(NewsNation Now) — Maura Murray, 21, was a nursing student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst when she disappeared in 2004, just minutes after crashing her car on a rural road in New Hampshire.
Erinn Larkin hosts a podcast about the case. She and Murray were on the UMass track team when Murray suddenly left campus.
“It’s sort of two mysteries, it’s why was she going to New Hampshire? And what happened to her? Combined with the fact that there’s really not a lot of clues,” said Larkin, host of the 107 degrees podcast.
Larkin claims Murray told professors there was a family emergency or a death in the family and she was going to be away for a few days. She then drove to an ATM off campus and withdrew $290. She then stopped at a liquor store and bought about $40 worth of alcohol.
However, there was no death in the family and her parents didn’t know anything about her plans.
As she headed north on a country road around 7:30 p.m. on a Monday, she lost control on a sharp turn and the car went off the road into a tree.
A man who was driving by called 911. He said she was shaken up, the airbags had deployed and the car had heavy damage. But Murray refused help.
By the time an officer arrived, the car was locked and there was no sign of her.
“I think the most likely thing is that she was picked up by a local who offered her help, perhaps at first, but then something bad happened and that person is most likely responsible for her disappearance,” Larkin said.
After 18 years of searches and candlelight vigils, there are still no solid leads or answers.
Bones discovered last summer turned out not to be Murray’s.
Her DNA profile was finally entered into the FBI database and her family hopes something will turn up.