NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 - # 6

[ThePhantom]

I was also reading that site about Maura's case. I thought it was pretty thorough. I'm thinking that since her scent was last picked up in the street, perhaps she headed in that direction, picked up a ride (would there be that many cars out there that late at night though ... other than the bus driver and the contractor...) and went to another location, where she perhaps met with foul play. If she hitchhiked, then got out somewhere, she may have sought refuge in the woods and possibly perished.

 

[McSpy]

I agree with you 100%. I think the perp encounter is far fetched. Not that it couldn't have happened...but w/ the little traffic on that road, that chance is slim. I think she hid too, and died from exposure. But where is she?? Why has her body not been found? Has that area been searched w/ a fine tooth comb???

Many theories point to Maura running into the White Mountain National Forest. It is vast and very thick with woods. She could be anywhere. Since she has been missing for 6 years, it will be even harder find her, if she had perished in that area. A listing of her belongings (backpack, cell phone, bottles of alcohol, wallet, clothing, etc) and descriptions, should be posted in parking lots at trail heads and camp sites. There are many out of town hikers, hunters and campers, who do not know about Maura's disappearance. Someone could easily disregard a bottle of Bailys or an old cell phone as litter or lost articles, if they don't know about the case.

 

[McSpy]

The carpet evidence was dismissed. The blood did not belong to MM. It was said that it was vaginal blood and is thought to have been transferred to the carpet from a laundry hamper. There was also some speculation that the blood was planted there.

I am more interested in the supposed "new" evidence that was being tested. Why would LE come out and say they have new evidence and then never follow up? I would hope if they have discredited the new evidence, they will let the public know. But, it doesn't really seem like they want the public to know anything about MM's case.

Maybe they want the new Cold Case division to analyze the situation surrounding the new evidence before acting on it in anyway. I'm thinking that the state may want to give the new cold case team a chance to evaluate the case and all the evidence before making announcements to the public. I can't see why they wouldn't love to tell the family SOME news on Maura's disappearance.

Although, it would be nice to know something about the knife, which was given to Fred Murray. I get the feeling the media has dropped interest in Maura's disappearance. They are best at pressuring the police for news.

 

[McSpy]

Just another thought, if I lived on that stretch of road knowing of the lack of and how bad the cell reception is I wouldn't travel on rt 112 between rt 3 and rt 302 if I only absolutely had to. From where Maura crashed much of the road is downhill to rt 116 north and further on rt 112 east to rt 3 uphill. I think if the road was icy she was an accident looking for a place to happen heading east from rt 302. Very poor judgment to say the least and I have to wonder how good her tires were?

Any locals would realize the hazard of driving from rt 116 onto rt 112 heading west, uphill desolate and no communication. Now this leads me to think if Maura did meet with foul play, you know who becomes a key point of interest? I also find it hard to believe he could have seen Maura at the intersection of rt 116 as even driving it in good weather close to 8-10 minutes. Maura was on foot on an icy road and much of it downhill which makes its even more difficult if there is a wet slippery road. For Maura to make there in 30 minutes even in good road conditions she would have to be moving fast, and carrying a backpack with the alcohol and who really knows what else, it seems to be difficult to impossible.

If the contractor did see her I have to question his memory of the timetable, Fred said Maura was unfamiliar with this section of rt 112, but also that Jigger Johnson campground was her favorite which is on rt 112 heading east from rt 3. I wonder if she did make it away on foot all the way to rt 116, then she may have felt she was closer to intersection of rt 3 and rt 112 then she really was and didn't realize that the terrain went uphill until she got there and exhaustion and hypothermia caught her in no mans land. Her best bet would have been rt 116 north, but she most likely had no way of knowing it. I would think she would try to head toward a familiar place and that was rt 3.

Excellent points!

If she walked very fast, it would take about 1 hour to walk
4 miles, but there was a light snow with snow along the sides of the roads. Most people would walk gingerly to avoid a slip and fall. I'm thinking she may have ran down the middle of the road when cars were not in sight.

If Maura didn't have a flashlight, she could have just walked right by the signs without seeing them. The signs are reflective and need a light source to read at night. She could have easily become disoriented. She may have thought she was on a particular road, but was mistaken.

 

[McSpy]

We went up Bradley hill rd and its a long road with many places one could easily ditch into the woods. Another thing that has bugged me is the cracked windshield, why didn't LE try to find DNA or hair strands, ANYTHING to try to verify if Maura did indeed hit her head. A slow brain bleed could change the scope of of the whole investigation. Many people act OK for a short period of time and then their mind starts to go delusional and eventually death. I think way to many assumptions were initially made when further investigation was warranted.

You are right. It was a big oversight not to swab the crack in the windshield. You would think they would have taken a swab after realizing that she was missing for days.

No one knows for sure, if she was wearing a seatbelt. Supposedly, her car went down a ditch into a snowbank. The trajectory of her body would be different than hitting something on a flat road, since the nose of her car went down, before hitting the snowbank. I wish I knew if the airbags stayed deployed after the first impact, because even if she didn't hit the windshield, she could have hurt herself in other ways (internal injuries).

 

[McSpy]

I read on a previous post in one of the earlier sections I think section 5 dated Feb 2010 that the state police were going to test some evidence regarding Maura's case but nothing more was noted. Perhaps someone found some remains or they developed a new lead or some old evidence that was never tested. Frustrating when we get new information and no followup. I understand why the police would keep anything close to their vest. I am also not 100% believing what I hear from the state as they too have been caught in contradiction's. I also wonder when the new cold case unit will get going, it would be nice to see this case solved, but I am not real optimistic..

A few weeks ago, I heard an interview on NPR with one of the new cold case investigators. She seemed very capable with an eye for detail. She also talked about time lines and their importance in these investigations. Supposedly, she is good at catching discrepancies.

 

[McSpy]

I knew Maura's mother had passed away last year, but I didn't realize that she died on Maura's birthday (May 4).

http://whitmanhansonexpress.com/ind...e-a-murray-61-former-nurse&catid=16&Itemid=67

 

[btf100]

You are right. It was a big oversight not to swab the crack in the windshield. You would think they would have taken a swab after realizing that she was missing for days.

No one knows for sure, if she was wearing a seatbelt. Supposedly, her car went down a ditch into a snowbank. The trajectory of her body would be different than hitting something on a flat road, since the nose of her car went down, before hitting the snowbank. I wish I knew if the airbags stayed deployed after the first impact, because even if she didn't hit the windshield, she could have hurt herself in other ways (internal injuries).

You are right. It was a big oversight not to swab the crack in the windshield. You would think they would have taken a swab after realizing that she was missing for days.

I guess I am unsure what the purpose of swabbing the windshield would be for. The emergency workers on scene can tell if it was a head impact or not. Hair, blood, flesh is evidence of an impact. Unless you were not sure it was Maura and you are hoping that that impact would allow DNA to prove if it was her or not in the car why would you need to swab the windshield? It is really unnecessary.

Internal injuries must have occurred from impact inside the car. These, again, are usually very evident. Bent steering wheel, dashboard malformed, bent pedals, etc. These are all things that can be seen and used to evaluate what is called the "Mechanism of Injury". This is part of the assessment that we do on the scene of an accident. Nothing indicates any injuries in the pictures I have seen or in any of the reports.

Almost all airbags systems, I have seen, deflate very soon, within a second or seconds after the crash. So a second crash after an airbag deployment would not have airbags available. There is nothing to indicate which crash actually caused the airbags to deploy though there was no “smoke” mentioned by the bus driver. That is a typical report right after a airbag deployment though that “smoke” doesn’t usually last long.

Bill

 

[milopedes]

There are so many little details and unanswered questions. I hate to treat one article as "the source", but the WhitmanHanson article is pretty thorough. Anyway, several things stand out to me:

1. Do we know how MM was dressed? A lot of people like the exposure theory, but I'm not one of them. Maybe I simply do not know enough about hypothermia, but it would seem to me on the surface that it was warmer than most believe. A quote from the WhitmanHanson article reads:

It had been quite cold earlier in the day, but by 2 p.m. a warming trend drove the temperatures above freezing and they hovered around 33 degrees Fahrenheit for most of the night. (Later reports would erroneously state the high temperature at 12 degrees.)

It also late notes:

The night wore on but temperatures did not dip below 25 degrees.

2. Giving credence to the "exposure" theory are statements made by Atwood. This also could support what some view as MM being injured, or disoriented, even if her head did not slam into the windshield. The WhitmanHanson article reads:

She was "shook-up," but not injured, he (Atwood) reported to police.

"I saw no blood...She was cold and she was shivering," Atwood told the Caledonian Record.

But if she were disoriented, why lock the car? Why stuff the rag into the tail pipe? Why other to back the car parallel to the road (as one witness stated)?

3. I don't believe Atwood was involved in whatever happened beyond this point. He offered to help, and naturally, MM was afraid due to his size, unfamiliarity, etc. But it is worth noting that his house, per this acticle:

Atwood then left the scene and drove the 100 yards to his home.

Yes, 100 yards away. Didn't the dog track her 100 yards and then the scent vanished? Maybe I'm wrong, but Atwood lived in the same direction her trail led. I'm not implying he was involved, but, wouldn't he have seen her getting into a vehicle once he arrived at home. Here is why I am thinking this:

Meanwhile Butch Atwood backed his school bus into his driveway and went inside to call the police. He had difficulty reaching the 911 operator due to busy phone circuits. Atwood eventually got through to the Hanover Regional Dispatch Center, which in turn alerted the Grafton County Sheriff's department at 7:43 p.m., 16 minutes after Faith Westman's original call.

Atwood spoke to the 911 operator from the front porch of his house. He could see the road, but Maura's car was not in his line of sight. As he spoke, a few cars passed by but Atwood was not able to identify any of them.

Not only did he back his car into the driveway, but he called police from his porch, and even observed "a few cars" pass by his place. Unless the measurements are not exactly 100 yards where he trail ends and his drive begins, I am at a loss on this one. Thoughts?

4. Why not search east? It seems the trooper and Atwood both searched for MM, but neither went east? According to the article:

Evidence at the scene indicated the vehicle had been eastbound and had gone off the roadway, struck some trees, spun around, and come to rest facing the wrong way in the eastbound lane," according to the accident report filed by Sgt. Smith on February 15, six days after the accident.

5. Forcier, IMO, saw MM but didn't think anything of it at the time. Maybe he should have given the desolate road, weather conditions, etc. But he might have also been preoccupied and ready to get home.

A local contractor named Rick Forcier had reported seeing Maura on the night of her accident around 8 about 4 to 5 miles from the scene of her abandoned car. Forcier lived on Wild Ammonoosuc Road about 100 yards from where Maura's car was found.

Forcier was returning home from a contract job in Franconia about 17 miles away when he observed a young woman who fit Maura's description running eastbound on Route 112.

When Forcier was first questioned by police, ten days after Maura disappeared, he did not mention seeing the girl running because he was confused about the dates and mistakenly thought it had been two nights after Maura's accident.

Nearly three months later, after hearing numerous news reports about the search for Maura, Forcier checked his work records and realized it was the same night as Maura's disappearance.

All signs seem to point to MM needing or wanting to head east. She was driving that way, the dog picked up her scent heading that way, and Forcier believes he saw her running in that direction. Even her MapQuest directions were for a location to the east. But why? And did she make it?

I personally think, given her history as a long distance runner, than she could have been running at some point.

These are just garbled thoughts during my lunch break. Hope they fuel the discussion and are not a re-tread of stuff covered already.

 

[McSpy]

I guess I am unsure what the purpose of swabbing the windshield would be for. The emergency workers on scene can tell if it was a head impact or not. Hair, blood, flesh is evidence of an impact. Unless you were not sure it was Maura and you are hoping that that impact would allow DNA to prove if it was her or not in the car why would you need to swab the windshield? It is really unnecessary.

Internal injuries must have occurred from impact inside the car. These, again, are usually very evident. Bent steering wheel, dashboard malformed, bent pedals, etc. These are all things that can be seen and used to evaluate what is called the "Mechanism of Injury". This is part of the assessment that we do on the scene of an accident. Nothing indicates any injuries in the pictures I have seen or in any of the reports.

Almost all airbags systems, I have seen, deflate very soon, within a second or seconds after the crash. So a second crash after an airbag deployment would not have airbags available. There is nothing to indicate which crash actually caused the airbags to deploy though there was no “smoke” mentioned by the bus driver. That is a typical report right after a airbag deployment though that “smoke” doesn’t usually last long.

Bill

I see what you mean, but I'm thinking that a swab of the crack in the windshield would tell us if there was contact (skin cells/DNA). You don't always bleed from an impact like that. For example:
I don't believe Natasha Richardson's head injury from a fall in a ski accident caused any bleeding. As far as internal injuries, they sometimes can happen because of G forces. No contact is necessary. Organs can pull away and apart inside the body. I believe that is how Princess Dianna died. Although, the seatbelt can cause harm sometimes too. It all depends on how fast Maura was driving when she started crashing into stationary objects. I'm guessing the 2nd impact was at a slower speed, because of the loss of momentum from the 1st impact. I wonder, if the police came up with an approx. speed of her car prior to the 1st impact. All in all, I feel that she was wearing her seatbelt, since she was not thrown from her seat when her car swirled around. Also, Atwood saw her sitting in the driver's seat when he approached the accident scene.

I do wish they had scrutinized the car. When I first heard about this case in 2004, the media mentioned the cracked windshield. After hearing that, I assumed she walked off into the woods and passed away from a head injury. As far as I know, the police never publicly came out and explained what may have caused the windshield crack.
Their experts should have come up with a viable theory on the cause, but we don't even know if they had bothered to figure it out. Again, maybe the media has not been asking these questions, so we're not finding out any of the answers.

 

[McSpy]

All signs seem to point to MM needing or wanting to head east. She was driving that way, the dog picked up her scent heading that way, and Forcier believes he saw her running in that direction. Even her MapQuest directions were for a location to the east. But why? And did she make it?

I personally think, given her history as a long distance runner, than she could have been running at some point.

These are just garbled thoughts during my lunch break. Hope they fuel the discussion and are not a re-tread of stuff covered already.

It is believed that MM was heading to the Bartlett area, but didn't know that it was not a good idea to drive Rt. 112 in the winter. She also didn't know the Haverhill area at all. She was coming from a direction (UMassAmherst) that was unfamiliar to her. She probably knew the roads from her hometown in MA to the Bartlett area, because her family had spent many summers there. The question is whether she was still heading to Bartlett as a destination or simply going in that direction to find a place to get a phone call out.

 

[McSpy]

4. Why not search east? It seems the trooper and Atwood both searched for MM, but neither went east?

Because they are locals, I think they both assumed that if someone needed to get a call out to AAA or a friend, they would head west, because that is where the store and other establishments are located. It was an unfortunate assumption on their part, because Maura was not familiar with the area and no one knew of her motivations at the time.

5. Forcier, IMO, saw MM but didn't think anything of it at the time. Maybe he should have given the desolate road, weather conditions, etc. But he might have also been preoccupied and ready to get home.

This is a big possibility. I've seen odd occurrences, but didn't always act on them. After a long day at work, he could have chalked it up as a kid running home from a friend's house up the road.

I think Forcier didn't live on that road for very long, so he may have not been familiar with the people in the area. I'm not sure of this though.

 

[NHwoodsman]

I think to get a handle on Forcier one would have to talk to him, I know people who live in their own little world and are oblivious to most everything. Once again how much was he questioned about his sighting? As far as Maura's head injury McSpy said it all, some people have died in as slow an impact as 15mph due to injuries that weren't obvious, and in some instances it takes time. A head bleed can be very slow, only dazing a person and they can be normal for awhile but then they begin to become disoriented and confused and if not treated DEAD!

Maura's mom dying on Maura's birthday is bizarre, you have to wonder if she just gave up her will to keep going on that day due to heartbreak. As far as Maura's attire I think she had on a hooded sweatshirt and likely jeans, I am not sure about footwear. Problem is if she was the one seen running, she had already run about 5 miles, she would have to had perspired and that can jump-start hypothermia.

Hopefully this will come to a conclusion before Fred's day's are past, I think it must be gut wrenching for family.

 

[btf100]

As far as Maura's head injury McSpy said it all, some people have died in as slow an impact as 15mph due to injuries that weren't obvious, and in some instances it takes time. A head bleed can be very slow, only dazing a person and they can be normal for awhile but then they begin to become disoriented and confused and if not treated DEAD!

On this question you and McSpy and I will need to agree to disagree. As someone that has been in emergency medicine for almost 10 years now. And has responded to crashes on regular city and town surface streets as well as having an interstate that goes through our town and off road crashes. I have seen rollovers, head on crashes, crashes into trees, telephone poles, support wires, barricades, water, high speed crashes, low speed crashes, rear end crashes, crashes with fire, car crashes, motorcycle crashes, bike crashes, tractor trailer crashes and countless other types of crashes. I have never seen, or read in the literature, or been told in classes or refreshers, or taught others, to worry about people winding up with a subdural hematoma, or a brain contusion, without a mechanism of injury visible on the car that could cause such an injury. You are correct that the injuries are not obvious all the time. That is why we are trained to look at what is called “the mechanism of injury”. By examining the vehicle, and the impacts made to the vehicle, both internal and external, we can get an idea of the types of injuries the patient might have suffered. My opinion based upon seeing the inside and outside of the car is that she likely suffered no injuries of any consequence. She might have been a little sore the next day or two. But nothing more than that. It was a very low speed impact in which she appears to have made no contact with anything inside the car with sufficient force to cause her any serious injury. While I would suggest she go to the hospital for a checkup, I would have little to no problem with her signing a release and not going to the hospital. These are not the types of impacts that people drop dead from. This is also not the type of crash that the hospital would insist the person is transported, even over the patients objections. While it might be possible to have someone have a crash with no emergent symptoms immediately following the crash. This would almost be entirely restricted to crashes of some significance. THIS WAS A LOW SPEED, VERY MINOR CRASH. Again, this is just my opinion.

P.S. The other thing people have a delayed death from is a torn aorta or torn liver or damaged spleen. Again, nothing in the vehicle indicates that she would have suffered from any of those types of injuries either or any of the myriad of other things that can kill people. Bottom line is there was insufficient forces involved to have caused her death immediately or delayed.

Definition: mechanism of injury - the source of forces that produce mechanical deformations and physiologic responses that cause an anatomic lesion or functional change in humans.

Source:EMS Glossary

Bill

 

[milopedes]

I tend to agree with Bill on this one. He clearly knows what he is talking about given his background as an EMS responder.

I've always felt the accident was severe enough that MM was shaken, but then I considered the fact she took some items and even locked her car doors. Even possibly moved the vehicle parallel to the road, either to move it out of the traffic lane or make it look as thought it was parked rather than crashed. So, how shaken was she really?

The amazing thing about MM's case, unlike a lot of other missing person cases, would be the number of unusual circumstances and unanswered questions swirling around it beyond the mere question of "what happened to her?"

 

[gaia227]

I have been MIA from WS for a while and I am very glad to see that Maura's thread is getting so much action and that there has been a lot of intelligent, interesting points of view.

One thing I have not seen mentioned in the past few pages of analysis is the rag which was stuffed in Maura's exhaust pipe. What do you guys think about that? The rag is one of the few things which make me question if this was set-up. The neighbors who were watching from their window that night thought they saw another person with Maura. The wife thinks she saw someone standing around towards the back of the car perhaps smoking. The husband disagrees and thinks the cigarrette was the glow of a cell phone.

 

[NHwoodsman]

On this question you and McSpy and I will need to agree to disagree. As someone that has been in emergency medicine for almost 10 years now. And has responded to crashes on regular city and town surface streets as well as having an interstate that goes through our town and off road crashes. I have seen rollovers, head on crashes, crashes into trees, telephone poles, support wires, barricades, water, high speed crashes, low speed crashes, rear end crashes, crashes with fire, car crashes, motorcycle crashes, bike crashes, tractor trailer crashes and countless other types of crashes. I have never seen, or read in the literature, or been told in classes or refreshers, or taught others, to worry about people winding up with a subdural hematoma, or a brain contusion, without a mechanism of injury visible on the car that could cause such an injury. You are correct that the injuries are not obvious all the time. That is why we are trained to look at what is called “the mechanism of injury”. By examining the vehicle, and the impacts made to the vehicle, both internal and external, we can get an idea of the types of injuries the patient might have suffered. My opinion based upon seeing the inside and outside of the car is that she likely suffered no injuries of any consequence. She might have been a little sore the next day or two. But nothing more than that. It was a very low speed impact in which she appears to have made no contact with anything inside the car with sufficient force to cause her any serious injury. While I would suggest she go to the hospital for a checkup, I would have little to no problem with her signing a release and not going to the hospital. These are not the types of impacts that people drop dead from. This is also not the type of crash that the hospital would insist the person is transported, even over the patients objections. While it might be possible to have someone have a crash with no emergent symptoms immediately following the crash. This would almost be entirely restricted to crashes of some significance. THIS WAS A LOW SPEED, VERY MINOR CRASH. Again, this is just my opinion.

P.S. The other thing people have a delayed death from is a torn aorta or torn liver or damaged spleen. Again, nothing in the vehicle indicates that she would have suffered from any of those types of injuries either or any of the myriad of other things that can kill people. Bottom line is there was insufficient forces involved to have caused her death immediately or delayed.

Definition: mechanism of injury - the source of forces that produce mechanical deformations and physiologic responses that cause an anatomic lesion or functional change in humans.

Source:EMS Glossary

Bill

My point is to our knowledge this check of the car was NOT performed, no two head injuries are the same, having seen a few also I know of a case where the person received a mild blow only to collapse 30 minutes later, sent to the ER and almost died had it not been for surgical intervention. This person acted OK for about 15-20 minutes and then started to stagger slightly and slur his speech and it went downhill fast. He had a brain bleed that almost killed him, and he had no external signs of trauma.

I have always felt it was way to presumptuous of the first responders to make a statement NO INJURIES! My take is this, the road Maura was on was bad, NH is pothole haven, I had a 1993 Saturn with a stone chip, and it cracked from one side to the other in no time. If that windshield had been cracked before the accident I would almost have to say with certainty it would have been severly spider webbed. Something hit that windshield, no one to my knowledge has ever been able to say with 100% certainty what? Sadly many towns in N.H. are volunteer EMS, like my own and due to budget constraints the training is usually kept at a minimum to keep EMT's licensed. We just had numerous EMT's loose their certs because of re-certification without proper training, really encouraging.

Also there's a belief Maura's airbag may have deployed upon initial impact with the tree's and when the car finally hit the snowbank it was already deflated. No one knows if she was wearing a seat belt, and N.H. has no seat belt law for adults. I also feel IF it was Maura seen running 4-5 miles away 30 minutes or more after the accident that greatly reduces the chance's she had a severe head injury, but doesn't absolutely rule it out. IF her head did crack that windshield, there is NO way I would release her without a checkup.

 

[McSpy]

On this question you and McSpy and I will need to agree to disagree. As someone that has been in emergency medicine for almost 10 years now. And has responded to crashes on regular city and town surface streets as well as having an interstate that goes through our town and off road crashes. I have seen rollovers, head on crashes, crashes into trees, telephone poles, support wires, barricades, water, high speed crashes, low speed crashes, rear end crashes, crashes with fire, car crashes, motorcycle crashes, bike crashes, tractor trailer crashes and countless other types of crashes. I have never seen, or read in the literature, or been told in classes or refreshers, or taught others, to worry about people winding up with a subdural hematoma, or a brain contusion, without a mechanism of injury visible on the car that could cause such an injury. You are correct that the injuries are not obvious all the time. That is why we are trained to look at what is called “the mechanism of injury”. By examining the vehicle, and the impacts made to the vehicle, both internal and external, we can get an idea of the types of injuries the patient might have suffered. My opinion based upon seeing the inside and outside of the car is that she likely suffered no injuries of any consequence. She might have been a little sore the next day or two. But nothing more than that. It was a very low speed impact in which she appears to have made no contact with anything inside the car with sufficient force to cause her any serious injury. While I would suggest she go to the hospital for a checkup, I would have little to no problem with her signing a release and not going to the hospital.

I realized right after writing my last post on Maura's possible injuries that her car was in a minor collision and only had some front end damage. I was waiting for someone to call me on it. Her vehicle was not in a violent crash, which resulted in her car wrapped around a tree. Although, sometimes it only takes a hit on the head to take someone out (freak accident).
Since the cause of her disappearance remains a mystery, we are only trying to analyze her case the best we know how---picking through the details to see, if we can reveal anything. We often rule things out as we go along.

 

[McSpy]

I have always felt it was way to presumptuous of the first responders to make a statement NO INJURIES! My take is this, the road Maura was on was bad, NH is pothole haven, I had a 1993 Saturn with a stone chip, and it cracked from one side to the other in no time. If that windshield had been cracked before the accident I would almost have to say with certainty it would have been severly spider webbed. Something hit that windshield, no one to my knowledge has ever been able to say with 100% certainty what? Sadly many towns in N.H. are volunteer EMS, like my own and due to budget constraints the training is usually kept at a minimum to keep EMT's licensed. We just had numerous EMT's loose their certs because of re-certification without proper training, really encouraging.

Also there's a belief Maura's airbag may have deployed upon initial impact with the tree's and when the car finally hit the snowbank it was already deflated. No one knows if she was wearing a seat belt, and N.H. has no seat belt law for adults. I also feel IF it was Maura seen running 4-5 miles away 30 minutes or more after the accident that greatly reduces the chance's she had a severe head injury, but doesn't absolutely rule it out. IF her head did crack that windshield, there is NO way I would release her without a checkup.

I agree. They made a lot of assumptions that night. I wonder if they had put a radio call out (Be on the lookout) about the driver (Maura) being missing from the accident scene. If not, they should have done this.

 

[Varvaros]

If you use Google Street View, you can see that Maura's accident basically happened in the front yard of the witness couple. I wonder why their accounts differ so much. I read one article awhile ago that, if I remember correctly, mentioned that either Atwood or the couple saw someone open the trunk. Perhaps that is when Maura grabbed the rag, which may or may not (?) have been from a first aid kit in her trunk. Perhaps her car would not shut off and she stuffed in there in an attempt to turn it off. Maybe her father told her once to do this...