Background:
Years ago, someone posted this mysterious message on a GeoCities message board devoted to the case:
Maura Murray is NOT a Missing Person
Maura Murray has the right as every independent adult does to leave with her new boyfriend and start a new life. Maura is living a content and satisfying life in the Province of Quebec.
Maura's father Fred Murray never quite forgave her for being asked to leave West Point. It was his personal bragging point that he had two daughters at West Point. Maura’s dismissal damaged Fred’s ego and he never completely forgave her.
Maura’s being asked to leave West Point and all the ensuing criticism by her father was the beginning of a certain line of thought for Maura, culminating in her leaving on Feb 9, 2004 to start a new life unencumbered by the constant criticism of her father. Maura’s relationship with William Rausch was near its end. According to Maura’s sister Kathleen, they were having ‘serious problems.’ Maura had met someone new, who unlike William Rausch, had no West Point connections and therefore was not a constant reminder to her of her failure at West Point.
On the night of February 5, 2004, Maura took a break from her job at the security desk at a UMass dormitory to go and briefly get coffee and some food.
Sometime between 12 MN and 1 AM Maura driving her Saturn struck and critically injured the UMass student Petrit Vasi leaving him for dead.
Around 1 AM - 1:20 AM Feb 6 Maura had a complete emotional breakdown brought on by this hit and run accident. Maura’s breakdown was witnessed by a student who reported this to Maura's supervisor, who then came and saw that Maura needed physical help to get back to her dormitory. The supervisor then physically helped Maura back to her dorm and recommended counseling.
Between 2 and 3 AM on the morning of Sunday Feb 8, Maura had a second motor vehicle accident wrecking her father's new car.
Fred Murray’s new car was towed around 3 AM to his Hadley motel room. Maura arrived at Fred's motel at the same time as a passenger in the tow truck. Fred was not happy with Maura to put it mildly. What happened in this motel room we’ll never know. The next day Maura left for good.
Maura needed to disguise the evidence of the Petrit Vasi hit and run by staging another accident for the purpose of covering up the damage to her car from the Vasi hit and run. She and her new boyfriend travelled in tandem to Route 112 in NH (He was already in Southern NH). The accident was staged, she left her Saturn, walked down the road to where her boyfriend was waiting for her in his car. She disappeared, her only wish is that she be left alone to live her life in peace. She is happy and contented and just wants to be left alone.
I'm in New York right now, recording the audiobook, and I came across this section of the story, again. But for the first time, I noticed something. This passage: "
The supervisor then physically helped Maura back to her dorm and recommended counseling."Why is that important? Because until I interviewed her, Maura's supervisor, Karen Mayotte had NEVER been interviewed. Not by police. Not by reporters. That was a very specific, personal detail. The only people who could have known about that were Karen and Maura, and whoever Maura told personally (though I find it hard to believe Maura would have shared the info).
It's possible, I suppose, that this detail appears in the report Karen wrote and handed in to UMass police, in which case the detectives knew this detail (though they never got the story straight from her). And perhaps the police leaked this info in an early news report -- BUT I can find no record of this detail in an article prior to the posting.
Now consider one more detail. The notation for Midnight. "12 MN." That's dictation they teach in nursing school, so that midnight is never mixed up with noon on a patient's charts.
One more thing: When this was posted to GeoCities, the Maura Murray case had not become the huge Internet mystery it is, today. If Maura is alive and sitting at home, Googling herself, might she have reached out to the small community at the time to kind of tell them off? Maybe.
Can anyone find the exact day of the original post? Can we find any reference to the "counseling for Maura" idea before this post?
I have goosebumps.
