The Story of Maura Murray Part 1.

We're going to look into the disappearance of 21 year old Maura Murray, a junior nursing student at University of Massachusetts Amherst, this disappearance has been dubbed by some as the "first crime mystery of the social media era."

Maura was born on May 4th, 1982, to parents Frederick "Fred" and Laurie in Hanson, Massachusetts. Maura has two older sisters, Kathleen and Julie, an older brother, Fred, and a younger half-brother, Kurt. When Maura was 6 years old, her parents got divorced, Maura primarily lived with her mom after the divorce.

Maura was admitted to the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, after graduating from Whitman-Hanson Regional High School in Hanson. Maura was a star athlete at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School. She studied chemical engineering at the United States Military Academy for 3 semesters, and after her freshman year, she transferred to the University of Massachusetts Amherst to pursue a nursing degree.

There are rumors that she violated the Military’s honor code by stealing cosmetics worth $5, and had to transfer to the UMass Amherst. In November 2003, Maura admitted using a stolen credit card to buy food at several restaurants, after 3 months of good behavior the charge would be dismissed.

On Thursday February 5th, 2004, while Maura was at work on campus her sister Kathleen called her, Kathleen told her that she was having relationship problems with her fiancé. Maura’s supervisor said Maura was "just completely zoned out. No reaction at all. She was unresponsive.” Her supervisor escorted Maura back to her dorm.

On Saturday February 7th, Maura’s dad Fred visited her in Amherst, MA they went car-shopping for a new car for Maura. Later they were joined by one of Maura’s friends and the 3 of them had dinner. After dinner Maura dropped her dad off at his motel, and took his car to go to a party at her dorm.

In the early morning hours of Sunday February 8th, Maura left the party and drove back to her dad’s motel. She struck a guardrail on Massachusetts Route 9, while en route to her dad’s motel causing about $10,000 of damage to his car. A police officer wrote an accident report, and gave Maura a ride to her dad’s motel.

Later that Sunday morning, after being told the insurance company would cover the damage. Fred rented a car, and before he drove to Bridgeport, Connecticut, he gave Maura a ride to her dorm. That night, Fred called Maura to remind her to get accident forms from MassDOT’s department of Registry of Motor Vehicles.

Just after midnight on February 9th, Maura used her computer to look up directions to Burlington, Vermont, and the Berkshires. Later that day she emailed her boyfriend "I love you more stud. I got your messages, but honestly, I didn't feel like talking too much of anyone, I promise to call today though. Love you, Maura." At 1:00 p.m. she called Dominic and Linda Salamone owners of a condominium at the Seasons at Attitash resort in Bartlett, New Hampshire and asked to rent the place. Next she called one of her classmates for an unknown reason at 1:13 p.m.

Maura informed the nursing school faculty's work supervisor at 1:24 p.m. via email, that she would be away for a few days due to a death in her family. Her family stated that no one in the family had passed away. Then she called a number to book a hotel in Stowe, Vermont at 2:05 p.m. At 2:18 p.m. she called her boyfriend and left him a voicemail.

Maura had packed up all her belongings in boxes and removed the art from her dorm room wall. On top of the boxes was a printed email to her boyfriend. She put clothing, toiletries, college textbooks, and birth control pills in her 1996 Saturn S-series. Around 3:30 p.m. she got in her car and drove off the Umass Amherst campus.

Maura drove to an ATM and at 3:40 p.m. she withdrew $280, CCTV shows that Maura was alone. Next she bought $40 of alcohol at a liquor store, she can be seen on the store’s CCTV. At 3:47 p.m. Maura called to check her voicemail messages. It’s believed that Maura left Amherst, MA between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. heading North on Interstate 91. There’s no evidence that Maura told anyone where she was going or that she even had a destination.

In Part 2, we'll get into what happened after Maura left Amherst.