What happened to Maura Murray? Family still seeks answers 20 years after her disappearance

Maura Murray’s relatives know that on Feb. 9, 2004, she packed up, took money out of her bank account and left the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, heading north in her car.

They know the 21-year-old Hanson native made it at least as far as Haverhill, New Hampshire, a mountainside community near the Vermont border. Several local residents reported seeing her along a sharp turn on Route 112 after her car had gone off the road. At least one of those people called 911.

And they know that a police officer responded to the scene but said Murray was nowhere to be found.

For 20 years, the family has been left with more questions than answers of what happened to Maura Murray, a 2000 graduate of Whitman-Hanson High School.

Julie Murray, Maura's sister, said it feels "surreal" that 20 years have already passed.

"It's so fresh and it feels like it happened just yesterday, but when I take a step back, it has been two decades," she said. "The worst part is the ambiguity and having the heartache every single day for two decades. We don't have answers, and we don't have Maura."

What the Murray family knows

Julie said the "general consensus" within her family is that her sister was met with foul play since there have been no credible sightings of her in 20 years, and none of her belongings or remains have ever been located.

"If she wandered into the woods, where are her belongings or her body?" Murray said. "She was met with foul play and is most likely no longer with us, and that's the worst possible outcome for Maura and my family, and we have to live in that reality and with ambiguity."

Maura didn’t tell anyone she was leaving when she packed up her room at UMass-Amherst and went north on Feb. 9, 2004. She lied to her professors in an email, saying she would be gone for a week because of a death in the family.

Fred Murray has said he believes his daughter was heading to Bartlett, New Hampshire, a spot in the White Mountains they had visited during her childhood. Maura’s mother, Laurie Murray, died in 2009.

Maura’s car was going east on Route 112, a rural highway, when it went off the road at about 7:30 p.m. A neighbor asked if she needed help, but she said she had already called AAA and asked him not to call the police. He called them anyway, knowing there was no cell service in the area.

An officer arrived just minutes later and found the car locked with a box of red wine behind the driver’s seat, stains on the ceiling and door and a bottle that appeared to have a red liquid in it. There was no sign of Maura.

Searches were conducted on the ground and by helicopter, but Maura never turned up. The New Hampshire State Police, the attorney general’s office and the FBI all worked on the case, which remains open.

"One of the things I talk about a lot is that time does not heal all," Julie Murray said. "The exact opposite is true. Time makes it harder."

There has been international interest in Maura's disappearance and potential leads in the case before, but none have led to answers.

"We take every opportunity to generate more leads because one of these leads could further the investigation," Julie said. "We’re hoping that we're reaching the right person in continuing to advocate for her."

Candlelight vigil set for Feb. 9 in New Hampshire for missing Maura Murray

The family will host a candlelight vigil for Maura from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9, at Mountain Lakes Lodge in Woodsville, New Hampshire. Those who can't attend are asked to light a candle in honor of Maura at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 9 and post a photograph on social media with the hashtag #Mauramurray to raise awareness.

To keep her sister's disappearance in the public eye, Julie Murray said her family has remained active on social media and on the website mauramurraymissing.org. Julie also has a very active presence on the social media platform TikTok, where she has more than 265,000 followers and shares information about the case.

"It's one thing to type out a tweet and post it, but it's another thing to be able to put my face out there so people see me as a human being suffering with an incredible loss, and I think that's what affects people. They're rejecting the idea that these tragedies are entertainment or escapism," Julie said. "It's not easy to do. As an introvert, the last thing I want to do is TikTok, but I'm reaching people who have never heard of Maura Murray and it motivates me to keep doing it."

A new podcast about Maura Murray, 'Media Pressure'

Julie recently teamed up with Sarah Turney, whose sister, Alissa, is also missing, to create a new podcast called "Media Pressure." In the first season, Julie, those who knew Maura and those closest to the investigation will take a deep dive into the case. The first two episodes come out Feb. 5.

Murray said the podcast is unique because it gives families a chance to tell their own stories, which she said is something that is missing from the true crime space.

"It's creators who are essentially strangers telling the story of the worst tragedy of our lives, so we're taking agency back," she said. "It was a lot to go over every intricate detail, but it was cathartic and therapeutic, and gave us a sense of control and agency we’ve desperately been trying to seek."

Julie said the outpouring of support from the public and the hope that her family could someday get answers fuels them to keep advocating for Maura.

"Sometimes I think to myself, 'How can I keep doing this?' How long can I keep doing this?'" Julie said. "But it's worth it because one of these leads has got to result in something. ... Maura is still missing, and I take every opportunity to get her name and picture out there."

What is the status of the Maura Murray investigation?

Myles Matteson, chief of the New Hampshire Department of Justice Criminal Justice Bureau, said the disappearance of Maura Murray remains a "very publicly covered case," and his office frequently yields new tips.

"It remains very active for tips coming into our office and the State Police, and we're actively reviewing information that comes in," he said.

Matteson said his office reviews all tips and continues to further investigate the case with the help of the FBI as necessary. For example, in July 2022, New Hampshire State Police conducted a more extensive ground search of an area off Route 112.

Julie Murray said she has noticed a shift in the approach with personnel changes that have occurred since John Formella became attorney general in 2021. Previously, she said the family's relationship with investigators has been "adversarial," with the family pushing to find Maura and officials saying they were doing all they could with few results.

"What I'm seeing is a better relationship between my family and investigators, and they're much more empathetic," she said. "It's more collaborative, and I don't feel like I'm just a victim family case number. They're treating me with more empathy, and that's huge."

Matteson said having a strong working relationship with family members is important to cold cases.

"Even if we're not able to share lots of information, it's important to have lines of communication open," he said.

Has there been a movie about Maura Murray's disappearance?

The case has been the subject of several true crime episodes, documentaries and podcasts in the last two decades.

In 2006, 20/20 on ID featured Maura Murray's disappearance on an episode, and television journalist Nancy Grace discussed the case in a 2017 episode of her podcast Crime Online.

In 2018, public radio producer Maggie Freleng and former U.S. Marshal Art Roderick set out to discover what happened to Murray in the Oxygen TV network's true crime TV series “The Disappearance of Maura Murray.”

How to report tips about Maura Murray's disappearance

Anyone with information about Maura Murray is asked to call the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit at 603-223-3648 or email them at Coldcaseunit@dos.nh.gov. There is also an online tip form at tinyurl.com/mauramurraytips.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Maura Murray's family still wants answers 20 years after disappearing