Maura Murray was a 21-year-old Massachusetts native described by family and friends as loving, driven, and highly achievement-oriented. She attended four semesters at West Point before transferring to the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
In fall 2003, Maura admitted to using stolen credit card numbers to order food from local restaurants. The charge was considered out of character, and the case was continued without a finding, set to be dismissed after three months of good behavior. According to her sister Julie, Maura was also struggling with an eating disorder. In early February 2004, her older sister relapsed with alcohol, which deeply affected her.
On February 7, Maura’s father, Fred, visited her at UMass and took her car shopping. That evening, after dropping him off at his motel, Maura took his car to a campus party. Around 3:30 a.m. on February 8, she crashed it into a guardrail. The car was heavily damaged, though she was not seriously injured, and no field sobriety tests were administered.
Fred returned to Connecticut for work the next day, and they planned to speak Monday after Maura picked up accident and insurance forms.
Just after midnight on February 9, Maura searched MapQuest for directions to Burlington, Vermont. At 3:32 a.m., she submitted a school assignment online. Shortly after 1 p.m., she emailed her work supervisor saying she would be out for a week due to a death in the family, something her family later said was untrue. After 2 p.m., she made calls inquiring about lodging in Stowe, Vermont, and left a voicemail for her boyfriend, Bill Rausch, who was stationed in Oklahoma, saying they would talk later.
Around 3:15 p.m., Maura withdrew $280, nearly her entire bank balance, from an ATM in Hadley, Massachusetts. She then stopped at a liquor store and purchased nearly $40 worth of alcohol.
At 7:27 p.m., a resident of Haverhill, New Hampshire, about 136 miles north of Amherst, called 911 to report a car off the road on Route 112. At 7:42 p.m., local school bus driver Butch Atwood also called 911, stating he had stopped to check on a young woman at the scene. He described her as “shaken up” but not visibly injured, despite heavy vehicle damage and deployed airbags. He offered to call for help; she declined, saying she had already contacted AAA. He then left and made his 911 call. Several vehicles reportedly passed before police arrived at 7:46 p.m.
By the time officers reached the scene, Maura was gone.
She has not been seen since.
If you're interested, I write more in-depth about the case here: https://open.substack.com/pub/aid2000/p/hare-brained-history-volume-65-the?r=4mmzre&utm\_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
by aid2000iscool
3 Comments
I hate to say it but, it seems like the poor thing was going through a LOT, and I am less inclined to suspect foul play here.
I assume its just the lighting and she hadn’t been shot in the right eye?
She was a drunk who wrecked and ran off into the woods. I don’t understand why everyone is so enamored with her disappearance. Missing White Woman syndrome is alive and well.