Five years ago, my book about the disappearance of Maura Murray, True Crime Addict, was published. The book inspired a documentary for Oxygen, which the Murrays agreed to participate in on the condition that the producers try to “debunk” some of the theories brought out in the book, essentially making me a villain in the piece, a journalist the family could blame for distracting the focus from the goal of finding Maura. I agreed to be a part of it knowing this, because I thought it was important to get everything on the record. But the Murrays’ personal attacks in that show set the tone for the way I’m treated to this day by their most ardent fans.
Maura disappeared the week Facebook launched so it’s poetic that its Facebook the Murrays are using to radicalize their followers to this day. There are two main Facebook pages for Maura’s case. There’s the Official Group, which is moderated by Julie and Kurt Murray. And there’s the Public Figure page, which is moderated in part by Scott Wahl and Erinn Larkin. Each page has around 20,000 followers, the last I counted.
Ever since my book was published, both pages have allowed visitors to say the cruelest and most disparaging things about me – people calling me a heartless monster, suggesting I should be attacked, sued, investigated.
In the last year, I have seen the degree of hate increase exponentially, even as Julie and I began speaking amicably for the first time. Amanda Knox had stepped in as a moderator, in taped interviews for her podcast, which should be out soon. I warned both of them that this behavior was getting out of hand and hurting people. I thought it was only a matter of time before someone showed up on my doorstep.
I was told that Julie and Kurt had no time to moderate comments, or focus on the hate, because their focus was on finding Maura. When I asked them to remove Scott Wahl as mod on the page, after we learned he was the target of an FBI child porn raid, after Julie’s assistant admin told us that Wahl said he was putting tracking devices on a woman’s car, she refused to get involved. When I asked her to remove Erinn Larkin, after we learned how she helped plan a fake hoax in Maura’s case, that was used to keep crimes scene photos from the family, Julie refused to get involved.
And then, last week, someone climbed the stairs of my family’s vacation rental in the Outer Banks, to leave a threatening message ten feet from where my daughter was sleeping. My worst fears had happened. And even after that, instead of an apology, instead of asking their followers to tone it down, the Murrays allowed the hate to continue on their page. Here’s a small sampling:
When I asked about this, I was told the family has no time to moderate the page to filter out the hate. But that argument falls apart when you learn that Julie and Kurt regularly remove posts that call out the haters or are favorable toward me or anyone else in their crosshairs. I’ve been contacted by several people who were banned or removed from the page for speaking out against this behavior. One man was banned for simply showing me these posts. See below for a small sampling.
To add insult to injury, the man I had to seek a restraining order against in the Outer Banks, during my family’s vacation, is still a member of both groups and in good standing with the Murrays.
And it would be one thing if it was just me, the terrible journalist who wrote a book about Maura. But it’s not. The Murrays’ followers have also targeted Maggie Freleng, the journalist from the Oxygen documentary. A private investigator threatened her life and as recently as last week, someone sent her a photo of her decapitated head. Their behavior has also lost them support from US Marshal Art Roderick. And in a rare move, the nonprofit Let’s Bring Them Home, rescinded a $75,000 reward because of their behavior.
All we ever asked was for the Murrays to say directly, “Please do not attack these people or their families.” And they didn’t. And someone finally came to my doorstep. And even then, they refused.
This is truly getting out of control. The entire point of this was trying to help Murray family get answers about their missing daughter Maura. Nobody is perfect and the “True Crime Addict” book put more spotlight on the Finding Maura Murray. Mr. Murray went to court to fight for the FOI info which is commendable. Does anyone truly realize there are so many missing person cases out there. Go check the N.H. missing persons page. Now I am sympathetic to the Murray’s plight they want answers about their daughter. The Murray’s are blessed to have so much attention focused on their daughters case. Seriously if you can not find the time to check a Facebook group which is SUPPOSED TO HELP YOU FIND MAURA then you are not really doing alot of looking since social media is how you get the info out there, get tips coming in, find people who are putting fake tips and yes there are trolleys out there. So this is to the Murray’s who are running the group in Maura’s name. Take the time so you can maybe find the answers you should be focusing on. Instead of patting yourself on the back and putting someone down that was there in the beginning when Nobody even knew who Maura Murray was. You should be ashamed if yourselves. There are many families with missing family members who would give anything to have some spotlight shed on there cases. Why don’t you take some time and share some of those cases on your group and help others instead of doing all this trolling, name calling, back stabbing and get to the issue of finding Maura. Do you think this stuff is helping find her? .
I have been removed from one of the groups for defending you. It’s ridiculous. The other group has been taken over by one or two really strange people who are determined to pin everything on Butch. The guy literally has extended conversations with himself multiple times a day.
Honestly, at some point, you just have to call this what it is. The “no time” excuse is just unbelievable.