r/mauramurray

First time posting in here. This case fascinates me because she just vanished into thin air! I live in a different part of New Hampshire but I’ve spent great amounts of time in this area just outside of the White Mountains, including driving at night and it’s just so dark and empty out here. The road she was driving isn’t a major travel way and my spidey senses having been on these roads tell me the chances of someone just drifting from out of the area and happening upon her walking away from her car are basically nil. If someone picked her up, it would be either a local or someone en route to a ski area, which means they’d be an out of towner likely with a car full of gear, and not likely super familiar with the surroundings themselves. Also, because of how dark and barren the roads are, literally anyone who might have driven by in that window would have stopped to offer her assistance just based on human instinct. It would just be such an anomaly to see a 20-something woman walking down this road after dark in the dead of winter. I’m wondering if anyone citizen detective or otherwise has recreated the potential walk from the car to show just how alone Maura would have been, regardless of those tucked in at home around her, the darkness and solitude she would have encountered out there cannot be overstated.

Building on the exercise I posted a year ago, here are some improved and additional perspectives from the critical minutes on the night of Feb 9th, 2004.

You can read the about the environment around the WBC between ~727p-7:37p that was used to create these perspectives in the post linked above, and the point/intent of going through this kind of thought experiment.

With that, I'll jump right in:

~7:27pm-7:29pm

Following the accident, this would be her view of the scene looking eastbound and westbound down RTE112:

Looking westbound down RTE112, towards the WBC

Looking eastbound on RTE112, her intended direction of travel.

~7:31pm-7:32pm

Then, shortly after the accident - after she gathers herself, confirms her phone has no service and begins putting together her things and exiting the vehicle, BA arrives at the corner:

BA's school bus coming around the WBC corner (driving eastbound)

~7:32pm-735pm

Within a couple minutes, BA leaves the scene and continues on to his home, which sits on the left side roughly 500 feet eastbound on RTE112 from the accident site.

BA continues eastbound towards his house

Then Maura would see (and hear) Butch's bus come to a stop not far up the road, then reverse back into his lot.

BA stops, turns slightly to the right towards Bradley Hill Rd to angle the bus, then backs into his driveway/lot on the left side of 112.

Now, throughout these minutes, this is what most imagine witness FW's point-of-view would've been (like we've seen documentaries and other recreations). And yes, this is what the scene would've looked like if there had been a full moon on that night, blanketing the snowy landscape in a dull glow.

https://preview.redd.it/d5zey3d1u8th1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=b9026f09e80d9c915b3ecedc2360414e07359196

But, as we've outlined in the previous post, there was no moon at this point. Thus, there was near-zero natural light illuminating the surrounding area. This changes the environment completely.

Below is a much closer representation of what FW would have see from her window (if the vehicle's lights were still on).

The Saturn viewed from the Westman's home immediately after the accident.

The driver would then presumably turn off the exterior lights (if they weren't already), then turn on the interior lights.

Same POV, w/ exterior lights off and interior light on.

Then the driver would exit the vehicle...

https://preview.redd.it/1be913d1u8th1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=835b4acfa65aaefb1486278a846f0244f93ebc51

Then there's activity at the trunk of the vehicle.

https://preview.redd.it/vd5xf2d1u8th1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=817c809a35cb8346ee181e3cb4d15c76ca814ea1

Then the driver closes the trunk, locks the car, and leaves.

Once locked up, it's doubtful FW would've been able to see the Saturn until the moon rose an hour and a half later (at which point the scene was cleared anyways).

~7:37pm-7:40pm

Now, if Maura moved back to the west - away from where she just saw BA's bus back in, and back in the direction she came from - the image below would be her view at the WBC, with FW's house on the right. Due to the lack of any natural light in the area, she would begin to see the blue emergency lights of the responding officer far off in the distance behind the horizon. Those lights would appear as a faint blue glow that would be flickering with a steady rhythm, and thus be pretty noticable/recognizable.

Note: This is the same effect that allows you to see infinitely more stars in the night sky when you're out in the middle of nowhere with no bright lights, rather than in the city or an area with a lot of light pollution.

https://preview.redd.it/tqne9a53w8th1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=56997634c2fff50c34deeee944a1d8e4a9c2def9

If Maura did head back westbound, many think that this image below would be a view of the WBC that night from FW's property (and it could be close with a full moon on a clear night), which would lead one to think Maura would've been spotted for sure...

https://preview.redd.it/fmi1c3d1u8th1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=e6f7de85fbf6921f680f4072044ac46e692e3782

But, in reality, the WBC from FW's property would have appeared more like this from the Westman's:

To anyone viewing the area from a spot that had its own light source, they would not be able to see much of anything in or around the road.

To consider the possibility of someone stopping and picking her up: If they came to a stop just past the accident site, in the timeframe after BA driving away and before Maura exiting the immediate area, this is what how that stopped car would most likely appear from the accident site.

Looking from the accident site eastbound on RTE112 (towards BA's house). A car stopping here would have lit up the road, and someone standing in the road on-foot, the same way the Saturn does in the above image from the FW POV.

With that, I welcome any thoughts and discussion you might have.

If there are other perspectives folks would like to see, please feel free to comment.

Edit: fixed typos, clarified some detail.