In 2006, the non-profit organization Let’s Bring Them Home, was contacted by members of Maura Murray’s family and immediately put up a $75,000 reward for information that would bring closure to the case. The offer made headlines but the reward was quietly rescinded later and a member of the organization contacted me this week to explain why.
She says Fred Murray’s behavior and Helena Dwyer-Murray’s secrecy raised red flags.
Fred was difficult. Often hostile. Very controlling. I did
everything he told me to do and that was the extent of the
relationship. He would only talk to me when he felt like and IF he
felt like and then he abruptly cut off all communication once the law
suit was filed to obtain police records. I was fine with that — I
found him to be difficult and at the time I was helping dozens of
other families like his.Helena was nice enough but she held back information. It was strange.
I never felt like I was getting the full story. They were all
secretive. It frustrated me because I did a lot of interviews for
them back then about the reward and Maura’s case.I backed out of the case slowly…. and have never spoken to anyone
again about it until I emailed you.
I asked her what she thought Helena was holding back. Here’s her reply.
She wouldn’t answer direct questions unless it was on the phone . She
wasn’t going to do it in writing. And even then she hedged a lot. At
the time, I was trying to understand Maura’s mental state of mind.
We were, after all, offering a very large reward for information in
the case.I ended up pulling the reward about 3 months later. I wasn’t trying
to be ugly to the family but there were too many demands put upon our
organization by the Murray family.
A screen shot of one of Fred’s emails to the organization is above, in which he says he wants to hear all tip voicemails that come in before anyone else listens to them.
Another thing she found weird were the hang-up calls the tip line sometimes received. Each hang-up was logged and the phone number traced. It went to a phone listed under Julie Murray’s name.
And for those saying this isn’t such a big deal:
The Murray's may not know exactly where M is ~ but they sure know where's she's not…. and why. FM strikes me as the type that would do anything not to have "Egg on his Face".
That email response from Fred is very eerie
I am more concerned with Julie calling and hanging up than the emails.
Fred is just a stereotypical white male who is used to being the boss.
I think that because there are some bigger family secrets that paint multiple people as being "human" and flawed, his narcissism and ego go into protective mode (mostly of himself)
He likely has a mini idea of why she went up there and it could've been to get a breather from him, Bill, etc…
But I do think the knowledge stops there.
Where was she not? And why?
Family phone plans usually just show the Name of the Account Holder when they pop up on the caller ID….. just sayin. ~might not actually have been JM making those calls *wink*
I think you are on to some things. One of my disappointments with the Oxygen series is they were a little too trusting with all the information they got. They took everything they were told at face value and I don't think they or anyone should do that in a (possibly) criminal case.
Wow! It always comes back to Fred and family. I hope we get the answers someday soon. Thanks, James.
This is insane. I just looked up Reddit after you posted that screenshot and found the subreddit for Maura. I am shocked by comments of people acting like it's not a big deal and making excuses for why it's normal. Oh, and then of course there are conspiracy theories about THIS already ("someone [obviously they are implying Law Enforcement] probably forced them to pull the reward because it was too juicy for people to pass up and they don't want any tips coming forward"). I want to bang my head against a wall reading the comments there. Does anyone have common sense? Does anyone understand that it's literally impossible for every turn of the case to involve a conspiracy theory? Does anyone understand that it's completely abnormal for a father to try to work AGANST and put demands on a non-profit organization that just put 75 grand on the line for your daughter?!
Believe me when I say that I am not in Freds corner but my first impression of Fred wanting the emails first was due to him having a disdain for law enforcement and this was drilled in his head by a former LE turned PI 🙂
I've read about MANY missing persons cases. The Murrays are the only family who've acted overly weird from the beginning.
And it's telling that her little brother once asked "why did you run from us?"
Sad but telling.
he likely wanted them first in case there is negative info that he needed to control and get in front of.
A like for the above comment
Homerun. @Anon 3.29.18 @4:53pm
Why did this comment get approved? I thought we were talking about the case, not grinding our personal political ax.
I completely agree with your comments here. All anyone has to do is research what it takes to put that kind of reward up for a missing person — and that is a very LARGE reward — and how much that puts the nonprofit organization at risk. I would guess the verbiage of the reward was specific and there were specific rules in place by the organization… and it sounds like Fred was most likely trying to break those rules to get his "own" way. It's too bad really. $75k could get people to talk….
I was just reading this article from The New Yorker, about a young woman who suffered from a dissociative fugue disorder: How a Young Woman Lost Her Identity It made me wonder, has there been any serious investigation into the possibility that Maura Murray might have disappeared as a result of that same disorder? On the face of things, that would seem a very low probability, but all the other scenarios that have been suggested are also very low probability, and "very low" does not mean zero. One low probability scenario has to be true, the question is just which one.
I think there are many secrets in the Murray family. Fred is a lot like Bill (and Bill's mom), controlling and manipulative. I thought I read somewhere that Fred had a dui in his past. There is definitely some substance issues in the family. Also, Bill's sister committed suicide at their family home. I wonder what the full story is on that situation? So many questions..so many secrets.
Could their bizarre behavior be due to believing that a police officer is behind her disappearance and there is a cover-up? (Btw, I don’t believe this one bit, but I think the family could think it.) If they believe police are involved in her disappearance, perhaps they don’t don’t trust police to handle tips properly.
That’s one possible explanation. But it sure is odd.
This is exactly the kind of thing that keeps giving me the feeling that the people in the inner circle — and very possibly LE too — know most or all of the truth about what happened to Maura and are just holding back. Just _so_ many incongruous actions that make no sense and aren’t seen in any other missing-persons case you can name.