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

[McSpy]

I totally agree with you.

heck that cc stuff might of even made her more recluse with those that lived on her fourth floor with her.

And a break had come and gone, maybe some of the people on her floor when school resumed weren't there during the whole CC stuff.

My thoughts exactly!

 

[EXIA15145]

This is one case where I think almost all of the options/scenarios as to what may have happened are equally viable. Abduction, or suicide seem the most likely with walking off and being over come by the elements or fleeing to start a new life being slightly less likely in my opinion. I go back and forth between abduction and suicide. So baffling.

With the back and forth between abduction and suicide, would it help you if you could look at it from the viewpoint:
1. This is what the appearance is, what it seems the intentions of Maura might have been. Whether suicidal or not, here's Maura driving
2. Abduction enters the picture and totally derails whatever it was that Maura may have had in mind.

Factors in this are did Maura plan to have a one car accident right where she did? I somehow don't get that feeling. So, while her intentions/thoughts/
ideas are swimming around in her mind and she's trying to decide, (was she definitely alone in the car when she had the accident/made the trip?) here enters a blip in her plan, if she did indeed have a plan, and that's a minor collision.

I've read and watched every program on this case that I could. IN addition to, I used to live in that area. We drove back and forth at least one weekend a month when possible, between our home and my in-laws, so they would get to see the grandkids. My senses are on high alert with this case. My inquisitive nature goes into overdrive on this case. I'd love to drive up there and follow her path. From the time she left the dorm. To where the car was found. There's a lot to this case that hasn't yet been explored.

I have lots of questions about the car Maura was driving.

KeepThinking, Keep going over the different possibilities. Best wishes, Nocturnal Lady.

 

[AWOLNATION]

Hey McSpy! Love your posts here and on other threads. :seeya:
Just wanted to put in my two cents - you can, in fact, drive a car off the lot the day you first look at it. I did, twice. I traded in my then-current car both times. I called the insurance company from the dealership while they were trying to sell me that all-expensive warranty (10 years, ten zillion miles, everything covered EXCEPT what you actually need covered, etc.). My insurance agent was able to get me insurance over the phone, added to my current policy. This was with Allstate Insurance (not sure if that matters, perhaps cut-rate insurance companies would not provide this service?) I didn't have to get any special paperwork prior to leaving, other than the sale papers and the documents that typically go along with the sale, inc. the temp. plate information, etc.

I also traded in my car on the spot - both times. However, the traded-in car was in good condition (fully operable). The first purchase, I put down approximately 3,000 along with my trade-in, but that appeared to be a decent chunk of change for the down payment - they only required 1,000. Just my thoughts!

Thanks everyone in this thread for keeping Maura Murray on the first page here at WS - I wish Renner were posting more often, but I understand he needs to keep some things for the book.

Massachusetts is a lot different than most states in terms of buying a car. I live in Massachusetts and have bought a couple cars. There is no way (that I'm aware of) to drive a car right off the lot the same day you look at it. First, after purchasing the vehicle you need to take an RMV form to your insurance agency or fax it to them so that they can stamp it with proof you have insurance. Then you return to the Registry of Motor Vehicles with that form and proceed to pay your fees, then you receive your plates and then can go back to the dealer and finalize things and drive the car away. Considering the Murrays were going to be looking for a vehicle in the afternoon/evening the RMV would have been closed. Also, the RMV isn't open on Saturday or Sunday. I always found it odd that the detail about Fred buying a car that day, Fred being from Mass I'm sure he is well aware of the process. Just a side note, I live about a half hour from UMASS Amherst.

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[AWOLNATION]

Besides the disappearance itself, I, a lot like other people speculate about the car itself. It wouldn't be that hard of a process for a State Police lab to inspect the aspects of the the engine. First a diagnosis of the car's ECU (computer) could tell if there were any electrical malfunctions with any parts, it would most definitely tell you if there was a cylinder not working or misfiring to the point where it's non functional. An inspection under the hood would confirm this. It would also reveal any other defects with the car. We've all heard about the Red rag in the tailpipe. If in fact it was placed into the exhaust for the reason of storing smoke, I would find it more than unlikely that the combination of a blocked exhaust and a lost cylinder would even allow a car to run. As far as the different opinions on the rag being found sticking out of the tailpipe or stuffed up inside, both scenarios just seem odd. I've been working on cars since I was a teenager, and an more than firmiliar with the workings of one, that being said, I've heard of a phenomenon that is extremely rare, but not disproven, that a car with lost cylinders can possibly generate a force (upon starting a vehicle) that can produce the opposite of a backfire and actually suck in air from the tailpipe. If this extremely rare thing happened, if she had placed the rag in tailpipe, then tried to get the car unstuck and started it, it may have gotten sucked in. But again that's so unlikely. The other piece, if in fact the rag was stuffed up in the exhaust that a backfire could cause the rag to be forced out into the tailpipe.

I've never read anything about if there were signs of Maura trying to possibly get her vehicle unstuck, like any displaced snow around the front wheels as if she were spinning the tires trying to move the vehicle after the accident. Seems like there were a lot of things the car could reveal about everything that happened.

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[OldSteve]

This case is a real who-done-it, that's for sure!

Using a car in the condition it was in, raises all sorts of questions that we can only guess at. We just don't know what was going on in her head when she took off... she herself might not have even really known or had a solid plan...

Personalizing this - I've mentioned when I was young I took off..
no formalized plan... just needed to get away... lucky for me, everything worked out fine.. had it been otherwise, I can see how all sorts of scenarios could have been thought of!

IMO, the odds overwhelmingly favorite her being taken and her body deliberately hidden - otherwise, she would have found by know, or others would have seen her if she continued her journey on.

 

[AWOLNATION]

Bump

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[rosierider]

I tried to comment on James Renner's latest post: "Alden Olson=Beagle=Creep" and he didn't publish it. The gist of what I wrote was that I was more interested in why HE crossed out abduction and wrote disappearance.

 

[Simply Caustic]

Funny ...I also commented similarly and he didn't post mine either.

I wonder what inferences we can draw in relation to his book, from his abduction/disappearance slip.

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[McSpy]

One thing I don't care about Renner is his insistance that Maura must have told someone that she was taking the trip north. He just cannot see a woman not telling someone of their plans or not sharing her plans with a man. IMO, there is just no evidence that happened. Also, his insistance comes across as chauvinistic. He just cannot get past the fact Maura kept some things to herself and most likely took that trip without telling someone of her plans. There is more evidence pointing to an impulsive trip without anyone else involved or told of the plans. JMO

 

[Katrinka]

I agree, McSpy. Renner seems hellbent on certain theories and I think he dismisses some possibilities that don't support his assumptions. On that Disappeared show that featured her story, one of Maura's friends talked about Maura cutting high school by herself one day and driving up to Boston to hang out. Maura told no one and only when she was pressed by friends did she say where she had been. She seems like a very, very private and secretive young woman. It wouldn't surprise me if she left without telling a soul.

 

[scoops]

I agree, McSpy. Renner seems hellbent on certain theories and I think he dismisses some possibilities that don't support his assumptions. On that Disappeared show that featured her story, one of Maura's friends talked about Maura cutting high school by herself one day and driving up to Boston to hang out. Maura told no one and only when she was pressed by friends did she say where she had been. She seems like a very, very private and secretive young woman. It wouldn't surprise me if she left without telling a soul.

I concur about maura being private.

She worked the very next day after wrecking her father's car and she happened to work with the very same girl (that was the host of the dorm party and was a good friend of maura's) and maura never even mentioned the wreck to her friend at the art gallery they worked at on campus.

In the same article that mentioned this, it also points out that maura and one of her "close" friends (part of that circle of friends we learned about on the disappeared episode from her hometown) actually lived within a short distance of one another while Maura was at UMASS, yet they never talked or hung out.

All kind of odd.

 

[McSpy]

I agree, McSpy. Renner seems hellbent on certain theories and I think he dismisses some possibilities that don't support his assumptions. On that Disappeared show that featured her story, one of Maura's friends talked about Maura cutting high school by herself one day and driving up to Boston to hang out. Maura told no one and only when she was pressed by friends did she say where she had been. She seems like a very, very private and secretive young woman. It wouldn't surprise me if she left without telling a soul.

I don't know Maura, but I have a gut feeling she was very shy and private. She did have close friends and she was probably bubbly and fun with them, but I think she had a very private, quiet side on the most part. Her sisters probably heard the most on her thoughts when she felt ready to share those feelings. This is just a gut feeling--not fact.

 

[OldSteve]

I don't know Maura, but I have a gut feeling she was very shy and private. She did have close friends and she was probably bubbly and fun with them, but I think she had a very private, quiet side on the most part. Her sisters probably heard the most on her thoughts when she felt ready to share those feelings. This is just a gut feeling--not fact.

Might not even be shy to have kept her school friends just that - people you socialize with in your school environment, but whom you do not involve in family and personal things.

 

[OldSteve]

NH - Elizabeth J. Marriott, 19, UNH Durham student, 9 Oct 2012

Another college student is missing. She hasn't been seen since Tuesday evening. Her cell phone has not been in use since Tuesday ...
NH NH - Elizabeth J. Marriott, 19, UNH Durham student, 9 Oct 2012 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community


Locations are not all the far from each other... got to zoom out a bit:

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=...oFfiiTGiwcGphb-GZg&oq=chester&t=h&mra=ls&z=13

 

[neverletgo]

:bump:

Bumping for Maura. :heartbeat: You are missed!

 

[Weird Tolkienish F]

One thing that does haunt me is the 112Dirtbag/Beagle angle... the fact that this guy had a video of a lift ticket very close to where she disappeared with a date just a few days afterwards. I can't get that fact out of my head for some reason. There's just no way that is a coincidence, and where could he get something like that?

 

[Riot]

Hi All,

I've just recently begun to research this case after not having thought much about it for a number of years. Though I didn't know Maura personally, I grew up in the same town, ran cross country at the same high school, and am now a student at UMass, so her disappearance resonates with me.

While I've heard some refer to the events prior to the accident in NH as "white noise," I think it's important to get the facts of these events sorted out. The reason I see these as important is because I find most people's likely scenarios at least indirectly based upon MM's frame of mind that day and this mindset is inferred from prior events.

To this end, I'm curious if the exact location of the accident involving her father's car is known to those on this board. In a post on JR's blog, the author/investigator posted pictures purportedly of the scene of this accident:

http://mauramurray.blogspot.com/2011/08/why-did-maura-leave-party.html

This is a T-intersection at the junction of North Hadley Road and North Maple/Roosevelt Street in Hadley, but the news articles that I've read (i.e. Whitman/Hanson Express) state that this accident was to have occurred on Route 9, meaning that it would have occurred, at minimum, 1-1.5 miles away.

 

[Riot]

I think the first accident that I inquired about above is important to consider for the following reasons:

"Budding Alcoholism" - I believe that people's perception of MM's likeliness to be drinking while the NH accident occurred is based, in part, that alcohol played a major role in this first crash. I'd have to agree that one would have to be pretty intoxicated/distracted to get into an accident at the place JR depicts. I drove from campus to that intersection this evening and it is at the end of a long straightaway and a flashing red light can be seen from quite a distance. (An accident here would not be impossible though; the guardrail was dented when I went by.) If the accident happened elsewhere on Route 9, it may be more likely that a tired driver merely veered off the road in the early morning. (I feel that this second possibility could be supported by the fact(?) that no charges were filed for this accident.)

"Why the father's hotel?" - I've read some suggest that MM wasn't actually on her way to her father's hotel. If the accident occurred where JR depicts, this may be true. She could have been going anywhere, possibly even crashing after having missed Route 116 and trying to turn around. If the crash actually occurred on Route 9, I think fewer questions about her intent can be raised.

 

[OldSteve]

:welcome: Riot to WS and this thread!
If only we knew what was going on in MM's mind in the days leading up to taking that fateful drive.

 

[Riot]

Apparently I missed it at first, but an accident report for the first accident was posted on JR's blog (Murray 002-1.pdf in the documents section) that indicates that the accident was at that T-intersection.

The report claims that she hit the guard rail head-on. I'm not saying that I disbelieve the report, but it certainly seems very strange that a young girl would be allowed to leave the scene of that type of accident if there were any signs of intoxication. Remember that news articles report that this accident caused between $8000 and $10000 damage to a car that cost ~$19000 (Based upon 2005 model-year MSRP, which I was able to locate using the Internet Wayback Machine.).

Are individuals allowed to request accident reports that they are not involved with? It seems as though $10 is the standard charge for retrieving a report, and I don't mind doing this if I am legally able to, if only to independently verify a pre-existing source.