Maura Murray: Small Window Of Opportunity (?)

If you are new to the mysterious disappearance of Maura Murray you should start with the Disappeared episode. Here's the Wikipedia page. The Missing Maura Murray podcast usually features a round table type discussion of the case as well.

At 7:43 pm, Butch Atwood called police to report the accident he just saw involving Maura. He first noticed as he returned home in the school bus he drove for work. Atwood proceeded to make contact with Maura, offering to call police. He noticed she seemed fine, but her ignored her request and went home and called anyway. Keep in mind, Butch lived right here the accident scene. The time it took him to speak to her and then return home and make that call, is likely minimal. The first call that came to police was at 7:27 pm, from another close by neighbor, who noted Atwood stopped at the scene.

Although it's impossible to estimate Atwood's exact time he spent at the scene, but reasonably we have to assume he first saw the accident, noticed a female, stopped the bus, proceeded to speak to her and then drove a very short distance to his house, likely mentioned it to his wife and proceeded to call the police at 7:43 pm. However, he could not see Maura's car from his house but did notice several cars went by from the time he called until police actually arrived.

So perhaps Atwood arrived home, parked the bus, walked inside, spoke to his wife briefly about the accident and then made the call that came in at 7:43. So Atwood could have had his eyes away from the site as early as 7:35-7:38. Granted, he was older at the time and around 300 lbs. This didn't appear to be a dire situation, so I doubt he hurried.

By 7:46 pm, police arrived and as we all know Maura had vanished.

Now, the Westman family nearby, who also called the police, did not see this as a particularly bad situation either. Admittedly, they were not watchful of it much either. So potentially we could have about 5 to 10 minutes where none of the neighbors were really watching closely. Also, in the dark some details may have been missing, or confused (ie: the "red dot") as well.

From early as around 7:35 to up until the officer arrived at 7:46, Maura was likely to be unseen in whatever was happening. So yes, that is a small window indeed for something to happen.

However, if you've read anything about this case, often times the idea of foul play is dismissed due to it being "unlikely" due to the small window of time and it just isn't probable an opportunistic killer just happened to ride by.

After all, that would mean a stranger picking up Maura would have to do so 1) after Atwood left 2) after the other neighbors stopped watching BUT before 3) police arrived at 7:46 pm.

Yes, I will admit a very tight time frame indeed. But also a dark night in a desolate area without much attention.

Still, many reject this idea. The problem is many subscribe to the idea that Maura was picked up by a tandem driver, under these same circumstances many deem "unlikely".

But the idea is the same. A tandem driver would have to pick Maura up 1) after Atwood left 2) after the other neighbors stopped watching BUT before 3) police arrived at 7:46 pm. But there's a few more issues to address with the idea of a tandem driver in regard to this small window. First, as we know there is no cell phone reception there. Maura could NOT have simply called this mystery driver and told them to get her.

With that said, a tandem driver would have to first realize that Maura's car is no longer in sight. Depending on how close they are traveling together, this could this could take..2 minutes? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? Then would then have to turn around and pick Maura up, unseen to Atwood, neighbors, cops etc. Had this tandem driver been traveling too closely, well they would have been seen.

So it is indeed a small window of opportunity. However, we can't have it both ways. If there was enough time for a tandem driver to pick Maura Murray up, there was anyone time for ANYONE to pick her up.

In my opinion, Maura rejected Atwood's help for several reasons. Most importantly, he immediately wanted to get police involved. Maura obviously didn't want that. Nor did she want to stay with him if police were going to be involved. If Atwood himself noticed Maura's backwards facing Saturn and stopped to speak to her, and then later noted other cars also passed by, it wouldn't be unusual for those drivers to perhaps do the very same thing he did. Maybe, Maura just happened to take a ride from the wrong person.