Family members of a missing Hanson woman are calling on New Hampshire legislators to create a permanent state highway marker at a memorial site.
In February of 2004, Maura Murray disappeared after her car crashed on Route 112 in Haverhill, New Hampshire.
Younger brother Kurtis Murray says a blue bow is tied to a tree where Maura was last seen.
“Maura was a special person, she was special to all of us. She doesn’t deserve to be forgotten,” said Kurtis Murray. “She is worth all of the efforts. There is not a day that goes by that I’m not motivated to do anything I can do to bring her home, because that’s what she deserves. The fact that she’s caught the attention of so many people speaks to that.”
He says the ribbon and tree are sacred to the family. They’re hoping a permanent highway marker will lead to information that helps find Maura.
A formal application was submitted on Friday to the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources.
“At this point, that bow, that tree, and that area is the last place Maura was on this planet. We don’t have her, we don’t have her ashes. We haven’t been afforded the opportunity to give her a proper burial. This situation hasn’t allowed us to do that,” said Kurtis Murray. “That is at this point, as close as we have to a grave site.”
He says that thousands of people visit the site each year, given the interest in the case.
Maura Murray grew up in Hanson, and was a star athlete and scholar at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School. She joined the United States Military Academy, and transferred to UMass-Amherst to pursue a career in nursing.
“I’m not saying this because she’s my sister, but she was honestly one of the most amazing people I’ve met in my life,” said Kurtis Murray. “Her energy, the fact that she was naturally coordinated to do anything she wanted to do at any time. She was brilliant, smart, humble, and very, very funny. I was blessed to have her in my life.”
Family members say on February 9, 2004, Murray told professors at UMass that there was a death in the family and that she was leaving campus for a week. She withdrew money from an off-campus ATM and drove toward New Hampshire.
That evening, Murray was located in Haverhill, N.H. after her car crashed into a ditch. At 7:27 p.m., Faith Westman, a nearby resident, called police to report the crash.
A bus driver named Butch Atwood spoke to her and asked if she needed police. Atwood drove home and called police at 7:42 p.m. When police arrived on scene at 7:46 p.m., Murray was nowhere to be found.
Since then, family members say there has been no trace of Maura.
Kurtis Murray says they’re organizing a call to action to urge legislators to protect the site of the memorial. An online petition has nearly 3,400 signatures. The request includes a draft marker that was text voted on by 724 supporters.
“Anything that shows support for this increases the likelihood that it will be approved,” he said. “That will be tremendously helpful to our family.”
More information can be found at mauramurraymissing.org.
