We have a case where we here online have no actual forensic evidence to go by. We have news reports of eyewitnes accounts. Eye witness accounts are not always reliable and an top of that we don't actually have eye witness accounts. We have reports of their accounts that have been edited and placed online. Only the Law Enforcement has full access to both forensic evidence and eye witness accounts and tips from the public and confidential release of information from some agencies (like perhaps red cross, banks, social security, schools, etc.)
Family has some tips from the public and their own inside knowledge of what was going on in Maura's life and her relationship to them. Maura's comp was in possession of police last I heard.
I became interested in this case because of a websleuths member name being prayersformaura and that name intrigued me and nagged at me until I finally decided to look into the case.
When I first got interested in this case I read the posts and realized that there was not much apparent movement in the case. We seemed basically stuck with a certain amount of evidence. News reports availabale at the time indicated that L.E. were treating it as a willful missing persons case and not a criminal case. There seemed to be some things that indicated someone either running away or suiciding but I saw no indication of foul play. Still I looked and read the news articles and thought. At first, before I had read very much about the case I thought the bus drivers actions were alone and so I began to ask myself if he might be involved since I am always slow to believe the word of the last person to have been known to be with the victem, if that person has no way to verify what they say happened. As I read more of the case I realized that the bus driver's "wife" was at home at the time and since the accident scene was only about 100 yards or so from their home this was important to know. It meant that he was not alone where he might bring in a captive to the home and be unseen. I read more and realized that a neighbor also lived nearby the accident scene and had seen the bus driver speaking to Maura and that both the bus driver and the neighbor had separately called in the accident. I read that police were allegedly there within 10 minutes of being called. These reported facts seemed to leave little opportunity for the bus driver, his wife, or the neighbor to have done anything to Maura and not have been seen. Then I learned that the time of the accident scene was around 7 pm in February which to me seemed to indicate an after dark situation. This slightly increased the opportunity to have one of them do a crime but only slightly. The bus driver had to know his neighbor had likely seen him in his huge lit up school bus stop and talk to Maura and so he had to know he would be a prime suspect if Maura disappeared due to his wrong doing.
At this point I still did not have a theory as to what had happened. I was just mulling things over in my mind. I read in news articles that Maura had allegedly gotten an upsetting phone call at 1 am on the thursday prior to her disappearance. I read that the wreck that she had the night of her disappearance was the second wreck in only a couple days and that both involved alcohol in some way and that both were single car accidents. I read that Maura had emailed her bosses of her two jobs and her school profs. that she had a death in the family and would need a few days off. I read that on the day Maura had left that she had stopped and purchased quite a bit of alcohol and had withdrawn almost all of her money from her bank account. I read that security cams had recorded her doing both things and that she appeared to be alone. I read that Maura also had a bottle of Tylenol with her. I read that L.E. said her room had been packed up, even to taking pictures down. I read that in her car at the accident scene Maura had left a book title not without Peril (a gift from her father) and that book was marked at a chapter titled "A Question of Life or Death''. I read that the book mark used was a halmark card and a pic of her younger brother. I read that Maura had taken her school books with her.
I still had not formed a theory as to what happened to Maura. I wanted to get a copy of that book from the library and read it, especially that particular chapter.
The intro to that chapter reads (I bolded parts for emphasis & transcribed as best I could. Please forgive any typos):
"We try to make our lives safe. For every hazard there are warnings and barriers,for every bold assertion there are fallback positions,for every fallible device there are back-up systems and redundancies. Children go forth to play girded with armor for their head,face,teeth,elbows,knees, and any other part that may suffer assault. I've seen a step ladder with eighteen warning labels pasted to it,another with a six part lesson on how to avoid falling off, with attendant diagrams. If all else fails we go to court;when a piece of bridge masonry fell through the top of a convertible,the driver sued the car company for making a cloth top that wouldn't keep out falling masonry. So when we talk about questions of life or death, we usually don't mean it.
There do come times,though,perhaps only once in a lifetime,when we're really up against it,when there're no manual or guide or precedent,when we really do have to answer a question of life or death. The crew at Madison Hut had to do that one evening just as they were serving dinner to a full house,they were all college age and they were up against it."
At this point I was thinking either suicide or runaway. I chose runaway based on the following things.
1. I had read up on using tylenol and alcohol for suicide and had learned it is a very horrible way to go. I felt that Maura, as a nursing student, would know how awful a choice that would be. (I later learned that she had not had the normal prerequisite courses for nursing so it is possible she did not know.)
2. There was no body found in spite of repeated intense searching.
3. The book chapter marked was not about people who just died but was about the fact that their choices determined whether they lived or died. To me this said she was making a choice and perhaps choosing to live.
4. Maura had taken things she would need to live for several days somewhere and she had packed up her room. That could be taken as suicide or as runaway.
5. Then there was the fact that she disappeared from that road. Either she had planned help following her, which might account for her telling the bus driver she had already called AAA on the night she disappeared, or she got unplanned help and this unplanned helper dropped her somewhere and chose to never reveal that he/she had given Maura a ride. This unplanned helper would have need to show up in that small time window after the bus driver spoke to her but before the police got there.
6. No suicide note was found in the things left behind in her car. Either she had not written one yet or had never intended to write one.
7. There was a phonecall attempt made to reach Maura's boyfriend more than a day later and the boy friend asserts in news interviews that this was maura's voice heard sniffling but no words were spoken in the few seconds of voice message. L.E. says the call was traced to red cross ( I think red cross calling card but don't remember) and L.E. says the person calling was humming not sniffling. If boyfriend is right then Maura was still alive after the night in question and not dead either by foul play or by suicide.
8. Statistics prove that most missing persons are not victems of foul play and most are located eventually even after many years.
I mulled it all over in my mind for quite some time and finally settled on runaway over suicide and I felt the school books she took with her could have been taken for several reasons but one possible reason was to stage a goodbye scene at a motel room and leave those things, her Book (a gift from her father) with that special chapter marked and her tylenol and booze and a note saying goodbye with her car parked in the parking lot (since it was too traceable to take with her.)
Some people read the same news articles and think suicide and others think foul play at the hands of person or persons unknown. All we have is our thoughts because all the facts are in the hands of investigating officers.
At this time thinking is far as I can go. I do have other theories in mind as alternate possibilites but I can't speak of them for various reasons.
A note to those who mean to help by keeping us grounded in facts: You don't need to try that and most seem to resent being told what not to post or what "facts" to "stick to". You can always post a news article quote that refutes a point you disagree with and then say "my opinion is . . ." without bossing anyone around in the process. The thing you should want is for the case to continue to be before the eyes of the public no matter what is posted in the meantime because that way someone may still see the case and come forward with information that may prove helpful. Right now new, previously unknown information is what you really need, not old facts, in my opinion. Neither I nor anyone else is likely to look at all the old facts and then say, "I theorize that she may be found at 1623 Runaway drive in Ferretville, New Mexico."
Prayers for Maura? Yes . . . . .and for her family too.
Family has some tips from the public and their own inside knowledge of what was going on in Maura's life and her relationship to them. Maura's comp was in possession of police last I heard.
I became interested in this case because of a websleuths member name being prayersformaura and that name intrigued me and nagged at me until I finally decided to look into the case.
When I first got interested in this case I read the posts and realized that there was not much apparent movement in the case. We seemed basically stuck with a certain amount of evidence. News reports availabale at the time indicated that L.E. were treating it as a willful missing persons case and not a criminal case. There seemed to be some things that indicated someone either running away or suiciding but I saw no indication of foul play. Still I looked and read the news articles and thought. At first, before I had read very much about the case I thought the bus drivers actions were alone and so I began to ask myself if he might be involved since I am always slow to believe the word of the last person to have been known to be with the victem, if that person has no way to verify what they say happened. As I read more of the case I realized that the bus driver's "wife" was at home at the time and since the accident scene was only about 100 yards or so from their home this was important to know. It meant that he was not alone where he might bring in a captive to the home and be unseen. I read more and realized that a neighbor also lived nearby the accident scene and had seen the bus driver speaking to Maura and that both the bus driver and the neighbor had separately called in the accident. I read that police were allegedly there within 10 minutes of being called. These reported facts seemed to leave little opportunity for the bus driver, his wife, or the neighbor to have done anything to Maura and not have been seen. Then I learned that the time of the accident scene was around 7 pm in February which to me seemed to indicate an after dark situation. This slightly increased the opportunity to have one of them do a crime but only slightly. The bus driver had to know his neighbor had likely seen him in his huge lit up school bus stop and talk to Maura and so he had to know he would be a prime suspect if Maura disappeared due to his wrong doing.
At this point I still did not have a theory as to what had happened. I was just mulling things over in my mind. I read in news articles that Maura had allegedly gotten an upsetting phone call at 1 am on the thursday prior to her disappearance. I read that the wreck that she had the night of her disappearance was the second wreck in only a couple days and that both involved alcohol in some way and that both were single car accidents. I read that Maura had emailed her bosses of her two jobs and her school profs. that she had a death in the family and would need a few days off. I read that on the day Maura had left that she had stopped and purchased quite a bit of alcohol and had withdrawn almost all of her money from her bank account. I read that security cams had recorded her doing both things and that she appeared to be alone. I read that Maura also had a bottle of Tylenol with her. I read that L.E. said her room had been packed up, even to taking pictures down. I read that in her car at the accident scene Maura had left a book title not without Peril (a gift from her father) and that book was marked at a chapter titled "A Question of Life or Death''. I read that the book mark used was a halmark card and a pic of her younger brother. I read that Maura had taken her school books with her.
I still had not formed a theory as to what happened to Maura. I wanted to get a copy of that book from the library and read it, especially that particular chapter.
The intro to that chapter reads (I bolded parts for emphasis & transcribed as best I could. Please forgive any typos):
"We try to make our lives safe. For every hazard there are warnings and barriers,for every bold assertion there are fallback positions,for every fallible device there are back-up systems and redundancies. Children go forth to play girded with armor for their head,face,teeth,elbows,knees, and any other part that may suffer assault. I've seen a step ladder with eighteen warning labels pasted to it,another with a six part lesson on how to avoid falling off, with attendant diagrams. If all else fails we go to court;when a piece of bridge masonry fell through the top of a convertible,the driver sued the car company for making a cloth top that wouldn't keep out falling masonry. So when we talk about questions of life or death, we usually don't mean it.
There do come times,though,perhaps only once in a lifetime,when we're really up against it,when there're no manual or guide or precedent,when we really do have to answer a question of life or death. The crew at Madison Hut had to do that one evening just as they were serving dinner to a full house,they were all college age and they were up against it."
At this point I was thinking either suicide or runaway. I chose runaway based on the following things.
1. I had read up on using tylenol and alcohol for suicide and had learned it is a very horrible way to go. I felt that Maura, as a nursing student, would know how awful a choice that would be. (I later learned that she had not had the normal prerequisite courses for nursing so it is possible she did not know.)
2. There was no body found in spite of repeated intense searching.
3. The book chapter marked was not about people who just died but was about the fact that their choices determined whether they lived or died. To me this said she was making a choice and perhaps choosing to live.
4. Maura had taken things she would need to live for several days somewhere and she had packed up her room. That could be taken as suicide or as runaway.
5. Then there was the fact that she disappeared from that road. Either she had planned help following her, which might account for her telling the bus driver she had already called AAA on the night she disappeared, or she got unplanned help and this unplanned helper dropped her somewhere and chose to never reveal that he/she had given Maura a ride. This unplanned helper would have need to show up in that small time window after the bus driver spoke to her but before the police got there.
6. No suicide note was found in the things left behind in her car. Either she had not written one yet or had never intended to write one.
7. There was a phonecall attempt made to reach Maura's boyfriend more than a day later and the boy friend asserts in news interviews that this was maura's voice heard sniffling but no words were spoken in the few seconds of voice message. L.E. says the call was traced to red cross ( I think red cross calling card but don't remember) and L.E. says the person calling was humming not sniffling. If boyfriend is right then Maura was still alive after the night in question and not dead either by foul play or by suicide.
8. Statistics prove that most missing persons are not victems of foul play and most are located eventually even after many years.
I mulled it all over in my mind for quite some time and finally settled on runaway over suicide and I felt the school books she took with her could have been taken for several reasons but one possible reason was to stage a goodbye scene at a motel room and leave those things, her Book (a gift from her father) with that special chapter marked and her tylenol and booze and a note saying goodbye with her car parked in the parking lot (since it was too traceable to take with her.)
Some people read the same news articles and think suicide and others think foul play at the hands of person or persons unknown. All we have is our thoughts because all the facts are in the hands of investigating officers.
At this time thinking is far as I can go. I do have other theories in mind as alternate possibilites but I can't speak of them for various reasons.
A note to those who mean to help by keeping us grounded in facts: You don't need to try that and most seem to resent being told what not to post or what "facts" to "stick to". You can always post a news article quote that refutes a point you disagree with and then say "my opinion is . . ." without bossing anyone around in the process. The thing you should want is for the case to continue to be before the eyes of the public no matter what is posted in the meantime because that way someone may still see the case and come forward with information that may prove helpful. Right now new, previously unknown information is what you really need, not old facts, in my opinion. Neither I nor anyone else is likely to look at all the old facts and then say, "I theorize that she may be found at 1623 Runaway drive in Ferretville, New Mexico."
Prayers for Maura? Yes . . . . .and for her family too.
