The disappearance of Maura Murray

On 9 February 2004, 21-year-old Maura Murray sent an email to her supervisors to inform them that someone in her family had died and that she needed to go out of town for a week. Her supervisors agreed to give her the time she needed.

Maura had packed her belongings into her car and was travelling through the countryside in New Hampshire when she lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a snowbank. A bus driver who was passing witnessed the accident and offered to call the police, but she asked him not to do so; she said that she had already called AAA Roadside Assistance. The bus driver did not heed her request and called the police anyway. However, when the police arrived, they found the car abandoned. What’s more is that they found no footprints in the snow to track where Maura had gone.

There were several confusing matters regarding Maura’s case. First, if someone had died in her family, her close relatives should have known about it. However, no one else in her family seemed to know anything regarding the death. Second, her behaviour at the workplace became more and more suspicious close to her disappearance. Her colleagues reported on her strange mental breakdown at work, which she refused to explain what it was about. Thirdly, 48 hours before she disappeared, she borrowed her father’s car and crashed it into a guardrail in the middle of the night, which seemed to be an attempt at suicide. Finally, less than 24 hours after Maura disappeared, her boyfriend got a voicemail that contained something unsettling: the sound of Maura sobbing. As of today, Maura’s case has remained unsolved.