Why did nursing student Maura Murray simply vanish one day in 2004? Explore one of the most baffling disappearances in modern history.
On February 9, 2004, a 21-year-old college student named Maura Murray crashed her car along Route 112 in Haverhill, New Hampshire. At least two witnesses called in the crash, and one even briefly spoke to her at the scene.
But when police arrived, Maura Murray had disappeared. She hasn’t been seen since, and the investigation into her disappearance has turned up a number of unsettling clues.
Shortly before Murray disappeared, she emailed her professors at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and lied about a death in the family that would require her to take a week off from school. Then, Murray called a condo in Bartlett, New Hampshire, a town she knew well, and a hotline for hotels in Stowe, Vermont. Though Murray didn’t make reservations at either location, she also printed out driving directions to Burlington, Vermont.
She then sent an email to her Oklahoma-based boyfriend, Bill Rausch, explaining that she’d gotten his messages but hadn’t felt like talking and would call him later. Then she packed a bag that included makeup, birth control pills, school books, a stuffed animal her father had given her, a necklace her boyfriend had given her, and several days’ worth of clothing.
Maura Murray Public Figure/FacebookSecurity footage of Maura Murray withdrawing cash on the day that she went missing.
At 3:15 p.m. that afternoon, Murray withdrew $280 — almost all the money she had in her account — from an ATM. She then went to a local liquor store, where Murray bought Baileys, Kahlúa, vodka, and boxed wine. Then, without telling anyone about her plans, Murray started to drive north toward New Hampshire. Along the way, she crashed her car — and vanished.
Despite an extensive search of the area, police found no trace of her. In her car, they found only a box of Franzia wine and a coke bottle “with a strong alcoholic odor.”
So, what happened to this young nursing student? To this day, Murray’s fate remains a mystery, and no one knows why she wanted to go to New Hampshire.
While some think that Murray planned her own disappearance, others believe that she merely succumbed to the elements. And some speculate that Murray, standing by her car along the side of the road just after the crash, was actually abducted and killed by an unknown perpetrator.
This is everything we know about Maura Murray, the college student who has been missing since February 2004.
Dig deeper into the disturbing case of Maura Murray.
Learn more about the music used in our podcast. History Uncovered is part of the Airwave Media network. Learn more about your ad choices by visiting megaphone.fm/adchoices.
