102 replies to this topic

[Denise]

Missing student search revived

Thursday, January 05, 2006
By HOLLY ANGELO

NORTHAMPTON - A dozen private detectives from four states have teamed up with the Molly Bish Foundation in an attempt to help solve the case of Maura Murray, a University of Massachusetts-Amherst nursing student who disappeared nearly two years ago in Haverhill, N.H.

About a year ago, the Molly Bish Foundation and the Licensed Private Detectives Association of Massachusetts Inc. partnered to offer free investigative services to families dealing with unsolved crimes. The Murray family, who live in various places in Massachusetts, is the latest to be helped.

"We'll be developing an investigative plan," Thomas P. Shamshak, an investigator with Licensed Private Detectives Association of Massachusetts and the public safety consultant for the Molly Bish Foundation, said yesterday. "We're going to reinterview everybody."

Shamshak said that means going back to the UMass-Amherst campus, where Murray, 21, of Hanson, was a junior nursing student. Before she disappeared on Feb. 9, 2004, she packed up her dorm room and e-mailed her professors to tell them she was going home for the week because of a death in the family, but there was no death in the family.

She disappeared on Route 112 in Haverhill after crashing her car into a tree. A witness told police Murray was unharmed after the accident, but when police arrived on the scene minutes later she was gone. Her car was undrivable.

"It really is a mystery. This young lady is seen, and in a matter of minutes she vanishes from the roadway," Shamshak said. "It's right up there with the Molly Bish case."

The foundation is named after Molly Bish, who disappeared from her lifeguard post in Warren in June 2000. Her remains were found in Palmer three years later, and her death remains unsolved.

The Murray family has been critical of the police investigation. Last week, Fred J. Murray, Maura's father, sued several state offices and law enforcement agencies in New Hampshire seeking the release of police reports and other information and items tied to his daughter's case. The family could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Lt. John K. Scarinza, commander of State Police Troop F in Twin Mountain, N.H., said several detectives continue to investigate Murray's disappearance daily. The investigation is technically titled a missing person case, but has been investigated like a criminal case.

"Certainly if anyone, whether it be a private citizen or anyone else, develops legitimate information that will help find Maura Murray, I welcome that," Scarinza said yesterday. "I think it's important people realize she left school voluntarily. She had a destination in mind. What we don't know was what that destination was."

Scarinza added, "It is also crystal clear the family's initial impression was she was in distress and was maybe considering suicide.

"May she be a victim of a crime? That's absolutely possible," he said.

Shamshak, who is the former police chief in Spencer, said he has spoken to Murray's friends, family, acquaintances and boyfriend. He said detectives from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine will use all public records associated with the case. He said the New Hampshire state police have done a "considerable amount of work" on the case, but the volunteer detectives have the time to re-examine leads.

"When things go cold, that's where we step in," Shamshak said. "Anything that is generated from us will certainly be passed along to law enforcement."

http://www.masslive.com/

[Denise]

"20/20" report on missing N.H. women to air late Jan., early Feb.

January 6, 2006
By Associated Press

A national television report on the case of a mysterious disappearance in northern New Hampshire won't air until late January or early February, the network said Friday.

Reports last month indicated that a "20/20" report on Massachusetts nursing student Maura Murray would air Friday night. But Alyssa Apple, spokeswoman for the ABC newsmagazine in New York, said the program is still being worked on.

Murray was 21 when she vanished after a minor car accident the night of Feb. 9, 2004, in Haverhill, N.H. Fred Murray, her father, believes she was the victim of foul play, but police say repeated searches turned up no evidence to support that.

Fred Murray is suing for access to records of the investigation.

http://www.seacoastonline.com/

[Denise]

http://www.wpri.com/...419494&nav=F2DO

Judge denies father's records request in case of missing daughter

HAVERHILL, N.H. A New Hampshire judge has denied a request from the father of a missing woman to review confidential police files in the case.

Maura Murray disappeared after a minor car accident in northern New Hampshire in February 2004.

Fred Murray of Hanson believes his daughter was a victim of foul play and sued to gain access to investigatory files. His suit claimed that police, the attorney general and the governor violated state and federal public information laws by not releasing the investigative files.

Judge Timothy Vaughn wrote in his decision yesterday that release of the records could compromise the case and lead to the destruction of evidence.

Maura Murray was a 21-year-old nursing student at U-Mass-Amherst when she went missing. Her father has hired private detectives to investigate the case.

[Denise]

Transcript from Nancy Grace Show, 1/27/06:

"Good evening, everybody. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us tonight. Tonight, the mystery surrounding a 21-year-old nursing student intensifies. Maura Murray drove into a tree, stepped out of the car unharmed. Police there on the scene in just minutes. Maura Murray is gone, never seen again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Fred Murray wants to look at 2,500 documents, documents containing e-mails Maura sent the day of her disappearance, to information on what police found in her car the night of her accident two years ago, details Murray believes could solve this mystery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell me what did you, tell me what you didn`t do, and I`ll try to go back and see what you didn`t do and take a fresh look at it and start it all over. It gives us -- it gives me my best hope. It gives me my only hope.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Murray`s attorney claims the family has a right to the files under the state right-to-know law.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her family knows her better than any other party. A second set of eyes looking at information that is clearly nonexempt may ultimately lead to locating her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: After two years of hoping and praying, a father goes on the offense in the legal system. Two years ago, a beautiful young nursing student went missing after a minor car crash. She ran into a tree. Well, police got there just minutes after the crash and she is gone, never seen since.

Straight out to Gary Lindsley. He is a reporter with "The Caledonian Record."

Gary, are you with me? I know we`ve got problems with your IFB. Can you hear me?

GARY LINDSLEY, REPORTER, "CALEDONIAN RECORD": Yes, I can, Nancy.

GRACE: Great. Give me the facts, Gary.

LINDSLEY: Well, as it turns out, February 9th, somewhere around 7:00 or 7:30 p.m., Maura was headed on Route 112 in Haverhill, New Hampshire, and she had the minor car accident.

A bus driver came upon the scene, talked to her, asked her if she needed help. She said, no, she`d already called AAA. He went back to the house and called police.

Between the time he went back to the house and called police, a matter of seven to nine minutes, she was gone. No one`s ever seen her since.

GRACE: Was there a record of her calling AAA?

LINDSLEY: No, there wasn`t. She had not made a call.

GRACE: So she didn`t call AAA?

LINDSLEY: Right. That was a very -- it`s a very, very rural area. And cell coverage is very hard in some of those areas.

GRACE: Very rural area...

(CROSSTALK)

GRACE: ... so you said "isolated route." How many people? I mean, this is not a very busy road. How many people would have been going along that road to snatch her?

LINDSLEY: Not too many, because once you get up past the crash scene, there are seasonal residences between the crash scene and Woodstock, New Hampshire.

GRACE: To Diane Dimond, investigative reporter, what else can you tell us to supplement Gary`s report?

DIMOND: Well, it was two years ago, right before Valentine`s Day actually -- and this young woman, who was a nursing student, she`d also been a cadet at West Point, a girl with her head on straight, you would think -- e-mailed her professors and said, "I`m going to be gone for a week because there`s been a death in the family."

Well, there had been no death in her family. She left the University at Amherst in Massachusetts. And instead of going home, she headed north up to Vermont and New Hampshire. And that`s where this accident occurred.

It struck me, Nancy, and everything that I`ve researched about this case, she has this accident. Within 10 minutes, the police are there. She`s gone. And there`s snow all around her car, but there`s no footsteps. It`s like a "Twilight Zone" alien abduction thing. I mean, where did she go?

She had diamond jewelry in the car that her boyfriend had given her, a bottle of liquor, some clothes, a book, you know, just the normal things, like she was just going to go home. But she went the opposite way.

To me, it`s just heart-wrenching to see that father asking for these documents from the court. I want to look at the police report, he said, so my private detectives can take over. And they won`t let him do it. A judge has now said, no, we will not turn those documents over to you. It could compromise the investigation.

GRACE: To Barbara McDougal and Patti Davidson -- they are joining us tonight. They are cousins of Maura Murray. Ladies, thank you for being with us.

Barbara, what did -- yes, thanks, Liz -- Barbara, what did you guys hope to gain from these documents you were in court fighting for?

BARBARA MCDOUGAL, MAURA MURRAY`S COUSIN: Well, we were hoping that there might be information in them that the police would overlook as meaning nothing but the family it may mean something to us, to have a different avenue to go down in searching for Maura.

GRACE: Right. Yes, it`s been two long years.

To Patti, Patti, what do you believe law enforcement has missed in this investigation? Obviously something.

PATTI DAVIDSON, MAURA MURRAY`S COUSIN: I believe they waited too long to get a search team together. They waited 39 hours, and it should have been done immediately after they went to the scene and found her not there.

GRACE: Now, I know that you have joined together with the Molly Bish Foundation. We had Molly`s parents on for a full hour around Christmas. Their daughter taken and killed.

Joining us now, Tom Shamshack, P.I. on the Murray search. He`s also working with the Molly Bish Foundation. What`s your take on this, Tom?

TOM SHAMSHACK, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR IN MAURA`S CASE: Good evening, Nancy. John and Maggie send their love.

GRACE: Thank you. Thank you.

SHAMSHACK: All right. The investigative team, consisting of a dozen retired law enforcement investigators, is doing three things. We`re looking to do investigative research on what has been written in the public domain. We`re conducting interviews of percipient witnesses. And we`re conducting a scene investigation, looking at the crash dynamics, and then again looking in the area, what possibly could have happened here.

GRACE: Renee, what else do you know about it?

ROCKWELL: To me, Nancy?

GRACE: Yes.

ROCKWELL: From what I can say, Nancy, is here is another situation where a family has had to hire a private detective. Why? Resources. In 2004, there were over 46,000 people missing in the U.S., 99 in New Hampshire. It`s just a situation where I don`t know why the police department would have hid that or prevented them from getting those documents.

GRACE: Well, let`s look at the facts. No footsteps in the snow to indicate where she had gone. The police got there 10 minutes later, no sign of her. She had said there was a death in the family, told her professor she was leaving, no death in the family, and she went a different way. This was a minor crash; she went right into a tree.

Tonight, 603-271-2663, help us find Maura Murray. The reward up to $40,000 tonight."

[Denise]

http://www.eyewitnes....77260&nav=F2DO

Mass. woman disappeared in N.H. two years ago today

CONCORD, N.H. It's been a painful two years for the family of a Massachusetts woman who disappeared after a minor car accident in northern New Hampshire.

U-Mass student Maura Murray of Hanson, Massachusetts, was last seen on February ninth, 2004, walking away from her car on Route 112 in Haverhill, New Hampshire. Police have said they don't believe foul play was involved, and have searched the area several times.

Murray's family believes someone picked her up on the road. They have searched the area many times and so far have been unsuccessful in court to get information police have collected in the disappearance.

[Denise]

http://www.abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=1734155&page=1

Vanished: Two Coeds, Two Horrifying Mysteries

What Happened to Brooke Wilberger and Maura Murray?

March 17, 2006 — It's one of the most exciting times of a young adult's life: starting college and moving out of mom and dad's nest to a place of one's own. But too often for young people, particularly young women, that newfound independence is coupled with dangerous vulnerability.

Figures gathered by the FBI say there are over 21,500 active missing person cases involving people between the ages of 18 and 29. Brooke Wilberger and Maura Murray are two young women included in that tragic statistic. Their stories powerfully illustrate how communities can rally and families' faith and hope get tested when a loved one has vanished.

Brooke and Maura's stories are similar in many ways. Both were smart, beautiful young women with loving friends and family. They were active in their communities. They had boyfriends who adored them. They were on the verge of very bright futures. Then they disappeared.

Community Rallies to Search for Brooke

The story of Brooke Wilberger's disappearance begins on the afternoon of May 24, 2004. The 19-year-old Brigham Young University student was home in Oregon visiting her family, and helping out her sister and brother-in-law at an apartment complex they manage in the town of Corvallis.

Corvallis is a picturesque Oregon city of about 54,000 people. It's a place most people would consider ideal for raising a family. But even idyllic places can be visited by crime. "The city of Corvallis is really safe, but we're also in the real world," said Lt. Ron Noble of the Corvallis Police Department.

Brooke was in the parking lot of the complex cleaning lamp posts. When Brooke didn't show up for lunch, her sister, Stephani Hansen, began to worry.

Brooke's car keys and purse were in their apartment. Her car was in the lot. Her flip-flops were found, but Brooke was gone.

"I got very nervous … we had exhausted every possibility, we had searched all the apartments that she could possibly be working in. We looked everywhere — then we called the police," her sister recalled.

Lt. Noble remembers receiving the call about the case. "Normally, we would wait. Because adults can come and go as they please and we would normally wait to see if she showed up maybe the next day," he said. But police officials agreed with Brooke's sister; they sensed Brooke was not the sort of young woman to disappear on her own.

"It was amazing to us that they acted that fast, and I think one of the reasons was when they immediately did a quick check, [they saw] Brooke was a great kid," said her mom, Cammy Wilberger.

As their search began, police eliminated one usual suspect in similar cases — the boyfriend.

The man in Brooke's life, Justin Blake, who had dated Brooke since high school, was doing Morman missionary work in Venezuela.

Marriage was on the horizon for the couple, he said. "I was gonna propose. We just both sort of knew what was gonna happen when I got back from my mission," he said.

His parents called him in Venezuela to deliver the news that would shatter those plans. "They just started crying when they heard my voice and so I just started crying," he recalled.

In Corvallis, a community-wide search effort had been organized with unusual speed.

"The community of Corvallis was wonderful. That first night they had hundreds of people helping search," Brooke's mother recalled. "Our church organized it, but everyone in the community filled in," she said.

"There were a lot of areas to search and some of it very, very heavy with heavy vegetation. In fact, I remember going home at 1 o'clock in the morning and there were still 300 people doing concentric circles from where Brooke was last seen," said Lt. Noble.
The first night ended with no sign of Brooke.

In the morning, the townsfolk of Corvallis would awake to a shock of another sort - the largest gathering of media the town had ever seen.

"We had to operate on a whole different paradigm for this investigation, because we didn't have anything to go on. So we needed the media to stay here to talk about the case so people would call in tips," Lt. Noble said. Despite the authorities' quick response, the community support and national media coverage, it was years before there was a real break in the case.

Was Maura Murray Abducted, or Did She Run Away?

Brooke was 19 when she disappeared and police began investigating immediately, but that's not always the case. With missing persons over the age of 18, police are very likely to wait a few days because, authorities tell us, adults have a right to disappear.

Authorities followed that procedure in the case of 22-year-old Maura Murray, who went missing Feb. 9, 2004, after she was in a minor car accident in New Hampshire.

Authorities believed she may have wanted to disappear, but her family and friends were certain her disappearance was not by her own choice.

Like Brooke, Maura was an excellent student. Before attending nursing school at the University of Massachusetts, she had attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where she met a young man, Bill Rausch, and fell in love. After Rausch graduated West Point, he was stationed in Oklahoma as Maura finished school in Massachusetts. But that distance only seemed to deepen their commitment to each other.

Shocked and upset, Rausch called his parents after learning that Maura had gone missing. "I answered the phone, and I heard panic in his voice," his mom, Sharon Rausch, said.

But there were immediate questions surrounding Maura's disappearance. For reasons she apparently shared with no one, the 22-year-old left her dorm in Massachusetts and drove to New Hampshire.

Reporter Joe McGee, covered the story for The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass. "At a hairpin turn, she went off the road. Her car hit a tree. At that point, a person came along who was driving a bus. It was a neighbor. He asked her if she needed help, she refused. About 10 minutes later, police showed up to the scene and Maura Murray was gone," McGee said.

News of that night's events reached Maura's father, Fred Murray, when police called at 4 p.m. the next day.

"My immediate reaction when I found out that my daughter was missing was right at the edge of panic. You found her car? She was in an accident? She's not there? Where is she? Where is the search now? You know, how far have you looked now? And and as it turns out, there was no search," he said.

In this case, the initial conclusion at the scene was that Maura had probably left on her own free will. But a day and a half later, with still no sign of her, authorities investigated further.

"They brought out helicopters, ground crews to search the area and dogs. But two things stood out. No. 1, there were no footprints left in the snow. And No. 2, dogs lost her scent about 100 yards away from the scene," The Patriot Ledger's McGee said.

Police reported that there were no signs of struggle at the scene, and their conclusion seemed to be that she had run away.

Maura's boyfriend doesn't believe the woman he planned to marry would simply run away. He got an emergency leave from the Army to search for Maura. "I kept hearing, well, she's an adult, and I was the only one out there walking up and down the street, looking over snowbanks, trying to find footprints, trying to find some sign of her," he said.

Rausch's parents were devastated by Murray's disappearance. "For all of us that love Maura, life is like a nightmare. I can honestly say that I can't imagine loving anyone that's not my child anymore than I love Maura," Sharon Rausch said.

Wilberger Family Offers Support, Maura's Father Presses On

Three months later, as the fact of Maura's disappearance lingered without answers, her family saw reports of another missing young woman — Brooke Wilberger.

Sharon Rausch saw how Wilberger's community rallied around the family and joined the search, and she wanted similar action for her son's missing girlfriend.

The two families began to share e-mails. "We talked about our faith in God and that we would not give up hope and that Brooke and Maura were in God's hands," Rausch said.

Maura's father was angered by the lack of progress on the case, and complained that authorities had made up their mind that his daughter had run away and were not devoting enough attention to her disappearance.

"I don't agree with some of his observations, but I understand certainly his frustration in not knowing what happened to his daughter," said Lt. John Scarinza, commander of the New Hampshire State Police Troop F .

"It's clear to us that it was her intention to at least get away for a certain amount of time," Lt. Scarinza said, noting that his department investigates cases in which people come to the New Hampshire mountains to get away from their problems several times a year, "sometimes with the intention of harming themselves."

But that scenario still makes no sense to Maura's father. "She didn't just wander into the woods to try to commit suicide. She has everything to live for. She was going to graduate in June into a nursing career. She was about to get engaged," he said.

However, Maura's family and closest friends have no idea what drew her to that lonely New Hampshire road. And they were surprised at some of the things police and reporters discovered.

"She took a lot of belongings and didn't tell anybody where she was going other than e-mails she sent to a professor saying that there had been a death in the family and that she needed to leave unexpectedly. And then she headed north," said reporter Joe McGee.

Regardless of what brought Maura to that remote area, her father wants to know where she is now. Most weekends he travels from Massachusetts to the New Hampshire spot where Maura slid off the road and into a tree.

He has gone to the state capitol and met with the governor in a closed-door meeting, demanding answers about the investigation. His confrontations with the police and state officials, and his constant prowling around New Hampshire, raised speculation in some quarters that he was becoming kind of a nutty nuisance.

But Murray's relentless pursuit for answers caught the attention of Tom Shamshak, a former police chief and member of a group of private investigators who offer pro bono help in situations that capture their interest. In January they took on Maura Murray's case.

Shamshak and his colleagues looked at the case with a fresh set of eyes. Based on their investigation, Shamshak said, "It appears, just based on what I have reviewed with the other investigators from New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont that are part of the team, that this is something beyond a mere missing persons case. Something ominous could have happened here."

Watch "20/20" tonight at 10 p.m. to learn of the latest developments in the cases. There are devastating answers for the Brooke Wilberger's family, and an equally painful lack of answers for Maura Murray's family.

[Denise]

http://www.unionleader.com/article.a...8-c191adb51e3b

When adults disappear
By ELISE CASTELLI
Union Leader Correspondent

Derry – When Pail Gaffney vanished after leaving his Derry home for work in Massachusetts last month, there was no sign of foul play, no indication of an accident.

Derry police filed a report, followed up on leads gathered from interviews with friends and family of the 43-year-old, and put out a statewide “attempt to locate” bulletin.

Gaffney’s wife and six children were waiting and worrying. The disappearance was out of character, they said, for a man “you could set your watch by.”

But without evidence of a crime, police said, there was little more they could do because Gaffney, as an adult, had the right not to return home.

Bedford police found Gaffney — unharmed, in his car — on May 30, four days after his disappearance. They told him his family was worried and he should return home.

He did.

The Gaffney incident typifies the missing-persons cases they run across each year, police say. But other cases — such as those of college nursing student Maura Murray, who disappeared after a single-car crash in Haverhill more than two years ago, and Goffstown teen Laura Mackenzie, who was due to appear in court on shoplifting charges when she disappeared March 8 — underscore the fact that New Hampshire has no standard reporting requirements or procedures in missing-adult cases.

State Police Sgt. Robert Estabrook, who handles missing persons cases, said procedure is based circumstances. If a person appears to have disappeared voluntarily and without having committed a crime, he said, the person has the legal right to remain missing.

“(Adults) have the legal right to up and leave,” Estabrook said. “I can see how a loved one would be concerned with that, but you have a right to be missing.”

In some instances, Derry Police Capt. Vernon Thomas said, the person who filed the report poses a risk to the missing person.

“We have to be cautious about the source of the report,” Thomas said

Erin Bruno, director of case management for the National Center for Missing Adults, said 99 percent of all adults reported missing are found safe — and many don’t want contact with the family they deserted.

For families of the missing, that may be hard to accept, Bruno said.
“In the family’s defense, every minute a loved one is gone is a minute too many,” she said. “They’re thinking the worst.”

As of May 1, there were 108,801 people listed as missing in the National Crime Information Center database, including 50,177 adults. Because the NCIC has certain criteria for entering adults in the database, there may be many more missing adults who aren’t included in the center’s statistics, Bruno said.

According to the NCIC Web site, a missing adult can be entered into the national database if one of the following criteria is met:

The adult has a proven physical or mental disability;
The situation indicates physical danger;
The situation indicates the person is not missing voluntarily;
The person is missing after a catastrophe; or
There is reason to be concerned for the missing person’s safety.

Unless the missing fall into one of those categories, some police agencies are reluctant to take reports on adults, Bruno said.

New Hampshire law does mandate that adults falling into any of the NCIC categories be reported to NCIC within 72 hours of the initial report. Federal law mandates all missing children be entered in the database regardless of circumstance.

At any given moment, there are at least 70 to 90 cases missing New Hampshire children and adults listed in the NCIC, said Estabrook.

When the disappearance is voluntary, the reasons for disappearing may be as disparate as the missing themselves, Bruno said. It could stem from family or marital troubles, from abuse, from debt, from addiction or crime.

“Sometimes we don’t know what’s happened,” she said.

Thomas, of the Derry Police, said the nature of the investigation depends on the circumstances.

Reports, bulletins, and interviews with relatives and friends are the standard in Derry on adult cases, he said. Family members are also told they should monitor bank, credit card and cell phone activity on statements, as the information can provide leads to the missing adult, Thomas said.

Often the investigation doesn’t get very far before there is a break.
“Most (missing persons) turn up fairly quickly,” Thomas said.

But not all cases turn out like the Gaffney case.

Maura Murray remains missing more than two years after vanishing at age 21 after crashing her car in Haverhill.

Her father, Frederick Murray, recently filed an appeal with the state Supreme Court to unseal police records on her case. In an interview this week, he said reports from the early days of the case hold important clues that could be used by his team of private investigators to find his daughter.

Murray alleges the police are using claims of an ongoing investigation to avoid disclosure. In fact, he said, there is no active police investigation.

Bruno, the missing adults caseworker, said she would like to see national standards adopted that would require uniform investigation procedures for children and adults.

“If there is not clear evidence of a crime, it doesn’t mean the person was not a victim; there is just no evidence of it,” she said.

One of the leads on Goffstown Police are pursuing in the Mackenzie case involves the timing of the teen’s disappearance: the same day as her scheduled court date. Nevertheless, Goffstown Police Detective Kevin Laroche told the New Hampshire Union Leader, the case is “baffling.”

Laroche said a yearbook message Mackenzie wrote last fall sounded like much of what she had written in diaries and poetry, and seemed to forecast her disappearance. But, he added, it was so long before Mackenzie actually disappeared, “We still think it was the arrest that made her run.”

What exactly made Gaffney run, the family hasn’t said definitively. On the day he returned his daughter Pauline said, “We’re just happy to have him home and want to spend as much time with him as possible.”

For many families of the still missing that is all they want.

[Denise]

http://www.northcoun...ages_000002.htm

Maura Murray, 2 1/2 Years After Her Disappearance;
A Letter From Her Family

A Northcountry News Exsclusive -

Our thanks to the Northcountry News and its Publisher Bryan Flagg for allowing the family of Maura Murray to ‘speak’ to its readers. As many of you know, Maura disappeared on February 9, 2004. She was last seen on Route 112 after a single car crash. Much has been said about Maura in the media and local coffee shops over the last two and a half years. Many of you have formed opinions of what happened and of Maura and her family based on what has been presented in the media and sometimes based on inaccurate rumors.

Maura is so much more than what has been presented in most of the papers. She is more than a missing person. Maura is a Missed Person, she is a daughter, a sister, granddaughter, niece, cousin and friend. My favorite quote about Maura is by one of her friends: "If you wanted to make a person, you would make her just like her." said Katie Jones a close friend of Maura’s since grade school.”

She is an accomplished athlete, a very intelligent young woman who was attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst on a scholarship while working two part-time jobs to help pay her expenses. She had scored 1420 on her SAT (740 in Math) and had been majoring in Chemical Engineering at West Point when she transferred to UMass in late January 2002. Maura continued her pursuit of Chemical Engineering Degree through her first two semesters at UMass until she decided she would rather be in the medical field.

Maura had been recruited by many schools to run track and cross country. She competed in Track and Cross Country for both West Point and UMass Amherst until the fall of 2003. As a high school freshman, she played point guard on the girls' varsity basketball team and was a good softball pitcher.

Maura also loved to camp and hike, and her favorite camping and vacation spot is in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Her father had been taking the family there since she was a small child. Fred, Maura and Billy had spent a vacation together in the White Mountains in July of 2003. We know that Maura loved your area.

Was Maura perfect…no. Did she have alcohol in the car…it appears so. Was she drinking…quite possibly. Does it matter??? Maura has been missing for almost two and a half years. Our family will continue to look for her as long as we have the ability to do so. There are those who speculate that Maura took off to start a new life. Our family does not discount anything, but believes this to be the least likely scenario for many reasons. We have no idea why Maura left Amherst, or how she came to be in your area. We know that she had hand written directions to Burlington in her car, and we know she made a call to a person who rents a condo in Bartlett that afternoon. We also know that she placed a call to a Stowe, VT information line. The car she was driving had had some mechanical problems. We’re not sure whether she had not yet decided which area to head to or whether she had car trouble. Because of the way her car was found with the front end facing west, but in the east bound lane, we don’t even know for sure whether at the time of the accident she was headed east or west.

Though there was apparently something bothering Maura, we believe that based on the fact that she only took a couple of outfits and things like tooth whitener and text books she was going away for a couple of days to think things through. Despite some of what was in the newspapers, she was not having difficulty in her relationship with her boyfriend, Billy Rausch. In fact had sent him an email that day telling him “I love you more…”. Although Billy had not yet given Maura her diamond, they were openly making plans to be married after she graduated in 2005. Maura had made arrangements in January 2004 to be employed for the summer of 2004 at a hospital near Billy in Lawton OK.

We have been so focused on finding out what happened to Maura, we don’t always take the time to voice our appreciation for those who have helped us in our search, those who have had the courage to tell us about rumors, those who have given so freely of their time and energy. Because we have made friends in the area, we are aware of a particularly ugly rumor being spread very effectively. I won’t discuss it except to say that it is false and may hamper our ability to find out what happened…and I for one have to ask why someone would spread such malicious rumors? Why does someone feel it is necessary to add to a family’s pain? Why would anyone want to put down a family searching for a missing loved one?? To me it appears that someone sees some benefit from refocusing the attention away from the essential fact…Maura Murray hasn’t been seen or heard from since February 9, 2004. Her credit cards have not been used, her cell phone was never used again, and it is our understanding that there has been no activity on her social security number.

Maura wasn’t perfect and yet her disappearance has touched more people than we could have imagined. Originally, our family put up a website in the hopes of providing her friends a place to talk about her. What we found is that most of her family and friends found it too painful. Instead, we have drawn many wonderful people from Haverhill and the surrounding areas. We have people posting from all over the country and Canada. We have attracted others who have lost loved ones or had painful experiences such as being abducted. Sometimes what is said on the website is controversial and sometimes there is a post that makes us realize that there is more than the controversy…such as this post by the daughter of Audrey Groat who has been missing for 13 years: “thank you all for your support, this has been a good place for me to let out some of the feelings I have been carrying for so long. It means a lot to me that so many people care, and are supportive. I really appreciate it as an adult and really wish something like this could have helped us years ago, as kids.”

As with Maura, Audrey Groat is more than a missing person…she was a mother whose six young daughters were left without a mom. Though there is much more information on Maura’s site, I hope you will read the info presented by the Vermont State Police at http://www.dps.state...ssing/groat.htm . As with Maura…somebody knows something, not only about Audrey Groat, but others who are missing or whose murderers have not been apprehended…Tina and Bethany Sinclair, Brianna Maitland, Laura MacKenzie and so many more. It is time to come forward, even if it has to be anonymously, our families need answers.

We would like to thank the Molly Bish Foundation for their efforts on behalf of Maura and our family and those private detectives, who through the Molly Bish foundation have volunteered their time and expertise to help find out what happened to Maura; those who have spent so much time and effort trying to figure out what happened to Maura; those who have taken the time to speak with Fred or others helping us. As Maura’s dad, Fred, has said, “So many people have selflessly and enthusiastically given of themselves and their time, that if force of will were enough by itself, then Maura would have been back with us many months ago. When people ask me if there is anything that they can do, I tell them that I know they would already have done it if there were.

Your universally overwhelming support is a striking demonstration, yet again, of the inherent goodness of people. You can sense my gratitude, but I want your “thank you” to come to you when you look in the mirror and see reflected a person who, by choice, interrupted his or her life to try to help another human being in trouble. If there is any worthier motivation than that, we’d all be hard pressed to name what it is.

In Deep Appreciation,
Fred Murray”

If you know anything or saw anything no matter how insignificant you might believe it to be, it might be the one piece of the puzzle that we are looking for. Please contact us. We can be reached at two email addresses MauraMissing@hotmail.com or MissingMaura@comcast.net. We can also be reached at MauraMurray.com, P.O. Box 466, Humarock, MA 02047. If you have a significant piece of information, you can also contact Lt. Mark Mudgett of the New Hampshire State Police, Major Crimes Unit at (603) 271-2663 and NH State Police Headquarters (603) 271-3636.

(A note from the publisher -
I would like to thank the family of Maura Murray for contacting the Northcountry News and allowing us the opportunity to help in their continued efforts of finding out just what happened to Maura. The loss of a friend, a loved one, a family member is never easy for any of us, but to lose one under such bizarre circumstances is surely difficult -and the continued void of the unknown for friends and family is something that most of us will hopefully never have to come to know. It is our hope that someday soon, the family and friends of Maura Murray can at the very least have a closure to this very long and undaunted chapter in their lives.)

[Denise]

A news story about Maura available only on video: Click Here.

[Denise]

Mass. man and father of Maura Murray takes quest to high court - Boston.com

Mass. man and father of Maura Murray takes quest to high court
September 22, 2006

CONCORD, N.H. --It's been over two years since Maura Murray disappeared after her car got stuck in a snow bank in Haverhill, and her father hasn't given up his quest of seeking more information about her disappearance. Fred Murray is asking the state Supreme Court to rule on his right-to-know request for police records.

Since his daughter's disappearance, Murray, of Weymouth, Mass., has repeatedly attempted to obtain reports, log files and all information collected from Feb. 9, 2004, to the present. The defendants have denied the request, citing an exception in the law created by the New Hampshire Supreme Court for law enforcement investigative files. Police and the attorney general's office maintain that the release of other records could result in the destruction of evidence and witness intimidation.

Please continue to read at the link provided.

[Denise]

Canine Teams To Search For Maura Murray

Canine Teams To Search For Maura Murray


BY GARY E. LINDSLEY, Staff Writer
Wednesday October 4, 2006


Housing, gas cards, food and water are being sought for canine teams that will be searching for Maura Murray. Murray disappeared after a Feb. 9, 2004, car crash in Haverhill, N.H. About five or six canine teams will be searching a large area around the crash site Oct. 21-22, said John M. Healy of Warner, N.H. Warner and other volunteer investigators began working on Murray's disappearance in late 2005.


The canine teams will concentrate on a few sites, including several areas around French Pond Road. Healy said one of the areas the teams will search is a very large sand pit at the Morrill Construction site. "I could bury 3,000 bodies in there," he said.

If you wish to help this effort contact:

John M. Healy
603-746-4994

Benjamin S. McDonald
603-759-2340


Please continue to read at the link provided.

[Denise]

Dog teams to search where Maura Murray last seen - Boston.com

Dog teams to search where Maura Murray last seen

October 4, 2006

HAVERHILL, N.H. --Volunteer investigators with dogs hope to search the area where college student Maura Murray disappeared after crashing her car into a snowbank more than two years ago.

Murray, who was 21 and a student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst when she got into a minor accident on Route 112, has not been seen since the night of Feb. 9, 2004, when a man who lived nearby offered to get her help. He has said she declined.

Click link to read of rest of news article.

Dog teams to search where Maura Murray last seen - Boston.com

[Denise]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No link seen to Maura Murray disappearance

New Hampshire State Police don't think the murder of a Vermont college student this month is connected with a missing Massachusetts student whose abandoned car was found in northern New Hampshire in February 2004.

"I believe someone is looking into that, but they don't believe it has anything to do with that," said a state police dispatcher.

Maura Murray, a University of Massachusetts student from Hanson, Mass., disappeared in February 2004 after a minor car accident on Route 112 in Woodsville several miles from the Vermont border.
http://www.unionlead....4-53f4692c6144

[Denise]

 [/hr]http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/p...TORY/610220393

When 21-year-old Maura Murray disappeared from a mountain road in New Hampshire on a February night in 2004, her father believed from the start she was kidnapped.

Nearly three years later, just finding her body is the last hope Maura's father, Fred Murray, and his family still cling to, even if it means confirming she is dead.

"I want to make sure I do everything I can possibly do," Fred Murray said yesterday alongside Route 112, while dogs trained to find human remains searched for her nearby. "I don't want to leave any avenue unexplored. I owe it to my daughter."

Fred Murray and a half dozen family members gathered in Haverhill yesterday for yet another search of the area where the girl's empty car was found after the accident. Maura Murray was driving on Rt. 112 near the western edge of the White Mountains on Feb. 9, 2004, when she apparently lost control of her car and plowed into a snow bank. The junior nursing student from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst was never seen again.

Family members do not know where she was going or what happened, only that they don't believe she would ever run away without contacting anyone. They believe she was abducted and most likely killed. The police have searched the area repeatedly since then, but say they have no evidence of foul play. The case's status has never been upgraded from a missing persons search.

Click on the link above to read the complete news article

[Denise]

Search dogs fail to find Maura Murray, missing 2 years

October 23, 2006

HAVERHILL, N.H. --Specially trained dogs searched over the weekend for a college student in the area where she disappeared after crashing her car in Haverhill (New Hampshire).

But the cadaver-sniffing dogs failed to find Maura Murray, who was last seen near the crash site on Route 112 two-and-a-half years ago. http://www.boston.com/news/local/new...ssing_2_years/

[Denise]

Here is a website with several pictures of Maura.

Maura Missing

[Denise]

K-9 Teams Search For Student Who Disappeared In 2004

Family Of Maura Murray Want Closure

K-9 Teams Search For Student Who Disappeared In 2004

BY GARY E. LINDSLEY, Staff Writer
Monday October 23, 2006

HAVERHILL, N.H. -- Nearly 2 1/2 years ago, the family and friends of a missing Massachusetts woman released blue balloons and tacked a big blue bow to a tree in hopes she would be found. As police K-9 teams searched for Maura Murray on Saturday, that blue bow was still tacked to the tree her car struck on Route 112 the night of Feb. 9, 2004, a stark reminder that she is still missing.

Police dog teams, including Connecticut Canine Search and Dukes County Search & Rescue from Martha's Vineyard, along with the New Hampshire League of Investigators, volunteered to search for Murray Saturday and Sunday.

Late Sunday afternoon, Nason said the K-9 teams had several hits, but nothing that would warrant forwarding to state police. An area near a dam and a snowmobile corridor in Warren also was searched, he said, but nothing was found and it did not look promising. Anyone who may have information about Murray is asked to contact the New Hampshire State Police major crimes unit at 603-271-2663 or 800-852-3411.

Please continue to read at the link provided.

-------------

 [/hr]
Worcester Telegram & Gazette AP State News

Missing woman's father in court seeking police records.

CONCORD, N.H.— The father of a missing Massachusetts college student asked the New Hampshire Supreme Court on Tuesday to release police records and evidence in her disappearance.

Maura Murray, 21, was last seen shortly after crashing her car in a snowbank off Route 112 in Haverhill on Feb. 9, 2004.

That was nearly three years ago, and her father, Fred Murray, of Weymouth, Mass., said he is frustrated at the apparent lack of progress in the police investigation - and the state's refusal to share any information with him or private investigators.

"I'm a little angry that it has to come to this, that you have a missing persons case that can remain under investigation for 50 years," he said before the hearing. "It's absolute stonewalling."

Murray's lawyer, Timothy Ervin, argued that while exemptions to the state Right-to-Know Law and the federal Freedom of Information Act allow police to withhold evidence in open investigations, they cannot withhold all 2,500 records indefinitely. He asked that a judge review the records to determine whether some should be released.

"The court has to make a specific showing that disclosure would interfere with the ongoing investigation," he said.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Nancy Smith argued the records, including witness interviews, phone records and police reports, could become critical evidence in a criminal prosecution.

"We empathize and sympathize with Mr. Murray's concern over the disappearance of his daughter," she said.

[align=center]Click on the link provided above to read the complete news article.[/align]

[Denise]

Maura's family has a new website and forum. Please visit it here:

Home

[Denise]

 [/hr]MyFox Boston | Court: Police Must Justify Secret Files in Murray Disappearance

Court: Police Must Justify Secret Files in Murray Disappearance

Last Edited: Wednesday, 20 Dec 2006, 12:15 PM EST
Created: Wednesday, 20 Dec 2006, 12:15 PM EST

CONCORD, N.H. -- The state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday state police must give more detailed descriptions and reasons for withholding their investigative files in the disappearance of Massachusetts college student Maura Murray.

State police "have not met their burden to demonstrate how disclosure of the requested documents could reasonably be expected to interfere with any investigation or enforcement proceedings," the court said in a unanimous decision.

Murray was 21 years old when she was last seen on the night of Feb. 9, 2004, shortly after crashing her car into a snowbank next to Route 112 in Haverhill.

Her father, Fred Murray, of Weymouth, Mass., had sued to obtain the investigative files under the state Right-to-Know Law, saying the information would aid private investigators trying to determine her fate. However, the volunteer private investigators disagreed that police should be required to disclose their files.


Court to rehear Murray suit - A Concord Monitor Article - Your News Source - Concord NH 03301

Court to rehear Murray suit
Justices: Police must justify secretiveness


By KATHARINE WEBSTER
The Associated Press

December 21. 2006 8:00AM

The state Supreme Court says the state police must give more detailed descriptions and reasons for refusing to disclose their investigative records in the disappearance of Massachusetts college student Maura Murray. The ruling came yesterday, just weeks after oral arguments. The justices sent the case back to a lower court for a new hearing.

The state police "have not met their burden to demonstrate how disclosure of the requested documents could reasonably be expected to interfere with any investigation or enforcement proceedings," the court said in a unanimous decision.

"We didn't get what we asked for yet," Murray said in a statement. "We were proven correct in our assessment that the state has not met its burden to show that the records should be withheld."
Murray's lawyer, Timothy Ervin, said yesterday that the ruling was "fair and balanced," although the court did not require the release of any records.

"We've said all along that the state has not met its burden to show that all the records they have fall within the exemption" to the right-to-know law, he said.

http://www.courts.state.nh.us/suprem...6/murra152.pdf


Please continue to read at the links provided

[Denise]

Investigators Not Giving Up Search For Maura Murray

Investigators Not Giving Up Search For Maura Murray


BY GARY E. LINDSLEY, Staff Writer
Friday February 9, 2007

HAVERHILL NEW HAMPSHIRE

Three years since a Massachusetts college student disappeared after a car accident, theories abound as to what may have happened to her.

It was reported three years ago, on Feb. 9, 2004, that Maura Murray of Hanson, Mass., then 21 years old, lost control of her black 1996 Saturn on a curve on Route 112 near the Weathered Barn and crashed into a stand of trees.

John Healy, who is a member of the team of investigators working on the Murray case in concert with the Molly Bish Foundation, said the team has come up with other theories about what happened that dark February night.

Healy said although police have said Murray crashed her car into the trees, he and the other investigators do not believe it to be true.

He said, based on the damage to the Saturn, that it appears as if the car was traveling at a slow speed when it may have struck the underside of another vehicle; the actual crash site may have taken place somewhere else. Not only that, they believe Murray may not have been the young woman then-First Student school bus driver Butch Atwood saw. They believe the scene where the Saturn was found by Atwood may have been staged.

This does not mean investigators have absolutely ruled out that Murray was at the Route 112 site and simply fled. And they are not ruling out that she may have have committed suicide, or was abducted and killed.

It was originally thought that Atwood came upon Murray's Saturn when he was returning home aboard his bus after taking students on a ski trip.

Atwood said he offered to help Murray, a University of Massachusetts at Amherst nursing student, but she refused his assistance, saying she had already called AAA.

Atwood said he drove to his nearby home, parked his school bus and went into his house to phone police and emergency workers. It was the last anyone saw of her.

Healy is hoping someone will come forward with information about what really happened that Monday night, Feb. 9, 2004.

"Someone up there must know something," he said. "We are talking to several people and following up on leads that have not been done by state police."

Healy and the others of the investigative team are coming back in the spring with dog teams to follow up on some information they gleaned from their two-day search with dog teams in October.

Regarding Atwood, Healy said he tracked him down to Homossa, Fla., where he is living in a "nice" home and has a 19-foot boat. Healy said Atwood would not talk to him about what he may have seen that February night.

Maura Murray Web Site

Helena Murray, who is related to Maura and runs a Web site (Home) dedicated to Maura and finding out what happened to her, cannot believe it is three years later and family and friends are no closer today to learning what happened to Maura than they were right after she disappeared.

"I don't think we can rule out anything until we learn something," Murray said. "Do I think Maura took off over that mountain (Mount Kancanmagus)? No I don't."

She said a lot has happened during the time Maura has been missing. Maura's sister, Kathleen, got married and Maura's boyfriend and unofficial fiance, Billy Rausch of Fort Sill, Okla., was promoted to captain and sent to Iraq.

Also during those three years, the New Hampshire State Police Major Crimes unit has reportedly been working on Maura's case. However, the unit and the state's Attorney General's Office are fighting Maura's father, Fred, in court about having any of the records released, including the accident report.

While he may believe police are not doing anything to find his daughter, Murray has not stopped making the trek north to New Hampshire on the weekends to look for her.

What has really frustrated Fred Murray is that he says he has turned over potential evidence to state police with nothing resulting.

One example is that a man came forward and told him that the man's relative may have been involved. The man also turned over a possible weapon.

Murray drove to state police headquarters in Concord, N.H., to turn it over to state police, but he said they refused to accept it. So, he mailed the potential evidence to them and said he has not received any response or acknowledgement.

From the time Murray first talked to the media in Bethlehem, N.H., just a couple days after his daughter's disappearance, he definitely believed something had gone very wrong.

"I had an uneasy feeling at that time some local dirt bag grabbed her," he said Thursday night. "She was supposed to call me. That is what gave me the uneasy feeling. She always called when she said she would. I am still struggling to find out what everyone saw that night."

Anyone with information about the Maura Murray case should contact the New Hampshire State Police Major Crimes Unit at 603-271-2520.

[Denise]

http://www.wcsh6.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=52164

Friday Marks Three Year Anniversary Of Murray Disappearance

Web Editor: Rhonda Erskine, Online Content Producer
Created: 2/9/2007 12:43:32 PM
Updated: 2/9/2007 8:01:11 PM

It was three years ago that Massachusetts college student Maura Murray disappeared in northern New Hampshire. There has been no sign of her since, but there also has been no lack of theories as to what happened to her.

It was February 9, 2004, that word came that Murray of Hanson, Massachusetts, lost control of her car on Route 112 in Haverhill and crashed into trees. A resident said Murray declined his offer of help, and when he returned, she was gone.

John Healy, a private investigator, said a team of investigators working with the family isn't ruling out that scenario, but they also have other theories. For instance, he said he and other investigators believe the woman the neighbor saw may not have been Murray and that the accident scene may have been staged.

Healy said he and others are coming back in the spring with dog teams to follow up on information they gleaned from a two-day search with dog teams last fall.

Meanwhile, Murray's father has gone to court to try to get the state police to release information about the investigation.

---------------

Mass. Woman Disappeared 3 Years Ago
No Lack Of Of Theories About Disappearance

POSTED: 2:36 pm EST February 9, 2007
UPDATED: 2:38 pm EST February 9, 2007

HAVERHILL, N.H. -- It was three years ago today that Massachusetts college student Maura Murray disappeared in northern New Hampshire. There has been no sign of her since, but there also has been no lack of theories as to what happened to her.

It was February 9, 2004, that word came that Murray of Hanson, Massachusetts, lost control of her car on Route 112 in Haverhill and crashed into trees. A resident said Murray declined his offer of help, and when he returned, she was gone.

John Healy, a private investigator, said a team of investigators working with the family isn't ruling out that scenario, but they also have other theories. For instance, he said he and other investigators believe the woman the neighbor saw may not have been Murray and that the accident scene may have been staged.
Mass. Woman Disappeared 3 Years Ago - News

[Denise]

[align=center]Maura Murray



Above Images: Murray, circa 2004
Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance
[item]Missing Since: February 9, 2004 from Haverhill, New Hampshire [/item][item]Classification: Endangered Missing [/item][item]Date Of Birth: May 4, 1982 [/item][item]Age: 21 years old [/item][item]Height and Weight: 5'7, 120 pounds [/item][item]Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Light brown hair, brown eyes. [/item][item]Clothing/Jewelry Description: A dark-colored coat and jeans. [/item][align=center]
Details of Disappearance
Murray was involved in a one-car accident Route 112 in the Woodsville section of Haverhill in northern New Hampshire between 7:00 and 7:30 p.m. on February 9, 2004. Her car, a black 1996 Saturn with Massachusetts license plates, failed to negotiate a sharp curve and ran off the road, striking a tree. Haverhill is five miles away from Wells River, Vermont and one mile away from Swift Water Village by the Connecticut River. This was the second car Murray had wrecked in three days; she had previously damaged her father's vehicle in another accident. A resident near the site of the February 9 crash called the police, even though Murray had asked him not to. She had vanished by the time authorities arrived at the scene about ten minutes later. Her car was left behind, severely damaged in the front end and not in a driveable condition. The doors were locked and a few personal belongings, including Murray's cellular phone and credit and bank cards, were missing, but most of her possessions had been left inside. Murray has never been seen again. Police believe she got a ride from the scene of the accident to parts unknown. The witness to the accident says she did not appear to be injured, but she may have been intoxicated.
Murray resided in Hanson, Massachusetts and was a student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst at the time she disappeared; the university police are assisting with her case. She was a nursing major and was a dean's list student, and was employed by a local art gallery in addition to having a job on campus. She had made arrangements to take a nursing job in Oklahoma after her graduation. Four days before she disappeared, she left her job early at her supervisor's suggestion; she appeared to be extremely upset about something and was unable to work. It has not been discovered what was bothering her, but Murray's sister spoke to her on the phone that same evening and said their conversation was normal.
Murray emailed her professors the day of her disappearance and said there was a death in her family and she had go away, but would be in touch upon her return in about a week. No one had actually died. After her disappearance, Murray's dormitory room was found packed up, as if she was planning on moving out altogether. She withdrew $280 from her bank account the day she disappeared, but there has been no activity on her bank accounts or credit cards since then. She packed up all her belongings in her dormitory room into boxes, and left behind a personal note for her fiance, an Army lieutenant named William Rausch who lives in Fort Still, Oklahoma.
Murray also emailed Rausch on the afternoon of her disappearance. In the email she asked to speak with him. The day after she was last seen, Murray called Rausch, but he only heard her breathing on the line. The call could not be traced. Investigators inspected Murray's computer after she vanished; they discovered she had been searching on the internet for information on hotels in the Burlington, Vermont area. Based on this information, they checked Burlington hotels for any signs of Murray, but turned up no clues as to her whereabouts. Murray and her father went hiking together in the Burlington area in the fall of 2003, but she has no other connections to the city. She used to camp regularly in New Hampshire and knew the state well, but there are no known reasons why she would go to Haverhill. Extensive searches of the woods around Haverhill have turned up no evidence as to her whereabouts.
There is speculation that Murray's case may be related to the disappearance of Brianna Maitland, a girl who vanished from Montgomery, Vermont on March 19, 2004. She is still missing. Montgomery is only about 90 miles from Haverhill. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) met with local authorities to discuss possible links between the cases. Both Murray and Maitland are attractive brown-haired young women, and both disappeared after car accidents in which their cars were left behind with personal items inside. However, the FBI and local law enforcement concluded that, despite the apparent similarities, Murray and Maitland's cases were probably not connected to each other. The theory is not being entirely ruled out, but investigators believe it is an unlikely one.
Murray was a student for two years at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where she met Rausch, before she transferred to the University of Massachusetts. She had majored in chemical engineering at West Point. She is described as a quiet, introverted and extremely athletic person. She may have been carrying a backpack at the time of her disappearance. Her case remains unsolved. Murray's family says it is uncharacteristic of her not to contact them and they fear she is being held against her will. She had not been having problems with her family or her boyfriend at the time she disappeared, and she has no history of mental illness. Police do not suspect foul play was involved in her disappearance. Both Massachusetts and New Hampshire authorities are investigating.
[align=center]
Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
University of Massachusetts Police
413-545-2121
OR
New Hampshire State Police
603-846-3333
OR
Haverhill Police Department
603-787-2222

Source Information
The National Center for Missing Adults
The Daily Collegian
Foster's Sunday Citizen
WCAX-TV
Maura Murray is Missing
The Champlain Channel
The Caledonian-Record
ABC-News 20/20
http://www.charleypr...rray_maura.html
[/align]
[/align]
[/align]

[Kelly]

Name: Maura Murray

Classification: Endangered Missing Adult
Date of Birth: 1982-05-04
Date Missing: 2004-02-09
From City/State: Amherst, MA
Missing From (Country): USA
Age at Time of Disappearance: 21
Gender: Female
Race: White
Height: 67 inches
Weight: 120 pounds
Hair Color: Lt. Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Complexion: Light

Clothing: Possibly wearing a dark colored coat and jeans, carrying a backpack.

Circumstances of Disappearance: Unknown. Maura was last seen at approximately 7:00pm in the vicinity of Route 112 in Haverhill, NH. She was involved in a single vehicle accident. When police arrived, her vehicle was locked and Maura was gone.

Investigative Agency: New Hampshire State Police
Phone: (603) 846-3333
Alternate Phone: (800) 852-3411
Investigative Case #: 04-41-OF

http://www.theyaremi...php?A200401157S

[Denise]

http://www.unionlead...09-b6b1b88a2b6a

What happened? Theories abound

By NANCY WEST
New Hampshire Sunday News
7 hours, 13 minutes ago

During the nearly four years since Maura Murray vanished, dozens of questions have been posed and theories weighed on Web sites and in various accounts of what may have happened in Haverhill on the night of Feb. 9, 2004.

There have been hundreds of pages of Web chatter in which amateur sleuths try to solve Maura's mystery.

Why did Maura, 21, pack her room at University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mass., before heading for New Hampshire that night?

Did she call on a calling card sobbing and shivering to her boyfriend, Billy Rausch, 36 hours after she disappeared?

Why was a rag stuffed in the tailpipe of her crashed car?

Was Maura upset because of a hit-and-run accident that seriously injured a fellow student on campus days before she left?

Chatroom investigators have tried to dredge up fresh leads while the people holding the best information have remained tight-lipped because Maura Murray's case is now being treated as a potential homicide.

"It's an open, ongoing case, which limits our ability to say anything substantial," said Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin.

"Part of the difficulty is people try to ascribe importance to different facts, and, realistically, the true importance won't be known until the case is solved. We may think a piece of information is not important and not know its impact until down the road, when it turns out it's done damage to the case."

If you know something

State Police are actively investigating every lead into the disappearance of Maura Murry and make an appeal to the public for any information by contacting New Hampshire State Police at 603-846-3333 or 800-525-5555.

Rag in the tailpipe
Some have speculated the rag found stuffed in the tailpipe of the black 1996 Saturn Maura crashed in Haverhill indicated either a suicide try by carbon monoxide or a predator's ploy to make the car stall.

But Mike Lavoie of Lavoie's Auto Care Center in Haverhill, who towed the Saturn that night, said he later spoke with Maura's father, Fred Murray, about the rag. Lavoie said it couldn't have been used in that manner as part of a suicide attempt.

"Her father said he told her to put it in, that it would keep the car from smoking. It didn't run that well," Lavoie said.

Dorm room packed
Although police believe the belongings packed in Maura's dorm room were another indication she had no intention to return, the mother of Maura's then-boyfriend has another explanation.

Sharon Rausch thinks Maura hadn't yet unpacked her things after a long Christmas break. During one of Maura's visits to the Rausch home, Mrs. Rausch tried to loan her an extra suitcase, only to discover it hadn't been unpacked.

That made Maura laugh, Sharon Rausch said.

"Maura said, You're just like me. I unpack as I use my things.' That's out of her own mouth. Maybe she just never unpacked."

Trembling message
After finally getting emergency leave to head north to search for Maura, Billy Rausch -- at the time an Army lieutenant stationed at Fort Sill, Okla. -- was going through airport security early Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2004, and had to shut off his cell phone.

When he turned the phone back on, he discovered someone had left a voice-mail, he later told his mother.

"He said, Mom, it's Maura. She didn't say anything. She's shivering and cold,'" Mrs. Rausch said.

Billy tried to return the call but found its source to be a prepaid calling card.

Since that time, police say, they have tracked that call to a Red Cross assigned to working on Billy's emergency leave. And the troubling sounds in the recorded message, they say, were merely the result of a bad connection.

That explanation doesn't make sense to Mrs. Rausch, who said she was working with the Red Cross on Billy's leave, and therefore any calls from the organization would have gone to her, rather than to her son.

Distraught on the job
Mrs. Rausch said Maura worked security late Thursday, Feb. 5, 2004, into Friday morning checking students in and out of a UMass dormitory. Maura's supervisor that night said she found her sobbing at about 1:20 a.m. and had to help her back to Murray's room.

The source of her distress, Maura told the supervisor, was a phone conversation with Murray's sister.

Since married, Kathleen Carpenter remembers finishing a phone call with Maura at about 10:20 the night of Feb. 5, but doesn't recall talking with her sister in the early-morning hours.

Kathleen, who said she had talked about troubles with her husband-to-be during the nighttime conversation with Maura, said her sister didn't seem upset.

But, she added, Maura and Billy were having relationship troubles at the time. Kathleen said she takes sleeping pills at night and didn't remember a later call.

"We'd always talk about boy troubles. She was with Billy Rausch and every time they got into a fight or if had a fight with my (now) husband, I'd call her. It was girl talk, always late at night," Carpenter said.

She believes her sister went to the White Mountains to sort out her troubles with Billy.

"I think it was stress. I don't know what her and her boyfriend were going through," Carpenter said. "I kind of think that might have triggered it. They weren't getting along at that time.

"She wanted to go to a place that made her happy and look at the mountains, and something went terribly wrong."

Campus hit-and-run
A series of reports in Murray's hometown newspaper, the Hanson (Mass.) Express, raised the question of whether Maura could have been involved late that same Thursday night or early Friday morning when fellow student Petrit Vasi of Dorchester was injured in an apparent hit-and-run accident about 112 miles from the dorm where Maura worked.

Vasi's mother, Aprhodite Vasi, said her son has recovered but still doesn't remember what happened to him that night at about 12:20 a.m. Mrs. Vasi was told at the emergency room her son was involved in a hit-an-run accident, but there was never a follow-up investigation, Mrs. Vasi said.

Mrs. Vasi said Petrit remained in a coma for two months and remained hospitalized for a month after that. He had to cut short rehabilitation therapy, she said, because his insurance ran out.

"He doesn't know what happened, and nobody investigated for him," Mrs. Vasi said.

Sharon Rausch doesn't believe Maura was involved in the accident that injured Petrit. Murray couldn't have left her job long enough to be at the accident scene and return to the dorm, Rausch said.

Police also don't appear to be pursuing a Vasi-Murray link.

New Hamsphire State Police have stated that Maura was involved in only two recent accidents: the one in which she crashed her father's new Toyota in Hadley, Mass., and another that occurred about 40 hours later, when she hit a stand of trees in Haverhill with the black Saturn.

[Kelly]

http://www.unionlead...6e-bc05073f85c2

Missing Maura Murray - Four years and countless questions

By NANCY WEST
New Hampshire Sunday News
10/28/07

The longer Maura Murray is gone, the more it looks like the worst may have happened to the then-21-year-old nursing student after she crashed her car the evening of Feb. 9, 2004, on the edge of wilderness in northern New Hampshire.

Nearly four years after she disappeared from Haverhill without a trace, leaving not even a footprint in falling snow, police again are asking the public to search memories of that night for something overlooked -- anything that could be a possible clue.

Why did Maura withdraw $280 from an ATM, lie to professors that she would be gone a week because of a death in the family, buy her favorite liquor, pack all of her school books, a few clothes, a book about dying in the White Mountains, and head north with no word to any of the many people who love her?

Did Maura, a dean's list student at University of Massachusetts, travel to the White Mountains to commit suicide?

Did she drink too much during the first leg of her secret getaway and fall prey to the elements with 2 1/2 feet of snow on the ground?

Was Maura upset because she had crashed her father's new Toyota Corolla about 40 hours earlier, causing $10,000 in damage?

Or did something even more sinister happen, something her family and friends have feared since soon after they received word Maura was missing: that she trusted someone to help her and then died at the hands of a stranger.

Adding to the mystery, her then-boyfriend, Billy Rausch insisted a sobbing, shivering Maura placed a calling-card call to him 36 hours after her disappearance, then hung up.

"We don't know if Maura is a victim, but the state is treating it as a potential homicide," said Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin. "It may be a missing-persons case, but it's being handled as a criminal investigation."

Strelzin said adults have the right to leave and not let family and friends know their whereabouts. But the longer she is gone with no trace, the higher the level of concern for Maura.

Maura's dad

Her father, Fred Murray of Weymouth, Mass., wants the FBI to take over the case. He believes the searches came too little, too late to save Maura, that more should have been done the night she crashed the Saturn.

"The police in New Hampshire can't do it. They've had three and a half years of nothing happening; that proves it," said Murray, a persistent critic of New Hampshire State Police Troop F and Haverhill police. "It's similar to a situation with a fire burning out of control. If the locals can't handle it, they call for help, and 'F Troop' is overmatched."

Murray said police waited 11 days to interview some of the people who lived near the accident site and then did so only after they were prompted. And, he said, police waited months before heeding pleas to call Dominic and Linda Salamone, who rent a condominium in Bartlett, even though Maura's phone records indicated she called their number at 1 p.m. the day she disappeared.

"Why would anybody have a reasonable belief (the police) were going to investigate at all?" Murray said.

It took at least 40 hours before a police brought a dog to track Maura's scent, he said. And then, Maura's scent ended in the road 100 yards from the crash with no hint of foul play, leading police to believe she took a ride away from the scene.

"I can't get it out of my mind that something stinks. I want to know what state trooper John Monahan was doing after the (dispatcher's) call when my daughter was walking down the street in pitch black with no one to ask for help, nowhere to run and nowhere to hide," Murray said.

The accident scene

Butch Atwood, a school bus driver who lived near the accident site, told police he drove past and stopped to help Maura after she crashed the Saturn into a stand of trees. She declined help, saying she had called AAA on her mobile phone, even though there was no cell reception in that location.

Maura pleaded with Atwood not to call police, according to one police news release. According to another release, Maura appeared impaired by alcohol.

Atwood, whose home was near the crash, called police anyway, as did another neighbor. But by the time police arrived about 10 minutes later, Maura was gone, leading authorities to believe at first the driver of the crashed car had fled the scene to avoid a drunken driving arrest.

The Bailey's Irish Creme, Kahlua and vodka Maura reportedly bought for the trip had been removed from the car, as had her black backpack and cell phone. A box of wine was still in the car.

Route 112 is a 56-mile stretch that connects Bath and Conway, winding through the scenic -- but largely remote and at times harsh -- White Mountain National Forest. Police believe she left Amherst, Mass., that day and traveled north on Interstate 91 in Vermont.

Maura knew the other end of Route 112 -- the Kancamagus Highway, east of Interstate 93 -- well, having hiked and camped there with her family since she was a child, even after her parents, Fred and Laurie Murray divorced when she was 6.

Maura's loved ones and police have disagreed on many issues regarding what happened just before and after the crash. Her father insists Maura would be alive today if not for what he sees as a botched investigation.

To date, there is one verifiable fact at the heart of her story: Maura Murray vanished on Route 112 in Haverhill on Feb. 9, 2004, as snow fell in pitch darkness on a cold winter's night.

The boyfriend

Sharon Rausch of Marengo, Ohio, loved Maura like a daughter. She said her son, Billy Rausch, was planning to become engaged to Maura. Though the young couple's relationship had been rocky at times, in early 2004 it was headed toward wedding plans, Mrs. Rausch said.

Billy was an Army lieutenant stationed at Fort Sill, Okla., when Maura disappeared. They had met as cadets at the U.S. Military Academy and continued a long-distance relationship after Maura left West Point and transferred to UMass.

(Billy graduated with Maura's older sister, Julie. Maura has another sister, Kathleen, and two brothers, Fred and Kurt.)

Billy Rausch spent time last week with his parents at their Ohio home, having recently returned from a year and a half in Iraq with a promotion to captain, Mrs. Rausch said. He was also awarded the Bronze Star, she said. He is scheduled to leave the Army in December.

Sharon Rausch had been very active in the search for Maura, reaching out to many media outlets and anyone who might be of help. The story has been told with talk-show hosts Montel Williams and Greta Van Susteren and on the TV news magazine "20/20."

Mrs. Rausch responded to an e-mail request to interview her son saying: "Billy is out of town on a job interview. However, even upon his return, he has decided that he does not want to comment. I agree with Fred (Murray) about Billy "getting on with his life.' I know that each time (Billy) becomes actively involved with the media that it truly re-opens his intense heartache from Maura's missing.

"If Fred ever wants/needs Billy's input, he will be glad to participate, but until then, he wants to remain out of the picture."

Police initially pointed to difficulties in Maura and Billy's relationship to support the theory of a possible suicide, but Mrs. Rausch said the couple was very happy together.

Maura's mother

Laurie Murray believes her daughter is alive. A former nurse, she has battled throat cancer and a bladder tumor during more than three and a half years of fear and hope, waiting for word from Maura.

"I won't give up hope," Mrs. Murray said. "My gut feeling is she was abducted and she is being held against her will. If she gets a chance, she will get away."

Or maybe Maura suffers from amnesia from hitting her head in the accident, her mother theorized.

Either way, "She had to get into a vehicle, in my mind," Mrs. Murray said.

Laurie Murray said Maura's survival skills were honed at West Point before she transferred to UMass. The Murray home is filled with trophies and awards Maura earned in cross-country and track, in high school and college. She ran at least five miles a day and enjoyed long, grueling mountain hikes with her dad.

Asked about suggestions Maura may have had a drinking problem, Mrs. Murray said she didn't believe Maura drank a lot.

"She had just turned 21; sure, she liked to party. It's like a big deal when they turn 21. I don't put too much weight on it," she said.

Mrs. Murray also doesn't believe Maura could have committed suicide.

"She was doing great; she was getting high honors in nursing," Mrs. Murray said.

Since Maura's disappearance, her sister Kathleen has married and her sister Julie, a West Point graduate, has started a new government job in Washington, D.C.

"I'm most proud of Maura for everything, not one thing. She's young, beautiful, with brains, personality -- everything -- and a million friends," Laurie Murray said.

As for the work done by police, Mrs. Murray said: "I think they did what they could. They were limited. It's a very small police department in Haverhill.

"They went out . . . Maybe if they searched more that particular night, it would have been a different outcome. I don't know," she said.

Maura had often camped with the family at Jigger Johnson campground on Route 112.

"Maybe she was heading to Woodstock. I know her cell couldn't work. She knew the area like the back of her hand. She certainly knew how to survive in wilderness," Mrs. Murray said.

Not forgotten

Many of Maura's friends who had kept in touch with her have stopped calling over the years, Mrs. Murray said, but the churches in Hanson, Mass., Maura's hometown, have not forgotten.

"Maura is mentioned at every Mass at St. Joseph the Worker Church," the family's parish, Laurie Murray said.

And the coming holidays, she said, will be marked by a close family supporting each other in a time of trouble.

"Julie just came home last week for three days, and she'll be home for Thanksgiving. Maura has a very good, supportive grandmother who is 87 and here with me now," she said.

Maura's mother's hope: "That she will come home, call home. I just pray."