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‘Awareness matters,’ says Whitney Sich, the Florida mom behind A Voice for the Voiceless, which advocates for dozens of missing persons cases around the country and in Canada. ‘It could happen to you, so please share.’
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More than two decades after 21-year-old college student Maura Murray went missing, her family is hopeful for answers in a case that has baffled the nation since 2004.
Murray, a nursing student at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, disappeared Feb. 9 of that year after getting into a car accident in Woodsville, New Hampshire.
A witness saw Murray, described as “an overachiever that excelled both academically … and athletically” at MauraMurrayMissing.org, after the crash and said she appeared uninjured but “shaken up.”
Another passing local called 911 after seeing Murray’s black Saturn sedan in a ditch. But when police arrived, Murray was gone. Her family has been searching for answers ever since.
19 YEARS LATER, WHAT HAPPENED TO MISSING NEW HAMPSHIRE WOMAN MAURA MURRAY?
Missing Massachusetts woman Maura Murray was last seen Feb. 9, 2004. (FBI)
Julia Murray, Maura’s sister, has since taken to TikTok and recently started a podcast called “Media Pressure” with co-host Sarah Turney to share her sister’s story from her family’s perspective.
NEW HAMPSHIRE AG ANNOUNCES NEW SEARCH IN COLD CASE DISAPPEARANCE OF MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGE STUDENT MAURA MURRAY
“Since the podcast launched back in February, we’ve received multiple tips,” Julia told Fox News’ Emily Compagno on “The Fox True Crime Podcast,” adding later her family also hired a private investigator to help sort through the tips.
“Every day, we’re getting new information, and we’re sending those both to law enforcement and to the PI, so we’re very hopeful at this point, 20 years later,” she said.
“We’re very hopeful at this point.”
Murray was known “for her kind-heart, signature dimples, and beautiful smile,” and participated in several sports, including cross country and basketball, according to her family’s website.
The 21-year-old initially attended the United States Military Academy at West Point in New York after receiving a congressional nomination from former Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, the family wrote. She decided during her sophomore year of college, however, to transfer schools and pursue nursing at UMass-Amherst.
Images provided by MauraMurrayMissing.org show her at a West Point fitness event in 2000 and in another undated portrait. (MauraMurrayMissing.org)
Morning of Feb. 9, 2004
On the morning of Maura’s disappearance, she submitted her homework electronically and emailed her professors, saying there had been a death in the family and she had to leave campus, though her family says there was no family death.
She then researched directions to Burlington, Vermont, and called a condo owner in Bartlett, New Hampshire, where the Murray family had previously spent time.
HOME SEARCHED IN RELATION TO WOMAN’S 2004 DISAPPEARANCE
“She didn’t end up making it or any reservations, though. Then she withdrew almost all of her money and went to her liquor store and then headed north. Destination unknown,” Julia said in the podcast.
Maura Murray attended West Point before transferring to UMass-Amherst to study nursing. (MauraMurrayMissing.org)
The family’s website says Murray packed several days worth of clothes, including workout attire, toiletries, books and makeup.
Afternoon of Feb. 9, 2004
That afternoon, she spent $40 of the $280 she withdrew from her account on alcohol from a Massachusetts liquor store and began driving toward New Hampshire.
She did not tell anyone about her plans that day.
Evening of Feb. 9, 2004
At 7:27 p.m., a New Hampshire local passed by where Murray had crashed her car into a ditch on Route 112 in Haverhill and called police.
A bus driver passing by pulled over to speak with Murray and said she appeared to be uninjured. She told the driver she called AAA and did not need him to contact police. The driver left the area and contacted police at home at 7:42 p.m., where he had better cellphone service, Murray’s family said. The driver reported that the woman “appeared shaken up and that the airbags had deployed, but that he saw no blood.”
Maura Murray excelled at long-distance running, according to her sister Julie. (MauraMurrayMissing.org)
Minutes later, at 7:46 p.m., an officer arrived at the crash site but could not find Murray anywhere.
“The officer noted that the car had been locked and there was a box of red wine behind the driver’s seat,” the family wrote, “as well as stains on the ceiling and door, and a coke bottle that appeared to have a red liquid in it.”
10 YEARS LATER, QUESTIONS LINGER ON DISAPPEARANCE OF 21-YEAR-OLD MASS. STUDENT AFTER NH CRASH
Authorities searched the area but could not locate the college student.
Julia told Compagno that starting her own podcast “was both therapeutic and cathartic to kind of take [her sister’s] story back and tell Maura’s story in our own words and to have the support of my family and my brothers speaking publicly.”
The podcast has given her family “agency” over their own story, which she said has “kind of gone off the rails … in the last 20 years.”
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“Giving her that humanity back was so important.”
“I think what’s been missing in true crime is that firsthand perspective of the people that actually lived through these tragedies — the people that actually knew and loved the victim,” Julia said. “I’m able to tell stories, and my family is able to tell stories about this missing person who was human and not a character that she’s kind of been transformed in all of the second-, third-, fourth-hand coverage of her case. And giving her that humanity back was so important.”
Latest information
The New Hampshire State Police, New Hampshire Attorney General’s Cold Case Unit and the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program are all involved in the continued search for Murray.
Attorney General John Formella posted an update, including an age-progressed photo of what Murray might look like today, marking 20 years since her disappearance Feb. 8.
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“We are continuing to work with our local, state and federal partners, including the FBI, to identify resources to try to advance this case,” Formella said in a statement at the time. “It is our hope that this 20th anniversary of Ms. Murray’s disappearance will bring renewed attention to the case that might ultimately lead to justice and closure for the Murray family.”
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit at 603-271-2663 or email [email protected].
Audrey Conklin is a digital reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business. Email tips to [email protected] or on Twitter at @audpants.