Maura Murray /// Julie Murray Interview /// Part 1 | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign foreign [Music] garage whatever you are wherever you're
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crime foreign [Music] after graduating high school Mara Murray who was a good student and dedicated
athlete competing in excelling and track and field she attended military school reports are conflicting as to why she
left but whatever the case she left and enrolled in University of Massachusetts Amherst
on February 9 2004 for reasons that are unknown Mara Murray who at the time was 21 years of
age left school and drove north towards New Hampshire sometime between 7 and 7 30 PM she was
involved in a single car accident on Route 112 inhavioral her Father Fred believes that the car
stalled when she was going around a turn and went into a snow bank Mara knew this area fairly well and had
been there several times before she even called a place that her family had stayed at before
possibly to reserve a night or two for her to stay However no such Arrangements were made from what we have been told
her family and schoolmates do not know why she was driving there that evening she was supposed to be at school and her
car was in no shape to be driving that distance a bus driver who lived across the street
from the accident according to his statement he spotted her car on the side of the road and offered assistance
Mara told him that she was fine and that she had already called for roadside assistance and they were in route the
bus driver called the police but by the time authorities arrived Mara had vanished
some believe that she was walking or running East on the road Mara vanished sometime after the
accident and has not been seen since her father believes she may have met with Foul Play
Fred noted that she was in the middle of nowhere with no place to go due to her damaged car he believes that she
accepted a ride from a stranger who then killed her some believe she vanished voluntarily
and does not want to be found another theory is that Mara wandered off into the woods and died of exposure
these are just three of many theories in this case we featured Mars case several times on
both True Crime garage and off the Record the strange missing persons case of Maura Murray is one of the more popular
Mysteries of the last 20 years and unfortunately Mars case remains unsolved [Music]
thank you foreign up on the 16th year anniversary of The Disappearance of Mara Murray
True Crime garage was able to sit down and talk with Julie Murray Mara's sister this interview is a long time in the
making and so we're glad to finally be able to do that and present it to everybody
and hopefully we're able to create a better understanding of who Mara was as a person maybe clear up some
misunderstandings or misreporting on some of the events of her disappearance [Music]
all right Julie it's good to talk to you we met at crime con you were very excited to meet me
as as I was very excited to meet you as well uh very intimidated by you because I
haven't been doing my CrossFit and I don't think you take a day off well I was you know thanks for having me
on and I was a little intimidated by the line to meet you wrapped around the corner
um but I was very glad that I got a chance to meet you and you know you don't need to do CrossFit every day
um we talked about it you'll get back on the wagon yeah I think the line was to meet Nick
um my line was a lot smaller so your sister went missing and has really become an internet
sensation Almost Do You Remember the first time or who told you that your sister was
missing yeah I I was at Fort Bragg North Carolina in the Army I was a I think I had just
penned on first lieutenant I might have been a second lieutenant we were actually getting ready to deploy to our
to Iraq and I think the call came in from Kathleen my older sister initially and it was basically frantic like have
you heard from Mara and I told her no I hadn't what's going on and she said she's missing her car
was found somewhere in New Hampshire it was kind of very frantic and vague the first phone call
um and then later on I remember talking to my dad and he was asking the same set
of questions and of course I had no idea where she was or what happened so it was extremely stressful for me to
be that far away and just sit by the phone and just wait for some answers so that went on for the rest of that night
and I was calling everyone and my mom was frantic my whole family was frantic and initially I said Dad okay I'm I've
got to get leave through the army so that I can come up and figure out what's going on and he
said oh hold up I'm gonna go up there and figure things out right so that was the initial
notification that I received was there communication between the family about why Mara was where she was at no one had
a clue right no one had it close so that was that was the big thing and that was kind
of what caused us well obviously that she she was missing we knew that it was her car but we kept asking well why why
is she there and it was this big mystery from the minute that that I got the phone call like it was a Monday night it
was during the school year there was no reason for her that I knew at the time to be up there and like you
said since the beginning this case has had those two questions one why was she there and then what happened and I don't
want to put words into anybody's mouth but to me it seems like a lot of these theories of why she would be up there
have either gone nowhere or they just seem very far-fetched like you have to LEAP from a to uh T to get there right
that's exactly right and and that's I think that's part of the Intrigue of the case is that we know so little we don't
know her motive for going up there in the first place and then there are there's such little evidence
thereafter once we know that she did go missing that just can Boggle the mind and it has
it's boggled my mind first going on 16 years now you guys grew up playing sports together but besides uh running
track what sports did you guys actually play together we played every single sport there is
we played softball we played soccer we played basketball we play we made up Sports we played the handball We we
played um we used to watch America Gladiator oh yeah if you remember that show oh yeah
yeah it was a pretty pretty cool show it was kind of like the the early 2000s version of American
Ninja Warrior yeah for those that don't know and I love that show and so we would like try to recreate the feta
strength or an obstacle from that show and just battle each other did you guys ever try to build one of those tennis
ball shooters remember remember the tennis ball shooter they had um quite often actually with my dad and
uh we always had fun we would practice together we'd play together we were usually on the same teams like growing
up in high school and because age difference is what yeah so it was two and a half years yeah so not that far
yeah yeah so pretty competitive with each other who was who was better well it depends on what we were doing
that was a better Runner runner for sure I like to think I was a better uh soccer player a cool little story about
Mara with basketball is she was so good at free throw shooting there was a there
was a basically a qualification for the state where you shoot 10 and the best out of 10 moves forward and it was kind
of a um um a big deal in Massachusetts and she made it all the way to the state finals
where she got to shoot free throws at halftime of the Celtics game that's awesome yeah pretty awesome and so you
were pretty jealous of that I was really jealous I was her ball girl I well I was
thankful that I was able to go and go out on you know on the the court for the the priest like before the Celtics even
came out for the warm-up they that they had the kids come in really early and I was her rebounder
but you know she wasn't how we're gonna let you live that down oh no if no I'm sure if she was here with us right now
she would be telling you oh yeah you were my ball girl so you guys are really close in high school
and then she follows you to college yeah so I got into West Point and I I went there two years ahead she was still in
in high school and then when she was getting ready to choose a college she she applied to West Point as well which
is not not that easy to get into and you have to get a congressional nomination and yeah you got to go through a whole
bunch of uh tests and you it's not easy to get in it's it's very prestigious to get in yeah and so
she she got in uh she also ran track with with me on the track team which was great because at West Point everything's
so structured and you don't have any time so we were able to see each other multiple times a day which is you know
very rare for any other Cadets that were siblings there that weren't on the same
sports team so well better for her than you because you've been there you I know
but yeah you were Paving your own path but then your little sister gets there yeah and it was so cool it was so cool
to talk about her when she was still in high school to my teammates at West Point and then I would always tell them
you know I hope she comes she's an awesome Runner you guys would love her and then when she was finally there it
was it was really cool but yeah so then your your father which ever since uh I started looking into your sister's
disappearance there's a bunch of different uh I don't know assumptions about your
dad right but some people think it's strange that he pushed you guys so hard or that's their
words but as a kid that played a lot of sports there's been so many times where I've
been reading about your father and I just think well I couldn't Fred be my dad because
to me that just seems um to an athlete or somebody that is competitive to have a parent be that invested in you
uh is that a correct term uh or the correct way to look at your dad absolutely and anyone that says that my
dad pushed us or pushed us too hard does not know my dad because my dad did not push us
it was us we pushed ourselves um and this that's just the nature of a distance Runner distance Runners have to
push themselves no one's out there on the lonely road with you at mile you know seven of a 10 mile run you're
by yourself you push yourself that's just the mindset that distance Runners have and so
you know I used to get upset when people said you know categorize my dad as kind of like a
just mean authoritarian just guy that was pushing us to the brink that is so inaccurate he actually told us to do
less all the time and both Mara and I wanted to get a job in high school so we could get a little you know
spending money and he's like no you're you don't need a job your focus needs to be in school work and
having fun and running you don't have time to add a job on top of that right so but you still wanted
spending money so did he give you guys some run around money well if we ask but Mara and I we never asked really for
anything like our the biggest thing we ever wanted was like crab food candy Pizza
um or and cool like whatever the cool sweatshirt was the champion sweatshirts or whatever but we didn't even care
about that like we just we wanted to take it easy on them because we we had a big family and both my
parents works and they worked hard and we didn't have a lot of money so we didn't want to we weren't needy kids is
what I'm trying to say the time that you got to spend with your father doing that
is invaluable yeah absolutely like he and he he gave us the resources that we needed and the biggest resource was time
his time yeah um and we spent hours and hours and hours on the basketball court trying to
perfect our free throw for instance and clearly Mara did that by making it all the way to the Garden or perfecting our
we used to uh pitch fast pitch softball we would spend hours doing that and we loved it it's also free it's free for a
family that maybe doesn't have a lot of money exactly so your dad had to be super proud of
not just one of his girls but two of his girls going to West Point and so when she started at West Point
what was the what do you think her energy was like well she knew she knew what to expect
going in because I made sure she knew and um a lot of what you do as a we call it
a plebe the first year Cadet is just wrote memorization and you've got to memorize all these different things and
then you have to recite them so I'm like hey Mara here's my old plebe handbook start memorizing these things it'll make
your life easier right you know she did that um and so she she excelled I just don't think her
heart was ever really in it once once she got there well that's hard for people to explain though too is you can
go to a college that you looked into and and visited and you did all these things
and then all of a sudden you get there and you just don't feel like you're fitting in
do you think she had any of that or was it just she was fitting in or could have fit in
but she just didn't want to or yeah I think it's the letter I think she could have she she did fit in
um she the schoolwork was no problem for her obviously the running she was doing
great um she was that I think maybe the one or two top recruits coming in as a freshman as a sophomore she was
she was beating me um and you know beating the Juniors and seniors on the team she was she was doing well it's the
military stuff that I don't think she enjoyed right or definitely didn't enjoy as much as I did
um she was more much more of a free spirit I'm more structured and so I like my routine and my everything in order
and she was a little bit less of of that um militant type Yeah clean room messy room you seem like the clean room she
seemed like the messy room type and so she was she was a mess I know that has been talked about a lot on the internet
is there anything that has been misreported about it or any anything that you wanna
talk about as far as the her time at West Point transferring over to the new school uh yeah I mean well
let's just talk about the the issues at West Point so some of the issues were the craziest things you
could ever imagine like she she was at a summer training her second year down at
um Fort Knox and she was at what we call the PX Post Exchange and it's just a place where people that live on the post
or are visiting or are there for training go and you get a discount on whatever it is it's kind of like a
Walmart for the Army right um and so she's in there and she walks out and the military police person stops her and
says what's in your pocket or something and she had I think it was four or five dollars worth of lip gloss maybe just in
her pocket at the Fort Knox PX so Mara was not an idiot I don't know for sure why it was in her pocket if she
just forgot you know essentially it was um it was a problem because Cadets can't
lie cheat or steal or tolerate those who do that's our code that's you know what we have to
vow to when we first enter um so anyway she she got caught for that and then she had to go through a what we
call a honor hearing Cadet honor hearing it's basically like a trial run by your
peers other Cadets um and it was stressful for her I was part of the the trial as a character
witness for her and I remember going in to say you know she I think she just forgot or she didn't mean it if she was
going to steal something it would have been something more substantial than four dollar lip gloss right but on one
hand you can go well maybe that's why she didn't think it was so bad there's four it's lip gloss I'll just put in my
pocket real quick and just move on yeah well that would be I I could see how you
could think that but she also had the money to buy it so I'm not sure what the motivation would have been but what are
you thinking in your head like I mean this is your this is your baby sister yeah I'm like what are you doing that's
why would you do that it doesn't make any sense as she was kind of going through that whole process
it got to a point where it was just too overwhelming like she was having to miss
classes and her grades were dropping and she was missing practices and it just wasn't fun anymore and it wasn't
um she just decided it wasn't for her so she actually voluntarily left West Point
after her second year and so after your second year at West Point you have to sign a or take an oath to serve in the
military so a lot of cadets leave after their second year because they they decide at that point hey I
don't think this military thing is is me I don't think I'm cut out for this right
and I think she realized I think she realized that so you what you're saying is if you stay past your
second year you have to sign up to join the military yeah yo yeah you're locked in they got you owe five years
[Music] foreign [Music] [Music] cheers me matey cheers to you Captain yes I am here in the garage you hear me
and if you've listened to our little show before then you know that all of our old episodes are available on the
free Stitcher listening app I am saying that because we have covered Mara Murray's case several times before and
if you want to listen to those you can look up our coverage of Mars case this is in episodes 28 and 29 from May of
2016 and also in episodes 152 and 153 from October of 2017. now where we left off Captain you
are kind of getting into one of the biggest questions that that takes place early on in this case one of the things
out there that people have speculated on many times over why would Mara leave West Point or was she kicked out did she
get run out of there did she run out of there what happened in really truly this
is what I love when we get the opportunity to speak to family members and to speak to people that are close to
these cases usually you get a pretty simple answer to something that's been widely speculated right and this is a
very simple answer that makes a lot of sense okay you're going to sign up this is a hard and fast rule here you're
going to sign up for five years of military service that sounds scary if your heart is not into it and it sounds
like Mara's heart was not into it I did want to comment a quick thought that I had regarding the
the theft of the lip gloss right I don't want to question her sister too much regarding her thoughts and opinions on
it because she was at the trial what I find interesting there is that she still has questions about it but she was at
these proceedings where we have an opportunity for Mara to defend herself or shine a light on why
was this item stolen from the uh from the the little store there I almost wonder if if this is some kind
of not necessarily a cry for help but almost a I'm not really digging this because of
maybe the military portion of what this education involves maybe was this a a way out that wasn't
so such a serious offense you know I'm not a bad person but they have such strict rules if I do something as small
as this maybe I am shoved out of here or maybe it gives me an out yeah or it could be just carelessness
put something in my pocket didn't realize it was there walked out now now I'm busted why did you steal this stuff
well I didn't steal the stuff I just forgot it was there and and no matter how many times you
tell somebody that and you go well here's the items back I'm you know I forgot it in my pocket I've I have
forgot stuff in my pocket before uh I just never got caught but you know you get to your car and you're like oh crap
why did I put that thing in my pocket I don't know I just did so well and this the store The
Establishment whatever it may be can't very well just accept the the idea of oh I put it in my pocket
and forgot because if they just accepted that reasoning they would have to accept that
a hundred times a month and everybody would be putting things in their pocket and just forgetting so yeah it's one of
those sticky situations and I just wonder you know hearing Julie's thoughts on it
I almost expected to hear more of an understanding as to why it happened other than I mean because really what
I'm left with there is either she intended to steal it and then what was the reasoning behind that was it that
she is just plain and simple a thief yeah I think in the next little bit she'll actually get to
Mars reasoning of or explanation of what happened okay okay because my other thought is that is this just the an
excuse to get out you know is this just a minor offense that I could commit so that I
can get out of something that I don't really want to do [Music] if you had to guess what should a say uh
rate her freshman year or you think she would rate that as we got one to ten being the best right
her experience or how she she did like her experience like yeah I don't I mean she made great
friends um the track team is very supportive I was there I I think she did enjoy the schoolwork
it was challenging so I would say like maybe a seven like she wasn't like overly thrilled like I was like
just wanna right walk around in my uniform all day long because I just love it um she was kind of I felt like she was
kind of over it like it's a lot it's a lot it wasn't like she went there and had a nine or ten
freshman year and just it was the best year ever then all of a sudden this Dark Cloud came over her no no and and then
sophomore year was so bad and no I think I think she it just solidified what she already knew from
the beginning like I I'll tell you this this one time the the very first summer Cadets have to go through what's called
Beast barracks and it's the cadet version of basic training right but it's like basic training on steroids because
not only are you getting beat up physically but you're also having to memorize all of these things that I
talked about earlier in your like 17 18 19 years old and you're away from home and it's so stressful and I loved it Mar
did not love it I remember I was also I was one of the trainers so my job as a when I was going into my junior year
was to train these new Cadets coming in and she was one of them and I dropped into her room one night
just to check on her and I think I brought her I was bringing her Oreos or something because you don't get to eat a
lot and I just found her just crying and just totally just unhappy and this is the this is before she even started
the academic year right and it it I didn't that was the first glimpse into seeing that she wasn't happy it's like
you said it's tough too when you're enjoying so many aspects of that life right and I I told I kept
telling her when I went through that I'm like it's so awesome like these people yell at you and you'll they'll tell you
to do push-ups and you'll like be the best because you're in shape and you'll do these push-ups and then they'll yell
at you more and I don't know maybe I'm gonna say the mask is up but I liked it and so maybe I
gave her the wrong impression she did not like it well no I mean but also just because you're a very good
athlete the different athletes are motivated by different things and like you said you you feel like you
are motivated uh with your life with structure and but she might have been uh motivated more by
and I don't want to use the word chaos but disorganization so that is yeah that is true chaos is
the right word for her right you're like no no stick with the chaos word yeah I'm Fred my two amazing daughters
they're smart they're good looking they're they're very athletic and they go to West Point I mean it doesn't
get much better than that and one sophomore year which like you said the the but the stealing
and I don't even is that what your family considered the lip gloss but we'll call it the lip gloss incident
is that what the family considered it stealing or was it just she just didn't know it was in her
pocket I really think she just got distracted that's and so and that's what she told
me right and I believe you know I believed it why else would she I don't understand
why she would try to steal from a place where she knew that there was people watching for that
type of thing and at this point is when she like you said she went to the the trial that was it's all pretty much
conducted like with in-house and I don't even know do you want to call it a trial
well we call it an honor board so it's I mean I no I don't want to call it a trial it's yeah it's like an honor
hearing but this is where she'll meet her boyfriend Bill Roush yes that is where he met bill
so then mama bear has to come out right and and what do you think of her boyfriend
yeah absolutely so bill was Bill was actually two years older or two classes ahead of Mara and which makes it would
make him my classmate at West Point so bill was my classmate and I didn't know Bill all that well although it's
pretty small there's only I think my class is only like 900 people I knew of him I hung around in the same
circles as him um but I didn't know him that well but then when the honor board kicked off and
he was helping Mara like tremendously helping Mara I thought he was a good guy so your
Spidey senses were telling you that this guy was okay to date your sister yeah and I was a little skeptical because he
was two years older and he was my classmate but I was I mean that was okay I mean in the grand scheme
of things there it was probably I don't know how old bill is now but it's not that big of an age difference whatsoever
right right so no there was nothing that there was nothing that I outwardly disliked about Bill well I
think that it it it's interesting to me because like you said I think that's a key thing that maybe the inter internet
has missed upon is that she's leaving this school and I think the number one reason
would be that she wouldn't want to sign up for military duty yeah you must not want to sign up for
military so much because you have a lot of things there at that school going for you have
you have Athletics that you're excelling in you're doing well in school I mean yes Less in your sophomore year
your sister's there and she's cool all right I don't know well I'm trying to I'm trying to butter
you up right now I don't know if she would call me cool and she's really awesome and uh but then you have your
boyfriend there yeah and so it's kind of a big thing right you go okay well now she's switching schools and that's going
to make a lot of things harder but I don't know my gut feeling is just I had to do it myself
and it was tough it was a big deal to switch schools but what a relief it was once I got to school then I felt like I
belonged so now she gets she starts the next year on time is that correct well she transferred her
she attempted to transfer all her credits from her classes at West Point but I think that put her behind a
semester um at UMass so I think she went into UMass at half a semester behind where she would
have been at West Point the other thing I want to say about that is she she's she switched basically universes she
went from West Point chemical engineering military career to in she got into the nursing program
those are polar opposite things we have a nursing program is very uh difficult and time consuming maybe
the the level of math and certain things like that aren't going to be as high but
it's a very time consuming major yes I definitely agree there and it and it's definitely a hard program but the
careers are are are are opposite I mean you're going to war or you're going to go help people look I mean let's talk
about a couple of situations she gets into there the credit card fraud so Mom at
UMass I Mara was using a another person's credit card to purchase um random things like pizza from
Domino's and subs and stuff so I don't I didn't really get what all that was about but other people have told me that
that she wasn't the only one doing it I'm not saying that that makes it right but I'm
saying if if you really start to think about it who is that important to why is that important that
she was doing that but I think by showing these actions or these questionable states of behavior that it allows people
to create a narrative yeah I agree and you've gotta you gotta kind of peel it back and look at
who are these people focusing on these small little details and what is their motive
why is it like I said why is that important is it important to where Mara is was it important to why she went to
New Hampshire on that Monday night in the grand scheme of things maybe but I don't think so but
you know it kind of brings me to the point of you've got this cast of characters that are
obsessed with this case and some of which are using it for for profit uh for some of them need content
or some of them need to pick apart some of the stuff that a 21 year old girl did in college
to be relevant in you know we could we could pick apart every little thing that you and I did when we were 21 and it
would probably look a lot worse than what Mara did I mean I don't want to speak for you but I mean I did some
really dumb stuff yeah but you also had a clean room but I did have a clean room yeah
so I mean once you have a clean room they people trying to write books or people
trying to start podcasts if they see a clean room they just keep moving yeah they go oh nothing to see here yeah
exactly um what I'm trying to do is to get a sense of where you think she was at and her life how she thinks how you
think things were going because I know with siblings I hear about the Ebbs and flows
and and and sometimes your parents will tell you oh things aren't going so well so then you reach out and check in with
your brother or sister and find out hey things are not actually that bad or they
tell you things are great and then you check in and you go oh things aren't that great
but to me it seems like things are she's doing a lot better and she's heading in
the right direction yeah and one of the things that that I can say about that is she was doing
really well in the nursing program she was on the track team she had a group of girlfriends that she hung out
with she kept in touch with her friends from high school pretty regularly more than than I ever did but the other thing
is she was an athletic tutor so she was a tutor for other athletes you don't just become an athletic tutor
if you've you're a mess you know what I mean so um I don't know what the selection
process was or how you got to be a tutor but um she definitely was one and she met
some kind of qualification yeah exactly um and she she actually had a an appointment or a session I don't know
what it's called the week that she went missing um that she didn't show up to obviously
because she was missing um so I'd be interested in trying to track down who that person was she was
supposed to tutor was that session supposed to be on that Monday I'm not sure the exact day but I know it
was that week yeah because that's the other thing that is kind of unclear is she you know so things are going pretty
well I know there's these these phone calls that she gets at work she seems a little upset so
one of her bosses walk her back to her dorm do you know who that call was to or what
it was about or yeah so that call was um with my older sister Kathleen to the best of our knowledge from what we know
from phone records and talking to everyone um that spoke to her that night so she
had a call with my older sister Kathleen basically Kathleen had just gotten out of rehab
um for um alcoholism and her husband at the time picked her up from rehab and took her directly to a
liquor store and Kathleen was telling Mara that so my thought is you know that call was
earlier in the night I think it was about 10 10 p.m ish um and Mara was at her security desk job where she would
check people's IDs to get into the dorm room at UMass and she hung up the phone with Kathleen
um that way also another job that they don't give to people that are barely making it by exactly yeah struggling to
get through school yeah yeah and that was one of her jobs she had she had another job so she had two jobs uh so
she was she was on the go like she was doing a lot how mad was how mad was your dad about
her having two jobs well I don't even know if my dad knew one of them but I'm not sure if he knew
she worked at an art gallery as well I'm not sure if if he knew about that he probably did because he loves art and
stuff like that but yeah so she gets his call that's pretty upsetting it's a pretty upsetting call
um to get from your sister who you care about and for that to happen um Kathleen was probably upset and
disappointed in herself and felt like a failure and I know Mara was the type of person that would have tried to be stoic
and calm Kathleen down and and you know be that rock for her so I was just going to say that
sometimes you can be a rock for the person on the phone but when you get off the phone then you you have to
um let out that sadness or that negative energy yourself absolutely and so that's
kind of what I think happened I think it really upset Mara that that phone call with Kathleen and I think she wasn't
able to release any of those emotions with Kathleen in the state that she was and
so she probably and she was at her job so she didn't have this breakdown until later towards the end of her shift where
maybe she couldn't hold it together any longer and you know like you said you can't hold that in and Mara was was
emotional um and so she just had this breakdown to the point where the student boss I guess
you'd call it um Kamer was notified and came to where Mar was sitting and basically escorted
Mara um back to her room the other thing that people question a lot is that your
dad came to visit her the weekend before she went missing yes my dad came up from
Connecticut to visit Mara and the purpose of his visit was to buy a new car not a new car a you a new used
car from what new to her new to her yep that's what kind of cars we got so I don't I didn't know what a
new car was yeah oh exactly I was like you mean somebody else's car I believe they went and looked at some
cars uh and possibly called around but there wasn't anything that he was particularly
in love with well actually no that um they did find they they narrowed down they narrowed it down to two two cars
that weekend they they went to several different locations um Mara's uh boyfriend Bill actually
bought a car somewhere at at one of the locations that they looked at himself and so they went there and they felt no
Rouch bought a car yep during this trip no no no before prior Bill bought a car at a previous trip to
UMass to visit Mara okay yep so Mar and my dad went to that location to say hey do you let me see what your
inventory is what do you have they found one vehicle that was kind of in the right price range I that vehicle
was um I want to say four thousand dollars I believe then they went to another location this is on that Saturday
uh and they found another car which was a better car I can't remember the brand but I know it was red
um but that car was six thousand dollars and that's the car that my dad wanted to
get from our because it was a little bit it was a better brand or something I'm it might have been a I don't know what
kind it was but anyway my dad only my dad deals in cash um because when you're trying to go deal
with used car salesmen cash is King and so he had this God you sound like my father cash is King yes yes I know Dad I
know Dad I mean and you my dad's a pretty skilled negotiator when it comes to dealing with those old school type of
guys that typically work at UH used cars places yeah but back in the day car car
dealerships were different you and you could also you couldn't just call your bank and tell them run my card
for six grand no there was limits and stuff like that so the fact that he'd be dealing with cash makes the most sense
in the world but a lot of people then have taken this idea that they were going to go look for
a car which like if you had a rate her car uh one one to ten what would you rate it
it was like a two it was it was trash it was not good right and so they're going up
to get a car but then there's been all this speculation that your father gave her this money which is
I can't find proof of that that he gave her the money and then they say that she was pregnant
and that's why she's been missing all these years because she was pregnant and she was and your dad was helping her run
away yeah that's just crazy talk to me that's someone that needs to need some content or needs to make this
sensationalize this that is not what happened and dumb just says some background like my dad deals in cash not
only with card you know dealing with cars he just he always has cash all the time and I guarantee you when he was
looking at those cars He I'm pretty sure he probably flashed his cash in front of
whoever it was to try to get a you know a a better deal on the car um and listen his his bank was in
Connecticut and it's not like it's not like they had Sun Trust and I don't know Bank of America
um yeah so it's not like you could just get a bunch of cash out from anywhere back
then actually I think his his bank account might have been out of east or yeah eastern Mass
but whatever it wasn't it wasn't near UMass um and so he had limits on how much he
could withdraw he knew he wanted the cash because to incentivize the dealer to give him a better better deal
the bottom line was he wanted to get more of the more expensive car and he didn't have the the other two thousand
dollars so he told her I'm gonna come back next weekend and we're gonna get you this car the other reason why time
was of the essence for her to get this car was be part of her nursing program required her to go to clinicals and so
she had to travel to all these different hospitals for these clinical rotations that she had and part of the the process
was that was she had to confirm that she had reliable transportation which she did not
um so she she needed this car to go to these clinicals because she was just bumming rides from her classmates you
can only miss so many uh clinicals these are huge in a nursing program and some places
that you can't even miss one uh if you miss one you have to do a makeup so to miss one uh could have been a big No-No
yeah absolutely and she was doing so well in the program I don't think she wanted to take that risk
um and it this is just speculation on my part but she could have told her professors she needed time off
and there was a death in the family so that she could buy some time to get this new car and not basically lie and
say for whatever reason she had to go and it could have been to take care of her
reinstatement fee in New Hampshire which she knew she had a she got a speeding ticket New Hampshire the couple months
prior to her going missing um so it kind of all kind of comes together into a theory that that's why she was
going up to New Hampshire in the first place all right so let's okay let's stay on that first second so
and I believe this is like new information that for 15 years we've wondered why she was there and then what happened
and I believe we have the most plausible reason of what why she was there so your dad comes to visit he's going to
buy her car they find one but it's not the car that she wanted so now she decides that she is going to she's going
to go to an area that she went on vacation with uh your father and Bill and during that time she got a speeding
ticket yes and so she then didn't pay the speeding ticket no she she did pay the speeding ticket
she actually she was required to appear because she got a 99 the speeding ticket
was 99 miles per hour so it was pretty pretty fast right she had to appear and pay a pretty
hefty fine which she paid the fine for the speeding but they she never paid the reinstatement fee or we don't know
whether she's paid the reinstatement fee right so it looks like they probably suspended her license for a time period
and then they wanted her to pay a reinstatement fee right and then so she didn't pay that fee so
so you believe that on that Monday when she then tells her school and work and everybody look there's a family
emergency and uh I gotta take care of this and then I'll be back so the thought is that she was going to
drive up there Monday either pay then stay somewhere and then go back to your father's house well yeah it was my
mother's house at the time but that yeah that's sort of what the theory is but basically
she she got into an accident that that Saturday night prior um to her going missing on Monday after
they her and my dad went car shopping and so the thought is that's when she learned that she had a
suspended license that required her to show up in person in New Hampshire to pay a reinstatement fee
because I'm not sure how well she would have known that her license was suspended in New
Hampshire so yeah although her license wasn't suspended in Massachusetts you know if
the the officer at the accident and Hadley on that Saturday would have run her license he may have seen that and
just said hey you know you have this issue yeah and the accident on Saturday she just
ran off the road yeah she just fled off the road she just yeah ran off went into a t she
was at A T intersection and just went straight forward and hit the guardrail so then she she is driven back by the
police officer to your father's Hotel because he's visiting trying to help his daughter get a car yeah well she she she
jumped in the tow the the officer on the scene did not cite her for DUI she he let her go she didn't get any
she didn't get anything and he allowed her to jump in the tow truck in the tow truck took the car the my dad's Corolla
to wherever they take it which happens to which happened to be right next to where my dad's Hotel was and so she
walked in and just went to the hotel so okay so have you talked to your dad about this did he did he think she was
intoxicated because you said she didn't get a DUI or her own VI yeah so I mean it's pure speculation who can say who
can say whether she was intoxicated or not right um obviously a not for the not enough for the officer to think that she
deserved to be arrested for it yeah and I mean we're talking about UMass it's but I would say over half the student
body is intoxicated on Saturday night um but that I'm you know I'm not I think that doesn't mean they should be driving
though yeah oh absolutely I totally agree with you and even if even if she was over tired she shouldn't have been
driving um right but yeah I totally agree with you but I think the police officer like
I said if it was apparent she's been heavily drinking he's not gonna let her off like that no I just I don't buy that
for one minute so he lets her go back how about you just jump in the tow truck and then go back to your dad's hotel and
the another thing about the internet that I mean with this case and I find this just absolutely
uh appalling and disgusting is is some of the stuff that people then have speculated or assumed because
Fred has a hotel and his daughter's going to stay in the hotel with him how has that kind of speculation
you know against your father uh I just don't even want to say the words I don't want to rehash what they're
speculating but I mean how how does that affect you I mean it's just sick it really is because number one
um there was two beds in that room right and it's really upsetting because obviously whoever's spreading this does
has doesn't know my dad um and to say those things about a father with a missing child is nothing other
than sick and there's there's got to be a motive behind why anyone would say that and I
think it's pretty clear what the motive is for any for whoever's saying that so she ends up talking to your father your
sister ends up talking to your father talking to her boyfriend that night well let me let me just clear the record on
that so when she got back to the hotel room in the tow truck she couldn't get into the his room
um so she actually kind of dozed off on the couch in the lobby of that hotel right she didn't have a key to the room
and I don't know whether she didn't want to wake my dad or there was maybe a Lobby
um door that you had to have a key to the room to get in I'm not sure the exact circumstances but my dad didn't
know that anything even happened until the next morning when he woke up somehow she I guess when the the front
desk person came I don't know if it was man 24 hours or whatever somehow she got
to access to my dad's room later on in the morning and she used his cell phone to call Bill
and tell Bill what happened and then that's when she told my dad what happened she has a cell phone we know
she has a cell phone but it's possibly dead at that point and then well she left it she left the cell phone at the
dorms right so she didn't have her own cell phone it was so nice back in the day when we could do that just leave
though just leave your cell phone at home you don't need it yeah I think we'd all freak out right well I mean that's
but but here's another point that I think it's interesting for people to hear is
there's tons of people that have investigated this case there's tons of people that have looked at this case and
to just talk about the time that she gets in a wreck on Saturday and then she goes back to the hotel with her father
and I have never heard that she actually had to go to the lobby first and sleep on the couch
yeah I mean this is the misinformation that gets put out there not for every case but for a lot of
cases there's little and and does that have anything to do with her going missing probably not but it's just to
show that not all details or things that are people are reporting should everybody take as fact I agree and I
think that my kind of rule of thumb with this is to fig to figure out the motive behind why
people are saying certain things and it's been 16 years and you know I've figured out there there's a few loud
voices surrounding this case um and their motives are pretty uh apparent um and so I don't really let that that
type of stuff really get to me and distract me from what my urine is and my motive which is to find my sister so
you're so you're telling me that she's not pregnant and your father's not paying for her to start a new life
yes I can't believe I have to say this um yes that's what I'm saying the four thousand dollars was to buy her a new
buy her a car that actually ran with all cylinders firing and she so there's I have to address it I
can't believe I do but the rumor about the pregnancy um issue is that her computers showed
searches for pregnancy terms maternity terms and that's because her homework assignment was she was going through a
maternity cycle and so her literal homework was to look up maternity terms Julie that sounds a little too
convenient I mean I mean it's not a good story it's not it's not salacious and it's yeah and and also she was on birth
control and the birth control she had four pills missing out of the her current pack of birth control right that
was found one of the items found in her car so and the other thing too is there's been
multiple accounts that after the first year of her going missing your father's up there every weekend and then it I
think then he kind of goes down to every other week and then eventually every three weeks he's going up there
but that's yeah that that's hurtful that is really hurtful for me to hear stuff like that because I sat there and I
watched my dad for 10 years I mean we're going on 16 years yeah but for 10 years
that man that poor man drove up to New Hampshire from whether he was in Connecticut or down at the cape at the
time most sometimes and most of the times all by himself on that Lonely Road and I just can't imagine I wish I could
have been there on some of those trips with him I just can't imagine what he's thinking for four hours in his car
and then for people to say well he didn't go up there enough that man could not have gone up there any more than he
he did and it's really hurtful for me to hear stuff like that every weekend I mean you
have to make a living you have to pay your bills and then every weekend you're going and that's that is not coming from
I did not hear that from anybody in your family I heard that from uh volunteers people that were helping him and then to
continue to do that every year and continue to do that every weekend when you're finding no new information
I mean that I think there's a level of love and care that you just naturally have for
somebody in your family if he didn't have that for your sister there's it would be impossible
to do what he did in the amount of searches and the hours he searched and the amount of money he spent searching
yeah and I mean and like I said before all by himself most of the time I was in the army or in you know in my government
job and wasn't able to get up there as much as I would have liked when he went up there all he hit was roadblocks he
just hit roadblock after roadblock and two years into the case after hitting all these roadblocks the man who
supposedly took four thousand dollars out to help Mara run away is pleading for the release of all the records
at the New Hampshire Supreme Court pleading to get the FBI involved now what man who's trying to help his
daughter Escape pleads for the FBI and also with the speculation out there that she was
that she ran away to start a new life because your father was sexually abusive or physically abusive for her to get in
a crash on that Saturday and then tell the police officer ah don't take me to my dorm take me to my father's hotel
that doesn't make a lot of sense to me we're we're getting logical here I don't know I don't know what the internet can
handle that but then the abusive person that is abusing the person because they don't care about them
cares so much that they go search for him by themselves there's just no logical sense nor is there evidence and that's
the thing that has really drove me nuts about people talking about your sister people that claim that they're looking
for your sister people that claim that they're they're they have a that they're doing this
for good uh making accusations and speculations with no evidence and so so that so that Monday we believe
that she was going up with this with the new theory that I believe is based off of actual evidence
that she was going up to that area to pay pay that ticket yeah and I'm not married to any Theory and I'm
not pushing a theory I don't know where Mara is I don't know what happened to her
I'm open to I have to be open to all possibilities and all theories um not wild speculation but based on
what we do know we can kind of narrow it down a bit but like I said I'm not I'm not convinced that this is the theory
and I'm gonna you know push this narrative um but it's possible it's possible I just haven't heard that many logical
reasons why I should be in that area and this to me sounds like an actual logical
reason yeah I I mean I I definitely agree I I wish I knew I wish I I knew the answer to why she was there
I wish somebody did I wish she would have told somebody like I said like before I've said it so many times it
doesn't make it doesn't make sense for her to be there and it wasn't smart and she wasn't supposed to drive the Saturn
and she didn't drive the Saturn when my dad was around because he she knew that um he'd get her for it and say this is
awful this is also why he said hey while I'm at my hotel not using my car why don't you use my car
go hang out use my car exactly but I will say that I do know that occasionally I guess when she couldn't
find any other person to take her where she needed to go she would jump in the Saturn and drive it short distances
um because and one of her emails to her high school friends she referenced getting stuck in the snow in her stupid
Saturn or I don't know what term she used so she jumps in her Saturn she's going to go we know that she stops at an
ATM we that that footage was finally released I think the biggest thing about them releasing the ATM footage was you
not knowing if you've seen the jacket that she was wearing part of part of that statement I mean and when you when
I'm on the oxygen show and I'm saying that and I'm I'm looking at the computer screen that they put in front of me that
is the very first time in my entire life that I had seen that and I was trying to
hold it together I was really just trying to say something um and I don't know what made me say that
but it's true I mean I didn't recognize a jacket but I was in such shock and it it's a hard thing to to it was a hard
thing for me to see especially with cameras all over me and I'm trying to play it cool and be like
you know not get super emotional um and so I'm like I don't recognize a jacket I'm like why did I say that it's
not an appropriate thing to say but it's true it's just where my mind went um but that was that was hard yeah it's
also emotional because you have been through so much and your family has been through so much
and then you get to see this picture and that's the last known recording of her yeah and I've stared at those pictures
I've analyzed those pictures I've zoomed in and zoomed out just to kind of like try to read her expression try to
figure out her state of mind because I knew Mara better than anyone and the this unfortunately the still shots
that we were shown are pretty bad quality yeah um I can't tell you how how many times I've
stared at those pictures because it literally is that the last time I've I'll see her
[Music] thank you to everybody for joining us here in the garage today join us back
here again tomorrow for much more on this case until then be good be kind and don't live
foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Maura Murray /// Julie Murray Interview /// Part 1

Part 1 of 2

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This week Julie Murray sits down for an interview with the Captain. She gives us some of the truths about her missing sister Maura and some insights from the family. Beer of the Week - Midnight Rider by Piedmont Brewery and Kitchen Garage Grade - 4 and a quarter bottle caps out of 5

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Brief Summary

Julie Murray discusses her sister Maura's disappearance and the theories surrounding it, emphasizing the need for clarity and understanding.

Key points

Mara Murray's Mysterious Disappearance. Mara Murray, a promising student and athlete, vanished after a car accident in 2004.
Interview with Julie Murray. On the 16th anniversary of Mara's disappearance, her sister shares insights and memories.
Mara's Athletic Achievements. Mara excelled in sports, making it to the state finals in free throw shooting.
Mara's Departure from West Point. Exploring the reasons behind Mara's exit from military school, raising questions about her motivations.
The Lip Gloss Incident. Delving into the circumstances surrounding Mara's theft and its implications.
Mara's Emotional Breakdown. A look into Mara's emotional struggles and the impact of family dynamics.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The strange missing persons case of Maura Murray is one of the more popular mysteries.

Introduction to Mara's case significance

5:53WatchNov 18, 2022

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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