Background:
Years ago, someone posted this mysterious message on a GeoCities message board devoted to the case:
Maura Murray is NOT a Missing Person
Maura Murray has the right as every independent adult does to leave with her new boyfriend and start a new life. Maura is living a content and satisfying life in the Province of Quebec.
Maura’s father Fred Murray never quite forgave her for being asked to leave West Point. It was his personal bragging point that he had two daughters at West Point. Maura’s dismissal damaged Fred’s ego and he never completely forgave her.
Maura’s being asked to leave West Point and all the ensuing criticism by her father was the beginning of a certain line of thought for Maura, culminating in her leaving on Feb 9, 2004 to start a new life unencumbered by the constant criticism of her father. Maura’s relationship with William Rausch was near its end. According to Maura’s sister Kathleen, they were having ‘serious problems.’ Maura had met someone new, who unlike William Rausch, had no West Point connections and therefore was not a constant reminder to her of her failure at West Point.
On the night of February 5, 2004, Maura took a break from her job at the security desk at a UMass dormitory to go and briefly get coffee and some food.
Sometime between 12 MN and 1 AM Maura driving her Saturn struck and critically injured the UMass student Petrit Vasi leaving him for dead.
Around 1 AM – 1:20 AM Feb 6 Maura had a complete emotional breakdown brought on by this hit and run accident. Maura’s breakdown was witnessed by a student who reported this to Maura’s supervisor, who then came and saw that Maura needed physical help to get back to her dormitory. The supervisor then physically helped Maura back to her dorm and recommended counseling.
Between 2 and 3 AM on the morning of Sunday Feb 8, Maura had a second motor vehicle accident wrecking her father’s new car.
Fred Murray’s new car was towed around 3 AM to his Hadley motel room. Maura arrived at Fred’s motel at the same time as a passenger in the tow truck. Fred was not happy with Maura to put it mildly. What happened in this motel room we’ll never know. The next day Maura left for good.
Maura needed to disguise the evidence of the Petrit Vasi hit and run by staging another accident for the purpose of covering up the damage to her car from the Vasi hit and run. She and her new boyfriend travelled in tandem to Route 112 in NH (He was already in Southern NH). The accident was staged, she left her Saturn, walked down the road to where her boyfriend was waiting for her in his car. She disappeared, her only wish is that she be left alone to live her life in peace. She is happy and contented and just wants to be left alone.
I’m in New York right now, recording the audiobook, and I came across this section of the story, again. But for the first time, I noticed something. This passage: “The supervisor then physically helped Maura back to her dorm and recommended counseling.”
Why is that important? Because until I interviewed her, Maura’s supervisor, Karen Mayotte had NEVER been interviewed. Not by police. Not by reporters. That was a very specific, personal detail. The only people who could have known about that were Karen and Maura, and whoever Maura told personally (though I find it hard to believe Maura would have shared the info).
It’s possible, I suppose, that this detail appears in the report Karen wrote and handed in to UMass police, in which case the detectives knew this detail (though they never got the story straight from her). And perhaps the police leaked this info in an early news report — BUT I can find no record of this detail in an article prior to the posting.
Now consider one more detail. The notation for Midnight. “12 MN.” That’s dictation they teach in nursing school, so that midnight is never mixed up with noon on a patient’s charts.
One more thing: When this was posted to GeoCities, the Maura Murray case had not become the huge Internet mystery it is, today. If Maura is alive and sitting at home, Googling herself, might she have reached out to the small community at the time to kind of tell them off? Maybe.
Can anyone find the exact day of the original post? Can we find any reference to the “counseling for Maura” idea before this post?
I have goosebumps.
**UPDATE**
In March, 2006, Karen Mayotte posted the following on an old message board:
Please do not assume that I did not help Maura, because reading the recent post was upsetting. I love Maura, and I did everything in my power to help her. I held her as she was crying, I walked her back to her room, I gave her my cell phone so I could bring her to Dunkin Donuts in the morning. Previous to that I had begged to bring her to a campus counselor, or just out to Dunkins that night when she got out of shift. She told me that she was okay, and that she would be going home to a roommate (which I never realized beforehand that she had a single room).
So, the info, while not widely dispersed, was out there. Still… I think the medical notation is interesting. If it wasn’t Maura, was it someone she studied with at UMass?
Thanks to “Oatmeal Man” for the tip.
Did anyone ever track down and interview the driver of the tow truck that took her back to the motel? I'd be curious to know if he recalls her state of mind during that ride.
I've always felt like this is the simplest narrative that connects all the dots in this story. I've tried to ignore the whole Petrit Vasi thing because everyone insists it's not connected but… well… I think it was her.
Third person though?
I don't see any particular reason to believe that this posting was written by Ms. Murray. However, it could well have been written by one of her UMass cohorts.
The fact that the posting mentions the counseling suggestion is not dispositive of anything. Even if it could be shown that this suggestion was not publicly released prior to the posting, it could easily have been common knowledge among the UMass population, as Ms. Mayotte may have told her story to any number of people. It is also an inference that anyone could have easily made—it's an easy bet that a responsible person in a supervisory position would have suggested that an emotionally overwhelmed college student in her charge speak to a counselor.
I don't believe that a case like this is likely to be solved with this sort of methodology.
I dunno, JR. Here's why:
1) Did you verify this statement, "The supervisor then physically helped Maura back to her dorm and recommended counseling," with Ms Mayotte? According to her, MM wouldn't allow her to her room. I'd run this by her again. I'm sure she wouldn't mind. Frankly, you should have verified this with her first before posting.
2) Haven't we put the Vasi ep to bed? Nothing points to The Saturn whatsoever, not just the fact Vasi remembers nothing of his hit. In the long run, it makes little sense to run away based on what we and the State of Mass knows.
3) Wasn't this written well after enough "facts" of the case were known for someone to fabricate a fairly airtight Manifesto on GeoCities?
4) So, if anything, this was written by a troll or worse, the Person Responsible.
5) Look for code in this passage. Could it be that 12 MN is really a clue, as in, she can be found 12 MILES east or west of the accident? Is there anything else there?
Net: Just as with every other theory here, it does ring of truth. What it lacks is evidence. Here's some things that do align:
1) The Ping.
2) Whatever altercation that may have gone down in the motel room.
3) The only REAL reason I can see her running away is the potential financial hit the family would bear should it be discovered she had evaded LE all along and are now at least partly on the hook for repaying the state expenses related to the investigation of the case. Not likely.
4) It's easy to write in the 3rd person about yourself.
Other than that, not much here. Sure would've been nice if someone thoroughly vetted that post when it originated. As it is, it's probably just another dropped ball.
Net: This probably has as much going for it as Rathbun's claims and probably less.
BUT, Good Eye. Hey, that's the skill one acquires when doing this for enough time.
The devil lurks in the details….
1. Didn't Maura attend a party in NH on New Years? Maybe this is where she met her new beau?
2. This means she did, in fact, hit Vasi.
3. It may explain why Kate and Sara are being so quiet; they know she was living a difficult life in all aspects.
4. Maybe it also explains the missing 4k; Fred had an account that Maura had access to. She looted the account and made a run for it.
Good find James.
I remember first reading this about five or six years ago. It is written as if someone else wrote it in her behalf. It makes you ask the question,"how would you know this" But these couple details are interesting and would call into question as to how another person would know this unless they spoke to Maura or she wrote it disguising herself. I always thought and still do, since I first read the above article; this was written with specific detail as if to leave a message
I believe the actual author of the post was none other than someone going by the username "adagio" on Topix forums. Check out this link for more information:
mauramurraycommunity.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/did-adagio-author-the-geocities-post/
By way you should be more specific when you say years ago. It implies that this came out near her disappearance when in reality, it came out in 2009. The actual message can be found below:
maura_alive.neocities.org/index.html
and it clearly shows copyright 2009…
On the old Maura Murray blog put out by Helena Murray, Karen did write in once to say that she had escorted Maura back to the dorm and that she felt extremely concerned because Maura seemed inconsolable or words to that effect. I recall that she did say something to Maura about seeking counseling. The significance of this post is that anybody reading the blog(or whatever it was called in those days) would have likely seen the letter by Karen and immediately realized the importance of the information and could later have decided to weave it into a fictional narrative the writer hoped would fool many people. In the same letter, Karen had suggested that she and Maura might go for Dunkin' Donuts coffee the next day, but I don't think they ever did.
I still think it was her friend Martha from nursing school that wrote the letter, if I'm not mistaken she was living in that area when the letter was written
Two links of note:
findmauramurray.fr.yuku.com/reply/2840/General-Discussion#reply-2840
If that refers to the same posts, and I believe it is, then it would have been in April of '09.
A theory on who the author of the "ring of truth" post might be.
mauramurraycommunity.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/did-adagio-author-the-geocities-post/
The person suspected was active around that same time.
I would love for this to be written by Maura…but I am having a hard time believing that she would implicate herself in so many ways, especially for a person known to be particularly reserved. She could easily tell a similar story with the same intention of stopping people from searching for her without including the hit-and-run, which would definitely create more trouble for herself and her family if she ever did surface in the public again. I also question if she would want to give any region at all for her whereabouts. It just doesn't seem consistent with what we know of her character to include so many incriminating details.
Here's the problem I have: Why would Maura, if it was her that wrote it, straight up admit that she hit Vasi? That would bring exponentially more attention to the situation–it takes it from a voluntary disappearance to a fugitive situation. What's the point?
Put another way, as it says, "Maura Murray has the right as every independent adult does to leave with her new boyfriend and start a new life." In a vacuum that is true. But the inclusion of the Vasi statement makes it untrue and instead makes her in deep shit.
She could have left that detail out entirely and made up whatever explanation she wanted. Similarly, whoever wrote it (if not Maura) could have just made up the "counseling" detail as a random part of the narrative.
The counseling piece is weird, but if it was Maura who wrote it, including the Vasi part is even weirder by far.
At the time of the original Geocities post, had Maura's name ever even been connected to Vasi? (I have no idea if it was or not).
I dunno, I actually do think there is a good chance Maura hit Vasi, and I think the Geocities story could be true and could well have been written by someone who knows Maura, but my initial thought is she didn't write it herself.
It's a very legit discussion point though, good call.
I'm splitting hairs here but I think, being a former cadet, Maura would have said she was "separated" from West Point instead of "she was asked to leave." She knew how serious it was being formally outprocessed from West Point and the Army for shoplifting—-definitely NOT as simple as being asked to leave. If this had happened in her last 2 years there, she would have been on the hook for full repayment of her tuition or she could have been ordered to enlist.
I think the 12 MN catch is extremely significant. That's the kind of telling detail that's much more indicative of an unintentional slip by the writer than an intentional Easter egg by a scammer. I'd be more inclined to think it was written by a close friend of Maura's, who might have suggested it (perhaps repeatedly over time) as a way to get people to stop investigating the case, with Maura's permission but not collaboration. It scans more that way.
I don't think the New Hampshire crash was staged. She hit that snowpack hard enough to blow the airbags and inflict severe damage, she easily could have been injured.
Peter
I just feel if it was her she would have never owned up to the hit! Too much risk there.
I could see this as being one of her friends though!
Don't believe this one bit. This person begs to leave Maura alone but tells us where she is living? Makes no sense to me.
What is GeoCites?
IF the writer is Maura, why would she give away where she is? Isn't the idea of running away not to tell anyone where they are?
If it isn't Maura, but a friend or family member, then aren't they being pretty stupid as to give away location and admitting she's a hit and run driver? Granted, I'm not sure how extradition laws work in a situation like that, but still.
Be it real or not, it is interesting.
What's the link? Even if the site doesn't exist, The Way Back Time Machine website could help.
Good effort James but I see two big gaping holes in your theory that Maura wrote the letter.
1) Do we really believe that Maura would implicate herself in the Petrit Vasi Hit and Run?
2) You say "Because until I interviewed her, Maura's supervisor, Karen Mayotte had NEVER been interviewed. Not by police. Not by reporters."
I don't buy it and here is why.
A)You interviewed Karen in 2011 and there have been many references to Karen M and her happenings with Maura well before 2011. I believe that Mary Beth Conway possibly interviewed Karen back in 2007 mauramurrayblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/whitman-hanson-express-maura-is-missing-series.pdf
I say this because of this one statement in her article
" Karen Mayotte, who walked her back to her single room in the
Kennedy dormitory around 1:20 a.m. Maura never told Mayotte why she was upset. Supervisors
are on a 30-minute rotation so Mayotte would not have been present for Maura's entire shift."
OK even if Marybeth didn't speak to Karen, it was known by at least 2007 that she was escorted back to her room by Karen.
The Geocities letter from what I can find , looks like it may have been written in 2009. I base this solely on the chatter on forums at the time. I have not found the original post.
Maybe James Leone can help with that.
Good Catch.. Intriguing.
"The supervisor then physically helped Maura back to her dorm room and recommended counseling."
If Karen hadn't told anyone, that she had suggested counseling to Maura,then who ever wrote this would of had to of known about it.
Perhaps, who ever wrote this thought it would make people stop searching for Maura.
IMO- Maura hitting Vasi hasn't been eliminated. I still think there's a chance, Maura did hit him. It fits the timeline. Maura should of had a break during her Thursday night shift. What time did Maura take a break?
Could the police not be releasing the ATM video because it shows the Saturn with damage to it?
Most people aren't going to use MN to symbolize midnight. Who would write 12 MN? A nurse, or someone studying to be a nurse?
Comments:
"walked down the road to where her boyfriend was waiting for her in his car. "
This would explain why the scent dogs lost her a bit away from her car.
I concur the counseling bit it weird. That's a pretty detailed description.
Another question: it says her bf was already in NH. It's been said she went with friends and was spotted up there with them. Did she go with friends for safety/companionship, part with them, stage her accident, and hop a ride?
Kate's comment of "Maybe that's what she was trying to do and something happened" was interesting.
If she ran off with a boyfriend, who is he? Wouldn't he have been reported missing as well? Unless he's from Quebec, but wouldn't his family/friends find it odd, him just showing up with some girl from Mass? Wouldn't someone from Maura's life know who he was, a dorm mate, team member, fellow nursing student, someone who could've mentioned his name in the past 12 years? I don't know, I don't find this plausible.
Didn't you conclude that the empirical evidence points away from her hitting Vassi?
If true, Maura is a giant coward and I have zero sympathy. Lots of people disappoint their parents. And lots of people move away, without disappearing, and create a new family.
Maura's alleged actions, if the statement is true, are beyond cowardly.
idk
I think if she were running away there wouldn't have been communications regarding a place to stay in the mountains.
The googlings and this
"Rausch decided to call the second number, which was to Dominic and Linda Salamone of Wakefield, Mass. In the course of Raush's conversation with Linda Salamone, she claims that she realized the Salamones own a condo in Bartlett, NH — the same condo association the Murray family vacationed in years past. "
I think it's very likely that crashing her father's car at a time he was having issues himself was a catalyst for wanting a breather away from responsibilty.
It doesn't read to me like something Maura would write. If genuine, it reads more like something someone very close to Maura would write.
Didn't that letter come from Taunton?
I wonder if anyone has looked into missing males from that time period.
I agree, that the author could be Martha, her friend from Nursing class.
Could Martha be the fellow nursing student Maura called on 2-9-04. Trying to return a borrowed lab coat??
Also, Butch Atwood use to live in Tauton, Mass..
It's a nearly-dead web hosting site. It was eventually acquired by Yahoo and slowly lost popularity.
The post JR references may be archived somewhere and perhaps one of the geeks here can retrieve it.
jwb … agreed. To implicate herself or by proxy via a confidante makes NO sense.
BTW, better go look at the post, "C'mon …" over there. Good stuff. Yeah. An interesting puzzle may have been busted. It pertains to the "Matthew the Hunter" Topix post. You know, the fellow you've been trying to find but can't? His post appears to be code. The hairs will stand on your head, trust me.
absolutely this can fit. Ive always wondered if BR was a pro or a con to her. if this is the case, cant but help wonder if he helped navigate…
I wrote a post on Reddit about this very theory(toomanyquestions). I do like the point about the nursing time. I never knew that 12MN stands for 12 midnight. I never caught that.
The problem with this theory, in my opinion, has to do with the "other" man. If there really was another man, he seems to be more of a ghost than Maura Murray. If, for example, Petri accident or her dad's car accident was the catalyst for her leaving, what would be the point to hide emails on her computer beforehand? Why would police not be able to track down any emails, notes, phone calls, etc? Many times men and women are seen leaving each other's dorm room. Do any of Maura Murray's neighbors at the dorm every remember another guy? Did Maura Murray ever discuss another man with any of her girlfriends?
And finally there is the accident itself. If it was staged, what man lets his woman crash a car intentionally? Airbags can cause serious injury. I think most females would be kind of scared of the airbag deployment if the accident was planned. Also, what would be the point of all the alcohol. Skidding off the road on a sharp curve like, in mid winter, does not require being drunk.
As for what happened to Maura Murray is anyone's guess. Since there does not seem to be any murder suspect and since she has not been spotted in over 12 years, there is a possibility that her bones might be out there in the New Hampshire forest and I might actually leave it at that, but why did no one ever find the backpack?
I think the answer that everyone is eventually going to have to leave this case at when answering the question, "What happened to Maura Murray?":
I don't know.
Maura Murray self-orchestrates her own miraculous disappearance, then returns in a chat forum to direct people to where she can be found and confess to a felony no one knew she had committed? Sure, why not?
Couldn't it be someone who was previously close to Maura and knew what was going on with her but was sworn to secrecy? Maybe this person didn't want to hold it in any longer, but still wanted to remain anonymous when they wrote the post. Or it's simply a troll who pieced together information being discussed on the case and made up the tale. This seems most likely.
You should know that the dog track was bogus. I have that on authority from LE who contacted me when I was writing the blog from James. I've posted about it before, so I won't repeat here. But feel free to email me if you want more info about it. John888green[at]gmail.com
The letter does read like it's from a close friend. Sure trolls have the capacity to write similar things if they read enough and string things together.
I still think she had nothing to do with the Petri thing though. I think whoever wrote it was doing what any follower of the case would do. There are always lots of theories and "definitive" sounding comments. Kate did imply she might have been trying to run away, but that something happened.
Who the fuck know. I'm going back to enjoying my Saturday because I will never know until someone comes forward.
I will say that unless someone is actually trying to kill you, or emotionally manipulating you beyond measure, running away is cowardly.
The wording and vocabulary used seems almost too good to be true. It seems like this "Maura" is using words that a normal person wouldn't normally think of, i.e. "tandem driver". That seems to much like the lingo used by people who have been following the Maura Murray narrative. Also, it seems like the story nicely covers each disputed point in the case, bringing in everything to a smooth, complete conclusion that covers all bases. The writer doesn't go too deep into other random facts that the public might not know about.
Also, hadn't Maura only been in nursing school for 2-3 weeks at this point? Would she have already been in the habit of saying MN instead of midnight? Seems unlikely.
After the forensic analysis was done on the paint found on Vasi's clothes, it was concluded that the color did not match Maura's Saturn. Therefore, it has been almost certainly concluded that she was not the culprit in this hit and run.
Since this post was written before we had this information, I can only assume this was not MM but rather someone who was cherry picking possible credible information at the time to fuel the fire to the theory that MM has adopted a new life and new identity.
We can pretty much rule out this comment as being not authenticate as we have more conclusive forensic proof that MM was not inlvolved in the Vasi accident.
I think a good starting point is figuring out when the rumor about her having something to do with the Vasi accident began. If the RA wrote her comment in 2006, do we have posts that connect MM to the accident going back that far? I have never put any weight on the Vasi/MM connections so I ignored those posts way back then.
Really old forum iirc
I spent way too much time listening to unsolved cases on youtube today -Missing 411, because at this point I'm starting to consider the 'Bigfoot' theory for Maura. (I'm gonna go slap myself as soon as I'm done writing this.)
Back in 1946, a woman named Paula Jean Welden disappeared from a hiking trail in Vermont. What caught my attention was how all the theories of her disappearance parallel Maura's…exactly: ran off with a boyfriend to start a new life, died of exposure, abducted and killed.
She was never found. Go Figure.
After reading extensively on this case, I've come to the conclusion that Maura was probably pregnant and heading up north to have an abortion away from school. If that's true, I don't think the child was Billy's.
The night Maura had the breakdown at work, hadn't she just had a lengthy phone call with her sister? Hadn't they supposedly discussed the sister's troubles with her fiance? What if Maura's sister had told her that her fiance cheated on her? I recall reading somewhere that during her breakdown at work, Maura kept repeating over and over "my sister, my sister." What if she'd hooked up with her sister's fiance and he got her pregnant?
To me this makes the most sense why she'd leave. I'm sure her relationship with her father wasn't the greatest, but to be pregnant by your sister's fiance is unforgivable. I go back and forth on whether or not I think Maura is still alive, but I think the abortion story is the most plausible. Maybe she decided her sister/family would never forgive her, so she decided to start a new life. This would also explain why Fred, Kate and Sara are keeping mum. They know what the truth is but they don't want Maura painted in that light.
Today I read about a woman who had been missing for over 40 years had been found alive in Texas living under a different name. She felt she wasn't ready to be a mother and left to start a new life. This gave me hope that one day Maura's case will be solved too.
"What happened in this motel room we’ll never know."
Maura was 1 of 2 people in the room. If she did post the message, the above makes no sense.
An old website domain provider
So… Maura trusted Sara (and her Dad's demenor) enough to make Sara the bearer of bad news? I mean if Sara said, "Maura left, is never coming back, and will never see you again…" technically Maura is missing to him. And, some dirt bag boyfriend may have taken her (read: rescued her) away.
I personally knew many wards of the state at my state college that had no family at all… they lived in foster care their whole lives, and we're on their own at 18.
Ehhh…this theory is overbaked. Is it weird? Yes. Is it suspicious? Yes. Is it grasping at straws? Yes.
If Maura ran off with a new BF, then he might not be Missing to his family. He could of told them, where he was going and stayed in contact with them.
Sometimes family members don't see each other for years.
I agree, I don't think Maura wrote it herself, but I do think it could be someone close to Maura.
Or it was a troll who put the story together.
It's interesting the Geocite post, came from the area of Taunton,Mass. Wasn't Martha living in that area at the time?
And Butch Atwood was from there.
In nursing school and the three facilities I have worked at since, you always use military time for charting. Midnight would be 0000.
That is just so different from what I pictured. If she were to be running away, she shouldnt have had some communications for stay in the mountains she makes it seem mysterious. And if this really is what happened, this is very disappointing to hear givin the fact that it has been 12 yrs now since she has been speculated as missing. Some bad decision making and terrible actions. But right now I really dont know if thats the truth or not. I simply cant accept that as the answer because that is just bizarre.
Fred has often said "a local dirtbag" took Maura. Could that local dirtbag be a New BF and not someone local, who harmed Maura?
In Fred's statement, to the UMASS police, Fred said " he arrived around 12:00-12:30 called her on phone waited on her to come outside her dorm". So, Fred arrived in Amherst around noon but wasn't able to stop at the bank and withdraw 4,000?
What BF is Fred talking about, when he says " We went to a place in NorthHampton , that her boyfriend had good luck with."
Also, in his statement, IMO- it seems he is trying to put the 4,000 in his hands. He says "We started in Hadley looking at cars $4,000 on my person".
I believe this Maura we're truly living somewhere else and wanted to be left alone, as a few others have said, she simply wouldn't have posted this. Someone who wants to disappear and be left alone doesn't post about it and draw attention to themselves. They just go for the undercover, I believe. And you certainly don't state that you've started a new life, and where, in general, you're located. If you've disappeared intentionally because you want to do so and to be left alone, then you don't draw attention to yourself.
This is a fairly simple explanation that makes a lot of sense.
Oh boy, an anonymous posting that certainly answers all of our questions and neatly ties up all the loose ends, must be legit.
Sorry, anyone in her situation would not divulge her location, nor would they implicate themselves in a criminal offense.
This is fan fiction, pure and simple.
James. 12MN is very regional. JCAHO (Joint Commission) has encouraged all medical practices..hospitals and clinics to move away from abbreviations of any kind. We use military time in medicine. However it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Most likely MN was used by a more experienced heal th health care provider. I have worked in Medicine for 20 years now. This also includes teaching. In fact spent a great deal of time on the east coast in this capacity. I do not think the " MN" has anything to do with healthcare… I love you man.. but sorry.
Despite a close reading of the material about the case, you could be forgiven if you have never come across a brief line in an interview done by a journalist who showed a photo of Maura to a random young woman who lived in Maura's dorm on the same floor who said "I've never seen her before" or words to that effect. A friend and I who discuss the case wondered if Maura was spending a lot of time off campus or even completely living off campus; or maybe the woman who was asked was seldom around the dorm herself. My friend had lived in a large dorm while in college and she said a few of the woman actually lived off campus with boyfriends but even these people my friend new because on rare occasion they would need to show up back at the dorm. Maura was said to have been a secretive person who often withheld stuff from her friends. The whereabouts of such people are hard to pin down.
Whoah. That MN thing caught my eye as I just read this about I wasn't sure what it meant — I just thought it was a smart way to write it. Then when I saw your explanation…? Whoah.
Good point, Jhonez. That's the biggest problem I have with the post as well. If it wasn't Maura who wrote the post, but instead a good friend, adding the information about the Vasi hit is like throwing Maura under the bus, so to speak. If I truly cared about Maura like the poster is suggesting, I wouldn't implicate her in a hit and run.
Mac,
Could you please explain where to find the post "C'mon.." I'm a little confused as to where to find it. Thanks.
Unless she has a serious drinking problem, which has been more than suggested in the past. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that someone would get a couple of pops in them and get reckless (in an assumedly anonymous way) online.
Maura Murray is not alive. jmho
That's all good and well but it doesn't explain why they found MapQuest directions to Bartlett, NH and a couple of places in Vermont.
A runaway wouldn't include the place she was running to and dreamt of residing in. And a friend wouldn't write that either. I smell troll who copied timelines written out by people like us over the years.
and explains why the vasi accident records were still so hard for JR to get for 12yrs ~ an admission of guilt (so to speak) but cant charge a missing-person…
I find it hard to believe that Maura wrote this because like many others have pointed out, she wouldn't have clearly implicated herself, used the "tandem" driver expression and lastly and to me, most importantly, use ridiculously bad grammar. This person spelled "traveled" "travelled" and said "she is happy and contented and.." contented instead of content. This also sounds like someone with law enforcement background wrote these times such as "somewhere between" around 1:00 and 1:30 as to be a very specific timeline to describe everything that "allegedly" went down. Who does that? Someone trying to convince someone else of their theory.
If Maura wrote it, I highly doubt she would say where she was living. If she doesn't/didn't want to be found, she wouldn't make it easier for people to try to track her down.
So, let's entertain the notion that this was Maura. She expects and demands the right to live freely after admitting she almost killed a man in a hit and run? That's not how it works.
This might not be the best place to ask this question but here it goes. Her windshield was cracked from the inside – implying that she hit her head on the inside of windshield. What is the likelihood that she would have hit her head on the windshield hard enough to crack it but then not be covered in blood when the bus driver arrived? Is it possible to hit your head on the windshield if the air bag goes off?
Maybe she was on her way to help her sister repay the money Tim owed his ex because they were being harassed by the ex. maybe Maura was trying to help and got tangled up with the wrong crowd, just like Brianna Maitland.
Travelled with a double L is used in British English. So it is unlikely that Maura, an American would've wrote that.
Difficult to answer if it's possible to hit your head if air bag deploys. Many variables & factors etc.
This is just speculation about MM's car of course, but airbags can cause windshields to crack when they deploy. I have experienced this firsthand. Airbags burst out with a violent force. The airbag itself is not cracking the windshield. The violent force of the deployment causes it to happen. The entire dashboard is affected and the force transfers to the connection to the windshield. Basically the car crash is one huge violent physical trauma to the vehicle and the airbag deployment is a smaller but still violent trauma to the inside of the vehicle. When bags deploy they can destroy the dash & other interior parts. They're meant to protect people, not the car's interior.
It's possible that the accident was staged and the alcohol was a prop. But that does seem to be going a bit far. But then again rationality is not abundant in this whole deal. Who knows.
Jmho?
COUPLE THINGS:
1. No way MM wrote that! Why would she admit guilt in the vasi case?
2. She wouldn't state the area she resides
3. Even if Fred was violent at times they seemed too close for her to go and release private family info like that. Info of that nature could get Fred in legal troubles.
4. Why would she admit this new person in her life helped her (a potential murderer if vasi had died) get away to avoid any questioning?
5. Can someone tell me if Kathleen ever said who this new person was that MM met? Was he spoken to by LE? Did the family ever meet him?
So wow is MM alive…Sadly I think so less and less daily. I still have a notebook full of reasons why & how she could be alive though????
Do we have access to any of Maura's writing? Journals, emails, letters, school assignments, anything? I doubt the GeoCities piece was written by Maura, but it would be interesting to compare it to writing that is definitely hers.
Travelled isn't necessarily a mistake, it's the English way of spelling it which is interesting in itself.
Actually, "travelled" and "contented" are both correct, though used less frequently than the terms you listed. Maura was clearly intelligent, so I would not use the (correct) grammar in the posting to discount her as the author. There are other reasons, however…
So now that you've "noticed" the latest version of the "GeoCities Post" that you put up is edited for content, did you ever find out the source of said edit? You were looking into it.
Thanks for that – I know that airbags deploy at a ridiculous speed but I never considered the trauma they may cause to the car itself. Good points.
This is an amazing piece of detective work! I do believe this could be written by Maura if she was trying to make it sound like it was written by someone else. However, an interesting thing about it is the Taunton connection. It would have to be a family member living in Taunton, either posting it on her own or for Maura because I doubt Maura is there. (I have been to Taunton, btw, and it’s not a very nice area.)
I don’t think Butch Atwood would have enough information to piece this story together (although it’s interesting that he has a Taunton connection).
Although this message could be a piece of fiction it does ring true….even though the timeframe and the car paint of the Petrit Vasi hit call the connection between Maura and the accident into question.
Interestingly, this email potentially answers the question of why Maura would have moved away. Maura might want this in order to provide answers, thinking this may make people stop looking for her. It provides specifics, the “constant criticism” of her father, hints of physical abuse in the hotel room, being a disappointment to dad because of West Point. It doesn’t just list these, it sort of tells how the story unfolded over time. IT RINGS TRUE!
Something to note: I do not believe, if she is alive, that Maura would be concerned about being extradited/prosecuted for the Petrit Vasi hit (were she involved). If she consulted with a lawyer she’d probably realize the statute of limitations likely ran out and there is little proof of her involvement anyway. She is probably not in any legal risk for it even if she were to return to the US, so although the hit-and-run presents her behavior in a questionable light, she probably knows that she’s in the clear as far as that goes.
I forgot to mention that Maura, if alive and happy, has probably grown up a lot since she disappeared. She might have more perspective. She might be in a different place in her life. In addition to wanting to provide answers so she’ll be left alone, she might want to clear her chest about the past; hence, owning up to the Petrit Vasi hit. However, unless Maura is in Taunton it couldn’t be her, so it would have to be her message through a family member or a family member deciding on her own, to reveal all of this.
One more thought! The verbiage about Fred and West Point, "It was his personal bragging point," reveals resentment and anger on the part of the writer. This makes it sound to me like the person who wrote it had genuine feelings behind their words and truly believed Maura wasn't treated well by Fred. Someone trying to fake this post would have a hard time getting the tone right, IMO. As I said before, this rings true. It doesn't just talk about Maura but about both sisters, and the fact that their being in West Point was very important to Fred. How would a stranger know this well enough to piece it together into a coherent story?
Could Maura have wrote this? Of course she could have. No one could ever prove she did or didn't. I mean look at all the people speculating. This is proof in it self that no one can really know. It also could be a way for her to just vent and get away with it. Kind of like Elvis showing up at an impersonation show. All these people pretending to be her but this one just happens to have a little more "proof" to it that it really could be her.
We do. I can't remember where I heard it. Maybe it was the podcast. Someone was reading emails she has sent to her high school friends.
Was the IP address ever traced on that post?
Was the IP address ever traced on that post?
Oh! Just realized I was in nursing school a couple years after her.. MN is not used anymore in nursing. We use military time 00:00 or if you want to make something explicit you would write "Midnight" or "Noon" MN is too vague. I'm sure it was used in older nursing practice. But I don't think they would be teaching that in 2004. We were probably using the same books cuz they only yup date every couple of years. I also got 99% (literally bcz it was all tests.) In my medical terminology class in 2002. Maybe MN was one of the ones I missed..ha!
Thank you! That was the point I was trying to make. I don't think in 2004 they were teaching MN.. I started my prereqs for nursing school in 2002.. and it was drilled into us to only use military time and/or the words "Midnight" or "Noon".
Thanks again!
What if this was written by her new "boyfriend"?
I'm a little late to all this, but was someone able to get the IP for original post from Geocities? I mean I know it's old, and it's going to be a dead end, but it might give us some clues to who wrote it.
I don't think Maura would have hidden all this time and then reveal that she's alive in a blogpost. I just find that hard to believe. I think the friends know way more than they have told. I do believe she intended to leave it all behind for whatever reason.
I think almost everything in the GeoCities post is pretty much how it happened, or at least highly plausible, although probably not posted by Maura, herself. Maura could have snuck out from her job to grab coffee or food and hit Vasi. That explains the sobbing when the supervisor arrived. I also think Fred swooped into town with the four grand to try and help her out by either repairing the car before anyone noticed or buying a decent cheap car to replace it. That, or he had it in mind to help her disappear. I also suspect that when Fred, Maura and Kate had dinner before the infamous party, they hatched a plan for Maura to disappear so she wouldn’t have to possibly go to jail for vehicular manslaughter. I don’t buy that she had a new boyfriend that was waiting for her. I think it’s more likely that, if there was a second driver, Kate was the one waiting to pick her up and drove her to her destination. That would explain why Kate was “not around” for a couple of days after the disappearance. The other possibility, which may be more likely, given the fact that Maura was relatively unstable and was drinking and driving the night of the disappearance, is that she actually did unintentionally wreck the car then ran off into the woods and died from exposure, an accident, or something like an epidural hematoma after hitting her head on the windshield. In short, it seems more likely to me that she died that night or that if Kate (or someone) picked up her, she ultimately was taken somewhere and left alone to start a new life. Adding a new boyfriend to the equation seems to complicate things too much, making it more unlikely for her not to be discovered at some point.
“Maura Murray is NOT a Missing Person…”
American Red Cross, Burlington, NH?
American red cross???
There’s already a way to distinguish midnight from midday.