Maura Murray

This is probably in my top five of cases that 'haunt' me. What the hell happened to her out there on that road? Why did she refuse help? Where was she going? Why did she lie to her teachers? Why was she upset that night at work? Who made that phone call to her boyfriend, why, why, why? Drives me nutso.

http://southshorexpress.net/content/view/48/174/ (great article with TONS of information)

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO83711/

Nic:

I have just read the entire first link you posted (and the other parts to it). This is the first I heard of this case. From readin that article it seems entirly possible that she was drunk/drinking at wheel of car, this would explain the reluctance for police help. She could have told the man (who asked if she needed help) that the AAA were comin (although she couldnt get signal to phone) as she felt unsafe in his presence. However this is just speculation although it does seem highly possible that she got into someones car -it seems to me that she did.
This case is haunting not only because of the mystary of what happened to her but the fact the father still to this day searches for his daughter. Thanks for the link to this case - it seems a very puzzzling and interesting case. The frustrating element is that police do not seem to be taking the case as seriously as they should have been esp concerning the evidence retrieved from house (carpet found by cadaver dogs in wardrobe of house). The fact they dont even know where this evidence is or how to retrieve it or the fact that no results have been released makes it alarming. If the police aint looking for her/her killer who is (apart from her dad that is).

Czechmate:

gaia...Maury's case is a puzzling one indeed. I've always been suspect of her actions prior to the day of the wreck where she went missing. The odd behavior, the internet search of the cabin, etc... At first, I thought she may have just run off with someone; but now, after all this time, I'm beginning to think that maybe something bad has happened to her. I really think her bizarre moves prior to her dissappearance hurt her chances of LE taking this case seriously.

Soapie:

i thought the same thing.

i thought her behavior was odd... the more i read about it. it just sent up a lot of red flags when i read some of the stuff about the case. and you guys might think this is weird... but especially since she was in nursing school and so close to graduation. sure, there are some characters in nursing programs, but you are expected to be of good moral character as a student. so some of the things i read i was like.... HUH? plus, by all accounts for the most part, maura was a very good girl. and she was a good student... which is hard to do in nursing school. but... WHY did she act so weird when they tried to pick her up? i never ever would have thought any more about it until i was reading deeper into the case one night, and maura's case is one of those that brings up more questions than answers the more you look at it...
honestly, i think something really bad happened to her out there on that road. i do NOT think she ran off. she had no reason to. i think the fact that she was doing well and nearing graduation from her nursing program should be a factor to show that she wouldn't have just ran off. you might chuck some things in life out the window, but you don't throw the tourture of being in nursing school out the window. she was really close to graduation if i remember correctly...
my feelings? most likely wrong place wrong time.... i don't think she walked into something "on purpose", i think that her car did break down and something happened to her there. sad.

3atx:

For the longest time I thought MM had met someone unsavory and came to an unfortunate end. I recently revisited a lot of old articles and a more recent in-depth report, and now I believe she either wandered off and died from the elements, or left on her own accord and is alive somewhere. Based on LE's actions I could believe that they know that she is alive and okay somewhere but since she is an adult, have not shared this info with anyone.

Her family doesn't believe she would just leave her life behind and start a new one, but it does happen. Her odd behavior prior to her disappearance leads me to my conclusion.

Soapie:

i don't know. i think she may have been severely depressed or even near suicidal, but a woman's suicide does not fit with exposure in the elements...

i think she was severely upset and something was definetly going on with her. i think that when she had the wreck / break down, that she met with someone... and that she didn't want cops called because of the suspicion of alcohol. it would have been, what, her second alcohol related driving incident in like less than 48 hours?

JenInIndy:

I remember reading about this case a while ago, but never got as much info as that first article that was posted. Thanks, gaia!

I definitely think that she got into a car with someone after the crash. No footprints leading off anywhere and the dog losing her scent at the intersection makes me believe that. As to what happened to her after that point, I just can't figure out in my mind.

With the way everything was boxed up and with the alchohol that she bought, I think she intended to harm herself. Perhaps after she wrecked the car, she simply hitched a ride to whatever her destination was and walked away somewhere and did that?

Have the areas around Burlington and Stowe, Virginia been searched? I know her father is focused on the town where her car was found, but perhaps she had been looking at those specific destinations so that she could walk away somewhere and let herself succumb to the elements. I wonder if perhaps any searches have ever been done there?

3ATX:

I'm not sure what this means...? Could you clarify?

I do think that it's possible she met with foul play, it's just lower on my list than the other options.

It's just a sad case all around though...

______________________________

bfly27:

I always figured if she was going to just take off that she would have cashed the payroll checks she had in her possession. No one would have thought it looked odd to cash her checks. I figure we know that no one was following her because the man that drove up on her "accident" didn't see any other vehicles. It is a very odd case.

gaia:

I think if the question of why was Maura decided to go where ever she was planning on going is answered everything else would fall into place. I don't really think she was planning a getaway with all that alcohol by herself. Was she having an affair? Someone older, someone married? Perhaps there were problems, maybe he did not want to give up his life, his wife for her and she was pressuring him. They had planned to meet at a destination, she gave him the directions and he was following about half and hour behind her. She refused help because she knew he would be driving by soon and would see her. And that is where that theory stops short for me. I guess he could have picked her up and they went to some mountain cabin somewhere and checked in under his name but I feel sure in the search that ensued a hotel clerk would remember the girl who came in with the older man that weekend.

I also toyed with the idea she was being stalked and that would explain some of her bizarre behavior but if she were being stalked the last thing she would probably do is take off alone.

I just don't understand why she would refuse help from one person and accept it from another. The only explanation I can come up with is it was an authority figure she trusted.....like a police officer.

And why was there a rag stuffed in her tailpipe? And where did the alcohol go? She bought all that alcohol but apparently when cops searched her car they did not find it.

Cadaver dogs got a hit at the A frame house that sits very close to the site of her crash. It is an abandoned house that site on someone's property and they gave permission to Mr. Murray's private investigator's to search it. In the upstairs closet the cadaver dogs got a hit. They cut out the carpet and gave it to LE for testing. From what I understand LE never had it tested.

[Researcher]

There is a solution to what happened to her but it won't help find her.

She had a crying episode so severe that her supervisor at the campus security station where she worked had her escorted back to her room. That piece of information appeared only once in the early reporting.

When I emailed the family contact person she said the school would not supply information so they could verify the episode.

There may be a brief mention of it in later reports when the phone call to her sister was investigated.

Within a few days of that crying episode she wrecked two cars and disappeared from the site of the second accident. She left the accident scene because she had been self medicating with the alcohol she purchased. That's why she didn't want police called.

I have never encountered some of the mentions in this thread such as a rag in her tailpipe.

Disappearances like Maura's are still happening. Remember Brian Shaffer? How about Michael Negrete, Josh Guimond, or Justin Gains. They were all high achieving college students and the disappearance happened after a period of time when there was long intense study. Most of them were heavy computer users.

Forty years ago designers accidentally found a simple problem when it caused mental breaks for office workers. The cubicle was designed to deal with the vision startle reflex to stop the problem.

If you understand the phenomenon the known evidence in Maura's case provides a circumstantial case for Subliminal Distraction exposure and the mental break it will cause.

My wife had this mental break in 2002. It happened thirty days after the University of Alabama changed her office eliminating Cubicle Level Protection. Crying episodes are one indicator of the problem.

I had to hide keys then disable cars to prevent my wife driving away for a delusional purpose while I slept.

Murray just picked a serious fictitious cause to give teachers and her employer. It was psychotic. She could have invented anything. There is no way to know what she was thinking. It would have involved fear, paranoia, panic, depression and maybe, thoughts of suicide.

Maura may have full or partial amnesia if she is still alive. She could just as easily wandered off into the forest and died of exposure. Her father searched both sides of the road and a helicopter was used while snow was on the ground and again after the thaw. There were no footprints showing she left the road.

She may be alive, a Dissociative Fugue victim, with no memory of her previous life.

Morgan Harrington, Virginia Tech, is a recent probable victim. She has been missing more than a month. There are several other cases that don't have solutions either. One is more than fifty years old.

See the Missing Students page at VisonAndPsychosis.Net.

[BeerButt]

I am not sure of your thesis but I can say that unidentified remains were located in Duluth and Suwanee Georgia this past week. Some speculation that one could be Justin Gaines. I am checking for updates and will post if there is any confirmation.

[pixies]

researcher, that is amazing. I have never once thought of that. To me, it seems far fetched but logical. Thank you for posting. I will continue reading and studying about that.

[ClaireC]

Researcher, I think that's possible, and I've seen that mentioned before - and I believe her family has extensively searched homeless shelters and facilities in case she is dissociative.

I think your other theory is much more likely, and have always believed that she wandered off into the wilderness to escape cops finding her after she wrecked yet another car while she was drinking, and her remains are somewhere in the wilderness where she wrecked. So often you hear of search parties who do grid searches and the person has wandered far, far out of the range that was thought possible. And then look at Chandra Levy, whose remains were missed in a grid that was very carefully searched.

Police know more than they are saying, and at this point I think they owe it to the family to divulge what they know. Adults like Maura do have a right to privacy, and so any criminal or other unflattering information needs to be kept private, but at this time it seems unlikely that she is living a normal functioning life and would ask for privacy.

[close]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maura_Murray

the above mentions the rag stuffed in the tailpipe of the car....i had to get myself a bit re-aqquainted (sp?) with this one, for some of the details....

Researcher: i went to that site & read quite a bit about it...very very interesting

[FLMom]

For anyone who is interested in Maura's case, there is a TV show coming up about her. The Investigation Discovery channel has a new series "Missing". I've seen the first two episodes and they were very informative and had lots of interviews with friends and family members. . . not just a re-hash of old news stories.

Here is a link to their website:

http://investigation.discovery.com/tv/disappeared/

Maura's case will be shown next Monday @ 10 pm EST.

[maryjane]

Originally Posted by FLMom

For anyone who is interested in Maura's case, there is a TV show coming up about her. The Investigation Discovery channel has a new series "Missing". I've seen the first two episodes and they were very informative and had lots of interviews with friends and family members. . . not just a re-hash of old news stories.

Here is a link to their website:

http://investigation.discovery.com/tv/disappeared/

Maura's case will be shown next Monday @ 10 pm EST.

Thanks for the info, FLMom, I'm going to make a point of watching the show. I've seen one other "Missing" episode and ITA...very informative.

[nanandjim]

I am very perplexed by this case. On one hand, it sounds like she wanted to get away and was troubled. On the other hand, it sounds like she was abducted...

[close]

Originally Posted by FLMom

For anyone who is interested in Maura's case, there is a TV show coming up about her. The Investigation Discovery channel has a new series "Missing". I've seen the first two episodes and they were very informative and had lots of interviews with friends and family members. . . not just a re-hash of old news stories.

Here is a link to their website:

http://investigation.discovery.com/tv/disappeared/

Maura's case will be shown next Monday @ 10 pm EST.

thanks for the heads-up!....i love the ID channel...another good show, is The Bureau....

[nanandjim]

Close - I really like that station, too. We watched a bunch of the "I (almost) Got Away With It" shows.

[LabellaMagick]

I watched the Maura Murray episode last night, and I have to say the episode didn't live up to what I would have liked to have seen.

For one thing (from what I gathered), even though this show just debuted in 2010, this "episode" seemed to have been taped as far back as 2008.

The show didn't tell me anything I didn't already know...in fact it told me less than what I already knew.

I just feel so badly for her poor dad who still hasn't stopped looking. Of course, I feel equally as bad for Maura and her fiance.

The police investigating Maura's case just came off (to me) as nonchalant...as in "she's an adult and if she wants to go missing, that's her right".

I can't imagine the frustration of her dad and other members of her family having to endure that type of attitude.

[white rain]

Originally Posted by LabellaMagick

I watched the Maura Murray episode last night, and I have to say the episode didn't live up to what I would have liked to have seen.

For one thing (from what I gathered), even though this show just debuted in 2010, this "episode" seemed to have been taped as far back as 2008.

The show didn't tell me anything I didn't already know...in fact it told me less than what I already knew.

I just feel so badly for her poor dad who still hasn't stopped looking. Of course, I feel equally as bad for Maura and her fiance.

The police investigating Maura's case just came off (to me) as nonchalant...as in "she's an adult and if she wants to go missing, that's her right".

I can't imagine the frustration of her dad and other members of her family having to endure that type of attitude.

UNLESS the police HAD a reason to believe she left voluntarily. IDK...can't make my mind up.

[close]

Originally Posted by nanandjim

Close - I really like that station, too. We watched a bunch of the "I (almost) Got Away With It" shows.

yes!...i know which show you're talking about, Nan!

[Czechmate7]

Originally Posted by white rain

UNLESS the police HAD a reason to believe she left voluntarily. IDK...can't make my mind up.

You know I always had a thought that maybe Maura did get in touch with the police and told them she didn't want to be found ..... she acted why too bizarre right before her disappearance.

[Monarch]

Hello,
This is my first time posting. I've been playing "catch-up" since I was drawn to this case a few days ago when they aired a show about Maura on ID investigation. I have read so many threads that I'm afraid I can't keep everything in ordered sequence in my head. So when I make mistakes I'm unaware of, please feel free to correct me. I would like to throw out my own observations and would appreciate any feedback.

[Monarch]

Ok, here goes.....I cant help thinking that her destination was like her own "fortress of solitude". A place she absolutely had to reach. She was relentless in moving onward toward "something". If she felt someone was following her, then why not stay with the bus driver and have him call the police. The car worked, it was just stuck, why not wait for someone to come and move it back on the road and she could be on her way?? The rag in her tailpipe leads me to believe someone was after her or trying to mess with her mind. But she herself knew nothing about the rag and since she rejected the bus driver's offering of calling the police, as far as she knew, they were not coming either. If she wasn't being stalked, then the destination is the key. Obviously time was of the essence, either to get away from someone/something or to get to somewhere, etc? Also, why leave when it would be dark when she arrived anyway, barring everything went smoothly? Why not leave earlier that same day, if only to see things better? Also, was she trying to lose someone by taking the "alternate" route her dad hoped she didn't take???

[Monarch]

Before Maura left Amherst she stopped at an ATM machine and she also bought some liqour, etc. The liqour wasn't found at the crash site but the receipt for it was. Also, I've read on several sites that her tank was full of gas. She traveled 140 miles up to that point so she had to stop off somewhere between Amherst and the crash site to fill up. I'm assuming she paid for the gas with the cash she withdrew from her ATM machine, because a credit card obviously leaves a trail. I wonder if Law Enforcement backtracked and stopped by every gas station she wouldve passed by to interview people there?? Does anyone have any information about this?? Also, if she was on her way somewhere for a bit of time alone, did she even have enough money to rent a place daily and pay for her food, etc??? She withdrew $280, paid $40 for the liqour, got some gas along the way, so that leaves her with about $230??? Is that enough to make it through a weak of R&R???

[Monarch]

My next thought is a BIG "let's just assume" on my part, but if Maura is the type of person that fills up her tank all the way to FULL no matter when she gets gas, then wouldn't it be forensically possible for someone to determine (by the amount of gas used up) where she probably did gas up if you back track from the crash site????