My Search for Maura Murray

Bill Rausch was scheduled to appear in DC Superior Court today at 11 a.m. That hearing has been canceled and a new hearing has been scheduled for July 19. While that might seem like a long time, all this is progressing as it is designed to. As we saw with the federal grand jury, the process of justice (especially in major crimes), is very slow. And lawyers often delay delay delay, in hopes of negotiating a better plea deal for their client, too.

Rausch recently hired a new lawyer, a woman, to represent him. And it was only last week that they got discovery - and there's a lot there. Among the evidence is a lengthy investigation by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (probably the internal investigation at Ray Group International following the victim's allegations in 2011), computer evidence that Rausch was monitoring his victim's social media profiles, interviews with multiple witnesses, and the possibility of DNA evidence to be tested at a later date. It's a very solid case.

No plea deal has been formally offered.

His victims have asked the police to review his actions and whereabouts in relation to the disappearance of Maura Murray. Former girlfriends claim his abusive behavior stretches back to before he met Maura. Track team members at UMass suggested the behavior continued with Maura as well - they were actively trying to convince Maura to break up with him. So far, five women have come forward with tales of alarming behavior, though only one is within the statute of limitations. Read, listen to their stories here.

Rausch is also the subject of at least three separate complaints with the Inspector General. Coworkers at Camp Lemonnier in East Africa have claimed that Rausch harassed them and created a toxic work environment, and had them transferred after they learned of the allegations against him in DC.

About a year ago, several people noticed a woman that looked like Maura Murray in a clip posted to YouTube. The video shows a woman and her daughter during a kind of prank that happened outside a preview screening for The Force Awakens in 2015. Here are some screen caps. Click here to see more.

I have not posted about this because I kept expecting it to be debunked, but it has not been and the rumor persists that this may be Maura with a child. Tracing back the origin of this clip takes you to Reddit, where it was originally posted by "KayPeaches09," who then deleted their profile. The timing, coming as a grand jury began its investigation into Bill Rausch, was curious. As one Redditor notes:

If the footage of the woman resembling Maura was shot at a preview for 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Maura (if living) would have been 33 at the time and if pregnant around the time she went missing her child would have been around 11. This does seem to match the ages of the woman and child we see in the video.

As to the timing of the release of this video...Bill's name has been coming up online as of late with the idea that he might have done harm to Maura. If Maura were alive, perhaps she would feel bad about Bill's name being linked to her presumed demise (or someone who knows her feels that way), and thus the video has been pointed out to us as "proof" of Bill's innocence.

Btw, kaypeaches09, the person who posted this here only a few days ago has deleted his or her account.

The original video has since been deleted from YouTube.

Hopefully the woman in this video sees this post and comes forward to debunk this theory.

**UPDATE**
Someone found the video!

The woman appears at 1:20 in.

Today I spoke with a former employee of Ray Group International, the company Bill worked for in 2011, when he allegedly sexually assaulted a woman in the office.

This man has asked to remain anonymous but will speak to New Hampshire police.

He said at the time, Bill seemed to be in a very dark place and would go drinking practically every night after work at a place called The Bottom Line. His favorite drink, gin & tonic. This coworker got to know him well and considered him a friend. One day, after some drinks, he says Bill turned to him and said, "We're good friends, aren't we? Like best friends?" He said, sure. Then he claims Bill said, "I would help you bury a body. Really. I'd help you bury a body. That's how good of friends we are."

"I took it as a sincere moment," this man says. "At the time I brushed it off because he'd been in the military. I figured he'd seen casualties."

He says another time Bill told him how he'd go on the news to talk about Maura so that he could use it to pick up women. That he could play the depressed former boyfriend part and it worked very well.

He was there the day Bill was forced to resign his job at Ray Group after a woman said he sexually assaulted her in the office. They allowed him to resign instead of being fired. The executives agreed that they would leave it up to the woman to go to police. This woman can still go to police, actually, as the statue of limitation has not expired. I believe she is currently weighing that option.

In a related note, I just received a massive amount of information and names through a Globaleaks contact. There are more women with claims against Bill.

After Bill Rausch was forced to resign at Ray Group following allegations of a sexual assault in 2011, he moved to the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America nonprofit. Once there, according to coworkers, the improper and alarming behavior continued.

Two sources describe a night in the winter of 2015 where Rausch led a small group of coworkers to the bar after work. Once there, he ordered oysters and champagne and picked up the tab for the expensive dinner. This is very reminiscent of the stories a former girlfriend from Fort Sill tells of how he and his friends would slum the area bars, flashing cash to pick up women. (the photo below is taken from a blog run by an acquaintance during his time there).

During this dinner in 2015, there was Bill, another man, and two women who worked with them (one was a director-level employee, the other was the assistant to IAVA's CEO Paul Riekhoff.) Midway through the night, the other man realized that Bill was texting both women, trying to pick them up. The other director eventually shut him down (he was married, she was not interested).

From there, a couple of them went to a karaoke bar and had more drinks without Bill. Still, the texts continued.

At the end of the night, the other man walked the assistant back to her hotel. Bill was there, already, waiting for her to return. According to these sources he was very aggressive and manic, asking to be let into her room. One witness describes it becoming an argument in the street.

In the following weeks and months Bill allegedly asked his coworker to not tell anybody what happened that night.

Why is this important enough to warrant a post on this blog?

At the very least, this is another story that shows a pattern of behavior by Bill Rausch against women, especially women he has some power over and gives context and reason for Maura wanting to run away.

But also, I strongly believe Maura was traveling with a tandem driver the night she went missing and possibly even made it to her destination - a cabin in the woods. If she did, everybody's alibi on February 9 is worthless.

Bill maintains his innocence. Through his lawyer today he claims there is no truth to any of these claims. Each of these women must be lying.

Here's the new information that was contained in the original post.

- Maura "hooked up" with a man at the party she attended two nights before she disappeared.
- The police have ruled this man out.
- Bill found out about it.
- This story comes from Maura's friends from Hanson who were told directly by a woman at the party.

My original post included the names of some of the people at the party, who have lied to me over the years about the details of that night. I have removed their names because it feels to me that to leave them up is to serve as a form of shaming and I guess I've lost my stomach for that.

I'm disappointed. I'm mad that I was lied to. No reporter likes that. But... everybody lies. So it goes.

Do they owe us an explanation? Nah. And they were scared kids in 2004. But if everyone had been open and honest at the beginning I really think we'd have a resolution by now.

I said before there's no happy ending in this case. And I think we're real close to an ending. I'm going to try to do a little better on the way there. Peace.

Australia's most popular women's podcast group interviewed me about the Maura Murray case this week.

Sometime yesterday, (Feb 20, 2018) the first responding officer to Maura Murray's accident died by suicide.

Cecil Smith was the former chief of police for the little town of Haverhill, New Hampshire, where Maura went missing in 2004. I had the opportunity to meet him several years ago. We spoke at his house and he showed me the green energy generator he was building. I found him to be extremely nice, caring, and truthful, one of the most sincere individuals I've met during the course of my research.

I've kept his secret for years - that he was suffering from a form of neurodegenerative disease that was stealing his memory.

Over the years, I've watched the toxic, conspiratorial side of the Maura Murray fandom turn Cecil into a suspect or co-conspirator to Maura's alleged murder. This has to do with the outlandish theory of some police SUV seen nose-to-nose with Maura's car that some believe brought harm to the young woman. These people are the anti-vaxxers of this case, grown ups playing some kind of Dungeons and Dragons role play with real people's lives.

The most vocal proponent to this theory, the person who made Cecil Smith synonymous with suspicion was an elections campaign compliance officer at Aristotle International named Erinn Larkin. She just never let up and suggested time and again on her podcast and blog that he knew more than he was saying, that he had to be lying. Her behavior at times is alarming. Earlier this year, Erinn Larkin posted a map to my house online. Erinn Larkin is the same person who committed defamation by having a guest on her podcast who literally said Rick Forcier killed Maura Murray

And now Cecil Smith has taken his life. Did he do so because she made him the center of so much speculation and suspicion? Or was it one of a hundred factors behind his decision? We are not entitled to know. What we do know is that he got to spend the last months of his life reading about how people suspected he helped murder a girl or cover it up. He got to see her chip away at his legacy and credibility. And that is an awful thing to have in your head when you're already dealing with so much.

Cecil Smith was a good man. He helped me when he didn't need to and probably shouldn't have by granting me a long interview. All he did was answer a call one day about an abandoned car. He didn't deserve any of this.

Cecil Smith’s family is asking any donations in his memory be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, MA/NH Chapter, 309 Waverly Oaks Road, Waltham, MA 02452

LINK TO MEMORIAL PAGE and info about services.

***UPDATE***
For those unfamiliar with the case and Cecil Smith, here are some examples of what he could read from Erinn Larkin before his suicide.

It began by picking apart his statements and reports on her blog, over and over again.

Then this interview.

And then her fans responded in kind and Erinn Larkin made no attempt to calm down the mob she incited or correct their misinterpretations.

Now, imagine you're Cecil Smith.

**2nd UPDATE**
And just in case there's any question as to what Erinn was insinuating by constantly casting suspicion on Cecil, here is the cohost of her podcast, Ethan Marsh, explaining how what they did wasn't that bad and even if it contributed to his suicide, maybe that's ok because he still might be found guilty of murdering her.

Erinn Larkin is not a journalist - she's a political finance officer for Artistotle International (though, when we met she introduced herself simply as "Bernie Sanders' treasurer" though I can find not a single article identifying her as such). She says this often, especially as she interviews people related to the Maura Murray case. But if you're going to act like a journalist, you need to understand some basic rules of journalism, and the big one is defamation, which often comes in the form of libel.

Libel is publishing of false statements that can damage a person's reputation.

On July 14, Erinn Larkin published this interview with a man named Guy Paradee who once worked as a private investigator. Here are some clips I'd like to point out. This is Guy talking.

13:40
"I thought he [Rick Forcier] marked the spot where he had dumped her [Maura Murray's] body. Our feeling is that when Forcier grabbed her at his house she was certainly alive for awhile." The psychic confirmed this. "At some point in time he killed her and then moved her body at least once if not twice. There was speculation that he had her in a van by the pond. Someone had seen his van there. Maybe she didn't get out of the van. She was alive for awhile, he killed her, and moved her out of the house."

16:00
"She started walking. I think she walked away and Forcier may have seen her. He certainly had contact with her. He was able to overtake her and get her under his control."

18:00
"He admitted having contact with her. He said she wanted to have sex with me. She was walking by... he admitted to that. I kind of believe he said it on television. He definitely told the police. Without a doubt it happened."

This is defamation.

Forcier never said he had contact with Maura. He never said this to media. He never said this in private. I spoke to his ex-wife and she confirms this as well. It is apparently something Guy made up after speaking to a number of psychics. *insert eye roll*

The thing about libel that gets journalists in trouble is that they are on the hook for libel if they publish someone's comments. So not only could Rick Forcier sue Guy Paradee for claiming he's a murderer, but he could (and should) sue Erinn Larkin for publishing it. If you publish someone's false claims you are as guilty of libel in the eyes of the law as they are.

And these claims by Guy Paradee are laughable. A suspect told the media he had sex with the victim? And nobody thought it was a big deal? What?

But it gets better. Guy Paradee is a terrible, terrible source and two minutes of research would have revealed this.

Guy Paradee's private eye license was taken away by the state of Vermont in 2016 for his shady practices.

In response to Erinn Larkin's interview, Associate Attorney General, Jeffery Strelzin said, "We will not be commenting on Mr. Paradee's many claims, based in part on speculation and upon reliance on alleged psychics."

But what shocked me the most was how Erinn Larkin, who works for the most liberal people in D.C., went to bat for this guy, after seeing his racist and despicable social media posts. Here are a couple classics from his Facebook page.

This one's my favorite. Guy says someone should shoot this woman.

I just don't know what to make of this. A little background - Erinn Larkin is a woman who went to UMass with Maura Murray. She worked the same security job as Maura Murray. And she ran track on the same team. Her "Big Sister" was Maura's best friend - Kate Markopoulos. After the publication of my book, Erinn inserted herself into the investigation. She ingratiated herself with the Murray family and the admin of the official site, giving her access to information that filters in.

After I reported that Bill Rausch was under investigation by a Grand Jury in DC, she took aim at me, claiming I was lying and that the women he attacked were exaggerating. She posted my unlisted home address online, with a map to my house. Eventually I took down my blog just to have some peace.

Her blog makes every effort to direct the narrative of the investigation, going so far as to defame a man - allowing a guest on her podcast to literally accuse an innocent man of murdering Maura and using his name.

I've been confused by her actions for months and have had this inkling that I was missing or forgetting an important piece of it. So I went back to our first email exchanges. I found this email from Erinn in which she says she was at Bretton Woods skiing with her family and returned on Monday evening and may have driven past Maura's accident.

I had completely forgotten this. Why? Because she never brought it up again. Now, as a memoirist and journalist, if I'm coincidentally at the same location at the same time as the case I'm writing about, that becomes a big part of the story. An easy way in. But she never mentions it again. But she does tell a different story to Tim & Lance just a couple months later. Listen for a minute here:

Quote:
Tim: "How do you recall the day so clearly?"

Erinn: "I had been skiing in Bretton Woods and Waterville Valley the weekend before with my family and they were still there. And I had decided to come back for practice and for classes and I drove back the opposite route she had taken on that Sunday night and the next morning was really the first official day of Spring track that Monday and it was a morning practice and it was absolutely freezing and really awful not very fun at all and I got injured and it was actually an injury I got the day before skiing but it got a lot worse that day and it ended up that I was done running competitively in college after that."

It is absolutely clear that Erinn Larkin got caught in a lie here. But what was that lie's purpose? To sound cool - having driven by the scene when Maura disappeared?

I would imagine she will try to explain this away as a faulty memory but she was VERY specific in both the email to me in which she says she was driving along Rt 112 at the time of Maura's accident, and the interview with Tim and Lance, in which she has changed it to Sunday - because she reminisces about the cold weather and the first day of practice. Each are stated as fact. One or both of these must be a deliberate lie.

Now, compare that to Chief Cecil Smith for a moment. Cecil Smith went on the Oxygen special to explain the timeline of Maura's accident. Erinn called him a liar, picked apart his every word, said it was impossible for him to simply have forgotten key details... when he was suffering from Alzheimers. And then Cecil killed himself. His son believes online harassment like hers may have been on his mind, may have made matters worse for him in those last days/weeks, may have contributed to his decision in some way. Even if it was a drop in the bucket, how very sad.

This isn't the first lie, but it's the most egregious. In closing, here are few posts in which she claims that the Grand Jury never existed with the same confidence.

This case is just nuts.

As you can see, I'm diving back into the case for a bit since the women came forward about Bill Rausch. Currently, I'm going back through the Maura's cell phone records from the days before her disappearance. On January 24, Maura made two separate calls to the home of a woman who worked for the Department of ~~Human Services~~ Children & Families, investigating and working on child abuse cases in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Her number was unlisted but she sometimes gave it out to clients. In 2004 she was retired but she was working up until the late-1990s, and would have been an employee of DCF when Maura and her siblings (or even friends & relatives) were children.

She does not recall speaking to Maura directly.

I also found it interesting that she has never spoken to police, though her number is one of the last numbers Maura called on her phone before she disappeared. She was never contacted by the Rauschs or Murrays, either.

* For those suggesting this had something to do with Maura's nursing classes, this was an unlisted home number. And the woman had nothing to do with UMass.

Bill Rausch’s lawyer attempted today to gain access to records related to the Maura Murray case at Kent State, where my notes and documents are stored after my books are published. They are after names of sources. They were denied access and will continue to be denied. Rausch stands accused of sex abuse in DC and is due in court July 19.

Earlier this week I spoke to yet another woman who claimed Bill has a duel personality, and there's a side to him that frightened her. I also learned that he left texts on Got Your 6 computers that confirmed an affair with an IAVA employee, whom he was seen with at a hospital on Valentine's Day, 2018, after she suffered a head injury.

Bill Rausch appeared in DC Superior Court today for a hearing related to a charge of felony sex abuse. He stands accused of attempting to rape a coworker in the office of Ray Group International, in 2011. Since the victim shared her story, other women have come forward alleging behavior from harassment to assault dating back to 2004, the year Maura Murray, Bill's girlfriend, went missing.

Rausch arrived ten minutes before 11 and sat quietly in the front row, eyes forward, until the judge returned to his bench. He was alone. No friends, no family, no coworkers in his corner. Rausch's lawyer argued that the prosecutor should allow Rausch to review Grand Jury statements. The government is concerned that if Rausch is given the chance to copy or download the documents, he may distribute them. Grand Jury statements are secret for a good reason - to protect witnesses.

And the prosecutors in this case should be concerned about this. Rausch loves to share information he digs up on people. He did opposition research on me, a journalist covering the disappearance of his girlfriend. In fact, I believe he passed such information to people who were harassing me at that time. Rausch was also suspended by Twitter for posting my personal phone number in an attempt to dox me while he was serving as head of a propaganda campaign for the US Army. All very odd and alarming behavior.

Later, the government said it would consider a plea deal but that no deal has yet been offered. The judge said they should either work out a deal or prepare for trial before the next court date in early October.

Adding to the drama of the day, I was served with a subpoena while having lunch around the corner from the courthouse. Rausch wants access to my interviews and notes, and the names of the people who contacted me about his sex assaults and harassment. He will, of course, not be getting that info. More to come.

Then this interview.

And then her fans responded in kind and Erinn Larkin made no attempt to calm down the mob she incited or correct their misinterpretations.

This one's my favorite. Guy says someone should shoot this woman.

My notes, interviews, and records related to my investigation into Maura Murray's disappearance are now available to the public for review - by appointment - at Kent State University library's Special Collections department.

They will not be digitized anytime soon.

The latest unconfirmed sighting of Maura Murray centers around a strange group who call themselves The Twelve Tribes, residing in Lancaster, New Hampshire. The Twelve Tribes are a religious community (read: cult) that sprung out of the hippy movement in the early 70s - and whose aim is to recreate the Christian church of the 1st century, an effort to get back to the basics of Jesus' teachings. However, Twelve Tribes communities across the country have gotten in some trouble over child abuse and child labor.

Here's some emails I received from the witness this week:

Maura was wearing a white coat when I saw her for three days following her accident.
That's why I asked if she had one. I had sent an email to her boyfriend, and he wrote back saying "not a clue" no more, no less.

Maura was alive, unhurt after her accident.

She walked past the store I worked in everyday for three days.
Until the day she was leaving, her new friends came into the store with her and I met her. I will never forget her dimples. Never. They even gave her a new name, translated it meant, "to be free".
She smiled. She is clearly a runaway.

Her friends that helped her were told never to speak of the incident again,

I will tell you that Maura met these friends right there in Amherst.
I am sure it was at their festival that is held each year in the common. But for the last 2 years has been held elsewhere on the university grounds because it got too big for their town common. These people go to all the universities and some of the bigger malls. Even thou they don't recruit
they are always there to help those that need some.

The name of the "GROUP" as you call them are members of the "Twelve Tribes". They are all over the country and if you give them trouble, they can make trouble for you. As I suspect they did with sending members of the family to some unknown location in the middle of the woods on some foolish mountain.

I've forwarded this info to family and police. I'm inclined to think this could be a look-alike, but this woman is adamant the person she saw was Maura Murray.

I should note that this woman says she reported this sighting years ago to police, family, and Bill Rausch.

This last year, I’ve been working hard to put together a new non-profit that can provide financial help and media attention to the families of the missing and murdered, focusing on cold cases in Ohio. I’m excited to announce that The Porchlight Project is here and our first case is the 1987 unsolved murder of Barbara Blatnik.

The board members of The Porchlight Project include former police chiefs, private investigators, journalists, lawyers, and podcasters. We’ll be working together to bring closure to a handful of cases this year. Please visit our website and consider a donation today.

An Update on Bill Rausch's Sex Abuse Charge As it Navigates DC Courts

UPDATED Persistant Rumor: Maura Murray Was Spotted in a Galaxy Far, Far Away

"I Would Help You Bury a Body."

Sexual Harassment Claims Against Bill Rausch Continued at IAVA, Say Former Employees

UPDATED What Happened at the Party

Mama Mia!

Cecil Smith Has Taken His Life, After Being the Subject of Conspiracy Theories Online. UPDATED

Kate Markopoulos' Little "Sister," Erinn Larkin Commits Defamation

UPDATED Maura Blogger is Lying About Her Whereabouts the Day Maura Murray Went Missing

Sexual Harassment Claims Against Bill Rausch Continued at IAVA, Say Former Employees

UPDATED What Happened at the Party

Maura Called Home of Child Abuse Worker Before Disappearance

Lawyers for Bill Rausch Attempt to Gain Access to Maura Murray Records

Bill Rausch Returns to Court

Cecil Smith Has Taken His Life, After Being the Subject of Conspiracy Theories Online. UPDATED

Kate Markopoulos' Little "Sister," Erinn Larkin Commits Defamation

UPDATED Maura Blogger is Lying About Her Whereabouts the Day Maura Murray Went Missing

Maura Murray Records Now Available to the Public

Woman Claims Maura Murray Was Seen with Cult Members in 2004

The Porchlight Project Begins!