The Maura Murray Community

Commenting anonymously

August 14, 2013 by John Green Leave a comment

Recently, I have heard from some folks with concerns about having to register and log in to WordPress to comment. The common theme has been that, given the cast of openly menacing and mentally disordered characters lurking around this case, people are cautious in light of careers and family.

Recognizing this, I have suspended the requirement to register with wordpress and log in. You can now comment anonymously. I and nobody – other than than privacy data specialists in the IT department of WordPress – will have access to any information about you. For what it is worth, if you register, the only data – available only to me – is your email address, even if it is a fake one you created only to register with WordPress.

As for posting, I will look into ways to liberalize that a bit as well, but that presents different issues. More later.

If you have an interest in commenting but remain concerned, please email me at john88green@yahoo.com. There may be alternatives to make your opinions, ideas and facts heard.

The bottom line is that all that matters to me is the content. It is not important to know who is posting. The registration requirement was meant to keep out the scary and disordered characters who lurk around the case. But – at worst – anonymous content will mean more moderation activity for me and the other authors. Small price to pay for greater involvement in the community of people who are intelligent, sincere and interested and who are checking in with our forum on a daily basis.

Finally, if you have other suggestions for making the forum a “safer” place to make your comments, ideas, facts, evidence, insights and questions heard, please feel free to email me at john88green@yahoo.com.

Filed under Uncategorized

112dirtbag is at it again?

August 13, 2013 by John Green 10 Comments

This is hard to believe. It appears that 16 days ago Alden Olsen again posted his horrifying video intended to suggest that he killed Maura. But he has added something at the end.

This man is repulsive. I am happy to say that I have the product of a about 6 weeks of work soon to post that is going to reveal quite a lot about this ________ (fill in your own term), along with another famous forum lurker.

Filed under Investigative

Was Maura visiting someone in Mountain Lakes?

August 12, 2013 by John Green 5 Comments

*** UPDATE – August 13, 2013 ***

It occurred to me that some might wonder why it is okay to discuss Maura’s cousin on a blog that – by its stated philosophy – is exclusively dedicated to the topic of Maura’s disappearance.

The answer to this is that Citigirl has made herself an issue in the case. To wit:

She has made hundreds and hundreds of well formed statements that significantly influenced the body of knowledge about the case for many years.
She has sometimes, nonetheless, obfuscated rather than promoted the truth, particularly when a fact presented by Renner was involved, at least in a one case contradicting herself to do so.
She has done this on the strength of being a family member, specifically and truthfully stating that she is a cousin (specifically Maura’s first cousin twice removed).
She has, nonetheless, at times denied being a family member, when Renner entered the conversation.
She has directly and often challenged the legitimacy of Renner’s work, with the vigilance of almost a kind of crusade, and clearly in support of Fred’s posture toward Renner and investigation of the case.
There are times when in defending Fred’s posture, she has supported statement’s of his – explicitly or implicitly – that are known to be in fact (or to a virtual certainty) to have been false.
She has voluntarily offered her extensive commentary in a very public forum, reflecting a focused and deliberate desire to influence public discourse about the case.

In essence, Citigirl has made herself an issue in the case in much the same way Fred has. Thus, I feel it is inside the defined bounds of this blog to discuss her.

Any thoughts? Do you agree? Do you disagree?

I would especially like to hear your thoughts on this because there is more to come on Citigirl, and on another character who has injected his name willfully into the case: Alden.

*** ORIGINAL POST – August 12, 2013 ***

While getting some data together for a long-time-in-coming post about something I observed on Topix a few months ago, I came across a statement that related to something else I have been working on this summer. In non-consecutive comments, a poster named Looking4aMoose and Citigirl had this exchange.

Looking4aMoose: So Citi, now you speak for all of Maura’s family? so you have direct contact with them on all the facts that you are posing? Each and every one of them? I’ve noticed your comments on a ocuple of occasions as saying no one from the family has seen this or that…..are you sure you’re authorized to speak for all of them? If you are, can we ask you to ask them some questions since they are so giving of information to you?

(My note: although in her response below she does not say it outright, in fact, in the two weeks prior to this exchange, Citigirl says or strongly suggests that she is a member of Maura’s family at least three times.)

Citigirl: Yes I do have direct contact. I speak from what I know. I have traveled up north since March of 04 to June of 07. so yes I know what Iam talking about. A person on the scene of Feb. 9th 2004 had stated that CS had told them that Maura may have been going to visit a friend that lived in the Mountain Lakes. you have stated in the past that you have a place in the Mountain Lakes and that you know or worked with a friend of Mauras. did you know Maura?

You can find Citigirl’s response, together with the quoted Looking4aMoose comment on page 531 of the Franconia/Maura Murray Topix forum.

Does anyone else have any thoughts, idea or evidence related to Maura possibly having gone to Haverhill to meet a friend in the Mountain Lakes district? Also, if anyone knows the identity of Looking4aMoose and would feel comfortable doing so, could you email it to me? I would love to talk to him or her.

If you are not familiar with it already, the Mountain Lakes District is a special district in Haverhill responsible for managing water and recreation within its area. The area is overseen by a Board of Commissioners, a Planning Board and a Zoning Board, as well as several committees. I don’t know for a fact that the district has taxation authority, but the fact that it manages a water system independent of Haverhill’s strongly suggests that it does.

As a recognized, sub-geography of Haverhill, the district first came into existence when a Boston company began to develop it for the purpose of building homes and a resort there. That project fell though, however, and the company went bankrupt. Two people involved with the project were indicted, but I don’t know the full story.

Thereafter, in the early 1980s, Mountain Lakes became a designated census area. This designation means little, except to the Census Bureau, who uses to improve counting methods for certain subpopulations of some municipalities. For what it is worth, in reading about designated census areas, I had trouble determining why the Census Bureau designated the Mountain Lakes area as one, or why Haverhill sought the designation, however it may have come about.

In any case, Haverhill also created the Mountain Lakes District in the same area. It contains 1550 acres, subdivided into approximately 1260 lots, most of which are in Haverhill, but with a few (about 35) in Bath. There are 318 residents, almost two-thirds of whom are seasonal. Upper and Lower Mountain Lakes – the two lakes east of Long Pond Road and south of Swiftwater Road – are a part of the district. There is a lodge, tennis courts, athletic fields, nature trails and various rental equipment available to residents and the lakes front areas are restricted to residents and their guests.

The district is responsible for managing water and recreation in the area. There once were ski runs and lifts off of Valley Road (the construction of which probably resulted in Old Peters Road no longer connecting through Rock Creek Road off Route 116. The slopes were abandoned, however, and the equipment sold off.

According to the manager of the maps and documents office in the Haverhill Tax Collector’s Office, Route 112 where Maura crashed is not in the Mountain Lakes District, nor is the driveable portion of Old Peters Road, McGuire Road or Bradley Hill road. However, the homes on Swiftwater Circle are, as well as those on Valley Road, Long Pond road, Carr Road and the tangle of roads in the vicinity of the lakes.

It is interesting to note that if in fact Maura had driven to a friend’s home in the Mountain Lakes District, the the fact that she was headed east on Route 112 when she crashed would tend to suggest (thought not at all prove) that she had already arrived at her friend’s home, which is consistent with the concept discussed in the post above of Maura getting into another car.

Filed under Haverhill

Note to Authors re: LINKING

August 9, 2013 by John Green 3 Comments

Authors, if you write a post and need to create a link, please observe the linking function in the menu above the text box. It looks like a sideways “8″.

You can highlight the phrase, then press that button. You will be able to make the phrase itself of link.

So, for instance, instead of saying, “you can read the article about Maura at this site:” … with the URL following, you can simply say “The article about Maura was written by ….”. In that example, the bold italics represents what you would highlight and link to using the link function. In other words, you can make the link a part of the flow of the text if you choose.

Filed under Forum & User Notes

Maura’s State of Mind: Making Sense of 5 days that make No Sense

August 9, 2013 by les1961 12 Comments

Within the last 2 years I personally witnessed the rapid decline in the state of mind of an otherwise healthy young woman. Her story and actions are such a resemblance to Maura’s that I thought I would share. It is a possible explanation to why so much makes no sense. For the sake of this story I will call her Molly.

Molly is a woman in her mid twenties with a 2 year old daughter struggling with the stresses of life. Like Maura her personal life was falling apart. A few days prior to her bizarre behavior she began to change although not enough to draw attention at the time. She was becoming paranoid. Molly thought someone was following her, someone was trying to get into the house etc. Her personality was slightly off. Like Maura there was a conversation with family where she lost the conversation and stared off and when returning to the current was very upset. A few days later she was found walking down a city street by a friend who just happened to be driving by. She had not picked up her daughter at daycare and her car was found several miles from where she was. Later it was discovered that she tried to crawl in someone’s window and a few other bizarre things. Had this friend not seen her Molly’s fate may have been the same as Maura’s – MISSING. Nothing that she did made sense to anyone including her. She now remembers doing these things but has no idea why she did them.

THE REASON. In her case she made the mistake of using Alcohol, Weed and a few prescription meds bought on the street to help her through her stress. More specifically she was purchasing pain meds of the street. After awhile of doing this she lost touch with reality. After some help from the mental health field she is fine but the outcome could have been drastically different,

Is it possible that Maura was doing the same? Her behavior prior to the accident indicates something is off. She tells no one where she is going which is the same as Molly. In Molly’s case her actions made no sense and neither does Maura’s. Is it possible that Rick Forcier really did see her 5 miles away? Was Maura running from something real or imaginary and her need to run eventually left her to the elements? If this is the case then she could have ended up anywhere.

Filed under Investigative, Other Cases, Personality & Psychology

Maura Worked on February 6, 2004 as well as February 8, 2004, According to Sharon Rausch.

August 8, 2013 by samledyard 19 Comments

I found a post attributed to Sharon Rausch in a deleted Topix thread, preserved by the internet archive.

The post is set forth, here:

Sharon:

Posted on March 1, 2006 4;53 p.m.

Maura had been off of school for a month, but in that time, she traveled to NY and back, to OH and back and several times to CT and back during which time each trip involved parties and get togethers plus the ususal hub bub of the Holidays: shopping, cooking, wrapping etc. Maura and Billy never “rested” much to speak of when they were together. Even if they were not busy, they would just stay awake to be together.

This combined with my realization after Maura went missing that she was working 2 jobs, her clinicals which are also nearly a full time burrito combined with her class time and class work that she really was probably getting more rest when she was exeriencing the hectic holidays. I recall she looked tired over Thanksgiving and Christmas – one daughter even asked her about it. She laughed. But, knowing she and Billy burnt the midnight oil, so to speak, I just assumed that she was not getting enough sleep. Now, I am convinced that was an ongoing situation and may have been the major factor behind her feeling overwhelmed and the subsequent crying “breakdown””

Just consider the weekend before she vanished:

On Thurs she worked until 1:30 am and had the “breakdown”

On Fri, she went to class and clinicals – her day would have had to start at the latest around 7 in order to shower, etc – if her clinicals were first in the day, it would have started much earlier because she told me she had a “long drive” to the hospital.

She works security Fri evening until 2 am.

Fred arrives Sat morning , they spend all day shopping for a used auto, go to dinner and then she goes to friends room to socialize, leaves and has accident sometime around 3 am; is stressed again and calls Billy at 4:30 am very upset about the accident.

Spends the day Sunday with Fred while also working a 4 hours shift at the UMass Art vegetable. We know from her cell phone records that she talks with Fred around 11 Sunday evening to make sure he got home ok – part of their routine.

We know from Renner’s interview with Karen Mayotte that, due to a snow cancellation, Maura did not have morning classes on Friday. Therefore, Rausch’s account is not completely accurate.

What I find interesting is that, according to Rausch, Maura “work[ed] security [on] Fri[day] evening” and “work[ed] … at the UMass Art” museum on Sunday. Do other sources support or negate these assertions?

Filed under Academics, Friday, Personality & Psychology, Sunday, Thursday Night

Maura’s Cell Phone Records

August 8, 2013 by jw7219 13 Comments

I realize this is a very long post about Maura’s cellphone records. I hope it is not too much information and that it is interesting to read. A link to the bill itself comes first, followed by an explanation of how the bill was constructed. Apart from the possible names, the information in black is certain, information in gray is not. When I’m not too sure about the names, I’ve used a question mark or didn’t give a name at all.

Here is the link to Maura’s phone records.

http://i.imgur.com/lkSM6QW.png

How I constructed Maura’s phone records

Like others, I have tried to construct the records from the footage on ‘Miles to nowhere’, watching the relevant parts frame by frame. Doing that I was able to get the available information for calls 120 – 155. The last calls, 160 – 166 are only partially visible. I could fill them in because they are discussed in the episode and are also mentioned in Maribeth Conway’s well known article.

Calls 156 – 159 are not visible at all. I was able to make an educated guess for those calls based on other information. We know BR spoke with Maura after the Hadley crash early on Sunday morning. His mother tells us in ‘Miles to nowhere’ he promised to call her the next day. It’s reasonable to assume he meant the Sunday and not the Monday. We also know from Maura’s email to him that she had received his messages. Based on that I concluded that at least 2 incoming calls were from BR. I’ve put them at 156 & 157.

Then there is information in a timeline that says Maura checked the voicemail on her cell phone at 08:30 PM on Sunday. This timeline is mentioned in December 2008 on “advocate’s forum” and in March 2008 on mydeathspace.

http://findmauramurray.fr.yuku.com/topic/2#.UgO3QkjCSUk

http://mydeathspace.com/vb/showthread.php?8300-Maura-Murray-UMass-Amherst-Student-Missing-Since-Feb-9-200

I haven’t found the original source for this call, but I think the information is very plausible. We know from her email she received the messages, so it seems obvious to me she checked her voicemail after those calls. I’ve put this at 158, but it could also be call 159.

Number 161 is Maura calling her father on his cell phone. The call is visible on his records as incoming, so we know she called him. His number is available in online documentation and the first digit of the last four is visible in the footage. It’s a 4 and that corresponds with his cell phone number.

I believe one of the 156-159 calls is from her sister Kathleen. The source is a 2006 article in the Concord Monitor. I’ve found it in a post on Websleuths by Scoops on August 8, 2011. Part of it says:

“The last time Carpenter saw her sister was Christmas 2004. She spoke with her on the phone the night before she disappeared. Murray told Carpenter she had gotten in a fight with her boyfriend but she did not mention anything about going away.”

It would of course make perfect sense if Kathleen had called her on Sunday evening. Nothing strange about that.

The last call is very interesting. In the interview with BR, posted on MMC by Awol, BR says she actually called her dorm phone to check for messages. The timeline on yuku states she checked her cell phone, but this is not mentioned specifically in ‘Miles to Nowhere’. I think it is very likely she indeed checked her dorm phone. Why would she have checked the voicemail on her cell phone? She had done that already and she would know there were no new messages on it. There is no evidence on her cellphone bill she received an incoming call after BR’s calls that went to voicemail.

Also interesting is this information in an article from the Caledonian Record of February 13, 2004. It is only available in this link: http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Bill-Rausch/448034022 .

“Rausch said they have been dating for several years. He also said he had spoken to Maura Sunday and as recently as Monday morning. She did not seem to be upset about anything when he spoke to her. “Everything seemed fine,” he said.”

My theory is he called her on the dorm phone after she didn’t answer his calls on Sunday and she didn’t email him until Monday around 01:00 PM, so he tried to reach her on her dorm phone. There is also no evidence on the bill he called her cellphone on Monday, so if it’s true he must have called her dorm phone.

The names for the numbers

When I started looking for names, at first I didn’t realize how difficult that would be. I soon found out there are so many possible numbers, it is as good as impossible to find the actual names of the people Maura called. Amherst had 18 prefixes in 2004 and Springfield over a 100. That means there are just too many possibilities. And don’t forget that a lot of numbers are not listed anywhere. It is impossible to trace those numbers without spending a lot of money and even then they might not be found. So I did not fill in any possible random name I found. I only filled in a name when I felt it was plausible to do so. For example, the Amherst -6217 number might be a call to a music shop, but there are 17 other possibilities (known and unknown) and I did not find anything that suggests a link between Maura and that shop, so I didn’t use that name. I believe the only possible link would be that there is a picture of someone with a guitar in ‘Miles to nowhere’.

There are a few numbers I didn’t investigate myself. I follow James Renner when he states the New City number is BR. We also know the Hanover call is sister Kathleen and I’ve learned the Albany number is Kate’s cell phone.

I’m also convinced the Fort Sill and Fort Bragg calls are to BR and sister Julie (142 & 147). I checked the phone directory of Fort Sill and -1261 is an actual number there. However, I could not find that for Fort Bragg where Julie was stationed. Since I haven’t t found any other logical explanation for the call to Fayetteville NC, I think it is not too farfetched to believe it was to Julie.

I’m personally quite sure Amherst -3394 is the Hampden art Gallery. She called it once (call 127) during opening hours and it would not be strange at all if she called the gallery since she worked there. Of course it is not a fact she called the gallery. The number is on their website.

I’m even more sure the Amherst -8911 is Domino’s pizza in Hadley. We know for a fact she had a habit of ordering late night / early morning pizza. At present Domino’s is open until 02:00 am, but I’ve read information they were open until 04:00 AM in 2004. She called this number three times, at 12:00 and 12:10 AM on the fifth and at 3:40 AM on the sixth after the so called disturbing call.

I’ve used FM’s statement to police for calls 145 and 149. From it follows that 145 is him arriving on Saturday and 149 is Kate calling when he and Maura where at the ABC.

I did find a specific time for call 148 to Amherst -1899 in a topix post by Columbo. He, and others, have said that call was made to Reliance Auto in Amherst at 04:13 PM on Saturday. In ‘Miles to nowhere’ only xx:x3 PM is visible. I think it is possible Maura’s phone records were released by the family to private investigators. Maybe that’s why this specific time is mentioned by that poster. The call could have been to Reliance Auto, that would fit with the car shopping, although we are not sure that’s what they did.

The -6927 Springfield number is a difficult one because there are so many possibilities with over a 100 prefixes. I thought the best guess would be, that it is a cell phone from another student who got that number while living in the Springfield area. Surprisingly, after I thought about this, I read another post by Scoops on Websleuths that says Katie Jones, her friend from Hanson, studied at Western New England College in Springfield. So I think it is a plausible possibility it is her.

Some posters say that the Amherst -9411 is Rao’s coffee shop. I don’t think that is true. There is only one online source for that. It is the Wikitravel information for Amherst. When you google Rao’s you will find a great number of hits that say their number is -9441. A recent phone call by a MMC poster confirmed that -9441 is their only number.

I think the Amherst -9411 number could be the most important number on the bill. She called it almost every day and it might be one of the last numbers she called other than her sister or boyfriend. On ‘Miles to Nowhere’ there is a 9 visible as first of the four digits for call 160. And maybe even call 163 (the student who moved on) on Monday is to this number. So I think it could really be important to find out to whom it belonged.

As I said, I hope this post is not too long and if there are any questions or mistakes I’ve made, just let me know.

Filed under 12:01 a.m. to departure, After Corolla Accident, Friday, Thursday Night

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