had to escort her home.

www.dailycollegian.com

Maura allegedly left her campus job the Thursday before she disappeared and co-workers described her state as upset and troubled, according to WCVB-TV.
In an interview with WCVB-TV, Maura's older sister, Kathleen Murray of Hanover, Mass., admitted that she had a phone conversation with Maura that evening.

"It was just a regular phone call. It made no difference to me. It was just Maura calling me, that was that. I told her about my day and quarreling with my fiancée," Murray said. "I don't know what I could have done to upset her... Seriously, I think she just wanted to get out of work."

New Hampshire State Police Lt. John Scarinza is one of the lead investigators on the Murray case. He disputes Kathleen Murray's statement about her sister trying to leave work early.

"It wasn't a case where she called the supervisor and said, 'Listen, I've had a bad phone call...' The supervisor on her own initiative said, 'Why don't you take the rest of the night off? I'll walk you to your dorm.' So clearly she was upset," Scarinza told WCVB-TV

www.boston.com

Investigators have determined the origin of an unusual telephone call that Murray received a few nights before she fled the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The conversation upset her so much that she had to be escorted from her job to her dorm room.

The call, according to UMass police Lieutenant Robert Thrasher, came from one of Murray's two sisters. But Thrasher said police have yet to receive an explanation of what was so upsetting

Murray received the call on Thursday evening, Feb. 5.

Who came up with the 1:00 a.m. timeline. If you leave your job at 1:00 a.m. and your shift ends at 12:00, you are not leaving "early" as stated in previous articles.

You are not "taking" the rest of the night off, as a)your shift is over at 12:00 and b)how would a person be "taking" the rest of the night off when a shift is over.

So I have yet to see any reference in any article(in the early days) or otherwise, that indicated anything about a 1:00 a.m. phone call.

www. dailycollegian.com

Police used dogs, a helicopter and Fish and Game Officers to perform an immediate search around the crash site area and found nothing.

Dogs couldn't trace her scent, there were no footprints in the fresh snow, and helicopters equipped with heat-seeking devices were no help.

 

[czechmate7]

Dogs couldn't trace her scent, there were no footprints in the fresh snow, and helicopters equipped with heat-seeking devices were no help.

CL,
How do you think Maura left the area after reading this statement?

 

[CyberLaw]

CL,
How do you think Maura left the area after reading this statement?

Well that is easy.....on the night of the accident, they searched the area by car, they searched the area by dog(to see if she "vanished" into the woods)they looked for fresh foot tracks in the snow and they had a heat seeking helicopter to see if "heat" could be detected in the forest area.

Then when it was determined that Maura was not in the forest or area and in immediate "life threatening" circumstances and no where to be found.......they brought in a dog at a later date on a "non-emergency" basis that tracked her sent 100 yards up the road, where she either got a ride or started running.

 

[hydemi]

There was no search for Maura by a search dog or helicopter until Wednesday and Thursday, 2/11 and 2/12 of 2004.

Other searches were performed in the weeks and months following as late as July, I believe, but this is in the news articles.

Butch Atwood the schoolbus driver and Cecil Smith the Haverhill PD officer drove around for a while looking for her the night of 2/9/04 sometime after 8pm according to the Caledonian record articles 2/13 and later.

There was no search at all on 2/10 the day it really could have mattered especially by search dog. There is a post by Peabody way back in 05 about the first search by one dog being done 36hours later on 2/11 with only a glove that was new and possibly little used by Maura.

 

[hydemi]

The best accounts are still the two articles by Gary Lindsley in Caledonian Record for Feb 20 and Feb 27 of 2004.

The first on 2/20 interviews Butch Atwood and gives the details above on Atwood & Smith driving around the scene (and then back west; they did not go east into the wilderness area). Also a state trooper named Monahan showed up a little later and they searched again for tracks in the snow around the scene.

The second on 2/27 states that the family was upset because no real search started until Wednesday 2/11 including the use of the search dog which tracked about a 100 yards to the "general area" of Atwood's driveway and stopped.

This article also states that no search of homes or properties occurred because that would have required a warrant and probable cause.

 

[hydemi]

Please, everyone should understand that KMayotte the student supervisor has posted last week on the Maura site pretty much all that is known about the confusing media stories in March/April 2004 of Maura being upset while at her job around 1am on 2/5 (actually 2/6) of 2004.

I got clarification in a message from KM. Maura's shift was from 8pm to 2am, a very long shift. A co worker contacted her (KM) about 1am that Maura was upset and she came to the dorm (Melville) where Maura worked security, not getting there until 1.20am. She suggested that Maura go to counseling, which Maura refused, and then walked back to Maura's dorm (Kennedy) but did not go in with her as Maura (who lived in a single) said she would be ok with her roommate.

So KM did not see any phone call to/by Maura--that would have been the unnamed co worker and we do not have her direct account thus far.

How police knew Maura had spoken to Kathleen is unclear.

 

[CyberLaw]

So everything that KM said is just hearsay. The person has no first hand knowledge of the events of February 5, 2004. She only knows what was told to her by a third party.

I find it suspect that UMASS advertises the job as 8-12. So a person applies for a job and then they find out they have to stay on the job until 2:00 a.m. on a school night.

I doubt a University would "mislead" students and parents that way.

Why did KM not clarify "this hearsay" in the early days and again why when LE did talk to the co-workers and supervisors, that they were "mislead" by the same people who now want to "correct" the story years later.

I mean a completly different story. When events are related as close as possible to an event, especially to LE, then that is usually the "freshest' and correct story. The first question LE would ask is the timeline....which has no changed dramatically from the first and early days to of course "deflect" any suspicion of blame on the sister.

Please, I would have a "field" day with that in court.

The shift is only from 8-3 on weekends. So again, unless I have access to first hand information, from a first hand source, I find the "unverified" and "uncorroborated" "hearsay" suspect. Especially at this late date.

I would want to talk to the co-workers as they have "first hand knowledge".

A 6 hours shift after a day of school on a weeknight, plus homework, I find that suspect as this of course could interfere with your school work and you are employed by the school.

May I also bring to your attention the word IMMEDIATE. When I say I need this immediately, it does not mean, nor would it mean to anyone one, two or three days later. I am going to write to the two libraries that have back copies of the paper.....so I can prove that I am 100% correct.

Please note, yet again, especially the word immediate:

www. dailycollegian.com

Police used dogs, a helicopter and Fish and Game Officers to perform an immediate search around the crash site area and found nothing.

www.cnn - Nancy Grace

PATTI DAVIDSON, MAURA MURRAY`S COUSIN: I believe they waited too long to get a search team together. They waited 39 hours, and it should have been done immediately after they went to the scene and found her not there.

Please, the family was not there that night, LE was. Oh, but I forgot LE is the "scapegoat" for the Murray family, they have to have someone to blame.

LE was doing their job in searching for a person who may be in "danger" and exposed to the elements by running into the Forest.

I guess that conflict with the Murray's family "assertation" that LE is to blame for everything.

It is so easy to say, they waited too long, they did not do an immediate search, but after ensuring that Maura did not run into the forest, then where else could and would LE look.

They already looked in the area by car. Then they have time to organize a search in the days to come, as now the "emergency" has been averted and a "tradgedy" prevented if a women did run into the forest to avoid LE.

 

[nnglas]

Okay, I have been reading the posts. And I promised I would stay out of this, but I can't help it. This is one of the most intriguing cases I have read about recently.

My question is this, how upset do you have to be for someone to suggest that you go to counseling. She must have been hysterical or something. I have seen people very upset because family members had died or something, and I cannot remember ever hearing someone in that moment suggest counseling, especially when they don't know what was going on.

Another thing I am wondering about is what was Maura trying to hide? It seems from what the supervisor said, that Maura lied to prevent her from going in her room. What was she hiding? Perhaps that the room was packed? The more I hear about this case, the stranger it gets. Unfortunately, if something bad did happen to Maura, sadly her actions do seem to create alot of suspicions. Whether right or wrong.

I truely hope that her family will one day soon get the answers they are seeking. If she did decide to disappear on her own, I think that is really unfortunate that her family has to live thru this worry. It must be a nightmare.

ETA: I really believe that whatever happened to Maura started on that night with the phone call, and her being upset.

 

[hydemi]

Yes it is true that any 1am phone call made to/by Maura on 2/6/04 at her campus security job remains a mystery, and only the police have had access to the unnamed co worker which is as it should be.

But KMayotte's posts, especially her account of seeking to assist and to comfort Maura as much as she could, were genuine and heartfelt.

 

[Peabody]

So everything that KM said is just hearsay. The person has no first hand knowledge of the events of February 5, 2004. She only knows what was told to her by a third party.

I find it suspect that UMASS advertises the job as 8-12. So a person applies for a job and then they find out they have to stay on the job until 2:00 a.m. on a school night.

I doubt a University would "mislead" students and parents that way.

Why did KM not clarify "this hearsay" in the early days and again why when LE did talk to the co-workers and supervisors, that they were "mislead" by the same people who now want to "correct" the story years later.

What KM says is not "hearsay".

KM was Maura's security supervisor, also another student and a friend of Maura's.

KM did clarify this to UMass Police at *****the very beginning*****. It is/was NH LE that seems/seemed to have trouble ******clarifying***** the facts that she provided them:

1. KM was notified by a student in the Melville Dorm at 1 am on ****Friday Feb 6th**** that Maura was very upset and crying (this is the "Thursday night phone call" - mistakenly referred to as Thursday night because most everyone refers to the wee morning hours of the next day as the "night of the previous day).

2. KM arrived at Melville Dorm around 1:30 am - she was in another dorm with her own responsibilities and this was as quickly as she could get to Maura's station in Melville.

3. According to KM, Maura was "crying hysterically" and when questioned about her crying, replied something to the effect "nothing, it is just my sister." NH LE insisted that the reference was regarding Kathleen, but Kathleen is just as insistant that she has no knowledge of anything that would have upset Maura. And, that she knows Maura was not upset when they talked from approx 10pm -10:20 pm on Thurs, Feb 5. It is my ******speculation***** that perhaps Maura was crying about the possibility of her sister Julie going to Iraq. As this is a new thought for me, I hope to soon do some research as to problems/possible high number of deaths in Iraq at that time.

4. KM did not suggest that Maura go to counseling per se.......please don't confuse "do you want to go talk to a counselor" (which most likely is also a "student" counselor) with professional counseling.

5. It is true that Maura deceived (lied to) KM when she told her that if she needed anything her roommate would help her.

..........I don't condone lying, but for a "private person", which Maura has been the description of Maura by all who know her, to just want to be left alone and to "lie" so that she can accomplish that as well as to prevent her friend from worrying does not seem to me like she had something to hide.............I don't know, but just wanting to be alone seems the answer to me. But since her room was gone through by UMass Police and her boyfriend, it seems that the only thing that would have been awry was that the possibility that her room was not unpacked. IF her room had been unpacked and placed in order, KM would not have found anything amiss, and we would know IF Maura packed up her room sometime between Fri AM and Mon PM.

Also, to consider is the descriptive nature of Maura being extremely independent and responsible: she is extremely upset about something and wants to be left alone; she knows that someone must cover security, therefore, she sees the need for KM to get back to her security station asap instead of spending time with her.

edited to add:
Neither KM nor the student that contacted her about Maura's crying told the police anything about a phone call being the reason that she was upset:

The student simply was concerned about Maura and got in touch with KM.

Maura told KM that "it is just my sister."

 

[CyberLaw]

Do you even know if this person is the student supervisor?. My question is still the same: Why was LE mislead in the early days about the phone call and only now the story has changed. Especially changed to take off any "heat" either past or present from Maura's sister.

Again I have to ask: Why now and why such a dramatic change in "stories" and timeline.

We all know that a "story" a person tells when something happens and when sometime later the story changes, you have to ask yourself, what the motivation was for the "change" in stories. Was the person "mistaken" then, or "mistaken" now.

I would say: Mistaken now, as no one in the early days "corrected" the story and LE relied upon it as fact, not fiction. No one said: Maura left at 1:00 a.m.

There is no indication that Maura did even receive a phone call at 1:00 a.m. So there is no proximate cause to her "distraught" behaviour. Now people who are "distressed" can cry, but there seems to be no apparent "outward" cause, or the person is depressed. So again the call from Kathleen could have easily "weighed" on Maura's mind to the extent that she said "her sister" when someone asked her what was wrong and why she was crying.

The difficulty I have, is if the new story is correct, LE could easily with the permission of the school, find out who called Maura on the landline phone or if Maura made any outgoing calls.

I went again to the People finder on UMASS and I only found one Mayotte and it did not start with a K. Odd that the person would "choose" to use this name especially when only one student is listed.

Actually the job that Maura had was called a "Security Receptionist" again the hours are listed from 8-12.

It seems like "suddenly" 1:00 a.m. appeared out of no where with only a "second hand account" of what happened from an alleged student supervisor.

Does it not seem odd that a female student supervisor would "escort" another female across campus at 1:00 - 1:30 a.m. Does not sound like a safe plan to me, especially for a University.

Also my question being: Why did KM indicate that Maura was working till 2:00 a.m.(especially having a heavy workload, early classes) and the website indicates that this "low level" job end at 12:00 pm.

Was there a two hour line up to register guests or students or check ID.

What was the reason for a two hour additional length of employment for a "low level" part time job.

It is not like someone needs to be "on shift" to allow students access to the dorm. They have their own key.

 

[Peabody]

Please note, yet again, especially the word immediate:

www. dailycollegian.com

Police used dogs, a helicopter and Fish and Game Officers to perform an immediate search around the crash site area and found nothing.

Have you considered the possibilty that the dailycollegian made an error?

Regardless of what any newspaper reports, *****it is a fact that the first search of Maura was done on Wednesday, February 11th beginning at approx 8 am by NH Fish and Game and assisted by NH SP with ONE scent dog******

The second search for Maura was done on Thursday, Feb 19th by NH Fish and Game, also assisted by NH SP. This search included cadaver dogs as well, and immediately following the search, LT. Scarinza of NH SP Troop F and Lt. Todd Bogardus of NH Fish and Game held a press conference:



The very First Story by Caledonian Record re Maura Missing and reference to FIRST SEARCH (Story is dated Fri Feb 13)
http://www.caledonianrecord.com/pages/top_news/story/97eabb751
[[[[[[[[[[.........To fully understand the facts in this story, one has to have knowledge of what is going on:

Haverhill Police notified Freddie Murray, Maura's brother "we have your abandoned car" on the evening of Tuesday, Feb 10th - 24 hours after Maura went missing -They mistakenly notified him instead of Fred Murray. They did not mention that Maura was missing - Freddie asked them about her (as did Sharon Rausch when she spoke to them) and they said they didn't know she was the driver and IF she was missing, the family would have to report her missing in her home town. This obvious and glaring omission by Haverhill Police that they knew that Maura was the driver was the beginning of strained relations between NH LE and the Murray family. It took several days for the family to put all the pieces together and learn that the "witnesses" told the police on the evening of 2/9 that the driver was a young woman and that the NH LE were able to trace her identity by the items in her car as well as her UMass Parking Sticker.

Fred Murray arrived in Haverhill in the middle of the night.

Bill Rausch, Maura's boyfriend was also notified on Tuesday night.

Bill Rausch flew out of OK on Wed AM and arrived late afternoon/early evening in Haverhill on Wed.

A search for Maura had never begun when Fred Murray arrived in the wee hours of the morning on Wed. The search held on Wed am was over when Bill Rausch arrived:]]]]]]]



BY GARY E. LINDSLEY, Staff Writer
Friday February 13, 2004

<snip>
Maura, who is 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighs about 120 pounds, was involved in a one-car accident on Wild Ammonoosuc Road about 7 p.m. Monday night.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found an abandoned black 1996 Saturn bearing Massachusetts plates.

Police determined the car belonged to Maura Murray and searched the area, but were unable to turn up anything.

[[[[[[This "SEARCH" is the drive in one direction by Sgt Cecil Smith, the responding officer and a drive in the other direction by Butch Atwood, the good samaritan bus driver, who spoke with Maura on the night that she went missing.]]]]]]]

<snip>


"We have talked to the chief," he said, referring to Haverhill Police Chief Jeffery Williams, "and he said they have no leads. They have stopped the search."
[[[[[[This "SEARCH" is the one that took place on the morning of Wed, February 11th]]]]]]]






Story by the Caledonian Record on 2/20/04 re SECOND SEARCH and Press Conference:
http://www.caledonianrecord.com/pages/top_news/story/eac4ab9ba



BY GARY E. LINDSLEY, Staff Writer
Friday February 20, 2004

Nancy Lyon and her canine partner, a 3-year-old malinois, Quicklie, spent most of Thursday morning scouring a section of Route 112 for a missing 21-year-old Hanson, Mass., woman.

Lyon and Quiklie are members of the New England K-9 Search and Rescue group. They were one of three canine teams taking part in the search for Maura Murray, a nursing student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

They were unable to turn up any sign of the missing college student.

A ground and air search coordinated by New Hampshire Fish and Game failed to turn up any clues in Murray's disappearance Thursday.
[[[[..........this particular statement could be interpreted as Maura having disappeared on Thursday as to its' real intent which is that the search on Thursday failed to turn up any clues.]]]]

<snip>


When asked why a second ground and air search was conducted Thursday, nearly a week and a half after the accident, Scarinza said, "We wanted to make sure we had done everything twice. We have a very good feeling we have done everything we can do at the crash site."

Police in the meantime have been tracking Murray's credit cards and bank accounts. But they aren't revealing anything they have learned.

Sharon Rausch, the mother of Bill Rausch, who is Murray's fiance-to-be and a second lieutenant with C Battery, 119th Field Artillery at Fort Sill, Lawton, Okla., was present at the press conference.

"It's been a long, long 10 days," Rausch said. "We are very worried. We believe she is somewhere and someone is preventing her from contacting us.

<snip>

"The results today were non-conclusive," Bogardus said. "We were unable to locate anything within a 2-mile square radius."

Between the air and ground searches, he said there weren't any conclusive clues to enable a continuation of the search.

"Tracks are prevalent out there, but none connected with Maura," he said. "So, now our ground search is suspended."



Newspapers and media often get things wrong. For the family or other involved parties such as KM, the Security Supervisor, to report the facts is not hearsay.

I would think anyone really interested in attempting to put the pieces together regarding this mystery (or any other) would want the facts, not the vague and often mistaken reports by the media (I do not think the media deliberately makes errors or misleads - it just seems to be the nature of the beastt: tv doesnt have the time and newspapers don't have the space to include all of the specific details.

 

[Peabody]

KM has remarried since she left UMass.