In October 2003, Maura and Fred took a trip to four sites: Mt. Mansfield, Camel’s Hump, Owl’s Head, and West Bond. Two of these are near Stowe, VT and two are in the White Mountains. These sites link very closely to Maura’s web searches and phone calls prior to leaving Amherst. Last year I created a series of maps to lay out these linkages.
Without drawing too many conclusions, I wanted to note the following:
– Maura was looking at effectively two areas: Stowe/Burlington and The White Mountains. These “areas” are 135 miles apart.
– Maura had a map to Burlington, VT and a note card mentioning Burlington, VT (leading to or mentioning the Winooski VT exit 15 off of I-89) However, at some point she would have bypassed the exit to Burlington (Exit 108 near Lebanon) and continued north on I-91 (unless she went up 93, etc.). In any case, at least that night, she seemed to have made a choice to head to the White Mountains rather than Stowe/Burlington.
– She could have been choosing a single destination or she could have been planning a multi-stop trip. Or she could have had no destination or a “type” of destination. [I personally think the party or meet up theory is less likely given that she was calling places so far apart.]
– My own thought it that, these four locations would be worthy of further look. My additional thought is that the map provides a powerful visual with the linkage to the prior trip – although I would stop short of drawing any conclusions about her psychology. I would say it indicates a lack of firm destination, and a very clear linkage to her prior trip.
– What do others see when they look at these maps? What would be next steps in looking into these locations?
Map : Larger map showing all calls, web searches, combined with the October 2003 trip
Map: More general route map
Thank you to Clint Harting for spurring my thinking on this and for many others who added to excellent discussions on Reddit.
Not Without Peril | The Maura Murray Blog 
Awesome! It is great to see new content on this site, after FIVE YEARS of nothing. I know Clint used to post on the old notwithoutperil.wordpress.com, hopefully he will post here as well.
I am going to post a link to this on the MauraMurray reddit sub, if that is ok with you.
“What do others see when they look at these maps? What would be next steps in looking into these locations?”
This is probably not viable, but I would like to know whether there is any chance that we could find out exactly what the GO-STOWE message stated. I believe that it was the GO-STOWE message which prompted Maura to choose Burlington as her destination.
I think proving that Maura had a clear destination when she set out that day is important because, as you have said, she necessarily changed her mind that night. So by identifying (or confirming) that something on the GO-STOWE message caused her to choose Burlington as her destination, we can then begin to figure out where she was when she changed her mind. That location might help us determine why she changed her mind and, based on that, what her second intended destination was.
LOL!!!! Hey, James Cross. Give it up. You are nothing but a blowhard.
Sorry I just saw this comment. I promise I am not James Cross.
The note card with directions to Burlington, Vermont has nothing to do with Maura. I gave her an old edition of a Rand McNally Road Atlas. I had forgotten that the index card was still inside the atlas. I made of that set of Directions for me to go to a nursing college program in Burlington, Vt. It is my handwriting and red ink.. My name is written on the inside cover of the Atlas. I explained about his to Chief Williams in the early days of his investigation. I gave Maura the Atlas at Howell’s Truck Stop. Chief William came to the truck stop to question me. He had the note card and Atlas with him. Jeannie M Provencher