The Disappearance of Maura Murray

The disappearance of Maura Murray has gained attention around the world.  In 2004, she was involved in a car accident in Haverhill, NH. She hasn't been seen since.

Cole Kjersgard spoke with Maura's sister and the investigators that have been working this case.

Transcript

Gone In Minutes...
- Spooky into music with Maura Murray clip playing over
New Hampshire is known for its heavy snowfalls and cold winters. People from
around the world visit NH’s White Mountains to ski, hike, and camp while
enjoying all the views the state has to offer. But it’s not always easy to enjoy these
activities, as temperatures can dip into the negatives, and snowfall near Mount
Washington reaches 23 feet, making the area the snowiest place in the country. So,
when a college student slides off the road in the middle of NH, you’d think they
would call 911, or even AAA and wait for help. Instead, just 10 minutes after her
accident in Haverhill NH, Maura Murray vanishes without a trace, and hasn’t been
seen since.
- Que Music
- Julie quote in background
I’m Cole Kjersgard, and this is Gone Cold New Hampshire where we’ll cover some
of the coldest cases in the state. The disappearance of Maura Murray, a case heard
around the world.
Maura Murray was just 21 years old at the time of her disappearance. Today, she
would be 39. Her physical impression made her seem like a nice girl, 5’7 in height,
brown hair, greenish blue eyes, and weighed about 125 pounds. Her disappearance
is one that hasn’t gone unnoticed in the slightest since the days after her crash.
Dozens of news articles, video reports, Netflix documentaries, social media pages,
and podcasts just like this one has kept up with any updates or latest information

leading to her disappearance throughout the years. Local, State, and Federal

officials have scoured the area and possible surrounding areas near the scene of 

her crash as recently as this past summer of 2022. To fully understand why 

Maura, a Massachusetts college student, was almost 3 hours away in Haverhill, 

NH that night to begin with, we have to look at her life, years before she

disappeared.

- Intuitive/Music that is not scary

In 2000, 4 years before her disappearance, Maura graduated from Whitman 

Hanson High School, where she was the captain of her track team and did very 

well academically. After graduation, she was accepted into West Point Academy. 

West Point, located in NY, is one of the most prestigious military academies in the 

country, with an acceptance rate somewhere around 9%. She majored in Chemical 

Engineering. Up until this point, Maura’s seems like someone who has a level head 

on her shoulders. A girl who has ambition, standards, pushes herself for the 

better. And keeps herself involved.

- Music leading to her minor criminal background

But it’s here in her story where we start to see some record of Mauras’ character. 

During her first year at West Point she had a slip up. She was caught stealing 

makeup from a commissary while at Fort Knox and received an honor code 

violation from the academy. Now Maura didn’t get expelled by the Academy, but 

she did have t0 defend her case and most likely stay on good behavior. It’s unclear 

why, but after she finished her first year at West Point, she decided to transfer to 

UMASS Amhurst, and later switched her Major to nursing. Now from the time she 

was at west point to when she transferred, it’s known that she had a boyfriend 

who also attended West Point named Billy Roush. He ended up graduating from 

West Point and was later stationed at a base in Oklahoma.

Fast forward 3 months before Maura went missing, while she was at UMASS, she 

had ANOTHER slip up with theft, yet this time it’s a little more serious. It’s 

nothing too serious, but more serious than stealing a little makeup. She attempts 

credit card fraud. She stole the credit card information of her dormmate and used 

it to purchase food, from pizza shops like dominos. The charges were presumed to 

add up to $250, which is still considered petty theft. If you don’t know, petty theft 

is stealing anything that amounts to under $500. Now she didn’t serve jail time or 

anything, but she did have to be on good behavior for 3 months, which did not end 

up happening, we’ll get to that. You wouldn’t think being on good behavior would 

be a problem for a student like Maura, but to fully understand why she may have 

brought herself to do this, I spoke directly with Mauras sister, Julie Murray.

The real reason Maura brought herself to do this is much deeper than what we see 

on the surface

- Julie on Mauras ED (11:50) (lasts 50 seconds)

Fast forwarding again, Thursday, February 5th

, 2004, the week of her 

disappearance, or more specifically four days prior to her leaving campus, while 

Maura was at work, she had a phone call with her boyfriend 3 times, and a call 

with her sister, which lasted a half hour. Now, Maura was at work during all these 

calls. She worked for one of UMASS’s security desks, and these phone calls are 

strange because usually you wouldn’t be on the phone during work, especially for 

that long. After the phone call with her sister, her supervisor on shift noticed that 

she became physically upset and decided to end her shift early, at roughly 12:00

AM, and escorts her back to her dorm. When I spoke to Julie about this, she said

something really didn’t sit well with Maura after that phone call.

- (Julie 6:50) (Lasts until around 8:20)

The next morning, which is the 5th of February, there was a snowstorm that 

cancelled classes on campus, it is reported from Mauras call log that she checked 

her voicemails and received an unknown incoming call that lasted 17 minutes, and 

called Fort Sills, the military base her boyfriend is stationed at, for 10 minutes.

Saturday, February 7th. Mauras Dad, Fred Murray, arrives at her dorm around 

noon that day. The main reason for his visit this weekend was to go car shopping

for Maura. Mauras current car at the time, a 1996 Saturn isn’t the safest and was 

not in the best shape. So, her dad went to visit her to try to find her a better car 

and ended up not purchasing anything that day. After shopping, Fred brings Maura 

and her friend Kate out to eat at the Amherst Brewing Company. After that,

around 10 pm, Maura drops her father off in his car at the hotel he was staying at 

in town and Kate and Maura drive over to their other friend's dorm, Sarah, for a 

party or what could have been just a hangout. Maura’s dad agreed that she could 

use his car because he really didn't want her driving the Saturn too much, as it 

was in that bad of shape, and it had just snowed.

At 2:30 AM on what is now Sunday, Maura and Kate leave the party, and at 3:30 

UMASS Police receive a call that Maura had hit a guard rail. There aren't any 

reports of Kate being in the car for this crash, so Maura must’ve obviously dropped 

Kate off first, which is part of the reason this crash happens a full hour after they

left the party. Maura uses AAA to call a tow truck which arrived at 4:29 AM and

dropped her back off at the hotel her dad was staying at. When she got back, she 

made a call to Billy at 5:38 AM, obviously telling him what had happened that 

night. Later in the day around 1:00-1:30, Fred drops her off at her dorm in 

Kennedy Hall. This would be the last time Fred sees his daughter Maura.

- Sad/Erie Music

Monday, February 9, the day of Mauras disappearance. Maura makes a call about a 

condominium rental in New Hampshire. This phone call is the first piece of 

evidence as to why she might have been in Haverhill, NH that night. But she never 

ended up booking a condo at all.

Later on, that afternoon at 3:40 PM Maura is spotted on an ATM CCTV camera 

where she took out $280. This footage of Maura is the last time Maura was seen 

on camera. After she left the ATM, she purchased $4o worth of alcohol, which to 

me at least, seems like more than enough for just one person. Whether she was 

meeting someone at her destination or not is still unclear to this day... In the next 

few hours, Maura drives north into New Hampshire.

Around 7:27 PM, a woman hears a loud noise outside her home. She saw that a car 

had crashed into the side of a snowbank, sliding the car around 180-degrees, and 

pointing it in the opposite direction of traffic, it was Maura. At 7:29 pm, she calls 

local police to report the incident.

At 7:40, a local school bus driver by the name of Butch Atwood who lived nearby 

stopped on his way home as he passed the crash to make sure Maura was all right. 

When he stopped an asked her if she needed any help, she refused and told the 

man she had already called AAA. Butch noted that she looked shaken after getting 

in the crash but did not notice any blood or visible wounds. However, he knew 

that she couldn’t have called AAA, because the cell service on that road is non-

existent, it's like a dead zone. She was also adamant about telling him not to call 

the police, which is strange, but also makes sense at the same time. 

She is in an accident in the middle of nowhere, on a freezing winter night more 

than 2 hours away from home, it is strange to think that a girl like her would not

want the police to be called. But she does have her reasons. She had a lot of 

alcohol in the car that got spilled when she crashed, so she could have been under 

the influence. Along with that she needed to be on good behavior after her credit 

card fraud incident. Obviously, it is unknown whether Maura drank any alcohol 

while driving her vehicle that night, but we do know a report shows that there 

was an empty beer bottle found in the vehicle and liquor missing from what she

initially bought. Butch, who is a tall burly man from northern, NH, also admitted 

that he isn’t the most friendly-looking person to meet on a dark, unlit road. So for 

safe measure, even though she told him not to, he drove back to his house, which 

was only give or take 150 yards away from the crash, got cell service and called 

the police to report the crash. At 7:46 pm, police logs report that the first officer 

arrived at the scene. But it was already too late...

“Creepy suspenseful music.”

Maura had already disappeared. From the time it took the first resident to report 

Mauras crash to police at 7:29 to when the first officer arrived on scene at 7:46, 

Maura had vanished, and hasn’t been seen or heard from since. 16 minutes at most 

is all it took for her to vanish.

(Suspenseful relief music)