Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / The Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray - Part IV
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Last seen in Woodsville, drew media and law enforcement comparisons
- 0:04due to the similarities in the cases. Nevertheless, state police
- 0:09have asserted that there are no connections between the two incidents.
- 0:13In both April and June, law enforcement agencies in New
- 0:17Hampshire and Vermont refuted any links between the cases of
- 0:21Murray and Maitland. In an official statement, they expressed their
- 0:26belief that Mora was en route to an undisclosed location
- 0:30and may have accepted a ride to reach that destination.
- 0:34Further noting that they had found no evidence indicating that
- 0:38a crime had occurred. They also ruled out the involvement
- 0:42of a serial killer. In two thousand and five, Fred
- 0:46Murray sought assistance from New Hampshire Governor Craig Benson regarding
- 0:51the search for his missing son. Additionally, he appeared on
- 0:55The Montell Williams Show in November two thousand and four
- 0:58to raise awareness about the case. On February ninth, two
- 1:03thousand and five, marking the first anniversary of his son's disappearance,
- 1:07a memorial service was conducted at the location where the
- 1:11vehicle was discovered, during which Fred had a brief meeting
- 1:15with New Hampshire Governor John Lynch. Later in two thousand
- 1:19and five, Fred initiated legal action against multiple law enforcement
- 1:24agencies in an effort to obtain case files. On November one,
- 1:29two thousand and five, an individual using the name Tom
- 1:32Davies posted on a message board named Not Without Peril,
- 1:37which focused on discussions surrounding Murray's disappearance. He claimed to
- 1:42have spotted a black backpack resembling Murray's behind a restroom
- 1:46at Pemijawassit Overlook, approximately thirty miles east of Woodsville along
- 1:51Route one one two. Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Strelzin
- 1:56confirmed that law enforcement was aware of the backpack, but
- 1:59did not reveal whether it had undergone forensic analysis. In
- 2:04twenty fourteen, marking the tenth anniversary of Mara Murray's disappearance,
- 2:09Strelsin remarked, we have not received any credible sightings of
- 2:13Mara since the evening she went missing. An article in
- 2:18the New York Daily News on this significant anniversary reported
- 2:21that Fred Murray held the belief that his daughter was
- 2:25deceased and had been abducted on the night she vanished.
- 2:29On February ninth, twenty seventeen, the thirteenth anniversary of her disappearance,
- 2:34Strellsen communicated via email to the Boston Globe stating this
- 2:39case remains open, experiencing periods of activity interspersed with times
- 2:45of dormancy. Currently, there are no new developments to report.
- 2:49In February twenty nineteen, during the fifteenth anniversary of Mara's disappearance,
- 2:55Fred reiterated his conviction that his daughter was no longer alive,
- 2:59expressing his concerns regarding a nearby residence that cadaverdogs had indicated, asserting,
- 3:05I truly believe that is my daughter. In early April,
- 3:10an excavation was conducted in the basement of that house.
- 3:14Fred had previously sought to investigate the property, but the
- 3:17original owners were uncooperative. After the property changed hands, the
- 3:23new owners permitted several searches. However, the excavation in early
- 3:27April yielded no significant findings, aside from what seemed to
- 3:32be a fragment of pottery or old piping. In early
- 3:36twenty twenty one, the tree at the location where Murray
- 3:39was last seen, which had been adorned with a blue
- 3:42ribbon as a tribute, was removed by the property owner.
- 3:47Shortly after this event, a request from Murray's family for
- 3:50the installation of a historical marker in New Hampshire at
- 3:54the site, submitted in late twenty twenty, was denied by
- 3:58the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources. The case of
- 4:02Murray's disappearance has been referred to as the first crime
- 4:06mystery of the social media era, sparking considerable speculation among
- 4:12both the media and the public, particularly on the Internet
- 4:16through various online forums and message boards. In a twenty
- 4:21fourteen article for Boston Magazine, Bill Jensen remarked, at least
- 4:25in the online realm, it often appears that cold cases
- 4:29do not exist. However, when Maura Murray vanished, the social
- 4:34web was still in its early stages. YouTube and Twitter
- 4:39were not yet available. On the day of her disappearance,
- 4:42Facebook had only been active for five days. Thus, one
- 4:47can interpret the narrative of her case as a reflection
- 4:50of the development of online investigation. In two thousand and five,
- 4:55discussions surrounding Murray's disappearance were actively recorded on webslooths dot com,
- 5:02and by two thousand seven, dedicated Facebook and MySpace pages
- 5:06were established to assist in the search for her. Following
- 5:10the years subsequent to Murray's disappearance, her case attracted considerable
- 5:15media coverage from various outlets, including ABC News, News Nation,
- 5:20and storycre It was featured on television programs such as
- 5:25American Morning, The Montell Williams Show, Twenty twenty, Nancy Grace's
- 5:30Cold Cases Disappeared, and The Doctor Oz Show. Print media
- 5:35attention came from The Boston Globe, People Magazine, Newsweek, seventeen Magazine,
- 5:41The New Yorker, and Rolling Stone, along with numerous local
- 5:45and regional newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasts. Additionally,
- 5:52the case sparked extensive discussion on Internet message boards