August 14, 2020 ▸ People, True Crime

Episode 507: Maura Murray: A Disappearance Most Strange

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we explore one of the strangest missing persons cases in America: the disappearance of Maura Murray. On the evening of February 9, 2004, she had a minor car crash, and by the time the police got there, she was missing. But her behavior leading to this moment is what makes it strange. She had packed up her entire dorm room, lied to her bosses that there was a death in the family (so she could get a week off), and she had a car full of clothes, directions to rentals to stay in, and even a lot of cash from an ATM. Her entire family had no idea she had done any of this.

What makes this a weird one is that she was a great student. She went to West Point and then transferred to the University of Massachusetts. She was a good student, a local track star, and otherwise a girl in her early twenties doing things right. Murray had a run in on the wrong side of the law when she stole the credit card number someone and used it at restaurants, but was otherwise an upstanding citizen.

There was some indication that she was having trouble with her boyfriend. There was plenty of evidence that she planned to leave. Her dorm was packed up in boxes, and she had made several net searches for vacation rentals and even called some to find out prices. So, with a packed car and apparently the intention to bail, she crashed her car into a tree. There was spilled wine found in the car, so she could have been drunk.

A man drove by and asked if she needed help as she stood beside her car. She indicated she did not and pleaded that he not call the police. She said she’d already called AAA for a tow (she had AAA but never called them). The man drove and called for help since there was no cell phone reception in the area. By the time he came back, she was gone.

Eventually, the police declared it a missing persons case and sent dogs on the trail. They followed it a little ways before it just vanished along the side of the road. This indicated she most likely got in someone’s car only a few minutes after the crash.

Some say she was trying to head up to a nice vacation spot to kill herself. Some say she was escaping an abusive boyfriend. Others say she was pregnant in a scandalous three way love affair with a coach from her university. Another theory is that she headed to Canada where she lives to this day in order to escape some sort of danger. Alive or dead, murder or suicide, this case is still very active, and new clues keep coming up. Come to your own conclusion and give this one a listen.

Visit Our Sources: