Maura Murray

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

New Hampshire State Police (NH)

Missing From:

Woodsville, New Hampshire

Summary:

Maura Murray (born May 4, 1982) is an American woman who disappeared on the evening of February 9, 2004, after a car crash on Route 112 near Woodsville, New Hampshire, a village in the town of Haverhill. Her whereabouts remain unknown. Murray was a 21-year-old nursing student completing her junior year at the University of Massachusetts Amherst at the time of her disappearance.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

After midnight on Monday, February 9, Murray used her personal computer to search MapQuest for directions to the Berkshires and Burlington, Vermont. The first reported contact Murray had with anyone on February 9 was at 1:00 pm, when she emailed her boyfriend: "I love you more stud. I got your messages, but honestly, I didn't feel like talking too much of anyone, I promise to call today though. Love you, Maura". She also made a phone call inquiring about renting a condominium at the same Bartlett, New Hampshire, condo association with which her family had vacationed in the past. Telephone records indicate the call lasted three minutes. The owner did not rent the condo to Murray. At 1:13 pm, Murray called a fellow nursing student for reasons unknown. On the afternoon of Monday, February 9, at 1:24 pm, Murray emailed a work supervisor of the nursing school faculty that she would be out of town for a week due to a death in her family. According to her family, the family had not experienced a death. She also said she would contact them when she returned. At 2:05 pm, Murray called a number which provides recorded information about booking hotels in Stowe, Vermont. The call lasted approximately five minutes. At 2:18 pm, she telephoned her boyfriend and left a voice message promising him they would talk later. This call ended after one minute. Murray packed clothing, toiletries, college textbooks, and birth control pills in her car. When her room was searched later, campus police discovered most of her belongings packed in boxes and the art removed from the walls. It is not clear whether Murray packed them that day, but police at the time said she had packed between Sunday night and Monday morning. On top of the boxes was a printed email to Murray's boyfriend indicating possible trouble in their relationship. Around 3:30 pm, Murray drove off the campus in her black 1996 Saturn sedan; classes at the university had been canceled that day due to a snowstorm. At 3:40 pm, Murray withdrew $280 from an ATM. Closed-circuit footage showed she was alone. At a nearby liquor store, Murray purchased about $40 worth of alcoholic beverages, including Baileys Irish Cream, Kahlúa, vodka and a box of Franzia wine.[6] Security footage again shows she was alone when she made that purchase. At some point in the day, she also picked up accident-report forms from the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Murray then left Amherst between 4 pm and 5 pm, presumably via Interstate 91 north. She called to check her voicemail at 4:37 pm, the last recorded use of her cell phone. To date there is no indication she had informed anyone of her destination, or any evidence that she had chosen one. Some time after 7:00 pm, a Woodsville, New Hampshire, resident heard a loud thump outside her house. Through her window, she could see a car up against the snowbank along Route 112, also known as Wild Ammonoosuc Road. The car pointed west on the eastbound side of the road. The local woman reported the car accident on the sharp corner adjacent to her home, telephoning the Grafton County Sheriff's Department at 7:27 pm to report the accident. According to the 9-1-1 log, the woman claimed to have seen a man smoking a cigarette inside the car. However, she later stated that she had not seen a man nor a person smoking a cigarette, but rather had seen what appeared to be a red light glowing from inside the car, potentially from a cell phone. A passing motorist, a school bus driver who lived nearby, stopped at the scene. He saw the car, as well as a young woman walking around the vehicle. The school bus driver noticed the young woman was not bleeding or visibly injured, but cold and shivering.[25] He offered to call for help. She asked him not to call the police (one police report says "pleaded") and assured him she had already called AAA (AAA has no record of any such call). Knowing there was no cellular reception in the area, the bus driver continued home and called the police. His call was received by the Sheriff's Department at 7:43 pm. The bus driver was unable to see Murray's car while he made the call but did notice several cars pass on the road before the police arrived. Another local resident driving home from work claims she passed by the scene around 7:37 pm, and saw a police SUV parked face-to-face with Murray's car. She pulled over briefly and did not see anyone inside or outside either vehicle, and decided to continue home. This witness's statement contradicts the official police log, which has Haverhill police arriving nine minutes later. According to the official police log, at 7:46 pm, a Haverhill police officer arrived at the scene, but the woman driver had disappeared. No one was inside or around the car. The car had impacted the tree on the driver's side of the vehicle, severely damaging the left headlight and pushing the car's radiator into the fan, rendering it inoperable. The car's windshield was cracked on the driver's side, and both airbags had deployed. The car was locked. Inside and outside the car, the officer discovered red stains that looked to be red wine. Inside the car, he found an empty beer bottle and a damaged box of Franzia wine on the rear seat. In addition, he found a AAA card issued to Murray; blank accident report forms; gloves, compact discs, makeup, diamond jewelry; driving directions to Burlington, Vermont; Murray's favorite stuffed animal; and Not Without Peril, a book about mountain climbing in the White Mountains. Missing were Murray's debit card, credit cards and cell phone, none of which have been located or used since her disappearance. The police later reported some of the bottles of purchased liquor were also missing. Journalist Joe McGee, writing for the Quincy, Massachusetts, Patriot Ledger, summarized the incident: "At a hairpin turn, she went off the road. Her car hit a tree. At that point, a person came along who was driving a bus. It was a neighbor. He asked her if she needed help. She refused. About 10 minutes later, police showed up to the scene and Maura Murray was gone." Police traced the vehicle to Murray, and initially treated her as a missing person on the belief that she may have wanted to disappear voluntarily. This speculation was based on her travel preparations (about which she had confided nothing to friends or family) and no obvious evidence of foul play. In 2009, Murray's case was given to the New Hampshire cold case division, and authorities are handling it as a "suspicious" missing persons case. Between 8:00 and 8:30 pm, a contractor returning home from Franconia saw a young person moving quickly on foot eastbound on Route 112 about 4 to 5 miles (6 to 8 km) east of where Murray's vehicle was discovered. He noted that the young person was wearing jeans, a dark coat, and a light-colored hood. He did not report it to police immediately due to his own confusion of dates, only discovering three months later (when reviewing his work records) that he had spotted the young person the same night Murray disappeared. The responding officer and the bus driver drove around the area searching for Murray. Just before 8:00 pm, EMS and a fire truck arrived to clear the scene. By 8:49 pm, the car had been towed to a local garage. At about 9:30 pm, the responding officer left. A rag believed to have been part of Murray's emergency roadside kit was discovered stuffed into the Saturn's muffler pipe. Authorities would refer to Murray as simply "missing" at 12 pm the next day, almost 24 hours after the last confirmed sighting of her.

Case Last Updated:

Apr 05, 2026