Katharina Buczek
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.
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