NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 #16

[Mrs..b]

To play devils advocate, the FBI issued an alert in 2022 and NH State police released an updated sketch in 2024, would they bother with that if they didn’t have information that is being withheld. Their treatment of it doesn’t necessarily come across as a person lost to the elements.

 

[Bodine]

To me this case is a classic example of Occam's Razor needing to be applied.

Maura had problems with alcohol and had been involved in recent car accidents.
Driving intoxicated she crashed again, and not thinking clearly fled into the woods to avoid a DUI.
Hence why she declined assistance from the neighbor. Her remains are in the woods somewhere and one day will be recovered.
Sad but its the most likely scenario.

Except there was snow on the ground and no footprints leading into the woods.

 

[Tarik]

I don't know that it's ever definitively been determined that there was no footprints leading into the woods especially since there were no searches into the woods until many days after the disappearance.

 

[scrimpies]

I think i've seen age progressions of people who are confirmed deceased- but i can't remember who. Maybe it's just easy to do even if it's a long shot.

 

[Deleted member 287641]

I think i've seen age progressions of people who are confirmed deceased- but i can't remember who. Maybe it's just easy to do even if it's a long shot.

I believe it's more of a tactic to get people talking about the case and get it back in the news. It's very rare for a progression to lead to an identification, there's one case that comes to mind of an age progression leading to an identification and it's this one: Marx Panama Barnes AKA Steve Carter.

I don't think she's necessarily 'confirmed' deceased, just suspected. Until they find her body they can't be 100% sure. Even if she was legally declared deceased, it's mostly for her family to organise the life she left behind, bank accounts and such.

 

[Tarik]

I believe it's more of a tactic to get people talking about the case and get it back in the news. It's very rare for a progression to lead to an identification, there's one case that comes to mind of an age progression leading to an identification and it's this one: Marx Panama Barnes AKA Steve Carter.

I don't think she's necessarily 'confirmed' deceased, just suspected. Until they find her body they can't be 100% sure. Even if she was legally declared deceased, it's mostly for her family to organise the life she left behind, bank accounts and such.

No one is ever confirmed deceased unless a body or human remains are found or the family of the missing person decides to have them legally declared dead.

 

[sony12]

Opened up websleuths and I had 33 notifications about the Maura Murray case. I go what the heck. Did something happen? Did they find her body? Did they discover she was alive and well and living in Iceland? Nope. Just reactions to posts I made years ago.

 

[dotr]

Feb 6, 2026

Investigators 'actively utilizing' new technology in Maura Murray case

As the 22nd anniversary of Maura Murray's disappearance approaches, officials with the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office say they are "actively utilizing" new technology in the investigation.

www.wmur.com

'MANCHESTER, N.H. —
As the 22nd anniversary of Maura Murray's disappearance approaches, officials with the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office say they are "actively utilizing" new technology in the investigation.'

'It's not clear which items in evidence they are referring to, but in recent years, investigators have looked more into Murray's car. News 9 Investigates obtained a court filing in the case in 2024 that included analysis of the vehicle from collision experts, who could not definitively conclude whether Murray was the only person in the vehicle.'

 

[Tarik]

This seems like a typical anniversary article designed to fool people into thinking a lot is going on behind closed doors when in fact nothing is happening. For them to use new technology, they would have to have DNA, a crime scene, a direct witness, a confession and they have none of that.

 

[sony12]

Correct. In order to use the latest technology you would need some physical evidence be it blood samples, clothing etc...

Unless an assault happened within her car nothing would be usable. She was a college girl living on a college campus so chances would have been good another guy would have been inside her car at one time or another who would have absolutely nothing to do with this case. They need to find some tangible evidence before they can really do anything.

 

[Tarik]

Correct. In order to use the latest technology you would need some physical evidence be it blood samples, clothing etc...

Unless an assault happened within her car nothing would be usable. She was a college girl living on a college campus so chances would have been good another guy would have been inside her car at one time or another who would have absolutely nothing to do with this case. They need to find some tangible evidence before they can really do anything.

An assault inside the car would have left traces one way or another.

 

[Mrs..b]

It doesn’t necessarily mean an assault in her car, it could be for example someone has said they never met Maura and was never in her car, but dna on an item indicates they were in/around the car. We don’t really know what they have for evidence, hair, cigarette butts, blood from the accident, they haven’t given info on what they have to test

 

[sony12]

Honestly though within that type of atmosphere I would totally get someone two decades later who is in a completely different point in their life now saying they didn't really know or have much to do with Maura even if they happened to be casual acquaintances with her.

I lived that dorm life myself where kids were off on their own living together in an apartment type of situation. There were lots of people who at one time or another were either in my car or I was in their car when we were going to a party or something. And if someone now came up to me and asked me were you associated with this person I would honestly have trouble even remembering who most of them were. I might have brief flash memories of particular moments when I was around them. But to now describe them and my experience with them all these years later I honestly couldn't do that for the vast majority of them.