armywife210 said:
. . .That being said, I am still bewildered.
She had no reason to leave. . .
Actually, as I used examples in previous posts to show, a missing person does not have to have what you or I would see as a valid reason to decide willfully leave. I know that may sound hard to believe but it is so and it is one reason that I went to the trouble to post examples. I did that to help people understand and not to intimidate anyone from posting contrary opinions. Sometimes the missing person goes missing for reasons known only to themselves, sometimes due to mental breakdown. We may not know the intimate details of their life but that does not stop them from leaving anyway.
Let me take a moment to say that I recognize your right to believe that she was the victem of foul play even though I see no evidence to support that so far and I do not mind in the least to try to point out any possible points about the case, as they occur to me, that might bear investigation and thus possibly yield the proof of foul play that you seek.
I don't require it be one way or the other. I tend to go by evidence. What little facts are known in this case lend to her being alive and having left on her own and the known statistics according to L.E. sites, so far, tend towards her being alive. That having been said, if evidence turns up to indicate otherwise I will quickly change my mind. I go by evidence.
If I take issue with some of your points it is not meant as an insult to you:
armywife210 said:
. . .She had no personality disorder. . .
Actually, you can't know her psychiatric health without having had access to her psych records or without having seen her professionally as her psychiatrist.
armywife210 said:
. . .She was not being controlled by anyone. . .
There are some hints in news reports that to my mind hint otherwise and I don't see how you can know that without living in the family. And again, I previously posted examples of family of a missing person saying there was no abnormal control even when the missing person was found and said there certainly was control. So don't feel badly if I and some others hesitate to take the family word about such things as being gospel.
armywife210 said:
. . .She had no reason to fear if she really did want to leave UMass. . .
Again we do not know that to be true. It is an assumption you make.
armywife210 said:
. . .There was nothing shady about her time at West Point, she never had a single honor violation. . . .
Ummmm no comment at this time. (Keeping my word.)
armywife210 said:
. . .She didn't owe money. She wasn't involved in drugs. She drank lightly, and she carried tylenol. She got into two accidents. Well one of them was minor and most likely due to road conditions. No one was upset with her about the accidents. . .
You are still looking for her to have what you would consider valid reasons to leave and, as I have learned in my time at websleuths, that is not how it works. Sometimes they just leave. As to the facts about her owing or not owing money, I doubt we would know that. (I have known friends to loan $1000 to each other only on their word.) As to the accidents I see you are already making excuses for her by mentioning possible road conditions when you,again, don't know for sure. I admit it is possible the two accidents weren't suicide attempts and I mentioned them in a previous post to point out that, in the total of the evidence known, it is easily understandable for L.E. and others of us to see Maura as being possibly unstable and/or suicidal and running away. For those of you that believe Maura is the victem of foul play I think you would serve your cause far better by finding some actual evidence of foul play than to continue to try to defend her actions as being pure as the driven snow. I doubt she was that pure just as I doubt she was evil but she was human with strengths & weaknesses. I am more concerned with learning if there was in fact any foul play. This was not a little girl. This was a woman with the right to leave in privacy if she wants but also with the right to not be murdered.
armywife210 said:
. . .It seems that it's just nicer to believe that she left on her own rather than that she was taken. The family wishes and prays that is true. . .
Ten days after she was gone family had evidently already been speaking of foul play rather than safe return:
(Published 2/19/04) . . .But he did say, although there were no new developments yesterday, he was not ready just yet to go along with the fears of family members that Maura Murray has been the victim of foul play. . .
Valley News
I mention that to respond to your point and also because that article says something to me about the psychology involved in some angles of this case, something that I had to learn about over time in reading cases here at Websleuths. Since I think most likely Maura left on her own I see no need to go into that point indepth now.
armywife210 said:
. . .The vast majority of girls that go missing are abducted. Few do show up years later living a new life, but it's very few and in those cases deep down the family knew something was a bit off. So many girls go missing every year, some are found a few months later dead. Some are found years later dead, some are never found. There are even cases where they are abducted and kept against their will for years. . .
As I said Maura was/is a woman, not a little girl.
According to L.E. websites the majority of missing persons are not the victem of foul play. You need to check your facts or see some of my previous posts. One of them has a link to an L.E. website which speaks to that subject. It may be in the locked thread but it is still readable.
In conclusion, Even though I presently think Maura left willfully, I would rather we all work towards making sure if there was or was not foul play instead of "being sarcastic". As a sort of peace offering let me point out some things that might bear looking into. I know some are just now being gone over in <modsnip - no longer a working website> but some of these were already brought up in the past here at websleuths.
1. Only one person has admited to being on the road alone with Maura that night, the construction worker. That means we have only his word and no others as to his actions that night. I never like uncorroborated statements.
Did he make it up? Maybe, but it bears investigation to rule out if nothing else.
2. There was mention made of a possible fake police car having been on the scene. This was never confirmed to my knowledge and in fact I think I read in past posts on the murray site that it had been discredited, but even so at the time it was brought up here I found a few listings of people using such a ploy and posted them and another poster mentioned even more instances.
3. If Maura did plan to leave and if she infact did have a helper as I have posited then that person could have decided to double cross her so finding such person if he/they exists could provide info you seek but take care because it could also violate her privacy.
4. I already posted about the footprints in the snow. If they were hers they might point to where she went. . . .perhaps to remains in the snow somewhere?
There is one other possibility which I do not yet mention as there is no basis.