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From the EditorHanson Town Meeting highlightsJust got home from Hanson’s Town Meeting. All articles were taken care
of in one night. I’ll post more details tomorrow, but I wanted to get
a few things in tonight for... + Read blog
From the EditorHousekeeping items I’ve seen a few comments on the Web site recently that made me want to clarify a few things.
+ Read blog
In 1945 a computer at Harvard malfunctioned and Grace Hopper, who was working on the computer, investigated, found a moth in one of the circuits and removed it. Ever since, when something goes wrong with a computer, it is said to have a bug in it.
Four years
ago, 21-year-old Maura Murray of Hanson, a talented athlete and nursing
student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, got into to her
car, drove to the woods of northern New Hampshire and disappeared. Not
a trace of her has been found since despite an intensive search and
investigation. What happened to Maura Murray? How, after her car
skidded into a snow bank on a mild winter night, could she simply
disappear? In a multi-part report, the Express examines the circumstances surrounding Maura's
disappearance and traces her steps from Amherst, Mass., to Woodsville,
N.H. The story begins in a UMass dormitory.
This is a podcast of an interview with Hanson Express editor Justin Graeber on WATD radio (FM 95.9) station in Marshfield on the fourth anniversary of Maura Murray's disappearance.
A book found in missing Whitman-Hanson student
Maura Murray’s car doesn’t mean what police and media reports are
saying it means, said Fred Murray this week.
Thursday, Feb.
5, 2004 -- It was an overcast night at the University of Massachusetts
Amherst campus. Maura Murray, a junior nursing major and dean's list
student, was working the campus security desk at the Melville
dormitory. Her job was to check identification as students entered the
dorm.
Nestled in the Connecticut River Valley, a stone's throw from the Vermont border, Woodsville is a rural village within the town of Haverhill, New Hampshire. Woodsville has a year-round population of 1,080 and was best known as the home of America's oldest covered bridge -- until the night of Mon. Feb. 9, 2004.
The Wells River Motel
is a modest, cozy refuge that sits on the Vermont side of the
Connecticut River just across from New Hampshire. The motel offers 11
rooms, each with its own theme, including a teddy bear room outfitted
with teddy bears on the beds.
As of Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2004,
the Wells River Motel became the unofficial headquarters in the search
for Maura Murray. Just 36 hours earlier Maura's car had been found
abandoned along Route 112, eight miles away in neighboring Woodsville,
N.H.
A
song of gentle vocals played in the background as Fred Murray pulled
down a faded blue bow from a tree on Wild Ammonoosuc Road in
Woodsville, N.H.
It was February 9, 2005 just a few feet from where Maura's
black Saturn was found pressed against a snow bank one year before.
Joining him were family, friends, a local minister and a herd of media.
"Do a story about the disappearance of Maura Murray,"
my editor told me, "and make it the most in-depth piece ever done on
the case." At first a daunting task, but later a privilege.
I
poured over old news articles, checked websites and jotted down
questions. Then I called Fred Murray, Maura's father. My editor thought
this would be a good start. He was wrong. Fred didn't return my call,
or the next one, or the next one.
I will always
be haunted by the image of Laurie Murray, shortly after her daughter
Maura went missing. I was a cub reporter, newly hired by the Express
and possessing little experience outside of School Committee meetings
and weekend fluff pieces. I had only been on the job in Hanson for a
few days. Listening to the radio, we started to hear bits and pieces of
a story about a young woman from Hanson who had gone missing.
Did Maura make the mysterious phone call?While
a search was beginning in Woodsville N.H., Billy Rausch was walking
through security in a Dallas airport. He had just shut off his phone
when he received a voice message.
While
Maura was crying at her workplace in the Melville dormitory another
puzzling event was taking place elsewhere at UMass. Around 12:20 a.m.,
a UMass junior, Petrit Vasi of Dorchester, was found unconscious in the
road at the intersection of Triangle and Mattoon Streets in Amherst,
about a mile and a half away from where Maura was working.
Fred Murray
hopes the release of some police records about Maura's disappearance
will help shed new light on the case. The state of New Hampshire
doesn't want to release any records. So far, the government is winning
the battle.
Let's
Bring Them Home, a missing person's advocacy group out of Arkansas,
announces a $75,000 reward for missing woman Maura Murray. The
reward issued for the Hanson native, and UMASS Amherst nursing student
and former USMA West Point Cadet, has been issued through the end of
the year.
In a continuing
effort to shed light on even the smallest pieces of information, the
New Hampshire Attorney General has released a number of documents
pertaining to the Maura Murray case that, until now, had never been
seen by the public.
The Express is working on an educational story about self-injury, when people purposely hurt themselves through cutting or burning their skin.
In addition to interviewing several experts, we would also like to speak with a self-injury survivor about this type of behavior and how they overcame it. Confidentiality will be respected. If you would like to share your story, please contact Express Editor Justin Graeber at 781-293-0420 or
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Route 27 study meeting agenda
EPA ruling against Dunham Farm contractor
It’s been four years of frustration for Fred Murray, as he is no closer
to finding out what happened to his daughter that cold February night
in 2004.
This is a podcast of an interview with Hanson Express editor Justin Graeber on WATD radio (FM 95.9) station in Marshfield on the fourth anniversary of Maura Murray's disappearance.
The 
A
song of gentle vocals played in the background as Fred Murray pulled
down a faded blue bow from a tree on Wild Ammonoosuc Road in
Woodsville, N.H.
Notice of Appeal
