Sunday, August 31, 2008

Maura Murray

College Student Takes Time Off & Disappears

From Wikipedia:

Maura Murray (born May 4, 1982) is an American college student from Hanson, Massachusetts. She went missing on February 9, 2004, after a one-car accident on New Hampshire Route 112 in Haverhill, New Hampshire.

Murray, a student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, left campus the afternoon of her disappearance after e-mailing her professors and her boss, telling them she was going to take a week off because of a family problem.

Monday, February 9, 2004
Time Line:

* 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM - A dorm mate reportedly sees Maura leave the UMass Amherst campus.
* 4:00 PM or earlier - Maura goes to an ATM and withdraws $280 from her account. Video surveillance footage shows her to be alone. Her bank account is left nearly empty. She is due to receive paychecks from her job in the coming days.
* 4:00 PM or earlier - Maura purchases $35-$40 in alcohol while still in Amherst, Massachusetts. Video surveillance footage shows her to be alone.
* 4:00 PM or later - Maura apparently leaves Amherst, Massachusetts and likely heads up Interstate 91 north.
* 4:37 PM - Maura checks her cellphone voice messages.
* 7:29 PM - Dispatch receives a call from a Woodsville, NH area resident who reports an accident near her house on Route 112.
* 7:43 PM - Dispatch receives a call from another Woodsville, NH area resident who reports a black Saturn partially in the road.
* 7:46 PM - First known police officer (Haverhill Police) arrives on the scene. The girl who was seen by second caller is nowhere to be found. The officer notes the car is facing westbound in the eastbound lane, with a cracked windshield and two deployed airbags. A damaged box of Franzia wine is found on the passengers seat. Other items found in the car include her AAA card, the insurance forms she retrieved for her earlier accident, her gloves, music CDs, her makeup, directions for Burlington, Vermont and Stowe, Vermont, and the Nicholas Howe book, Not Without Peril. A rag from Maura's emergency roadside kit was discovered stuffed into the Saturn's muffler pipe.
* 7:56 PM - EMS arrives on scene.
* 7:57 PM - A fire truck arrives on scene.
* 7:57 PM - 8:49 PM - At some point, Maura's car is towed to a local auto repair garage.
* 8:02 PM - EMS clears the scene.
* 9:27 PM - The first known police officer to arrive on scene is dispatched to another call.

Boy is this a mystery! And if I hadn't been so lucky as to stumble on it on Websleuths . I would never have heard of it. I think the crimes we hear and read about are more regional than anything else. That makes sense, with amber alerts and local authorities desperate for clues in unsolved cases. They are going to drive the local cases home as much as possible in order to get help from the public. I don't know about you but they've driving us all nuts here in Florida with the Caylee Anthony case. I remember the Jessica Lundsford and Trenton Duckett cases and I'm not looking forward to a happy ending in this one, either. But back to the case at hand.

Maura Murray is a fascinating case. I mean, she just up and disappears from the scene of a single car accident. She doesn't even have another driver filing an insurance claim. I have another case I've been looking at, Geoffrey David Apke, where he disappeared from the scene of a wreck, too. But even with two cases on the table I find this sort of thing unusual. Who just runs away from everyone and everything because they have a wreck? Perhaps you run from the accident, to avoid confrontation with the cops or another driver, and you go home or go somewhere and hang out. But you don't just disappear like this, without a reason. Especially when there is no other driver to worry about, like in this case. So no obvious reason for her disappearance exists in the Maura Murray case. She wasn't wanted by the cops and seemed to be settled in at school. So my curiosity is growing and I draw up a chart for 7 pm, which would be just before or right around the time she had the crash.



This chart is interesting and very clear to me. Look and you will see that Virgo is rising and Pisces is falling. Now look at the fifth house, where both Mercury and Neptune are just hanging out, in conjunction. Not an exact conjunction but close enough. This reads that she is not alone, she is actually with a boyfriend when she crashes this car. Both Mercury and Neptune are disposed of by Uranus in Pisces in the sixth house so I think they might have been impaired by alcohol or drugs. Jupiter is at the Ascendant and disposed of by Mercury, the chart ruler, in the fifth house. Maura is having a lot of fun and is very happy at the time this accident occurred. She was with someone she liked a lot. The Moon, the chart co-ruler, is in the first house, another indication that she is "where she wanted to be".

The only dark aspects I see here is Mars in the eighth house inconjunct to the Moon in the first. But Mars is in mutual reception with Venus in the seventh house, an aspect that "brings things to pass". This configuration spells out an impulsive, emotional decision and action based on sexual attraction and romance. Another interesting influence is Saturn in fall in the tenth house inconjunct to Mercury, the chart ruler. All of this sort of adds up to an impulsive, out of control action. Saturn is also square the Moon, another indicator that emotions were running high and there was little restraint. In this chart we have a T-square involving Saturn, the Moon and Venus. Saturn is the short leg of the T. Once again, Saturn is in dignity by house and in fall by sign. The inconjunction to Mercury is the path through which the energy is discharged. Maura made a swift, emotional decision based on romantic feelings and did something that had lasting effects on not only herself but everyone else in her life.



The next chart I draw up has a few small changes that tell a story. The chart ruler, Mercury is still in the fifth house, closely aligned with the Descendant ruler, Neptune. But they have now been joined there by the Sun, which indicates that they have been joined by a third person, probably a man. Pluto, the third house ruler, is at the nadir and disposed of by Jupiter, just crossing the Ascendant. I believe this configuration describes the accident. Jupiter is inconjunct to Neptune, so I think this was a scheme of some sort. From this chart, with the lack of violent aspects or planets in death houses, I believe Maura left of her own accord, for reasons she had already planned. I think she was involved with a man that no one knew about and this was the man she was with this day. And the third man was a friend who picked them up at the scene and sped them off to safety. The rag in the gas line was put there by Maura or her boyfriend in a plot to stage her death. But they were either interrupted or just unable to pull it off and left it just as it was.


Discuss This Case At My Forum


Even moving the charts forward hour by hour I do not see any real changes that indicate violence or death. It looks like Maura was a willing partner in this ruse. At 8:30 pm the chart changes a bit and some new aspects come to light. Libra is now rising and Aries is falling. However, Venus and Mars are still in mutual reception from the eighth to the seventh houses, again emphasizing the romantic relationship that the first chart hinted at. The Venus square to Saturn shows how impatient Maura had become. She just could not wait any longer to "get on with her life" with her secret lover. She had a public boyfriend that everyone knew about and so it was never guessed that there was another man. But these charts show otherwise. Unless her public boyfriend was in on this, which would indicate that he helped her make an escape. Otherwise, another boyfriend, one indicated by Neptune and therefor probably hidden from everyone, was involved.

And then moving the charts even further through the night, I find that things don't change. At 9:30 pm I see that the fourth house ruler, Saturn, has now moved into the ninth. This means they had set up house somewhere outside of her college neighborhood. Saturn is in Cancer so this is the home she relocates to and it is probably somewhere near water, even if it's only a lake or a pond. Venus is still square Saturn so I am not sure she likes the home. But the ongoing mutual reception between Venus and Mars just keeps telling me that they are in love. She is entranced with their sexual relationship and this man is the kind of man she is most excited by. He is ruled by Mars so look for someone manly, bossy, controlling, domineering and sexually aggressive. Mars is in Taurus so look for body art like tattoos and a physical hobby like weightlifting or body building. Venus is in fall in Aries so she is determined to be with him in her rash impulsive romantic style but in a while she will find him argumentative and lazy. She is a girl whose fire flames fast and high but then goes out pretty fast. She will want out of this in the future so look for her to call home after a few years have gone by.



The ongoing opposition from the Moon to Venus also points at rash impulsive actions that may later be regretted. This chart shows a fast and furious love affair that began quickly and unexpectedly. She was "swept off her feet". Then a few drinks and a plan to run off together. That's what I see here. I say she is still alive and well. And eventually she will come back home or at least contact somebody she cared about. Even if her family relations were strained there may be somebody back home that she wants to connect with. Look for her to do that sometime in 2009. I get that figure from the distance between Venus and Saturn, a sort of barometer for how long this situation will last. However, there is always a possibility that she attempted to leave earlier and was forced to stay against her will. There is no telling at this time how things turned out over the long period since the day she disappeared. I just have no signs in the immediate charts that she was either abducted, forced, killed or hurt in any way. Regardless of what her family thinks in this matter they must hold out hope that she is fine and will be found someday.

I do believe that Maura Murray is alive and there are people who care about her and would love to know that she is well. Please look at her picture and commit it to memory. If you have seen her or think you know where she might be, please contact Trooper Russell Hubbard, Troop F NHSP, (603) 846-3333 or put your tip in writing and send it to: Find Maura, P.O. Box 890292, E. Weymouth, MA 02189.

Maura Murray

HAVE YOU SEEN ME?

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7 comments:

  1. You missed an event. Maura had a crying episode at a university security station so severe that her work supervisor had her escorted back to her room.

    That was the point that every thing else springs from.

    It is likely that she suffered a dissociative mental break, called a nervous break down in earlier times.

    She gave two different reasons for wanting time from school and work. One story was that there was a family emergency and the other was there had been a death in her family. Neither story was true.

    A figure matching Maura's description was seen attempting to hide behind trees about five miles from the accident by a contractor returning from a job site later that night.

    You are correct in that she is probably still alive.

    There are other missing students under similar circumstances. Read the Missing Students page at VisionAndPsychosis.Net.

    http://VisionAndPsychosis.Net

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  2. I must post a correction: Maura was NOT seen hiding behind trees after the accident. The contractor who came forward a few days later stated he saw a woman who resembled Maura jogging along side the road. This has been stated in several different articles and summaries regarding Maura. He has been interviewed several times. He is not positive it was Maura but resembled her.

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  3. The construction worker came forth only 3 MOTNTHS! expo facto. The construction worker lives across the street from the school bus driver and very close to the scene of the alleged accident site by the Weatherbarn.

    The construction worker was questioned by on the 15th and 19th of February and said nothing of the alleged youth walking 5 miles east of the accident scene. He doesn't say a word

    Allegedly the construction worker did not bring up this matter of seeing the Youth on the highway as he thought it was a different night than when the girl (Maura) went missing.

    Lavoies towing likely did not leave until after 9 p.m., it seems very ironic that the Construction worker arriving home at approximately 8:00-8:30 p.m. thereabouts did not see all the commotion just down the road, police, EMS, Fire etc. And having just seen the Youth on the highway, it seems incredulous that with all the flashing cars that he did not associate the Youth and the missing person.

    The construction worker and the school bus driver were friends, or at least aquaintances, one would think that the two would have conversed immediately about the missing person given it happened almost in their back yards.


    The police seem to have discounted the statement of the Construction worker, and also, a youth who lived not far from there attempted suicide that night and there is a possibility that this youth could have been walking along this stretch of road at this time, because the call the officer received to take him away from the scene of the accident was in response to this youth, and this occured near Lime Kiln Road.
    The school bus driver is the only person to positively identify Maura, he was untruthful about many aspects of his statements to the press, can anyone be certain that it was even Maura in the car.

    It seems that the police report of Sgt. Smith is in error, the car was facing Eastbound in a Westbound lane, as per reported by Faith Westman in her 911 call to Haverhill. The car had back up and came to rest on the Westbound side.

    Faith Westman also reports seeing a man, there were 5 persons in the Westman household at the time, there is also another eyewitness across the street that stated, one minute the person was there and when the police arrived a minute later she was gone.

    The school bus driver allegedly had difficultly reporting the 911 call and called Hanover 911, Hanover later relayed to Haverhill at 7:43, and Haverhill called the School bus driver and his wife advised that, he had seen the accident and that the girl was gone.


    The school bus driver arrived on the scene at 7:34 and left at 7:39he allegedly offered Maura help but she decline. He also states that he could barely see her above the lips because of the depolyed airbag, he states he went directly into his house and told his wife and called the police but had difficulty getting through.


    He could not have seen the airbag depolyed unless he saw the accident. The windsheild was broken, he should have expected that she might have a concussion, So why does he back his bus up the drive way where he cannot see Maura to keep an eye on her but backs up all the way to the garage?

    The school bus driver stated that he came out of his house and the police had arrived, which is 7:46.
    So where was the school bus driver when 911 called his house at 7:43.

    Allegedly the school bus driver had back his bus all the way to the end of his driveway near his garage, a neighbour stated that the school bus driver came home and back his bus all the way up the drive way and stayed there a very long time.

    An autoreconstructionist hired by the league of Retired New Hampshire Dectectives believe that the damage done to Maura's car did not happen by crashing into the trees by the Weatherbarn.

    Police did not seal Maura's car as evidence.

    Police failed to declare Maura endangered and conduct an organize search.

    Statement the school bus driver said he did after the accident do not give with his own statements regarding his time line. Also statements made by an other witness who is a neighbour of the school bus driver contradict statements made by the school bus driver.

    The construction worker's statements and timeline are suspect, he left his work in Franconia at 7:00p.m. and it is an approximate 30 minute drive, which would bring him to his house almost at the time of the alleged car accident, as reported by Faith Westman.


    She heard a car accelerate, and a thud, and the car backed up and came to a stop in the Westbound lane facing eastward.

    I personally do not hold out much hope that Maura is still alive as I have dreamt of her in the form of a skeleton and saying help me I am here. I hope this is not true...

    In my opinion, three people are not being entirely forthcoming in this case that we know of, the construction worker, the school bus driver, and the first officer at the scene of the accident, if nothing happened then why are they telling tall tales. If Maura ran away from her life why all the need for the lies?

    If Maura was still alive why the need for lies, there was no evidence that anyone saw Maura being picked up near the scene of the accident.

    It was reported that a red truck was seen near the scene of the accident at the time of the accident with Mass plates.

    It was reported Maura was intoxicated, yet the only person to see Maura (from allegedly 15 feet)states she was not intoxicated, it is likely this remark was made by the police,

    The police announced that Maura likely came to the White Mountains to commit suicide.

    I am more inclined to believe that Maura's passing may have been an accident, and that the lies and jumping the hoops is to keep someone being charged with impared driving....perhaps something more nefarious happened but no one has come forth with any information. What is obvious is that more than one person was involved in Maura's disappearance....


    Thanks for taking an interest in Maura, her family awaits justice and for Maura to be found

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  4. to the editor, I may have inadvertently made two postings, this is the posting I wish to make

    Thanks for taking an interest in Maura. The New Hampshire League of Dectectives through the Molly Bish Foundation have devoted countless hours in the search and research of what became of Maura on that fateful night. It is the opinion of an autoreconstructionist that the damage done to Maura's saturn did not occur at the accident site at the Weatherbarn. The damage to the car is not in keeping with striking a snow bank and hitting the trees in the eastbound lane.

    Faith Westman a neighbour to the accident site reported in the news that she heard a car acclerate, then a thud and looked out the window and saw a car back up in the Wesbound lane facing Eastward. Also reported to 911 that there was a lone man involved in the accident and he was sitting in the car smoking a cigarette. Sgt Smith in the accident report( my memory serves me correctly) his sketch showed the car driving near the trees on the east bound lane and backing up and resting in the Westbound lane, facing eastward, however he wrote the opposite in the accident report. The Westman's reported seeing a man.The officer knew this, did he look for a butt, was one recovered at the scene, it is unlikely that the person took the butt with them. Too a soda bottle or can with alcohol was found outside underneath the car, was Maura's DNA on this, or did law enforcement gather and process this as evidence. The wine spatter spots in the car look dubvious, mainly they are centered on the front left dash and left door of the car, yet they too are on the drivers seat in places that an occupant of a car would have been sitting when the wine was spilt. Was the wine splattered over the car after the driver departed? The police removed the airbags and took them into evidence, whose DNA was on the airbags, was Maura alone. Whatever evidence was or is now in the car is suspect because the car was not taken into evidence until long after the fact and the only reliable evidence in the car is that which is verified by photos taken at the time,or shortly thereafter.

    Sgt. Smith the first officer on the scene from the Haverhill detachment, came to the Westman's door and stated the girl was gone and did not ask any questions about the man that they saw smoking a cigarette sitting in Maura's car!


    Another neighbour witnessed a person outside the car, it appears the occupant of the car was at the back of the car opening and closing the trunk. Likely placing the white towel in the tailpipe.


    It is impossible to commit or even to attempt to commit suicide with a towel in the tail pipe, as per experimented by several blog members on Maura's family's website. The rag is simply explused no matter how far you push it in, and also, the car simply stalls if cloged, it is not a way to get carbon monoxide into a car to commit suicide.

    Maura having studied Chemical Engineering at West Point would have known that a towel in the tail pipe would never have worked to make anyone believe the towel was a rouse for an attempted suicide.

    The tail end of Maura's saturn was jutting out into the road, my guess is that the occupant of the car place the towel there for a white flag of warning to the oncoming cars. It is significant, as Maura had just received new Emergency Road Equipment as a Christmas gift, which was still in the box in the trunk of her car.

    It is possible that someone did not realize what was in the box, and thus grabbed a towel to place on the pipe as a warning to indicate that the person had likely left the vehicle and gone for help. Maura would have opted to us her emergency equipment, and not put a towel in the tailpipe, this is speculation of course because we do not know what happened to Maura or who placed the towel in the tailpipe.


    Maura as a nurse would have been concerned that someone might get hurt with the car sticking out on the highway on a Snake turn, and would have engaged her emergency equipment.


    Something else odd occurs at the back of the trunk, Maura's bag with her overnight personal things and her jewelery were left in the car, but her nap sack was gone, which likely included wallet, cell phone and stuff. The fact that Maura's jewelery was left in the car seems remarkable, no woman would leave her jewels in the car and leave the car abandoned knowing it will be towed away.

    Another witness indicates that he saw the occupant of the car approximately one minute before the police arrived at the back of the Saturn. This is 1945 or 1944 thereabouts.

    This same witness informed the press that the school bus driver backup his bus to his garage by his house which he never did before and stayed on his bus a long time.


    He arrived at the scene of the accident at approximately 1934 according to Faith Westman's timeline. He stayed approximately 5minutes, 1939 p.m.

    He alleges he went immediately into his house and told his wife what happened, and he attempted to call 911 but the circuits were busy. He got through to Hanover 911at 1943.

    He states to the press after he finished calling 911, he went outside and the police had already arrived which is 1946.

    Hanover 911 called Haverhill 911 and reported the information from the school bus driver, they in turned called him back at 1943. The school bus driver's wife answers the phone and advises that he saw the accident and doesn't know where the girl went.

    Oddly enough the girl had gone no where, the occupant of the car was seen after 1943. What made the school bus driver say that she had gone, why did he tell his wife this?

    Why did the school bus driver not take the phone call from Haverhill 911 himself, he obviously was in the house, and if not where was he? He states he was on his bus doing paper work but since the school bus driver was allegedly just outside near the house why did his wife not bring him to the phone to give a description of the girl and to answer questions.

    The school bus driver is worried about the woman involved in the accident as he reports to the media, when he shone the flash light in the car he could only see her from the lips up because of the deployed airbag. He could not have seen this unless he saw the accident, the occupant might have had their head lowered on top of the bags on the steering wheel, however the resins and gases on the airbag would make this really uncomfortable, as the resins burn so unless you are out of it you are not likely to rest your head on a deflated airbag. There is always the possibility that the occupant of the car was trying to hide their face, or that the person was semi-conscious or confused.

    Given the occupant received a blow in the face from an airbag and the windsheild being cracked and their head immersed in an airbags, and who is shivering, the school bus driver should have suspected the occupant might have a head injury. The picture the bus driver paints of the occupant and that she had foreign license plates and was improperly dressed for the weather should have rung the alarm bell that the person needed watching until help arrived. Why did he not back his bus up so that the nose of the bus was near the highway so he could keep tabs on Maura until help arrived? He sees the police have arrived and goes to his bus, and does not walk down to the site to give the police a description but sits in his bus and waits until the Sgt. comes to ask questions and he tells the school bus driver that the girl is gone.



    The construction worker did not come forth for 3 months after the fact with the information of seeing a Youth on the road ducking from pine tree to pine tree. This may be possible as there was a call to law enforcement of an attempted suicide at 2120 near the siting of the youth, Lime Kiln Road. The construction worker headed home at 1900 and would likely have been home from Franconia around 1930. What was he doing for the other 1/2 hour, as he stated in the press he saw the youth around 8p.m.

    The construction worker was questioned on the 14th and 19th of February by a representative of the family and law enforcement. He did not recall then anything odd about the siting of the Youth on the road. Was is more odd is that when he would have arrived home there would have been a number of police and emergency vehicles by his house as he lives a golf swing from the accident site and across the street from the school bus drivers. He states he was at home the night of the accident, yet hears and sees nothing of the excitement going on under his nose. How come the school bus driver doesn't go and talk to him and ask he saw anyone on the highway on the way home from work that night.

    The school bus driver alleged went to look for Maura after Sgt. Smith advised him that she was not at the scene of the accident. The school bus driver took his private vehicle and drove to the store near by but did not go into the store, he went to French Pond Road, and when he was finished his search he return to help Trooper Monahan look for footprints at the scene of the accident. There was none.


    This implies that the person got out of the car on the passengers side onto the road. The school bus driver would have been very close to the occupant when they left the car if they left from the passengers side. The school bus driver alleges she squeezed out the driver's door, which would have been onto the snow bank, and then she would have had to walk to the road, there should have been footprints leading from the car either to the front or the back. How were there no footprints at the scene, this is not possible as the snow was near up to the mailboxes.


    Trooper Monahan wrote no report of his visit to the site or what he searched for and where. Smith did not write in his report that Monahan was there, there is no drawing of any footprints on the accident report of Smith. He has the direction of the car and lane incorrect on the report. He does not include interviewing the witnesses, he makes no mention of a man seen smoking in the car on the passenger's side. He fails to notify the owner of the vehicle in a timely matter that his car (Fred Murray)had been in an accident. Smith on Wednesday denies to the family that he knew Maura was missing. He failed to conduct a search for Maura in a timely fashion. They failed to follow up on information reported by witnesses, such as seeing a suspious character driving a red truck at the time of the incident near the accident site.

    I personally think these inconsistencies are worthy of note and investigation by a grand jury, and an internal review of law enforcement regarding the handling of the accident scene and Maura's disappearance. I would like very much to believe that Maura walked away from her life and is happy living in the back woods of Canada, but there is evidence to suggest that Maura might have met with foul play, and several of the witnesses and the investigating officer have not been forthcoming. If there was nothing to hide their would be no reason for lies.

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  5. Have you all ever thought maybe its a tow truck driver??

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  6. 12 years later.... Maybe a new chart now?

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