All language subtitles for maura.murray.s01e03

Previously, on the disappearance of
Maura Murray.

Since I started investigating Maura's
disappearance, I've spoken with her

and friends, with podcasters, and a
controversial writer.

I've quickly learned over the past month
that what makes this one of the most

puzzling unsolved mysteries is that
everyone seems to have more questions

answers.

There are tons of secrets and layers.

And the key to cracking her case may be
in figuring out why Maura seemed to just

walk out of her life.

Maura is alive, and I believe she was
running from the men in her life.

I've read shocking allegations about
Maura's father and boyfriend, both

and in a book.

But I've also heard that she might have
left for a different reason.

And you think her sister is the key to
this? Yes. That's what everyone thinks.

Days before she disappeared, Maura had a
mysterious call with her sister.

She's got both her legs, her ankles
crossed.

I'm working with a specialist to
determine if she is withholding

many allege. I want to ask you about the
last time you were with Maura.

Okay. She looks to the right every time
she's trying to remember something.

Does Maura's sister hold the answer to
unlocking her disappearance?

On February 6, 2004, three days before
she goes missing, Maura's at work, she

gets a phone call.

Maura was so upset by this phone call
that she couldn't form words.

The only thing she said when asked what
was wrong was, my sister.

For the first time in over a decade,
Kathleen Murray is speaking publicly.

I want to know what they discussed on
this phone call and see if it could have

had anything to do with why Maura left.

I want to just go back to that phone
call.

Before Maura went missing and when you
got out of rehab, did you start

drinking again?

Not heavily.

But you did.

Yeah.

She was drinking.

Did you tell Maura that?

Yeah. I just, I wasn't happy.

Yeah. Not happy.

I take sleep medication, and I could
feel it starting to kick in, so that's

kind of why I ended the conversation.

Pills and alcohol, sleeping pills. Once
I started taking that medication, you

don't want to mix alcohol.

The sleeping pills? Yeah.

You don't want to do that.

You'll never wake up, you know.

You know, if my sister was telling me
those things, I'd be really upset.

I'd be worried about my sister.

She loved you. She wanted you to be
happy.

That couldn't have been a trigger for
her to, I don't know. She had, I don't

know.

How would you feel if the true story was
something that, you know, she ran away?

Would it matter, or would you...

I have dreams about that.

And in my dreams, I get angry at her.

Like, how could you put her through
something like that, you know?

She's genuine. Yeah.

Took a little while. But she opened up.
She opened up, yeah.

Yeah. She didn't seem out of the
ordinary.

What do you think could have happened?

Maybe something to do with the
boyfriend.

Well, explain the scenario to me.

Did he break up with her?

I don't know.

Bill became pretty distant.

When, before or after she disappeared?

Well, you never really saw much of him,
you know, because he was far away.

When he was around, they seemed fine.
But then after she disappeared,

he kind of did too.

Really intense.

You have to call her out on some things
and ask her really hard questions.

She's genuine. Her body language,
everything.

I mean, it was truthful.

I think we've nailed the phone call part
and what she was upset about.

She just got out of rehab.

She started drinking again. Maura
realized it.

And that highly upset her.

That's what I got out of it. So I think
the call's important.

I don't necessarily think.

That her sister had anything to do with
her leaving.

Now what we've got to figure out is why
she decided, you know, to come up here.

Truly. I think that there's a whole
other story there.

I agree.

Let's just figure out what happened.

I agree.

This mysterious call doesn't seem to
hold the answer to Maura's

If Maura were running to go and help her
sister after this phone call, She would

have been traveling to the Boston area,
where Kathleen was living at the time.

But she wasn't.

What's striking to me is that this is
the second time a family member has

questions about Maura's relationship
with her boyfriend.

He wasn't my favorite person. I don't
like the fact that it's possible he was

cheating on Maura.

I need to talk with Bill. Did he play a
role in her disappearance?

Hey, Bill, this is Maggie calling again.
I just really would like to get your

side of the story. We've been in touch
with the family, and we would really

if you spoke with us.

When Maura went missing, Bill was
stationed at Fort Sill in Oklahoma,

1 ,700 miles away from New Hampshire. So
he was not a suspect.

Hey, Bill, this is Maggie calling you
again.

I know you haven't really spoken much in
public since Renner's book was

released, but I think it would be really
good to give you the opportunity to

tell your side of things.

But did she drive to New Hampshire to
start a new life because of him? So if

could call me back, I would appreciate
that. Thanks.

While I'm waiting to hear back from
Bill, I've rented a cabin just down the

street. from where Maura crashed.

I want to immerse myself in the people
and the area in order to dive into the

theory surrounding her disappearance.

What is it that you think Maura was
running from and needed protection from?

think she was running from the men in
her life.

The men in her life.

Her father, Fred, and her boyfriend,
Bill.

If I can't speak with Bill, I want to
speak with one of his friends.

Podcasters Tim and Lance, who have been
exploring Morris Cates for years, have

recently been in touch with a classmate
of Bill's from West Point.

We haven't met Bob yet.

We spoke to him a few times on the
phone. He reached out to us in email.

I mean, why do you think he reached out
to you guys?

Like, why would somebody inject
themselves into this if they weren't

it? Maybe he just feels a sense of,
like,

responsibility to help.

I hope that Bob can shed some light on
whether or not Maura had reason to run

from Bill.

Why do you think Bill hasn't come
forward to defend himself?

I've tried to speak with him multiple
times and he won't speak with me. I

say that he probably has a lot to say,
but he feels that the

only thing that I can do is be dragged
through the mud.

It's tough.

I think that Bill wants to move on with
his life.

Kind of stepping back from all of it is
the safest option and the

best option for him.

I mean, I suppose at this point, if he's
following any blogs or any sort of

topic that's written about it, he
probably sees the theft pool that

you respond to something.

The second he comes out and says
something, I mean, that's it. That's it.

Yeah, and he just, I mean, his wife just
had their second kid.

It's just one of those things where I
got to stay out of the social media

I don't think she was trying to run from
him.

She was already far enough away.

I don't know what she was trying to do
or where she went, but I don't think

that's a viable option.

Can you explain, you know, Bill's
personality?

I think he's a very good guy, not just
because I'm friends with him, but

of his personality and his character.

He worked with Fred and the Murray
family to search for her, and that he

there as quickly as he was speaks a lot
to his character, I think.

Because some people have said, you know,
Bill became absent in the days

afterwards, and could you just explain
why that would be?

Absent where?

From her search.

I don't know how long he was there, but
I thought... I don't think he was there

at least a week.

Oh, that's easy.

He would have been pressed with AWOL
charges.

Yeah. Yep.

Makes sense.

So I don't know if you've seen, but
online there's a lot of allegations

Bill that he allegedly assaulted some
women. People say he was cheating on

Maura. I cannot speak to any kind of
allegations against him with regard to

the cheating and the assault. But that's
not really the

guy that I know.

It's definitely not.

It was good to hear from one of Bill's
friends.

But I also want to know what Fred
thinks.

Did Maura have a reason to run? What is
your response to the allegation that

Maura was running from Bill?

I like Bill. I thought he was a good
kid. There was nothing strange,

bad, suspicious, anything that would
make him disqualified as a

potential son -in -law in my viewpoint.

Fred might not be suspicious of Bill,
but there has been a lot of suspicion

about Fred.

Fred could be very strict.

I think she was always under pressure
for one reason or another. That's a

of her life.

In interviews and online, people talk
about you pushing your daughters really

hard, almost too hard with the sports
and academics.

Looking back on it, do you feel that you
pushed them too hard? No, absolutely

not. I was very conscious of not pushing
them too hard.

I coached them in sports, but they
wanted to play sports.

I wanted it to be fun, but then I could
sense that they were naturally athletic.

And when a kid's good at something, they
enjoy being good at it.

Some people say your family is hiding
something and that you in particular are

not telling the truth.

People can say stuff like that, but, you
know, they're just slowing us down.

So go ahead and say it. I don't really
care. I only care about finding my

daughter, and I care about the people
trying to help me, which I'll be forever

grateful.

Why did you not talk to Renner for his
book?

Because I anticipated that it would go
the way it's gone.

I had a hint with his earlier book that
he actually sent me. I didn't think that

he'd be consistently dealing with the
facts. I didn't trust him.

And that's understandable now that the
book has come out and there have been

some pretty horrific allegations in it.

And I do need you to answer one of those
allegations, and this is probably going

to be the hardest question that I have
to ask you.

Did you sexually assault Maura?

The book has come out, and there have
been some pretty horrific allegations.

I'm interviewing Maura Murray's father.

Could Maura have run away to start a new
life because of him?

Journalist James Renner thinks so.

And on his blog, web sleuths have gone
wild with this theory.

I do need you to answer one of those
allegations, and this is probably going

be the hardest question that I have to
ask you.

Did you sexually assault Maura?

No. How can you even ask me that, you
know?

It was alleged in the book.

Between the lines or something like
that? Yes. Because I didn't pour through

book. Is there anything I can do about
that?

You can answer the question.

I resent being asked the question.

No, of course not.

Of course not. This is my daughter.

For Christ's sake, it's my daughter.

Did he actually put those words in
there? I wasn't aware of that.

There's no direct reference that he
says.

He's making inferences in the book about
that that incident possibly could have

happened. How insidious can anything be?

You put something out there and it's
incumbent upon me to disprove it? You

say anything. Can you say anything
worse?

No. Is there anything possible worse
than you can say? There's one thing, and

then you killed her.

That's about the only thing worse.

Is that coming?

No. No.

Oh, man.

Now you... I know, but we had to ask.

I resent trying to make a buck by trying
to assassinate

a guy in the position that I'm in. But
what I really resent...

is that now I have to be on the
defensive and deny something.

I think you've answered that pretty
clearly.

I believe, Fred, that he never harmed
Maura.

And his response reminds me of why Bill
hasn't spoken up.

It seems like it might be smarter to be
quiet when any claim can be spun into a

new theory.

But Maura still could have been running
away.

And there are more unanswered questions.

Let's talk about the weekend before
Maura went missing.

You were in Amherst. Yes. How come you
were in Amherst? Maura needed a car. The

car she had, it ceased to be drivable.

It would smoke something fierce. A
cylinder was blown.

So you took out money, cash, for the
car? That was in Connecticut.

My bank was back up here.

So I couldn't take much money from the
bank. I had to get it from an ATM.

And so I could only take a chunk at a
time.

So I was getting $500 at a wallop. But
we didn't get a car that weekend.

Right. Because $4 ,000 wasn't enough
money.

So what ultimately happened to that $4
,000?

I put it back in the bank.

And her account.

I put money in there for her when she
was missing in case she needed money.

I would see that she withdrew money.

That's a pretty good technique. We
actually do that in a lot of cases.

And I wanted it. She never did. No, no,
no.

They were looking for cars.

And then what did you guys do that
night?

Went to the local brew pub for supper.

And we...

Bumped into Kate and they're going to go
to some party back at school.

Kate is Maura's best friend.

James Renner alleges she attended a
going -away party for Maura after the

with Fred.

It was just two nights before Maura
vanished.

Did Kate ever mention to you what
happened at the party?

I asked about that and she doesn't have
anything to tell me. I think she would

talk to the father of her missing
friend.

And you believe Kate?

Yes.

Hey, Kate, this is Maggie calling again.

I've reached out to Kate numerous times,
but I've hit a roadblock with her each

and every time.

So I want to ask you specifically, what
do you think about the idea that she ran

away and started a new life in Canada?

She didn't act the way that she would
have if you were going to do something

like that. There was no preparation.

She doesn't know anybody in Canada.

I mean, how would you feel if she did do
that?

Great. That would mean she's alive.

But, yeah, great.

I would.

Even if she never contacted me again.

That's not realistic.

That's not what happened.

Where do you think she was going?

And, like, why was she on 112?

I don't know. If I knew, that would
help. But I don't.

I don't. I don't know why she went.

This is a distraction. If I talk about
it, it just...

slows everything down, brings you down a
side street that goes to a dead end.

And it's, I just want to talk about
what's important.

What's important is what happened to my
daughter and how we're going to find

her. And that's all I care about.

Maybe Fred is right, that this is all a
distraction.

All of the speculation about why she was
up there.

isn't getting me any closer to finding
her.

I need to figure out how she
disappeared.

Hi, how are you? I've invited podcasters
Tim and Lance up to the cabin to look

into what happened after Maura crashed.

Sir, how are you?

727 is the first 911 call.

Is Faith Westman's call?

Faith Westman is in the house directly
across the street.

Maura likely crashed a couple of minutes
before Faith's call.

We've reached out, but the Westmans have
refused to talk with us.

And then is Butch the next person to see
her?

Yes. Butch Atwood arrived at the scene
about three minutes later.

Okay, so 7 .30.

Butch sees her, speaks to her.

He says she doesn't seem injured.

Doesn't seem intoxicated. So that's
really interesting because people say

was drinking.

It was a question that was put to
Atwood. Did she appear drunk? Since she

appear drunk, she seemed shook up and
cold. Right. And the only evidence that

she would have been drunk is an open box
of wine and then the stills in her car.

Right. There was a trace of alcohol
found in a Diet Coke bottle in the car.

Okay, so Butch sees her. He offered to
call the police for her, and she said,

no, I called AAA already, which he knew
was not true because there's no service

there. Right. If you're having a
conversation with somebody on the side

road, how long does that conversation
take?

Two minutes, Mike.

If Butch Atwood arrived on the scene
around 7 .30 and spoke to Maura for a

minutes, that would take us to about 7
.32 or 7 .33.

And the first call from the Atwood
residence is that... So that works,

Two or three minutes at the scene, two
or three minutes to get back.

Butch calls 911 at 740, and all circuits
are busy.

A dispatcher calls back at 743 and
reaches Butch's wife.

She says she has, quote, no idea where
the female is.

Then what's next?

Cecil Smith arrives at 746.

So what happened in the meantime?

Right. I mean, you've got six sets of
eyes.

The Marat saw her hazard lights and her
first lights on.

We spoke with Tim Westman. He said it
was a glow that they saw in the car.

Faith Westman sees a flurry of activity
at the trunk.

Flurry of activity.

It was reported that they apparently
said there was a man in the car smoking

cigarette. Someone said it, or the
dispatcher took it upon herself to write

that, which doesn't seem like that makes
any sense to me.

I actually...

I was a dispatcher for like five months
before I was a police officer. And you

take down what they tell you on the
phone.

And you keep a running log the whole
time.

This is pretty amazing.

If true, this could mean someone was
with Maura when she crashed.

In the dispatch log, the thing that
sticks with you, it shouldn't say, I

there's somebody smoking a cigarette.
She says, a man smoking a cigarette.

It was reported that Day apparently said
there was a man in the car smoking a

cigarette. Yeah, in the dispatch log
thing that sticks with you. It shouldn't

say, I think there's somebody smoking a
cigarette. She says, a man smoking a

cigarette.

With Maura traveling alone, or with a
man smoking a cigarette, if she was

traveling with some unknown person, that
individual certainly has never come

forward.

And that means that there's somebody
else that knows something now. There's

somebody else out there that knows
something now. If someone picked her up.

We actually did that drive from the
liquor store straight up here.

And there was a discrepancy. It was
about an hour.

Two weeks ago, Art and I drove Maura's
route from UMass to New Hampshire.

We did it one hour faster than she did.

I mean, did she stop and eat somewhere?
And that's just my question. Did she

stop with somebody?

Where did she stop and get gas? Did she
do it together? And it makes sense, and

it seems reasonable, but 2017, 13 years,
how is it possible?

The person who picked her up has never
said anything, and there's no real

accounts of anybody in her life being
gone at that time.

Another wrench to throw in is she picked
up the accident forms from the previous

car accident.

with her dad's vehicle at UMass. Right.

And I believe she picked those up,
right? She picked those up after she

UMass. Two days before Maura went
missing, she had an accident with her

car.

So that could attack... How do you know
that?

Fred told the police that they had
discussed picking up the... Right, and

filling out the accident forms. Right,
and those were found in her car.

Where would she pick those up from?
Police station, DMV.

I wonder if they had cameras.

They probably did, but there's no way
they would have kept surveillance

that long if they didn't get a request
earlier.

So the only time frame for her to pick
those up would have been before she went

on the trip north.

So that could just add the extra time in
there. And the Hadley Police Department

is down Route 9, so that could give her
about 45 minutes if the police were

taking a while.

Could have.

So it seems to us that during the
missing hour, Maura could have stopped

maybe met someone or picked up forms
from the police station.

If she met someone, it could be the clue
that solves what happened to her after

she crashed.

But if she simply picked up accident
forms, then the missing hour is

meaningless.

All four of us are going down to the
crash site on Route 112.

the last known place Maura was seen.

So Maura's car ended up right here.

The Westman are right there.

And we think that was the window that
Faith was looking out when she made the

phone call to 911.

Butch Atwood's place is right over
there, about 100 yards from here.

Butch was backed in like this. He had a
straight view of the accident site.

After Maura turned down help from Butch
Atwood, he drove down the street to his

house, called 911, and allegedly sat in
his bus doing paperwork.

So with

all of these eyes on Maura's vehicle,
what

could have happened after the crash in
such a short time frame?

How many different scenarios?

could have happened from right here one
that she ran into the woods and died

succumbed to the elements and was
savaged by an animal and her remains

found we're not sure how far she could
have gotten without footprints being

let's explore the theory that mora fled
on foot there are only a few options the

most obvious being the road she crashed
on route 112.

could she have gone eastbound

And traveling in that direction, Butch
specifically said he did not see her go

by. Or westbound.

Our understanding is the police cruiser
came in this direction, and then if the

trooper came this way, then basically
they would have had both ends covered.

With eyes on both ends of the road, it's
not likely Maura would get by without

being spotted.

But here's a wrinkle.

There's questions about what Butch
really saw, because he changed his

to the press a few times.

So he's either an unreliable witness, or
he's hiding something.

But verifying anything directly with
Butch won't ever happen.

He died in 2009.

Another scenario is that she ran down
Old Peter's Road.

If you wanted to get away and you didn't
want to contact anybody over there.

This is like wilderness, creepy cabin.

If she was drinking, it makes perfect
sense that Maura would want to avoid the

police and get away from the scene as
fast as possible.

What kind of state of mind is somebody
in if they're running away from an

accident because they might get a DUI,
right? Well, she got a DUI.

Would she have had a criminal record?

Yes. Yeah. She probably couldn't finish
up her nursing school.

Right.

We're here with light out. I can't
imagine running up here, coming up this

in pitch black.

Absolute pitch black.

You're running from something dangerous
in order to run into something that

seems dangerous.

If Maura didn't run into the woods,
maybe she got into a car to avoid the

police.

But how likely would that have been on
this rural road?

It's 7 .27 p .m. exactly.

One. The same day of the week as the
crash.

Same time of the first 911 call.

Two.

I'm out here, counting cars.

How many potential offers of help are
going to pass me by until 746, the time

police showed up on scene?

Car number three.

Only three cars in the roughly 20
minutes Maura could have been out here.

She didn't seem to have many vehicle
options, and the chance that a killer

driving by seemed small.

There's also an account of another
person at the scene, smoking a

I wonder if it is possible that someone
she knew picked her up.

Someone she traveled with in tandem.

But where would they be going?

Could James Renner's theory be correct?

Did Maura run away and intentionally
vanish?

There's an interesting lead that helped
support James Renner's theory that Maura

drove up to New Hampshire in tandem with
a friend.

How does it fit in?

Do you guys know about this sighting?

It was at Butson's Grocery.

A woman who worked at Butson's Grocery
Store in Haverhill believes she rang up

Maura and two other women about the same
age. They were buying some liquor, and

that happened about a half an hour
before the accident.

Right. It very neatly fits into her
leaving with somebody else in tandem,

friends who are taking her to a new
life.

It fits that scenario really well.

So I called Butson's to see if anyone
was still working there from back then.

But the woman that spoke to Renner
doesn't anymore. She hasn't worked there

quite some time. Renner gave me their
full conversation.

She doesn't want her name out there. She
doesn't want to be contacted by anybody

because she knows about the Internet
trolling.

I think the thing the woman remembered
was that they were out -of -state IDs,

which would be kind of unusual for that
area. I mean, it's a pretty remote area.

It doesn't really strike me as so
uncommon.

It's big ski season up there, too.

Up in this area, you know, it's not
uncommon to see a brunette with dimples.

You can go anywhere right now and find
probably a dozen young women who look

just like Maura.

To narrow all of that down and to put
somebody in the store at that time seems

pretty likely someone who looked like
Mara, just with the amount of people

have that look.

But you have to ask the question, where
did she go after that then? Why weren't

there any other sightings after that?

Also, how much alcohol does she need? I
mean, she stopped at the liquor store in

Amherst and then... Right, the ATM, the
liquor store, and then...

then meets up in tandem with two
friends, and then they go to a liquor

again. Right.

Again, what happened after?

What if what happened after is that
Maura and her friends crossed the border

into Canada?

She gets in a car accident around 7 .30
that night. She could have been up into

Canada within a few hours.

She was going to get to Canada that
night.

How would she do it?

Somebody had to pick her up.

So it looks like on this map alone,
there are 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 border

11 just in her immediate area, and then
there's 12 over here. She wanted to go

up that way.

It was easier to cross the border in
2004 than it is now. There would have

very little paperwork that was needed
other than a driver's license.

So we know Maura only took out $280 from
her bank account. I mean, she virtually

drained it.

Is there any way that she could keep
going with that amount of money? She

have to possibly get a job or steal.

The bottom line is she's a 21 -year -old
young female college student. You're

not going to go far with $280 or less
than $280.

It's true Maura had very few resources,
so it would have been difficult for her

to go far.

But I still wonder about the woman in
Canada who says she saw Amora.

James Renner told me about a record
store clerk he met a few years ago.

We took a trip up to Canada, went to
this record store, and there was this

woman, and she said, I've definitely
seen that woman here. She came in, she

spoke with an American accent, very
athletic, and I'm sure that was her,

want to investigate this record store
lead.

It's a few years old, so Arts reached
out to a leading forensic artist to do

age progression of Maura.

He used photos of Maura's parents and
siblings from their early 30s as a

reference.

Maura would have been around 31 when she
allegedly walked into the record store.

Hi there.

Hi. I found the clerk James met with in
Quebec.

Her name is Roxanne.

Roxanne doesn't speak English, so her
friend is translating.

Roxanne remembers the event because it
wasn't the start of winter. There was

already snow outside, and she had
arrived on a bicycle. She had spent

lot of time outside the shop.

Looking from the outside, looking
inside, you know, like checking out

everything. And she seemed to be
examining things. Roxanne was wondering

was looking for cameras.

Roxanne doesn't have cameras in her
shop.

Her arrival was a little odd to Roxanne.

When she did finally come in, she went
up to the counter, started talking to

Roxanne.

And she asked her where she could get
some live music. And she was very

specific. She wanted to go to very small
venues with not a lot of people around.

She was wearing a one -piece.

The woman you saw didn't speak any
French, did she?

She didn't have to speak English because
Roxanne had her friend Richard who

speaks English.

Did she purchase anything?

No. She wasn't interested by the records
at all. That's

pretty much where it ended.

When Roxanne identified Maura to James
Renner, it was from a picture of Maura

from right before she went missing.

I want to see if she can identify Maura
with this new image.

So we're going to send over four photos,
and if one of them looks like the woman

you saw, you can identify her.

Four pictures total.

One of Maura and three of random women.

A virtual lineup.

I want to see if Roxanne can pick the
right person.

Basically what Roxanne says is the eyes,
the skin tone, everything on the face.

And if one of them looks like the woman
you saw, you can identify her.

So we'll go from there.

We're talking with Roxanne, a record
store clerk in Canada, who claims to

seen Maura a few years back.

Basically what Roxanne says is the eyes,
the skin tone, everything on the face

doesn't correspond.

And if someone had brought her one of
those four photographs, Back then, do

recognize any of these people? She said,
no, I don't know who any of these

people are.

It turns out that Roxanne might be
remembering an encounter with someone

than Maura.

But that doesn't mean she's not in
Canada.

I want to go back to the question.

If she wanted to start a new life, how
far could Maura have gone with such few

resources?

Writer Elizabeth Greenwood would know.

She recently wrote a book investigating
how people fake their own death and

purposely disappear.

What kinds of resources do you have to
have to successfully disappear or fake

your own death? People who are
successful in disappearing typically

of money and resources where you can buy
the most high -end documents. Or it's

people who have no resources, where
there's less of a trail for

follow. Is this something that you could
just do kind of on a whim, or do you

really have to plan this?

To pull off a successful disappearance
where you are going to obtain another

identity, whether legally or illegally,
takes years.

She was in the White Mountains in New
Hampshire, and there's been talk of her

actually going to Canada and starting a
new life there.

Typically, people who did take up second
lives in another country had some kind

of connection to that country to begin
with.

So now Maura has become really like this
internet sensation.

At this point, how difficult would it be
for her to stay hidden now that she is

really so famous?

I think it would be very tough.

The reason why most people who do try to
disappear get caught isn't because

something happens, like their image is
captured on closed -circuit TV.

It's almost always because they cannot
cut ties with their old lives.

Maura's mother was really sick with
cancer when Maura disappeared, and she

on Maura's birthday five years after
Maura went missing.

You know, how hard would it have been
for this 21 -year -old girl in your

like not to come back for her mother's
funeral or even talk to her sick mother.

In my research, something like cancer, a
major loss, a major trauma to the

family, you would think would supersede
any kind of logistics or grudges that

you may have, especially at such a young
age that seems really impossible to not

come back home for mom.

So from everything you've told me, in my
opinion, I would have to say it's very

unlikely that she staged her own
disappearance.

So with no connection to Canada, just
under $280, a mother who was sick,

sightings that aren't panning out, and
almost no planning that we know of, the

likelihood that Maura started a new life
doesn't seem that possible.

The pieces aren't coming together.

I also can't corroborate any evidence
that she was running from the men in her

life.

So it seems she lacked a motive.

So where did Maura go after she crashed?

What happened on this road?

The most logical person to speak with
would be Cecil Smith.

the first responding officer.

Art and I have reached out to the police
to request an interview, but they have

not given us permission.

In the meantime, there was someone else
there that evening.

You were one of the first responders on
the scene? We were, yeah.

EMP Dick Guy arrived on scene at 7 .56 p
.m. We were dispatched to that call.

We drove out. There's a car that
apparently impacted a tree, and it had

around such that it was facing the
opposite direction. We drove around it

parked.

There was nobody at the site of the
accident.

It's not terribly unusual to have a car
with nobody there. If somebody's driving

impaired, sometimes they don't really
want to interact with the police.

How much damage was there to the car?

Not terribly extensive.

There was nothing to indicate anybody
was hurt.

Was anything about the scene unusual to
you?

Yes.

I walked up and down the snow banks a
little ways, and my partner says, what's

with the rag in the exhaust pipe?

I'm like, wow, what is that?

Was anything about the scene unusual to
you?

I walked up and down the snow banks a
little ways, and my partner says, what's

with the rag in the exhaust pipe?

I'm like, wow, what is that?

We're talking with Dick Guy, one of the
first responders to Maura's accident

scene. It was like a dish towel. That
kind of was a head scratcher, because

don't see that.

Can you explain to me how it was in the
tailpipe?

It looked like it was stuffed in.

And it was hanging out 8 inches, 10
inches or so, not quite to the ground.

And it really seemed odd.

It made no sense.

Have you ever arrived at an accident
scene and seen a rag in a tailpipe? No,

never.

So why would anybody put a rag in a
tailpipe?

I wondered if she might have stopped at
the little store.

maybe half a mile before, and somebody
had sabotaged your car, trying to make

stop.

If Maura's car was sabotaged, it would
have been easy for the culprit to trail

short distance behind and pretend to
lend a helping hand.

That's a pretty remote part of the
world. Cell phones don't work at all.

part of the world where ordinarily if
somebody gets in an accident, they might

have taken a ride with somebody.

Do you ever hear things around town,
like rumors or people talking about it?

Absolutely. There's lots of theories,
and some of them portend to be based on

fact. There was a story about some young
men who worked at the ski area over in

Loon that lived and would have driven by
that site on the way to work that

didn't show up for work that night.

The Loon Mountain Ski Area sits on Route
112.

20 miles east of Maura's crash site, did
the so -called Loon Mountain Three see

Maura at a gas station and then sabotage
her car, sticking a rag in the

tailpipe? I've read about this theory on
blogs, but hearing that it's also a

story that circulates locally makes me
think there could be more to it.

That's the one that sticks in my mind as
being the worst.

possible scenario to me is that somebody
would have abducted her, taken

advantage of her, done something bad.

For more on this case, visit Oxygen
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