What Happened to Maura Murray? Inside the Unsolved 2004 Disappearance

Butch Atwood stopped to offer help. A young woman’s black Saturn had gone off Route 112 in Haverhill, New Hampshire, and he wanted to know whether she needed him to call police.

She declined. According to the account preserved by her family, she told the bus driver she had already called AAA. Atwood knew mobile reception was poor there. He continued to his nearby home and called police anyway.

Her family identifies the woman as Maura Murray, a 21-year-old nursing student. It was February 9, 2004. When the first officer reached the car, she was gone.

The car gave searchers a place to begin. Her family knew how much Maura liked the White Mountains, but they had no itinerary that could tell them where she had intended to stay.

The student who knew the mountains

Before her name became attached to that road, Maura had been a competitive runner from Hanson, Massachusetts. Her family remembers a teenager who broke school records and earned a place at a national running championship. She followed her older sister Julie to West Point, then transferred to the University of Massachusetts Amherst to study nursing.

She enjoyed hiking in the White Mountains. Before this trip, she contacted lodging, including in Bartlett, where her family had stayed. Retired police lieutenant John Healy told the Associated Press that her car contained directions to Burlington, Vermont. The journey left several possible destinations, without a settled itinerary.

That weekend, Maura and her father, Fred, had shopped for a used car and eaten together. She also damaged his car in a separate crash. That problem did not tell her father where to look for her.

On Monday, she emailed professors that a death in the family would keep her away for a week. There had been no death. She packed clothes and schoolbooks, withdrew $280, and bought alcohol before heading north.

An ATM camera recorded her that afternoon in a dark jacket and jeans. Those images survive. What she expected to find at the end of the drive does not.

Timeline of Events

The roadside entries concern February 9, 2004; their precise times follow the family’s published chronology. Later milestones show how the search developed.

Before departure: Maura tells professors she will miss classes, citing a death in the family that had not occurred.
That afternoon: An ATM camera records her before the journey north.
7:27 p.m.: A neighbor reports the crash on Route 112.
7:42 p.m.: Atwood calls police after speaking with Maura.
7:46 p.m.: The first officer arrives; she is no longer there.
April 3, 2019: A basement excavation finds no evidence of Maura.
November 2021: Authorities rule out the Loon Mountain remains.
February 2026: The Cold Case Unit confirms continuing investigative work.

A car to search, but no driver to question

By roughly 7:30 p.m., the Saturn was off Route 112. The police report, described by the Associated Press, recorded a cracked windshield, deployed airbags and a locked car. Police had a vehicle and witnesses, but no driver who could explain the accident or say which way she had gone.

Retired New Hampshire State Police lieutenant John Scarinza recalled an initial assumption that the driver might be avoiding police. Usually, he said, someone would eventually call about recovering the car. That did not happen.

Searchers took to the air. In a 2012 interview with writer James Renner, Scarinza described looking down from a helicopter equipped with a heat-detecting camera. He remembered the equipment picking out a fox against the landscape. They were searching for Maura, or for tracks that could tell them where to concentrate on the ground.

Scarinza said no footprints led into the woods around the crash site. A bloodhound later followed a scent east along the road for about 100 yards, then lost it. The dog had given investigators a possible direction, not a destination.

The house Fred wanted searched

Years passed without a confirmed sighting. Fred kept pursuing leads, and in 2018 he and supporters arranged private searches at a house near the crash site. Dogs and a ground-penetrating radar scan made him believe something lay beneath its basement floor.

For Fred, this was a place where digging might finally produce an answer. State investigators were less persuaded. Associate Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin said their review had found no credible evidence connecting the house to Maura and no grounds for a search warrant. The owners nevertheless allowed a search.

On April 3, 2019, investigators excavated the basement. They reported finding no evidence of Maura. What came out, Strelzin said, appeared to be pottery or old piping.

Fred questioned whether they had dug in the right part of the basement. Speaking to the Associated Press afterward, he said: “This one hurts, because I thought we finally had it.”

He had been searching for fifteen years. He would have to continue.

Another discovery, another wait

In 2021, human bone fragments discovered at Loon Mountain in Lincoln brought another possible answer. Testing could establish something that speculation could not: whether the remains belonged to Maura.

That November, the family announced the result. Authorities had ruled out Maura. Testing dated the bones well before her disappearance.

Julie’s response reached beyond her own family’s loss. She asked police to keep working to identify the remains so that someone else’s loved ones might receive an answer. The search for Maura would continue.

Investigators also returned to the landscape. In July 2022, State Police and Fish and Game officers searched off Route 112 in Landaff and Easton. Attorney General John Formella described a more extensive examination of places previously searched less thoroughly. It was continuing work on the case, he said, rather than a response to a new tip.

What Doesn’t Add Up

Where was Maura expecting to spend the night?

The lodging inquiries and driving directions suggest possible destinations, but leave her intended stop unclear. An established destination could give investigators another place to seek witnesses and help distinguish her planned journey from whatever followed the crash.

How did she leave the roadside between the encounter and the officer’s arrival?

The missing interval is short enough to focus attention on movements near the Saturn, yet no confirmed account follows her from it. Walking and accepting a ride would take the search in very different directions. The interval alone cannot identify which occurred.

Why did the scent trail end along the road?

Its stopping point could matter if another vehicle had been involved. Scarinza also raised another possibility: the dog may have lost the scent. Resolving that uncertainty would help determine how much weight the route can bear in reconstructing her movements.

What could have happened after the crash?

Fred believes someone harmed his daughter. Healy told the Associated Press in 2014 that he suspected an opportunistic crime. Senior assistant attorney general Jeffery Strelzin considered a deliberate attempt to start over unlikely, though not impossible.

The distinction that matters is between leaving campus and disappearing permanently. A person could want a few days away and then encounter something entirely unplanned. Understanding the first decision might explain the route; it would not necessarily explain what happened after the Saturn stopped.

Twenty-two years of looking for Maura

As the search continued, Julie took on another task: telling the story of the sister she knew. In 2024, she hosted the first season of Media Pressure, bringing family members and people close to the investigation into a story that strangers had been telling for years. Its purpose included recovering Maura’s life from the accumulation of theories about her disappearance.

The FBI released an age-progressed image that February, showing what Maura might look like at 41. Beside photographs taken around the time she vanished, the new image made the passage of twenty years visible.

In a February 2026 statement reported by WCAX, the Cold Case Unit said it was using new technology and continuing to pursue credible leads with state and federal partners.

Her family’s efforts have expanded to other unresolved cases. In August 2026, Julie and her brother Kurtis were among those pressing for more resources and answers at the New Hampshire State House. Their public campaign has continued alongside the search that began with one car on Route 112.

In the rally coverage preserved on the family’s website, Julie described the time her family had spent waiting: “Twenty-two years is a long time to live inside a question mark.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Has Maura Murray been found?

No. The FBI still listed her as missing when this article was researched on November 6, 2026.

Where was she last seen?

The last known in-person encounter was near her crashed Saturn on Route 112 in Haverhill, New Hampshire, on February 9, 2004. Bus driver Butch Atwood reported speaking with her. ATM surveillance recorded her earlier that day.

Why was Maura driving to New Hampshire?

Her intended destination and reason remain unknown. She gave professors a false explanation about a death in the family, but that does not reveal her plans.

Did search dogs prove that someone picked her up?

No. The reported track was inconclusive; it did not establish a pickup.

Were the remains found at Loon Mountain hers?

No. Authorities ruled that out in 2021. Testing indicated the bones were substantially older than her disappearance.

Is the investigation still active, and where can someone send information?

The Cold Case Unit described ongoing work in February 2026. Anyone with information can use the contact and tip routes on the FBI notice listed below, even if they are unsure whether investigators already know it.

Research Sources

The following resources were consulted to verify and update this article.

FBI — Maura Murray missing-person notice — Official case summary, ATM footage, age progression and current public tip routes; checked November 6, 2026.
Murray family — Meet Maura — Family biography and account of the roadside encounter and recorded call times.
Associated Press — 2004 disappearance of Massachusetts student vexes father and police (2014) — Lynne Tuohy’s reporting on the pre-trip events, police report and investigators’ views.
James Renner — Scarinza speaks (2012) — Interview with the retired investigator, used for his attributed account of the early search and scent trail.
Associated Press — Basement search finds no evidence (2019) — Official search result, Fred Murray’s response and the history of the private searches.
Murray family — Loon Mountain remains ruled out (2021) — Statement announcing the testing result and Julie Murray’s response.
NHPR — Landaff and Easton search (2022) — Dan Tuohy’s account of the expanded search and the attorney general’s explanation.
Media Pressure — The Untold Story of Maura Murray — The family-led podcast’s stated purpose and Julie Murray’s role; the family news archive also preserves contemporary 2024 launch coverage.
WCAX — Twenty-two years later (February 9, 2026) — The Cold Case Unit’s statement about continuing work and requests for information.
Murray family — News archive — Reproduced excerpts of Concord Monitor (August 10, 2026) and WMUR (August 7, 2026) coverage, including Julie’s rally statement; the original articles were inaccessible during this check.