This College Student Vanished Without A Trace After Crashing Her Car In 2004 And Sending A False Email To One Of Her Professors
Maura Murray grew up in Hanson, Massachusetts, alongside her siblings, and attended Whitman-Hanson Regional High School. As a teen, she played competitive basketball and was part of the track team.
Upon graduating, she headed off to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where she spent three semesters studying chemical engineering.
Then, Maura wound up switching gears and pursuing a different path. She transferred into a nursing program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and began working two jobs, one on campus and one at a local art gallery.
Maura also had a boyfriend named William, who was stationed in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, as an Army lieutenant.
Yet, on February 9, 2004, 21-year-old Maura mysteriously disappeared following a car crash that has left her loved ones stumped for two decades.
The story began days earlier when, on February 5, 2004, Maura was working. That evening, she reportedly got an upsetting phone call that caused her to burst into tears. Who contacted her and what the subject was remains unknown.
Two days later, on February 7, Maura’s father visited, and they went car shopping together. She also had dinner with a friend that night and borrowed her dad’s new vehicle, a Toyota Corolla, to go to a party on campus with her friend.
Maura ultimately got into a car accident at about 3:30 a.m. on February 8. She was reportedly traveling from campus to her father’s hotel when she crashed his car into guardrails in Hadley and caused approximately $10,000 worth of damage.
And after another two days passed by, Maura vanished on the evening of February 9. Earlier in the day, she had stopped at an off-campus ATM to withdraw $280 from her bank account. At about 3:40 p.m., she also visited a liquor store and spent $40 on alcohol.
FBI – pictured above is Maura
Maura had left Amherst in her 1996 Saturn sedan by 4:30 p.m. and was heading toward New Hampshire. She didn’t tell anyone where she was going.
It was sometime between 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. when Maura got into a one-car accident on Route 112 in Haverhill, New Hampshire. She reportedly lost control of the vehicle and rammed into a snowbank, hitting a tree.
The front of her car suffered damage and was no longer drivable following the crash. Maura reportedly sustained minor injuries as well.
Not long afterward, a school bus driver traveled by the scene and offered assistance. Maura supposedly told him that she’d already called AAA roadside services. So, the bus driver left but contacted the police anyway.
An officer arrived on the scene around 10 minutes later. However, Maura was nowhere to be found.
Her car was left behind, and inside the vehicle, authorities found many of her belongings, such as a stuffed monkey from her boyfriend, clothing in a suitcase, and an open bottle of alcohol. But her cell phone and credit cards were missing, and they’ve had no activity since her disappearance.
There were no signs of foul play or a struggle, either, and the police found no footprints in the snow surrounding Maura’s car.
Investigators launched a search in the area with the help of tracker dogs. Still, no evidence of her whereabouts was uncovered.
It was, however, learned that, prior to leaving her dorm room, Maura had packed all of her things into boxes as if she were planning to move. She’d left behind a note for her boyfriend as well.
Additionally, authorities combed through Maura’s browsing history on her personal computer. This revealed she’d been searching for directions to the Berkshires and hotels in Burlington, Vermont. Police found no signs of Maura at these locations.
Finally, before she left on February 9, Maura had emailed one of her professors to say that she’d be absent from class all week. In her email, she claimed there was a death in her family that required her to head home to Hanson. This was later confirmed to be false.
Where exactly Maura had been heading when she vanished remains a mystery, and her case is unsolved over two decades later. Authorities haven’t found any evidence of foul play, but her loved ones suspect she may have been abducted.
“If she wandered into the woods, where are her belongings or her body?” asked Maura’s sister, Julie Murray.
“She was met with foul play and is most likely no longer with us, and that’s the worst possible outcome for Maura and my family.”
Julie has since created a podcast entitled “Media Pressure” to raise awareness about her sister’s case and provide details from her perspective.
“After two decades of fighting for answers in my family’s search for Maura, we finally have a way to tell Maura’s story in an accurate and responsible manner while putting ‘media pressure’ on those with answers and information we need to find Maura and bring her home,” she said.
“We have to be her voice.”
Maura was five foot seven, weighed 120 pounds, and had brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information regarding her case is urged to contact the New Hampshire State Police Cold Case Unit at (603) 223-3648.
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