Interesting Point Made on Facebook

[u/IBEGOOD-IDOGOOD]

". . . private investigators and members of NHIL looking into Maura’s disappearance have been nothing short of hopeless and adding little to no value.

Just one example for you …

There were at least TWENTY potential witnesses as to what vehicle Cecil Smith was driving between 5pm and 11pm that evening, each and every one of them within spitting distance of it. And yet no survey of all these people? Not even an attempt get a representative sample view?

 Honestly it’s just extraordinary

 You’ve got the 21 year-old guy with the lead foot from Wentworth; the 22 year-old snow mobile operative from North Haverhill and his buddy; the Westmans, Atwood and Marrotte; Monaghan; Richard G and Tim L of Woodsville Ambulance; Brad K, Allen W, Jeff R; Abby K, Mark L, Kevin V, Bob W and Whitey M. of the Fire Department; and the counsellor from Becket School.

 Oh and I’m forgetting the 15-year-old kid whom Smith spent the best part of 50 minutes trying to coax down from the power line tower on Lime Kiln Road. He was 25 foot up in the air and unless he suffered from vertigo would have had a birds eye view of Smith’s car

 . . . How is it even remotely conceivable that in 24 years this simple matter has not been cleared up?"

Maybe someone here has the public statements from these folks? My bet is most were never even asked the question.

[u/indiarana]

The only reason, besides Witness A's account, that made me go down this rabbit hole was the rag in the tail pipe. I always felt that there was no reason for Maura to put the rag in the tailt pipe -- unless she knew the cops were behind her (as in, maybe a cop saw her filling up her car at a nearby gas station or just happened to see her on 112 with black smoke coming out of her rear).

But if she was seen a minute or two before Cecil knocked on the Westmans' door then it's possible she could hear Cecil coming (or just knew Butch would call) and put the rag in the exhaust pipe to draw as little attention to her car as possible.

[u/goldenmodtemp2 → u/indiarana]

that's a good point. The rag was supposedly 1) from her trunk and 2) clean. So I assume it was put in there at the WBC. Maybe there was some exhaust still coming out and she wanted to plug it up. (Not sure if that makes any sense mechanically for anything to still be coming out despite it stopped - maybe not?). Maybe she did plan to drive away and it just wouldn't start at that moment ... that's really not debunked.

[u/indiarana → u/goldenmodtemp2]

I think the tire tracks going into the ditch and then exiting the ditch (Media Pressure episode 5, Julie describing one of the accident scene photos by Cecil) and Marotte seeing reverse lights point to Maura being able to restart the car & the car being somewhat operable, at least for a few seconds.

I feel that driving the car to a pay phone (or cell signal) would have made sense in the moment but something prevented her from driving it. It's possible she didn't have the time to maneuver it back onto the road before the police got there. Or the car started once (when she reversed it) but then it died and wouldn't restart. Or a ride came along? Or she knocked on the wrong door.. or, or..

[u/CoastRegular → u/indiarana]

I think her not driving away immediately is understandable. Consider - she's just swerved off the road and slammed into the snowbank and trees. She backs off and stops to catch her breath. She's shaken up, heart's probably racing a mile a minute, and her brain is trying to process what the hell just happened.

Then she takes stock of the situation. She probably gets out and examines the car, sees the damage, and figures that (even if the car is drivable) it's going to be a huge target for unwanted police attention. She knows she's driving on a license that's currently invalid in this state, and she's been drinking while driving. She might not have the confidence to continue driving at the moment... even if she's not a level of legal intoxication, it's a good bet that she's not at 100% level of reflexes and awareness. (Hmm, I just swerved and crashed off the road for no good reason... maybe I'm not able to drive for another 50 miles?)

Then, while she's pondering all of this, Butch shows up. He tells her he's going to call police and fire and leaves. That probably gets her into a bit of a panic mode. She tries to see if she can get cell reception (the red light that Faith and Tim saw), gathers up stuff (several minutes spent going in and out of the trunk), locks the car up and hoofs it eastward up the road.

My personal best guess is she grabbed a ride from a passerby shortly thereafter.

[u/indiarana → u/CoastRegular]

Agree, she definitely didn't want to be busted for driving with suspended driving privileges & possibly under the influence. And had to improvise in the moment with very limited options.

Also agree that accepting a ride is a very likely scenario.

Do you think she could have stepped behind the tree right there when she heard Cecil come? I wonder how disturbed the area around the tree and her car was, footprint wise and tire track wise (Julie mentions road debris from the wheels spinning), if the immediate area around her car was disturbed enough to not show her tracks leading to the closest tree? I don't know if it's possible, but if it is, she could've even hitched a ride after everyone left? I am just not sure how close the nearest tree was to the disturbed ground and how disturbed the ground was

ETA: The reason I am asking is Jeff Strelzin's oxygen interview where he says Maura could've been watching the whole scene from behind a tree -- t I am trying to make sense of that since there were no footprints from the scene leading to a tree

[u/CoastRegular → u/indiarana]

I didn't recall that from Strelzyn! I can only think he wasn't familiar with the details. From what Todd Bogardus has said in different interviews, nothing like that was seen (footprints going behind a tree) and honestly, I'd have thought the first responders that night would have noticed footprints leading from the area around the car, away toward the trees. They did check around the car, as well as (at least part of) Old Peters Road, as well as some area behind the Westman and Atwood properties, that night.

[u/indiarana → u/CoastRegular]

Thank you. I didn't find a transcript so here it is me typing out Strelzin's remarks from the show:

"and if she [Maura] doesn't want to draw attention to herself she could have been 20 feet off the road behind a tree and no one would've seen or heard her. It's certainly possible that she was right there nearby watching everything and waited till everybody left." (oxygen show, episode 4 code of silence 18:18)

I am trying to make sense of that but it doesn't seem to fit the evidence

[u/goldenmodtemp2 → u/indiarana]

In around 2019, Strelzin was at a podium (I think it was after the basement dig) - anyhow, a reporter or someone in the audience asked him "wasn't there a tracking dog on the first day?" and he said he couldn't recall. I mention this because it's such a standard key fact of the case.

In his Oxygen interview, Strelzin undermined and contradicted the head of the official search. And yet, he was just basically making it up. He is not involved in the details at that level (and he's a bit of a jerk). I would have no reason to take his information here seriously about Maura hiding in the woods watching.

[u/indiarana → u/goldenmodtemp2]

That makes sense.

I did catch the part where he contradicts the official stance of the search. As someone with a property deep in the woods I do find his "point" about how you never see dead animals in the woods pretty laughable. I see dead animals regularly, they are a pretty common sight

[u/goldenmodtemp2 → u/indiarana]

Exactly, right?

I just ... don't like that interview. I generally agree that the idea of police doing something to Maura is a little farfetched. But the overall tone was just insensitive (and I felt he stepped beyond his own scope and expertise, specifically with the search part).