An Accident Leading To A Strange Disappearance — Why Did Maura Murray Vanish?
A puzzling mystery
Who is Maura Murray
Maura Murray was a 21-year-old nursing student at the time of her disappearance.
She had previously attended the prestigious West Point with her sister Julie and boyfriend Billy, before transferring to UMAS
What Happened
On February 9th 2004, Maura emailed her professors to say there had been a death in her family. This was a lie.
Maura then packed up her things, enough for a few days away, withdrew almost all her cash from an ATM, went to a shop, bought a lot of alcohol and drove off in her car.
She hadn’t told anyone, including her family, where she was going.
4 hours later, she crashed her car and was never seen again. Her phone, credit cards & backpack were also missing.
The Accident
According to the police report, at 7.27 pm on 09/02/04, a woman reported a car accident outside her house. A car was stuck in a snowbank, she called the police, adding that she could see a man smoking a cigarette outside the car.
Around 3 minutes later a bus driver sees the accident and stops to assist, he sees the damage to the car is bad, but that Maura is ok, he offers to call the police but she tells him that she has already called AAA for assistance.
The bus driver knows this cannot be true as you cannot get cell service in that particular spot. He gets back on his bus and drives to his house 100 or so yards up the road to report the accident to the police at 7:43 pm.
At 7:46, just 3 minutes later, sergeant Cecil Smith arrives at the scene to find that Maura is gone, he checks the area but there does not appear to be anyone around, nor are there any footprints in the snow.
3 houses could see the broken down vehicle, the first woman who reported the accident, who had a clear view from her window, the bus driver and another couple who said they saw someone walking around the car, perhaps inspecting the damage.
The Search
The police called Maura’s dad the following afternoon and left a message on his answering machine, however, he was working away and did not receive the message, they later contacted her older sister Kathleen who then relayed the message to her father who was then told they would need to wait until the following day for a search to be started.
On 11/02/04 a search of the area was conducted, a police dog tracked the scent of Maura for about 100 yards after the accident and then lost the scent.
Despite the FBI being involved and several people being questioned, no evidence was found. All CCTV footage that Maura was captured on showed that she was alone.
Credit card fraud
Shortly before her disappearance, Maura had been caught using stolen credit cards. She was caught when she had used one to order a pizza to her room.
The judge agreed to drop the charges as long she could prove 3 months of good behaviour.
A car accident
The weekend before her disappearance, Maura’s dad came to visit and take her car shopping. They didn’t buy anything that day so her dad gave her his car to use for the evening.
Maura went to a party, she left in the early hours of the morning, telling her friends that she had to get the car back to her dad, which wasn’t true.
At 2.30 am she got into a car accident, the police didn’t breathalyse her and took her back to her dad’s hotel, where she spent the night.
An upsetting phone call
On 05/02/04 Maura received a phone call whilst she was at work. She came off the call visibly upset, so much so that her supervisor escorted her home. When she asked Maura what was wrong, she simply said “my sister”
It wasn’t until 2017 that the details of the phone call come to light and that the call had been from Maura’s sister, Kathleen who had just got out of rehab and relapsed with sleeping pills and alcohol before calling Maura.
A possible infidelity
Maura’s sister Julie still attended West Point, along with Maura’s boyfriend Billy.
Julie told Maura she had heard rumours and thought Billy may have been cheating on her.
Maura sent an email saying to Billy just before her disappearance saying, she loved him, had gotten his messages and will call him soon.
She also sent a voice message saying she loved him, missed him and wanted to talk.
The undocumented witness
There was another witness that was not documented in the police report. Originally known as witness A.
At 7.36 pm on 09/02/04 a woman drove past Maura’s accident and saw 2 cars facing each other, one was Maura, and the other was a police cruiser with the number 001.
The woman kept driving as she thought the situation was in hand but when she heard Maura was missing, she reported it to the police.
What else is there to know?
There were enquiries made about the police vehicle seen by witness A, many people said that was the chief of the police car, although he was never registered as being at the scene. Police records show the first officer arrived at 7.46, witness A made her call at around 7:36
Maura had made enquires to hotels in Vermont, however, no reservations were made. She did have directions to Vermont in her car and a book about hiking accidents.
Shortly after her disappearance, Maura’s boyfriend Billy received a voicemail, no one spoke but it sounded like someone was crying, he believed this to be Maura.
When the call was traced, it was from a calling card from the red cross but other private investigators said they were unable to trace the call.
A man sent a rusted, stained knife he found in his brother’s glove compartment to Maura’s dad saying he believed his brother killed her. This was sent to the police who confirmed receipt of the knife but provided no further updates.
In 2006 a search of the knife owner’s house was conducted with dogs leading them to a closet. Samples of carpet were sent for analysis but again, there was no update.
Stains were later found on the walls of the closet, which were proved to be blood from two different individuals one was from a male and the other came back inconclusive.
The search for Maura continues, if you would like more information I can highly recommend the Disappearances podcast and The disappearance of Maura Murray documentary
What are your thoughts? ♥️
