I've always believed Maura's friend, Kate Markopoulos, knows some important pieces of this mystery. She's never been completing honest with me - she claimed she didn't know that Maura and Hoss were romantic, even though she used to hang out with the both of them after track practices, when the affair was going on.
And I've always wondered about her actions around the time Maura disappeared. Track teammates of Kate's said she wasn't seen at practice around this time. But another journalist just found some old UMass postings that show Kate was at least showing up to compete, if she was really absent from practice.
On February 7, Kate competed at the Rhode Island Invitational, and did quite well. Here's a quote from the article:
Kate Markopoulos’s time of 5:18 may not have been enough to earn points in the mile, but later she anchored the DMR, running an amazing 5:17 for her second mile of the day.
“Kate Markopoulos ran really nice back to back miles,” LaFreniere said, “and that’s something she hasn’t done before. She really needs to be recognized for that.”
This is the same day Fred Murray arrived at UMass. When Kate returns to campus she meets up with them and goes to the brew pub. Then, afterwards, she and Maura go to a campus party that some say was held in Sara Alfieri's room. Others say it was actually held off campus. I wonder if there were other track teammates present - Kate and Maura sometimes partied with upperclassmen members of the men's track team at the athletics pool, after hours.
Then Maura disappears on Monday, February 9.
On February 13th, Kate competes at the Valentine's Invitational.
During this week, Bill Rausch is calling her constantly, trying to find Maura. Kate is not calling him back. As far as I can tell, she never traveled to Haverhill, to help in Maura's search.
Maybe she just didn't know anything and didn't care to speak to Bill. Maybe she dealt with Maura's disappearance by focussing on running. Maybe she didn't talk about Hoss because it was none of anyone's business. I don't know.
I still believe these actions are strange, but we can see that Kate was definitely not "missing" for very long if indeed she did stop reporting to practice.
* Thanks to Clint for the new info.