RedHanded - Episode 336 - Maura Murray: Not Without Peril

Episode Date: February 22, 2024

In 2004, amid a horrific snowstorm in a remote mountain town, a talented yet troubled young woman crashed her car and vanished off the face of the Earth. The more you learn about the life of Maura Murray, and the things she got up to in the days before her mysterious disappearance, lead to more questions than answers. Was she trying to kill herself? Was she trying to disappear? Was she abducted, and were the police involved?This is one of the most infamous missing persons cases of modern times and has perplexed the world for over 20 years. Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus Content Follow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramXVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. So, get this. The Ontario Liberals elected Bonnie Crombie as their new leader. Bonnie who? I just sent you her profile. Her first act as leader, asking donors for a million bucks for her salary. That's excessive. She's a big carbon tax supporter. Oh yeah. Check out her record as mayor. Oh, get out of here. She even increased taxes carbon tax supporter. Oh yeah, check out her record as mayor. Oh, get out of here.

She even increased taxes in this economy. Yeah, higher taxes, carbon taxes. She sounds expensive. Bonnie Crombie and the Ontario Liberals. They just don't get it. That'll cost you. A message from the Ontario PC Party. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made.

A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app

or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Saruti. I'm Hannah. And welcome to Red Handed, where this week we try to make it an anniversary episode, but something's got rearranged in our schedule. But just pretend. Suspend your disbelief. It is the same month. That is about as good as we can get you guys this week.

Come with me and you'll be in a world of your imagination. Something like that. Sing that to yourselves while you listen to this episode. Because following a snowstorm in a remote mountain town in the US, a young woman crashed her car. Three people saw her. Two of them contacted the police. And one of them even spoke with her face to face.

But by the time police arrived on the scene less than 15 minutes later, this young woman was gone. The police, the FBI and hundreds of volunteers searched for her using everything from helicopters and thermal imaging cameras to sniffer dogs. But for 20 years, they haven't found so much as a single clue of a breadcrumb. Somehow, someway, in that 15-minute window, 21-year-old Maura Murray simply vanished off the face of the earth. On that fateful day, the 9th of February 2004, Maura crashed her car on a snowy hairpin bend in the remote mountain town of Woodsville, New Hampshire in the US. Can we just

talk about the fact that there are a lot of names which again scream of your anger towards names like fireplace? Yes. Woodsville. Yes. Please. Maybe I'm being unfair. Maybe the US is so big that we just have to allow them to call places Woodsville. Possibly. You can have five points if you can tell me the state motto of New Hampshire. It's the best one. No, it's the second best one. We'll name our towns what we want.

No, it's live free or die. It's behind the nose though, isn't it? I feel like you want want to go a bit weird a bit quirky with your state mottos but fair enough fair enough it's no unbridled spirit no it is no unbridled spirit the t-shirt that i have that says unbridled spirit on it is my prizest possession it's beautiful anyway someone who sounds like they would really enjoy the state motto, live free or die, Butch Atwood, a local school bus driver, was driving past when he noticed that a young woman had crashed her car. The black 1996 Saturn had seemingly hit a tree,

spun 180 degrees and lodged into a snowbank. She didn't seem to be injured or bleeding, just shivering from the cold and the shock of the crash as she struggled to open the car door. And when Butch asked her if he should call 911, the woman actually pleaded for him not to, insisting that she'd already phoned AAA. Butch immediately knew she was lying, because there was no cell reception up there. But he simply assumed that this young woman was a bit frightened of him. He was six foot three hundred pounds unshaven especially since they were essentially in the middle of nowhere. So Butch went on his way and decided to call the emergency services from his house

which was just a hundred yards away and he made this call at 7.43pm. If I saw somebody be in a car crash and I was like do you want me to call 999 and they were were like, no, no, please don't. I think they're drunk. I'm not saying that's what's happened here. I'm just saying that's what I would think. Yes.

Or they've got something illegal in the car. Also that, but in America, it's fucking expensive. I've heard multiple stories of people, a friend of mine actually. Oh, if you call an ambulance. Yes. Yeah, well, surely that's what you would be calling 911 for. True. I'm thinking police but yeah yeah i know multiple people who've been in rough accidents like broken ribs broken

legs and they've been like no ambulance so what makes it suspicious for me is the fact that she claims to have called triple a and there's no way she could have done that anyway as it turned out another nearby resident had already reported the car crash 16 minutes before. According to the official police log, officers arrived on the scene three minutes after Butch made his call. But when they arrived, Maura Murray was nowhere to be seen. In fact, she's never been seen again. Now, we made sure to mention that the time that the police arrived at the scene was according to the official police log, because another witness there told a very different story. A passerby claims to have seen a police SUV parked by Maura's car at 7.37pm, nine minutes before the official police log stated that authorities were at the scene. And we know that this is entirely possible even though they arrived three minutes after Butcher's call because somebody already reported

it 16 minutes before. Now this witness also insisted that she didn't see any sign of Maura or a police officer anywhere, just both of their cars. So as you can see, what happened during that 15-minute window when Maura was last, is incredibly muddled by various statements and claims, making it really, really difficult to unpick the truth of what actually happened. And this case has left the police, the FBI, Maura's family, and internet sleuths everywhere, scratching their heads for almost two decades. To this day, there hasn't been a single solid clue as to what actually happened to Maura Murray, or any answer as to why she was out in the middle of nowhere in the first place.

In this episode, all we can do is take you through the facts, many of which have been confused by misinformation, baseless finger-pointing, trolls, and overzealous armchair detectives. And then we'll talk about the theories out there, from the plausible to the most bizarre. And no, the irony of us being armchair detectives at times is not lost on us. But that's what you're stuck with, so let's get on with it. Born on May the 4th, be with you, 1982. Maura Murray was the fourth child of Fred, a medical tech, and Laurie Murray, a nurse. She had an older brother, Fred II, two older sisters, Kathleen and Julie, and a younger half-brother called Kurt. They were raised Irish

Catholic in Hanson, Massachusetts. Someone sent me a tweet this morning that was like, oh, I'm culturally Catholic, which means I'm guilty all the time and I really like stained glass windows and little statues. And we had a look at what Hanson, Massachusetts is like. And to be honest, it doesn't really look like there's much going on in Hanson, Massachusetts. But it is where Ocean Spray cranberry juice was founded. So that's good enough for me. Well, there you go. Delicious.

Especially if you've got a UTI. And it was clear from a young age that Maura was incredibly bright and a superstar athlete. Even when she was little, Maura would beat her older siblings at chess and outwit them constantly, which must have been incredibly annoying. And as for athletic talent, when Maura was in elementary school, she set a new school record for the mile and a half run, but not just for the girls, for the boys too.

Maura was a happy and talented kid, but when she was just six, her parents divorced. Maura and her four other siblings lived with their mum, Laurie, but Fred remained very much in their lives. He spent a lot of time with his children, helping with schoolwork and driving them to and from sports practices. In fact, he never missed a single one of their races. In high school, Maura had an incredibly tight group of friends who were super competitive with one another when it came to schoolwork and sports. But the academic side of things came easy to Maura. She even tutored other kids, including her older sister, which is just the worst.

If my sister even pretended to tutor me, I would put her through a fucking wall. Like, no, absolutely not. I'd have to pull rank. Very much so in the Murray household. And Mora was also in Latin Club and the National Honor Society and even scored a 1420 on her SATs, which we don't have those in this country. Yes, obviously, we get bombarded with this information when we watch American TV shows. But apparently, it's a near-perfect score, which I didn't know.

But there you go. Maura also made the varsity basketball team while she was still a freshman and competed in the state free throw championships at the Boston Garden. And on the track, she was also phenomenal. Maura qualified for the US Nationals when she was just a sophomore and finished 33rd in the country in the two-mile race. She was also a Boston Globe All-Scholastic, which is a huge honour in Massachusetts for any sport. By the time Maura graduated from Whitman Hanson High School,

she held almost every sporting record there at the time and finished fourth in her class academically. So, as you can imagine, Maura had her pick of the Ivy League colleges, from Harvard to Yale. But Maura decided to follow her older sister Julie and head to West Point, where she majored in chemical engineering. West Point, probably a lot of our American fans will know this, but it is of course a US military academy and a precursor to joining the army. However, Maura's college life did not go quite as smoothly as her school life had gone, to say the least. Just quickly on that, recognising a place name in America and then making connections. I was looking at places to go in February. I'm not going.

But I was looking at these like retreats and like blah blah blah. And there was this one that I was like, oh, this looks quite good. It was in Florida. And it's like, oh, and you have this like personal guidance person and like you do all of these things and i was like oh okay i could get into that like self-development blah blah and then i realized not only is it in florida it's in clear water florida and you know what else is there scientology yeah exactly so i was like i think not i think not so actually what i've decided is to stay put and confront my problems face on. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show American Scandal.

We bring to light some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, NASA embarks on an ambitious program to reinvent space exploration with the launch of its first reusable vehicle, the Space Shuttle. And in 1985, they announced they're sending teacher Krista McAuliffe into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, along with six other astronauts. But less than two minutes after liftoff, the Challenger explodes. And in the tragedy's aftermath, investigators uncover a series of preventable failures by NASA and its contractors that led to the disaster. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery+.

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Anyway, West Point welcomes its new students slash recruits with a summer of something called Beast Barracks before these bright young things have even entered their first class. That sounds horrific. Absolutely. It sounds like deep cut. Yeah, deep cut barracks, yeah. And from what we have read about Beast Barracks online, it is essentially what it sounds like, which is a hellish six-week army boot camp.

The purpose of Beast Barracks is to plunge each new student into the military system right away by placing them under enormous amounts of mental and physical pressure. Every day for six weeks, new students have to wake up at 5.50am and be screamed at by upperclassmen as they endure relentless, gruelling physical tasks until 9.30pm. PM! Look, I understand why certain people go into this. I totally get it. And I understand for some people, it might actually be a good thing to have some discipline, some structure, some order, etc, etc. Why Maura Murray makes this choice is something I don't understand because she had a lot of

options. But there she is getting screamed at till 9.30pm. But what's the army slogan? Be the best. Is that what it is? Well, there you go. That's a nice what's the army slogan? Be the best. Is that what it is? Well, there you go. That's a nice motto for everybody to have. Be the best.

Be your best. No, the. I was trying to be too nice. So, it is only once these six weeks of absolute hell are finished that the students who remain are allowed to join the cadet corps and begin their academic year. You might expect this to have been a breeze for a star athlete and student like Maura, but it was not the case. When her sister Julie, who was in her third year at West Point at the time, went to smuggle Maura some cookies in the barracks, she found her in tears.

It wasn't unusual for this to happen to new students, but Julie definitely felt that it was unusual for Maura. But in the end, Maura did finish Beast Barracks and she started to smash it in her first year, both in class and on the track team. And she even hit it off with a boy, William Roush, who she called Billy. And they started dating.

It was in Maura's second year that the real problems began. And they went from bad to worse very quickly. In August 2001, while on a training exercise in Fort Knox, Kentucky, Maura, for whatever reason, decided to steal a $5 box of makeup from the commissary. She got caught red-handed, which resulted in an honour investigative hearing, which is basically where a board of nine cadets decide whether another cadet violated the honour code of West Point. So it's like a little trial, basically. But again, it's, you know, if the military is all about discipline and blah, blah, blah, and code of conducts, and it's like,

yes, what do you do if somebody does something? i guess what they're trying to do here is say that you are responsible for your platoon we're not going to interfere and say you did something you as a group need to decide if this person did something wrong which again i understand the premise for this now this was also apparently the seventh disciplinary action against mora that year alone wow but we couldn't find any details of what the other things actually were. So we're just sort of having to tell you that this is the 7th, but we don't know what exactly happened before. But this hearing concluded that there was enough evidence to take Maura to the cadet advisory board

and ended with Maura actually pleading guilty. And the advisory board recommended Maura be expelled from West Point. But the superintendent was to have the final say. He was expected to notify Maura of his decision by the end of January 2002. And as if that wasn't stressful enough, at the end of the second year at West Point, students have to take an oath which obligates them to serve for five years in the military. So what we're trying to tell you is that with both her possible expulsion and this huge oath looming over her, which would tie her into the military for five years, Maura decided that she couldn't take it anymore

and voluntarily withdrew from the academy. She then transferred to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and joined a nursing programme. Maura's daily life at UMass, compared to West Point, was night and day. She no longer had to wear a pristine uniform, march, get barked at, or have her every waking hour programmed for her. Maura was now living a very typical college existence, partying and studying. And she even carried on seeing Billy in an on-again-off-again situation,

although it was long distance. Maura joined the cross-country and track teams and held down two part-time jobs for some extra cash, one at an art gallery and another as a dorm security guard. And during this time, Maura maintained regular contact with her family. She sent letters to her older sister Julie, who was now stationed in South Korea. And because she was so close to home, Maura would see her mum and her other siblings regularly, and she'd go hiking with her dad in the White Mountains. On the surface, it looked as though Maura was back to her old self, the star student, the athlete, and the family girl.

But all was not as it seemed, because during this time, Maura's friends later revealed that she'd been suffering from bulimia. Julie Murray spoke on this in a video on her TikTok account, which is at Maura Murray Missing. And Julie said that she was aware of Maura's bulimia at the time, and she regrets not having helped her with it more. Julie believes that the disorder was a catalyst for the series of troubling and uncharacteristic decisions that Maura made leading up to her strange disappearance. In November 2003, one of Maura's dorm mates checked her bank statements

and noticed some strange transactions. Somebody with an affinity for Italian food had been buying takeaway on her credit card. Over the course of just a few days, this person had spent almost $80 on six orders from Italian restaurants and pizza spots. The odd thing, though, was that her credit card wasn't actually missing. The card was still in her purse, which meant that somebody knew her credit card number.

So, this girl phoned the police to report the issue, and they in turn contacted all of the businesses where the transactions had been made. Now look, I'm all here for the police to report the issue and they in turn contacted all of the businesses where the transactions had been made now look i'm all here for the police doing this but i cannot believe that the police were actually calling italian restaurants about 80 worth of yeah my god it's shocking like if you i don't know maybe you know this is a different time i don't know it's hilarious that they are actually doing something about this. And they go further than just calling these pizzerias. Because late at night on the 3rd of November, at La Cucinia di Pinocchio, a customer was flagged for using this stolen credit card to order a pizza.

The owners phoned the police, who then in turn advised them to put the order through and deliver the pizza, as they would have officers waiting by the caller's address. Again, I can't believe they're actually doing this, but that's what's happening. So once the delivery boy handed over the pizza to the customer and had them signed for it, the officers made their move and arrested the woman. It was, of course, Maura Murray. Now at first, Maura tried to play it off by showing them her own credit card, saying that that was the one she had used to order the pizza. But eventually, she did relent. Maura admitted that she had been using the stolen credit card number to buy food, but couldn't explain why she had done it. According to her, she found a receipt on campus

and had written down the credit card number from the bottom of it. And this might sound mental to younger listeners, but up until the year of our Lord 2005, full credit card numbers would be printed at the bottom of receipts. That is insane. Truly. I mean, what the fuck? And look, yes, that is a massive, massive hole in the system if you're printing full credit card numbers on the bottom of receipts.

Though I do find it very coincidental that Maura says she found a receipt on campus and it just so happened to be her housemates. Oh no, she stole it. Like, I'm not buying that for a second. And the card is obviously still in her friend's purse. Maybe she just found a receipt in the house. But it used to be, I'm really aging myself here yeah before the dawn of the pdq we only had it for when the pdq machines went down but i have used one of the old

machines where you take a you take a copy but it's like an imprint of the credit card on like wax paper oh my god that's the receipt wow i i'm old so i suppose if you're graduating from that system which is the and it's literally an impression of the card you're going to have the number and then you're moving on to a receipt based printing system i can see why you would transfer the whole number of it's dumb as shit but like that is what people used to do but it's like and we're going very far down this tangent of like a card security. But banks, it's literally their job to be like, how can we close as many loopholes for money getting stolen as possible? They employ literally groups and groups and groups of people to just do this. And nobody saw the potential

risks of just printing whole credit card numbers in the palm of receipts. And it did take a while, but eventually banks did realise that this was leading to quite a large amount of fraud. And in 2005, the Fair and Accurate Credit Card Transactions Act, FACTA, was introduced, which prohibited printing more than five digits of the credit card number on RIP seats. Anyway, let's get back to Maura. She wasn't handcuffed, but she was taken to the station to have a mugshot taken, which is quite sinister. It's not difficult to find. It is very sinister. Why is the quality of this image so poor?

She looks like she's in fucking Lake Mungo. It's terrifying. Officers told Maura that she would need to come in on the 9th for an interview, which she did. Maura refused to give a written statement, but she did apologise, and she promised to pay the money back. But that just wasn't going to be enough. Officers told Maura that although it was a low-level charge, because she had stolen less than $250, she would have to go to court. And, to be honest, she did get off pretty easily

for what was actual identity theft of someone she knew, and credit card fraud. I don't really think the $80 is here or there. And I don't mean to sound like I'm saying, why are the police bothering to investigate? I'm just shocked that they did. Because obviously, after doing Filthy Ritual, which you should definitely go listen to anyway, listen to your podcast, you know, the resounding message from the police time and time again with fraud cases was, unless you're talking about money that is of a substantial amount,

we don't have the resources or the time or the inclination to investigate. So absolutely, whether you steal $80 or you steal $800,000, you should of course face the consequences of it. I'm just shocked that she did. And then on the 18th of December, a judge told Maura Murray that he would drop all of the charges against her if she just managed to stay out of trouble for three months and pay the money back. Maura did not tell her family or her friends about the incident,

but presumably her fucking roommate knew about it. It's spiralling and just so much stress upon stress upon stress. That's what it feels like. So as it turns out, Maura wasn't the only Murray sibling struggling in their personal life at this point. At about 10.30pm on the 5th of February 2004, while working a shift at her campus security job, Maura's supervisor found her in tears. Side note, should somebody who has just been taken to court for identity theft and credit card fraud against another student, no less, be working as campus security? That's a good point. Anyway,

just a point worth raising, but yeah. Now, Maura was crying because apparently she'd been speaking on the phone with her sister, Kathleen. According to the supervisor, Maura was completely zoned out and barely responsive. All she could say was, my sister, with tears in her eyes. Now, this supervisor escorted Maura back to her dorm room at 1.30am and asked whether she wanted her to stay but Maura said her roommate was in and that she'd be fine. This was a lie. By this point Maura didn't have a roommate. In 2017 Kathleen Murray finally revealed what she had been speaking to Maura about that night on the phone. Kathleen was a recovering alcoholic and on that evening she had just been released from rehab. But her piece of shit fiancé,

who picked her up from rehab, decided that on the way home from rehab he would take his recovering alcoholic girlfriend to a liquor store and that caused her to relapse. Do you know what I saw the other day that was absolutely horrifying? The recovery rate of people with addiction issues is one in 12. Wow. Yeah. Anyway, we say was a recovering alcoholic because Kathleen has since died following a long battle with cancer. It is also worth noting that

as well as having spoken to Kathleen that night, Maura's phone records showed that she had made several calls to her boyfriend as well. And apparently earlier that night there had been a hit and run on campus which left a male student in a coma. A number of armchair detectives online have insinuated that Maura was responsible for this, which is why she was upset, but we don't have any evidence to support that. Maura was working when the accident happened. There wasn't any damage to her car that would be consistent with having run somebody over. The following Saturday, Maura's dad Fred drove up to visit her and take her car shopping. Maura's 1996 Saturn was in bad shape

and she needed a car to drive to her clinical work at nursing school. Fred had withdrawn $4,000 from various ATMs that day, but it wasn't enough to get Maura the car that she wanted, so they decided to buy the car the next weekend instead. That night, Fred took Maura and her friend Kate to a pub for dinner, and for a couple of drinks. Interestingly, we have read that Kate claimed that neither Maura or her dad ever mentioned having spent the day car shopping, but not really sure what to make of that, like why that would be a secret, but it is interesting that Kate said, we just didn't talk about it. What we do know is that after dinner,

Maura and Kate asked Fred if they could borrow his brand new Toyota Corolla to drive to a party. And Fred, seemingly being the coolest fucking divorced dad ever, agreed, and even stopped to buy them alcohol from a liquor store on their way to drop him off at his hotel. I don't know. Is drunk driving more cash in the US?

I don't think I know that part of their culture, actually. The way I think about it is like this. So many more people drive and there are so many more people drive and there are so many more situations in the us than in the uk for example where driving is the only way you're going to get there so by that logic the type of people who are likely to drink and drive are doing more driving in the states than they are here because less people drive sure kind of like being in the country here that's what i was gonna say we went to that airbnb

in the middle of nowhere how do i went i can't remember we were in the absolute middle of fucking nowhere and we were like oh there's a pub it's like a mile away and we were like obviously we're not going to drive there because i can't drive and hannah would like to have a drink so we walked there absolutely pitch black country roads no pavement Absolutely pitch black country roads. No pavement. Just pitch black, muddy roads. And somehow we managed to get ourselves there. And then obviously we had the horrible realisation there that we were going to have to walk back and get there.

Car park full. Full of Range Rovers. Everyone inside. Everyone was drinking. And I was like, no one else. We didn't see a single other human being walking to that pub. So everyone was just getting on it and was going to drive home. So I do think that is a thing in in the country people do it less in cities because there are more police but like people push it more in the country in my humble opinion

but i do think more people do drink and drive in the us but i suppose it's the same thing as like people drink and drive in the country because there's no other way to get to the pub you know that's what i was gonna say apart from drag your sorry ass down in the pitch black road we look like fools anyway after fred lets the girls take the car he just promised maura to return the car later that night and the girls went on to their party i will also say something that americans do which british people don't do is car swap with no insurance like Like it's so casual. Oh just take my car. Oh here it is such a big deal. Such a big deal.

Yeah. Anyway at this party Maura got absolutely bazonka shit faced and against Kate's wishes left at 2.30am to take the car

back to her dad. Oh my god. That is fucking horrific. There are a few things that terrify me more than being caught drunk driving like not that it's something i do but like even if like i see a police car on the motorway and i'm like oh my god when was the last time i had a drink even if it was like 48 hours ago i'm like but what if no you're very careful you're very careful yeah yeah why it would just be my worst nightmare no it's just oh my god just that sentence i read ahead and i remembered what we had written in the script and i was like oh my god that i will also on the on the the

driving police thing if i could obliterate one thing from the world it would be true crime podcasts using sirens on their backtracks because if you're driving, you think you're going to get pulled over. Anyway, Maura's hammered. She's driving. And on the way to her dad, Maura crashed into a guardrail on Route 9, causing around $15,000 worth of damage to the car. Maura! Oh, my God. That's got to be a write-off.

Like, come on. Like, what car? His brand new car. Oh, OK. Not a write-off then, but still. Fuck. Luckily for Maura, the responding officer either failed to notice that she was blackout drunk or chose to ignore it because he did not do a sobriety test on her.

She must have stunk of alcohol. Oh, yeah. Even if you couldn't tell somehow that she was drunk. And like, you know, how old is she? Like fucking 20? Yeah, she's like in her 20s. Early 20s. No one in their early 20s

is that good at pretending not to be drunk. They've only just realised what drunk is. I mean, yeah, like very early 20s because she's 21 when she vanishes.

The officer not only didn't sobriety test Maura, he didn't give her a ticket or call for medical attention. And this was very early in February. Maura was still on her three-month continuance for the fraud charges.

Wow. To remember, the judges obviously told her, don't get into trouble for three months and I will make this go away. Yeah. The officer only took down Maura's details and gave her a lift to her dad's hotel where she spent the night. There is even less possibility, therefore,

that he didn't know she was drunk. She sat in the car with him. Don't tell me you don't know she's drunk. At 5.38am, Maura phoned her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Billy, on her dad's phone to talk about the crash. When Fred woke up and found out that his daughter had totaled his car,

he continued to be cool dad and was super chill about the whole thing. I genuinely have nightmares about denting my mum's car and having to tell her. And the thing is, look, Fred, okay, fine, you're trying to be like supportive, you know that Maura's gone through some difficult stuff, blah, blah, blah. And yeah, maybe you don't want to like come down so hard on her about wrecking your car. But don't tell me you didn't know the reason she crashed her car is because she was coming back from a party drunk. Are you not going to have a conversation with your daughter about how grossly irresponsible that is?

Fred did not have the you need to pull your socks up chat. He just rented a car and drove Maura back to her dorm. And then he went back to Connecticut. Maura worked a shift at the art gallery that night and spoke with her dad again. He just phoned to remind her to collect accident forms from the RMV, which is the US version of the DVLA. And the two agreed to have a phone call the next night to fill out the forms together. And that was pretty much the end of it. Except the pair of them, father and daughter, would never have that call because the very next day, Maura had seemingly vanished off the face of the planet.

I'm Jake Warren, and in our first season of Finding, I set out on a very personal quest to find the woman who saved my mum's life. You can listen to Finding Natasha right now, exclusively on Wondery+. In season two, I found myself caught up in a new journey to help someone I've never even met. But a couple of years ago, I came across a social media post by a person named Loti. It read in part, three years ago today that I attempted to jump off this bridge, but this wasn't my time to go. A gentleman named Andy saved my life. I still haven't found him. This is a story that I came across purely by chance, but it instantly moved me and found him. This is a story that I came across purely by chance, but it instantly moved me and it's taken me to a place where I've had to consider

some deeper issues around mental health. This is season two of Finding, and this time, if all goes to plan, we'll be finding Andy. You can listen to Finding Andy and Finding Natasha exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America. But when a social media-fueled fight over Harvard and its new president broke out last fall, that was no protection. Claudine Gay is now gone.

We've exposed the DEI regime, and there's much more to come. This is The Harvard Plan, a special series from the Boston Globe and WNYC's On The Media. To listen, subscribe to On The Media wherever you get your podcasts. Now this is what we know that Maura did before disappearing on Monday the 9th of February 2004. Just after midnight, Maura used MapQuest to download directions to the Berkshires in Burlington, which is in Vermont, and also other locations in the White Mountains. Fuck me, remember that? Printing out directions. I don't want to think about it.

A friend of mine who's only a couple of years older than me took an A to Z with him to look at university accommodation. Oh my God. It's honestly, I would just never leave my house if we were still in those times. Now, yeah, just in case you're wondering what MapQuest is, it was basically something people use before the days of waves or Google Maps. Samora also Googled some pregnancy related terms like Braxton Hicks but this was assumed to be related to her nursing course rather than to

the idea that she was actually pregnant. Yeah I mean you're not looking at Braxton Hicks in your first trimester really are you? Yeah. Maura then emailed her professors some nursing homework after which she packed up most of the belongings in her room into boxes. This even included the posters on her walls. It really looked as though Maura was preparing to fully move out. At 12.55pm, Maura made a call to inquire about renting a condo in Bartlett, New Hampshire. Still don't know what condo is, don't care, move on. A place where she'd previously been on holiday with her family, but the owner didn't rent her one. At 1pm, Maura then emailed her boyfriend Billy, and I'm sorry that I have to read this to you, but this is what she wrote. I love you more, stud. I got your messages, but honestly,

I didn't feel like talking too much to anyone. I promised to call you today, though. Love you, Maura. At 1.24pm, Maura then emailed her professors and the managers at the art gallery she worked at, as well as her bosses at the security job, saying that she would be gone for a week. Maura claimed that there had been a death in the family, but this was a lie. Half an hour later, Maura made a five-minute call

to a ski resort in Stowe, Vermont, but again, didn't actually book anything Yeah, so like by that logic I'm a Scientologist because I looked at that one retreat in Clearwater do you know what I mean? And then Maura packed a bunch of her stuff into her car like shampoo, lotion, makeup, gym clothes, tampons

toothbrush, birth control, phone charges, textbooks and a map She also packed loads of snacks like crisps and dill pickles and some sentimental things like a stuffed teddy and a diamond necklace that Billy had given her And a map. She also packed loads of snacks, like crisps and dill pickles, and some sentimental things, like a stuffed teddy and a diamond necklace that Billy had given her. But the thing that raised eyebrows was a book that she packed called Not Without Peril, 150 Years of Misadventure on the Presidential Range of New Hampshire. It's a book chronicling numerous incidents of people getting lost

and dying in the mountains. And this has, of course, led many, including the police, to speculate whether Maura was planning on killing herself. But her family rejected this from the very start. For one, apparently Maura had just always really loved that book and loved hiking in that area. And secondly, people who are going to kill themselves probably wouldn't pack a toothbrush, birth control, lotion and snacks. At around 3.30pm, Maura jumped in her car and drove off campus. And the weather was bad. So bad that all of the classes at UMass had been cancelled due to a violent snowstorm.

Ten minutes later, CCTV footage caught Maura emptying her bank account by withdrawing $280. She then spent $40 at a nearby liquor store buying ingredients for the worst cocktail ever, which essentially is a baby Guinness with vodka on top. And a wine chaser. Yeah, she bought Baileys, Kah Kahlua vodka and a box of wine and at some point before leaving town at 4 p.m Maura stopped at the RMV and picked up the accident report papers for her dad not the actions of someone who was thinking of ending it all I would argue yeah why would you bother with the admin if you are going to and also why would she hand in all of her coursework? Like she emails her nursing work to her professors before she leaves.

Why would you fucking bother? Now at 4.37pm, Maura checked her voicemail. This would be the last record of her ever having used her phone. There's no evidence that at any point during the day, Maura told anybody where she was going. Nor was there much evidence that she really knew exactly where she was going herself, to be honest. that she really knew exactly where she was going herself, to be honest.

All we know is that she clearly wanted to get away for a while. Then, just after 7pm, around three hours after Maura had left Amherst, Faith Westman, a resident in Woodsville, New Hampshire, heard a crash outside.

When Faith looked out of the window, she saw the black 1996 satin wedged into a snowbank on Route 112. She then phoned the police at 7.27pm and according to the log, she said that she had seen a man smoking a cigarette inside. Faith later recanted this statement and said that it just looked like a red glowing light inside that she had thought was a cigarette. Now as we know, Butch the school

bus driver then passed by the crashed car and spoke with Maura. Faith even witnessed this interaction from her window. According to Butch, remember we said Maura pleaded with him not to phone 911 and she lied saying that she'd already called AAA. Butch then went home and like we told you at the top of the show, called 911 anyway, knowing that Maura was lying. And when officers arrived at the scene reportedly three minutes later, at 7.46pm, Maura was gone. Imagine if Butch hadn't made that call. He'd be in prison. Yeah. Oh, God, yeah, because Faith's like, I saw him.

Yeah. As we said, another passerby reported having seen a police SUV there at the scene of the crash as early as 7.37pm. Nose to nose with the Saturn. But for now, let's assume that the police log is correct. Officers found Maura's car locked with a cracked windscreen, a dented hood, both airbags detonated, and strangely, a rag stuffed in the exhaust pipe. What is the rag about?

I have no clue. I know zero, car. That's not going to do anything good. No, I know that much. That's all there is to know, really. No good. This is no good. There was also red liquid on both the interior and exterior of the vehicle,

which was later determined to be wine. A la box. There was also an empty beer bottle in the back seat, Maura's AAA card, accident report forms, gloves, CDs, makeup, diamond jewellery, directions to Vermont, the book about hikers dying, and Maura's stuffed animal. What they didn't find, however, were Maura's bank cards, her phone, and the bunch of alcohol that we know she'd just bought and had with her. However, neither the bank cards nor the phone have been used since that day. Now, look, I am but a mere podcaster. I am not a hotshot, slick city detective. But it does kind of seem like Maura might have been drunk driving again.

And it looks like she may, as a result, have crashed again. And possibly she did a runner so that she wouldn't have to have her blood alcohol tested. I think if that is the case, Maura probably realizes that she got very lucky that the other police officer didn't sobriety check her, but she probably knew she wasn't going to get that lucky again. Because if Maura had been tested and she had been found to have been drink driving, this would of course have gotten her both a DUI and she would have been charged for the identity theft and credit card fraud. So yeah, she's doing a runner. And that's what the police thought too. There wasn't anything at the scene that indicated in any way that there had been

foul play. So Maura wasn't considered a missing person just yet. It just seemed like she had wanted to go missing. Butch, the bus driver and officers then started driving around the local area looking for Maura. A bolo was put out for Maura at the same time. Oddly, police stated Maura's exact height of 5 foot 7 in the report, despite never having seen her. And also, her credit cards and her ID are all missing, so how did they know how tall she was? It could have just been a lucky guess, but it is still just a bit odd. I feel like most people are 5'7". Yeah. I feel like it's a very average height to be.

I feel like the people who say that are like, the police had something to do with it, because the police SUV was there before, and did a police officer have something to do with it? How did they know how tall she is? But yeah. Yeah. I feel like if a bolo is put out for a man, he's six foot. And if it's a woman, she's five, seven. Ha ha.

I mean, I don't know why I'm saying that because I'll be grossly underestimated. So yeah. Based on Butch's description, the bolo included what Maura was wearing. It was a dark coat, jeans and a black backpack. Now, despite all of their looking, investigators didn't find any sign of Maura that night. Not a single footprint in the snow. None of her belongings. Absolutely nothing.

Then, just before 9pm, emergency services and a fire truck cleared up the scene of the crash and Maura's car was towed by a man named Dick Lavoie. And he towed Maura's car to his personal garage, which is a little bit weird. Why is he taking it to his personal garage? Shouldn't he be taking it to the police compound? Impound? Whatever. Maura's family weren't notified about what had happened

until the afternoon the following day, just less than 24 hours after the crash. The police left a voicemail on Fred Murray's home phone, but he was out of town with work. And it was only at 5pm that his sister phoned Fred to tell him that Maura's car had been found crashed and that she was missing somewhere in New Hampshire. And it was only after Fred phoned the New Hampshire Police Department at quarter past five that they officially referred to Maura as missing. The Murray family and Maura's boyfriend hopped on planes and made their way to New Hampshire to help with the search efforts the

following day. During the flight, as we needed to back in the olden times, before the reign of flight mode, Billy turned off his phone until he had landed. And when he turned it back on, he received quite a troubling, short voicemail. To him, it sounded like a whimpering woman and laboured breathing. And of course, he immediately assumed that it was Maura. But the call was traced to a Red Cross calling card, an organisation that helped the military coordinate emergency leave. But they never tended to contact soldiers directly.

They usually only phoned the soldiers' commanding officers or close family. Anne Mora was known for using these calling cards for long-distance calls. In fact, three of them were found in her car. And what's more, the Red Cross volunteer who was coordinating Billy's emergency leave was a friend of his mother's, and she had no recollection of contacting Billy's phone. So the origin of that voicemail remains a mystery but it could have been Maura. That's so weird. It's like is it just something completely coincidental that is also incredibly bizarre the day that your girlfriend goes missing. I don't know. So when Fred Murray arrived in New Hampshire

he and the rest of the family along with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, began their search with the police. At first it seemed promising, as a police sniffer dog managed to track Maura's scent from one of her gloves a hundred yards east of where she'd crashed. But the trail ended abruptly at the road, which led many to speculate that Maura entered another vehicle, and there was no evidence that Maura had entered the nearby woods on the other side. The next day on the 12th of February 2004 police held their first press conference about Maura and much to the annoyance of her family to put it mildly the

police stated that Maura was quote endangered and possibly suicidal. A week later the Murray's were enraged to learn that authorities in Vermont hadn't even been notified about Maura's disappearance. Remember, that's where she was heading. So they've not told anybody there to be on the lookout for Maura in the place that she was actually going to. A few days after this, the FBI got involved, which is unusual for a single case, for a single case of a missing person. But Billy's family did have a connection with somebody who worked there, so maybe, I don't know, they managed to pull some strings. But still, it's surprising.

And even after the FBI got involved, even after a number of thorough searches using helicopters with thermal imaging cameras, tracking dogs and cadaver dogs, there was no sign of Maura. Fred Murray returned to New Hampshire every single weekend for months to continue searching for his daughter. Then, three months after her disappearance, another possible witness came forward.

A contractor told police that he'd seen a young person running about five miles away from the crash site at about 8.30pm on the night of Maura's disappearance. And this person had been wearing a dark jacket and light jeans, just like Butch had said. And when this person was asked why they were only coming forward after three months, they said that they only put two and two together after seeing the news coverage. But regardless, there's no way of knowing for certain if this person was Maura or not. In July, a hundred state troopers, rescue personnel and volunteers carried out a one-mile radius search of the crash area.

This was the fourth search attempt, but also the first one without snow covering the ground. And what the police were most interested in finding, besides Maura herself, was her black backpack. But once again, the search was fruitless. And every single one since has been too. And that's all we have so let's move on to theory town theoriesville now all right straight away i have to say that i don't really buy the theory that mora was running away to start a new life no i don't think what yeah i don't think maura murray looks past the end of her nose no and i think that yes she packed up her belongings things like that i don't know in some ways it looked like she was like dotting some i's and crossing some t's or whatever but

i think from her relationship with her family you can see that she is heavily dependent on other people i don't think she was ready to just run away and start afresh. She also said 21 years old, bought box wine and Kahlua and had less than $240 in her bank account. And she also submitted her homework. That is a big thing for like, why would she bother doing that if she was going to run away? And she hasn't been seen for 20 years. And she had her bank cards with her when she went missing, but they've never been used. Secondly, both Maura's mother and her sister Kathleen have passed away in the time that Maura has been missing, both of whom Maura was incredibly close with. It's hard to believe that she wouldn't have reached out, gone to their

funerals, or at least watched it from afar in dark sunglasses and a hoodie or something. And also, you cannot start a new life and stay hidden for 20 years with $240. $240 is all she had in cash, presumably, because she had her bank cards and they were never used. However, James Renner, the author of True Crime Addict, How I Lost Myself in the Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray, very much believes that Maura is still alive. His theory is that Maura planned her escape as she was pregnant due to her numerous searches regarding pregnancy. But as we said, this is probably more likely to have to do with her nursing course. Also, she was on birth control. It's not foolproof, but there's no evidence that she was pregnant. Not to mention that Renner has said and written a lot of shit about this case

and Maura's family that, I don't know, we found to be in bad taste and not very helpful in leading to her being found and what we're talking about here includes baselessly accusing fred murray of being abusive and having known where maura was the entire time she was missing now he's busying himself writing about obsessed first i know what a what a fucking journalistic hero i also don't understand the theory of why maura would run away if she was pregnant and also she fucking totaled her dad's car and he was like don't worry darling i'll come with you like they're not gonna be like i cast you out together yeah they're not gonna be yeah exactly who is going to turn their back on maura murray because she got pregnant Okay another theory is of course that Maura went

into the mountains that night to kill herself. There are obvious problems with this. One being why would she have packed her textbooks, her toiletries, her toothbrush, her birth control, her lotion and floss and stuff like that if she was planning on doing herself in and again why would she hand in her homework that morning or bother to obtain the accident forms from the RMV that she promised that she would get for her dad. Also according to her high school friends taking off suddenly on a random trip wasn't completely out of character for Maura. She once skipped a day of high school to get on a train to Boston in the morning for the hell of it without telling anybody. And now we come to what we think is probably the most

likely explanation. Foul play. And we think this for several reasons. Firstly, sniffer dogs lost Maura's scent on the road and there hasn't been a single credible sighting of her in 20 years. Maura's cell phone and bank cards haven't been used in that time and her remains have never been found. There was a very narrow window of time in which Maura could have disappeared between her conversation with Butch and the police arriving. And we've already said that it's likely that Maura fled the scene of the crash because she probably had been drinking

and she would have been afraid of getting a DUI on its own is a bad thing. And secondly, she had that fraud charge hanging over her head as well. So maybe she was picked up by a stranger 100 yards away where the sniffer dogs lost her scent. People have also speculated that Butch the bus driver may have kidnapped Maura in his school bus, parked it at home on his driveway with his wife in the house. Then contacted the police and helped them search for Maura that night. I mean, I guess it's possible, but also

slightly ludicrous. I mean, we've heard of more crazy things happening, but also remember when Butch is speaking to Maura, Faith Westerman is watching. She is watching from her house. If Butch had kidnapped Maura, surely Faith would have seen. Now, we should say that there is absolutely also no evidence for Butch having kidnapped Maura. And Butch Atwood has since passed away, so he also cannot defend himself. Yeah, take his name out your mouth. I love Butch. Yeah, I mean, why would he call 911?

Yeah. He'd just stay quiet. Why would he stop? Exactly. At all. Well, to kidnap her, but then don't call 911? Yeah. He'd just stay quiet. Why would he stop? Exactly. At all? Well, to kidnap her, but then don't call 911. I meant, why would he stop if he wasn't a stand-up guy? So if you cast your mind back somewhat,

you'll remember that there was another witness who'd driven past after Butch left and reported having seen a police SUV. This witness claimed that they saw the SUV parked nose-to-nose with Maura's car well before police claimed to have arrived on the scene. And this witness also stated that they didn't see Maura or any police officers there at the time, just their vehicles. Now this led to a lot of online conspiracy theories that this SUV was in fact the first responding officer there that night, the chief of police Cecil Smith, and that the police logs were doctored to aid in a

police cover-up. Cecil Smith has been accused of being responsible for Maura's murder and harassed endlessly about it, but once again there is no proof of anything. Cecil Smith actually killed himself on the 20th of February 2018 for a reason nobody knows but it was around the 15th anniversary of Maura's disappearance. Was it down to guilt as some say or was it because he was being hounded about this or was it down to some completely other reason? We don't know. There are endless theories about what may have happened to Maura. And if you don't believe us, you can go to Reddit at your own risk. And perhaps one of the reasons that this case has been so difficult to solve is that two things are true.

Things can be two things. That is something I have learned. It's possible that Maura both ran from the crash of her own accord and then had the misfortune of bumping into an opportunistic killer. Which brings us on to our next theory. A month after Maura disappeared, a 17-year-old girl called Brianna Maitland vanished 66 miles away from where Maura crashed. Brianna had also been driving alone

and her car was discovered crashed into the side of an abandoned house, and she's not been seen since. When people suggested that there may be a link between Maura and Brianna's disappearances, police were quick to stamp out the rumours of a serial killer in the area. But in 2012, they did investigate whether Israel Keyes, a serial killer who was known to have operated in Vermont, as well as other places in the US, was responsible. In the end, the FBI did rule him out. And police have maintained since that Brianna and Maura's cases are unrelated. And I will say, the chances of the same guy running into both of them

after they've had accidents is astonishingly small. Yeah. both of them after they've had accidents is astonishingly small. Yeah. Now, another theory involves something very strange that happened near the end of 2004. A man named Larry Moulton gave Fred Murray a rusty, stained knife that he alleged belonged to his brother, Claude. Larry said that he believed his brother, who had a criminal history, was connected to Maura's disappearance, and that the knife could have been the murder weapon.

Claude, who was 38, lived in an A-frame house just three quarters of a mile away from the crash site with his 18-year-old girlfriend at the time, who he'd been with for four years, so I will let you do the maths on that one. Anyway, Larry told Fred that his brother and his girlfriend had been acting suspiciously after Maura disappeared. Just a few days after Fred received the knife,

Claude scrapped his car. It didn't look good, but family members of the brothers claimed that Larry had just made the entire thing up in order to get the reward money that was up for grabs. They added that Larry had a history of drug abuse, and besides, Claude refused to allow the police to search his place, and they couldn't get a warrant to do it either.

And it was only in 2006 that the property was searched, after Claude and his girlfriend sold the place to new owners, who were more obliging. The search wasn't conducted by police, though. It was done by a private investigator hired by the Murrays, known only as John Smith. Apparently, John Smith's cadaver dogs went nuts when sniffing a closet in the property, indicating that there had been human remains there.

A sample of the carpet was taken and given to the police, as was a knife. But the results of this forensic analysis have never been made public, not even to the Murray family. However, in 2016, friends of the show and hosts of the incredible and much more in-depth Missing Maura Murray podcast did their own analysis with John Smith. They're, of course course Crawl Space Media. So at the time of this interview, although the carpet and the floors had been replaced, the closet was still there in the house that was now abandoned. And

Smith discovered what appeared to be blood stains on the wood of the closet. The wood chips were then given to a molecular geneticist who actually confirmed that the stains were human blood. Unfortunately though, the samples were too deteriorated to be able to say with 100% certainty

if that was Maura's blood or not. And there endeth the trail. Now, other theories allege that the man who told police three months after Maura's disappearance that he'd seen somebody running along Route 112 that night was hiding something. But the only reason for this was that he'd waited three months to tell the police. And his excuse was quite plausible. He just hadn't put two and two together until he saw the news coverage and

went back through his work calendar. Also, there is a reason that police continue to make appeals months and months after something has happened. If you're going to then say anybody who comes up with any information later down the line is somehow suspicious, no one's ever going to come forward with anything. So to wrap up, from what we've read about the case, we're definitely of the opinion that Maura was an incredibly bright and talented young woman who definitely had some issues. But what 21-year-old doesn't? Saying that, though, most don't still commit credit card fraud and drink drive at least twice. Because yes, I think it is probably fair to say that Maura was likely inebriated, probably on that box wine when she crashed the car, the second crash, and that she'd probably fled the scene after speaking with Butch.

If she hadn't, she would have got that DUI and she would have been charged with the fraud case, which would have been very bad. And again, if she hadn't been drunk, why would she flee? Because like we said, like Hannah said, she crashed her dad's new Toyota Corolla case which would have been very bad and again if she hadn't been drunk why would she flee because like we said like hannah said she crashed her dad's new toyota corolla and didn't get in any trouble with him this is just her banged up old satin so with maura having fled i think i leaned towards the theory that maura either willingly got into a car with a wrong person or she was straight up snatched off the side of the road and that

wouldn't have been difficult because she would have been freezing cold and drunk i think like really the two theories are that she fled she ran into the woods somewhere and got completely disorientated because she's had a drink and it's confusing she's freezing cold and she dies of exposure then you can say how did they never find her body yeah though it is the fucking wilderness but the theory that i can get on board with either that one or the theory that she does get a lift off somebody she shouldn't have yeah i agree i will say though yes it is the wilderness however if she had died of exposure she would have been stuck in the snow and she might you know you could argue that she would be less likely to have been eaten by animals whatever if she was covered with snow so that's the only reason not the only reason i can hear people be like she just fell over but i i don't think i buy that yeah

for that reason however the investigation into the disappearance of maura maury is still ongoing 20 years on and just a couple of years ago, in January 2022, the FBI issued a national alert on Maura's case. They created what is known as a violent criminal apprehension profile, which will allow multiple law enforcement agencies to share information regarding her case. So clearly, they are also of the opinion that foul play was at hand. But why it's taken them so long to figure that out is another question entirely. Six months later, in July 2022, police conducted a huge search of the towns of Landaff and Easton in New Hampshire. They had previously searched those areas, but not particularly extensively.

So for now, that's all we know. Trying to use Occam's razor in Maura's case isn't quite so straightforward, but it does seem like foul play fits the bill. If you want to know more about Maura's case, we recommend checking out Julie Murray's TikTok, which is at Maura Murray Missing, where she posts very regularly with updates on the case and background information. And of course, we recommend going to check out the Missing Maura Murray podcast created by the fantastic Crawl Space.

They have covered this case extensively with almost 150 episodes. There is nobody who knows more about this case than Crawl Space. So go and find them and then let us know what you think. Yeah, it's a strange one, but there you go. Yeah, it's one of those ones that sort of stays in the back of your head forever, I think. Yeah. But I think to be honest

about the Maura Murray case, I think if you just look at it, like girl crashes car disappears within a very short space of time, it seems bizarre. But once you know the context of everything else that was leading up to that point in what was going on in Maura's life, I don't think it is as baffling as some other missing persons cases we've come across. Yes, I don't think it is as baffling as some other missing persons cases we've come across. Yes, I agree. I think she had a lot going on. She made a series of bad decisions and it killed her.

Yeah. I don't think she was fleeing to start a new life. No, I don't. I think she was fleeing from the scene of the crash because she didn't want to get into more trouble and she wasn't thinking logically. And some opportunistic person just so happened to be in there. And also, you don't even know that it was the person who picked her up. That person could have been a perfectly nice person. Yes, true.

Who dropped her off at a petrol station 100 miles away. And someone there did something to her. You lose track of what happens to her once she flees from the scene. But that much, I believe. So that's it, guys. There you go, Maura Murray. That is it. We will be back next week with something else.

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