NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 - #11

[jc8825]

...Of course the main red flag is that Maura wrecked two cars. She very clearly was drinking when she had her penultimate crash and drinking red wine while driving is reckless behaviour and certainly not normal college behaviour. The circumstantial signs are also compelling that Maura was also drunk when she had her first crash and one of Renner's contacts said this was told to him by her father. Two crashes involving alcohol is not normal behaviour, it is reckless dangerous behaviour, I think most would agree on that.

Of course the other key significance of the alcohol (as I have repeated in other posts) is the importance it had for Maura the night she vanished. Maura surely doesn't take all the alcohol with her to throw the cops off the scent as she leaves the box of wine in the back... Yet Maura leaves all her other worldy possessions including jewellery in the car. Why was taking the bottle of vodka and other liquor of prime importance at that point in time? Was the decision to take the bottles linked to despair or to the lubrication of a imminent meeting with a mystery somebody?

It cannot be conclusively determined if Maura Murray was intoxicated when she collided with the guardrail in Fred's Toyota. The responding officer, Ofc. Ruddock, did not conduct a sobriety test in order to determine if Maura Murray was intoxicated. Circumstantial as you said. Witnesses at a party Maura departed claimed she was drinking, but that is not evidence of intoxication of Maura Murray. I will agree that the events surrounding the Toyota crash and Ofc. Ruddock do not make sense, and perhaps Ruddock was disciplined for the failure to cite or arrest. If Ruddock allowed Maura to leave the scene when he believed her to be intoxicated, it would be a major offense on his part.

On the other point, the box of Franzia wine was damaged, or at least had spilled onto itself, so it would be understandable for Maura to leave that item behind. She left in a rush, and she knew she couldn't carry away a leaking box of wine. Maura likely took the liquor to dispose of a some point and return to her vehicle, or she felt that is what she needed for her current situation to get out of the area. She also took her cell phone, DL, debit card, and credit cards. Maura probably figured she could return for her car and contents, evidenced by her locking of the vehicle before she departed.

 

[jc8825]

. . . Renner wrote on his site that he discovered that just three months before her disappearance, Maura was visited by police officers at her dorm on account of $79.02 she had spent on pizza deliveries with a stolen credit card number. He also wrote that records indicated the charges would be dropped within three months under one condition: Maura would have to stay out of trouble until then. Could her late-night car accident, after drinking at a party, have brought those charges back into play? . . .'

Anything COULD bring the charges back into play. It would have been up to the judge in the case. A misdemeanor citation could cause a revocation of a deal of dismissal. That would have been explained in the initial deal that would have been made by the prosecutor's office. Drinking at a party would have nothing to do with it in and of itself. A single car crash due to "driver inattention" shouldn't have mattered either. Now a drunk driving arrest? Absolutely.

 

[jc8825]

I am thinking that she was already planning to leave at the time of the accident, perhaps because there may have been more credit card crime to be found or perhaps for other reasons.

I do wonder what the effect of any sort of credit card fraud conviction would have done to her chances of landing the job she was schooling for.

I know it seems silly to some that a person might runaway because of a court date over a relatively small crime but I have known a case where just such a thing happened with a person younger than Maura so to me this is a possible trigger to run. . . just one possible trigger out of other possible triggers.

I also wonder what else was really on that note card and what further investigation of the note card numbers would have turned up.

'. . . I asked _ _ _ _ how she remembered the number, _ _ _ _ just stood quietly without speaking for a moment looking at the floor. After a few moments I asked her to give me the receipt that she had or whatever she used to remember the number. _ _ _ _ then went to the desk in her room and retrieved a note card with the credit card number on it. _ _ _ _ handed me the card, I looked it over and asked what the other numbers on the card were she stated that the were friends phone numbers. I noted that written next to the credit card number on the note card was room _ _ _ _ . . .'
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7_atAFvowRhcy1kTnEzbXRCUDg/edit?pli=1

A fraud conviction of any type would disqualify someone from obtaining a nursing license, and would prevent entry into a nursing program. Since Maura was already in a nursing program, if she had been convicted, she would have been released from the program due to her non-viability in the profession in future.

In Maura's case, she made a deal to have the complaint (the charge of fraud under $250) dismissed after a period of time of good behavior. The case was set to be re-evaluated in May 2004.

 

[jc8825]

We don't know that she didn't have a passenger but the passenger airbag deploying is not proof that she did. That was my only reason for pointing out the airbag mechanics. There was the mysterious red light that a witness thought was the tip of a cigarette in the front passenger seat, and then there is the alleged empty beer bottle in the back seat, both tending to lead people to believe she had a passenger. No one actually saw a second person even though many saw one at the scene and the passenger would have had to disappear even faster than Maura did. To me just seems to make it unlikely there was a passenger, although nothing is impossible.

There is no evidence of a passenger in the Saturn. Airbag systems were more simplistic in 1996. The airbag system would trigger all airbags to deploy upon a signal from a sensor. I have not found any report that included mention of a beer bottle in the back seat. There was a Coke bottle in the back seat (not the same one with the alcohol odor) that was empty, just a piece of trash. The car was not very clean. The red light seen by witnesses was likely the LED from a cell phone car charger, as it's location was in the vicinity of the center console, where a charger would have been plugged in.

 

[jc8825]

Personally I would sleep in the same bed as my father if I had to. It certainly would not be my first choice, but I would not be disturbed by it or anything.

Something big caused Maura to drive over there that night, and I believe it was part of the build-up that caused her to take off that Monday.

I wonder if Kate called Maura that night and wanted to hang out so she went with Maura and Fred out to dinner. Like, was Maura expecting to be alone with her father that evening and that plan went astray? I wonder if Maura was planning on telling her father something that evening and realized later that she could only do it that night.

I mean, if I went to my father's hotel room at 2 in the morning he would be very distressed over that. He would immediately think that something was seriously wrong.

So I contend that Maura went there at 2 am because something was seriously wrong.

This makes a great deal of sense. If Maura was intending to tell Fred something important, and was interrupted by Kate being present later in the evening, Maura would have had to wait until she could get alone with Fred later. Begs a couple of questions though; 1) why pick up Kate that evening (Maura and Fred were already at ABC) in the first place if she had more important business to attend to, and 2) why would attending a routine dorm party with Kate that night be of importance enough to put off this big information Maura needed to talk about with Fred?

Maybe Maura wanted her friend Kate present when she told Fred the information for security of some type. Perhaps this is why to this day Kate Markopolous refuses to provide information regarding Maura out of not wanting to get Maura "in trouble". What trouble could Maura be in after 10 years?

 

[jc8825]

Great to be back to the board! I loved reading all the new posts in past few weeks or so. Yeah, how about that crack? That crack never looked right to me. The only way a person could crack their head like that would be if they were not wearing a seat belt, and somehow managed to fly head first straight into the windshield while missing the steering wheel and the dash, in which case I would suspect that Maura would have been seriously injured (i.e. unable to stand up and have a coherent conversation with Atwood). I am with the theory that the crack was there before the crash, or was otherwise somehow created intentionally. It looks more like a crack that would occur from blunt force from the outside of the car.

Did something maybe fly off a car coming from the opposite direct, hitting Maura's car and causing the crash? Did someone purposefully vandalize Maura's car?

Again, think of the physics of that car accident. I just cannot picture a scenario where Maura goes flying above the steering column, hit her head causing the windshield to crack, and then manages to pretty much immediately walk away from the accident.

I maintain that the crack was caused by something that happened outside the car.

The crack in the windshield would have come from blunt force inside the vehicle - the driver side airbag during deployment. The crack was only on the inner layer of glass, not the outer layer, therefore it was from an internal impact. Anything striking the windshield from the outside would have damaged the outer layer of glass before the inner layer.

 

[jc8825]

Fred Murray had a period of time in which he was missing. His cell phone was apparently switched off as it neither received nor transmitted any calls from 1821 on 02/09/04 until 0909 02/10/04. This is a period of almost 15 hours. Was he accounted for at his place of employment for the entire shift? Fred Murray could have made the trip from Bridgeport, CT to Bartlett, NH in 4.5-5.5 hours each way. This would create between a 9-11 hour window of missing time. Fred could have left work, made the trek and have been back in time to make his shift. This could account for the Londonderry ping, as Fred Murray would have likely taken I-93 to Bartlett.

I don’t know exactly where Fred Murray fits into this disappearance, but he is being deceptive. His various statements, both official and unofficial, make some sense, but leave holes and inconsistencies. I don’t think that Fred Murray was complicit in the disappearance, but he mentioned Bartlett, without any evidence to show that Maura had searched for Bartlett(other than the call to the condo owner); she was searching for locations in Vermont. If Maura did plan on running away, maybe she used the Internet searches and printed maps to Stowe, VT and Burlington, VT to throw off possible tracking after she went missing. She was travelling in the opposite direction from Vermont, so either she intentionally chose to stay in NH, or she was legitimately lost. I think though she would at least be travelling in the general direction of where she wanted to go, and not completely opposite, unless that was her plan all along.

 

[jc8825]

From an even earlier post on Websleuths: "I personally believe that the tracking dog got it right, and I think that where the scent trail ended is relevant to this case. But I do not consider ANYBODY named to date as a potential person of interest.I would look for someone who was in their 20's to early 30's at the time of the crime, living off and on in the Jaffrey area, and with a prior criminal record that included violence towards women. I would consider the possibility of a link between the Brianna Maitland and Maura Murray disappearances. Because it was winter and the ground was somewhat frozen in both of these cases, I would look for victims in a well, old mine shaft or cave, or under the floor of a barn. The person who grabbed Maura (and possibly Brianna) has likely performed similar actions before and since. One way to break this case would be to examine any 'failed abductions' in the region from the late 1990's to after 2004 and see if witnesses provided sketches of a suspect. If more than one such incidence is uncovered, compare the suspect sketches."

Sleuth On!

Someone like Nate Kibby for instance? Nate Kibby has a history of unsavory and unsettling behavior, was 24 at the time of Maura Murray's disappearance, lived within 50 miles of the crash site in North Conway, NH, and maintained a private lifestyle. It is likely he was not involved, but LE will look into a connection. The only issue is when would Kibby have had time to pickup Maura, without any witnesses to the event? Maura would have had better odds of wining the lottery than to have run into Kibby that night, but people do win the lottery...

 

[Fireweed]

At this point, the extent to which Kibby was involved in the AH case is not entirely clear.

However, if Maura did accept a ride, I could see her being far more likely to accept one from a guy her own age.

 

[jc8825]

Agreed.

 

[Not Without Peril]

In Maura's case, she made a deal to have the complaint (the charge of fraud under $250) dismissed after a period of time of good behavior. The case was set to be re-evaluated in May 2004.

There was no complaint, and Maura was never charged. In Maura's case, the reward for "good behavior" was that the complaint would never be issued-- not that it would be dismissed. This would benefit Maura by keeping her record clean; a dismissed charge will stay on your record, unless it is expunged.

In Maura's case, there was an application for complaint. The magistrate did not issue the complaint and, so long as she stayed out of trouble, compensated the victim and wrote a letter of apology to the victim, the complaint would never have been issued.

 

[jc8825]

Agreed. Laws vary from locale to locale, my point is that Maura had every incentive to not pick up future charges during the period of "probation" so to speak.

 

[Fireweed]

If she was going to be a nurse, then she would have had a very big incentive to not pick charges no matter what. I know that if you want to be called to the bar as a lawyer, having had a DUI is a red flag. It probably will not stop you, but you will have to explain it away, and if you had 2 DUI's, leaving the scene of an accident, driving with an open container, and credit card fraud all within a couple years of applying for your nursing license, then my guess would that alone would enough to reject your application.

 

[Simply Caustic]

Agree with @Notwithoutperil - She wasn't charged: There was no complaint. Without it, there's no 'charge.'

Now, had Maura been found at the scene of the accident - instead of disappearing - the Commonwealth would be informed...and then​ she'd be officially charged for the credit card incident. That doesn't even factor in the highly-likely chance of a DUI that she'd be charged with, if the Rt. 112 accident was a DUI (which I believe, but that's JMO.)

 

[Tssiemer]

I don't know. I flip flop A LOT on this case. She's dead, she's not dead, if she's dead it was suicide, it was murder, it was an accident, if she's alive she ran off, she was abducted and is still being held, she has amnesia and doesn't know, she's in a cult, she's living in a tree house somewhere...

 

[jc8825]

If she was going to be a nurse, then she would have had a very big incentive to not pick charges no matter what. I know that if you want to be called to the bar as a lawyer, having had a DUI is a red flag. It probably will not stop you, but you will have to explain it away, and if you had 2 DUI's, leaving the scene of an accident, driving with an open container, and credit card fraud all within a couple years of applying for your nursing license, then my guess would that alone would enough to reject your application.

A fraud conviction of any type would be a permanent disqualification for nursing licensure. A DWI as you said is a "red flag", something to explain away, and many times one would need to show some type of alcohol counseling was completed. The other items could easily disqualify from nursing, as it is a very competitive industry.

 

[Not Without Peril]

Are there any plausible theories about how Maura's New Hampshire crash happened?

I wrote about my conversation with Mr. Westman on the blog. http://notwithoutperil.com/ . Notably, when I asked him whether Maura might have impacted a snowbank in front of his house, he said that she “definitely” impacted near her ribbon. He explained that he had heard the impact and he was certain of its location. In light of that conversation, I do not credit Guy's theory (i.e., the theory that James has adopted on his blog). Any thoughts here?

Also, what evidence is there that Maura was driving east when she crashed? I noted, on Topix, that the police diagram seems to indicate that "tire impressions" were observed slightly west of the "vehicle at final rest." (I uploaded it for reference, http://goo.gl/53MHFG ). The Marrottes believed that the Saturn had been backed into its final resting position. If they were correct , the tire tracks could have formed when Maura -- whether travelling east or west prior to the crash -- put the Saturn into reverse. Is there other evidence that she was driving east?

 

[Vox_Veritas_JT]

As someone before me said its very easy to flip flop on this case. The objective evidence can be interpreted in a variety of ways. For my money I focus on the rag in the exhaust and the centrality of excessive alcohol involved in the case (and I accept criticism for this).

...The rag to me is most likely explained as a suicidal or confused gesture by Maura, I just don't buy into Fred's explanation. There is of course an outside possibility it was put there by a third party.

The alcohol and the fact Maura takes alcohol with her means either two things for me. 1. It is again evidence of a suicidal motivation and in this case then surely Maura headed into the mountains ? 2. Maura fled the scene with the alcohol as she had arranged to meet a third party, this being the reason she purchased a large amount of alcohol. I cannot logically follow the explanation that she took the unopened liquor as she did not want the police to discover it (wanting to hide evidence of drink driving). If this was the case then surely she would have at least hidden or removed the broken wine box from the car and surely she would have at least removed the bottle she was drinking from away from the scene?

What I am left with is two contrary conclusions, just based on the exhaust and alcohol. Either it adds up to desperation (in fleeing) which turns to suicide / misadventure through recklessness (remember the book found in the car which Maura was fond of, 'not without peril'). Or Maura had already arranged to meet a third party, perhaps to flee, where some foul play took place.

Even with Nate Kibby in the picture now I still find it unlikely this was a stranger abduction, I used to be of the persuasion but it just seems too unlikely what with the crash and Butch Atwood and how very quickly Maura vanished = I can't rule it out personally but I would put it as a way outside possibility and if this took place it might have been as a result of Maura hitching out of the area.

 

[BillNH]

Are there any plausible theories about how Maura's New Hampshire crash happened?

I wrote about my conversation with Mr. Westman on the blog. http://notwithoutperil.com/ . Notably, when I asked him whether Maura might have impacted a snowbank in front of his house, he said that she “definitely” impacted near her ribbon. He explained that he had heard the impact and he was certain of its location. In light of that conversation, I do not credit Guy's theory (i.e., the theory that James has adopted on his blog). Any thoughts here?

Also, what evidence is there that Maura was driving east when she crashed? I noted, on Topix, that the police diagram seems to indicate that "tire impressions" were observed slightly west of the "vehicle at final rest." (I uploaded it for reference, http://goo.gl/53MHFG ). The Marrottes believed that the Saturn had been backed into its final resting position. If they were correct , the tire tracks could have formed when Maura -- whether travelling east or west prior to the crash -- put the Saturn into reverse. Is there other evidence that she was driving east?

How about the officers police report you posted? The officer clearly states that "evidence at the scene indicates the vehicle was eastbound...hit trees...spun around..." I would have to assume that although not noted there were some kind of tire marks in the roadway leading the officer to this conclusion. He investigated within 20 minutes of the accident, I think it's the best opportunity for evidence and the most likely scenario.

 

[Not Without Peril]

How about the officers police report you posted? The officer clearly states that "evidence at the scene indicates the vehicle was eastbound...hit trees...spun around..." I would have to assume that although not noted there were some kind of tire marks in the roadway leading the officer to this conclusion. He investigated within 20 minutes of the accident, I think it's the best opportunity for evidence and the most likely scenario.

The officer's opinion is not evidence; it is based on evidence. That brings us back to my original question: "[W]hat evidence is there that Maura was driving east when she crashed?"

Your assumption, if correct, would certainly answer my question. What is the basis of your assumption?