A source close to the investigation revealed last week that fingerprints found inside Maura Murray’s car have been matched to former West Point cadet Steffen Baldwin. Later that day, Baldwin, himself confirmed it. Below, you will find a video that goes into greater detail but here’s what we know so far.
- Steffen Baldwin attended West Point at the same time as Maura Murray, under his birth name Steffen Finkelstein. According to Steffen, while he was a cadet he was in a relationship with Maura Murray for some time and acted as her student representative in front of the judicial review board when she got in trouble there. He left West Point within a week of when Maura withdrew from the school. He changed his name after Maura disappeared in 2004.
- Steffen Baldwin is semi-famous in the dog rescue world and ran his own rescue in central Ohio for many years before dogs started going missing. A lengthy investigation began and we eventually learned that Steffen was having dogs needlessly euthanized in order to create space for more dogs to be sent to his facility, in an effort to generate more money. He was also taking these funds from his nonprofit for personal use.
- Authorities found that Steffen had killed at least 18 dogs in Ohio and as many as 100 cats. When he learned he was under investigation, he fled to California, where he started a new business and killed another 18 dogs. He was arrested in August, 2020 and charged with 42 felonies, including cruelty to companion animals, grand theft, bribery, and impersonating a peace officer.
- After his arrest, police in Ohio entered Steffen’s fingerprints into AFIS, the national database for fingerprints. A short time later, New Hampshire State Police Cold Case Unit detective Charles West contacted police in Ohio and informed them that Steffen’s prints had hit on evidence in the Maura Murray case. At that time, he told others that Steffen was his “number one suspect.” West began to make plans to come to Ohio to speak with Steffen but then abruptly quit his position with the unit, explaining that his decision was due in part to the drama that surrounded the case and the actions of “advocates” working with the Murray family.
- The FBI visited Steffen in the Spring of 2024 and finally questioned him about the case. According to Steffen, he was told that his prints had been found on a CD or a CD case found in Maura’s car. He denied any involvement in her disappearance. Shortly after the visit, Steffen sent an email to the FBI agent, that included memories of his time at West Point with Maura, including a time when he got in trouble for having her in his room. He said he believed another cadet had been stalking Maura, but was unable to provide a full name so take that with a grain of salt. I’ve included the email below.
- Last Thursday, Steffen was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his crimes in Ohio.
- After posting my initial podcast after the fingerprint match, I was contacted by a former girlfriend of Steffen’s who went into detail about his abusive behavior. In fact, two of his former girlfriends have died (one overdosed, one in a car crash while intoxicated) and she believes his abusive behavior contributed to their deaths.
- Steffen’s mother, Barbara Baldwin is currently missing, though it’s unclear if any family member has filed an official report, as she was estranged from them for years. She was last known to be in southern California and may have changed her name to “Nike Powers” around 2017.
- Steffen claims that he’s never been to UMass or the state of New Hampshire. If you have any information that places him there, I’d be very interested to know about it. Feel free to contact me directly at jameswrenner [at] gmail [dot] com.
