Unexplained Mysteries

Maura Murray: Miles to Nowhere

 On Sunday evening, 7 PM on February 8, 2004, 21-year-old nursing student Maura Murray is dropped off by her father at her dorm at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Little does he know just 24 hours later, his daughter will disappear.

Earlier that weekend, everything seemed normal. Fred Murray and his daughter had enjoyed a father-daughter trip, where they spent the day used car shopping and eating out at their favorite local brew house. But late Saturday night, after borrowing his car to attend a party with a friend, Maura gets into a wreck. There is nearly $10,000 damage to the new car and she is very upset. Luckily, her father is extremely understanding and tries to console her. They agree to talk Monday night to go over insurance forms.

On Monday evening of February 9, 2004, after driving 144 miles North to a destination unknown, Maura gets into a second one-car accident. A nearby resident offers Maura help, but she declines--requesting he not call 911. Police arrive less than 10 minutes later, but Maura is gone. The car doors are locked and her cell phone and credit cards are missing, but the rest of her belongings are left in the car.

The 24-hour time line before Maura's disappearance is filled with contradictions. One minute she's emailing her long distance boyfriend, while also picking up the insurance forms to go over with her father. But the next minute she's emailing teachers to tell them there's a death in the family and she is going away for a while.

There was no death in the family.

An additional piece of information that is extremely interesting is a call that Maura received while working at UMass Student Security. She received the call at 1:00 am on February 10th, and she was so upset she had to be escorted back to her dorm by a supervisor. Who was that call from? What was it about? Why didn't Maura tell anyone why she was so upset?

Immediately after her second car crash, theories surrounding her disappearance abound. Initially, police speculate that Maura is a runaway or suicidal. In her last email to her boyfriend, she says that she hasn't felt much like talking to anyone lately. She also still seemed upset about wrecking her father's car, and certain friends and acquaintances have said Maura was emotionally unstable. But her family is resolute — something criminal happened to their daughter that mysterious night.

There have been several possible sightings of Maura since her disappearance. Moments after the crash, near the site, a local resident says he saw a young woman run onto a side dirt road. Another, more disturbing sighting allegedly occurred at a store in Hillsboro, New Hampshire, where a young woman fitting her description was seen with an older man--silently mouthing the words, "Help me."

In addition to the strange sightings, 36 hours after her mysterious crash, Maura's boyfriend received a call from an unregistered, prepaid cell phone--which Maura frequently used throughout the time he knew her. He wasn't able to answer the call at the time, but he is sure that the eerie voicemail that was left must be from Maura. There are no words spoken on the recording, just the sound of a woman shivering and sobbing.

Internet searches from the days leading up to her disappearance suggest that Maura may have been planning to take a trip North. She had inquired about lodgings in both Vermont and New Hampshire, places she had vacationed often as a child. Her distressed mental state and the discovery of the book "Not Without Peril" (a collection of hiking stories, many featuring avid climbers and hikers who have gone into the wood to die) in her wrecked car have convinced most police that Maura was suicidal and intended to travel to NH to kill herself. However, at the scene of the crash site, K-9 units were unable to follow Maura's scent anywhere passed 100 ft of the car--leading others, including her family, to believe that someone picked Maura up on the side of road after the crash. As for whether or not she willingly accepted a ride or was forced into a stranger's vehicle, we may never know.

As of right now, Maura is classified as an Endangered Missing Adult. Since they are saying she left on her own accord and it was her right to do so, hardly anything is being done to find Maura.