Twenty Years Later and UMASS runner, Maura Murray, is Still Missing...

Did Bulger do it?

Sounds like she was in general distress and trying to get away, though who knows for how long. Going hiking in the White Mountains in winter seems like a pretty risky thing to do though, and I think its fair to assume she wasn't in her right mind at the time (alcoholism, charged with using a stolen credit card, dad going to dinner with her friend??) Maybe getting in the accident was the last straw for a very frustrated young person.

I also don't like this detail: "Another local resident driving home from work claims she passed by the scene [of Ms. Murray's accident] around 7:37 pm, and saw a police SUV parked face-to-face with Murray's car. She pulled over briefly and did not see anyone inside or outside the cars, and decided to continue home. This witness's statement contradicts the official police log, which has Haverhill police arriving nine minutes later."

I had just read of a case where a person imitated a police officer to kidnap and murder a young woman. Not saying its proof positive that this is what happened, but could be? Some dude cruising for a victim and finding his perfect mark just standing around outside a wrecked car?

Yeah, the last episode on Media Pressure that I listened to was focused on the cops and their failure to properly investigate. There were some sketchy situations, including the chief drunk driving and getting into an accident that evening, taking the SUV into a ditch! Cecil Smith, the first responding officer, actually arrested the chief, Jeff Williams for DUI a few years later. He resigned and Smith became chief! The family said that they were suspicious of the cops from the start. Cecil Smith committed suicide years later but it was said to have been related to his Parkinson's diagnosis...

All pretty wild. Thanks for posting about this, I'll be checking out the podcast.

How is it "intriguing?"

Let people live their lives, and mind your own business.

I'd like to say I'm the first person to take interest, but many folks were "intrigued" by the lack of resolution in this case. No body, no missing person found, and few answers. It is a case where many of the people involved may remind you of folks in your own circle. The successful runner piece is another thing. Many people here ran on a team with someone like Maura or have a sister or daughter now. It's a crazy case, one of many, but a late friend of mine covered her races as a journalist and knew the family. Also, there's a little local element for Mass. folks. People want answers - for themselves - and for the family.

I think its wild that she used a stolen credit card but was allowed to work security.

She either hitchhiked with the wrong person who killed her or she died of exposure trying to walk drunk into the white mountains and her body is in the woods somewhere.

The internet really was young back then. It surprised me that despite letsrun being around then, there was no thread posted around that time.

There must have been a true crime show/podcast on her lately as there are at least 2 subreddits dedicated to the case and posts throughout the internet over the past year or so.

I think these are the most likely answers. As for the young internet thing, man you aren't kidding. Even as an old guy it's shocking to think how different things are now, this story would have been all over every platform within days. Even looking at the quality of the photos of her on the website dedicated to her, and the clothes/hairstyles the people have in them, it feels like such a bygone era even though it was just 20 years ago.

Yep. Stole from the commissary at Fort Knox, then she was brought up on an honor code violation at West Point; left after her sophomore year; stole credit card numbers at UMASS to order pizza and put on probation; crashed and totaled her father's new car at 3 a.m. coming home from a party...no DUI test conducted; speeding tickets in NH and suspended license. Then there's another - probably unfounded theory - about a hit and run that took place at UMASS that put a guy in a coma. He lived but was still in that state at the time of her disappearance. All of these issues may have affected her nursing license approval. The security job was more like signing people into dorms but I see your point.

Agree. All the evidence that I've seen actually proves that she did NOT do that. NH Fish and Game was all over the surrounding area and absolutely nothing was found to back that theory. This was posted in GeoCities a few years back and it connected to an IP address in Taunton, MA. Three people connected to Maura lived or had ties to Taunton 1) Butch Atwood - the last person to see her; bus driver who lived across the street from the accident and stopped to talked to her before going home to call 911 after she "begged" him not to. 2) Kathleen Murray - may possibly been the poster and her aunt, father's sister 3) Martha Nagle Vivar - possibly related to Maura by marriage, now lives in Seattle - thought to possibly be the poster of this message.

This was on GeoCities, an old board:

Maura Murray has the right as every independent adult does
to leave with her new boyfriend and start a new life. Maura is living a content
and satisfying life in the Province of Quebec.

Maura's father Fred Murray never quite forgave her for
being asked to leave West Point. It was his personal bragging point that he had
two daughters at West Point. Maura's dismissal damaged Fred's ego and he never
completely forgave her.

Maura's being asked to leave West Point and all the
ensuing criticism by her father was the beginning of a certain line of thought
for Maura, culminating in her leaving on Feb 9, 2004 to start a new life
unencumbered by the constant criticism of her father. Maura's relationship with
William Rausch was near its end. Ac- cording to Maura's sister Kathleen, they
were having 'serious problems.' Maura had met someone new, who unlike William
Rausch had no West Point connections and therefore was not a constant reminder
to her of her failure at West Point.

On the night of February 5 2004 Maura took a break from
her job at the security desk at a UMass dormitory to go and briefly get coffee
and some food.
Sometime between 12 MN and 1 AM Maura driving her Saturn
struck and critically injured the UMass student Petrit Vasi leaving him for
dead.

Around 1 AM - 1:20 AM Feb 6 Maura had a complete emotional
breakdown brought on by this hit and run accident. Maura's breakdown was
witnessed by a student who reported this to Maura's supervisor, who then came
and saw that Maura needed physical help to get back to her dormitory. The
supervisor then physically helped Maura back to her dorm and recommended
counseling.

Between 2 and 3 AM on the morning of Sunday Feb 8 Maura
had a second motor vehicle accident wrecking her father's new car.
Fred Murray's new car was towed around 3 AM to his Hadley
motel room. Maura arrived at Fred's motel at the same time as a passenger in
the tow truck. Fred was not happy with Maura to put it mildly. What happened in
this motel room we'll never know but I do know for a fact that there was some
physical violence on the part of Fred Murray. Fred Murray has a history of
domestic violence. The next day Maura left for good.

Maura needed to disguise the evidence of the
Petrit Vasi hit and run by staging another accident for the purpose of covering
up the damage to her car from the Vasi hit and run. She and her new boyfriend
travelled in tandem to Route 112 in NH (He was already in Southern NH). The
accident was staged, she left her Saturn, walked down the road to where her
boyfriend was waiting for her in his car. She disappeared, her only wish is
that she be left alone to live her life in peace. She is happy and contented
and just wants to be left alone.

I think she probably went into the woods & died of exposure.

If she had been drinking, she wanted to avoid the police and took off into the woods.

This is probably fake. From that time on people just have too big of a credit/online footprint to just live in a cabin somewhere supported by a so. Doubly so for a party girl.

This theory would possibly explain some of what appears on the Wikipedia page, about a man near the car and the second vehicle. Maybe the witness was mistaken about it being a police SUV. But there are holes in it too: if she hit and run and the victim was in a coma, I doubt she avoids capture for so long. And as the other poster said, it’s hard to believe no one has spotted her or tracked her online, etc. In early 2004 we were probably at the end of the time where anyone could possibly hope to live undetected outside of like, moving to the third world maybe.

It's pretty screwed up to think it doesn't matter if a person commits suicide. No matter what happened, she disappeared, so that affects a lot of people. Not just her loved ones, but the public as well.

I know absolutely nothing about this case, but this is an interesting post. If nothing else, someone seems to have put together a plausible case that either would or would not fit known facts and timelines.

Is it a fact of the case that the car accident that occurred immediately before she disappeared was a one-car accident? What did she hit?

EDIT: Ignore the question. I started reading about the case.

The car crash is under tremendous scrutiny. The location of the car, based on witness accounts is drastically different. One puts it in front of Butch Atwood’s house, one puts it on a dangerous curve by the old red barn. Was the car moved? Why was a police SUV spotted nose-to-nose with the vehicle earlier than the first 911 call? So many questions. And why the heck was she up in New Hampshire after a car accident a few days before with her Dad’s car in a car that she was “forbidden” to use?

Yes, it matters. I would love to provide her Dad and family with a definitive answer. There have been so many crackpot theories on this case. They need to have closure.