- Maura Murray, then 21, went missing after leaving her dorm at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and crashing her car in New Hampshire in 2004.
- Her family is continuing to keep her memory alive with a new scholarship for a graduating Whitman-Hanson Regional High School senior who competes in cross country.
HANSON − The family of missing Hanson native Maura Murray is continuing to keep her memory alive with a new scholarship for a graduating Whitman-Hanson Regional High School senior who competes in cross country.
Maura Murray, then 21, went missing after leaving her dorm at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and crashing her car in New Hampshire in 2004. Murray was a 2000 graduate of Whitman-Hanson High School and captain of the cross-country team.
“We’ve had the idea for a scholarship in the back of our minds for a long time, but we’ve always been so focused on the investigation side,” Julie Murray, Maura’s sister, said. “It’s been 19 years now, but it feels like we always have something going on.”
Julie Murray said Janina Horan, a Whitman-Hanson High employee, approached the family about starting the scholarship, which is for $1,000 in its first year.
Whitman-Hanson head cross-country and track coach Steve George selected this year’s recipient, Anne Tilley, from a pool of female candidates who compete in cross country, have at least a 3.0 grade point average and display Maura’s dedication and spirit.
“She’s captain of the cross-country team and an amazing student and athlete, just like Maura,” Julie Murray said.
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Investigators said Maura Murray left her dormitory at UMass-Amherst on Feb. 9, 2004, and drove north, though the reason is unknown. They know she made it at least as far as Haverhill, New Hampshire, a mountainside town near the Vermont border.
Residents reported seeing her along a sharp turn on Route 112 after her car had gone off the road and slammed into a snow bank at about 7:30 p.m. One passerby said he offered help, but Murray said roadside assistance was on its way.
The man drove home and called police. When officers arrived a short time later, Murray was gone, leaving no footprints in the snow and only scattered clues.
No one has heard from Murray since, and her family has been waiting nearly 20 years for answers. To keep her sister’s disappearance in the public eye, Julie Murray said her family has remained active on social media and on the website mauramurraymissing.org.
There has been international interest in Murray’s disappearance and potential leads in the case before, but none have led to answers.
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In 2018, public radio producer Maggie Freleng and former U.S. Marshal Art Roderick set out to discover what happened to Murray in the Oxygen TV network’s true crime TV series “The Disappearance of Maura Murray.” They worked with Lance Reenstierna and Tim Piller, who host a podcast about Maura Murray’s disappearance, and James Renner, who wrote a book about the case.
With any missing-persons case, Julie Murray said, the most important thing is keeping the person’s name out there as much as possible.
“By doing this, it not only keeps Maura’s legacy alive and is a positive way to honor her, it also keeps her in the public consciousness,” Julie Murray said. “Any opportunity we have to keep her on people’s minds, we jump at it because someone out there knows something. She didn’t just vanish off the face of the Earth.”
Murray said her family plans to make the scholarship an annual tradition.
“I’ve gotten plenty of messages from people always asking for a way to help and who want to donate, so it will get bigger and bigger,” she said.