Disappear Here – Blog Post #2
Twenty years later and still no one knows why 21-year-old distance runner and nursing student, Maura Murray, decided to drive from the University of Massachusetts - Amherst to Woodsville, New Hampshire on February 9, 2004. If someone does know, they have never publicly shared that explanation. Therefore, all we are left with is speculation. And with that speculation, sometimes comes the accusation of misdirection.
When Murray arrived in New Hampshire that evening in 2004, she was allegedly involved in a single vehicle accident with her 1996 Saturn. Within minutes of multiple 911 calls placed by neighbors, the driver of that vehicle simply vanished. When I use words like “allegedly” and the “driver”, it’s not accidental, rather quite intentional. In fact, some critics would even accuse me of “misdirection”. They would counter that, of course she was at the scene of the accident. Who else would driving her beat-up Saturn that was parked at UMass and ran on three cylinders? It was Maura. End of story.
Or was it?
When I recently posed the question, “What if Maura never left Amherst for NH?” on Reddit. And with that post, I was harshly criticized by some Redditors. You can see the post here:
However, my theory did not come out of nowhere, and was by no means intended to create misdirection. Instead, it came from about five years of analyzing the evidence that has been released to the public.
One example I have continually pointed to was that her final documented sighting was at an ATM in the Amherst area, a recording that was finally released in the 2017 Oxygen documentary. Her own family had not even viewed it.
Beyond that, there have been books that were published including James Renner's True Crime Addict, podcasts that were released, and FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) documents that finally were made available to the public. Beyond that ATM footage there was little else to suggest she left Amherst except for very limited cell phone activity and absolutely no video footage or confirmed sightings of her beyond 4:30 p.m. that day. Furthermore, Butch Atwood, a resident bus driver of Woodsville, NH, who spoke to the woman at the accident scene allegedly laughed at a photo of Maura he was shown by law enforcement and initially claimed that it was not the same woman he spoke with at the scene of the Saturn’s crash.
So, is it “misdirection” or are theories like mine worth looking into? I have no quick answer to those questions. However, I believe they are as good as any after twenty years of searching for explanations. Did something happen to Maura Murray far away from Woodsville, New Hampshire? Until law enforcement shows us a verifiable trail from Amherst to Woodsville, I will remain skeptical.
Many, including her father, Fred, and sister, Julie Murray, feel that “nothing else matters”
beyond the fact that Maura went missing that night. Anything that occurred in Amherst that previous week seems to do be viewed by the family as “misdirection”. However, others, including law enforcement, private detectives, online sleuths, podcasters, and authors, have argued that Maura’s final days on the UMass campus were filled with a series of unusual events and odd decisions. Online sleuths have even analyzed the route that she took north, one that wanders of Interstate 91, one that seemed to be a road to nowhere.
Since law enforcement has released very little information on her still active case, many who have taken an interest on platforms like Reddit or Web Sleuths, have dug into a variety of theories. Arguably, Maura Murray’s disappearance was the first true crime case of the social media era (Facebook launched that week in February 2004). Now, over the last twenty years, there have been way many conspiracy theories surrounding the disappearance of Maura Murray. If you’ve been around the case for long enough, you surely know the key details involved in some of these theories.
The three theories that a 2017 Oxygen documentary dug into included the following:
1) Maura was met with foul play
2) Maura was running away to start a new life
3) Maura died in the woods
The six-part Oxygen series concluded that she died as a result of foul play. But how? Was she abducted and murdered? And, if so, where exactly where was she abducted? Did it happen in Massachusetts? New Hampshire? Elsewhere? There have been no definitive answers and little evidence to even support this conclusion. Hence, armchair sleuths seem to go back to their own investigating and wrote off the Oxygen series as made-for-T.V. drama. Other theories that surfaced go back to author, James Renner’s 2016 book on the subject.
They include discussions about:
· A Tandem Driver: Was someone following Maura and picked her up after the accident? Was it go to destination to party? Or escape to Canada?
· The Petrit Vasi Hit-and-Run: On Thursday evening, February 5th, UMass student Petrit Vasis was found on the side of the road after being struck by a vehicle just after midnight. Some online sleuths have speculated Maura hit him, took off, and went back to her security job where she had a breakdown.
· Running Away from the Men in her Life: This would include her boyfriend, Bill Rausch and her father, Fred Murray. Renner even brought up the possibility that Maura was pregnant.
· Staging of the Accident: Was the accident done on purpose in order for her to escape a previous hit-and-run at UMass? Or was it to help her escape to Canada?
· The Loon Mountain Three: The night of Maura’s accident, three employees did not report for work in Lincoln, NH at the Loon Mountain Ski Resort. Did they abduct Maura?
· The A-Frame Theory: The Murrays have speculated that Maura was brought to the Claude Moulton’s A-Frame, close to the accident scene and murdered in a closet and buried in the basement. Moulton’s brother brough a rusted knife to Maura’s father, Fred, who sent it to the NH Police but never heard back. The property was search with ground penetrating equipment and blood was found in a closet but all results have proved inconclusive.
· Police Conspiracy: Both Chief Jeff Williams and Cecil Smith have been mentioned in these theories since the latter was the first to arrive at the scene and Willams had been out drinking and driving around Woodsville that evening to the extent that he had driven his SUV off the road earlier. John Monghan of the NH State Police arrived later on the scene and Fred Murray openly accused him of either inept police work because he didn’t search east or outright abduction and murder of his daughter. However, none of these theories have held any weight with investigators as far as we know.
With these theories, there are those mysterious details that many want to write off as coincidental or unimportant. Some include:
· The Rag in the Tailpipe: When EMT officials arrived, they noticed a mysterious rag hanging out of the Saturn’s tailpipe. Her father, Fred claimed that he told her to put it there since the car was running on three cylinders and it would stop the Saturn from spouting smoke. This would deter police from pulling her over. Some claim it a universal signal that she’d be back for the locked vehicle. Others contend someone sabotaged her car when she stopped for gas a few miles back.
· The UMass Security Breakdown: On Thursday night, February 5th, Maura seemed to go into a catatonic state while at her dorm security job: When her supervisor arrived, she was staring off began muttering of “My sister” or “It’s my sister problem, not mine”.
· The $4000: Add the $4000 that Fred withdrew from eight ATMs and brought to UMass on his person for car shopping but a car was never purchased on Saturday February 6th.
· Packed or Unpacked Dorm Room? Police concluded that Maura had packed her room up and was planning on not returning to UMass. There was a printed email to her boyfriend, Bill Rausch, talking about his prior infidelity. Both her father, Fred and sister, Julie pushed back on this theory because the semester had just started and UMass students had to move back into their dorms after winter break. Julie claimed the email was not laid out by Maura but the police when they took it out of a book.
It's important to note that I don’t cater to most of the “conspiracy” theories since many have little to no evidence behind them. Many of these would be an incredible twist to or explanation of Maura’s disappearance. They are straight off the pages of a Hollywood screenplay. However, this a real disappearance of a real person, not a fictional character. Forums like Reddit are fertile ground for controversial banter, and although I’ve engaged in places like the Maura Murray Sub and tossed out my own theories, I haven’t found one particular angle that I would bet the house on. Until all the law enforcement records see the light of day, I couldn not conclusively say what happened. And that’s why we are left with utter speculation about what transpired that evening twenty long years ago.
Crime journalist, Billy Jensen, who wrote “Will The Internet Find Maura Murray?” for Boston Magazine in 2014: “On the Internet, Maura’s disappearance is the perfect obsession, a puzzle of clues that offers a tantalizing illusion—if the right armchair detective connects the right dots, maybe the unsolvable can be solved. And so, every day, the case attracts new recruits, analyzing and dissecting and reconstructing the details of her story with a Warren Commission–like fervor. The late-night car accident after the party. The father visiting with $4,000 cash in his pocket. The crying episode. The box of wine. The MapQuest printout. The rag in the tailpipe.”
It is easy to go down the rabbit hole and see if some of theories are logical. You’ll hear many individuals and investigators around this case talk about Occam’s Razor. This is a principal attributed to William of Ockam, a Franciscan monk, theologian, logician, and philosopher. The concept is that the simplest explanation with the fewest assumptions is the most logical and correct.
After I listened to just about every episode of Missing Maura Murray run by Crawl Space podcasters, Tim Pilleri and Lance Reenstierna, then watched the six-episode Oxygen series, The Disappearance of Maura Murray with Maggie Freeleng and Art Roderick, and read James Renner’s controversial book, True Crime Addict: How I Lost Myself In The Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray, I felt I was ready to discuss this case on Reddit. I decided to mask my identity, like many, going by Sleuth-1971 and jumped in to the Maura Murray Sub. I had heard that shark infested waters of Reddit could be harsh and dangerous at times. Trolls, fake accounts, and generally confrontational posters were sometimes hiding behind their keyboards and pseudonyms and were quick to call you out. If these online ethicists felt your theory was weak or if you were attacking the Murray family, whose behavior before and after Maura’s disappearance has been constantly analyzed, you could count on being challenged and even attacked.
The Maura Murray Sub on Reddit was a great place to learn more about the case and engage in mostly like-minded discussion with and online sleuths. Maura’s disappearance bothered many of us who had sisters and daughters, and we wanted to put together logical theories about what happened and where she was, if she is still living or not.
That said, intentional misdirection is not helpful in any true crime case. However, attempting to think outside the box, based on the facts you have, could break a very cold case wide open.
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