Clintjournalist's interview with Maribeth Conway:

​

My Interview with Maribeth:

​

September 6, 2013 by clintjournalist

​

I had released this over on the websleuths forum, but here it goes for here as well.

​

For discussion purposes, I am releasing my interview I did with Maribeth Conway.

Maribeth Conway was a news reporter who came onto the Maura Murray case a few years after Maura had gone missing. Conway was assigned to provide a fresh look into the case and she did a very good job of re-telling the events and tying it al together concerning Maura and those final mysterious days.

Conway, in fact, went on to win a very nice award for her Maura is Missing (five-part) articles. Since, Conway has gone on to basically run a magazine (Amour Creole) which is based out of Boston.

As far as our interview (August 2012). I don’t feel like Maribeth was comfortable talking to me, so her answers don’t really offer up anything good (otherwise) I would’ve have released this sooner.

Maribeth is one of the more unique reporters to have ever worked on the Maura Murray case, because in some fashion, she had access to just about everyone (family, police, witnesses) which most reporters/journalists have not had that kind of access over the years.

Here is my brief interview with Maribeth:

​

1. Has the Maura Murray case stuck with you? Do you follow message boards, the blog of James Renner etc?

MC: The case has absolutely stuck with me, rarely does a February or May, her birthday month, go by when I don’t think of Maura and her father. I often feel like I’m seeing Maura’s face in the faces of random young women in the streets. I do not follow any of the blogs or message boards. There was a lot of heresay and conspiracy theories being passed around. It wasn’t healthy for me and I don’t think it was of much help to the case. Aside from occasionally thinking of her father and his loss, I try to think very little of the case – to the extent of turning away from “shock-value” news on the case. She’s become a real person, in my imagination. So I’m uncomfortable thinking about it unless I go into reporter mode on the case which I rarely due these days.

1. Your thoughts on message boards, new information about Maura such as credit card fraud and a rocky relationship with her boyfriend? Is this kind of stuff helpful or harmful to be found out in your opinion or even relevant to her ending up missing?

MC: See above answer.

1. Anything you would do differently now If you were just handed the assignment of looking into the Maura Murray case and know what you know currently? Any specific questions you wish you would’ve asked or pursued aggressively more back in the earlier days?

MC: No more questions that I would’ve asked, but I would have loved to see any more documentation out of police hands.

1. What kind of feedback have you received from family and friends about your work on the case?

MC: Many were happy to have her case kept alive and to have all the information in one comprehensive piece.

1. As being someone that had access to Fred Murray. What is he like when the cameras aren’t on and the tape recorder is not rolling?

MC: An energetic and intense man. He seemed to live with purpose, and the purpose I witnessed was to make sure that if someone had taken Maura’s life, he or she would not get away with it. I was touched by him and will never forget our drive to the accident scene or more poignantly, sitting in the hotel room with me and some of his friends, the same hotel he stayed in the first night he searched for Maura. His presence was very powerful in that hotel room – he answered my endless stream of questions, then told the story about a hike he tool with Maura. At the end of the story he just walked to the window of the hotel room, looked out into the bare parking lot with his hands on his hips and said, “Jesus.” – I’ll never forget that moment. It’s terrible having to watch a man cope with such pain.

1. Your theory on what you believe happened to Maura?

MC: My gut feeling, she had been drinking alcohol, crashed her car, was scared police would find her and perhaps took a ride with a “friendly” stranger… just a theory.

1. How in the world did the responding officer find a rag in maura’s tailpipe the night of the accident?

MC: I don’t think it’s strange that an officer found that, I think it’s strange it was there in the first place.

1. Your thoughts on the Petrit Vasi hit and run angle? He was found 0.9 miles away from where Maura was working. Her shift because of its length would warrant her the opportunity to take breaks.

MC: As I recall, this theory was slammed by most people I talked to. I don’t recall enough details to comment.

———————————————————————————–

I did also offer to her up my personal theory that Maura may have taken her own life. I won’t post the entire theory and what it involves but here was her response

​

MC: I read your theory and I think it is very plausible. Though I think at this point a body would have been found, and I feel she wouldn’t have had much opportunity to have a clean suicide without trace given the accident, which I do think was an accident.