NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 - # 7

[OldSteve]

Nice to have new people here! Provokes interesting dialogue!

If she were PG would she be drinking so? Was she going somewhere to abort (I've seen this mentioned on other boards)...

Interesting too, she went on a trip bringing just alcohol, but nothing to eat - correct me if I'm wrong...

 

[telemag]

Nice to have new people here! Provokes interesting dialogue!

If she were PG would she be drinking so? Was she going somewhere to abort (I've seen this mentioned on other boards)...

Interesting too, she went on a trip bringing just alcohol, but nothing to eat - correct me if I'm wrong...

The pregnant idea was just a theory of mine, but I would think that if she was it wouldn't be too far fetched to think that she would have a few drinks especially if she was thinking of abortion. I find it odd that no one came forward and confessed to making the call to her at work. I also find it unbelievable that the police did not check the phone records of where she worked to see where the call came from. I would think that if someone did call to tell her that she was pregnant that they would have eventually told her family, but you never know. If the call was not about that then what could have upset her so much? She said that she was leaving for a few days because of a death. What if this was true? Was it possible that she was seeing someone else on the side and was using the calling cards to call him so not to have any record? Maybe he had her work number and that is how he contacted her since he could not call her cell? What if she had gotten some bad news concerning this man? Maybe this man had an accident and died. Her and her BF were having a long distance relationship and no matter how much in love you are that puts a strain on things especially when you are 21.

Lets look at the events that led up to the wreck. Obviously Maura was under a lot of strain mentally over someone or something. She had wrecked two cars within two days, she was drinking heavily, she was planning a trip away from school and lied about a death (or did she) and she told no one that she was going. From the start I always thought that Maura was NOT going on this trip alone. I think that she was going there to meet someone. I think it best to always keep things as simple as possible when trying to figure out what may have happened to Maura.

Since this was the second wreck she had in two days and the fact that she was drinking I think she wanted really bad to get out of there ASAP. She was steps away from a house where she could have used a phone and she refused the bus drivers help. If the cops came she would have been cited and most likely would have had her license suspended and possibly been thrown out of school. So she did the only thing that she thought she could do and that was to leave the scene until she sobered up. She could always come back later and claimed she got lost or whatever, but at least she could not have been charged with a DUI. Remember that someone claimed they saw a girl fitting her description running down a side road. To me this meant she didn't want to been seen and I also think that she would never have taken a ride with anyone. I do think that Maura hit her head and suffered a concussion. I think that she walked off deep into the woods and got lost and finally decided to rest and fell asleep and died due to her head injury and the fact that it was very cold out that night certainly did not help matters. Finding her was probably like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. We most likely will never know as so many years have past the is likely little if anything left to find. Of course this is just my opinion and I really hope that a miracle happens and she is found alive. After reading about her so much, I like many here I'm sure feel like they knew Maura.

 

[scoops]

The pregnant idea was just a theory of mine, but I would think that if she was it wouldn't be too far fetched to think that she would have a few drinks especially if she was thinking of abortion. I find it odd that no one came forward and confessed to making the call to her at work. I also find it unbelievable that the police did not check the phone records of where she worked to see where the call came from. I would think that if someone did call to tell her that she was pregnant that they would have eventually told her family, but you never know. If the call was not about that then what could have upset her so much? She said that she was leaving for a few days because of a death. What if this was true? Was it possible that she was seeing someone else on the side and was using the calling cards to call him so not to have any record? Maybe he had her work number and that is how he contacted her since he could not call her cell? What if she had gotten some bad news concerning this man? Maybe this man had an accident and died. Her and her BF were having a long distance relationship and no matter how much in love you are that puts a strain on things especially when you are 21.

Lets look at the events that led up to the wreck. Obviously Maura was under a lot of strain mentally over someone or something. She had wrecked two cars within two days, she was drinking heavily, she was planning a trip away from school and lied about a death (or did she) and she told no one that she was going. From the start I always thought that Maura was NOT going on this trip alone. I think that she was going there to meet someone. I think it best to always keep things as simple as possible when trying to figure out what may have happened to Maura.

Since this was the second wreck she had in two days and the fact that she was drinking I think she wanted really bad to get out of there ASAP. She was steps away from a house where she could have used a phone and she refused the bus drivers help. If the cops came she would have been cited and most likely would have had her license suspended and possibly been thrown out of school. So she did the only thing that she thought she could do and that was to leave the scene until she sobered up. She could always come back later and claimed she got lost or whatever, but at least she could not have been charged with a DUI. Remember that someone claimed they saw a girl fitting her description running down a side road. To me this meant she didn't want to been seen and I also think that she would never have taken a ride with anyone. I do think that Maura hit her head and suffered a concussion. I think that she walked off deep into the woods and got lost and finally decided to rest and fell asleep and died due to her head injury and the fact that it was very cold out that night certainly did not help matters. Finding her was probably like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. We most likely will never know as so many years have past the is likely little if anything left to find. Of course this is just my opinion and I really hope that a miracle happens and she is found alive. After reading about her so much, I like many here I'm sure feel like they knew Maura.

Welcome aboard, telemag.
Good theories and all very possible.
I will still contend that there was no second phone call and that Maura just bursted into tears spontaneously from her desk or stand or wherever her job entailed her to work from that thursday night.

I truly believe the whole second phone call business on the night she was working is conceived from early police theories and then the media reports in the early days confusing police statements concerning Maura's earlier night phone call to her sister.

In other words from the get go, Police theorized that Maura all of a sudden became upset while or after talking to her sister and that is what they were relaying to the press. So the Police were all along saying that maura became upset by a phone call.

The press initially reported as such.

Only later it was determined that - no the phone call to the sister was rather ordinary and there was no reason for Maura to have been upset about it.

the police never corrected themselves to the media after ruling out the sisters phone call -- still contending that Maura had been upset by a phone call

And i think the media made the leap that there must then have been a second phone call

It would be pretty easy to trace a second phone call if there were one. Plus the people that reacted to maura being upset (they ran and got a hold of her supervisor) would've noted whether she was on a phone or not and they did not state that.

 

[scoops]

Now there is an outside chance that where maura worked there was a scanner of some sort to where security or campus police activity woudl've been going on.

Could she have reacted to something going on around campus?????

Who knows? If so, that would bring back all the theories concerning the guy that was alledgedly involved in a hit and run., just a mile or two away from Maura's dorm.

they found him (even though they have no idea how long he had been laying there) errily close to the time-frame that Maura bursted out into tears.

 

[ThePhantom]

This is a young lady who was clearly on the edge, perhaps suffering from mental health issues for some time. She seemed to be a perfectionist who was never quite pleased with herself -- and she had so many accomplishments and much to be proud about. That trip to who knows where she was taking seemed impromptu; as though she was just running. She seemed so young and so confused.

Where it gets tricky is crashing into the snowbank and then not leaving any footprints for searchers to find ... you would think they could have found at least a single footprint.

That's why I stick with the belief that one of those last men to see her also knows what happened to her. I wish the police had been able to search the (few) nearby houses. It does seem to me she got into a car. Who travels that road? Is it primarily people who live in the area or is it a main thoroughfare to points elsewhere?

Poor Maura -- she must have been on a downhill slide that the people closest to her either could not see or felt helpless to do anything about. She did not have her wits about her that night, drinking while driving in the dark on a windy snowy road at night. Who does that?

 

[chinacat67]

Scoops - Lots of good info and thought!
Early Feb, just after 7pm, would be getting dark if not already dark... that night wasn't very cold though, low 30's upper 20's twenties IIRC from what McSpy had said once...

At that time of year up here, it is dark at 5 and pitch dark by 6. 6:30 at the latest. On a curvy (they all are) wooded state route, not a lit highway or road. Pitch dark is pitch dark up here. I come from somewhere where there is at least ambient city/suburb light and it is stunning to me, even after almost a decade, how dark it is up here. Particularly as early as 7pm. in early February.

And hitchhiking seems far-fetched only from the standpoint of how long she might have had to have waited for a ride....this is not a highly trafficked area, or near one. We aren't a highly trafficked state, particularly at that time of year---even with skiing traffic. A severe traffic jam here, outside of Manchester, is 15 minutes extra added to trip time at most....at the height of tourist season maybe 25 minutes. MM would have known that.

She is buzzed, in her second accident in as many days, and panics. I have a daughter in college who has driven these roads for her whole life and whose drink of choice is Franzia, (not coincidentally, as it really is for all teen girls up here) and that is exactly what she would have done. Not thought any further than "I'm gonna get killed by my dad/mom", so doing a poor job of cleaning up evidence, make sure to lock the car and disable it, because losing the car would make everything worse, at least that much she knew. Just take off for a while and figure out what the situation is....maybe call some friend(s) on cell....but the cell doesn't work up there (very very common all over the state here still). Teens don't have a sophisticated reaction in these situations--fight or flight-and she took flight, as any teen would! I would be surprised if there was any further thought than that---my kid, who is quite book smart and pretty savvy socially---thinks about .5 steps ahead of her own actions....as we all do/did at that age.

So what happened in the next 10 minutes that prevented her from doing what, I suspect, 99% of teens (girls especially) then do....come to her senses, go back to a house, find help, call Mom and/or Dad (whoever is going to be more sympathetic) and start crying. That is what teens do too....and she didn't......so why????? That is the only pertinent question here, in my mind.

Lost, hit, picked-up? What was happening, that could be documented somewhere, during that 10 minutes within an XX radius? How much undocumented was happening?? As noted, lots of houses, lots of people.

Which brings us to the NH staties and their investigation, and how it is somehow "cold" and "active" at the same time. Only up here could that actually be true.

Why did the author of the SoCo article (and most other media) take such pains to NOT name the first state trooper on the scene, when naming every other LEO involved? Why is it that I've only seen reference to him by name in one article? Just strikes me as odd......

All JMOO!

 

[OldSteve]

Enjoyed reading your thoughts and insights on this chinacat67!

 

[McSpy]

Lets look at the events that led up to the wreck. Obviously Maura was under a lot of strain mentally over someone or something. She had wrecked two cars within two days, she was drinking heavily, she was planning a trip away from school and lied about a death (or did she) and she told no one that she was going. From the start I always thought that Maura was NOT going on this trip alone. I think that she was going there to meet someone. I think it best to always keep things as simple as possible when trying to figure out what may have happened to Maura.

I'm not sure she was drinking heavily. She didn't have much sleep the night before the NH accident and was drinking some wine in a soft drink bottle, but I don't think she was inebriated. The bus driver didn't think she was intoxicated.

Since this was the second wreck she had in two days and the fact that she was drinking I think she wanted really bad to get out of there ASAP. She was steps away from a house where she could have used a phone and she refused the bus drivers help. If the cops came she would have been cited and most likely would have had her license suspended and possibly been thrown out of school. So she did the only thing that she thought she could do and that was to leave the scene until she sobered up. She could always come back later and claimed she got lost or whatever, but at least she could not have been charged with a DUI. Remember that someone claimed they saw a girl fitting her description running down a side road. To me this meant she didn't want to been seen and I also think that she would never have taken a ride with anyone. I do think that Maura hit her head and suffered a concussion. I think that she walked off deep into the woods and got lost and finally decided to rest and fell asleep and died due to her head injury and the fact that it was very cold out that night certainly did not help matters. Finding her was probably like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. We most likely will never know as so many years have past the is likely little if anything left to find. Of
course this is just my opinion and I really hope that a miracle happens and she is found alive. After reading about her so much, I like many here I'm sure feel like they knew Maura.

What you say here is possible in my opinion. Although, I'm not sure she would have refused a ride, if it felt somewhat safe initially. Since she was in a big pickle, she may have taken that risk. She did a lot of things in the last couple of days of the NH accident, which were unexpected and not her norm, so taking a ride with a stranger doesn't seem improbable to me. I also think she could have succumbed to the elements. She didn't have much sleep the night before and had been drinking, which wasn't the ideal for surviving a winter night in NH. I agree that finding someone in the NH woods are like finding a needle in a hay stack.

Sometimes, I think Maura was going through a mental breakdown at the time. If I remember correctly, she had bought Tylenol PM before her trip to NH, which suggests she needed a sleep aid on occasion. She had a night job and probably had to get up very early to attend clinicals. Maura also needed time to run for her track obligations. If Maura was having a hard time sleeping, it could have lead to a mental breakdown. It only takes about 4-5 days without sleep to end up with a breakdown. This leads to funny thinking and odd actions. It makes me wonder, if she ever mentioned to anybody of being tired or having had trouble sleeping. Anxiety to meet her responsibilities could have made her toss and turn. I could be way off base on this, but I thought I'd mention it.

 

[McSpy]

At that time of year up here, it is dark at 5 and pitch dark by 6. 6:30 at the latest. On a curvy (they all are) wooded state route, not a lit highway or road. Pitch dark is pitch dark up here. I come from somewhere where there is at least ambient city/suburb light and it is stunning to me, even after almost a decade, how dark it is up here. Particularly as early as 7pm. in early February.

And hitchhiking seems far-fetched only from the standpoint of how long she might have had to have waited for a ride....this is not a highly trafficked area, or near one. We aren't a highly trafficked state, particularly at that time of year---even with skiing traffic. A severe traffic jam here, outside of Manchester, is 15 minutes extra added to trip time at most....at the height of tourist season maybe 25 minutes. MM would have known that.

She is buzzed, in her second accident in as many days, and panics. I have a daughter in college who has driven these roads for her whole life and whose drink of choice is Franzia, (not coincidentally, as it really is for all teen girls up here) and that is exactly what she would have done. Not thought any further than "I'm gonna get killed by my dad/mom", so doing a poor job of cleaning up evidence, make sure to lock the car and disable it, because losing the car would make everything worse, at least that much she knew. Just take off for a while and figure out what the situation is....maybe call some friend(s) on cell....but the cell doesn't work up there (very very common all over the state here still). Teens don't have a sophisticated reaction in these situations--fight or flight-and she took flight, as any teen would! I would be surprised if there was any further thought than that---my kid, who is quite book smart and pretty savvy socially---thinks about .5 steps ahead of her own actions....as we all do/did at that age.

So what happened in the next 10 minutes that prevented her from doing what, I suspect, 99% of teens (girls especially) then do....come to her senses, go back to a house, find help, call Mom and/or Dad (whoever is going to be more sympathetic) and start crying. That is what teens do too....and she didn't......so why????? That is the only pertinent question here, in my mind.

Lost, hit, picked-up? What was happening, that could be documented somewhere, during that 10 minutes within an XX radius? How much undocumented was happening?? As noted, lots of houses, lots of people.

Which brings us to the NH staties and their investigation, and how it is somehow "cold" and "active" at the same time. Only up here could that actually be true.

Why did the author of the SoCo article (and most other media) take such pains to NOT name the first state trooper on the scene, when naming every other
LEO involved? Why is it that I've only seen reference to him by name in one article? Just strikes me as odd......

All JMOO!

My bold

I also heard he didn't call in for 2 hours after Maura's accident. To me, it seems like a long time to not check in or call about anything, but on the other hand, it was a Monday night in February in NH. Yet, if it was a quiet night in northern NH, why not search for the missing driver? I wonder if it is unusual for a state trooper in NH to not call in about anything (traffic stops, etc.) for a 2 hour stretch.

 

[OldSteve]

respectfully sniped:

........... She had a night job and probably had to get up very early to attend clinicals...............

small point - IIRC the clinicals had not yet begun. They were supposed to begin the week she took off. Missing start that week, like she did, was going to be a big problem if her fake "death in the family" excuse was exposed, as well her simply taking off for a mini-vacation..

 

[ThePhantom]

I've always thought there was a good chance Maura ran away into the woods, but -- if so, why didn't the dogs track her scent and/or why weren't there any footprints? Was the snow too hard for her feet to leave prints I wonder?

 

[OldSteve]

My bold

I also heard he didn't call in for 2 hours after Maura's accident. To me, it seems like a long time to not check in or call about anything, but on the other hand, it was a Monday night in February in NH. Yet, if it was a quiet night in northern NH, why not search for the missing driver? I wonder if it is unusual for a state trooper in NH to not call in about anything (traffic stops, etc.) for a 2 hour stretch.

There's a logic to this that is most scarey, most disheartening...

 

[pittsburghgirl]

I don't think Maura was pregnant; the drinking involved in both accidents and the trip to the liquor store makes that unlikely; she was a nursing student and would known the ramifications of drinking while pregnant. There is nothing in her history to indicate someone who would deliberately make such a bad choice. I do think she may have had something of a "drinking problem," that is, using drinking to relax or deal with stress and getting into "problems" over that.

I've never thought the situation(s) that made Maura want to get away (for a week? longer?) were the same as what led to her disappearance after the wreck.

Firat, we know she was calling for a place to stay and made no effort to cover her tracks. She was in touch with her boyfriend; she hadn't cut those ties, as far as we know, based on his statements. She was dealing with the first car wreck issues and the insurance. So I don't think she intended to disappear or commit suicide when she left school.

However, the second accident put her in a terrible position--the alcohol spilled in the car, another wrecked car, more mess and trouble. Clearly the wreck, the drinking, and whatever was bothering her in the first place led to some bad decisions--taking off to avoid the police, being out in the dark and the cold in a strange and isolated area. I could see her walking away if she took things that really mattered with her. She might have started out looking for help and then later
decided not to go back, I guess, once she thought about things. Or something very bad happened. What I guess I'm saying is that the accident moved things in some new direction, and what was a "time out" became something else. I don't think knowing what went on before would explain her disappearance, but it might explain why she was willing to avoid the police. I don't get why she wouldn't empty that soda bottle and dispose of it if she were worried about "getting caught."

I guess that is why tthis case is such a mystery--where was she going, after the accident? And why did her tracks stop? I think everything that happened put her on a collision course with someone who met her within minutes of the wreck and that was either fatal or the impetus to walk away fro. her old life.

 

[OldSteve]

sniped two important points IMO:

..... led to some bad decisions--taking off to avoid the police, being out in the dark and the cold in a strange and isolated area. .............
I don't think knowing what went on before would explain her disappearance, but it might explain why she was willing to avoid
the police. I don't get why she wouldn't empty that soda bottle and dispose of it if she were worried about "getting caught."
..........................

Okay, I am not accusing anyone - but let's say just for who-ha's what if she was caught!

 

[pittsburghgirl]

It's hard to believe that didn't happen.

 

[telemag]

respectfully sniped:


small point - IIRC the clinicals had not yet begun. They were supposed to begin the week she took off. Missing start that week, like she did, was going to be a big problem if her fake "death in the family" excuse was exposed, as well her simply taking off for a mini-vacation..

All the more reason to think it possible she was going there to have an abortion. Think about it, "death in the family". This would equate in her mind as a truth. Also, going to a familiar place to have it done and recover. She had to have a very good reason to go away during exams, plus if I recall she did bring her books with her? Also she told no one in her family that she was going and there most likely there would be no reason for her family to ever find out she went. Something that I want to also clarify from my previous post. I do not think that Maura was drinking heavily while she was driving, but I think that she knew she would test over the legal limit and for her weighing only 115 this was prob one drink and she knew this hence the reason she took off so quick and tried to IMO hide for a while.

 

[goldiegirl]

I'm not sure whether or not this link is okay, so mods, feel free to remove it if it's not considered MSM. http://southshorexpress.com//index....d-to-mauras-disappearance&catid=912&Itemid=83

I'd never heard of the Petrit Vasi incident until reading these last few pages here on WS. Although the article I linked to makes a good point about how it would have been nearly impossible for her to have been involved and unlikely for her to have known him, I still wonder if they may have been romantically involved. I know some do not believe there was a second phone call, but yes, maybe she did hear about the incident through a scanner or some other means since she worked security. The timing makes sense, and it would explain a lot about what was bothering her and why she wouldn't say anything to anybody (since she had a boyfriend).

Then again, this all has NOTHING to do with what happened to her after the wreck, so it's not really that important.

 

[shefner]

I think she had serious problems....and alcohol abuse was becoming increasingly troublesome.
Perhaps the alcohol abuse was stemming from outside pressures or some type of relationship issue. But alcohol was not just a casual, "Oh she had a drink here and there." We can see it was becoming more problematic for her. We cannot ignore all the alcohol that was purchased as she left town. Why would she do that?

Things are usually as they seem.....

 

[telemag]

I think she had serious problems....and alcohol abuse was becoming increasingly troublesome.
Perhaps the alcohol abuse was stemming from outside pressures or some type of relationship issue. But alcohol was not just a casual, "Oh she had a drink here and there." We can see it was becoming more problematic for her. We cannot ignore all the alcohol that was purchased as she left town. Why would she do that?

Things are usually as they seem.....

I agree, from what I have read she bought alcohol to mix up her favorite drink that might have lasted a week or so. Another reason for me to speculate that she wasn't planning on doing much sight seeing while she was there.

 

[scoops]

Not to throw everyone off what you are talking about, but I found one of the old news articles that I believe helped confuse the whole thursday night phone call incident while Maura was at work.

I personally believe Maura only received one phone call at work that night on her cell and that was from her sister around 10 p.m. And it was rather uneventful in nature. I also believe Maura got upset shortly before 1 a.m. (I don't believe as a result of a phone call), maybe after learning about the vasi hit and run incident or something else entirely).

But with this report and others like it that never came back and corrected itself. I can also see where people would jump to the conclusion later on down the line and assume there must've been a second phone call.

"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."


Later reports would verify from quotes from Maura's sister even, that their conversation was nothing that would cause Maura to be upset. Yet even in future reports they would still refer to the police as saying a phone call is what caused Maura to be upset therefore leaving readers to make that jump that "well, the police must surely be talking about another phone call then"