Since Maura wasn't at the accident scene to explain the accident, the police had to be the ones who came to the conclusion that she had bounced off a tree, then swerved into a snowbank. There may have been tracks in the road to suggest this scenario. To me, this conclusion fits the damage on the car. However, maybe the damage needs to be examined further, with more scrutiny.
NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 - # 6
- Thread starter Peabody
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Since Maura wasn't at the accident scene to explain the accident, the police had to be the ones who came to the conclusion that she had bounced off a tree, then swerved into a snowbank. There may have been tracks in the road to suggest this scenario. To me, this conclusion fits the damage on the car. However, maybe the damage needs to be examined further, with more scrutiny.
Anything is possible, but I still think she was only running away from her life for only a week. I think she was a kid, who was emotional and who most likely had some issues to work through. I agree that she may have had liked alcohol too much.
I just can't see her siblings covering for her, especially witnessing their dad's pain. Their mother died of cancer recently, wouldn't you think they would have confessed Maura's whereabouts before their mother passed away?
She could have been hit by a car and got thrown off the road. Drivers aren't expecting pedestrians on that road. Maybe a deer, but not a person walking or running along the road. I think the road was also narrower than usual, because of the snow.
Here is some of the timeline:
"At 3:30 a.m. Feb. 8, Maura crashed her father's new Toyota into a roadside post. She told her father about the accident later that morning. Just after midnight on Monday morning, Feb. 9, she conducted a MapQuest search of the Berkshires and Burlington, Vt., on her personal computer.
At 3:40 p.m. Monday, she withdrew $280 from an area ATM, then stopped at a liquor store. Surveillance cameras at the bank machine and in the store show that she was alone."
I got this from an old newspaper article. This timeline also suggests that she didn't get much sleep.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/11/25/grace.coldcase.murray/index.html
Here is an excerpt from the above article:
"Police also noted that Murray had enough food and other items in her car to suggest she might be taking a short getaway vacation."
CCTV cameras either run through a computer or directly from their own dvr. The one that I have at my house can save 1 years worth of continual recording. I have it setup on a 1 TB external drive. Every year I unplug the drive and add a new one.
I doubt that video from the web cams is still available. Most people back then would have had a 500 MB drive that was over written once it got full. Unless it was a bank. Then the video would still be available as they save the video on a daily basis.
Neil
She could have been hit by a car and tossed but the road is plowed pretty good side to side. It is the same width in the winter as in the summer.
Neil
That's correct and would account for the hood folding the way that it did. She would have spun around and hit the snow bank sideways which would account for the hard time that she had getting out of the vehicle.
Neil
You can't bounce off of a tree and then swerve into a snow bank. There is a ditch that runs along the edge of the road. If she hit a tree and then spun a little in the ditch there would only be 1 front impact site. The other would be a side impact.
Neil
Unless they thought that she did something so bad that her father would wish she was dead or disown her.
Brothers and sisters normally keep things from the parents that another sibling has done.
The parents have been divorced since Maura Murray was 6 years old. They probably did tell the mother where she is and if the family is covering as a group they would have told her to stay away because they would know that the authorities are looking for her. Maura Murray is listed as a missing person not an unsolved homicide, accidental death, or suicide.
Neil
Brothers and sisters normally keep things from the parents that another sibling has done.
The parents have been divorced since Maura Murray was 6 years old. They probably did tell the mother where she is and if the family is covering as a group they would have told her to stay away because they would know that the authorities are looking for her. Maura Murray is listed as a missing person not an unsolved homicide, accidental death, or suicide.
Neil
The mother had suggested in one of her interviews that Maura Murray may be amnesic. I don't find that a plausible explanation. If this were the case then someone or a hospital would have notified the authorities.
In another interview her sister stated that Maura Murray wasn't getting along with the boyfriend. The father has since asked the boyfriend to get on with his life and not get involved with the case. The boyfriends mother stated the relationship had no problems and was going fine.
Neil
In another interview her sister stated that Maura Murray wasn't getting along with the boyfriend. The father has since asked the boyfriend to get on with his life and not get involved with the case. The boyfriends mother stated the relationship had no problems and was going fine.
Neil
Maura made several calls between 12 pm and 3 pm, including asking about information on a condominium in Bartlett, New Hampshire that her family had annually vacationed at for years, leaving a voicemail with another student, and a number giving recorded information about Stowe, Vermont for approximately 5 minutes. Maura called her boyfriend for approximately 1 minute at 2:18 pm.
I got this from Wikipedia.
Neil
Here is the time line on the MapQuest search.
Just after midnight on Monday morning, Feb. 9, she conducted a MapQuest search of the Berkshires and Burlington, Vt., on her personal computer.
This is the source. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/03/02/where_could_maura_be/
Neil
Just after midnight on Monday morning, Feb. 9, she conducted a MapQuest search of the Berkshires and Burlington, Vt., on her personal computer.
This is the source. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/03/02/where_could_maura_be/
Neil
What we really have to know is the father's opinion of different things.
Would she think he would have disowned her if she dated a person of color?
Would she think he would have disowned her if she was gay?
Once you know the answer to these kinds of questions you have a more complete understanding of what is going on.
It would also be helpful to know if the Murray family has family in Quebec.
I personally would like to know how the father became involved in hiking. Coming from Weymouth, MA there isn't a lot of hiking you can do there.
Neil
Would she think he would have disowned her if she dated a person of color?
Would she think he would have disowned her if she was gay?
Once you know the answer to these kinds of questions you have a more complete understanding of what is going on.
It would also be helpful to know if the Murray family has family in Quebec.
I personally would like to know how the father became involved in hiking. Coming from Weymouth, MA there isn't a lot of hiking you can do there.
Neil
Here are a few other thoughts to keep the brain cells going.
Fred Murray has gone up north every weekend since Maura Murray disappeared looking for his daughter. Is he the only one in the family that is looking? I haven't read any articles about the rest of the siblings doing any searching on their own. If one of my brothers or sister disappeared like that I would be up there at every chance I had until I had a resolution as to what happened.
Someone in that family knows something.
Here is an excerpt from a Boston Globe article:
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Yesterday, Fred Murray, the girls' father, said he was told that Maura's sister called her to talk about a "monstrous" fight with a boyfriend. "But I don't think that would upset her all that much," Murray said.
The more details are revealed, the more baffling the case becomes, police acknowledge. Yesterday, Thrasher said that Maura had fastidiously packed all her belongings into boxes before she left school, even removing the art from her dorm room walls. Meanwhile, one UMass friend has seemingly withheld information from police, saying she didn't want to get Maura "in trouble."
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I would like to know what kind of information the UMass friend withheld.
The police had the right theory right from the start but they failed to check the bus schedules. They would have found that there were no buses until the next morning. The north bound bus was a drop off only bus. It picked up no passengers and only went as far as Littleton.
Everyone that sees an accident on the road slows down to look and see what's going on. I don't think there is a person out there that wouldn't look. It's our morbid sense of curiosity that makes us want to see what happened to a person in an accident. Folks up north would just come out and look once the police arrived.
The police would have also had the road blocked off with their vehicles, the fire department vehicles, and the ambulance. The chances of someone coming along in a 15 minute span following the calls from the neighbors who were watching out their windows and not being seen by one of the neighbors is slim to none. If Maura Murray vanished at a spot in the road 100 yards from the accident then she was probably following another vehicle to a destination. When that person didn't see the headlights in the rear view mirror they would have just slowed down, pulled over and waited, or backed up for the person to catch up.
Neil
Fred Murray has gone up north every weekend since Maura Murray disappeared looking for his daughter. Is he the only one in the family that is looking? I haven't read any articles about the rest of the siblings doing any searching on their own. If one of my brothers or sister disappeared like that I would be up there at every chance I had until I had a resolution as to what happened.
Someone in that family knows something.
Here is an excerpt from a Boston Globe article:
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Yesterday, Fred Murray, the girls' father, said he was told that Maura's sister called her to talk about a "monstrous" fight with a boyfriend. "But I don't think that would upset her all that much," Murray said.
The more details are revealed, the more baffling the case becomes, police acknowledge. Yesterday, Thrasher said that Maura had fastidiously packed all her belongings into boxes before she left school, even removing the art from her dorm room walls. Meanwhile, one UMass friend has seemingly withheld information from police, saying she didn't want to get Maura "in trouble."
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I would like to know what kind of information the UMass friend withheld.
The police had the right theory right from the start but they failed to check the bus schedules. They would have found that there were no buses until the next morning. The north bound bus was a drop off only bus. It picked up no passengers and only went as far as Littleton.
Everyone that sees an accident on the road slows down to look and see what's going on. I don't think there is a person out there that wouldn't look. It's our morbid sense of curiosity that makes us want to see what happened to a person in an accident. Folks up north would just come out and look once the police arrived.
The police would have also had the road blocked off with their vehicles, the fire department vehicles, and the ambulance. The chances of someone coming along in a 15 minute span following the calls from the neighbors who were watching out their windows and not being seen by one of the neighbors is slim to none. If Maura Murray vanished at a spot in the road 100 yards from the accident then she was probably following another vehicle to a destination. When that person didn't see the headlights in the rear view mirror they would have just slowed down, pulled over and waited, or backed up for the person to catch up.
Neil
That means absolutely 0. Many of us here treat sleuthing as a part time job (if not full time in a couple of cases) and we know a lot more generally about missing persons cases than the average Joe. Even if LE is nearly 100% certain the missing person is dead, until they have a body the person is classified as missing by most law enforcement agencies. There are several levels of being missing. There's "missing" indicating an adult who may or may not be in danger, there's lost/injured missing for people who are probably lost, amnesic, etc. and there's "endangered missing". Endangered missing is a classification for people who have most likely met with foul play. Maura's case is classified as "endangered missing" by several LE agencies. Her NH cold case file online says the circumstances of her case are suspicious which is really just another way of saying "we believe she met with foul play".
Furthermore, Id like to point out that the chief of homicide unit in NH has stated that there was a 75% chance of someone being prosecuted in this case and that was the exact reason more public files weren't released.
Am I unwaveringly saying Murray was murdered? No, at this point I think anything short of her being abducted by aliens is possible. You're leaving out the obvious: LE has evidence no one else has and they have chosen to label her case as "endangered missing" and "suspicious". I think that says something.
I'm not the average Joe. I come from generations of cops. My father was a cop for 25 years, my brother is a cop, my cousin is a state police investigator for the DA's office in my state, my neighbors are cops, I worked as a consultant for the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Association and some of my friends are cops. I am also familiar with both the areas involved the Weymouth/Hanson areas and the road that she vanished on.
They are not releasing the information because they expect to file criminal charges at some point. This does not mean that Maura Murray has had anything happen to her by someone else. It could me that they intend to file charges against Maura Murray should she be found. You interpretation is one sided and only the side that you want to see. You have to look at the broader picture and take into account all of the events, lies, and other information that is pertinent to her disappearance.
Neil
I think I made it quiet clear by my bolding that I have no opinion one way or the other if this was an intentional disappearance. I have always considered the possibility that it could be that the police want to charge Murray. However, now that LE has publicly stated this is an endangered missing persons case that looks suspicious I think there's enough reason to believe that is not the case.
I appreciate your contributions to this thread and obviously this is something you've thought a great deal about. I just think we need to be open to all possibilities.
I appreciate your contributions to this thread and obviously this is something you've thought a great deal about. I just think we need to be open to all possibilities.
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