Journal Opinion

December 31, 2014

Page 6

Missing Persons

Throughout the years, the JO has carried an assortment of stories of missing persons. Many of them, like the missing man found in the woods after more than two weeks, have a happy ending. Others, even if the person is located, do not have such a happy ending.

Here are three missing persons stories that linger in the mind of our readers and our communities.

More than 10 years after Maura Murray, a 21 year-old college student from Massachusetts, disappeared from Haverhill, her story and her whereabouts are still unknown. After a passerby spoke with her and reported her car crashed into a tree on Route 112 in Swiftwater on Feb. 9, 2004, Murray vanished.

Sgt. Smith of the Haverhill Police Department arrived on the scene to find Ihe vehicle locked and without a driver. Despite years of "speculation, searches, investigations, leads to dead ends, and a neighborhood caught up in the middle of the tragedy" Murray remains a missing person.

Two years previous to this, Denms Robert Towle, 59, disappeared from Woodsville. He was last seen on around noontime on Aug. 4, 2002, while walking his dog. Later his dog was found at his residence along with all of his personal possessions and medication, but Towle was missing. After extensive searches, he remains missing.

Jean Ellen Caccavaro, 31, of South Newbury disappeared from the Cracker Barrel Bazaar in Newbury on July 29, 1977. The Journal Opinion reported that she "disappeared from acrowd watching a fiddlers contest on the Newbury Common, leaving her truck parked nearby with the keys, her purse and money in it." Also left behind were her husband and children.

Police reported that she had been seen in Monroe two days later, and there were reports that she was hitchhiking to Maine. Years later, she was found in Boston.

1 year ago

Journal Opinion

February 18, 2004

Pages 1 & 12

Woman still missing after snowbank accident

WOODSVILLE -- It has been one week since Maura Murray, 21, of Hanson, MA, crashed her car into a snowbank on Route 112 in Swiftwater and refused assistance by local residents. She has not been seen since.

Ar approximately 7 p.m. on Feb. 9, Haverhill Police Sgt. Cecil Smith responded to a reported one-vehicle accident on Wild Ammonoosuc Road (Route 112). He found the 1996 black Saturn abandoned by Murray. Witnesses who spoke to Murray reported that she appeared intoxicated but unhurt and refused assistance. She left the accident scene before police arrived.

A search of the area was conducted by the Haverhill Police Department, New Hampshire Fish and Game, New Hampshire State Police from Troop F and a state police helicopter. As of Feb. 14, the Haverhill Police had called off the search for Murray, but the investigation continues.

The Lincoln and Conway regions reportedly are well known to the Murray family and the missing girl. The family has vacationed in the area for years. Family Members from Massachusetts, Murray's boyfriend, Bill Rausch, from Oklahoma, and his parents from Ohio have searched the length of the Kancamagus highway in hopes of finding her.

They have posted fliers with Murray's picture at hotels and stores throughout the area. Family members are hoping that she took a ride with someone as there were few footprints near the car.

The father of the missing girl, Fred Murray, said he was concerned that the girl is troubled and possibly suicidal. A phone call to Rausch, on Feb. 10, is the only possible lead. When Rausch answered the call there was only breathing on the other end. The call made to Rausch's cell phone was dialed using a phone card. Police are attempting to track the origin of the card.

Murray is a white female with brown shoulder-length hair and blue eyes, approximately 5'7" tall and weighing 120 pounds. She was last seen wearing jeans and a dark-colored coat. The Haverhill Police Department asks that anyone who has seen Murray contact them at (603) 787-2222.

(Not an article, but a copy of the missing person flier)

Journal Opinion

February 25, 2004

Page 18

MISSING

02/09/04

Maura Murray

Age: 21

height : 5' 7" weight 120lbs.

curley brown shoulder length hair

Last seen wearing jeans & dark coat

Click to see picture with flier

Contact Haverhill Police Dept.

603-787-2222