Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise / The New Hampshire Union Leader / Nashua Telegraph / Portsmouth Herald / Lowell Sun

Sunday, April 11, 2004

Note: The Lowell Sun includes additional detail, in bold at the bottom.

Missing UMass student’s family turns to psychic

HAVERHILL, N.H. (AP) — The family of a Massachusetts woman missing in northern New Hampshire for two months turned to a psychic to try to get some answers — and they didn’t get good news.

The psychic said she believes the young woman is dead, the victim of a serial killer.

University of Massachusetts nursing student Maura Murray has not been seen since she was involved in a one-car accident in Haverhill on Feb. 9.

Police have said there are no signs of foul play, but her family, and now nationally known psychic Carla Baron say they believe someone picked Murray up after the accident and harmed her.

Baron, of Los Angeles, believes Murray was picked up by a man passing through the area.

“I believe she is no longer with us,” Baron said.

Baron, a psychic profiler who helped lead police to finding the body of a man who had committed suicide in a cornfield in the Midwest, has provided Murray’s father, Fred, with a description of the person she believes picked up the woman, as well as the type of vehicle.

Fred Murray said Baron also told him there is another woman’s body near his daughter’s — a victim of the same person. And, Baron told him there have been others.

Murray told the Caledonia Record he does not want too many details released right away so police have time to analyze the information and search possible locations.

He said he spoke with Lt. John Scarinza, who has been in charge of the case, on Friday.

He asked police, again, to bring in the FBI and make a direct appeal to the public for any information they may have in helping find his daughter.

He said Scarinza mentioned police had been contacted by other psychics.

Meanwhile, Vermont and New Hampshire state police say there is no connection between the disappearances of Murray and a young woman over the border in Vermont.

Both disappeared after the next being involved in traffic accidents, but police say that is with its rear where the similarities end.

Brianna Maitland, 17, of Sheldon, Vt., has been missing since she left work in Montgomery, Vt., the night of March 19. Her car was found the nest morning with its rear end partially inside an abandoned building about a mile away.