New I-93 billboards to raise awareness of missing Hanson native Maura Murray

HANSON − Two missing-person billboards will go up in Massachusetts next month to raise awareness about the disappearance of a University of Massachusetts-Amherst student who has been missing for nearly 20 years.

Maura Murray, a 21-year-old Hanson native, went missing after leaving her dorm at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and crashing her car in New Hampshire in 2004. Murray left school and told professors there was a death in the family, but that wasn't true.

She headed north, crashed her car in Haverhill, New Hampshire, and then disappeared before police arrived. Residents reported seeing the 21-year-old along a sharp turn on Route 112 after her car had gone off the road and slammed into a snow bank at about 7:30 p.m. One passerby said he offered to help, but Murray said roadside assistance was on its way.

The man drove home and called police. When officers arrived a short time later, Murray had vanished, leaving no footprints in the snow and only scattered clues.

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No one has heard from Murray since. Julie Murray, her sister, said her family has been waiting for answers with little information coming from investigators. To keep her sister's disappearance in the public eye, Murray said her family has remained active on social media and on the website mauramurraymissing.org.

The FBI issued a nationwide alert on her case about a year ago and, in July, investigators discovered human bone fragments near Loon Mountain, not far from where Murray crashed.

The billboards will be in Methuen and along the Interstate 93 corridor near Stoneham and Woburn, according to MassLive.

Julie Murray in July told The Patriot Ledger that her sister's case is a "magnet for storytelling" because there are so many gaps and holes in what they know, which leads to speculation. Murray said that has pushed her to maintain a blog trying to dispel rumors.

"(Maura) was a real person and my family is suffering," she said. "We're not characters in a story."

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: New I-93 billboards to raise awareness in case of Hanson's Maura Murray