2004-04-02 - K-9 Teams To Search For Murray

K-9 Teams To Search For Murray

BY GARY E. LINDSLEY Staff Writer | Friday April 2, 2004

HAVERHILL NEW HAMPSHIRE

Family and friends say they have not given up hope that 21-year-old Maura Murray, of Hanson, Mass., will be found.

Although an official air and ground search was declared concluded by New Hampshire Fish and Game and Troop F State Police officials in February, K-9 teams from the Adirondack Rescue Dog Association will resume their search of the Haverhill area this weekend.

Sharon Rausch, whose son, Billy, is Murray's fiance-to-be, said she, her son and Murray's family have not given up hope she will be found and safely returned.

However, Rausch said they also know a lot of time has elapsed since Murray's black 1996 Saturn was found off the road near The Weathered Barn along Route 112, about a mile east of the hamlet of Swiftwater, Feb. 9.

This weekend, like last weekend, K-9 teams from the Adirondack Rescue Dog Association will conduct a search of the area surrounding the accident site.

Rausch said one of the teams is Marilyn Greene, a team trainer and private investigator, and her K-9, Buddy, from Guilderland, N.Y.

Fred Murray, Maura's father, said he was impressed by the teams when they searched the area last weekend. He will be returning to the accident scene this weekend to search areas not being searched by the K-9 teams.

On another front, Rausch is enlisting the help of University of Massachusetts at Amherst officials. Maura was a junior nursing student there.

Rausch is asking them to send an e-mail message to the university's 40,000 students through a blind e-mailer between April 15 and 20.

The e-mail will read, "Please help us find Maura. Please forward this to all the contacts in your address book."

The e-mail will contain information about what Maura looks like as well as information about the accident which she was involved in the night of Feb. 9.

"It will literally (reach) hundreds of thousands of people," Rausch said.

She is holding off sending out the e-mail right now because about 15,000 posters are being distributed in Vermont and New Hampshire, as well as at UMass.

Rausch also wants to do something special for Maura's 22nd birthday May 4. Initially, she wanted to have balloons released.

However, she said the family and friends will ask people to tie blue ribbons around trees as well as to their car antennas.

The following message also will be released May 4: "Maura's family prays for her safe return on her birthday."

Maura is 5 feet, 7 inches tall, weighs 115 pounds, has blue-green eyes and curly brown hair.

She is soft-spoken and is an avid runner, logging between five and six miles daily.

People with any information should call the New Hampshire State Police at 603-271-3636, or the Haverhill Police Department at 603-787-2222.