I can share a few more details from the cashier from Butson’s in Woodsville who claims she saw Maura with two friends an hour before her disappearance. She personally checked their ID as they purchased alcohol. She says all the women had out-of-state ID.
They were all out of state. Two were Mass, the third CT or NY. This is why I reported the sighting to the store manager.
I can also verify that the Cold Case Unit has this new lead and are very interested. I find this witness to be highly credible. The Murray family has known about this lead from week 1. More on that soon.
what an amazing turn of events….great job Mr. Renner.
This makes a lot of sense. It explains why the rentals she was looking for were for more than one person. It would also suggest that Maura never planned to come back. That’s why there were separate cars. The girls were gonna have a final goodbye party and then drive back leaving Maura to continue on. The accident threw a monkey wrench into those plans, and as Renner said, “The tandem car then turned around and picked Maura up.”
This just occurred to me after I posted the previous comment: The girls would have had to have been behind Maura for them to pick her up. If they were ahead of her, how would they have known she was in an accident?
First and foremost, thanks for posting..Maybe that's who she was calling??? We know it wasn't AAA.
This may also explain the cabin. Nothing concrete, but just maybe the break we needed.
Curious if the girls were in class on Monday and Tuesday.
They could have easily turned around if they hadn't seen Maura in their rearview mirror for a couple of miles. I would turn around …
Yes, good point.
I would be curious to know if LE has investigated the two girls email and cell phone records as well.
If in fact this was a credible sighting, it begs the question as to why two vehicles. Why wouldn't the girls hop into one good working car. Were they on a mission to intentionally ditch Mauras car?
Maybe they departed from 2 different places. Or they had to be back at school sooner than Maura. What bugs me is that school started back that week, why would they take a trip at that time in the first place?
They all had to be back at school
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Maura never planned to come back. That’s why there were separate cars. The girls were gonna have a final goodbye party and then drive back leaving Maura to continue on. The accident threw a monkey wrench into those plans, and as Renner said, “The tandem car then turned around and picked Maura up.”
I remember back at the site run by Helena Murray that there were a series of posts about the fact that Butch Atwood (may he rest in peace) said that the girl he saw at the car had her hair down. To their credit family partisans admitted that Maura always kept her hair up, so it was rather unusual for her to have been wearing it down. Naturally a woman or two wrote to say that they also would put their hair down during long drives when nobody was likely to notice. It was all very interesting and it brought up the possibility that the young woman Butch saw could have been someone other than Maura. Now it seems that such conjecture may have not been without merit. Also many of you will recall that Rick F. maintained that he saw "a young person running" who seemed to be trying to avoid being seen as his car approached her/him.
There is a lot in this new development that is mind-blowing to contemplate.
John Avellar
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Didn't she also have a cell phone?
She did and I am sure her friends did also. As previously disclosed, cell service in the area was (and still is) horrible. On rt 112, it is spotty at best from Woodsville to the top of the hill by Beaver Pond on the way to Lincoln.
Hi Michael.
I have never heard about or seen anything indicating that the girls were or were not in class/back at UMASS on Tuesday or Wednesday. But, from two sources, I do know that Kate was with the track team at a meet at Boston University (the Valentine Day Invitational) the following Saturday. In May of 2013 I talked with Maura's UMASS coach, Julie LaFreniere, who recalled Kate being at that meet because she was openly distressed during the trip. I also was contacted by a former teammate of Maura's (whose I identity I verified and who I later met in person) who told me that she believed that Kate was at the meet in Boston. That person also mentioned that coach Lafreniere told the team about Maura's disappearance during the trip to that meet. Of course, by then Maura was not on the team anymore and had not been for 9 months.
~ John Green
Hi JWB. I hope things are good.
For various reasons, I have long speculated that Fred knew of whatever enterprise lied behind the trip north. In fact, I wonder if the trip was not supposed to happen on Sunday morning. Perhaps Maura was headed to his hotel at the odd hour, so they could double car up there, getting an early enough start to give him a chance to get back to Bridgeport that Sunday. My proof (published here long ago) that Fred lied in his statement to the UMASS police when he said he or he and Maura picked up Kate in "student lot" on 9:30 tends to corroborate this. I feel that Fred said that recognizing that when he switched cars with Maura (leaving his and taking hers) he might have been seen in the lot. (If you want me to remind as to why I think he was lying, let me know). What he really may have been doing was turning wrenches (or having them turned) on the Saturn in preparation for the trip north. Maura was on the way to the hotel in the Corolla to embark north, but her accident aborted the plans, delaying them until the next day. Here's a new twist: how did Maura get to the hotel after the Corolla accident? Maybe Kate or Sara were there. For I will tell you this, there is no way on God's green earth a towing company would have given her the ride and no way a cop would have allowed. Too much liability and against POD SOPs for really good reasons.
~ John Green
Maybe I'm misunderstanding and/or my memory is off, but wasn't the car towed to the hotel? If that's the case, then I don't see why Maura couldn't have gotten a ride with the driver to the car's destination.
And regardless I would think that following the accident somebody (either the tow truck driver or, more likely, the cop) would FOR SURE call Fred, as the owner of the car, in advance of Maura or the car going anywhere, to make sure everything was above-board.
I've actually never considered that before, do we know whether or not that happened? As far as I know it didn't, which is weird.
Hi jhonez.
Fred's statement to the dude from Saco, Maine – although related third hand here – indicates that he did not pick up Maura at the scene of the Corolla accident. So too does his statement to UMASS police.
As far as Maura getting a ride with the tow driver, after I looked into that issue a while back, I concluded that that did not happen. Neither the police officer at the scene nor a tow driver would be willing to let that happen. There is a lot of potential liability for both parties in that case, particularly given that we are taking about a drunk college student. (Of course, some of this is overshadowed, or made more bizarre by the the fact that the officer did not hold Maura over night, and – when asked about that by James – hung up on him.) I confirmed with two people who own towing companies that it is unlikely that Maura got a ride with the tow driver. One of those companies was the one that bought the company that actually towed Maura's car.
~ John Green
Great work. I always felt the alcohol was of key importance to the case, principally the amount and the fact she took it with her at the expense of everything else. If this is all shown to be true it shows Maura was in a hurry with those girls, going somewhere. And they were seemingly going somewhere to get very drunk.
This all makes the rag stuffed up the exhaust all the more sinister. And if (and its a big if) this is all true then it deals the compelling suicide theory a blow.
I hope it is all true, it would be a massive break in the case. Look to the fine details Mr Renner.
Hi. I only heard about this case today (in the UK) via a TV programme called ‘Disappeared’ – and I’ve never before followed up on a programme! The first thing that struck me was ‘what happened to the rest of the alcohol’? Also, I don’t know if I’ve read the Police Despatch correctly; there was a man seen smoking in the car when the initial call was made. I haven’t seen it mentioned before, but I only started looking through all this information a couple of hours ago.
@john888green a tow company in new hampshire will more thank likely give someone a ride. i've had a break down in the north east and the truck driver thankfully allowed me into the cabin
It is well known that Maura did in fact get a ride to the hotel with the tow truck driver.
Was the cashier ever shown pictures of Kate and Sara to see if it was them?