CONCORD, NH — Fifteen years after college 21-year-old student Maura Murray disappeared, investigators continue to dig for clues. On Wednesday, they revisited a home they had searched during the initial investigation, when Murray simply vanished into the night.
On April 3 a team of a dozen agents with heavy equipment dug up a section of a basement inside a Woodsville home based on information received from the public, according to Associate Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin, who spoke outside Grafton County Superior Court house.
“They were looking for evidence, but no evidence was found in connection with that case,” Strelzin said during a brief news conference on Wednesday.
Strelzin explained that the home had become “a target of increased speculation by private citizens” who believed there was a body buried in the basement. That, Strelzin said, was based on evidence including search dogs recruited by private citizens and ground-penetrating radar, which indicated a disturbance in the ground below the basement floor.
Strelzin said in the end, the only thing found several feet down was a piece of pottery and a section of pipe.
Case Background
Maura Murray disappeared in February 2004. She had been a student at UMASS-Amherst college and left the college on February 9, 2004. At approximately 7:30 p.m. Maura’s car was involved in what appeared to be a single-car accident on Route 112 (Route 112 is also known as Wild Ammonoosuc Road) in Haverhill, New Hampshire. Shortly afterward, a private citizen saw and spoke to the Maura at the accident scene.
However, when the police arrived Maura was not there. In the years since she vanished, countless searches of the area at and around the accident scene have been conducted by law enforcement authorities and private citizens, with no positive results.
One of the areas searched over the years included the single-family home which was searched April 3, located not far from the original accident scene.
In cooperation with the current homeowners, New Hampshire State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the search.
