What Happened to Maura Murray? Part III: Final Thoughts

Will there ever be closure?

Maura Murray seemingly vanished off the face of the earth after crashing her car in NH in February of 2004. More than 10 years later we have no answers, just more questions. I believe foul play is a very likely with this case, as I mentioned before.

Certainly, other possibilities exist, too. The intriguing part about this mystery is that there simply is no clear indication with any imaginable scenario. She could have been suicidal. She could have fled to the woods and died trying to find her way back. There is no definitive proof that gives us any clues here. Your guess is as good as mine, but I still have my opinions.

The problem here, is we lack the answers to many important questions with this disappearance. If friends and family don't know where she was going, then that might simply be a question we never have an answer to. In fact there may be dozens of questions we'll never have answers to, even in the event something major happened - like finding Maura's remains. It's doubtful that will tie up every loose end.

A lot of details over the years have been discussed endlessly, but ultimately is every little detail going to prove useful? The rag in the tailpipe is an interesting part of the case. Certainly, it leads to lots of speculation, too. But what if the rag...is just a rag? Maybe Fred's misguided advice about plugging the muffler is just something that stuck with Maura. Maybe she never drove with the rag to begin with, then upon crashing the car she simply stuffed it in the exhaust in a last ditch effort to show Dad she did in fact listen to him. But is it something that in any way will solve this? Probably not.

While I'm not saying to disregard every little point here. I do tend to think there might be a lot of things that may not have any significance in her disappearance. Sure, there might be signs of personal problems, but nothing so evidently troubling we can definitely conclude what happened. There's a good chance there's some poor decision making within this perplexing tale but again, how does it play out in terms of how Maura disappeared. No matter what angle you take or how much or little you analyze it you end up at square one again - a girl missing for 10 years, without the slightest inclination of how it occurred.

A bow adorns the tree at Maura's crash site

The big part of the puzzle here is not why she left West Point, it's not why she used a credit card that wasn't hers...it's the events directly before and after the crash. Sure, her state of mind is important and it seems that has been pursued as thorough as possible. If there truly was mental anguish in the life of Maura Murray, she hid it well and though it seemed like she had her share of problems, I've  encountered far more complicated lives of people in her age group. I'm sure some forensic psychologist could make more of this than I can, but I still see a relatively average college aged girl here. Not some self loathing time bomb who was desperate to escape her problematic life at all costs.

The now retired Lt John Scarinza, who worked frequently on this case, made a lot of great comments about the disappearance. He lamented that perhaps if we knew where Maura was going, maybe we would have been able to figure out what happened thereafter. It's a simple but poignant statement. The complete lack of knowledge about her trip north further adds to the mystery and further complicates things. Perhaps where she was going and who, if anyone, she was meeting is truly the key here. Sadly, we don't know and we probably won't ever know.

The Saturn sedan after the crash

But, based on the knowledge we do have, we can still form some idea of what may have happened.

And that's exactly what I've attempted. I feel running away is improbable. Show me one person who was gone missing for a decade only to be found living a new life. I'll show you 100 people who have gone missing by means of foul play. People who disappear do so within their means, and usually in the easiest way possible.

Can we really assume she was suicidal? Packing clothes and bringing textbooks seems odd for that sort of endeavor. So would be calling resorts. Would a car accident really be a catalyst for suicide even if it is assumed it wasn't the intent for her trip? I can imagine the wreck upset her, but I doubt it instantaneously made her suicidal.

What about meeting her demise in the woods? Would anyone seriously consider venturing into the dark, snowy and cold NH woods a good idea? What purpose would it serve? What is the goal? Wouldn't at some point there would be a strong inclination to turn back? The risk greatly outweighs the benefit here. The benefit would be what exactly? Evading  police? Wouldn't staying on the edge of forest be a safer way to do so? The risk here is huge and personally I don't see much of a purpose or reason why anyone would do such a thing, especially with virtually nothing to gain.

Former Lt Scarinza himself makes many points that ultimately serves as the basis for my suspicious of foul play.

We have a girl who very likely was involved in a single car crash due to being impaired by alcohol. This would make her second crash in a matter of days. Obviously, she know this would upset her parents and cause more stress in her personal life. She pleaded with Butch Atwood not to call police so she could try and mend this herself, without arrest and hopefully without anyone finding out. The only way to do that at this point is to leave the scene quickly.

This is where Scarinza points out a few important things. First, the search was extensive. Land, air, infrared cameras, humans, and dogs. He notes the conditions were favorable, and great detail could be seen via helicopter. But the main problem was the inability to see any sort of foot prints from the accident leading to the woods. There was simply no movement they could track from the accident site to adjacent woods. No further snow had fallen, so nothing was essentially covered up or disturbed.

Second, the blood hounds were brought in, according to Scarinza. Given a scent profile to work with, dogs lost Maura's scent within 100 yards of the crash. Sure, perhaps the dogs didn't have a proper sample to work with. But, then we can go back to the aerial view and also be reminded of the the lack of movement. No prints at all to suggest she walked in the fresh snow and with large snowbanks on both sides of a narrow road, would it be reasonable to suggest she started walking down the dark road? Possibly, but one thing is for sure. She was gone quickly after the accident, seemingly didn't go into the woods and was never seen again. To me, being picked up by a vehicle is the only possibility here.

The area where the crash occurred

Scarinza, and even Fred Murray tend to lean in this direction. But, by all accounts, she vanished quickly from the crash. We're talking minutes. And never to be seen again. Vehicle travel would have been the only way. I don't feel convinced she was traveling with friends, if so, why would her friends lead her away to vanish? Wouldn't that be something a stranger would do? Again, back to risk and benefit here. She was involved in a crash, alcohol inside the car. She didn't want police to come. Would she really turn down a ride from a stranger? The benefit is tremendous: no DUI.

The risk, well, it's a small chance that a stranger would bad bad intentions, right? In context, Maura left the scene quickly. It had to be in a car to escape that quickly. After that, she went missing and still is for more than 10 years. Sure, it's a small chance but still a chance. There's a reason why our parents told us not to take rides from strangers. Even if it's not probable, it sure would explain a lot.

Recently, a former NH state trooper named James Conrad came forward on Facebook with a startling claim: NH police have a suspect, however they feel the lack the evidence to obtain a warrant and/or conviction.

 Conrad then goes on to state he believes Maura is buried under the suspects new house. He doesn't explicitly state who the suspect is, but it outlines a reasonable scenario to explain how a young woman vanished for over 10 years with no clue left behind.

Conrad's credibility is questioned and also his motives but even a broken clock is right twice a day. If this is his way of bitterly trying to make NH police look bad, I would think there are better ways. If anything it seems like he was bringing awareness back into the case to bring closure. He might be lying, but nothing said was over the top or unreasonable.

With many people close to the investigation believing there is foul play involved here, it's hard not to see the trend. As much as I would like to believe Maura conspired to run away and successfully eluded a massive search, the more time passes, the less likely I've found that to be. In the end, I don't believe there is a big conspiracy here. Many people do disappear on their own accord, but with all the circumstances considered, unfortunately, I don't believe Maura was one of those people.