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

[OldSteve]

Just for discussion, since who really knows, but even if she had planned a suicide trip as you mentioned (snipped below):

I think she was planning for a Monday night at a lodge (where she would've constructed a suicide note) and then I believe her suicide would've taken place the next day. that is just my opinion.

Her crash in Haverhill may have been an eye-opener, suddenly she's trying to actually stay alive (if even to find a way to complete a planned mission of self destruction) - and in a strange irony IMO was taken before she could.

 

[Simply Caustic]

Now also keep in mind that Fred Murray would have the best and most current insight about his daughter and her state of mind, being that he spent the entire weekend with her.

So his initial thoughts about his daughter and what she would be doing in the middle of nowhere on a school night, to me holds plenty of meaning.

What he and his family say to the media years after the fact ... not so much.

His family (right or wrong) has been mis-leading about several things to include the mysterious 10 p.m. phone call that they KNEW ALL ALONG had no bearing in causing Maura to breakdown at her job. Family had Maura's cell phone records and knew for a fact that Maura had a phone call to her boyfriend much closer to the time she had her breakdown at work, yet family has let the media run with the 10 p.m. phone call between Maura and her sister anyway, because they know there was nothing to that phone call and they had no reasonable expectation to believe that the public would ever see Maura's cell phone records to be able to bring to attention the 12:07 a.m. call that was on her phone record between her and her boyfriend.

That is called being deceptive whether or not they had good reason to be that way or not.

If family can be deceptive in one instance, they can surely be deceptive in other instances.

I was planning on bolding and snipping the portions I totally agreed with - then realized that would be the entire post. Excellent observations, Scoops.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[scoops]

Just for discussion, since who really knows, but even if she had planned a suicide trip as you mentioned (snipped below):


Her crash in Haverhill may have been an eye-opener, suddenly she's trying to actually stay alive (if even to find a way to complete a planned mission of self destruction) - and in a strange irony IMO was taken before she could.

I would agree with anyone that the wreck in new Hampshire was unplanned.

I don't think Maura set out to stage a car accident because nothing supports that.

having said that, the question then becomes what happened to Maura once she had an unplanned accident that threw off whatever her initial plans were?

I believe any scenario becomes possible (post accident), however, I go back to what little evidence is believed to be known.

It is believed (by family and investigators) that Maura took a backpack and some bottles of alcohol and nothing else (leaving everything else behind in her car or back at her dorm) from the accident scene.

In what scenario that you can come up with ... does a stranded motorist take a backpack and a few bottles of alcohol with them and nothing else?


If she was going for help, what do you need a backpack and bottles of alcohol for?

If she was meeting someone, you mean to tell me you aren't going to bring your personal belongings and valuables when you enter your friends car, just a backpack and some bottles of alcohol. I am pretty sure a true friend would want you to get your valuables and clothing before you leave your stranded car and would take the additional minute or two to allow you to get that stuff before you leave the area.

If she is hiding evidence. Why not chuck the bottles of alcohol in the nearby woods as you walk away from the car, there are plenty of hiding spots where Maura went missing to conceal a couple of bottles of alcohol. And why do you need your backpack as well.

I can only truly think of one scenario that makes sense when it comes to having on your person just a backpack and some alcohol and you are in the mountains ... and it does not have a happy ending.


The question then becomes, how did Maura go about it.

My own theory is that she caught a ride away from the accident from a stranger. The stranger didn't have to know what Maura was up to, didn't have to know what was in her backpack. And the stranger could've easily taken Maura further down the road, or to Maura's intended destination and that was the last of it.

Because of the location, I would venture to say, that Maura could've been picked up by someone (not local to the area) and therefore, that someone may have never heard anything about Maura murray before in the media.

They just happened to be a good samaratin that night and have never thought back to that night again.

 

[OldSteve]

Enjoy reading what you write scoops!
As an opposing view -
She took the booze and back pack, but left jewelry from BF in the car because she planned to come back to her car in the morning.. booze and back pack were to be used just during her overnite hideout.

 

[scoops]

Enjoy reading what you write scoops!
As an opposing view -
She took the booze and back pack, but left jewelry from BF in the car because she planned to come back to her car in the morning.. booze and back pack were to be used just during her overnite hideout.

thanks OldSteve,

We have both been going at this case for quite some time.

And I once shared a very similar scenario to the one you describe above. But there were no tracks left behind and snow all around (not on the roads but on the sides of the road and in people's yards). She would've left a trace (IMO) if she just wanted to hideout and lay-low.

I once believed that she may have trekked deep into the woods and eventually succumbed to the elements. But nothing supports that.

The alleged phone call that Maura made to her boyfriend while he was at the airport (the next day) where she was supposedly breathing and whimpering into the phone was what hooked me in (early on) to believing that Maura made one last desperate attempt to call someone before she perished in the woods.

But what family spokespeople didn't share with the public about that supposed phone call, is that police dismissed it (very early on) as even being a human being that was on the recorded message. It was just typical cell phone static and nothing else.

 

[OldSteve]

At least we keep her memory alive here on WS scoops ...

Just to clarify - in the opposing theory, she walks to the sign by the bus driver's house and it's there something happens to her - taken, hit by a car, tricked into going with someone, or simply going with someone who does not initially have bad intentions but then takes advantage of her...

You know my thing about if she had a flashlight how she could then run for miles away - and, then what happens - Your theory kicks in there for sure... or she stops someplace and freezes to death..

 

[True Crime Gal]

{snip}
The alleged phone call that Maura made to her boyfriend while he was at the airport (the next day) where she was supposedly breathing and whimpering into the phone was what hooked me in (early on) to believing that Maura made one last desperate attempt to call someone before she perished in the woods.

But what family spokespeople didn't share with the public about that supposed phone call, is that police dismissed it (very early on) as even being a human being that was on the recorded message. It was just typical cell phone static and nothing else.

I thought it was determined to be a Red Cross worker trying to reach Billy. (Source: Mr Renner's blog)

tcg

 

[goldiegirl]

I thought it was determined to be a Red Cross worker trying to reach Billy. (Source: Mr Renner's blog)

tcg

Right, I read that, too. Scoops, can you clarify?

 

[scoops]

Right, I read that, too. Scoops, can you clarify?

It was (supposedly) determined to be a red cross worker.

But that is really beside the point.

Sharon Rausch and her son (in interviews) bring up the notion that they could hear Maura breathing and whimpering on the recorded message and they know it was her.

But the duo failed to mention for some reason (in these same interviews) that they had turned the message over to police to investigate and police quickly ruled the message out as even featuring a human on the other end of the call at all.

So as someone interested in the case, you are left thinking that it was for sure Maura on the other end and the police bungled the evidence by never being interested in the actual message, just the trace that they did that went to the red cross.

Bottom Line: Police didn't just trace the phone call through and come up with the red cross and then tell Sharon and billy, we're not interested in hearing the message because we know the call came from the Red Cross.

The police (early on) actually examined the phone call message and determined that they couldn't hear anyone's voice/breathing/whimpering sounds at all.


Yet another example of twisting the media coverage to believe a certain chain of events IMO.

 

[mom23boys]

This is one of the cases that haunt me. It really seems like Maura truly disappeared. Usually, I read/follow cases and end up with a pretty good idea of what I think happened, but not in this case.

 

[HSLD]

For discussion purposes, I am releasing my interview I did with Maribeth Conway.


<snip>



I did also offer to her up my personal theory that Maura may have taken her own life. I won't post the entire theory and what it involves but here was her response


MC: I read your theory and I think it is very plausible. Though I think at this point a body would have been found, and I feel she wouldn't have had much opportunity to have a clean suicide without trace given the accident, which I do think was an accident.

I found this very typical of people who have never been involved in a wilderness search. Understanding that MC is a reporter, she states that the reason she does not buy the suicide theory is that she feels the body would have been found.

I think this is a very common mindset of lay people who have not been in that area or have never searched open wilderness. The fact is that even in a rather small area it is very difficult to find a body, compound that with the fact that the area Maura could have easily accessed and you have an area that is so massive the chance of her body being found is in fact so miniscule it would be quite a miracle if it were found.

Consider they lost a rather Large Lear Jet in that same general area for many years. A lear Jet that is made of shiny reflective metal and glass, that does not decompose or get eaten by animals. And it took how many years to find that Jet?

Just something to consider.

 

[HSLD]

My own theory is that she caught a ride away from the accident from a stranger. The stranger didn't have to know what Maura was up to, didn't have to know what was in her backpack. And the stranger could've easily taken Maura further down the road, or to Maura's intended destination and that was the last of it.

Because of the location, I would venture to say, that Maura could've been picked up by someone (not local to the area) and therefore, that someone may have never heard anything about Maura murray before in the media.

They just happened to be a good samaratin that night and have never thought back to that night again.

If she got a ride away from the accident, what do you think happened to her from there?

 

[Jane Birch]

New edition of B.O.L.O. -- a novel about MM's disappearance is now available. Check it out @ dblakenh.com.

Every page or so this gets mentioned. Pardon me for saying so, but I really don't think this is the appropriate place to advertise this, which is pretty much what your doing rather than contributing to the discussion. JMO

 

[McSpy]

I found this very typical of people who have never been involved in a wilderness search. Understanding that MC is a reporter, she states that the reason she does not buy the suicide theory is that she feels the body would have been found.

I think this is a very common mindset of lay people who have not been in that area or have never searched open wilderness. The fact is that even in a rather small area it is very difficult to find a body, compound that with the fact that the area Maura could have easily accessed and you have an area that is so massive the chance of her body being found is in fact so miniscule it would be quite a miracle if it were found.

Consider they lost a rather Large Lear Jet in that same general area for many years. A lear Jet that is made of shiny reflective metal and glass, that does not decompose or get eaten by animals. And it took how many years to find that Jet?

Just something to consider.

Thank you! I have always thought the same as what you have stated here. I think it is especially difficult to find a body (remains) after years of season changes too.

 

[McSpy]

Enjoy reading what you write scoops!
As an opposing view -
She took the booze and back pack, but left jewelry from BF in the car because she planned to come back to her car in the morning.. booze and back pack were to be used just during her overnite hideout.

I seriously don't know what happened to Maura, but why would she need the backpack if she was going to commit suicide? Wasn't there some confusion about the alcohol being accounted for? It was reported that she took it with her, but then there was word that LE had found it in the trunk. I believe Renner found this out.

 

[HSLD]

I seriously don't know what happened to Maura, but why would she need the backpack if she was going to commit suicide? Wasn't there some confusion about the alcohol being accounted for? It was reported that she took it with her, but then there was word that LE had found it in the trunk. I believe Renner found this out.

There was some alcohol found in the car, specifically the wine, however the alcohol that was purchased enroute was not in the car. She either took it with her or she got rid of it sometime previously, which though is possible is certainly unlikely.

 

[scoops]

I seriously don't know what happened to Maura, but why would she need the backpack if she was going to commit suicide? Wasn't there some confusion about the alcohol being accounted for? It was reported that she took it with her, but then there was word that LE had found it in the trunk. I believe Renner found this out.

I believe she took the booze and backpack because she eventually did what her father had talked about doing (head for the mountains and drink yourself to death).

As far as what Renner was told: He was told the alcohol was all accounted for.

Renner made the leap that the officer (not a real investigating officer on the case) meant that the alcohol was "Physically" accounted for.

Most likely, the alcohol was accounted for by what they found in her car and the receipt for alcohol that they collected from inside her car.

 

[McSpy]

I believe she took the booze and backpack because she eventually did what her father had talked about doing (head for the mountains and drink yourself to death).

As far as what Renner was told: He was told the alcohol was all accounted for.

Renner made the leap that the officer (not a real investigating officer on the case) meant that the alcohol was "Physically" accounted for.

Most likely, the alcohol was accounted for by what they found in her car and the receipt for alcohol that they collected from inside her car.

I recall this question. It added to the confusion. I wish Renner asked them if they found the actual bottles in the trunk. Hopefully, he asks them for specifics, since he is supposedly going to NH sometime in the near future.

 

[scoops]

I recall this question. It added to the confusion. I wish Renner asked them if they found the actual bottles in the trunk. Hopefully, he asks them for specifics, since he is supposedly going to NH sometime in the near future.

Renner actually already indirectly answered this.

When he interviewed the actual lead investigator of the maura murray case, the lead investigator said specifically that some alcohol was missing.


Lt. Scarinza ---"She had purchased Kahlua, wine, and a six pack of Seagrams. The box had splashed all over the car. The bottle of kahlua was not there."

 

[Riot]

Renner actually already indirectly answered this.

When he interviewed the actual lead investigator of the maura murray case, the lead investigator said specifically that some alcohol was missing.


Lt. Scarinza ---"She had purchased Kahlua, wine, and a six pack of Seagrams. The box had splashed all over the car. The bottle of kahlua was not there."

Do police ever give misinformation so that witnesses/informants/confessing criminals can identify themselves as "real," or is this just a movie/tv thing?