Where is MAURA MURRAY

By Brian Fraga
Standard-Times staff writer
October 18, 2007 6:00 AM

DARTMOUTH — A folded topographical map perched atop an all-terrain vehicle showed the 4 square miles of woods and marshlands that police searched Wednesday for a missing UMass Dartmouth student.

The student, 22-year-old Neo Babson Maximus, was last seen on Woodberry Lane around 3 a.m. Saturday. Police searched the general area around that location Wednesday without success.

They noted the UMass Dartmouth senior could have since wandered elsewhere.

"We're not even sure he may still be in that area," said Dartmouth police Capt. Scott Brooks, who helped coordinate the search from a quarry off Fisher Road.

"Until we have something that gives us a new direction, we're going to keep looking there," he said.

Capt. Brooks was joined by more than a dozen Dartmouth, Taunton, Westport and UMass Dartmouth police officers who comprised the search-and-rescue team of the Southeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council.

For more than two hours, the officers searched on foot and drove ATVs through the woods looking for any signs of Mr. Maximus, who had legally changed his name from Charles M. Allen Jr.

Rescue personnel patrolled along power lines in the area, but muddy conditions made the search difficult.

Before Wednesday, Dartmouth police had already completed three searches with a bloodhound and other police dogs in areas where Mr. Maximus was last seen. Dartmouth police and a state police helicopter conducted an aerial search Tuesday.

Capt. Brooks said the SEMLEC team will likely be joined by additional police officers today for a more extensive, comprehensive search.

However, finding Mr. Maximus will remain a challenge.

"It will be difficult to find him if he does not want to be found," Capt. Brooks said. "At this point, he's certainly a danger to himself."

Meanwhile, Mr. Maximus's family in Haverhill waited anxiously for any updates.

"Awful, anxious, desperate. You couldn't imagine," said Charles M. Allen Sr., the missing man's father, in describing his family's feelings.

Mr. Allen said his son is an avid tennis player studying psychology at UMass Dartmouth.

"He's an all-around good kid, very intelligent," Mr. Allen said. "He loved his family."

There were scattered sightings of Mr. Maximus on Friday, Capt. Brooks said. He was seen walking in the woods on Russells Mills Road. His backpack was later found nearby on Slocum Road.

Capt. Brooks said Mr. Maximus is also believed to have been a man who tried to break into a Woodberry Lane house early Saturday morning.

Capt. Brooks said the homeowner reported a man climbed his house and tried entering through a second-floor window. The homeowner confronted the individual, who said he was looking for his friend "Mason," whom police identified as a UMass Dartmouth student and friend of Mr. Maximus.

The man then jumped off the house and ran into the woods, Capt. Brooks said.

Dartmouth police have said "medical issues" may have contributed to Mr. Maximus' disappearance. A source familiar with the search said Mr. Maximus was on medications for psychological reasons.

He is described as white, about 5 feet, 11 inches to 6 feet tall, with a slim build, and short, light brown hair and brown eyes, police said.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...

There was an article in the Valley News about the murder of Christopher Gray.
I feel these last few lines echo the thoughts of Maura's family.

copy/paste:

"After yesterday's hearing, Gray's legal guardian, Annie Crowley, said authorities have given the family little information about what
happened, and that she was grateful for every piece of information the court proceedings yielded.

“We knew this was going to be a long process, but we accept that,” Crowley said.“Every development makes it a little easier to understand
things, but right now, it's a foggy picture. When you don't hear anything, it’s harder to deal with things.”

It's just impossible to believe that anyone online is going to say, "John Doe kidnapped her from the mall." Or whatever. Has anyone asked Ted Kennedy what he doing on February 9, 2004? Maybe he did it.

She might have disappeared a hundred different ways for a thousand different reasons. But if this thread is any indication, there sure is a very mysterious method being used to find her. Or to accomplish something.

Sometimes I think this thread is closer to something maintained by a couple of lawyers who are looking for business by trying to encourage people to bad-mouth someone else and then out comes the lawsuit.

"John Doe did it." you write on this thread.

Two days later you get a letter saying, "I represent John Doe..."

Molly Bish and Tina and Bethany Sinclair disappeared basically from their hometowns. If there's much online discussion about these two cases, I'm not sure where to find it. Maybe it's there somewhere, but I don't see it myself.

So it makes me wonder - since about half the "discussion" on this thread consists of a town/gown kind of bashing of each other - if the car had not been found in Haverhill, would this thread even exit? What would people talk about?

The local police wrote a report about a relatively minor car crash, one that appears to have been a fairly ordinary event handled in a very normal way. Then the PI team comes along and spices it all up with unverifiable dribblings of "clues" about a staged accident. And innuendo about a witness.

This whole thing is difficult to understand. There's even one person who admits s/he impersonated Helena several times. Helena, if that's who it was, never met Maura. I haven't heard, at least lately, of one single person who ever actually knew Maura Murray in a regular, everyday sense.

FireCat wrote:

<quoted text>
Yup, thanks. That's what I thought (about 20/20). It sounded familiar. I do remember there were a lot of sloppy inconsistencies in the 20/20 story. Some of that may have been because there was a lot of old footage, but some of the "voice over" stuff was tweaked for maximum view factor, if you will. They kept referring, for instance, to "the middle of the night" which, yes it's full dark in NH at 7:00, but it's STILL not the middle of the night. It's dinner time.
I remember we discussed these "sensationalisms" a bit in the latter days of the last forum.

Yes, the repeated incorrect phrases (e.g., "her car hit a tree while negotiating a curve on Rt 112" etc) can drive a person nuts.

Weeper wrote:

I (this is my “professional opinion”, not necessarily the Team or LE you understand) believe the location of the Saturn was staged. I believe Maura met with foul play prior to the staging, I believe the overhang damage to the front end of the Saturn was deliberate; I believe her disappearance was not voluntary and I further believe this is no longer a “search and rescue” but a recovery. If there was ever a time in my life I hope to be wrong it is at this time.

Hmm, seems worth re-posting.

WHERE in Hampshire County is that athletic club?

can drive a person crazy for more than one reason

What Weeper wrote and the way he wrote it makes it the most ambiguous post on this board. Professional opinion? In quotation marks, no less. Why can't he say that it's simply his professional opinion. Without mysterious punctuation. He believes it's a recovery, but he hopes he is wrong. Blah, blah, blah...

As another poster asked, who is Weeper? God?

Maybe he's a teenager in Wisconsin.

"I haven't heard, at least lately, of one single person who ever actually knew Maura Murray in a regular, everyday sense."

What exactly do you have to contribute West Virginia in all your forms?

Money, time, info?

proof?

all I can see is that you know how to copy and paste information in an attempt-- all beit succesful one to dominate and difuse an info chain.

we are like bloodhounds, if youre intersted in the result, let dogs do the work. If you have a friendship with the family, let it be known. but If you keep adding all this bs... I mean common what do you got? nothing, ya got nothing.

When will there be a conference (private meeting) of sympathetic parties to hash all this out? Should one rely on NH alone to produce their harshest witness?

West Virginia, tangential thinking works except when it doesn't. you should understand that.

What was that Weeper said?

Oh that's right he said, "I've got a gun", and it bent poor Alden all out of shape.

Did LE or PI stage the crash by the barn themselves? Is this some kind of whacky, complicated way of catching someone? Or at least blaming someone?

YES, and it was LE, not a PI. wanna rumble?

Guns and bombs are for sissies like Paul Hill and Eric Rudolph.

Harry wrote:

can drive a person crazy for more than one reason

Is that what happened to you Harry?

the southern avenger wrote:

I mean common what do you got? nothing, ya got nothing.

Stella! Hey, STELLA!

the southern avenger wrote:

YES, and it was LE, not a PI.

Which dept?

the southern avenger wrote:

we are like bloodhounds, if youre intersted in the result, let dogs do the work.

Bloodhounds can be useful tools - when their handlers are not leading people down the wrong trail. Personally, I prefer results submitted by a rational human being.

After almost five years, it's safe to say those dogs don't hunt.