On Thursday, February 5, 2004, Maura suffered some kind of mental breakdown during work at the security desk of Melville Hall. Her supervisor discovered her in a "catatonic state." The only thing she would say was "my sister."
The same source who provided new insight into Maura's crash in Hadley just pointed me toward an interesting coincidence. On Feb 5, 2004, Donald Rumsfeld ordered a 90-day review of sexual assault on female soldiers in the military. The review focused on female soldiers already in Iraq and Afghanistan. But this investigation would ultimately kick up stories of sexual assault at West Point and other military institutions. There were Congressional hearings. It was a big deal.
Later investigations would show that at the time Maura was at West Point, at least 6% of the female cadets were sexually assaulted and 62% were sexually harassed.
How did this news affect Maura? We do know she knew at least one man from West Point who was later accused of sexual assault: her boyfriend, Bill Rausch.