NH NH - Maura Murray, 21, Haverhill, 9 Feb 2004 - # 2

[docwho3]

In response to something said in an earlier post, while searching for something totally unrelated, I found this on two different sites:

Entering adults into the national database (NCIC), is also limited. A report may be taken and an investigator will be assigned to all cases, but there are specific criterion for NCIC. If the missing person has a physical handicap or mental disability, if they are missing involuntarily, if they are a victim of a catastrophe or if they are in some way endangered, then the person can be placed into NCIC.
Mesa, Arizona - Missing Persons
Friends and Families of Violent Crimes

At some point, Maura, in the New Hampshire State Police's opinion must have met the criterion: NCIC ID#: M-883793945 National Center for Missing Adults
They also went to her sisters house and took back all of the items from her car and impounded her car after it had been released.

Thanks for the info.
Thats very interesting to know. Have they ever said to the family why they think she met the criteria?

 

[docwho3]

Why does the first picture at that site show her with what looks like blonde or blonde highlighted hair? http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A200401157S

Interesting.

 

[pugsley]

Why does the first picture at that site show her with what looks like blonde or blonde highlighted hair? http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A200401157S

Interesting.

Probably natural highlights from the sun. Or she could have had a suttle highlight done. I don't think she appears blonde. Why would that matter? Just curious.

By the way, thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts on this. It was interesting to read a new angle.

Murraydwyer: Why would you say she did not have a high school diploma? Maybe it's early and I am misunderstanding you. You can't get into college without a H.S. diploma.

 

[murraydwyer]

I'm quite certain Maura does have a High School diploma, but the point I was trying to make is that, if ad DocWho suggests she had a new identity, she might be unable to produce a lot of back up info...like a high school diploma...making it more difficult to obtain a high-paying job.

I agree with you on the color of her hair. It could also be the lighting in the picture or the fact that it was summer and her hair might bleach out a bit. She definitely doesn't appear to be blonde...perhaps highlighted.

 

[docwho3]

Probably natural highlights from the sun. Or she could have had a suttle highlight done. I don't think she appears blonde. Why would that matter? Just curious.

I just found the hair color in that photo interesting for 2 small reasons. 1. It was the color I had half heartedly guessed at her using in a previous post. That blonde curl at the back of the neck looks all blonde to me even though the rest looks more like highlights. 2.Although they had other pictures with darker hair on that site they used one with blonde or blonde highlights as the one at the top of the page so it is the first pic that you see. I don't think that was accidental,in fact from a webpage design standpoint I know it was not accidental, having had training in that area. I think they must suspect she has a lighter hair color now. The lighter color caught my attention for those two small reasons. I suppose it really isn't critical to anything though.

. . . .By the way, thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts on this. It was interesting to read a new angle. . . .

You are welcome. I just hope it helps.

 

[CyberLaw]

docwho3:

Awesome post, excellent, keep up the great postings.......your logic and common sense are impressive.

In previous post I took your position in this matter that Maura "escaped" to a new life. BUT, apparently that was not a popular position to take, it is nice to know that you are using similar logic and reasoning as I, in regards to Maura "missing".

Do you know her "parents" wrote her off for dead, just a few months after she "went missing". I find that unusual......still.

As to the second car - logic and reasoning prevails, but there is no evidence to date supporting this fact. So it is safe to make a logical conclusion(assumption). But you are reaching a conclusion that has no direct basis in fact. But from Maura's personality, I could see her doing this, as not to take the chance to be stranded, with no backup. So I do see your point, but I am taking a neutral positon in regards to the second car.


I don't think Maura was "malingering" when she received the call at the Security Desk. I think this call was a further "stressor" in her life that lead up to the day she went missing.

In just a few days: Maura 'broke down" at the security desk,(Thursday/5) went to a "small get together" on Saturday night(7), left the get together in the wee hours of Sunday morning(8), smashed her Dad's new car,(8) had to tell Dad that Sunday afternoon/evening about the car that had several K worth of damage(8). Then I am sure he was not pleased, (especially considering the time in the wee hours of the A.M. that this happened)and Maura made plans that evening to leave school, she was looking for map directions at midnight or so on Sunday(8). She left on Monday(9).

All of the events combined, in total lead one to beleive that she planned on leaving this "stressful" life and start a new one with less drama.

 

[pugsley]

I'm quite certain Maura does have a High School diploma, but the point I was trying to make is that, if ad DocWho suggests she had a new identity, she might be unable to produce a lot of back up info...like a high school diploma...making it more difficult to obtain a high-paying job.

I agree with you on the color of her hair. It could also be the lighting in the picture or the fact that it was summer and her hair might bleach out a bit. She definitely doesn't appear to be blonde...perhaps highlighted.

Thanks for clarifying, I understand now what you were trying to say.

 

[docwho3]

First, Thankyou for the kind words. You did indeed post that she had escaped to a new life. And as I read archived posts, it did also seem that there was some clashing of personalities at that time. It is very hard to communicate well with people and harder when concerned with a subject where views often differ.

As to the extra car I posted about: That's good. Its always best to keep an open mind about stuff. Since I think the plan was to leave the old car behind at the goodbye scene and yet also return to take her dorm room stuff with her I think she would need a way to transport that stuff to her new place. If her new place was to be only a short distance away then a friend might easily have tossed it all in a car or van and moved it for her but if she was moving far like to New Mexico or Texas then I see the dorm room stuff as being a problem to transport on a bus and yet she clearly packed the stuff to be moved.

As to the family reaction to her disappearance:I respect your intelligence and I will keep your thoughts in mind about it but at this point I don't yet see any reason to pursue that line. I think their attitude is even understandable. Although I am beginning to notice a few more things about this case that may help me have a better understanding of Maura and her family(None of that is sinister.) Mostly just stuff that gives an idea of the personality that goes with the name. Its just that I am outside looking in and also looking back in time, to some degree so those extra details help. A few of the people in this case are beginning to take color and form in my mind like a character in a book being written becomes more real as you write more. That may not be important to anyone other than myself but it helps me feel a bit more personal satisfaction.

Note to readers: I read in a forum on the Maura website that she had suddenly left another college before disappearing from this one. Does anyone have details about that? Did she disappear from family at that time also or what? Or is that something that in fact never happened? Any of the above answers is fine with me as I just want to learn the truth. Thanks.

docwho3:

Awesome post, excellent, keep up the great postings.......your logic and common sense are impressive.

In previous post I took your position in this matter that Maura "escaped" to a new life. BUT, apparently that was not a popular position to take, it is nice to know that you are using similar logic and reasoning as I, in regards to Maura "missing".

Do you know her "parents" wrote her off for dead, just a few months after she "went missing". I find that unusual......still.

As to the second car - logic and reasoning prevails, but there is no evidence to date supporting this fact. So it is safe to make a logical conclusion(assumption). But you are reaching a conclusion that has no direct basis in fact. But from Maura's personality, I could see her doing this, as not to take the chance to be stranded, with no backup. So I do see your point, but I am taking a neutral positon in regards to the second car.

I think after Maura smashed her Father's car after a "small campus" get together in the wee hours in the A.M., this was the weekend that he was in town to buy her a car, so after several K damage to his new car, I think any parents would "think" twice about their child's behaviour and choices in regards to a car accident(especially my new car), and I would maybe say:

So after smashing my car, do you really expect me to "reward" this behaviour by buying you or helping you buy a new car.

Especially if the person is a high achiever, track star etc.......and an adult

I would not be plesed, would be an understatement......

I don't think Maura was "malingering" when she received the call at the Security Desk. I think this call was a further "stressor" in her life that lead up to the day she went missing.

In just a few days: Maura 'broke down" at the security desk,(Thursday/5) went to a "small get together" on Saturday night(7), left the get together in the wee hours of Sunday morning(8), smashed her Dad's new car,(8) had to tell Dad that Sunday afternoon/evening about the car that had several K worth of damage(8). Then I am sure he was not pleased, (especially considering the time in the wee hours of the A.M. that this happened)and Maura made plans that evening to leave school, she was looking for map directions at midnight or so on Sunday(8). She left on Monday(9).

 

[hydemi]

Dear Doc,

Maura had attended West Point from fall 2001 (I believe) to middle of her sophomore year, majoring in chemical engineering, running on the track team.

Somehow she left over the winter in early 2003 and started in the nursing program at U Mass by Feb (?) 2003.

Somewhere online or in one of the early media reports after Maura was gone, her Dad talks about he worked out this switch of schools with her--which seems to have been fairly quickly.

I do not know for sure of any reason for her leaving West Point, and am not sure what year her boyfriend Lt Rausch graduated before he went to Fort Sill--perhaps 2003 that same year?

Her sisters Kathleen and Julie had gone to West Point, and Julie was still in the military service at the time of Maura's disappearance and may be today.

Hopefully Peabody or someone with more exact knowledge will pick up on this post and correct any errors in what I am saying.

 

[docwho3]

Dear Doc. . . . .

(I shortened the quoted material to save space since the original post is already close at hand. I hope you don't mind.)
Thank you for the info! I do hope more info is posted about that time.

 

[hockeysl]

I have been reading up on her case since the beginning. maybe this already came up. but if she got off at the Wells River Exit on 91 and she did presumably want a new life or need help.. 5 miles isn't all that far. and there is a truck stop in Wells River Vt, right off the exit. Did anyone talk with people that run that truck stop? See if they have any information?

Just wondering.

 

[docwho3]

to hydemi: Ok, I finally read 30 pages of posts in the maura murray case discussion thread.

 

[hydemi]

Good, as you can see most of the posters there believe Maura was picked up and harmed the night of 2/9/04 and that she is no longer alive.

And her quick disappearance from the accident site near the Weathered Barn in Swiftwater was a puzzler from the beginning and remains so.

If you click on the Member List, I think you will find it helpful to review when you can the various posts by Helena Murray and Sharon Rausch, the most active family members (Mrs. Rausch is the boyfriend's mother). Both fear the worst for Maura but try to hope for the best--that she is alive whatever may have happened.

And the recently constructed Case Info timeline started on Oct 15th and updated on Oct 22d is really a big plus in understanding details.

 

[docwho3]

Good, as you can see most of the posters there believe Maura was picked up and harmed the night of 2/9/04 and that she is no longer alive.

And her quick disappearance from the accident site near the Weathered Barn in Swiftwater was a puzzler from the beginning and remains so.

If you click on the Member List, I think you will find it helpful to review when you can the various posts by Helena Murray and Sharon Rausch, the most active family members (Mrs. Rausch is the boyfriend's mother). Both fear the worst for Maura but try to hope for the best--that she is alive whatever may have happened.

And the recently constructed Case Info timeline started on Oct 15th and updated on Oct 22d is really a big plus in understanding details.

Ok. . . . I am not sure I understand your point yet. Sorry, I can be dense too at times. Maybe you can explain it further.

As to most posting people not believing Maura is alive:Time will tell what the truth is. Other than hoping all is well with her and her family I don't care that more people vote her dead than vote her alive. It really isn't about me being right or them being right.

I feel I have done a small part to help by having put together what so far is the only theory I have seen that seems to tie up all the facts including some that were puzzling when looked at from any other angle. I think that part is correct until or unless I see evidence to the contrary. Alive? Dead? When the last little bit of the puzzle is unraveled and she is found we will know that answer and I hope it is an answer everyone can be happy with. I believe that I have solved the plan part of the great escape and that solution/theory sort of points to where to look for answers as to her destination.

I am a bit wary of ending up forever defending the same points without end.
I will keep looking in on the case & I hope to see it solved in a year or two.
And of course, in the meantime, if I think of anything else that is helpful I will certainly post it.

 

[docwho3]

I thought some people might want to read about a young lady that ran away at age 25 as the knowledge might give perspective to this case:


Adult runaways are on the rise
By MICHAEL HOFFMAN
Shukan Bunshun (Oct. 27)
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fd20051030tc.htm

. . . .That's what Yumiko had in mind when she ran away two years ago at age 25. This is her story, as Shukan Bunshun relates it:
Born in Kanazawa, Yumiko graduated from junior college and then, at her parents' suggestion, spent three years studying tea ceremony in Kyoto. A job with a first-class ryokan in Tokyo looked like the passport to a stable, comfortable life -- but she abruptly quit after a year and a half and went to Bangkok.
Born in Kanazawa, Yumiko graduated from junior college and then, at her parents' suggestion, spent three years studying tea ceremony in Kyoto. A job with a first-class ryokan in Tokyo looked like the passport to a stable, comfortable life -- but she abruptly quit after a year and a half and went to Bangkok.
"Bangkok was wonderful," she says. "I made friends, took drugs." A few weeks later she was back in Kanazawa, but she was no longer the same person.
"Up to that point I'd been a good child. I did everything my parents told me to do. Enough of that! Now I wanted to live!"
She left without a word and went to Tokyo, where she worked in a pub and didn't bother securing a fixed address. The pub's patrons put her up -- "utterly charmless guys you wouldn't dream of having sex with." Nor were they much interested in sex with her, apparently. "They seemed to think it was their business to take care of me; they lectured me about the life I was leading. When I couldn't stand it any more I'd leave and move in with someone else."
The various ups and downs that followed included an affair with a Tibetan man and a trip to India with him. Back in Japan, they broke up, and she drifted into "the water trade" -- the sex business. A year of that has left her tired of it. Even so, "I'm glad I left home," she declares defiantly. "All my mother has to say is, 'Be a good girl, come back, I'll give you money.' No way.". . . . .

 

[pugsley]

I am a bit wary of ending up forever defending the same points without end.I will keep looking in on the case & I hope to see it solved in a year or two.And of course, in the meantime, if I think of anything else that is helpful I will certainly post it.

docwho3,

I don't think you have to worry about defending your point of view. You have very nice M.B. manners and I see everyone treating your opinion with respect. It's when people ram their point of view down other people's throats, that you might find that occuring. Just my opinion based on observation of most of the popular threads.

 

[docwho3]

docwho3,

I don't think you have to worry about defending your point of view. You have very nice M.B. manners and I see everyone treating your opinion with respect. It's when people ram their point of view down other people's throats, that you might find that occuring. Just my opinion based on observation of most of the popular threads.

Yes, everyone has been very kind so far and I very much appreciate it. I did not mean to imply anyone was not being kind. I am, however, aware that as more people come to the forum and read some but not all of the previous posts they may well post questions or theory point challenges that have already been dealt with. I am wary of that turning into a repetitive nightmare and so I meant to sort of serve notice in general that I may not always answer posts that are of that nature. I just didn't want to seem rude if I failed to answer those posts.

I greatly appreciate everyone's kindness in reponding to my posts especially in those instances when I have not communicated well myself. You have all been patient with me. Thank you.

 

[hydemi]

Actually I do not see how there is any evidence as yet for Maura having had a plan to run away, that was carefully designed and executed ahead of the three or four days prior to her disappearance on 2.9.04.

She was in the second week of the second term of her junior year, and so far her routine with the nursing program & the two jobs & the clinical visits was pretty well established and going ok. She had been sharing a ride to clinicals because of the problems with the old car, which is why her Dad came up for that weekend.

There is spotty evidence of her getting ready to leave Amherst--the checking out of the resorts on her pc, calling to Stowe and Bartlett phone nos.

I have wondered if she checked out the old car to be sure of its operability, or even if the car was really in such bad shape after all?

And she was I feel (some think she had not yet unpacked her boxes & bags) ready to drop out of school and leave Amherst upon her return from NH, as evidenced by her room being completely packed up with stuff ready to pick up and go.

The money part is the one thing you have mentioned that would be convincing, but the family has her 2003 tax return, and if anyone knows how much she was making, and what her savings were above and beyond the $280 she withdrew from the ATM on 2/9, so far they are not speaking up.

She could have had a lot more money with her, or in a secret account, but how do we know? She could have sold the jewelry and possibly the books for some ready cash, but how much? And the latter items were left behind.

And you asked about her leaving West Point a year earlier. Her Dad has said that he helped her work through that difficult time, yet she did not confide in her Dad about her leaving Amherst the next day after they had been so much together during the weekend. This possibly supports your theory.

So don't worry about defending yourself or whatever; my only aim is to find out the truth by sticking to the facts first. I am more inductive, only settling on a theory after I am as certain as I can be of my supposed facts.

 

[docwho3]

I wasn't speaking of you or any one person particularly when I mentioned being wary of having to repeatedly defend theory points as I later explained in another post response to someone else. I am sorry you do not feel there was a plan but thats your right. I hope you solve the case and if anything I turn up will help you I will certainly post it.

Actually I do not see how there is any evidence as yet for Maura having had a plan to run away, that was carefully designed and executed ahead of the three or four days prior to her disappearance on 2.9.04.

She was in the second week of the second term of her junior year, and so far her routine with the nursing program & the two jobs & the clinical visits was pretty well established and going ok. She had been sharing a ride to clinicals because of the problems with the old car, which is why her Dad came up for that weekend.

There is spotty evidence of her getting ready to leave Amherst--the checking out of the resorts on her pc, calling to Stowe and Bartlett phone nos.

I have wondered if she checked out the old car to be sure of its operability, or even if the car was really in such bad shape after all?

And she was I feel (some think she had not yet unpacked her boxes & bags) ready to drop out of school and leave Amherst upon her return from NH, as evidenced by her room being completely packed up with stuff ready to pick up and go.

The money part is the one thing you have mentioned that would be convincing, but the family has her 2003 tax return, and if anyone knows how much she was making, and what her savings were above and beyond the $280 she withdrew from the ATM on 2/9, so far they are not speaking up.

She could have had a lot more money with her, or in a secret account, but how do we know? She could have sold the jewelry and possibly the books for some ready cash, but how much? And the latter items were left behind.

And you asked about her leaving West Point a year earlier. Her Dad has said that he helped her work through that difficult time, yet she did not confide in her Dad about her leaving Amherst the next day after they had been so much together during the weekend. This possibly supports your theory.

So don't worry about defending yourself or whatever; my only aim is to find out the truth by sticking to the facts first. I am more inductive, only settling on a theory after I am as certain as I can be of my supposed facts.

 

[reb]

http://whokilledtheresa.blogspot.com/2005/05/rattled-baby-over-you.html

sorry if this has been posted before, but have you all seen this? (thanks to another poster in a different forum who provided the link) it has a map of where many, MANY missing people have disappeared from in NH & VT. as well as a map of where some unsolved homicides occured... also with a PHOTO of brianna maitland's car, as it was found- first time i've seen that photo. some really good info... really weird how all the spots are along major highways.