Fred Murray closes his eyes as he ponders his daughter's whereabouts

 
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.

Maura Murray, a Hanson native and UMass nursing student, left campus and drove north toward New Hampshire.  She eventually ran her car off the road in a rural town called Haverhill.  Although the accident appeared minor, she disappeared before police responded and has not been seen since.

For Fred Murray, the pain of a missing loved one has been compounded by what he sees as stonewalling from the New Hampshire state police.  He is frustrated with local residents, whom he believes know more than they’ve told investigators.  He is also frustrated with the New Hampshire press for not putting more pressure on the police to release the case files.

He has been taking his case to the court, trying to force the release of Maura’s files so that the family can conduct their own investigation.  However, a New Hampshire judge sided with police when an assistant district attorney told him there was a “75 percent chance” someone would be charged in the case, a fact that Murray called “pure fiction.”

“He made that up right off the top of his head,” Murray said.  “If they had a 75 percent chance, they’d have done something by now.”  He has re-appealed to the state’s Supreme Court.

The court case is typical of the painful limbo Maura’s family and friends seem stuck in since the accident.

High school friend Liz Drewinak said Maura’s childhood friends remain close, but feel Maura’s absence.

“Since high school, our group of friends has spent every New Year’s together,” she said.  “While it hasn’t been the same since Maura’s disappearance, we all still really look forward to seeing each other.  It’s just hard knowing that the entire group of friends will probably never be whole again, and we may never have answers as to why.”

Murray is looking for a few specifics from the New Hampshire police.  He wants to know why the report of the state police officer on the scene isn’t being provided to the public.  He wants to know what’s happened to a bloody knife he turned in as evidence, and a section of carpet a team of private investigators found at a nearby house.  He also wants the police to ask the FBI for help.

“They won’t ask for help, that’s the tragedy of this,” he said.

He believes any more information the police can provide may help.

“It might me something to me, it might mean something different to others … it’s going to jog memories, it gives us some kind of renewed hope.”

On Feb. 9, as he has every year, Murray traveled to the accident site and replaced the ribbon around the tree where she was last seen.  He said the lack of progress in the case makes him feel like he’s running in circles.

“It’s a helpless feeling … I’ve been deprived of the facts of the case,” he said.  “I’ve been pounding my head against trees.”

Going forward, members of the Murray family are hoping to keep Maura’s story alive through Web sites.  According to Helena Murray, Maura’s aunt, who maintains the page mauramuraymissing.com, about 500,000 people have visited since November of 2006.  In the last month alone, 7,436 people have visited the site.  Maura also has a MySpace page, that has 1,533 “friends.”  21,621 people have viewed that site.

In the meantime, all Fred Murray can do is hope that his persistence pays off, and the police release some new details, or a local resident comes forward with new information.

“If they had gone around the corner and grabbed her, my daughter would be home with me.  But they didn’t and she isn’t.”