In light of the new strangeness regarding the possibility that Maura Murray called Billy Rausch using a calling card two days after she disappeared, I’m reviewing some long-held assumptions. From the very beginning, there was a rumor that the reason Maura Murray had to do something about her car so quickly – and a motive for running – was because she hit Petrit Vasi with her car and fled the scene, the night she had the mental breakdown on campus four days before she vanished.
I spoke to Vasi years ago and he didn’t remember anything about the accident or the moments before it happened. He thought it was probably not connected to Maura’s disappearance. And so, mostly because of that, I wrote it off. Read more of my articles on Vasi here.
But I just took the time to watch this excellent series of videos that break down the case for Maura hitting Vasi in a very understandable way.
The director of this series is Ryan Koltalo. And in his video he shows how, in talking about Vasi, Sharon Rausch and others made a point to not mention that Maura was on the phone with Billy at the time of the Vasi hit-and-run. He also shows how Sharon Rausch, and, perhaps, Helena Murray, used aliases on Websleuths to steer the conversation away from the hit and run in the early days of the investigation.
I think there was a traumatic reason she became so upset. Hit and run would qualify. If Vassi has no recollection I don’t see why he would discount Maura. Bill once again is in the mix and I see no excuse why the phone call wouldn’t be disclosed unless it would incriminate him or possibly expose Maura’s accident. Bill wouldn’t be held responsible even if he urged her to leave I would think.
Maybe, just maybe it wasn’t Maura driving the Saturn when and if it struck Vasi..!
There are so many possibilities of who could have been behind the wheel of the Saturn
I have always believed it was Maura who hit Patri vasi.. And I still believe this is the case.
Explain the yellow paint chips, we were told, found at the scene.
Perhaps it was debris from another accident. There’s all kinds of material bits on the streets.
The yellow paint chips where said to have been from the road paint in the police docs.
I don’t expect to ever find out exactly why MM disappeared that night. My fascination has always been with those four weird days before it happened, and figuring out what the heck might have really been going on around her.
The Vasi angle suggests explanations for several of the events of those days that have always seemed off.
“She could get there in 6 minutes or less.” Wasn’t there snow on the ground at that point, or ice?
Several thoughts:
1. Why assume MM RAN from her job to the car? Not unlike the many theories associated with Haverhill which speculate MM was RUNNING down the road away from the Saturn. Why is someone in a heavy winter parka of some sort RUNNNING? And at what pace is she running? Was she sprinting to make it in 7 minutes? Jogging?, Was she in boots for the snow storm or her track sneakers?
2.If she is RUNNING because she’s not supposed to be away from the security desk then why would she take the long way to the store? Regardless of whether she was running or not, she was AWOL from the security desk, why go the long way?
3. Why assume she ran over the grassy area? Was there any previous snow accumulation on the grassy area? It would make little sense to trudge through the accumulated snow in the grassy area when she more likely would have used the cleared sidewalks etc. So shouldn’t the estimate of time to RUN over the grassy area be slowed down, assuming she did that.
4. This fact I do not know but it is not mentioned in the video, did the U Mass police investigation conclude which direction of travel the H and R vehicle was travelling when it hit Vasi? MM would be traveling towards the stores and regardless of any distraction, even if she swerved into the opposite lane of travel, she could only strike Vasi on either his L or his R side depending on which way Vasi was crossing the road. In other words, if the police investigation concluded that, for example, Vasi’s L side would be exposed to traffic coming the way the video suggests MM was travelling and the contact injuries are on his R side MM couldn’t have been the one who hit him.
A couple of other thoughts:
It has to be assumed that the U Mass police issued some kind of bolo for a vehicle with front end damage and were looking for it while patrolling the night of the Vasi accident. The video concludes that the timeline works only if the Saturn went into one of only a few lots. Assuming the Saturn was in one of those lots, how did the police miss it? Granted there was a snowstorm the night of the accident but, presumably, the Saturn was in the lot until Monday. Wouldn’t the police have gotten the snow plowers to bolo as well? If the Saturn was where the video suggests, how was it missed?
If the answer is that the Saturn didn’t go into one of those campus lots and left the campus, then doesn’t that eliminate MM as the driver? The timeline for her to get back at the security desk would be unworkable.
If the answer is someone else was driving the Saturn and they stashed it off campus, then who was that? Where was it stashed? Any suspects?
As the video correctly notes, Lot 12 is considerably far from Melville on foot and it is a stretch to think she would run just to pick up items in or around town. With that being said, she is a D1 level runner, after all. But would someone sprint a 14 mile walk just to get a snack on a 15 min break? To give you an idea, the UMass basketball and hockey arena is within that 14 min walk. It is not a quick destination for someone’s short work break.
The video is pretty good in terms of the geography of campus and the surrounding town. But note that it mentions Russell’s Liquors. Russell’s is indeed vert close to Triangle street. As it relates to her break from work, parking around Russell’s is scarce, and this would add significant time to he trip (assuming she cared about making it back on time).
If she stopped at a liquor store during this piece of the story (her break from work), it is much more likely she did so on University Drive, which is closet to Melville in terms of drive time vs. foot traffic.
A side note about the Vasi hit: in my time at the university (2007 on), party houses were in that area and Triangle Street was not particularly well lit if memory serves
The weather in February 2004 on campus, would not allow for a 7 min. run to the car.