Maura Murray

Original comment posted by finn141414

I was looking for something else in the newspaper articles last night and saw this from 2/13/04 which mentions the phone call to Billy. This would explain how Butch knew about this call when he spoke to Christine McDonald on 2/16/04.

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The New Hampshire Union Leader

February 13, 2004

Family searches northern NH for woman

By Lorna Colquhoun

Haverhill, NH -- A worried family fanned out across northern New Hampshire yesterday in search of a young woman who vanished after a minor car accident Monday night.

Maura Murray, 21, a nursing student at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, has not been seen since her car went off Route 112 Monday in the Wild Ammonoosuc area of Woodsville. Witnesses called police after the accident, but she disappeared before an officer arrived. A search followed that night, but there was no sign of Murray.

On Wednesday, local and state police, including the state police helicopter and Fish and Game conservation officers, searched the remote area of Route 112, but found no sign of her.

“This is very unusual" said Fred Murray, her father. “It's not like her to just take off."

Family members, including her brothers and sister, as well as her boyfriend, Bill Rausch, who flew in from Oklahoma when she was reported missing, fanned out from Haverhill to Lincoln, across the Kancamagus Highway to Conway and Bartlett, putting up flyers along the way, in the hope that someone may have seen her in the days since Monday.

Their search has been concentrated in the White Mountains, since Murray and her family have vacationed in the Lincoln and Conway areas for years.

"We went to every spot we thought she might go to hotels and motels and put up flyers," Bill Rausch said.

But so far, their efforts have come up empty.

The only thing they do have to go on is a call Bill Rausch received on cell phone after he flew back to Massachusetts late Tuesday.

There was just someone breathing on the other end, and the number was unknown, said Bill Rausch, who is planning to ask Murray to marry him. “I tried calling the number back, but it turned out to be a (number for a) phone card."

Police were attempting to track down from where the card may have come, he said.

Haverhill police Chief Jeff Williams said Wednesday that there doesn't appear to be foul play involved. Her family surmises that since there was a lack of footprints near her car, she may have taken a ride with someone.

Fred Murray said he wants to tell his daughter that whatever is troubling her, it's nothing that can't be worked out.

"I don't know what the matter is, or the trouble you think you might be in,he said, but it isn't anything we can't solve. It's me you can tell me. We will work it out until we solve it."

The family hopes that the hundreds of flyers they've put up in the past two days will provide some leads for them to pursue.

"We just want to spread the word around and ask anyone who may have seen her to please call us," Fred Murray said.

Murray is described as being 5-feet, 7 inches tall, 120 pounds, with shoulder length brown hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing jeans and a dark jacket.

Anyone with information is asked to call Haverhill police at 787-2222.

Comment by zimmspro
“This is very unusual" said Fred Murray, her father. “It's not like her to just take off."
Except she did at least once to Boston, alone.
Also, Kathleen said in 2004 she was mad at fred

Comment by finn141414
We recently figured out that Kathleen and Fred had talked before Kathleen called police - and that Kathleen and Maura had not talked since the Hadley accident. In other words, her testimony that Maura was mad at him had to come from Fred himself.

Comment by BonquosGhost
The only thing they do have to go on is a call Bill Rausch received on cell phone after he flew back to Massachusetts late Tuesday.

Explanation here? First, Bill said the whimper call came in on his way while boarding the airplane Wed morn, then he did the interview on CNN the following week and said the whimper call came in early Tues morn (before anyone knew of the abandoned Saturn), now this says "flew back" and "late Tuesday"?

Police were attempting to track down from where the card may have come, he said.

Then this odd statement. This article was the Friday of the same week. Yet Sharon Rausch said that Landry told them the call was the Red Cross when they arrived in Haverhill PD Wednesday evening......? The Rausch family all denied it was the Red Cross.

Comment by finn141414
Great points - so Landry told them immediately that it was from the Red Cross? That seems a little quick to make that assessment.

Comment by BonquosGhost
That's what Sharon claimed in her story. Also why would LE be grilling Billy? For a DWI endangered runaway who left the car? I mean that's the narrative they went forward with that first week......Why interrogate Billy at all? He was at Fort Sill during this event....??