Category Archives: Interviews

My Visit to The Crash Site

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I spent some time, today, at the site of Maura’s crash in New Hampshire. I will upload the video I took as soon as it transfers from my phone to my laptop. Of note was my conversation with Mr. Westman, which I will describe here.

Mr. Westman, shaking out a rug in his front lawn, was nice enough to answer some of my questions about his observations of the crash.

He had been in his office, with Mrs. Westman, when he heard a crash. In response, he and Mrs. Westman went to the kitchen, which is in the smaller section of the house.

Maura Murray

They looked out the side windows (the ones closest to the ribbon) and saw Maura’s car facing westward in the eastbound lane.

I asked Mr. Westman whether Maura might have impacted a snowbank in front of his house. He stated that she could not have done so; she “definitely” impacted by the trees near her ribbon. He explained that he had heard the impact and he was certain of its location.

I asked Mr. Westman about the red dot — what did he believe that it was? He stated that, originally, he and Mrs. Westman believed that it was a cigarette. Later, “a family member” of Maura’s “told” him that it was not a cigarette and that, instead, it was a cellphone charger.

I asked Mr. Westman why he and Mrs. Westman stopped watching the site. He stated that Mrs. Westman remained in the kitchen until the cruiser arrived, but acknowledged that she had not made it a point to watch the scene the entire time. He believes, however, that Mrs. Westman would have seen Maura traveling west had she done so.

Does any of this information alter your perceptions of the case? If so, how?

Perspective

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By Tyler from Pittsburgh

Yesterday we had an opportunity to speak with blogger John Allore.

Tragically, John’s sister was murdered in 1978 in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada. The unanswered questions surrounding the fate of his sister inspired John to start a crime blog in 2002. Over the years John has searched for answers for his sister, Theresa, as well as for other murdered and missing women — including Maura Murray.

John began covering Maura’s story shortly after she disappeared in 2004. As someone who had extensive experience investigating the unknown fate of a loved one, he reached out to the families of both Maura as well as Brianna Maitland.

“I was doing an investigation on my sister’s case,” he says, “from that I started to get pulled into these things more and more.”

John has corresponded with Helena Murray, among others. He even briefly exchanged emails with Maura’s father, Fred Murray, whom he put in contact with Canadian authorities.

Presently, John is surprised that so much interest has arisen with regards to the possibility that Maura may be in the province of Quebec.

“It was shocking to me to see that they had posted ‘have you seen this woman’ posters in the Eastern Township newspapers in Sherbrooke.”

He’s right. From our perspective, there is a lack of evidence that suggests Maura fled the country. That’s not to say turning over every stone isn’t valuable, but John told us a tale of what can happen when too much hype is focused on a single theory.

“I think it was the summer of 2005, someone put me in contact with Dateline NBC,” he recalled, “In the course of these conversations we were also talking about Maura and we were talking about Brianna. And the producer at Dateline was pushing us… To go on record as saying we think there is a link between Theresa’s murder and Brianna and Maura — we wouldn’t do it because there was no factual basis for it. So the segment didn’t air.”

That’s an extremely unfortunate situation. Who knows how much help a nationally televised segment could have provided any of the three disappearances. It’s an ugly snapshot of the free-falling quality of the news media.

“It’s like what’s happening in Malaysia right now,” John said, referencing missing Malaysian airliner Flight 370, “No one knows anything so they fabricate everything based on absolutely no evidence… Over time they [the media] start operating in their own interests. They were suggesting she [Theresa] was a runaway, she was a drug addict, she was a lesbian… My parents got so fed up with it that they began to worry about how it would affect me and my brother who were 13 and 17… So they just shut down and stopped talking to anyone.”

John’s perspective is a valuable one. It’s easy to view a situation from the outside looking in and make assumptions. Answers to questions that we often decide are complex are likely very simple. In the case of Fred Murray, it’s not hard to understand why after ten years of attention, he may simply feel the media does more harm than good in some cases.

Whatever you ultimately believe, don’t rule out the most simple explanations; explanations which have very solid evidence to back them up. It’s always fun to delve into the most exciting of theories. But there is a very strong possibility Maura rests somewhere not far from that bend in the road on Route 112 — just as John’s sister, Theresa, was eventually found less than a mile from where she disappeared.

Please visit John Allore’s blog at theresaallore.com