Friday marks the 14th anniversary of Maura Murray's disappearance and she still remains unfound. At 7 p.m., on the Missing Maura Murray Facebook page, Julie Murray will talk a little bit about Maura and the case and share some memories of her sister. Tune in if you can.
So, after all this time, where are we?
Well, this case is a mess, and it needn't be. But at the moment, there's this conspiratorial mood that has settled in around the case - people suspect the police were involved, people suspect the A-frame house has something to do with it, people suspect a random dirtbag picked her up. Some, including her own family, believe Maura's sister Kathleen or her husband had someone to do with it. Having met Tim, I don’t think either one of them had anything to do with it.
This case, when it's done, is going to be elegantly simple.
The only explanation that makes sense with the evidence we have is that Maura was not traveling alone that night. She was traveling with a tandem driver.
Her friends from UMass have never been forthcoming with police.
Remember - Maura bought more booze than one person needed; she was inquiring about places that had multiple bedrooms; she turned down a ride; she disappeared in less than a blink of the eye; she gave up calling condos and motels without reserving a room (because her traveling companion did it before she did). She didn't tell anyone where she was going (c'mon). Anyone who doesn't buy the tandem driver theory has to explain all of that away.
I also believe the Butson's sightings, where Maura was seen buying more booze with two young women before the accident. The Oxygen series, and others, have suggested this can't be, because the police didn't see her on the videotape. But they never bothered to do enough research to discover that the only video cameras in Butson's at that time were pointed only at the bank kiosk, not the registers.
There's a lot of stuff like that that has been spun to others' agendas. When you read those things, please consider what a simpler explanation might be.
What we know now is that Maura's boyfriend, Bill Rausch, has been accused by a number of women of sex assault, physical assault, and harassment. And after he arrived in New Hampshire to join the search for Maura Murray, he kept making dozens of calls every day, until the weekend after the disappearance. Then, he went completely silent for 5 days. None of that sits well with me.
If Maura was traveling in tandem, nobody's alibis for the night of the disappearance matter anymore - because she likely made it to a cabin or wherever she was heading.
I want to believe Maura is out there, alive, and happy. I hope she is. But the likely answer is that she is no longer alive. And I believe that if she is dead, she was murdered by someone she knew.
Don't look to rogue cops or weird stains in abandoned houses or fortuitous kidnappers. Look closer to Maura.
