NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 - # 8

[deca]

This is from the UMASS school of nursing student handbook.

Attendance at all scheduled clinical practice experiences is mandatory. Absence for any reason must be explained and will be evaluated by the instructor, who will decide whether an alternative experience must be arranged.

This strikes me as very open-ended. Certainly no mention of dismissal from the program. If her academic performance and reputation were as good as they have been reported to be and her instructors thought well of her I think, had she returned, she would have picked up where she left off

I have a bunch of friends and relatives (and a spouse) that work as professors (not at this univ) and student absences for emergencies are frequent. At least 1-2 students per class of 40 per quarter or semester. Most of these are "deaths" some real, some....questionable. I have never heard of any of them asking for proof. When the student returns they have to make up the work, or if that isn't possible, have to take an incomplete and next time that class is offered do that one particular week they missed.

Many of these professors talk among themselves about the "deaths" because student "John Smith" will have a grandpa die every semester

Anyway, the professors tend to be very easy going if the student who is taking off for a week is a good student and make an effort to help student make up the work. If the student is not doing well and has missed class before- well, they aren't as helpful figuring it is just an excuse.

FWIW.

 

[scoops]

I know I harp upon this, but while it appears on the surface that the exposure time Maura had for a perp to see her and take her was small, there is the extenuating circumstance of her car was not running right, maybe even smoking or sputtering, and I often wonder if she attracted unwanted attention as a result - when stopping for gas, or even while driving. Someone seeing this might have even mentioned it over a CB radio, or tow truck frequency...
So, because of this I still think it was possible a perp got wind of her plight and got her.
I also think it was also possible:
She accepted a ride from someone who then took advantage of the opportunity.
She may have sought shelter a garage, house under construction, barn, someplace where she fell asleep and was discovered by someone who took her.
And still believe she might have run till exhaustion and succumbed in the forest or fell thru ice in the river...

Succumbing to the elements is much more believable to me than that she was met by foul play from someone stalking her down.

Any person following her that night (with bad intentions) would have to have some incredible foresight (to know to back off and wait for a school bus driver to come along and not convince maura to go back to his house while he called police) ... then when maura refuses help from the school bus driver, he swoops in and grabs her just ahead of police arriving. (This perp must have incredible luck, if this is how it happened)

If someone is following her and she wrecks (on her own accord), this person would've used that opportunity to play good samaratin and would've jumped at the chance to help maura seconds after she wrecked. Not park and wait down some dark side road and watch maura at the accident site for 20 minutes or so, before deciding to make a move. Any passerby could've came along and waited with maura until police arrived and would've completely foiled the "perp's" chances of getting someone to snatch. Or someone from one of the houses right in the area could've came out and waited with maura (we know that didn't happen, but a perp wouldn't be privy to that at that time).

Also, if anyone was alerted to maura because of a scanner, they would also be alerted to the fact that police were on their way to the scene and firemen. I think that would be a high deterrent for someone to go all out and make an abduction attempt. If anything went wrong (maura put up a fight and stalled the abduction attempt) perp could be caught red-handed. Way too risky.

 

[McSpy]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/01/jessica-ronhock-body-found_n_1395284.html

Here is a chilling story about a massachusetts girl that was just found after her jeep cherokee ran off a cliff.

She was a nursing student (in upstate new york) who up and left one day from school (just one day into a new semester) leaving a note for her roommate telling her there was a "Family emergency" when there was none.

She was witnessed at an atm (by herself)

She drove across country, (Police were able to track her movements through bank info) she went to florida, texas and ended up in arizona.

She was found months after her car went off the cliff by some hunters.

They have not released cause of death yet to my knowledge.

Very creepy considering the circumstances around maura.

I wonder why she left school in the first place? . . hopefully, we hear more on this. It is a very curious case.

 

[colette]

I have a bunch of friends and relatives (and a spouse) that work as professors (not at this univ) and student absences for emergencies are frequent. At least 1-2 students per class of 40 per quarter or semester. Most of these are "deaths" some real, some....questionable. I have never heard of any of them asking for proof. When the student returns they have to make up the work, or if that isn't possible, have to take an incomplete and next time that class is offered do that one particular week they missed.

Many of these professors talk among themselves about the "deaths" because student "John Smith" will have a grandpa die every semester

Anyway, the professors tend to be very easy going if the student who is taking off for a week is a good student and make an effort to help student make up the work. If the student is not doing well and has missed class before- well, they aren't as helpful figuring it is just an excuse.

FWIW.

Regular college classes are different than nursing classes. Also nursing students must meet the required clinical hours necessary to complete the program. Most schools/ nursing programs just meet the required hours (per state) without room for much absence. The states are fairly similar as they all take the same NCLEX-RN test.

 

[McSpy]

Regular college classes are different than nursing classes. Also nursing students must meet the required clinical hours necessary to complete the program. Most schools/ nursing programs just meet the required hours (per state) without room for much absence. The states are fairly similar as they all take the same NCLEX-RN test.

I think Maura used the most extreme excuse, because she was aware of the possible consequences and wanted to leave the option open to go back to the program. I can only sum it up as she being emotional and wanting to get away badly inorder to get her head together or just cry for a while. I don't think she was thinking straight and she knew it, so it would have been difficult for her to have concentrated on her training anyways. To me, it was obvious that she just winged it and made that excuse in hopes it wouldn't turn into a big deal when she returned. JMO

 

[McSpy]

Succumbing to the elements is much more believable to me than that she was met by foul play from someone stalking her down.

Any person following her that night (with bad intentions) would have to have some incredible foresight (to know to back off and wait for a school bus driver to come along and not convince maura to go back to his house while he called police) ... then when maura refuses help from the school bus driver, he swoops in and grabs her just ahead of police arriving. (This perp must have incredible luck, if this is how it happened)

If someone is following her and she wrecks (on her own accord), this person would've used that opportunity to play good samaratin and would've jumped at the chance to help maura seconds after she wrecked. Not park and wait down some dark side road and watch maura at the accident site for 20 minutes or so, before deciding to make a move. Any passerby could've came along and waited with maura until police arrived and would've completely foiled the "perp's" chances of getting someone to snatch. Or someone from one of the houses right in the area could've came out and waited with maura (we know that didn't happen, but a perp wouldn't be privy to that at that time).

Also, if anyone was alerted to maura because of a scanner, they would also be alerted to the fact that police were on their way to the scene and firemen. I think that would be a high deterrent for someone to go all out and make an abduction attempt. If anything went wrong (maura put up a fight and stalled the abduction attempt) perp could be caught red-handed. Way too risky.

I agree. I just don't see someone following her. Many women drive alone and don't have this issue. I'm sure Maura had driven home to Hanson many times without someone on her tail waiting for a moment to strike. If she was abducted that evening in NH, I think it was probably by an opportunist, who asked her if she needed help and she accepted it. It was all in the timing. This seems more plausible to me. Women with broken down cars are very vulnerable to opportunists, which is one of the reasons why Maura had AAA. IIRC, the AAA membership was a gift. I also feel she could have succumbed to the elements or was victim of a tragic accident. The area is incredibly wooded and vast, especially of she ran further into the National forest. JMO

 

[Lovebug]

I've been following the Maura Murray case for awhile and I just have to say that this case is truly so bizarre. I connected with Maura right away because I'm at the age Maura was when she went missing and we both were/are going into similar career fields. I've been reading everyone's posts for awhile and just wanted to throw my 2 cents out there.

First off, I think that with Maura anything could have happened really. This case is so strange I don't think you can rule anything out. As sad as it is, I do think that Maura did make this investigation a little difficult due to her behavior leading up the night she went missing. I'm NOT saying that is her fault or that she deserved anything in anyway but it has made it really difficult to determine whether or not there was foul play involved.

After reading posts, looking at documents, watching programs on Maura I do have to say that I'm not sure that I buy the abduction theory. I'm not saying it couldn't have happened but I truly find it hard to believe that in the short amount of time that Maura was on the side of the road... a murderer happened to drive by and take her. There were several witnesses and this perp would have to have been the luckiest perp in the world not only because he was in the exact right place in the exact right time, but also that no one saw nor heard anything suspicious. It's not impossible but I'm not sure that in my heart I believe it to be true.

Of course, I never knew Maura personally but from what I've read she is a lot like myself. I see Maura as being a huge perfectionist and I think at the time of her disappearance her life was in a downward spiral of sorts. She was incredibly smart, gifted, beautiful... but honestly, people still feel completely lost in the midst of all of those things. I think that when she crashed the car the first time that she was extremely disappointed in herself. I'm sure that there was an heated argument between Maura and Fred and that Maura felt horrible about letting her father down like that. I think that leading up to her disappearance there were clear signs that Maura was upset. She left work early clearly shaken and upset, planned a trip without telling anyone where she was going, presumably packed up all of her belongings, took all of her money out of her account, and bought a hefty amount of alcohol before that last drive. I know that Maura had credit cards so I'm not sure why she took out so much cash from her account. It seems as if she just wanted cash in hand, belongings to get her by for awhile, and a car that was able to take her as far as it could go. I think all of her decisions were very quick and filled with emotion.

I'm not sure if Maura was intoxicated the night of her disappearance. I would assume that she probably was drinking at least a little bit due to the coke bottle smelling of alcohol. When she crashed again I think it just threw her over the edge. Another crash, another failure in her eyes. This time she had alcohol present in the vehicle and she knew that there would be bigger consequences. A lot of people questioned the whole idea about her taking the alcohol with her... I've read in different places that she did and didn't. If she did, as a young adult, I could see her taking the alcohol not only to get it away from the scene but to also keep her warm as she walked away on foot. Again, this is just my idea... as a young adult that idea did spring into my mind.

I do think that Maura either voluntarily disappeared or that she succumbed to the elements after walking away on foot. Perhaps, the car crash did in fact leave her somewhat disoriented and she was unable to think clearly, which is why she didn't stay at the scene or end up getting help from someone. The fact that her scent abruptly stops down the road leads me to believe she probably DID get into a vehicle but I don't know if I think it was an abduction scenario. I buy her getting a ride and continuing on to another destination.

Again, I don't know Maura or her family personally. I truly do hope that there is resolution for Maura and her family on this. I pray that she is found alive and living a beautiful life or that if she sadly is no longer with us that there is some closure that is brought to her loved ones.

 

[dogperson]

Although the odds of a predator happening along on just the very night that things were going wrong for Maura seems like too many coincidences happening at once, I still haven't ruled it out, even though my opinion is more along the lines of her meeting with an accidental death. I also haven't ruled out the running away to make a new life theory.

However it reminds me of an incident that happened to me a few years back which showed me how quickly a person could vanish without a trace. I was about Maura's age and decided to walk somewhere for lunch during my break at work and took a little shortcut through a one-lane covered bridge in my area. When I was midway through the bridge, two rough-looking men in a pickup came driving through the bridge with windows rolled down, whistling and yelling for me to climb on in the truck with them, making crude remarks and so forth. In that moment I knew that if they wanted to they could pull me into the truck with them and hold me down where nobody could see me when they drove out the other side. If they had been abductors/killers I could have vanished in an instant without anybody ever seeing a thing. Turns out they were just a couple of long-haired country boys living in the Stone Ages as far as how to relate to women, but it just goes to show you how quickly a person could be taken. I could just imagine the news headlines, "Woman Takes Lunch Break And Is Never Seen Again." People would have picked apart my whole life looking for clues as to what happened to me, but nothing about my life up to the disappearance would have had anything to do with it at all. It truly would have been an unfortunate case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

[scoops]

I've been following the Maura Murray case for awhile and I just have to say that this case is truly so bizarre. I connected with Maura right away because I'm at the age Maura was when she went missing and we both were/are going into similar career fields. I've been reading everyone's posts for awhile and just wanted to throw my 2 cents out there.

First off, I think that with Maura anything could have happened really. This case is so strange I don't think you can rule anything out. As sad as it is, I do think that Maura did make this investigation a little difficult due to her behavior leading up the night she went missing. I'm NOT saying that is her fault or that she deserved anything in anyway but it has made it really difficult to determine whether or not there was foul play involved.

After reading posts, looking at documents, watching programs on Maura I do have to say that I'm not sure that I buy the abduction theory. I'm not saying it couldn't have happened but I truly find it hard to believe that in the short amount of time that Maura was on the side of the road... a murderer happened to drive by and take her. There were several witnesses and this perp would have to have been the luckiest perp in the world not only because he was in the exact right place in the exact right time, but also that no one saw nor heard anything suspicious. It's not impossible but I'm not sure that in my heart I believe it to be true.

Of course, I never knew Maura personally but from what I've read she is a lot like myself. I see Maura as being a huge perfectionist and I think at the time of her disappearance her life was in a downward spiral of sorts. She was incredibly smart, gifted, beautiful... but honestly, people still feel completely lost in the midst of all of those things. I think that when she crashed the car the first time that she was extremely disappointed in herself. I'm sure that there was an heated argument between Maura and Fred and that Maura felt horrible about letting her father down like that. I think that leading up to her disappearance there were clear signs that Maura was upset. She left work early clearly shaken and upset, planned a trip without telling anyone where she was going, presumably packed up all of her belongings, took all of her money out of her account, and bought a hefty amount of alcohol before that last drive. I know that Maura had credit cards so I'm not sure why she took out so much cash from her account. It seems as if she just wanted cash in hand, belongings to get her by for awhile, and a car that was able to take her as far as it could go. I think all of her decisions were very quick and filled with emotion.

I'm not sure if Maura was intoxicated the night of her disappearance. I would assume that she probably was drinking at least a little bit due to the coke bottle smelling of alcohol. When she crashed again I think it just threw her over the edge. Another crash, another failure in her eyes. This time she had alcohol present in the vehicle and she knew that there would be bigger consequences. A lot of people questioned the whole idea about her taking the alcohol with her... I've read in different places that she did and didn't. If she did, as a young adult, I could see her taking the alcohol not only to get it away from the scene but to also keep her warm as she walked away on foot. Again, this is just my idea... as a young adult that idea did spring into my mind.

I do think that Maura either voluntarily disappeared or that she succumbed to the elements after walking away on foot. Perhaps, the car crash did in fact leave her somewhat disoriented and she was unable to think clearly, which is why she didn't stay at the scene or end up getting help from someone. The fact that her scent abruptly stops down the road leads me to believe she probably DID get into a vehicle but I don't know if I think it was an abduction scenario. I buy her getting a ride and continuing on to another destination.

Again, I don't know Maura or her family personally. I truly do hope that there is resolution for Maura and her family on this. I pray that she is found alive and living a beautiful life or that if she sadly is no longer with us that there is some closure that is brought to her loved ones.

Well thought out post, I like it.

Concerning whether or not maura got into a car that night, (I tend to believe it's highly likely) but we have to be careful about reading too much into the fact that the dog search stopped down the road 100-yards or whatever it was.

One of the investigators has noted that the dogs used to search were limited in how far they would be able to track and that has to do with the kind of search dogs used, the fact they didn't have a reliable piece of clothing for the dog to pick up a scent from and also the location of the accident and the kind of cold weather that was present, plus how much time had passed since the accident.

From what the investigator has relayed (through a radio interview) they used the dog search to determine that maura headed east after her accident, but that is the only true proof of evidence they got from the dog searches.

 

[OldSteve]

It's so difficult to understand what goes through someone's mind, let alone a person in the state MM was in.
I wonder what the odds would be of her being picked up by a real prince charming, and having had it with expectations placed upon her, and pressures of things in her life such that she goes off and starts a completely knew life with a person sheltering her.

I know I've said how impossible it is to get family out your mind when you take off... but I also know of a gal who for reasons I'll never completely understand met someone, got married, and cut her mother, father, bother, and sister out of her life!
She had a better than average young life - horseback riding, etc... but when it came time for college, parental pressure to succeed and live up to family image flipped some sort of switch in her brain when she met a prince charming who sheltered her.

 

[McSpy]

It's so difficult to understand what goes through someone's mind, let alone a person in the state MM was in.
I wonder what the odds would be of her being picked up by a real prince charming, and having had it with expectations placed upon her, and pressures of things in her life such that she goes off and starts a completely knew life with a person sheltering her.

I know I've said how impossible it is to get family out your mind when you take off... but I also know of a gal who for reasons I'll never completely understand met someone, got married, and cut her mother, father, bother, and sister out of her life!
She had a better than average young life - horseback riding, etc... but when it came time for college, parental pressure to succeed and live up to family image flipped some sort of switch in her brain when she met a prince charming who sheltered her.

Either that or her prince charming was one of those controlling men, who managed to isolate her from her friends and family. Many times these controlling individuals don't like other influences on their so-called turf. However, you are probably right, this woman you knew could have felt trapped in her family situation and the prince charming came along and rescued her. JMO

 

[Enchanting_eyes]

I don't think Maura was meeting up with someone, I don't think anyone was following her or her following them. I don't think the accident was staged and she then ran off with anyone.

I do think she had a drinking problem that was continually getting worse. I also think that she was drinking the day/night of the wreck and that alcohol was a factor in it. However I don't know what happened to her after she wrecked. On one hand I think she walked away and succumbed to the elements that night, on the other hand I can see someone taking advantage of the situation and doing her harm but they would have had to have been quick about it.

 

[M86]

I'm going to throw in more of my "2 cents". Maura is 4 years older than me... I've read a lot about her. Her actions prior to her disappearing sound a lot like what I've done (minus the accident part) while in college. Is it known if she is a road trip junkie? I was at that age, and alcohol was involved (I unfortunately drank and drove).

She went missing in 2004... Back then, the popular instant messengers were ICQ, Yahoo, and MSN... Could she have been chatting with someone for a chance to leave her life? You could configure ICQ/Yahoo/MSN to save chat logs or not... I wonder if the police have contacted them to see if possibly the chat logs were saved on their servers? I highly doubt it.

 

[McSpy]

I'm going to throw in more of my "2 cents". Maura is 4 years older than me... I've read a lot about her. Her actions prior to her disappearing sound a lot like what I've done (minus the accident part) while in college. Is it known if she is a road trip junkie? I was at that age, and alcohol was involved (I unfortunately drank and drove).

She went missing in 2004... Back then, the popular instant messengers were ICQ, Yahoo, and MSN... Could she have been chatting with someone for a chance to leave her life? You could configure ICQ/Yahoo/MSN to save chat logs or not... I wonder if the police have contacted them to see if possibly the chat logs were saved on their servers? I highly doubt it.

They did check her computer, but do not know if they were able to access those logs. Chance are they checked anything of that nature, but I'm only guessing on this.

 

[hmg]

After reading posts, looking at documents, watching programs on Maura I do have to say that I'm not sure that I buy the abduction theory. I'm not saying it couldn't have happened but I truly find it hard to believe that in the short amount of time that Maura was on the side of the road... a murderer happened to drive by and take her. There were several witnesses and this perp would have to have been not only because he was in the exact right place in the exact right time, but also that no one saw nor heard anything suspicious. It's not impossible but I'm not sure that in my heart I believe it to be true.

I overall totally agree with you that anything could have happened, but I find it interesting that so many people bring up the fact that it is unlikely that she met with foul play because of the location. So many other missing person and unsolved murder cases on this board revolve around "wrong place at the wrong time" type scenarios but yet people rarely bring that up in other cases and always bring it up in this case!

The serial murderer case in NH/VT in the 1980s revolved around an unlikely scenario-- it seems totally unlikely that a man would have happened to stop at the rest stop or coke machine that those women stopped at, especially given the rural location, and look at what happened? Most missing children cases are totally improbable and statistically unlikely on the surface, but we all know that sometimes timing is everything. Seriously, when you think about all the crimes that occur due to circumstances being exactly right (or wrong from the point of the victim) it's kind of astounding.

As far as no one seeing-- again, I can think of so many other cases in my area that seem far crazier. Years ago a girl was stabbed to death in the parking lot of a mall here during the Christmas shopping rush. Not only did no one see the crime, but no one even noticed the body in the car for over 20 hours! :what:

Again, not saying that she couldn't have run away/succumbed to the elements/committed suicide, but I just find it interesting that people tend to "explain away" things in this case that people would easily believe in other cases.

 

[M86]

They did check her computer, but do not know if they were able to access those logs. Chance are they checked anything of that nature, but I'm only guessing on this.

I should add that AOL was a popular instant messenger as well. These days, it's Facebook or Twitter, but back then social media was solely instant messengers. Facebook was launched in February 2004, so we can pretty much rule that out. I didn't join Facebook until early 2005, but it was through invite only. Twitter wasn't around.

I should add too, that most IMs (instant messenger) back then had an option to save chat logs to your hard drive... Depending on the chat software, it might save logs automatically to your hard drive... I know for ICQ it was automatic, unless you changed it in your settings. I think MSN was the same way as well. I never used AOL and I didn't use Yahoo back then, so I'm not sure about that.

I have a hunch that an IM conversation might hold the key to this. As I said before, back then, there wasn't Facebook or Twitter... It was all through Instant Message.

If you're an investigator, you would have to know where to look on the local hard drive for the logs. I wish I knew if they did... I'm assuming they looked through her email as well. I'm questioning if the actual servers at Microsoft, Yahoo, ICQ, etc actually kept backups of the chat logs. Working in IT, and knowing a little about it, I really doubt backups are available of chat logs, given the time... but you never know. It would be nice to know what IM's she had installed. In 2004, the year I graduated high school, I used MSN and ICQ.

In 2004, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, and AOL Messenger were very popular... but ICQ was starting to drop off the radar. I actually tried to sign in to my MSN and ICQ a few months ago... My MSN showed no contacts at all, and ICQ must have deleted my account.

I'm going on a hunch here, but I would love to get at that laptop/desktop hard drive, assuming it is not destroyed yet.

 

[scoops]

I overall totally agree with you that anything could have happened, but I find it interesting that so many people bring up the fact that it is unlikely that she met with foul play because of the location. So many other missing person and unsolved murder cases on this board revolve around "wrong place at the wrong time" type scenarios but yet people rarely bring that up in other cases and always bring it up in this case!

The serial murderer case in NH/VT in the 1980s revolved around an unlikely scenario-- it seems totally unlikely that a man would have happened to stop at the rest stop or coke machine that those women stopped at, especially given the rural location, and look at what happened? Most missing children cases are totally improbable and statistically unlikely on the surface, but we all know that sometimes timing is everything. Seriously, when you think about all the crimes that occur due to circumstances being exactly right (or wrong from the point of the victim) it's kind of astounding.

As far as no one seeing-- again, I can think of so many other cases in my area that seem far crazier. Years ago a girl was stabbed to death in the parking lot of a mall here during the Christmas shopping rush. Not only did no one see the crime, but no one even noticed the body in the car for over 20 hours! :what:

Again, not saying that she couldn't have run away/succumbed to the elements/committed suicide, but I just find it interesting that people tend to "explain away" things in this case that people would easily believe in other cases.

There are just way too many bizzare events that unfolded in the days and hours before maura went missing for me to not be able to point to that as opposed to thinking some random killer grabbed a hold of maura that night.

maura is in a zombie-like state at work (just three and a half days before she goes missing) so much so that her supervisor recommends she leave her security desk early and go home, because maura is just staring off into space and not checking people for ID when they enter the dorm.

Then there is the saturday night dorm party (just two nights before maura goes missing) in which maura (for no resonable explanation) decides to return her father's brand new car to him at 3:30 a.m. in the morning after she had been drinking and after she had been told by the party goers that returning the car was an insane idea.

Then there is the night before and day of that maura goes missing where a ton of activity is taking place with maura (packing her dorm, searching for a destination, arranging to return things to people.

Then there is the bizzare liquor purchase and then maura heads off towards the white mountains.

And speaking of "explaining away" when her family referenced the fact that maura's packed to the gills dorm room may have actually just been that maura hadn't unpacked from the winter break ... that to me was a huge sign of some wishful thinking people doing some serious explaining away of something pretty obviously red flaggish concerning maura's behavior and mind-set.

 

[OldSteve]

The question I've wonder about, and mentioned too many times - if a flashlight was part of her emergency kit packed by her Dad and if the flashlight was missing.
It seemed she was determined to get to a mountain.
It seemed she headed off east toward the mountains.
Without a flashlight it would have been very difficult to have run far without twisting an ankle.
With a flashlight she could have made it miles away to an area where if she succumbed in the woods she hasn't been found.
Apart from that, the river next to the road - if she thought it was field and fell through ice.

 

[scoops]

The question I've wonder about, and mentioned too many times - if a flashlight was part of her emergency kit packed by her Dad and if the flashlight was missing.
It seemed she was determined to get to a mountain.
It seemed she headed off east toward the mountains.
Without a flashlight it would have been very difficult to have run far without twisting an ankle.
With a flashlight she could have made it miles away to an area where if she succumbed in the woods she hasn't been found.
Apart from that, the river next to the road - if she thought it was field and fell through ice.

All very possible scenarios, but also add in the fact that she could've got a ride the rest of the way somewhere east down the road.

I really think its possible that someone could've gave maura a ride and still not realize the significance of that event.

Many people have never heard about the maura murray case and someone in that area that night, may have just been passing through and saw someone that needed a lift.

But then again, maura was likely in a desperate state after her second accident. She may have avoided all people and very well could've never made it to her destination and succumbed to the elements a few miles or 10-20 miles further east.

 

[McSpy]

I overall totally agree with you that anything could have happened, but I find it interesting that so many people bring up the fact that it is unlikely that she met with foul play because of the location. So many other missing person and unsolved murder cases on this board revolve around "wrong place at the wrong time" type scenarios but yet people rarely bring that up in other cases and always bring it up in this case!

The serial murderer case in NH/VT in the 1980s revolved around an unlikely scenario-- it seems totally unlikely that a man would have happened to stop at the rest stop or coke machine that those women stopped at, especially given the rural location, and look at what happened? Most missing children cases are totally improbable and statistically unlikely on the surface, but we all know that sometimes timing is everything. Seriously, when you think about all the crimes that occur due to circumstances being exactly right (or wrong from the point of the victim) it's kind of astounding.

As far as no one seeing-- again, I can think of so many other cases in my area that seem far crazier. Years ago a girl was stabbed to death in the parking lot of a mall here during the Christmas shopping rush. Not only did no one see the crime, but no one even noticed the body in the car for over 20 hours! :what:

Again, not saying that she couldn't have run away/succumbed to the elements/committed suicide, but I just find it interesting that people tend to "explain away" things in this case that people would easily believe in other cases.

I agree! It is all in the timing. There was a middle aged woman murdered on a hiking trail in NH. Her case is still unsolved. How about the Klass case, where she was abducted from her house, while having a pajama party. She was inside the house with her family and friends! Crime is usually a surprise and not expected. I do think it was possible an opportunist stopped and offered Maura a ride.