Going West: True Crime - Maura Murray // 277

Episode Date: February 7, 2023

In February of 2004, a 21-year-old nursing student vanished after being involved in a car accident in New Hampshire. When police arrived at the scene, she was gone, and to this day, she has never been found. Does her disappearance have anything to do with what she had been searching online the night before she went missing? Or did she get into the car with a stranger to leave the scene of her accident? With numerous theories floating around, they all lead to the same question: Where is she? This is the story of Maura Murray. GOFUNDME https://www.gofundme.com/f/nbg3ne-find-maura-murray BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. Disappeared: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.4ca9f6fe-0c95-6019-4851-8a9d93f2d5c8?ref_=imdbref_tt_wbr_pvc_truecrime&tag=imdbtag_tt_wbr_pvc_truecrime-20 2. Maura's Go Fund Me: https://www.gofundme.com/f/nbg3ne-find-maura-murray 3. Maura Murray Missing website: https://www.mauramurraymissing.org/about.html 4. Valley News: https://www.newspapers.com/image/834380892/?terms=maura%20murray&match=1 5. The 107 degree: https://www.the107degree.com/single-post/the-whimpering-call-aka-the-red-cross-call 6. Medium: https://medium.com/@peak/the-day-she-was-gone-a3574a2c1da6 7. The Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6883005/Home-searched-relation-womans-2004-disappearance.html 8. All That's Interesting: https://allthatsinteresting.com/maura-murray 9. True Crime Addict: How I lost myself in the disappearance of Maura Murray: https://books.google.ie/books?id=Vd7aCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA57&lpg=PA57&dq=maura+murray+megan+sawyer&source=bl&ots=iPKmSSZjGk&sig=ACfU3U05V9h2PjOCuc0EGD2rDffW_Wunzw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwic7ILbv9b8AhVQhVwKHQE6Bg8Q6AF6BAgaEAM#v=onepage&q=maura%20murray%20megan%20sawyer&f=false 10. National Forests: https://www.nationalforests.org/our-forests/find-a-forest/white-mountain-national-forest 11. Maura 166 Blog: https://maura166.rssing.com/chan-30914186/article397.html?zx=814 12. Cryptic Cop Blog: http://crypticcop.blogspot.com/2016/04/maura-murray-drunk-at-corolla-crash.html 13. Living Magazine: https://www.livingmgz.com/life/never-been-found-where-is-maura-murray/23.html?br_t=ch 14. Maura 166 Blog: https://maura166.rssing.com/chan-30914186/article398.html 15. Justia: https://law.justia.com/cases/new-hampshire/supreme-court/2006/murra152.html 16. Tap A Talk: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/findmauramurrayfr/timelines-t2.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Heet. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody! Today's case has been recommended countless times over the years, but we really have our friends Tim and Lance from Crawl Space and the Missing Mar and Marie podcast to thank for our interest in this case because they covered it in depth years ago. And Tim and Lance actually even did a docu series on the case for Oxygen back in 2017, I mean they are truly the best, so it's a case that we've wanted to cover for a while and we are glad to finally do it. And to just help continue to push

Mara's story to the public in hopes of finding answers. Yeah, this has been a long time coming. And I know a lot of you guys know this case already, but it still needs the exposure. It is still not solved. So we are gonna cover it. Yeah, and let's, you know, have a conversation about it. So if you do know this case, and you want to listen to the episode anyway,

as we always say towards the end, more so, is that we, like you guys, to follow us on socials and to comment so that we can get a conversation started and see where everybody's heads are at because it's just good to talk about it. Yeah, we have a discussion group on Facebook, so head over there if you want to talk about this case. Or Instagram at GoingWestPodcast or Twitter at GoingWestPod. Alright guys, this is episode 277 of Going West, so let's get into it. 1.5% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5%

2.5% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5% 2.5% In February of 2004, a 21-year-old nursing student vanished after being involved in a car accident

in New Hampshire. When police arrived at the scene, she was gone, and to this day, she has never been found. Does her disappearance have anything to do with what she was searching online the night before she went missing? Or did she get into a car with a stranger to leave the scene of her accident? With numerous theories floating around, they all lead to the same question, where is she? Mara Murray was born on May 4, 1982 in Hanson, Massachusetts, which is about 30 miles or 48 kilometers, southeast of Boston, and 13 miles or 20 kilometers from the Massachusetts Bay. She was the youngest of four children born to Laurie and Fred Murray alongside oldest brother Fred Jr. or Freddie, and older sisters Kathleen and Julie.

Mara's parents both worked in the medical field. Her mother Laurie was a nurse and her father Fred was a medical technician, but they divorced when she was six, and more lived mainly with her mom but stayed extremely close with her dad as they shared a many of the same interests. And then later she did gain another sibling when she was joined by her half-brother Curtis. As a child, she was known for her smile, which was framed by a set of dimples, and as she got older, Mara set herself apart with her relentless work ethic and her talent for all things athletic. According to her friends, she played every sport, and especially excelled

at track and cross-country. She competed in basketball all over the Northeast and set numerous school records. She even qualified for the US national championship in cross-country. As a sophomore in high school, she finished 33rd in the country and her senior year she was the captain of her cross-country team. Her brother Freddie remembered, quote, Mara was talented in everything she did. Be it schoolwork, she got straight A's, be it athletics, top notch in everything she ever did.

In addition to her studies and demanding athletic activities, Mara also enjoyed a thriving social life. One of her closest friends from high school Liz remembers remembers quote, we had a tight group of friends and we stayed close all the way through high school and into college and always stayed in touch. Another girl in the group Katie remembers quote,

there were seven of us who were always together. Mara graduated as one of the top five students in her class at Whitman Hansen Regional High School and was awarded scholarship money for college. She decided to follow her older sister Julie to West Point Academy, which is a very prestigious military academy in New York, that accepts just 10% of applicants. There, Mara continued to indulge her passion for running by competing on the track and cross- country teams. And while attending West Point, she met Billy Roush, who was two years her senior and was

also studying there. And thus, the two started dating. After meeting Mara, Billy's mom Sharon said quote, from the moment I met her, I knew she loved my son. And Mara basically thought of Sharon as a second mom. After Billy graduated from West Point, so a couple years before Mara was set to, he was stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, so roughly seven states away, and a one hour time difference, meaning that the two basically had to date long distance.

Though still very young, they were definitely serious about each other, and both families shared that the two had plans to get married one day. During Mara's sophomore year at West Point, she decided the rigorous military structure of the academy just wasn't really what she was looking for, so she decided to transfer to a school that was closer to home. She began following in her mother's footsteps pursuing a nursing degree. And with this decision, Mara settled on the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, also known as UMass Amherst, which is just about two hours west of Boston near the center of

the state, so she was back near her stomping grounds. Mara continued to compete in track and cross-country while there, and also held down two part-time jobs in addition to her demanding course load. One at a local art gallery, and another as a front desk attendant at one of the dorms on campus. Her academics were always of the utmost importance to her, and she maintained her spot on the Dean's list. Mara's mental health at the time of her disappearance, as well as the parts of her

life that she may not have shared with anyone, have been a topic of much debate in the almost two decades since she disappeared. Many have speculated that she was not in a good place, musing that she had been depressed and acting erratically. But there were a series of strange circumstances that spanned a few years that led up to the day that she vanished, with many of the incidents seeming out of character for Mora. So I'm going to kind of start telling you about some of those that really actually do start like almost three years before she went missing, well more like two and a half.

So in July of 2001, 19-year-old Mara was caught stealing makeup from the commissary at West Point Academy. Her roommate at the time, whose name was Megan, explained that Mara was usually quiet and studious, but that quote, you can tell there were some inner demons. She seemed sad. When Mara was caught stealing,

Megan remembers her being incredibly embarrassed, and that she said, quote, it was so stupid, I only took five dollars worth of stuff. Megan also said that it was known among the other students that Mara was struggling with bulimia at the time, and that quote, she had issues loving herself. Megan remembered her as an incredibly gifted student, but a somewhat troubled person, which is not unusual for somebody who's going through college. There's a lot of changes.

So this really isn't weird, but I think it was more so weird to her personal personality and what people knew about her. And Megan also added, quote, when something tragic happens, you don't really want to say anything bad about the person, but everyone has skeletons in their closet. And Mara's minor legal troubles

followed her to UMass as well when she was caught attempting to charge food to a fellow student's credit card. For this, she was charged with improper use of a credit card under $250 and she was put on probation by the university. On Thursday, February 5, 2004, 21-year-old Mara was working her job at the front desk of the Melville Hall dormitory building at her school. She had the night shift this night, and her duties for the evening included

her checking students in and out of the building for security purposes. Well that night she began her shift at 7pm. Shortly after arriving at work at 7-17pm that evening, she and her boyfriend Billy spoke on the phone for about 20 minutes. She called them again about two hours later at 9.56pm and they spoke for roughly six minutes. A few minutes later, at 10.10pm, Mara called her sister Kathleen, speaking to her for about 28 minutes. Kathleen later told the police that it was a typical phone call, but some sources said otherwise.

Kathleen, who was engaged at the time, was said to have been struggling with substance abuse and had also potentially been at odds with her fiance. But it doesn't seem like this information is relevant to the case anyways, so it's not our business to get into. Five hours into Mara's shift at 12.07am on Friday, February 6, 2004. Mara called Billie again, this time speaking to him for about seven minutes. Shortly after that phone call with Billy, Mara suffered what a coworker called a quote breakdown.

Around 1am, Mara's supervisor Karen came to check on her after hearing from some other students that she had been crying. Karen found Mara sitting in her desk in basically a catatonic state, only able to repeat the words, my sister, my sister, over and over again. So Karen relieved Mara of her shift 45 minutes early, and then just walked her home. The next day, Mara's dad, who again is named Fred,

was visiting, and the two were looking to buy her a new car. Now according to her dad, Mara's black 1996 Saturn had been deteriorating and the two decided that it was time for her to have something a little bit more reliable. Some of her friends later remarked that they were unaware that she had been having car trouble, but Sharon, whose Billy's mom, said that she'd actually purchase AAA coverage for MARA for this very reason, so it was known at least to Sharon and a couple other people. That day, Saturday, February 7, 2004, Fred pulled $4,000 out of his bank

account and met MARA at school. Now some leader found this kind of suspicious, but Fred claims that they were planning to use the money to purchase a new car outright. And that was it. Yeah, I don't really find this very suspicious. It's just a dad trying to get his daughter a reliable car. Yes, I agree with you there. But as we'll talk about later, there's a lot of different theories in this case, and this one could kind of lead people to go one way, but we'll get there. But as we'll talk about later, there's a lot of different theories in this case, and this one could kind of lead people to go one way, but we'll get there. So they

stayed in the Amherst area, going from dealership to dealership, although weirdly, none they supposedly surveyed could confirm that the two had stopped by that day. Fred said later that they had picked out a car for her and that she was planning on picking it up the following weekend So they did not drive off with a new car. Maybe that's why nobody remembered them coming in because they didn't make any kind of serious Request for a car. Sure. There was conversation about a car Right. There were just eyeing a car that they were potentially gonna buy it seems like that is more likely the situation. But Fred did say that he wished that they had bought it on the spot and said that if they had, the outcome of the night that she went missing may have been very different.

That night, the two and a friend of Mara's named Kate had dinner at a local pub together and Kate said that she couldn't remember any mention of them having shopped for a car that day. So they had not brought this up to Kate at dinner. Which you would think they would have done, you know, because it's what they did that day, but Kate said she didn't remember them talking about it. But then Fred took the girls to a liquor store before retiring to a nearby quality in for the evening, loaning Mara his car and planning on seeing her again in the morning.

Then Mara drove herself and Kate to a party on campus in Fred's Toyota Corolla. And the party was near Mara's dorm, so it's still kind of a mystery why she decided to take her dad's car instead of her own, even though she had been having some, you know, some troubles. I don't want to say minor troubles, but she did have some car troubles or why she didn't just walk to the party.

Well, I mean, it is February and I'm assuming it's pretty cold. It's extremely cold. So yeah, you're right. So maybe, maybe don't want to walk, you know, even if it's a couple blocks, it might be just too chilly. You're so right. So accounts of the party varied from describing it as an intimate gathering of a few friends to a packed affair.

But one thing is consistent. No one who attended the party could remember it very well, with most party goers unable to even remember people they saw there. Around 2.30 a.m., Mara and Kate said their goodbyes and were walked out of the party by a male student.

About an hour later, around 3.30 a.m., Mara drove back to the quality inn where her dad Fred was staying and wound up crashing his car. While presumably heading back to drop off her dad's car, Mara crashed into a guardrail on Route 9 near Hadley, Massachusetts, which is only about a 10-minute drive from Amherst. Now, while it was likely she had alcohol in her system from earlier that evening, she was not given a breath

lizer, nor was she arrested for drunk driving. In a statement that he gave to the police about the accident later that month, Fred said, quote, I asked her if she got a ticket and she said no. I told her she was lucky that she didn't get a ticket for drunk driving. She told me she hadn't had a drink in a while and that she was okay. This crash caused between 8000 to 10,000 dollars worth of damage depending on the source that you consult. Luckily, the accident was covered by Fred's insurance, and he later claimed that the car was able to be fixed, although some sources

do say that it was totaled by the insurance company. Mara was not ticketed or charged with any crime, and at 4.29am, Fred's Toyota Corolla was towed by AAA. The tow truck dropped Mara at Fred's hotel around 4.45am where she was led into his room. An hour later, at 5.38am, Mara called her boyfriend Billy from her father's cell phone before going to sleep. Then later that morning, when the two woke up, Mara explained what had happened and according to Fred felt terribly about it. But her dad took it in stride saying quote,

I figured if this is the most trouble this kid ever causes me in 21 years, then I'm lucky. I'm a lucky guy. Later that morning, Sunday, February 8th, Fred checked out of the hotel and said goodbye to Mara, who was still rattled by the accident, but seemed at least physically to be just fine. The following day, records later obtained from Mora's computer showed that she was up late searching for rental properties in the white mountains of New Hampshire. Now maybe you're thinking of this in a serious way, maybe she was just looking for fun,

Heath sends me random zillilistings every single day. I do, sometimes I just find random properties in Nebraska. And like, hey, check this out. Like every single state. But anyway, so by the way, the white mountains are a mountain range covering portions of New Hampshire and Maine, and they're considered part of the Appalachian Mountains. They are said to be the most rugged and challenging terrain in New England as well. But Maura knew them well because she and her dad, who shared her passion for hiking

and the outdoors, had taken many trips there together. They specifically treasured their time in Bartlett, New Hampshire, which is situated right there in the White Mountains, and it's about a three and a half hour drive from UMass Amherst. So it's definitely possible that she loved that area so much. She was hoping to move there at some point or even wanted to move there sometime soon, you know? Definitely possible. That is totally unknown.

Yeah, all we know is that she was looking up rentals. So this town is also known for its skiing, known for the Adattach Mountain Resort, and it's bevy of hiking trails. So in the early morning hours of Monday, February 9, 2004, up until about 4 a.m. Search records from her laptop indicate that Mara had been searching for rental properties in Bartlett and the surrounding areas as well. She even searched for directions from her dorm to Burlington, Vermont, which is a three-hour drive from Amherst.

There were earlier searches in her history that led some to believe that she may have been pregnant, but this was never proven. And many dispute that she was a nursing student and the searches were likely related to her schoolwork. After her disappearance, her family also obtained her cell phone records, which had been simple because she was actually on her boyfriend's cell phone plan. Billy had gotten her a cell phone for Christmas just a few months prior, and he was also paying for her line on his phone plan.

At 12.55pm that Monday, Mara called the owner of a condo rental in Bartlett, New Hampshire, which is where her father was convinced she was headed. Fred said, quote, she was going to Bartlett, there's no question, she was going to Bartlett, that's where she knows she's familiar with, she stayed in every place in Bartlett. Mara's been coming up here since she was born. Shortly after that call, around 1pm, Maura emailed Billy a response to a message that he had left her saying, quote, I love you more, stud. I got your messages, but honestly, I didn't feel like talking to anyone. I promised a call today, though.

Love you, Maura. After that email at 205pm, Maura called 1-800-GO-STO, which is a reservation line for hotels in Stovermont, known for being an idealic mountain town, boasting like Bartlett, a ski hill, and hiking trails. But when she called, the service happened to be down, so she could listen to the recorded message listing hotels but could not actually make a reservation. She eventually called her boyfriend Billy back, but he didn't answer, so Mara left a voicemail simply saying that she was sorry that she had missed him. She then emailed her nursing professors at school, explaining that she would be absent from classes that week due to a death in the family, which

as her family can attest, was not true. And for this, I mean, I think a lot of us have done this in some way, like saying you have a family emergency when you don't, because you need a good reason to get out of something. I've absolutely done that to get out of work. Yeah, I just feel like saying a death in the family seems like the most severe thing to say.

I feel like a lot of people are like, oh, I don't want to say that. Yeah, true. So I'm just going to be a little bit more vague like, oh, I don't want to say that. You know? So I'm just going to be a little bit more vague, but maybe these are just the words that she chose. And then this begs the question, why was she saying any of this?

What were her plans? Well, all of these actions surprise those who knew her, especially her close friends and family. Like, Mara was not one to avoid commitments, particularly with school, and lying was also completely unlike her. Katie, who, again, is one of her best friends from high school, remarked that it was, quote, not really like her, but if something was going on and she did need to get away, it makes sense. Why she didn't call one of us, I don't know. And I think that's really such a big

part of it is she was going somewhere but she didn't let anybody know where she was going or why. Like sure maybe she just wanted to take a little break. Maybe she was feeling overwhelmed and she wanted to go to a place that she loved and get a breath of fresh air kind of thing. That's kind of what I was thinking. You know maybe she just needed a good excuse to kind of go up into the white mountains and check things out for herself, maybe look at some rental properties. Which is something we all need to do from time to time, but I think again it's just like why didn't she let us know.

And Katie continued on to say quote, if something was really bothering Mara, she definitely would have come out and one way or the other hinted that something was wrong. But it didn't seem like she was really doing that. And her closest friends all remember her seeming happy and normal the last time they saw each other, which was shortly before she disappeared. Around 3.30 pm that afternoon, Mara got into her black saturn

along with a packed bag and she left campus. And remember this is the car that she's trying to replace with a new car that was supposed to happen that coming weekend. Right so this is the car that had issues. So she first stopped at an ATM pulling out $280 in cash, which virtually emptied her bank account, leaving just enough to keep the account from being overdrawn. She then stopped at a liquor store and purchased around $40 worth of alcohol, including a box of red wine, a bottle of vodka, and also a bottle of baili's and a bottle of colloua.

The receipt from the liquor store was later found in her car, proving exactly what she bought. At 4.37pm, presumably while driving, she checked her phone's voicemail, and this was the last time that she was known to check her phone, or make a call. As disciplined and as hardworking as she was, Mars friends also remember her as a bit of a free spirit, and she had actually done something similar to this before. In high school, she had taken the train to Boston for a day without telling anyone, which left her friends concerned about her whereabouts and scrambling to track her down, but she was backed by that evening.

Mara's friend Liz remembered, quote, she was always the one leading the pack. Before she went missing, Mara drove over 140 miles or 225 kilometers by herself that February night. She headed north from Amherst, which could have been toward Bartlett, but at some point in her drive, she started down a road that was not on the route that she and Fred usually took to get there. Fred lamented, quote, Mara's not familiar with this area. So then you have to wonder, did she take this road by accident?

Was she lost or was she going a different way than everybody thought she was going, obviously not at the time, but when people are retracing her steps, was she going to a different place or is she going the wrong way by mistake? Yeah, I mean, that's a huge question in this case. So the lows for that night sat around negative 4 degrees Fahrenheit or negative 15 Celsius,

so it was freezing, and with snow still on the ground, the roads were quite icy. Around 7.30 pm after the sun had already set, and while heading down Route 112 East, which is a two-lane highway that winds through the White Mountains, Mars Car veered off the road while turning a corner and she crashed into a snowbank. Butch Atwood, who was a local school bus driver, saw what happened and stopped to offer his assistance, remembering, quote, I just asked her how she was, she said she was shaken up, I couldn't see any blood on her face and she was shaking like this I says I'm gonna go call the police

But Mora, likely panicking especially because remember this is her second car accident in two days Which is just crazy to think about I agree She asked him not to call the police. She told him that she had already called AAA and she was waiting on a tow. But as we're going to get into it doesn't seem like this was true at all. Butch was immediately skeptical about this because this was a pretty remote area near Haverald, New Hampshire, which is a small mountain town with very limited cell phone coverage. And lands from the aforementioned Missing Mara Murray podcast even said, quote, And Lance, from the aforementioned Missing Mara Murray podcast, even said, quote, "'Mara couldn't have called AAA because there was no cell service up there in 2004.

And the reason why I say that was such confidence is that there was no cell phone service up there in 2015." So, butch, certain that she had not actually been able to contact anyone, went to his home nearby and called the police himself at 742 pm. So he left Mora by herself at the scene, of course because he needed to call the place, and he was planning a returning which he did. Now meanwhile, another witness had also called the police. This was Faith Westman who lived nearby as well, and she claims to have seen

the accident and said she called the police at 7.27 pm, so 15 minutes before butch did. By 7.46 pm, when the police arrived, Mara was gone. And that would be the last ever confirmed sighting of 21-year-old Mora Murray. So before that quick break, we talked about the fact that Mara had crashed her car into a snowbank near behavioral Massachusetts, and also that two witnesses had called police around 730-ish that night. When officers arrived to the scene of Maris Car Crash, they found no victim, but a fairly serious accident. The police report read QUOTE, evidence at the scene indicated the vehicle had been eastbound and had gone off the roadway, struck some trees, spun around, and come to rest facing the wrong way in the eastbound

lane. Maura's car had been locked, the airbags had deployed, and the front left bumper and hood had been crushed, explaining even more why Maura was so shook up by this. And not to mention, the windshield in front of where Mara was seated was cracked. With Butch's help, officers searched the surrounding areas and noted that there did not appear to be footprints disappearing into the snow.

However, it's also been speculated that police did not search into the forest east of the crash site. With it being such a unique situation, along with local law enforcement, state troopers, firefighters, and emergency medical services all reported to the scene. Inside Morris Car, police noted the box of Francia brand Red Wine, or Box Wine, or I guess you could say Francia, behind the driver's seat, and that there had been some sort of red liquid spilled on the driver's side door,

the ceiling of the car, and also the snow outside. There was also an empty coke bottle with remnants of red liquid, which according to officers, smelled like alcohol. Additionally, there were printed map quest directions to Burlington, Vermont, inside Mars' car. There have been persistent rumors that she had been driving under the influence in both accidents, but this has never been confirmed or denied by law enforcement, especially considering after the second accident they couldn't breath-lyzer because she was obviously missing. Her packed bag contained running clothes and her school bag contained her books and homework.

Billy's mom Sharon remarked that this demonstrated, quote, every intent on doing her schoolwork while she was away. She had every intent on maintaining her exercise regimen. Also with her packed bag was a book entitled Not Without Paral, which is a collection of accounts of people who ran into trouble, and some who went missing or died while hiking the white mountains of New Hampshire. A judge issued a search warrant for the seemingly abandoned vehicle the following morning on Tuesday, February 10, 2004, and finding that the car was registered to Fred Murray and that many

items inside belong to Mara Murray, they presumed her to be the likely driver of the vehicle. Now, police contacted Mara's parents early that evening, and Fred raised to the area from Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he had been working that day. The Roush family had also been notified, and Billy's parents, Sharon and Bill, came in from Ohio while Billy flew in from where he was stationed in Oklahoma. Because remember, Billy was not in the state at the time. Early on Wednesday morning, February 11th, as Billy was going through security at the

airport, he received a voicemail from an unknown number. All he could hear was what sounded like sniffling and muffled cries. So Panicked, knowing that Mara was missing, he tried to call the number back, but all he heard was an automated message saying that the call had been placed using a prepaid calling card and was not able to accept a return call. Now knowing that he had just purchased calling cards from our that past Thanksgiving, Billy became convinced that it had been her calling and that she was in trouble, so he called his mom in an absolute panic. According to Sharon, quote, the message basically

in and of itself was just a woman breathing and possibly a whimper or some sort of noise at the end which we believe to be her. However, it's also possible that this was actually the Red Cross calling for Billy, because the Red Cross helped organize military leave, and the day prior, Tuesday, February 10, Sharon placed a call to them to get Billy's leave approved so that he could aid in the search for Mora. But unfortunately, no one was ever able to substantiate the origin of the call. Of course there are still many varying opinions with some believing it was just a pocket dial, but it may have indeed been the Red Cross, as it was confirmed that they did in fact use

calling cards. However, it was uncommon to contact soldiers directly when orchestrating leave. So it's this that keeps Sharon convinced that it was, in fact, Mara calling. Billy, his parents, Fred, and Mara's siblings all congregated in the area to search for Mara. Fred and Mara's siblings all congregated in the area to search for Mara. Mara's mom Lori was suffering from a fractured ankle at the time and couldn't make the trip from where she was living in Hanson, Massachusetts, but the rest checked into a local motel and used that as their base camp. Starting at the crash site and working outward, Mara's loved ones, alongside volunteers

and law enforcement, combed the area looking for any sign of her. They searched a wide circumference around the car, but didn't seem to find any evidence that led to her walking off into the night or succumbing to the elements. But they also didn't find any evidence that indicated a struggle had taken place or that she had been abducted. But there were items of clothing found in the woods nearby that were turned into police for further investigation. Mara's sister even found a pair of women's underwear

on top of the ice in the forest near the crash site. But police completed forensic testing on them, and they were determined not to be a match for Mara Murray. Police searched using both helicopters and cadaver dogs working off the scent from a glove that belonged to Mara.. Police searched using both helicopters and cadaver dogs, working off the scent from a glove that belonged to Mara. But Fred questioned this move, saying that she had just gotten that glove for Christmas less than two months prior, really only like a month prior, and that it wouldn't have been the best representation of her scent. Down the road, about a hundred feet from the crash site, the dog lost Mora's scent, leading

investigators to believe that she may have gotten into a passing car. Police stated that they are, quote, virtually certain that she left the area in a vehicle. Fred echoed this sentiment, saying, quote, it seems likely she got into a car. Could have been a good guy, could have been a bad guy.'" Fred and Billy drove the length of the highway nearly all the way to the Canadian border. Of course, looking along the way and finding no sign of her. And they both pleaded in newscasts for her to come home.

Fred said, quote, "'Everybody's here looking for you and just call any one of us and we'll come down and get you. Don't be afraid, please. So please kid, if you're listening to me, we can just bang away at this stuff the same as we do all the time until we fix it. Billy said quote, I love you, Mara. I miss you so much. Obviously you know that. The sooner that I get to see you again and be with you, the better.

Long after everyone else had checked out of see you again and be with you, the better. Long after everyone else had checked out of the motel and gone back home, Fred was still searching. He was going up to the area as much as he could, like on the weekends, between work weeks to stay there and search for days at a time. Sharon was also very instrumental in the search. She was cold-calling every single one of the numbers that Mara had dialed in the days leading up to her disappearance. One of the numbers reached a condo in Bartlett, New Hampshire, which happened to be one of the places that Mara, Fred, and Billy had stayed together on one of their trips to Bartlett before she disappeared.

Right before she sent her last email to Billy, Mara had contacted the property owners of a Bartlett condo at 12.55pm on February 9th, the day that she went missing. Mara and the property owner, Linda Salamone, had spoken for three minutes. Unfortunately, so much time had passed between when she spoke with Mara and when she was contacted that Linda didn't really remember much about the phone call. I mean, it had been months at that point. She lamented that she wished that police had tracked her down closer to Mara's disappearance because she could have potentially offered them valuable information about Mara's state of mind at the time that she made the phone call.

In the 19 years since Mara's disappearance, dozens of theories have emerged about what may have happened to her. Potential sightings also poured into police, although none of them have been substantiated. One supposed witness came forward claiming that she thought she saw Mara at a gas station convenience store the day after she disappeared. The young woman in question was accompanied by a man believed to be in his 60s. She had her arms folded in front of her chest and seemed to be melting the words, help me. But the pair left shortly after that, and the woman wasn't able to call for help for

the girl until it was too late. After seeing the missing posters, she maintains that this young woman that she saw was Mara Murray. Police fielded sightings from all over Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, but none of them led to Mara, so a friend of Mara's name Christine McDonald attempted to conduct her own investigation. She visited Butch Atwood, again the first person on the scene of Mara's accident, to ask him more questions, and he responded with, quote, she got in a car and disappeared, and a story, that's it. And apparently he seemed very frustrated, which is, you know, it's a far cry from the helpful good Samaritan who stopped to help a young woman

who had just gotten into a car crash. But maybe that's because he had been questioned already and he didn't know enough to care or just wanted to be left alone, or maybe it's because he was hiding something. But either way, it was also potentially groundbreaking information if he had, in fact, seen her get into another vehicle because he had not said this before. Yeah, this is kind of weird because he, you know, he first states that he left and Mara was at her car and when he came back she what just wasn't there, but now he's saying that oh, well, I, you know, she got into a car Yeah, she's not in her car no big deal leave me alone. Yeah, but it's like is he, you know, it's kind of hard because it's like Did he actually see her do that did he actually see her get into a car or is that like his opinion and that's kind, is he, you know, it's kind of hard because it's like, did he actually see her do that?

Did he actually see her get into a car? Or is that like his opinion and that's kind of how he's saying it? Like, she got into a car. Like, I don't know what else to tell you. Well, yeah, because originally he had said that he was inside for about 10 minutes calling the police and then he came back out and like you said, she was gone. And he also said that a few cars had passed during this time and that if she did get in one,

it could have been any of them. So it wasn't like there was nobody on the road at this time. It was probably not very busy, but there were people driving on this road. Okay, so this seems to me like he didn't actually see her get into a car because if he did he probably would have been able to identify what color of car what type of car it was. I do agree with you there but then why would he say she got into a car and she was

gone or what did he say he said she got into car and disappeared end of story. So is that just because that's what he thinks happens because or happened because that's what police believes happened because police did say that that's there that's what they theorize is the most likely scenario so maybe he's just kind of piggybacking off that yeah maybe just parroting what the police already said exactly so as with any disappearance the finger pointing began very quickly butch was actually blamed for being the last person to see Mara and for potentially altering the course of events as he witnessed them, which may have been why he was so defensive

when confronted by Mara's friend. Fred's behavior leading up to February 9th was scrutinized as well, and armchair detective speculated whether or not he was actually buying Mara a car with the thousands of dollars in cash that he pulled out from the ATM Which we have to remember this is her dad and I do understand that people are thinking oh well You know, maybe he maybe he gave her the 4k so she could start a new Why the hell would he do that a B? He spent so much of his time looking for her after she disappeared Why would he do that if he knew where she was?

Yeah, that's actually really silly because it's like, oh, like, hey, I love you so much, daughter. Like, you're gonna disappear forever. But I'm gonna like- And why would he help her do that? Yeah, that doesn't, that's not something that a loved one would do. I know some people kind of talk about that whole situation that happened with the credit card

where she was trying to buy stuff with somebody else's credit card and how she was in trouble for that. But that's not a big enough thing or big enough reason to help your daughter disappear or to want to disappear. And also I think about the fact that Fred has done so many interviews, he's been on so many shows, podcasts, everything. Why would he be doing this to himself all these years, almost 20 years of this, if she simply ran away and he knew she did?

Well, here's the scenario. I mean, I feel like people try to complicate situations that they can't explain. And that's how all these crazy theories and, you know, speculations get thrown out there. It's because they just simply don't have answers. And so their brain keeps turning trying to think of what happened. Yeah, like grasping at straws, which is fair sometimes because I don't think speculation is a bad thing because it's like I said earlier, it's good to just keep the conversation going and cases can be solved by thinking and speculating and theorizing.

Sure. But this one to me is just rude. Right, of course. And, you know, also, as her romantic partner, Billy was not immune to any of these suspicions. With time, these suspicions have grown stronger, actually. In 2011, Billy was fired from his job for sexually assaulting a coworker. And since then, multiple other women who have dated or known Billy have come forward claiming aggressive and violent behavior.

As the years ticked by without any answers, many people have entertained this theory that possibly Billy was involved. But the most alarming account is from a young woman in Oklahoma who casually dated Billy later that same year that Mara disappeared, which again is 2004. She alleges that one night driving together after a party, Billy grabbed her by the neck and threatened, I'm going to kill you like I killed Mara. Another woman came forward saying that he had tried to aggressively choker during sex without consent there are similar stories from at least five women who knew worked with or dated Billy obviously all of this is it's a big red flag and terrible that a lot of women had to deal with violence

yeah yeah Billy right and it doesn't look good at all but he he was in Oklahoma. Yeah, that's why I was gonna say It's it's tough because Oklahoma it's it's either a 23 or 26 hour drive I forget I looked it up earlier, but so it's not it's not close to drive and He had to ask for leave just to go and see Mara so there would have been record of him flying because this is after 9-11 and So there would have been record of him flying because this is after 9-11 and If he drove it would have taken multiple days So there would have been record that he left either way because if it took multiple days He would have been absent in Oklahoma and they wouldn't noticed

Yeah, and here's the thing you know he may be a bad guy but trying to Put him place him at the scene of the crime or say that he's a suspect in this situation, it just doesn't fit. Well, then there's the theory that another man was involved. So UMass assistant, Tractcoach, Joseon Bogdotti, came forward after Mara's disappearance in favor of the theory that Billy had something to do with her going missing.

Housane claimed that the previous year, which was 2003, the two had had an affair while she was in a long-distance relationship with Billy. He also claimed that she had opened up to him about Billy's abusive and controlling nature and that she felt trapped. In an interview that Housane granted to a blogger investigating the case, he said, quote, there were hints that he got physical with her. She felt she couldn't get away from him. He wanted her to be in certain places at certain times.

He'd check up on her. He was very demanding. Interestingly, he claimed she also fantasized about leaving her life behind, remembering a particular conversation where she used, quote, I wish I could just disappear. And Hoseyne guessed that she would have chosen Mexico if she were to go off on her own, but again this is like all from the dude's mouth. There's nothing to prove that she said this. He also posed the theory that she may have esconded to a cabin owned by the UMass

Outing Club, where students sometimes took groups on weekends, but it was never proven nor disproven that that's where she was headed on that chilly February night, though it has been heavily discussed. Mara's West Point roommate Megan also maintains that Mara is alive and well and simply wanted to escape and start fresh. She said quote, if she wanted to make up another identity, she could do it. If she wanted to disappear, she could. She never wanted to look bad in front of people. I think she probably thought, if I just disappeared, they wouldn't think badly of me.

I believe she's alive. It's just a feeling I've always had. And strangely, investigators did find boxes in Mara's dorm, packed up as if she were moving out as she had also taken her artwork off the wall. So that was part of the reason people thought that too. But at the same time, if she was using this trip to just disappear, why would she leave boxes of stuff in her room? True, yeah.

Why wouldn't she take all that with her? Exactly. You would think that she would take some of those personal items with her, but maybe because she had been looking at rental properties, she just started packing things up like ahead of time. Yeah, maybe she wanted to move, not run away. Maybe she wanted to leave school and start fresh in a different way and say, hey, this isn't for me.

I want to move to the woods. You know, that makes more sense than I'm going to pack up my place and not take anything and then leave. Yeah. Yeah. But also, you have to ask, why would she let her loved ones think that she's been in danger for almost 20 years? I get that she's saying that Mara wasn't the type of person

who, or she was the type of person who didn't wanna look bad in front of people, but she certainly didn't seem cruel and unthoughtful at all. Yeah, I mean, that just seems like a huge step too far to put your family and friends through something like this for decades. Yes, I just don't think that this is a really fair place to jump. Exactly. And Mara's tight-knit group of high school friends deny this theory anyway.

One explained that her last email to the group was excitedly planning and outing to a Dane cook show that following month. They just couldn't understand why she would have, you know, like, dropped everything and left without a word. Her friend Liz said sadly, quote, she's missing everything. We graduated from college and she missed it. We don't have any more pictures of her. It's hard.

Mara's case had been stagnant for quite some time, but made headlines once again when in 2021, human remains were found in Lincoln, New Hampshire, which is near where her car crashed. The remains were found on Lune Mountain, about 30 miles or 48 kilometers from where Maris accident took place. However, radio-carbon testing on the bones found that they dated back as far as the 1700s, but were not newer than the 1940s. Mara's sister Julie was hopeful for her family to receive the closure that they desired, saying, quote,

�My heart is heavy upon learning that these remains do not belong to my little sister. I urge the New Hampshire State Police to work tirelessly until the remains can be identified, so that peace may be given to their loved ones. My family will continue to search for Mara and will leave no stone unturned until we bring her home and hold accountable those who are responsible for her disappearance. It seems like the most likely theories include that she fled from the scene on foot and potentially suffered hypothermia. The first thing I want to mention is that, you know, obviously there was a massive search

in that area, but they didn't search east of the road like we said. And there have been other searches since, so it just seems more likely that she would have been found by now, but also we have to remember that police didn't see any footprints in the snow leading off into the woods on either side. And that is part of the reason why they surmised other than the fact that her scent wasn't picked up after a hundred feet, that police think that she was picked up by a passing vehicle. And also, we kind of have to think about the fact that it didn't take that long for police

to arrive on the scene. So if she had wandered off, I feel like it would have been, I mean, I don't really know. Maybe it was, the snow made it a lot harder, but I feel like it would have been easier to find her because they did show up so soon after the crash. Right. Well, also, why would she go into hiding into the woods of a rural area knowing police would come clear the scene anyway? Because her car was covering one of the lanes of traffic.

Like, it's not like it was off to the side and people could get around it. This was blocking the road. So that just doesn't make a lot of sense to me, especially because it was negative four degrees. She knew it was negative four degrees. She knew it was freezing. Why run off? Where are you going to go from there? Yeah, and I'm just thinking about this considering the fact that people think that she may have

gotten into a car. It's like 10 minutes, you know, like that seems fairly quick to disappear from the area, and the only way to really do that is to get into a vehicle and get out of the area. Yes and before I touch on that I do want to touch on the hypothermia thing because I know that hypothermia can even occur with outdoor temperatures as cold as 40 degrees Fahrenheit like if you're out in it long enough in the wrong circumstances so she could have she could have reached hypothermia for sure but like you saying, she would have been slowed down by the snow. It was not long until police arrived at the scene anyway. That really doesn't make a lot of sense.

It seems more likely that she would have been picked up by somebody. Like how far could you actually get trying to run through snow? Yes, and she was a smart girl. We know that about her. So I would also think that she would probably know that it's illegal to leave the scene of an accident. Maybe she could have come up with something later, but leaving the scene doesn't mean that no one's going to see your car and that you can pretend that none of it happened. But I mean, maybe she wasn't really thinking.

Maybe she was scared and shaken from what happened and tired and she just wanted to get away from it all. So she decided to get into a car where she could reach cell service and call her dad or call somebody else. So to me, it makes more sense why she would get into a car instead of running off. And we also have to understand that some people can appear to be very, very charming.

And she was also a young woman, not to say that some people can appear to be very very charming uh... and she was also a young woman not to say that young women are are you know uh... more susceptible to this but she was twenty one years old and you know she crashed along the side of the highway she was left in a very vulnerable situation it's possible that she you know she just needed some help well i do think that young women are more susceptible actually it but also because because yours like you're saying some people can appear very charming and very Safe as well somebody easily could as a hey, do you need some help?

I can take you up here or get you out of the area, you know, whatever somebody could have coaxed her easily. Right, and we know that she told a butch that she had already called triple A, but she hadn't. Right. And so then we have to wonder why she did that, because AAA isn't the police. She's saying she's calling AAA to get a toe. Why doesn't she wanna get a toe? Impossible because, you know, if the police do end up coming to the accident, like,

I'm just trying to think like, had she been drinking and possibly driving, that would be the reason why she wouldn't want police on the scene there right but it's just difficult because if this was such a bad crash as we know so if triple a isn't called and she doesn't want the police called then how is she gonna get her car out of this right I mean at some point the the only logical answer is that you got to call

somebody you got to call somebody right and actually you had showed me a tick-tock from her sister Julie who was standing in the road more recently of the scene of the crash she was she was kind of turning her camera around to show that there were a few houses scattered along this this road right so it was not like a remote area. I mean, there were houses nearby. So did she go into one of these houses? Possibly that's something that I would like to know if police did go up to all these

front doors and say, did you see this young woman? Because I also read that the search and investigation for her wasn't fully implemented until 36 hours after her crash. And I also read that there were DNA samples taken from a nearby home, which was being rented by this local guy who was known to have a possible sex addiction and have a violent temper. But that DNA wasn't tested for two years. So did she go into a house nearby and she was met with foul play there, or was she just taken away from the scene?

Yeah, I mean, it's just really hard because there are so many theories in this case, so much speculation. I mean, you could go on for days thinking about all these different scenarios, but, you know, do you also lean on the she got into a car? Yeah, I do. I do. I find that to be like the most plausible situation, just that you know, she was stuck in a situation. She needed to get help.

Well, police think that too. And Fred actually filed a lawsuit against the New Hampshire State police, hoping to obtain the records of the case to take the investigation into his own hands. Police argued that it would hurt the investigation if the information were made public because obviously there still is a ton of stuff that has not been released. Like I'm saying, I'm questioning whether or not they talk to the people who live nearby etc.

They cannot release certain details, but they still hope that the case will be solved. In the end, the lawsuit sided with the state and the police and ruled to keep the records sealed. Siding military security concerns, West Point Academy blocked her school records from being shared, which may have given slightly more insight into her mental state in the years leading up to her disappearance if that's even relevant to her case. If you're interested in learning more about the case and all of its theories because

we discussed almost everything, but there's a million theories of this case, Mara's sister Julie, like I said, has a TikTok with a ton of information and her handle is Mara's sister Julie, like I said, has a tick-tock with a ton of information and her handle is Mara Murray missing. So at Mara Murray missing. And if you'd like to donate, there is still an active go fund me also run by Julie raising money for additional laboratory testing. Their initial goal was $5,000, but it has now surpassed $11,000, which is great But if you still want to help, just click on the Go Fund Me link in the description of this episode. And the message on the fundraiser's page is signed, someone knows something. If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Mara Murray, you can submit a tip online or call the Havroll New Hampshire Police Department at 603-787-2222.

Her family refuses to give up their search, and as Fred said, we are coming for you, kid. Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. I am so glad that we were finally able and finally decided to dive into this case. I would love to hear everybody's theories of what you think could have possibly happened tomorrow. So like I said in the beginning of the episode, please go follow us on our socials and leave

us a comment. Our Instagram again is at Going West Podcast. Our Twitter is at Going West Pod. And like Keith said, we have a discussion group on Facebook that we like to jump into and would just love to hear your thoughts. This case honestly just gets my head spinning, like just around and around thinking of different like theories and situations like, I mean, it's just so crazy

and like everybody has a theory for this case. It feels like. Yeah, like I said, I stand more so on the she got into a car theory, but it feels so hard to say because it feels like there still is a lot of evidence that the police have, that we don't have, and even a lot of things that they don't know. So there's not a whole lot to go off of.

Well, let's talk about it, people. All right, guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5%

1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% Thank you. you