On Monday, February 9th, 2004, 21-year-old University of Massachusetts nursing student, Maura Murray, crashed her vehicle into a snowbank in Haverhill, New Hampshire. A neighbor called 911, while another neighbor stopped to offer help. Maura, appearing uninjured, declined help, and the neighbor drove off. Approximately 7 minutes later, when police arrived, Maura had disappeared. She has never been seen or heard from since. 18 years later, the disappearance of Maura Murray has turned into one of the greatest debated mysteries in the world of true crime. There are countless theories, questions, and arguments that all ultimately end in two very important questions: where was Maura driving that night and where is she now?
A Whole Lotta ‘What the Fuck??’
At 7:54, Sergeant Smith put out a BOLO for a female on foot who was about 5’7”. Julie found this odd, as it was her sister’s exact height, though the only person to truly see her up close was Atwood, and he’d been in the seat of a school bus. Around the same time, Fire and EMS were toned out to help on scene. They ended up only being on scene for about 10 minutes, since there were no patients found. State Trooper John Mongahan heard the radio traffic and stopped to help with the search for the driver. Unfortunately, nobody was located and nobody reported seeing anyone walking in the area. Before 9PM, the scene was cleared, with the vehicle being towed by Lavoie towing to a lot at his house. Sgt. Smith, in his accident report, said that when he arrived on scene, he found evidence that suggested the vehicle had been traveling westbound, went off the roadway, struck some trees, and spun around, ultimately facing the wrong direction. The vehicle had damage that seemed to be mainly on the front left corner. (There is a lot of debate regarding whether she actually did hit a tree or just the snow bank. Or both.) He said that in plain sight, he was able to see a box of Franzia wine behind the driver’s seat, along with red liquid spilled on the driver’s side door and ceiling. Before the vehicle was towed, Smith said he found a coke bottle that had a red liquid in it that had a strong alcoholic odor to it. The car had nearly a full tank of gas and both front airbags were deployed. There was a spidering of the windshield on the top left corner. It was later determined that at the time of the collision, the driver had their high beams on and was not wearing a seatbelt. (Due to this being an older vehicle, they were unable to determine if someone was sitting in the passenger’s seat).
Maura had a lot of personal belongings in her car. These included, but were not limited to: clothing, makeup, Tic Tacs, school books, Vermont attractions guide, an opened jar of baby dill pickles, an opened bottle of Diet Cherry Coke, an opened package of strawberry Twizzlers (which she reportedly used as straws to drink her soda out of), shampoo, a pack of birth control with 4 pills missing, a copy of the book “Not Without Peril: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Misadventure on the Presidential Range of New Hampshire”, nail polish, sleeping pills, lotion, toothpaste, and deodorant, plus many other things that didn’t seem too out of the ordinary for a female college student to have. There was also a 3×5 notecard with written direction to Burlington, Vermont. In the tailpipe of the vehicle, police found a rag stuffed inside. Her father later explained this, saying that Maura’s Saturn was on its last leg and had lost a cylinder. Fred said smoke would pour out of it and that she shouldn’t be driving it, but if she had to, if she needed to get by police without black smoke coming from the tailpipe, she could stuff a rag into it. He didn’t want her to get a ticket for excessive smoke coming from her vehicle.
Once it was determined who the vehicle belonged to, Fred was notified of the accident and that his daughter was nowhere to be found. When he learned that Maura was missing, it was already 24 hours after the accident
Okay, so…
The initial search for Maura didn’t yield anything. There were no signs of foul play and no footprints leading into the woods beside the ditch. Her cell phone, wallet, and keys were not found. It’s believed that officers only searched west of the accident site. Fred was upset by this, believing that Maura had been heading east, likely heading to Bartlett, an area that they used to frequent during hiking and camping trips.
Police initially believed Maura to have been a troubled girl who’d run off to escape her life, even possibly with the intention of suicide. Because of this, the full search for her didn’t take place until 36 hours after the accident. The Murray family arrived and were assisted by dogs, helicopters, and people, walking the area nearby and the woods, but finding no signs of Maura. Search dogs were brought in and followed Maura’s trail for about 100 feet, then lost her scent in the middle of the road. Bill was granted leave from where he was stationed in Oklahoma to help assist with the search for Maura. Unfortunately, the searches found absolutely no signs of Maura. It truly seemed that she had disappeared into thin air.
The Investigation
As the investigation into Maura’s disappearance continued, information began to circulate about her. Days eventually turned into months and into years, but there had been no credible sightings of Maura and nothing of hers had been located. During the first year of the search, a man named Larry Moulton gave Fred a bloody knife that had belonged to his brother, Claude. Claude had a criminal record and lived less than a mile from where the accident had happened, in a residence now known as “The A-frame house”. Larry believed that it could’ve been the murder weapon. The knife was given to the New Hampshire police, but according to Julie, the Murray family never received results of the testing. A few years later, the house changed owners, who allowed a search of their home. Cadaver dogs alerted in a closet, where a piece of carpet was removed that appeared to have blood on it. The Murray family reportedly also never received these results. In 2017, during the filming of the Oxygen special on Maura Murray, they were able to take a section of wood paneling from the closet and have it tested. While the sample was too degraded to link to Maura, it was found to be DNA evidence from two individuals.
Several days after Maura’s disappearance, her dorm room was searched. Police said they found most of her items packed into boxes and things removed from her walls. This statement has been highly debated in the true crime community. Some say that because Maura had recently returned back to school from winter break, that she hadn’t unpacked. They said that she wasn’t allowed to leave her personal belongings in the dorm or allowed to return back to the dorms until January 27th. Maura’s boyfriend’s mother said that she and Maura had joked once about how similar they were, that they both never unpacked, just pulled things out of their bags or suitcases when they needed him. Rather than having packed up her belongings, it’s possible that Maura just hadn’t unpacked her belongings yet.
A few months after the car accident, a man in Haverhill came forward and said that he saw someone fitting Maura’s description running about five miles down the road from the accident scene, at the intersection of 112 and 116, on the night of her disappearance. Rick Forcier lived across the street from Butch Atwood. When asked why he didn’t come forward with this information right after the accident, Forcier said he’d gotten his days mixed up and didn’t realize it was the day that they’d been looking for Maura. There are rumors that Forcier told his wife 2 days after Maura went missing, that she’d come to the door that night. He also made a joke that she was living with him and that she was a great cook. Forcier would not allow police to search his residence and they didn’t have enough evidence to obtain a search warrant. Forcier was a former NH State Trooper who resigned after making threats against other troopers, even saying that he was going to pull one of their guns in order to force them to shoot him.
On the night of Maura’s accident, a local woman in Haverhill was walking up to the Swiftwater General Store around 7-7:15PM. While walking, she noticed a red truck, with what appeared to be a Massachusetts license plate, pass her, slow down, then completely stop in the middle of the road. As she got closer to the truck, it sped off. When she arrived at the store, the same red truck was sitting in the parking lot. As she neared the store, the truck drove off, heading east towards the accident site. (Remember, Maura crashed around 7:25PM) The woman walked into the store and asked the worker if anyone had come in recently. They said no. A few minutes later, they heard sirens heading down the road to the accident scene.
Early in the investigation, a rumor began circulating that Maura had been murdered and was buried in a basement nearby. A local contractor had allegedly been doing work on the basement and found what he believed to be bones in the dirt. When he came back to finish the work, the dirt floor had been cemented over. When the house eventually changed ownership, the new owners agreed to let investigators in. Two cadaver dogs alerted in the basement and ground penetrating radar showed an anomaly in the floor. The concrete was dug up, but the NH police did not find anything.
The Theories
There are about four trillion theories of what happened. We’re sticking to the ones that are mostly widely believed.
- Maura left intentionally.
Could Maura have left intentionally that day? And not just for a few days away, but to start a new life? Many people believe that Maura left UMass that day with the intention of starting a new life. Things weren’t perfect in her world and it could’ve given her reason to seek out a new start. One of the big issues? There were many rumors that Bill was cheating on Maura. Supposedly, a girl on the track team at West Point told Maura that she’d had an incident with Bill after Maura had left for UMass. It’s also said that just before she left, Maura may have left an email in her room that was from Bill about him cheating on her, along with a West Point sweatshirt, and all of the stuffed animals he’d gotten her. Bill, on the other hand, told the press that his relationship with Maura was great and that they were planning to get married. Others said that their relationship was toxic. Friends said that they didn’t like how Bill treated her, that he was overbearing and controlling. Coincidentally enough, Bill was indicted in 2019 on one count of felony third-degree sexual abuse for a reported attack on a female co-worker in DC. There are reported to be at least four other females who have alleged abuse and harassment from Bill. He could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted. He is still currently awaiting trial.
Another thing that could’ve been weighing on Maura’s mind was her concern for disappointing her father. After leaving West Point and the recent accident she’d had in her father’s vehicle, it’s believed that Maura was disappointed in herself for disappointing her father. Julie said that Maura was always hard on herself, that she was her worst critic. Rumors have been spread that Fred pushed his daughters too hard and put too much pressure on them, but Julie adamantly denies this and there is no proof to corroborate any of that. There have been many posts on message boards reporting sightings of Maura throughout Canada, but none of these sightings have ever been confirmed.
A well-known investigative journalist has said that he believes Maura left of her own volition, that she was running away from the men in her life. He thinks that some of her friends knew about her plan and helped her to leave. He said that he thinks that someone Maura knew made that drive with her in another vehicle and picked her up from the accident scene. The Murray family strongly disagrees with this journalist and his theories.
Julie, in a recent video she made, addressed many of the theories about her sister’s disappearance. She doesn’t believe that her sister disappeared intentionally. Her reasons for ruling this theory out are: a) no confirmed sightings of Maura b)unfortunately, both Maura’s mother and oldest sister, Kathleen, passed away after battling cancer. Julie doesn’t believe that Maura would know this happened, and chose to stay away c) she doesn’t believe that Maura had the resources required to disappear without a trace and d) Julie said that she knew Maura better than anyone else and that this would be completely out of character for her.
- Maura left with the intention of harming herself.
Was it possible that Maura had left UMass that afternoon with the intention of driving to an area that she was comfortable in (where she and her family used to hike and camp) with thoughts of suicide? It wasn’t a secret to her family that Maura was struggling. She suffered from an eating disorder and had a difficult time cutting herself any slack. Julie doesn’t believe this is logical. Her reasons: a)Maura submitted her homework the night before. To her, this doesn’t make sense if Maura planned on hurting herself. b)Maura obtained the accident forms before leaving UMass c)She obviously packed a bag and took items with her as if she were planning on being out of town for a few days d)There were no footprints in the snow around Maura’s car. If she’d walked into the woods, there would be evidence of that. Plus, Maura’s remains have never been found.
- Maura met with foul play.
Many believe that Maura left UMass that Monday with the intention of taking a break. She’d packed some belongings and taken care of a few errands before leaving, grabbed money and alcohol for the trip, and was heading towards the areas she was familiar with, where she and her family had spent a lot of time. Fred believes that Maura was very upset about something, though he’s not sure what. He said that he could see her driving to an old camping spot in Bartlett, New Hampshire, near the edge of the White Mountains and the border of Maine. The spot was just about 1.5 hours east of where she crashed. He said that being in that spot would’ve given her solace. Both he and Julie think that something derailed her plan that night and that Maura was abducted and murdered. Julie reasoned that because there haven’t been any confirmed sightings of her sister or evidence or remains, that there hasn’t been any bank or cell phone activity, she thinks that Maura met with foul play that night, possibly having trusted the wrong person to help her. She said that during their last phone conversation, Maura was excited, talking about an upcoming trip that she, Julie, and one of her UMass friends were taking to Myrtle Beach on spring break. Nothing seemed off that would indicate that Maura planned on leaving for good or harming herself.
There are many more theories as to what happened to Maura that evening, but none of them can be proven. It seems that finding the answer to one question may lead to the answers to where Maura is: Where was Maura driving to that day? Fred has a bunch of Maura’s belongings and handmade things saved. He loves to talk about her and lights up when he’s telling stories about her. There are many in the true crime community who believe that the Murray family know more than they’ve told police or the press, however, there is no proof of that. In the Oxygen special about Maura, Fred said that he wished he knew what was going through his daughter’s head: “I just wish I could sit down and talk with Maura for just a short time…I wouldn’t have to say anything. If she came up the stairs, neither one of us would need to say anything.”
In September of 2021, bone fragments were found on a construction site in Loon Mountain, about 25 miles east of where Maura crashed her vehicle. These bones were processed and radiocarbon dating was used to determine that the bones belonged to someone who likely died between 1774 and 1942. They report that no trauma was found on the fragments and they didn’t appear to have been recently moved. This briefly renewed hope for the Murray family that they might finally have some answers and be able to lay her to rest, but unfortunately, these fragments had nothing to do with Maura.
In early 2022, the FBI released a new bulletin about Maura’s disappearance, which will increase the search for her nationwide. Though the Murray family thinks this should’ve been done much earlier, they are happy that the search is finally being expanded. Unfortunately, Laurie, Maura’s mother passed away in 2009 after a long battle with cancer, five years after Maura disappeared, and on what would’ve been her daughter’s 27th birthday. Kathleen, Maura’s oldest sister also passed away after battling cancer in November of 2021. The rest of the Murray family is still extremely active in searching for Maura. As of March 2022, Maura has been missing for 18 years. Please visit the Murray family’s official website for more information, or follow Julie’s TikTok page, @mauramurraymissing to see videos and learn more about Maura. Be aware that there is a significant amount of information online about this case, much of it being false and rumors. If you have any information about Maura’s disappearance, please contact the Murray family directly or contact the New Hampshire State Police.
Leah Roberts
While Maura’s story has fortunately been heavily publicized and garnered a substantial amount of armchair detectives who keep her case alive, there are other cases that bear a striking resemblance to Maura’s disappearance. Leah Roberts was 23-years-old when she disappeared, leaving her Jeep wrecked in a rural area, with no sign of her to be found.
Leah Toby Roberts was born June 23rd, 1976 in Durham, NC. Leah had a difficult time growing up. At 17, while she was a senior in high school, Leah’s father was diagnosed with a serious respiratory disease. At 21, while Leah was a sophomore in college at North Carolina State University, her mother died suddenly from heart disease. Having dealt with so much at such a young age, Leah was determined to experience everything that life had to offer. Her older sister, Kara, said that Leah wanted to spread her wings and see the world. She loved writing and often spent her days at a local coffee shop, writing in her journals and reading. Her older brother, Heath, called his sister an old soul, philosophical and wise beyond her years.
After her mother’s death, Leah took some time off from school, spending much of her time writing and feeling like she’d been born again, into a new life without a mother. She returned to school in the fall of 1998. Shortly after, Leah was driving when a large truck turned in front of her. She had no choice but to hit the truck. Among other injuries, Leah suffered a punctured lung and a shattered femur. She had to have surgery to place a metal rod in her leg. Leah told her sister that she remembered feeling like she was going to die, just before the impact and that she was going to start living life to the fullest. She studied abroad for a semester in Spain and enlisted in a field study program in Costa Rica. 3 weeks before Leah was to leave for Costa Rica, her father passed away. She couldn’t decide whether to continue on with her study or cancel her trip. Leah ultimately decided to continue with her trip and spent the summer of 1999 in Costa Rica.
Leah’s roommate, Nicole, went to visit her in Costa Rica and remembered how worried she was about Leah. She said that her friend didn’t seem to be dealing with the fact that her father just died. She said that Leah was soaking in everything that Costa Rica had to offer and making the most of her time there. When she returned to NC, Leah’s friend began to notice a significant change in her behavior. She began withdrawing from her friends and spent most of her time at the coffee shop, working on her computer, meeting people who got her thinking about a life outside of Raleigh. She began taking guitar lessons, photography lessons, and spent hours writing in her journals. Nicole said that Leah would often go out by herself and meet people. She was pulling away from everyone in her life. Heath believed that Leah was rejecting that she had to live a life like everyone else. Leah dropped out of school with only one semester left to earn a degree in Anthropology and Spanish. Heath tried to encourage her to stick it out for the last semester, but Leah didn’t want to.
On the morning of March 9, 2000, Kara called Leah. The two spoke often and were close, as Kara was only two years older. She said that the conversation was ordinary and she didn’t notice anything strange about Leah. Around 11AM, Leah confirmed plans for the next day to babysit with Nicole. Friday came and Leah never showed up to babysit. Nicole assumed that Leah had either forgotten or something else had come up. When she arrived back home, Leah wasn’t there. Nicole said it wasn’t abnormal for them not to see each other for a day or two, since they had different schedules. She wasn’t too concerned.
Two days passed and there had been no sign of Leah or her car. Nicole began getting phone calls from other friends who said that Leah had missed plans and they weren’t able to find her. On Sunday, March 12, Nicole called Kara to ask if she’d seen or heard from her sister. Neither Kara or Heath knew where she was. The three of them began calling everyone they knew, but no one knew where Leah was. The following day, Kara met Nicole at their house to try to figure things out. When Kara went into her sister’s room, she could see that Leah likely left voluntarily. It appeared that she’d packed bags with belongings and taken her cat, Bea, with her. Nothing indicated that there’d been a fight or struggle. Her old, white Jeep Cherokee was also missing from the driveway. Kara was seriously concerned about her sister’s mental state, so she and Nicole went to the Raleigh Police Department on March 13th to file a missing persons report, but unfortunately, there wasn’t too much they could do. No one had any idea where to start searching for Leah.
On the 14th, Kara went back to Leah’s room to search again and see if she’d overlooked anything. She found a folded up piece of paper with a drawing of the cheshire cat’s smile on the front. Despite knowing that Leah was a big fan of Alice in Wonderland, it was an eerie drawing. Kara knew that the cheshire cat was the character that would disappear and reappear out of nowhere. She thought this was intended to tell her that Leah was gone, but she’d be back soon. Inside of the note was a stack of cash to cover her part of the bills. Kara said it was about enough to cover a month of bills. The inside of the note said that she wasn’t suicidal, she was the exact opposite. It also said “remember everyone is together in thoughts and prayers and time passes quickly. Have faith in yourself.” She mentioned “remember jack kerouac”. Leah loved the author Jack Kerouac and romanticized his writings about traveling the country and finding himself. Leah once mentioned to Nicole that they should take a spontaneous trip to California. Nicole said she’d love to, but she had school and work, and couldn’t just pick up and leave. Leah could. She had no responsibilities and had a small amount of money left to her from her parents.
When Leah had traveled to Costa Rica, Kara had been put as her power of attorney since Leah was leaving the country. This enabled Kara to be able to look at Leah’s bank accounts. Having no clue where her sister was, Kara checked the activity on her bank account. She could see that based on her transactions, Leah was headed west on I-40. She believed that Leah left on the evening they’d last spoken, on March 9th. She’d gone to the bank and withdrawn $3,000 from her checking account. Leah had checked into a hotel near Memphis on March 10th. After that, she only used her debit card for gas. The last transaction on her debit card was on March 13th at 12:57AM at a gas station in Brooks, Oregon.
Back in Raleigh, Nicole connected with one of Leah’s new friends at the coffee shop, Jeannine Quiller. Jeannine said that she and Leah had bonded over their love for Jack Kerouac. In one of his books, ‘The Dharma Bums,’ Kerouac wrote about going to Washington State Mountain to figure out what was important to him. Jeannine said that this really resonated with Leah and that she wanted to do that. She said that Leah wasn’t sad or depressed, that she was just yearning for answers. Jeannine knew that Leah would leave eventually.
March 19th was Kara’s birthday and she expected to hear from Leah. Instead, she received a note on her door to contact the local sheriff’s department. When she did, they informed her that Leah’s Jeep had been found down an embankment near Bellingham, Washington. On the 18th, a man and his wife were walking up Canyon Creek Road in Mt. Baker National Forest when they noticed clothes in the trees. When they looked down the ravine, they saw a white Jeep Cherokee with a NC license plate. They called 911 and police were able to find a passport and ID and connect the vehicle to Leah. Police said that this wasn’t too abnormal. People often crashed their vehicle while driving drunk, then abandoned their car to walk. They did find it odd that the car was from NC.
The car had significant damage and appeared to have rolled. There were blankets and pillows covering the blown out windows that seemed to have been intentionally placed there. Belongings were scattered throughout the car and the nearby area, including Leah’s checkbook, clothing, and guitar. There were no obvious signs that someone had been injured in the vehicle. No blood, no evidence of damage from a person to the steering wheel or windshield. Kara and Heath arrived in Bellingham on March 21st and tried to trace Leah’s last whereabouts.
Bellingham was a charming, small town, surrounded by wilderness. They felt confident that she would’ve been seen by a local. They checked with local hospitals, but none had any records of Leah or a Jane Doe matching her description. As police sifted through the belongings at the crash scene, inside of a memory box, they found a movie ticket stub for “American Beauty” at the Ellis Fair Mall in Bellingham. Figuring in the time it would’ve taken her to drive from the gas station in Oregon to Bellingham, to the time of the movie, it would’ve given Leah a few hours in the city before the movie. Kara and Heath created a missing persons flier and began distributing it around the city. Nobody in the movie theater recognized her picture, so Kara and Heath went to the mall’s food court. Kara noticed a restaurant that seemed like the type of place that Leah would go. A staff member recognized Leah’s photo and said they remembered her sitting at the bar alone.
The next day, one of the patrons who’d been sitting next to Leah at the bar called in a tip to the police. He described her as warm and willing to share information about her life. A man who’d been sitting on the other side of Kara was contacted by police. He said that he’d spoken with Leah and she’d talked to him about Jack Kerouac. He also said that she didn’t leave the restaurant alone. He gave police a very detailed description of a man named ‘Barry”. The second man’s story did not match the initial witness’ story. Police think the detailed description could’ve been a ruse.
Leah’s car was towed to a secure facility to be processed. 12 days after her Jeep had been found, police discovered a pair of pants in the vehicle with about $2400 in cash in the pockets. It didn’t appear that she’d used much of the cash since Oregon. The most concerning thing was the ring they found on the front passenger’s floor. It was Leah’s mother’s ring and her friends said that she never took it off. There was no reason they could think that she would’ve left without it.
Within two weeks of the car being located, search and rescue dogs were brought to the area, along with helicopters to search from the air. They looked above and below the area the car was found, even down to the river, but they found no signs of Leah. Police began to wonder if anyone had even been in the vehicle when it crashed. They contacted the gas station in Oregon to obtain surveillance video footage of Leah. It showed her going into the store, paying for her gas, then peering out of the window of the gas station. (the video looked like what I think someone looks like when they’re looking to see which number gas pump they’re at, but who knows!) There were no cameras outside so it’s unclear what Leah was looking at. She appeared fine and there was no sign to indicate that she was traveling with someone. Police continued to question the second man at the bar. He said he’d never seen Leah after that day, but something about his behavior struck police as odd. With no further leads and no signs of Leah, her case began to go cold. Police asked Kara what she’d like them to do with Leah’s car, but she was adamant that they keep the car secure in case something changed and they were able to find something new in the future.
In December of 2006, the detective who’d been in charge of Leah’s case retired and a new one took over. He wanted to re-examine the evidence in her case and realized that no one ever opened the hood of the Jeep when it was being processed. From what they found, it appeared that no one was in the car when it crashed. In addition to the original findings of no blood or evidence that anyone had been injured in the car, as well as the fact that it didn’t appear that the seat belt had been used, they also found the cover to the starter relay had been removed. They knew that the vehicle had to have been traveling at a moderate rate of speed to cause the damage that’d been found to the surrounding trees, and this explained it. It made it possible for someone to turn the key of the vehicle, push the starter relay, and the Jeep could’ve accelerated on its own. It definitely appeared to have been tampered with, most likely by someone with a good knowledge of cars. Still in Leah’s case file, detectives noticed that the second man from the bar had experience from being a mechanic and in the military.
Police continued to reprocess the Jeep and found a series of fingerprints on the inner underside of the hood that hadn’t been documented in the first investigation. With something to now compare them to, police found the second man now living in Canada. They requested for Canada police to obtain fingerprints and DNA from the man. They went over all of the clothing found in Leah’s car to look for DNA and in the spring of 2010, they found male DNA on an item in the car. It took over two years for police to get DNA and fingerprints from the second man in Canada. It was not a match. Though Leah has been missing for 22 years, police feel confident that they’ll find her one day. Heath and Kara remain hopeful that they’ll get some sort of closure and find out what happened to Leah when she left Oregon.
Though Maura and Leah’s case are not suspected to be connected in any way, it’s obvious that there are cases spanning the world of women who disappear without a trace. Similarly to Maura’s case, there is much speculation as to why exactly Leah left, why she didn’t tell anyone, and what happened to her. It seems likely that, perhaps similar to Maura, Leah left on her own, but then her plans were derailed and she met with foul play. Regardless of what happened, the most important thing is to spread the word about the victims in these cases and make sure that people do not stop looking for answers.
One important point that is raised often during Maura’s case is that many people feel that if we can figure out why Maura left UMass that day and drove to New Hampshire, it could very well lead us to what exactly happened that day and where she is. Julie said, “Yes, that is a crucial question. I wonder if she met someone during the Saturday night party in Sara’s room. Someone we aren’t tracking because she used the dorm phone to communicate/plan a trip with to keep it from Bill. Please note this is me speculating and I can’t prove this.”
There are a lot of rumors regarding the neighbors who lived on the street that Maura crashed on. With it being an open investigation, police haven’t shared everything they know with the Murray family regarding what Butch and the rest of the neighbors have told them about that night, but Julie agrees that there was a particularly odd observation reported: “I don’t think the neighbors in that immediate area were involved, but I don’t rule out that they may have seen something and are not saying anything (to the public anyways, we don’t know exactly what they told police). Again, I don’t know what law enforcement knows so I can’t answer if anyone is cleared.I think it is very odd for Butch to say her hair was down. Maura was very type A, routine type of person. So it was very hard to believe she wore her hair down especially while driving such a long distance (I hate driving with my hair down, it gets in the way!).”
When asked what she wished would’ve been different regarding the initial investigation, Julie believes that her sister’s case seemed doomed from the start: “The investigation was botched early on. The responding officer Cecil Smith didn’t even prepare a police report until six days later. The State Trooper John Monaghan who was on scene didn’t prepare a report for weeks, and only after my Dad demanded to know what he saw/did. Some of the early dispatch logs don’t match it was really an under resourced investigation the week of her disappearance. Critical hours were lost when no one notified our family until a full 24 hours after the car was found. None of the large amount of people on scene that night (Cecil, Monaghan, the 8 fire personnel) went east. Everyone searched west.”
While living without knowing what happened to Maura, the Murrays do their best to keep a positive attitude and hold onto hope. Julie is very open about how it continues to affect her and her family every day, saying “The unresolved loss and ambiguity is very difficult for my family because we live in the constant state of unknowns. Even something as simple as what tense to use when referring to Maura (she is or she was) is traumatic in and of itself. We are never able to go through the grief cycle because we have no answers, everything is just frozen. It is difficult to explain in words.”
Despite so much negativity associated with Maura’s case, Julie recently had a positive meeting with the investigating department and said “the past meeting I had with Law Enforcement in February was the best meeting thus far. There is a new lead detective and a younger one. They listened to me, answered questions and followed-up. This seems simple but it is all we have been asking for all along. It gave me hope.”
“And last, but not least, Julie wanted us to add this: I encourage people to check out our family website www.mauramurraymissing.org for the most accurate information. Also follow me on social media for the latest update @mauramurraymissing on TikTok, @juliemurray2_9 on Twitter, Maura Murray Missing Official Group page on Facebook (private group so they have to request).
I’ve been discussing the ethics in true crime alot lately, particularly the problem with people co-opting real life tragedies and using the most salacious aspects of the case for clickbait. Maura’s case has garners a ton of attention, but it has also exposed the ugly voyeuristic side of true crime. The tactic is pretty easy to spot – dehumanize Maura to rationalize the exploitation, discredit my family by contriving allusions to fit the desired narrative (a family full of mystery and intrigue – wrong) for more clicks, discredit anyone trying to help to polarize the community and create outrage (more clicks). If you pay enough attention you can see it happen in real time. The result is the missing woman at the heart of the case is no longer the main point of discussion. It is sick.
For the true crime community at large, I urge you to click with compassion and empathy. Be critical of content, sourcing, and evidence. Question the veracity of the information being ‘reported’, does it further the case or further the one reporting and subsequently their wallet? Ask is this in the public interest, does it help us get closer to solving the case or does it simply entertain? Engagement is what sells, engage with victim-centered content. Raising awareness is the best thing for missing and unsolved cases, these cases desperately need the attention; however, sidelining ethics for dramatic effect is doing more damage than good.”
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