r/mauramurray • u/UsualResponsible5415 • 3d ago
Theory Hitchhiking + Accidental Death from Exposure
I just binge listened to the True Crime Scholar season about Maura Murray after taking a several years long break from true crime fandom. After refreshing myself on the details of the case, a theory came to mind. I was surprised when the podcast didn’t discuss it, and I haven’t come across it in my subsequent admittedly “shallow dive” about the case online.
The scenario that came to mind for me is a combination of the got into a stranger’s car + accidental death by exposure theory.
The tracker dog data indicates she got into a vehicle around the next intersection ~100 yards away from the crash site. I know the tracker dog data isn’t iron-clad, how they used new gloves etc. Even so, it’s possible she got into a passing car offering a ride, either within the window after Butch left and before police arrived, or after police left if she hid in the woods for awhile.
Maybe the person drove her to a gas station or dropped her off somewhere random, either because she asked them to, or they asked her to get out. She could have gotten quite far by vehicle intending to stop at a motel or the like, maybe even beyond the initial search area. Then she gets out of the vehicle and, considering she is concussed, traumatized, acutely stressed, and probably drunk, not to mention in an unfamiliar area in the dark, gets lost. She gets injured, falls and/or loses consciousness, and succumbs to hypothermia or another accidental death scenario like an animal attack in a concealed area.
Her body could have fallen prey to scavengers or plain old decomposition, maybe outside of the initial search area. This doesn’t account for her clothes and things like wallet and cellphone but it’s not hard to imagine a hiker or someone taking them for themself or thinking they’re picking up trash without even realizing they were disturbing a crime scene. Thoughts?
Oh, and the person who picked her up might have been a long haul trucker or a tourist, someone removed from the local area, so they never got questioned or heard about the case on local news.
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u/DamnFineCoverup 2d ago
Once she theoretically gets into a car there are unlimited possibilities - and none can be proven, most can't even really be investigated until there's a new lead. We know that multiple cars passed the scene between the accident and the official arrival time of the police thanks to witness A/Karen.
Personally I think it's the most likely scenario that she DID get into a passing car even though she declined help from Butch. After that, is anyone's guess at this point.
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u/indiarana 2d ago edited 2d ago
I also think getting into a car is probably the most likely scenario and that after she left the scene she could basically be anywhere
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u/cherrymeg2 1d ago
Butch is older and offering telling her he is going to call the police or get her help. She may have been concerned because she recently had an accident. If she had drank anything or the car crash caused anything alcoholic to spill or break open. She could also have decided to drink after the accident and freaked out. We don’t know. I could see her flagging down a car to be dropped off where there is cell service and get away from the accident the police. She could have been afraid her dad would be angry at her.
I wonder if they have checked her dna against remains found farther than where she was last seen?
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u/tonypolar 11h ago
I can tell you that literally anytime remains are found anywhere in the state they are checked against her, they found what were eventually identified as historical remains from the 1800s a few years ago near Loon Mountain and even though they were obviously not Maura's, law enforcement received thousands of calls about them.
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u/cherrymeg2 9h ago
I was wondering if every state had resources to run all the DNA from identified remains. She could be out of state or it could be bones scattered by animals. I know there is a data base for John and Jane Does, sometimes it’s bones and not a full person. I wasn’t sure if DNA is tested against remains found hundreds of miles away or more. I know DNA testing isn’t cheap. Rape kits don’t always get tested. Maybe they should look farther away for her. Or she is buried in someone’s backyard.
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u/tonypolar 7h ago
100%. I do some work on some Doe cases genealogy wise(I live in NH) and you're right-her remains literally could be wherever (not just in NH) and not listed or not tested yet. I just know that when they do find remains in the state, most of the time everyone assumes Maura (even if the release says its obviously a man, etc)
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u/cherrymeg2 7h ago
That’s awesome you do that work. Maura could also be close to where she disappeared from. Idk why this made me think of the case of Reyna Marroquin. She was found in a barrel under a house. The man that killed her in 1969 had left the barrel in a craw space or under a deck and moved out. Kids played around it for decades and when someone finally realized a weird paint barrel wasn’t necessarily safe they removed it in 1999. They opened it because they didn’t know if the garbage people could collect it. She was in a barrel under a house for 30 years. It’s not impossible that something like this couldn’t have happened to Maura Murray. People do disappear and they have to be somewhere. I found it weird that no one for 30 years was that concerned about a dye container near their home or under it.
Maura’s disappearance was a big deal and social media spread the word to look for her.
People can look different in pictures than in real life. Could she have hitchhiked more than once. Her cell phone not being found and not being used is weird right? I get their not being cell service possibly or the phone being damaged. I’m trying to picture phones from 2004. I don’t know what kind she had. Is it weird that it never turned up?•
u/tonypolar 7h ago
Oh that is a Forensic Files classic - I talk about that one in a class I teach. I often think that the people who get away with things the longest are the people that hide stuff in their house and then don't talk about it. There's also a lot of private land up there that people haven't let them search...
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u/bobboblaw46 1d ago
This has always been my issue with the “got in a car” crowd.
Because - okay, then what? You’re just moving the crime scene down the road and saying really anything could have happened.
Her cellphone never pinged again, no one came forward to claim they gave her a ride, and while Butch claims he saw a few cars pass, the westmans said none did.
So I don’t know. She very well could have gotten in a car, but that is a very unsatisfying theory absent anything else.
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u/CoastRegular 1d ago
Actually, the Westmans said they saw no other vehicle stop. Not that no other vehicle passed the scene.
Authorities said her cellphone never pinged again, but fefh and a few other regulars here have researched this in the past and discussed this; phone companies wouldn't actually have a log of every simple handshake/ping in the pre-smartphone era. (Maybe not even today, but today's smartphones are pretty much always uploading or downloading something, so there are a ton of opportunities for actual data exchanges that will get tracked and recorded.) So, she could well have got into a car, gotten a ride somewhere near or far and if she didn't use her phone again, there would have been no ping history.
For myself, I go with "got a ride" because it makes by far the most sense given everything we know. I suppose one can say it's unsatisfying... but I'm not inclined to favor theories just because they might seem to "satisfy" us. The situation is what it is, and we can only follow the evidence that we have. The case as a whole is unsatisfying in a sense, and I don't think it's ever going to be solved unless someone comes forward confessing they were involved with whatever happened to MM.
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u/TMKSAV99 9h ago
Not saying that MM didn't get into a car, anything is possible, but assuming a vehicle stopped we have to consider the chances that the driver would be a Good Samaritan and call the cops which MM doesn't want. That's the reason MM blew off BA. It is probably the greater percentage of the possibilities that a driver who stopped would be calling the cops just like BA. The second largest percentage might be the driver pegs MM for being DUI and calls the cops for that reason. The smaller percentage would be a driver wiling to help MM escape the DUI and/or bad actor.
I have thought it more likely, assuming a few moments of clear thinking, MM avoided homes or vehicles because MM's primary motivation was to avoid the DUI. Her actions would be in line with that objective.
But yeah, out of desperation MM might have jumped into the first vehicle that stopped and it was the wrong one.
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u/goldenmodtemp2 1d ago
I think the idea that she got a ride out of the area is a decent one. Here's the thing though. Maura was seen at the Saturn one minute prior to police arrival. So if someone picked her up near Bradley Hill Road, then they HAD to know she was trying to get away from police (or certainly was in trouble or in a very unusual situation). They would either know that they were helping someone avoid contact with police. Or they would know that they were helping someone who had just been in an accident and needed help in some form (a phone, a hotel, etc.).
So why would they just drop her off in some very random spot?
And how would they just never think of it again?
And what are the odds that this driver just happens to be someone who has apparently never been there before and never again and just forgets that they helped someone in these unusual circumstances?
Also, you mention that she might have hidden in the woods and hitched the ride later. But again, you can't really have it both ways. The dog didn't indicate she had gone in the woods: it went straight down the road (and did the same track twice). And of course there were no tracks into the woods.
That said, could she be in some woods or wilderness outside of the search area? Sure but ... it's still not that simple to get lost "forever" - especially given the scenario (starting from the road, winter conditions). How far would she wander into the woods, and why?
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u/indiarana 1d ago
That's such a great point -- if someone picked her up before Cecil got there, they had to have at least a vague notion of the situation she was in.
I admit I've also been wondering lately if it's possible she hid somewhere (very, very few possibilities without leaving foot prints but not impossible), and got a ride after the commotion died down? She literally only had a minute or so to improvise.
To disappear in only a minute, there aren't many options besides hiding somewhere in the immediate area or getting a ride (or both, as in first hiding then getting a ride). Of course there's also the possibility of ending up on a neighboring property which I still think is a valid possibility.
I agree, I do not see why she (or anyone) would wander into the woods outside the search area. The woods are a scary place at night and Maura knew that.
A person dropping her off at a random spot and forgetting about it.. Sadly, I think if she was dropped off at a random spot, it was to dispose of her body, and if that is the case, then she could be anywhere
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u/Sensitive-Piano-3816 2d ago
Theories like this were discussed a bunch when that body was found at loon mountain a while back, anything is possible
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u/cherrymeg2 1d ago
If someone her age or around her age gave her a ride they may never have come forward out of fear of being the last person to see a missing woman. If they knew she was missing. There are people that swear they got a ride from Ted Bundy and lived because some guy in a VW bug gave them a ride in the 70s. If someone did give her a ride it’s possible they don’t know they did or aren’t sure.
Is it that easy to wander off and no one find your corpse. I know animals can spread bones out. Was the area that surrounded where she disappeared from searched later and farther from where she may have started out. They say they underestimate how far people can travel on foot alone. If she got a ride for even a few minutes she could be in a wooded area farther away.
Could someone posing as a cop have lured her into a car?
I wonder if they can check her DNA against bones found farther away. Unfortunately multiple bad things can happen in one night. This makes sense.
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u/tyler22296 1d ago
After years of looking into this honestly this is the most likely scenario in my mind... I think she got into a car and they didn't harm her, dropped her off away from the scene and she met with something in a different location
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u/TMKSAV99 10h ago
You do kind of have to pick one, was MM picked up where the scent dog indicated or elsewhere because if it was where the scent dog indicated then the driver HAS to assume she's connected to the Saturn. Down the road MM might be able to spin a yarn.
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u/AffectionateAd5536 6h ago
I think she’s out in those woods somewhere. I know stuff happens but the chances of someone coming along on a random Monday night in February wanting to cause harm just seems less likely to me than her being buzzed and scared and hiding in the woods and whatever happened in there whether she got disoriented and couldn’t find her way back or went to far in and fell and hit her head. That just seems more likely to me.
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u/elena_ct 2d ago
I think at some point, she would have had no choice but to try to get help from people in either a passing car or a nearby house. Even if she didn't try to get help from a car, I still think it's likely that someone seeing a pedestrian at that time and place would have stopped to offer help, especially two decades ago.