Was Maura Waiting for Student Loans?

When I was an undergrad at Kent State, I lived off student loans for a couple semesters (and I'm still paying down those loans, actually!) I was able to get loans at a state school that covered my rent off-campus, meals, and still left me with about $5,000 in the bank.

Yesterday, we talked about how Maura was in school only for about two weeks before she disappeared.

The same source who sent me this info also noticed how financial aide overages are posted into a student's account (or the account of a parent, sometimes) at about the same time.

Credit Balances and Refunds

Any remaining credit balance must be refunded to you within a certain amount of time, depending on when the credit balance was created.

• On or before the first day of classes: No later than 14 calendar days after the first day of classes
• After the first day of classes: No later than 14 calendar days after the credit balance was created

Refunds from your student account may be delivered by:

• Cash
• Check
• Electronic funds transfer (EFT) to your bank account
• Prepaid debit or ATM card

You can use your refund to pay for other college costs, such as textbooks, supplies, transportation to and from school, rent (if you live off-campus), computer equipment and software, dependent care, and other miscellaneous expenses.

So...

If Maura ran away, now we're looking at a good nest egg. And maybe you can add $4,000 to that, since we've never really had a good accounting of the cash Fred hastily brought to campus with him the weekend before she disappeared.

It is at least possible that Maura had access to around $10,000 the day she vanished.