Phone records for both Maura Murray and her boyfriend, Bill Rausch, were published on the Internet years ago and ever since, websleuths have examined them for any clue they could find. Most focus on the last calls Maura made the day of her disappearance and the calls Billy made in the days he was searching for her up in New Hampshire.
However, one group of sleuths on Twitter recently went back to the week before Maura’s disappearance and discovered some interesting calls.
On Friday, February 6, at 9:53 p.m. EST, Billy calls Maura and speaks to her for 8 minutes. Immediately after, Maura calls 580-442-1261, a number for the commander/executive’s office at Fort Sill, Field Artillery Brigade (and deputy commanding officer), where Billy is working at Fort Sill. After that phone call, Billy calls 580-355-4475, which, according to listings online, is the number for Fort Sill’s temporary lodging/Billeting, and a Holiday Inn. The online listing for that number also includes a link to IHG Army Hotel Reservations, which use branded hotels for soldier-related lodgings. Incidentally, one of Billy’s first calls after Fred Murray told him Maura had disappeared was to the only IHG hotel in North Conway, New Hampshire.
After Billy calls the temporary lodging number, he calls his friend “Ben.” [Name changed to protect his identity]. Ben is perhaps Billy’s best friend in the world, a fellow West Point cadet. Ben has remained close with Bill ever since. In fact, Ben’s name came up in the hearings when Billy’s mistress filed for a protection order, in 2019. She alleged that Billy would ask her to have sex with Ben and during at least one of those encounters, Ben assaulted her.
Back to the phone records. The morning before her disappearance, Maura called Billy using her father’s cell phone. The subject of the call is most likely the accident that she had just gotten into using Fred’s car in Hadley, though that has been disputed. The very next call Bill makes after speaking to Maura for the last time is to his best friend, Ben.
(In the voice of Nancy Grace): “Bombshell tonight!”
If you look at Maura’s call log on 2/9, she dodges Bill’s calls.
In her 2pm email to Bill that same day, she writes that she got his messages but didn’t feel like talking to anyone. Not, “Hey, I tried calling you back but it went to voicemail.”
The most interesting part? Maura didn’t check her messages until 4:37pm that day, 2 1/2 hours AFTER she sent that email.
Someone sent that email at 2pm, but I don’t think it was Maura.