Latest / Kat Has Questions: True Crime and Unsolved Mysteries / The Disappearance of Maura Murray (Part 1): America's Most Baffling Missing Person Mystery

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The Disappearance of Maura Murray (Part 1): America's Most Baffling Missing Person Mystery · Kat Has Questions: True Crime and Unsolved Mysteries

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Kat Has Questions, curiosity, stories, and the strange
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: corners of everyday life. Hello, hello, I'm Kat. Okay, before
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: we dive into today's story, I want you to pause,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: go over to Apple, Spotify, Overcast, wherever you listen to podcasts,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: and subscribe, and leave a rating or review, and This
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: helps independent podcasters like me be able to continue doing this.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: And I would personally really, really appreciate it. Anything helps, truly.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Today's episode is going to be a two-parter, so I
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: will do part of it today and part of it
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: next week. And with that, let's dive right into today's case.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: It's a freezing February evening in rural New Hampshire. Snowbanks
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: line both sides of the road. The sun disappeared hours ago.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: A bus driver rounds a bend and notices a black
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Saturn crashed into a snowbank. He stops to help. A
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: young woman is standing beside the car. She tells him
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: she's already called AAA. He knows she hasn't, and he
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: leaves to call the police. Seven minutes later, officers arrive.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: The car is still there, but the driver has vanished.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: More than 20 years later, No one knows where she went.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: This is the disappearance of Mara Murray. Before we can
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: understand what happened on a cold February night in New Hampshire,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: we have to understand the woman at the center of
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: the mystery. Because despite everything that's been written, debated, and theorized,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: over the last two decades, one fact remains unchanged. Mara
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Murray was a real person. A daughter, a sister, a friend.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: a nursing student with goals for the future. And somewhere
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: along the way, that person has often been overshadowed by
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: the mystery surrounding her disappearance. Mara was born on May 4, 1982,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: in Brockton, Massachusetts, and grew up in Hanson, Massachusetts, a
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: quiet town about 30 miles south of Boston. She was
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: one of five siblings in a close-knit family. She was
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: the fourth child. She had an older brother named Fred,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: and two older sisters named Kathleen and Julie. Fred was
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: quite a bit older, and Kathleen and Julie were closer
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: in age to her. She also had a younger half-brother
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: named Kurt. She was raised in an Irish Catholic household,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: and when she was just six years old, her parents divorced.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: And after which, she primarily lived with her mother. However,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: she shared a particularly strong bond with her father, Fred,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and her whole family just truly remained close. Fred has
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: described Mara as fiercely independent, intelligent, and incredibly driven. Those
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: who know her often echo the sentiment. She was the
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: kind of person who pushed herself hard, whether it was
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: academically or athletically. She wasn't someone who was content with
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: doing the bare minimum, and that drive showed early. Mara
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: attended Whitman Hanson Regional High School. Throughout high school, Mara
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: excelled as a distance runner and and was a star
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: athlete on the school's track team. She competed in cross-country
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: and track sports that demand discipline, endurance, and an ability
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: to keep going even when your body is begging you
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: to stop. Friends described her as competitive, but not in
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: an arrogant way, but in the sense that she genuinely
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: wanted to challenge herself and improve. After graduating high school,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: she took a path that reflected both her ambition and
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: her sense of service. She was accepted into and enrolled
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: at the United States Military Academy at West Point in
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: New York, where she studied chemical engineering for three semesters.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Her sister Julie also feels like Mara wanted to kind
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: of follow in her steps based on her podcast, which
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I'll talk about a little bit later. But Julie was
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: already there and Mara then was going to go there
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: as well. Getting accepted into West Point is no small accomplishment.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: The admissions process is famously competitive, combining academic performance, fitness,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: leadership experience, and recommendations. For many students, it's the culmination
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: of years of hard work. Mara had completed nearly two
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: years there, but eventually came to the conclusion that West
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Point was not a good fit for her. She transferred
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she enrolled in
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: the school's nursing program, which is also hard to get into.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: By all accounts, nursing suited her well. It combined intelligence
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: with compassion, and friends believed she'd make an excellent nurse.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Her mom was also a nurse, so following in the
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: footsteps of her mom. While transitioning from West Point to UMass,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: she also began dating another West Point cadet named Billy Rausch.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Billy remained at the academy while Mara attended school in Massachusetts.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: But much of their relationship was long distance because she
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: was just kind of starting to leave when they started dating.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Like many college couples separated by hundreds of miles, they
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: relied heavily on phone calls, emails, and weekend visits whenever possible.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: From the outside, Mara's life appeared to be moving in
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: the right direction. She was 21 years old, she was
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: working toward a respected career, she had close relationships with
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: her family, she had a serious boyfriend, and she had
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: a whole future ahead of her. But if there's one
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: thing we've learned from so many of these cases that
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: we've covered on this podcast... it's that appearances rarely tell
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the entire story. Looking back, the weeks leading up to
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Mara's disappearance reveal something more complicated. Not necessarily a young
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: woman in crisis, but perhaps someone carrying far more weight
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: than those around her realized. College is stressful enough on
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: its own. Add the demands of a rigorous nursing program,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: financial pressure, maintaining relationships, working part-time, and trying to figure
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: out what you wanted your life to become, it's easy
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: to imagine how even the most capable person can begin
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: to feel overwhelmed. And for Mara, there were already signs
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: that life wasn't unfolding as smoothly as it appeared. Just
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: a few months before she disappeared, she became involved in
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: an incident that raises eyebrows today. In November 2003, so
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: this was about three months prior to her disappearance, Mara
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: used a stolen credit card number to order food from
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: several local restaurants. The purchases totaled only a few hundred dollars,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: but it was a serious mistake. She eventually admitted what
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: she'd done and agreed to make restitution, avoiding jail time
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: through a probationary agreement, and eventually it was dismissed after
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: three months due to good behavior. For some people, it's
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: simply an isolated lapse in judgment by a college student.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: For others, it's an indication that something deeper may have
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: been happening beneath the surface. It also came to light
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: to close friends and family that she had developed disordered
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: eating while attending West Point. According to her sister Julie,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: this was unfortunately fairly common in that environment where they
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: had very little control over their life in the military world.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Eating was one of the few things that she could control.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: I think it's important for this to be known when
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: talking about this portion of Mara's history because binging is
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: something common among people with disordered eating. I'm not saying
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: it makes it right for her to steal someone's credit card,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: but I think it kind of fills in the picture
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: a little bit about decisions she was making, if she
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: was struggling with this in the background, and why she
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: would maybe do that in the first place, if she
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: was trying to hide it or embarrassed or ashamed or
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: whatever the case may be. Whatever the reason, it's one
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: of the several moments that has led investigators, journalists, and
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: internet sleuths to wonder whether Mara was quietly struggling long
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: before she disappeared. hindsight always gives more clarity as well.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Another story that comes up, while Mara was still at
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: West Point, some news accounts indicate that she was on
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: the verge of expulsion from West Point prior to going
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: to UMass, after she was accused of stealing from a
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: consumer goods store while training at Fort Knox. She was
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: immediately caught prior to even leaving the store and had
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: to face an honor board at West Point to find
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: out what the disciplinary action would be. According to Mara's sister, Julie,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: who is also a student there herself, like I mentioned,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: stated that the punishment would not have been as severe
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: as expulsion because she had admitted wrongdoing. So some of
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: those reports were wrong, saying she was being expelled, because
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: that's not true. However, Mara still chose on her own
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: to leave the military academy before the honor board even met.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: So there was a little bit of confusion there, about
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: was she expelled, was she going to be expelled, but
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: truly I think she just left before any of that
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: was even figured out, and it was highly unlikely that
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: that would have been her punishment anyways. Mara left because
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: she wasn't happy there, and Julie speculates that she wonders
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: if Mara stole from the store as a way to
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: leave the school without it being her decision. 9-11 also
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: occurred shortly before Mara made the decision to leave, I
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: think this is important context because nobody attending West Point
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: up until that point could have predicted that they could
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: be thrust into a war and potentially be deployed. And
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: that put a whole new lens on the duties required
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: by a cadet at West Point. So if she was
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: already unhappy, that certainly wouldn't have helped. Another side note
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: is that she actually met her future boyfriend Billy while
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: facing the honor board. He was a couple years older
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: and actually on the board that was deciding the fate
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: of these students, and that's how they met when her
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: disciplinary action was being figured out. She and Billy had
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: what is described as an on-again, off-again relationship. One of
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: her friends described the relationship as Mara being like more
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: into him, but that's really just speculation from the outside. Obviously,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: they were not in the relationship. There are reports that
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Billy had cheated on her at some point, but as
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: a couple, they decided to work it out. He was
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: stationed in Oklahoma, so it was long distance as we
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: talked about earlier. During one of their off times in
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: the relationship, Mara actually started a secret relationship with one
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: of the assistant track coaches who was a graduate student
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: at UMass while she was an undergrad student there. This
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: eventually fizzled out and she ended up back with Billy
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: in the end. My guess is this was kind of
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: kept under wraps and secretive since that power dynamic of
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: a coach dating one of the players would definitely be
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: looked down upon. It's important to be careful not to
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: rewrite someone's life through the lens of what happened afterward.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Millions of college students make mistakes. They get overwhelmed, they
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: make poor decisions, and they recover. I mean, if you
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: looked back on most people's lives when they were in
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: their teens or early 20s, anyone could be painted in
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: a bad light from a poor decision they've made. That
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: certainly does not define who they are. None of these
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: things mean someone is destined to vanish. And that's one
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: of the challenges with this case. Every event before February 9, 2004,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: has been examined with the benefit and perhaps the burden
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: of hindsight. It's tempting to see every misstep as a
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: warning sign, every stressful moment as a part of some great,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: larger plan, every strange decision as evidence of what was
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: to come. But the truth is, at that time, no
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: one believed they were watching the final chapter of Mara
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Murray's story. To her classmates, she was simply another nursing student.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: To her father, she was his daughter. To her boyfriend,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: she was someone he'd be speaking again with very soon.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: No one could have imagined that within days, Mar would
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: disappear so completely that more than 20 years later, investigators
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: still can't say with certainty what happened after she stepped
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: away from her crashed Saturn on a lonely stretch of
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: road in New Hampshire. And as we'll see, the days
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: leading up to that drive were anything but ordinary. Life
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: rarely falls apart all at once. More often, it happens
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: through a series of seemingly unrelated moments. Small decisions, unexpected setbacks,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: emotional conversations that don't appear significant until you look back.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: For Mara Murray, the days leading up to her disappearance
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: were filled with exactly those kinds of moments. Individually, none
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: of them necessarily point to what would happen next. Together, however,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: they've become some of the most heavily scrutinized events in
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: true crime history. The first occurred in the early morning
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: hours of Sunday, February 8, 2004. The night before, Mara's father,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Fred Murray, had traveled to Amherst to visit his daughter.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: The two spent time together looking at used cars. Fred
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: had been helping Mara search for a newer, more reliable
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: vehicle since her black 1996 Saturn had developed mechanical problems
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: and was becoming increasingly unreliable. He reportedly had actually asked
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: her not to drive it anywhere long distance due to
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: the unreliability of it. So he had come up specifically
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: to look at cars with her because she needed reliable
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: transportation for her clinical rotations in her nursing program. Afterward,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: they had dinner together before Mara attended a party with
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: some of her friends. Mara dropped her father off at
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: his motel room and borrowed his Toyota Corolla. She returned
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: to campus to attend the dorm party She arrived at
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: about 10.30 p.m. At 2.30 a.m. that night, on Sunday,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: February 8th, she left the party. Accounts of the evening
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: vary slightly depending on who's telling the story, but by
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: all indications, it wasn't an especially unusual college gathering. There
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: was alcohol, conversation, and friends coming and going throughout the night.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Sometime after 2 a.m., on the return trip, something happened.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: so Mara left the party and decided to drive back
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: to the hotel where her dad was staying rather than
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: staying at her dorm. Around 3.30 that morning, Mara crashed
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: the Toyota into a guardrail on Route 9 near Hadley, Massachusetts. Thankfully,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: no one was seriously injured. Police responded to the scene,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: and while the vehicle sustained significant damage, Mara wasn't arrested
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: or charged with driving under the influence. Officers who responded
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: did not administer a sobriety test even. and exactly what
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: caused the crash has never firmly been established. Fred later
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: told reporters he believed Mara simply lost control while navigating
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: a sharp corner. Mara had confided that she had stopped
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: drinking hours prior to driving home. So Mara was then
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: driven to her father's motel and stayed in his room
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: the rest of the morning. At 4.49 a.m., there was
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: a cell phone call placed to her boyfriend from Fred's phone.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: The participants and the content of the phone call remain unknown.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: So now her car was in bad shape and now
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Fred's Corolla was no longer drivable. For many families, that
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: would have simply been an expensive accident. But for Mara,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: it's difficult not to wonder whether it added yet another
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: layer of stress to an already demanding life. So on
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: top of all the other responsibilities she has, now money's
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: tight and her car barely runs and now she's wrecked
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: her father's car. Whether or not she outwardly showed it
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: it's easy to imagine Mara feeling embarrassed or guilty, maybe
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: even disappointed in herself. She was really hard on herself,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: according to her family. About most things, not just this.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Fred has repeatedly said he wasn't angry with his daughter.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: In fact, he immediately began helping arrange repairs and transportation.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Later that morning, Fred learned that the damage to his
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: vehicle would be covered by his auto insurance. He rented
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: a car... dropped Mara off at UMass Amherst and departed
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: for Connecticut where he had to get back to work.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: At 11.30 that night, Fred called his daughter to remind
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: her to obtain accident forms from the Massachusetts Registry of
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: Motor Vehicles. They agreed to talk again Monday night to
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: discuss the forms and fill out the insurance claim via phone.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Many listeners can probably relate to that sinking feeling that
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: comes after making an expensive mistake, especially one involving someone
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: you love. At the time, no one viewed the accident
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: as anything more than unfortunate. It would only become significant later.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: But it wasn't the only strange event unfolding that week.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Just four days earlier, on Thursday, February 5th, Mara had
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: been working her evening shift at a campus security desk
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: inside Millville Hall at UMass. It was a relatively quiet job.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Part of her responsibility was answering phones and monitoring the
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: front desk. Sometime during her shift, she received a phone call.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: To this day, investigators have never publicly identified exactly who
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: was on the other end of the line in what
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: was said. What happened next, however, is well documented. A
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: supervisor found Mara sitting at her desk in an almost
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: catatonic state. She was staring blankly ahead. She appeared visibly upset.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: When the supervisor asked what was wrong, Mara reportedly became
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: emotional and quietly responded, My sister. That was all she said,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: over and over. No explanation, no elaboration, just those two words.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Her supervisor was concerned enough that another student escorted Mara
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: back to her dorm room. The incident has fueled endless
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: speculation over the years. At first, some wondered whether something
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: terrible had happened to one of Mara's sisters. But according
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: to her family, no emergency had occurred that night. Investigators
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: eventually learned that Mara's older sister, Kathleen, had been struggling
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: with alcoholism and personal difficulties around that time. Some reports
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: suggested Kathleen had spoken with Mara about those struggles shortly
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: before the emotional breakdown. And if that's true, it provides
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: one possible explanation. The exact contents of the call would
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: remain unknown until October of 2017, when Kathleen publicly explained
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: the conversation that Kathleen had been discharged from rehab for
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: alcohol that evening, and on the way home, her fiancé
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: took her directly to a liquor store. which caused a relapse.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Many people have received a difficult phone call from someone
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: they love and felt emotionally overwhelmed afterward. But once again,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: hindsight changes everything because now we know that only four
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: days later, Mara would disappear. Suddenly, every conversation, every tear,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: every stressful moment feels like it might have meant something more.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: The challenge is separating what we know from what we assume.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: Did the phone call trigger an emotional spiral? Or was
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: it simply one difficult evening during an otherwise normal week?
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: No one can say for certain. What we do know
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: is that by the beginning of February 2004, several stressors
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: seemed to be converging at once. The lingering consequences of
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: the credit card fraud, the pressure of nursing school, concerns
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: about family, the relationship challenges that come with long distance,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: financial uncertainty, a wrecked car, Any one of those burdens
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: might be manageable on its own, but combined, for even
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: the most resilient person, that can begin to feel overwhelming. Still,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: if you had asked anyone who knew Mara that weekend
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: whether they believed she was about to vanish, the answer
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: would almost certainly be no. She still had classes, She
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: still had responsibilities and plans. At least, that's what everyone believed.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: What no one knew was that within the next 24 hours,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: Mara would begin making a series of decisions so unusual
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: that investigators are still trying to understand them more than
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: two decades later. And it all started on the morning
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: of Monday, February 9th, 2004. By the morning of Monday,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: February 9th, 2004, Mara Murray's life appeared, at least from
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: the outside, to be continuing as normal. She attended at
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: least one class that morning at UMass Amherst. She spoke
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: with classmates. Nothing about her behavior stood out as alarming.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: No one reported that she seemed frightened, panicked, or in
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: immediate distress. If Mara had already decided what she was
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: going to do that day, she wasn't sharing it. But
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: sometime after class, something changed. Over the next few hours,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Mara would complete a series of errands that investigators have
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: spent more than 20 years trying to understand. Individually, none
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: of them seem especially unusual. Together, they paint a picture
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: that is both deliberate and deeply mysterious. Her first stop
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: was an ATM. Surveillance footage captured Mara withdrawing $ 280, nearly
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: every dollar she had in her checking account. After the transaction,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: she had $ 20 left in her bank account. The footage
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: itself has become iconic in this case. If you've ever
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: seen it, it's almost unsettling in its normalcy. There's no
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: visible panic. No one appears to be following her. She's
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: simply a college student standing at an ATM withdrawing cash.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Knowing what would happen just hours later gives those few
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: seconds an eerie weight they would never have carried otherwise.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Why empty nearly your entire bank account? Was she planning
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: a short getaway and simply just needed cash for it?
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Was she worried about using a debit card? Did she
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: intend to leave for good? Or was there another explanation entirely?
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: No one knows. After leaving the ATM, Mara stopped at
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: a nearby liquor store. Store receipts show that she purchased
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: several different types of alcohol, including a box of wine, vodka, Kahlua,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: and Bailey's Irish Cream. It's an eclectic combination. However, according
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: to her sister Julie, Mara's favorite drink was a Black Russian,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: which these are the exact ingredients to make one, except
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: for the wine, which was, I think, actually purchased at
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: least a week earlier. Some have suggested the purchases were
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: meant for a small vacation. Others believe they indicate someone
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: intending to drink alone. Still, others point out that college
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: students often buy whatever sounds good without giving it much thought. Again,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Context changes everything. If Mara had returned safely to campus
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: a day later, this receipt would likely never gotten a
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: second look. Instead, every bottle has been analyzed, debated, and
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: assigned meaning. From there, Mara made another stop that often
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: gets overlooked. She visited the UMass administrative office and picked
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: up accident report forms. Remember the crash involving her father's
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Toyota just two days earlier? She needed the paperwork for
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: insurance purposes. It's one of the more ordinary errands she
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: completes that afternoon. She and her father had agreed to
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: talk on Monday to get the accident situated. And in
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: some ways, it complicates the idea that she intended to
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: disappear forever. If you're planning to abandon your life entirely,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: why would you bother picking up insurance forms to get
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: your car fixed? It's a small detail, but one that's
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: difficult to ignore. Next came perhaps the most puzzling part
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: of the day. Mara emailed several of her professors as
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: well as her supervisor at work. In those emails, she
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: explained that she would be away for about a week
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: due to a death in the family. The problem? There
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: had been no death in the family. The story wasn't true.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Why she fabricated it remains one of the central questions
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: in this case. Maybe she simply wanted a believable excuse
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: to miss classes. College students sometimes tell white lies to
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: buy themselves a few days. And as a college professor myself,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: I've heard it all. Or maybe the lie suggests she
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: was planning something she didn't want anyone to question. The
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: truth is, we just don't know. And that's a theme
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: you'll hear repeatedly throughout this case. Almost every important question
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: ends the same way. We don't know. At some point
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: that afternoon, Mara also packed some of her belongings. Reports
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: indicate she packed clothing, toiletries, and school materials. Some accounts
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: suggest she removed personal items from the walls of her
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: dorm and boxed up a number of her possessions. And
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: that detail has fueled countless theories online. Like, was she
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: preparing to move out? Or was she simply tidying her
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: room before leaving for several days? Anyone who's lived in
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: a college dorm knows how messy they can become. It
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: should also be noted that Julie, her sister, has speculated
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: that she wasn't necessarily fully unpacked from moving in. So
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: I don't know how much stock we can put into
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: the possessions being boxed up later seen by police. The
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: spring semester had recently started, and she had just moved
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: into a single-bedroom dorm from one with a roommate. So
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: she was still probably unpacking it to some degree. Still,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: when investigators later entered the room after she disappeared, they
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: noted that it appeared much more organized than expected. But
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: I think we also need to take into account she
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: went to West Point before this, so she probably kept
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: a pretty tidy quarters. Another detail that sounds more significant
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: than it actually might be. This is what makes Maura
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Murray's case so endlessly fascinating. Almost every piece of evidence
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: can support multiple interpretations. One person sees someone carefully planning
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: a temporary escape. Another sees someone contemplating suicide. Someone else
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: sees a young woman preparing to meet another person. And
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: another sees nothing more than an overwhelmed college student taking
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: a spontaneous road trip to clear her head. The evidence
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: itself rarely points only in one direction. Investigators also later
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: discovered that Mara had searched on her computer for directions
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: to locations in northern New Hampshire and Vermont. Shortly after
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: midnight on Monday, February 9th, so essentially the night before,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: packing up her car to head out, Mara used her
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: personal computer to search MapQuest for directions to Berkshires and Burlington, Vermont.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: The first reported contact Mara had with anyone on February
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: 9th was about 1 p.m. when she emailed her boyfriend,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Mara also made phone calls earlier that day about renting
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: a condo in Bartlett, New Hampshire, where her family had
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: vacationed in the past. Telephone records indicate the call lasted
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: three minutes, but the owner did not remember the call
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: and did not rent to Mara. Also earlier that day,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Mara called a fellow nursing student, though the reason is unknown.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: John Healy, a New Hampshire private investigator familiar with the case,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: suggested she may have arranged to give her scrubs to
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: a fellow nursing student. A family member, her aunt, Helena Murray,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: stated that Mara might have called because she was returning
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: scrubs she had previously borrowed. So I don't know that
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: those are too important of calls. Once again, it's hard
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: to say. Among the items later found were printed directions
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: to the Burlington, Vermont area, though exactly where she intended
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: to go had never been confirmed. Some believe she had
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: planned to rent that condo or a cabin. Others point
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: to emails she'd previously exchanged with her father discussing vacations
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: in the White Mountains. The region was not unfamiliar to
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: her family. They had vacationed there before. If Mara was
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: looking for somewhere quiet to spend a few days, it
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have been an unusual choice. But was that truly
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: her destination? or were the directions simply one of several
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: possibilities she had considered? So as mentioned earlier, that afternoon,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Mara emailed a work supervisor saying she'd be out of
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: town for the week due to a death in the family.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: She stated she would contact them when she returned. Mara
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: loaded up her belongings into the aging Black Saturn. She
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: had emailed her boyfriend. And despite her car's mechanical problems
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: and her dad's warning to not drive it, she pulled
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: away from the UMass campus and headed north. No one
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: knows whether she told anyone goodbye. No one knows whether
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: she expected to return later that week. And no one
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: knows what was going through her mind as she merged
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: onto the highway. But whatever her plan was, she never
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: completed it. Because roughly two and a half hours later,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: on a winding road in the small town of Haverville,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: New Hampshire, her Saturn would leave the road, and within minutes,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Mara Murray would seemingly vanish without a trace. At approximately 4.37
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: that afternoon, Mara used her computer for the last confirmed time.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Sometime shortly after, she climbed into her black 1996 Saturn
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: SL2 and left the University of Massachusetts Amherst. From UMass,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: the most direct route north would have taken her onto
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Interstate 91, before eventually leading her toward New Hampshire's White Mountains.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: It's a drive of roughly two and a half hours,
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: one that begins in busy college towns, but gradually transforms
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: into something much quieter. The. farther north you travel, the
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: more the landscape changes. The traffic thins, the towns become smaller,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: gas stations and restaurants grow farther apart. Cell service becomes
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: increasingly unreliable. By early February, the scenery is beautiful, but unforgiving.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Snow blankets the forest, the roads wind through mountains and valleys,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: and once the sun goes down, darkness settles in quickly.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: Exactly what happened during those next couple of hours remains
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: one of the biggest gaps in this case. Unlike today,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: smartphones weren't constantly recording our location in 2004. I actually
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: learned when researching this case that Facebook launched into existence
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: the week Mara went missing, if that paints a picture
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: of where things were with technology and social media. Mara's
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: disappearance has been cited as the first crime mystery of
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: the social media age. There was no GPS history, no
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: location sharing, no Google Maps, no dash camera, no security
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: cameras documenting every stop along the way. For large portions
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: of Mara's drive, We simply don't know where she was.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: What we do know comes from a handful of receipts,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: phone records, and witness accounts. Investigators believe Mara stopped for
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: gas somewhere along the route, although the exact location has
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: never been definitively established. At some point, she also appears
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: to have been drinking. When investigators later searched the Saturn,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: they discovered the box of Franzia wine with evidence that
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: some of it had leaked inside the vehicle. A strong
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: odor of alcohol was reportedly coming from the car after
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: the crash. Police also recovered an empty soft drink bottle
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: that had reportedly contained traces of red wine. Whether Mara
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: had consumed alcohol while driving remains unknown. It's certainly one
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: possibility investigators have considered. But there's no conclusive evidence establishing
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: exactly when or even if she drank that evening. If
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: that box of wine was also from like a week prior,
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: it's possible she had drank it elsewhere or before and
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: wasn't actually drinking it then and there. As daylight faded,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Mara continued north. The farther she drove, the more isolated
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: the roads became. If you've ever driven through northern New
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Hampshire in winter, you know there's something almost surreal about it.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: Miles of dense forest, scattered homes, long stretches where you
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: won't pass another car for several minutes. It's peaceful. Until
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: something goes wrong. Then it's the kind of place where
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: you suddenly realize just how alone you are. By shortly
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: after 7 p.m., Mara was traveling east on Route 112,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: near the town of Haverville. It's a narrow, winding road
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: that cuts through wooded terrain. The speed limit changes frequently.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Sharp curves appear without warning. In February, snowbanks line the shoulders,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: leaving little room for error. Around 7.27 p.m., several residents
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: living near a sharp bend heard what sounded like a
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: vehicle striking something. When they looked outside, they saw a
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: black Saturn resting off the roadway. The car had apparently
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: spun out and come to rest facing the wrong direction.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Its front end was heavily damaged. Steam or smoke appeared
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: to be coming from the vehicle. The airbags had deployed.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: It was clear an accident had just occurred. One of
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: the first people to notice the crash was was a
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: local resident named Rick Westman. He and his wife Faith
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: looked out from their home across the road and observed
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: a young woman moving around near the Saturn. She appeared
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: to be alone. Neither of them reported seeing anyone else
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: in or around the vehicle, just one young woman standing
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: beside a crashed car. Faith called the Grafton County Sheriff's
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: Department at 727 to report the accident. According to the
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: 911 log, the woman claimed to have seen a man
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: smoking a cigarette inside the car. However, she then later
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: stated that she had not seen a man nor a
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: person smoking a cigarette, but rather had seen what appeared
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: to be a red light glowing from inside the car,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: potentially from a cell phone. So there was a little
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: bit of miscommunication there, but ultimately she did not think
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Mara was with anybody. Less than 150 yards away, another
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: local resident was finishing his school bus route as a
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: bus driver. His name was Butch Atwood. As he drove
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: his bus toward home, he came upon the accident scene. Concerned,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: he pulled over to check whether the young woman needed help.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: That brief conversation would become one of the most important
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: moments in the entire investigation. According to Butch, the woman
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: appeared shaken but not seriously injured. The bus driver noticed
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: the young woman was not bleeding or visibly injured, but
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: cold and shivering. He offered to call for help. The
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: woman asked him not to call the police. One police
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: report said she pleaded, but she had assured him she
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: had already called AAA. To be clear, AAA had no
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: such record of any call. Butch immediately found the explanation odd.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: There was little to no reliable cell service in that area.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: In fact, many locals knew it was nearly impossible to
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: make a call from that stretch of Route 112. If
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Mara had tried to use her phone there, it's unlikely
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: the call would have connected. Butch later said he suspected
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: she'd been drinking. not because she was stumbling or slurring
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: her words, but because he believed he saw a bottle
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: inside the vehicle. Wanting to help but respecting her wishes,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: he was going to go home and call the police.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: His house was only a short distance away. The interaction
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: lasted perhaps one or two minutes. Nothing about it suggested
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: that history was unfolding, just a stranding motorist and a
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: concerned local trying to help. His call was received by
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: the sheriff's department at 7.43 p.m., The bus driver was
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: unable to see Mara's car while he made the call,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: but he did notice several cars pass on the road
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: before police arrived. Another local resident, home from work, claimed
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: she passed the scene at about 7.37 p.m., so exactly
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: 10 minutes after Butch's call, and saw a police SUV
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: parked face-to-face with Mara's car. She pulled over briefly and
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: did not see anyone inside or outside either vehicle and
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: decided to continue home. This witness's statement contradicts the official
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: police log, which has Haverville police arriving nine minutes later
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: than that. But we will get to more of that soon.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: But as Butch walked back to his bus, it's hard
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: not to wonder what Mara was thinking. Was she embarrassed
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: after another car accident? Was she getting afraid of getting
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: into trouble if she's been drinking? Was she simply determined
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: to handle the situation herself? Or had something else entirely
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: been weighing on her mind long before the crash? those
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: answers disappeared with her. Because what happened over the next
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: several minutes remains one of the most baffling timelines in
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: modern true crime. From the moment Butch drove away until
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: police arrived, only a matter of minutes passed. Yet somehow,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: when officers reached the Saturn, Mara Murray was gone. There
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: are cases where investigators have almost no timeline. And then
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: there are cases like Mara Murray's, where the mystery exists
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: inside just a handful of minutes. Depending on which official
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: records you rely on, somewhere between seven and ten minutes
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: passed from the time Butch Atwood left the crash scene
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: to call police until the first responding officer arrived. That
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: isn't a long time. Think about it. Seven minutes. Most
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: of us spend that long waiting in a drive-thru, listening
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: to two songs on the radio, or doom-scrolling social media
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: without realizing how much time has passed. I've done that
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: for way longer than seven minutes. Yet, within those few minutes,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: Mara Murray disappeared so completely that more than 20 years later,
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: no one can say with certainty where she went. As
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: Butch returned to his nearby home, he called 911 to
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: report the crash. While he was on the phone, Rick
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: and Faith Westman continued watching from inside their house across
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: the road. Their observation would later become some of the
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: most important witness statements in the case. They reported seeing
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: the young woman moving around the Saturn. At one point,
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: the interior dome light appeared to come on. She seemed
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: to be walking around the vehicle, opening and closing doors.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: But they never reported seeing another person arrive. No second vehicle,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: no obvious struggle. No one forcing her into another car.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: Nothing immediately suggested foul play. Eventually, however, something changed. When
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: the Westmans looked back toward the road, the young woman
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: was no longer visible. The Saturn remained exactly where it
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: had crashed. but its driver had seemingly vanished. At 7.46,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: Officer Cecil Smith of the Hafferville Police arrived at the scene.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: The accident looked fresh. The Saturn had sustained heavy front-end damage,
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: and the airbags had deployed. The windshield was cracked, and
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: inside the vehicle, investigators found several items that had become
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: central pieces of the mystery. There were schoolbooks, clothing, those
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: blank accident report forms that her dad had her pick up,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: There were gloves, CDs, makeup and jewelry, driving directions to Burlington,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: Mara's favorite stuffed animal, the book Not Without Peril, which
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: was a book about mountain climbing in the White Mountains,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: and her sister Julie confirmed this was one of her
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: favorite books. She had printed directions, alcohol, a Coke bottle,
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: a box of wine with evidence that some of the
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: contents had spilled inside the car, probably due to the crash,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: and the car was locked. Missing was Mara's debit card,
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: credit cards, and cell phone, none of which had been
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: located or used since her disappearance. Police later reported... some
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: of the bottles of purchased liquor were missing. I should
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: also state there's been different reportings of the car being
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: locked or not. There were some witness statements saying that
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: they saw the police by the car and the car
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: door was open, but then later saying it was locked, so...
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: I'm not exactly sure which is true. Police also discovered
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: something unusual protruding from the Saturn's tailpipe, a rag. Fred
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: Murray would later explain that he had advised Mara to
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: place a rag in the tailpipe if the car began smoking.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: It wasn't meant to be a permanent repair. It was
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: simply an old trick he had suggested years earlier to
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: reduce visible exhaust smoke while driving the aging vehicle and
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: And if you recall, Mara and Fred were in the
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: process of looking for a new used car for her.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: To some people unfamiliar with the case, the rag has
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: sounded suspicious, almost symbolic, as though it were somehow connected
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: to her disappearance. But in reality, investigators have never treated
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: it as evidence of foul play. It's simply another detail
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: that became mysterious because everything surrounding the case became mysterious.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: One of the first things Officer Smith likely noticed was
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: what wasn't there. The driver. There was no one walking
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: along the roadway, no one sitting nearby, no one asking
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: for help, and the surrounding snowbanks appeared largely undisturbed. At
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: first glance, there was no obvious tracks leading away from
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: the scene. That fact has fueled decades of debate. If
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: Mara walked into the woods, where were her footprints? If
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: someone abducted her, why didn't anyone see another vehicle? If
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: she ran down the road, how did no one passing
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: by her notice? Every possibility seems to create another question.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: Officer Smith searched the immediate area while additional responders began arriving.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: They checked nearby roads. They spoke with witnesses. They attempted
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: to determine which direction the young woman might have gone.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: But almost immediately, the investigators encountered its biggest obstacle. No
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: one knew exactly when Mara had left the scene. Had
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: she walked away 30 seconds before police arrived? Three minutes? Seven?
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: Those missing minutes changed everything. Adding another layer of complexity
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: was a witness whose observations wouldn't become widely known until
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: years later. A woman named Karen McNamara, often referred to
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: simply as Witness A in documentaries and online discussions, was
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: driving along Route 112 that evening. She later reported seeing
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: a police SUV parked nose-to-nose with a Saturn before the
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: officially documented arrival time of Officer Smith. Her account has
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: generated enormous controversy. Some people believe it suggests the official
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: timeline is inaccurate. Others argue she may have mistaken another
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: vehicle for a police cruiser or simply misremembered the exact
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: timing after years have passed. Investigators have never concluded that
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: Witness A's account proves police arrived earlier than documented. But
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: her observations continue to fuel debate among those who believe
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: the timeline doesn't fully add up. It's one of the
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: many examples in this case where reasonable people can examine
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: the same information and reach very different conclusions. As officers
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: processed the scene, another troubling realization emerged. Several personal belongings
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: appeared to be missing. Among them was Mara's cell phone,
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: her wallet, her debit card, and perhaps most significantly, her backpack.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: Those items have never been recovered. Did she intentionally take
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: them with when she left the car? If so, why?
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: Was she planning to return? Was she trying to avoid
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: a DUI? Seeking help? Meeting someone? Or preparing for something
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: else entirely? Again, no definitive answers. As the hours passed,
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: officers continued searching the surrounding roads and neighborhoods, but there
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: was no sign of Mara. No reports of someone matching
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: her description knocking on nearby doors. No phone calls, no
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: activity on her bank accounts. No evidence that she had
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: safely reached another destination. It was as though she stepped
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: away from her Saturn and simply ceased to exist. It's
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: difficult to overstate how unusual that is. People don't normally
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: vanish from a scene of a single car accident on
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: a public road, especially not within minutes, and not without
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: leaving a clear trail, especially when there's snow on the ground.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: Usually there's footprints. And there are witnesses. Yet that's exactly
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: what appears to have happened here. And before long, what
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: begins as a routine response to a minor traffic accident
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: would transform into one of the largest missing persons investigations
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: in New England history. This is where I'm going to
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: leave you today. Next week, we will dive right into
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: the search efforts and all of the viable theories that
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: are out there. Thank you for listening to Cat Has Questions.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: If you liked this show, as mentioned at the beginning,
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: I'd really, really appreciate it if you'd follow the show
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, leave a rating or review,
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: whatever you feel like doing. It helps more people discover
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: these stories and allows me to continue researching cases that
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: deserve to be remembered. If you'd like to discuss today's case,
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: share your own thoughts, or suggest a future episode, you
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: can find me on Instagram or TikTok at cathasquestions, and
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: I promise I will respond to you Also, if you
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: want to get even more into the weeds with this case,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: you should listen to the series about this case called
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: Media Pressure, which is hosted by Maura's sister, Julie Marie.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: And it is really, really good. So go check that out.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: It's where I got a lot of good information. You
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: can get the real information, not all the speculation online.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: Until next time, stay curious. Thanks for listening to Cat
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: Has Questions. If you liked this episode, follow the show
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: and share it with someone who loves a good spiral.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: See you next week.