UPDATE: Bob McDonald provides further alibi for Bill Rausch

I was with him for all that time. My wife and I arrived late Friday and checked into the Wells River Motel, which is where everyone was staying. If my memory is correct (not a 100% certainty given that 14 years have passed) my wife drove home on Monday (it was a three day weekend) but I was able to get colleagues to cover my classes and didn't head home until -- I think -- Wednesday. That last day Bill and I drove to UMass and met with campus police; afterwards he drove me to Springfield (or maybe it was Worcester), where I rented a car and drove home.

Bill basically didn't leave my side. While my wife was with me, he slept in his parents' room. After my wife left, he moved over to mine. There were times when he'd go to the motel office to do phone interviews with Greta Van Susteren, etc., but other than that I don't remember us being apart. I wish I had a better memory of NH and VT geography and place names. The first day or two I was there (Saturday and maybe Sunday) we searched in the general vicinity of the crash site. We visited the tourist town near Mt. Washington and also went to a few other towns both in the direction in which she was traveling (into NH) but also in the opposite direction (toward VT) since, if she got picked up, we weren't sure in which direction the car was traveling. We were posting fliers, talking to people in convenience stores and food markets, and trying to get her picture and police contact info out there. We went to UMass on my last night up there to meet with campus police and also to get me a car rental so I could drive myself home. I hated to leave. Bill stayed up there for a while longer. 

As the days passed the focus shifted from searching near the site of Maura's crash and talking to people who lived nearby to trying to do everything possible (distributing fliers, speaking to the media) to raising awareness that she was missing and getting her photo out there in the hope that someone had seen her.

I'm not 100% sure how to explain the 4-minute call. Maybe he was trying to access her voicemail (I think I remember her voice mail being something all of us discussed, but can't remember if we had access to it right away, later, or ever), or maybe he was just leaving a long message in hopes that she would get it. I'm guessing that the period in which he didn't use his cell is explained by the fact that coverage up there was so lousy back then. He was using the hotel phone to speak with media and others in the evenings and during the daytime we were either searching or driving around passing out and posting fliers