By Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor
editor@whitmanhansonexpress.com

HANSON — MBTA Transit Police said a man was struck and killed by a commuter rail train in Hanson early Wednesday morning by an in-bound train at the Hanson station.

The name of the person had not been released at press time. According to transit police, the victim was trespassing on the right of way near Main Street when he was struck.

“A male, age unknown at this time, while trespassing on the right of way in the vicinity of 1070 Main St., was struck by an inbound commuter rail train on the Kingston/Plymouth line,” Transit Police said in a statement. to Boston elevision stations “Foul play is NOT suspected.”

The incident happened at 5:30 a.m. near the Hanson Station on Main Street. Commuters already on the train were seen departing the train after 7 a.m. to be shuttled to other stations by transit buses.

Service on the Kingston/Plymouth line was delayed with inbound passengers from the Hanson station redirected to the Whitman station.

Officials from the Transit Police, Plymouth County BCI and Hanson Police and Fire responded to the scene.

MBTA officials did not make a statement at the scene, with press inquiries directed to Transit Police Superintendent Richard Sullivan.

Hanson police shut down Route 27, which is near the tracks, from Elm to Phillips streets for the investigation. The road was closed for several hours. Regular service on the Kingston-Plymouth line did not resume until just before 9 a.m.

Local road traffic was redirected through Halifax via Elm Street for eastbound motorists out of Whitman and via Phillips Street for westbound traffic in Hanson.

Transit Police officials talk on Main Street in Hanson after a man was stuck and killed by a commuter train Wednesday morning

An MBTA commuter rail train was stopped on Main Street in Hanson for more than three hours after a man was struck and killed at the Hanson station

A Hanson Police officer escorts commuter rail passengers to waiting shuttle buses

Matthew Will is treated by paramedics after being arrested on warrants related to over 50 alleged larceny- and fraud-related crimes across Plymouth county and beyond. (Photo by Abram Neal)

PEMBROKE — Matthew Will, 38, owner of 5-Star Discount Roofing in Halifax, was arrested at his rental home on Furnace Colony Drive, Pembroke, at about 5:30 p.m., Thursday, May 9 after a dramatic chase and a tense standoff with police.

Will allegedly fled after he missed a Falmouth District Court arraignment, then was arrested May 4 in Rockland — after escaping from police and leading them on a multi-town high-speed chase from Worcester County into Rhode Island the night before.

He was then released by a Hingham District Court judge, John Stapleton, who had not been made aware of the chase by court personnel, according to audio of the hearing, fled again and was finally re-arrested Thursday, May 9, after a tense standoff with police in Pembroke.

Will was expected to appear Monday, May 13, at 9 a.m. in Wareham District Court, with transportation provided by the Plymouth County Sheriff’s department, who have also provided his lodging since his Thursday arrest.

But he was not transported Monday to Wareham District Court by the department as ordered by a Plymouth judge Friday, and a Wareham court officer who said he had knowledge of the situation indicated Will had refused to come out of his cell at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility, had sustained an injury there and was being treated at a Boston hospital.

A Plymouth County Sheriff’s department spokesperson, Karen Barry, said that Will had not sustained any injury at the jail, but said he was in their custody. She would not confirm if he was being treated for an injury sustained outside of the jail and would not confirm his next court appearance, citing CORI protections for prisoners.

Neighbors watched Thursday afternoon in the quiet neighborhood overlooking Furnace Pond as Hanson, Pembroke, and Middleboro police, as well as Plymouth County Sherriff’s Department and police canines executed an arrest and search warrant on Will and his house. When police searched the house for Will, he attempted to avoid arrest by hiding in his attic, according to police at the scene.

Will’s girlfriend, Tina Bowles, and several of their young children, identified by neighbors, could be seen standing in their side yard during the more than two-hourlong standoff. Police said they did not believe that Will was dangerous, although many law enforcement personnel were seen in bullet-proof vests waiting outside the home for Will to respond.

The father of five could be heard screaming obscenities at law enforcement officers as police dogs with cameras on their backs were sent into the attic to capture him. A police officer described a chaotic scene inside the house just after Will’s arrest and said that Will was bitten by the dogs and had fallen through his attic ceiling into his living room.

Matthew Will and Tina Bowles’ rental home on Furnace Colony Drive in Pembroke was searched by authorities Thursday, May 9. (Photo by Abram Neal)

He was led in handcuffs from his home into a waiting Pembroke Fire Department ambulance and taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth, where he was treated overnight for his dog bite-related injuries. He was discharged the next morning, into the custody of the sheriff’s department.

John Canavan, a Plymouth District Court judge, Friday, May 10, ordered Will held at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility over the weekend and that he be transported to Wareham District Court to address his warrants in that court. The department did not transport him for reasons the Express cannot confirm.

The roofer was wanted on warrants in connection with a series of alleged larceny- and fraud-related crimes across Plymouth county and beyond, with at least 50 households allegedly victimized in Duxbury, East Bridgewater, Falmouth, Hanson, Kingston, Middleboro, North Easton, Pembroke, Plympton, Rockland and Wareham.

Funds allegedly collected for work not done total more than $200,000, say court records. The vast majority of the alleged victims are elderly and live in Middleboro, concentrated at Oak Point, a 55-plus community Will allegedly targeted.

The investigation began with Middleboro Detective Simone Ryder and multiple agencies are now investigating Will, including Hanson police.

Will skipped a Falmouth District Court arraignment April 10, on charges that he allegedly took more than $55,000 from the owner of a Falmouth apartment complex, according to the reported victim, Joel Mazmanian, who resides in California but manages property in Massachusetts. The court issued a bench warrant for Will’s arrest. He next did not appear for a hearing in Wareham District Court on ongoing cases, prompting that court to issue arrest warrants, as well.

Will fled the county, court documents say, and was next spotted by police May 3 in Hopkinton, in Middlesex County, where a Hopedale police report says he was stopped by police. He was ordered out of his vehicle, according to the report, but fled from the scene.

Police did not give chase because there were children in the vehicle, Hopkinton Deputy Police Chief Joseph Bennett said to the Express.

Later that day, in Hopedale, in Worcester County, Will failed to stop at a stop sign, twice. A Hopedale Police Department report describes a multi-agency car chase that ensued involving the Bellingham, Hopkinton, Hopedale, Mendon, Millville and Woonsocket, Rhode Island, police.

The report was written by Hopedale Police Sergeant Mark Rizoli.

After being followed by Rizoli for about a quarter of a mile, Will, driving his mother’s 2006 Buick Lucerne, stopped in the middle of the road. The officer said he observed what appeared to be a female passenger and two rear seat passengers.

Police later discovered Will had three of the five children Will shares with Tina Bowles with him. The sergeant on the scene said they began making “furtive movements,” which prompted Sgt. Rizoli to attempt to stop the car, he said.

Next, “ … he accelerated to a speed I estimated to be 70-80 mph. Due to the fact it was dark, wet, and that Blackstone Street is [a] narrow and curvy road I decided to maintain a speed of approximately 40-45 mph, as I felt it unsafe to travel at a higher speed. I subsequently lost sight of the vehicle … ”

Blackstone Police were able to locate Will, but he was able to escape them, as well, and his vehicle was observed fleeing into Rhode Island. Woonsocket, Rhode Island, police gave chase, but Bowles later told police Will ran up a long driveway on foot. Bowles was stopped by police driving Will’s mother’s car with their children in Bellingham later that night, police reports say.

Early the next morning, Saturday, May 4, Will was arrested at a residence in Rockland by the Rockland Police department. Will traveled from Rhode Island to Rockland via a ride sharing service, said a source close to the investigation and Bowles was present at the Rockland arrest, according to court documents.

He was held at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Plymouth over the weekend, and was transported to Hingham District Court Monday, May 6, by the sheriff’s department.

Although there were no open cases for Will in that court, as he was arrested on open warrants in Rockland, and Rockland is in Hingham District Court’s jurisdiction, Will was transported to that court, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

Will’s case was called at 10:34 a.m., in Courtroom 1, before Stapleton, according to audio of the hearing requested by the Express. Neither a police prosecutor for Rockland, nor any commonwealth attorney can be heard addressing the judge.

Only Will’s court-appointed attorney, whose name is indecipherable in the recording, speaks to the judge, and he does not address the high-speed chase with Stapleton, only the outstanding warrants in Wareham and Falmouth.

Stapleton freed Will after two minutes, only checking to make sure that he had a ride to Wareham to clear up his warrants in that court at 2 p.m. Bowles, who the defense attorney tells the judge is Will’s wife, says she has her keys and a license in the recording, which the judge asks a court officer to check.

Will left Hingham District Court free, did not attend his 2 p.m. hearing in Wareham District Court, and warrants for his arrest were reactivated. He spent the next three days a fugitive from justice until he was arrested in Pembroke.

Why Will is where and when he’ll be back to court has yet to be independently confirmed by the Express.

Contact Abram Neal at abe@whphexpress.com or follow him on twitter @nealabe

The Hanson Board of Selectmen. (Photo by Abram Neal)

HANSON — Voters passed a 31-article Annual Town Meeting warrant and a 12-article Special Town Meeting article warrant on Monday, May 6, 2019 at the Hanson Middle School. Although all of the votes were nearly unanimous, except for one during the STM that required a count, there was still some passionate discussion on the floor of the meeting, although ultimately the meeting was mostly uncontroversial.

The nearly $27 million budget passed unanimously, almost breezily, to cheers from the audience.

But articles six and seven, which funded the recreation department and the transfer station prompted passionate discussion and some parliamentary maneuvering.

The Finance Committee moved the articles as they had recommended them, not as the selectman had, with less money than the departments had asked for, only funding the departments through October until the budgets could be looked at again at a Special Town Meeting.

Chairman of the Finance Committee Kevin Sullivan said that the Recreation Department and the Transfer Station need to be self-sustaining entities.

Arlene Diaz, chair of board of health, moved an amendment on the floor for more money than proposed to fund the transfer station, but the amendment failed nearly unanimously after town officials said this would throw off the delicately balanced budget, and articles six and seven passed nearly unanimously.

Questions arose during discussion of Article 10, proposed by the Capital Improvement Committee, about whether a fiber network, one of nine capital items listed, would link the school buildings to the town buildings. It would not, but the article passed nearly unanimously.

Selectman Matthew Dyer opposed resurfacing the Whitman-Hanson Regional High School track, part of Article 11, saying after the meeting that they could have added another percentage point to the school budget and kept teachers for that amount of money, although he did not clarify his position on the meeting floor. Article 11 passed nearly unanimously.

Article 11, all capital improvements to the schools, passed nearly unanimously.

The police and fire departments received $48,500 with Article 15 to cover the cost of sending 20 police officers and 18 firefighters to active shooter hostile event response training. The article, moved by Fire Chief Jerry Thompson, passed unanimously.

By the time article 20 rolled around, things started moving more quickly as people appeared to get more tired and the hour grew late.

The Hubbell/Litecontrol property donated to the town was nearly unanimously accepted by the Town Meeting with Article 22, over the objections of Selectman Laura Fitzgerald-Kemmitt, who was the only member of the board to vote not to recommend the donation.

Article 23, to implement Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, was passed over on the recommendation of the Board of Selectman, the only article to be passed over in full.

Finally, a lengthy article bringing zoning bylaws into harmony with the general bylaws implementing a marijuana retail sale ban, was passed nearly unanimously by the body.

The School Committee on Wednesday, May 1 fell in line with the Whitman and Hanson boards of selectmen and finance committees in voting to certify an 8.5-percent increase in the school assessment for the towns in fiscal 2020.

Both towns hold their annual and special town meetings at 7:30 p.m., Monday, May 6. Hanson voters convene at Hanson Middle School Auditorium and Whitman holds its Town Meeting at its Town Hall Auditorium.

The 9-1 vote, with member Alexandria Taylor voting against, set the assessment increase in Whitman at $1,127,966 for a total assessment of $14,398,151. Hanson’s assessment increase at 8.5 percent would be $757,634 for a total assessment of $9,670,975. The assessment to both towns is $24,069,146 for a total certified budget of $52,373,023.

Taylor had vowed at the last School Committee meeting, on April 24, that she would not vote an assessment increase that is lower than 12.5 percent.

Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak reminded committee members there will be “people and positions impacted on anything under 12.5.”

Committee member Fred Small said that, in coming up to 8.5 percent, Whitman Selectmen and Finance Committee members were able to find the revenue to reach that level.

“The 2 percent extra is very much appreciated in my mind,” Small said. “While it doesn’t give us level services, what I think it does is it allows us to make the best we can out of a very bad situation. … I don’t know that we could expect anything better.”

He also stressed the need to get right back to work “almost immediately” after Town Elections to begin work on the fall override. That should be a three-pronged approach, Small said — the schools “need to lead our own charge,” improve on ways to save money, and make the public aware of the need for a good override.

“We focused a lot on Whitman in this budget process,” said Committee member Michael Jones of Hanson. “I think we learned last night [at Hanson’s Selectmen meeting] that we skipped over Hanson.”

Szymaniak reiterated that, at 8.5, there has been $1,740,000 cut from the level-service budget presented by the district this past winter. Of that, $897,000 is people and about $290,000 in “things” including legal costs as well as more than $561,000 transferred from excess and deficiency.

“We’re in the process of restructuring what we do here as well,” Szymaniak said. “There will be an impact to service, there will be an impact to technology, there will be an impact to facilities, there will be an impact to central office.”

The district is eliminating middle school foreign language classes and high school guidance services will also feel cuts, according to Szymaniak. All schools will feel the effect of cuts.

“We are looking at making sure that our students are safe and they are being taken care of through our counseling services moving forward,” he said. “In a global economy, our students need to have foreign language. We do not do that well and part of these cuts will have an impact.”

Whitman School Committee candidate Dawn Byers tearfully spoke of her seventh-grade daughter losing her Spanish class next year.

“I stood up a few years ago and advocated for all students to have [foreign language], and next year, they won’t,” she said. “I’m not going to talk about money or decisions I just want people to know what the kids are doing — taking a step back.”

Assistant Superintendent George Ferro stressed that the School District was asked to begin the budget process two months earlier and complied with that request.

“We presented the exact same budget that you see in front of you,” Ferro said, “We didn’t change, we didn’t deviate, we presented the exact same thing. … We presented what we felt was reasonable, was best and was responsible.”

Szymaniak said he is ready to start work immediately after town meetings to put a plan together to satisfy the needs of the school district as well as the towns in a full team approach.

“I’m calling them out and saying, ‘We’ve talked about this for years and, through this whole budget process, we’ve talked about a fall override,’” he said. “It needs to happen and the school needs to be a part of it.”

Data outlining the effect of budget cuts over the past 10 years, which some School Committee members have requested, can help develop a presentation for the community on the need for an override, Szymaniak said.

Small said he is sure the towns’ police and fire departments will be doing the same thing.

“We would all stand together,” Small said. “Our medical calls are up, we’ve got fires that have been devastating over the past few months — so there’s need all around. … We all work together with it, but we need to drive our own bus.”

Whitman Fire Union, whose members had advocated a 6.5-percent assessment to avoid firefighter layoffs in a May 2 ad in the Express, released a statement Thursday in the wake of the School Committee’s vote.

“WhitmanFirefightersLocal 1769wouldliketorecognize theWhitman­HansonSchoolCommitteeontheirvoteforan8.5-percent assessmentfor FY20atlastnight’sschoolcommitteemeeting,” the statement read. “We understandthat alotofworkwasput intothisprocessand manydifficultdecisions weremade. We areverypassionateaboutkeepingourcommunity safeanda12.5-percent  assessmentwouldhavedecimatedour department’sstaffby50 percent. … WelookforwardtoworkingwiththeTownofWhitman,itsresidents andtheWhitman-HansonRegionalSchoolDistrictoverthecoming monthsonaplantomakeourcommunitysustainableforALL departmentsformanyyearstocome.”

School Committee member Robert O’Brien Jr., said his 15-year-old son is among a growing number of high school students who want a say in the budget process and how it affects them.

“Nobody likes it,” O’Brien said. “Unfortunately, there is not a lot of money to go around. … Starting Tuesday, we have to start pushing on it. … There is an incredible amount of teamwork that goes on behind the scenes that most people don’t see, but now we need to take that and — I guess — politic it, for lack of a better word.”

School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes said a Hanson Selectman told him at that meeting on Tuesday, April 30 that a budget “post-mortem” was needed. He suggested a monthly budget committee meeting be held between the School Committee, department heads, finance committees — in addition to the regular monthly School Committee meetings.

In other business, the School Committee also voted to advise the boards of selectmen and finance committees of the formation of a Budget Committee, which is designed to include representatives of the boards as well as department heads in both towns. The aim is to get to work after the May 6 town meetings on the override project.

The School District also reported receiving a letter from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) declining a request to waive the 180-day school requirement at Conley School where a norovirus affecting large numbers of students and staff forced the closing of that school on March 15.

The last day of school for Conley will be a half-day on June 14, at a cost to the district of $1,820 for bus transportation.

Small requested that the district post the DESE letter on the school website for parents to read.

“There’s a phone number on there, if parents wanted to call,” he said.

The School Committee also appointed Business Services Director Christine Suckow and committee members Taylor, Small, Dan Cullity and Christopher Scriven to an Insurance Committee to review all district insurance policies with an eye to reduce costs in the future.

Frightened and tearful parents as well as concerned teachers, town officials and a high school student spoke Wednesday, April 10 of the potentially devastating effect of cuts to the fiscal 2020 level-service school budget.

Through tears falling on the podium, a mother of a student with Down Syndrome expressed her concerns about her son’s educational future.

“The staff in Whitman have made it possible for my son, who has Down Syndrome, to be fully included within public education and that, alone, is worth more than anyone can say,” she said. “If you cut paraprofessionals — they are the heart of the program — it is detrimental to the special ed population. It’s detrimental to the population of children that are operating with social-emotional needs.”

She is a teacher herself and noted the only way to help children with trauma is on a one-to-one basis.

“The more you cut, those sick children are going to be hurting and the more they’re going to end up in an outside placement, possibly residential, or they’re going to hurt themselves,” she said noting there have recently been two suicides in the district’s middle schools.

Children who are being helped improve their grades through the work of dedicated young teachers first in line for layoffs also concerned the Bedford Street resident. Her daughter is one of them.

“She has changed my daughter this year,” she said of the teacher. “My daughter has become a phenomenal student, she has risen to the top. Her papers are coming home … with 100 on almost every test because that teacher has taken the time to pull her aside and work with her. Without her, without the paraprofessionals, my family wouldn’t be where we are today. … Don’t go lower [than 12.5 percent] tonight, just don’t go lower.”

Teachers’ union official Kevin Kavka noted there have been 100 teaching positions lost in the district since 2000.

Whitman resident Christopher George said W-H already has the second-worst foreign language program out of 31 surrounding towns.

“I know that because we took the time to email every single middle school principal and find out what they offer,” George said. “If people cared about that program, if the taxpayers cared about this program, we wouldn’t be talking about this right now, we’d be ready to pass an override.”

As a baseball coach, he said before any other educational program, athletics and other after-school programs should be “put on the chopping block.”

“People talk about sports in this town, they don’t talk about education,” he said. It’s like banging my head against a wall.”

A senior WHRHS band member spoke in support of the district’s teachers and of the music position facing cuts.

“Cutting even one position to [music] is a very emotional thing for me,” she said, noting the inspiration music teacher Devin Dondero has provided her. “That man has changed my life … He is someone who has helped me grow to the person I am today.”

Even one staff cut could be devastating for another student like her in the future.

“That could be the passion that a person has for an instrument,” she said. “To know that you could be cutting a position for someone who could have that same impact on a student as he’s had on me is hard to face.”

Residents and town officials who have been working on the budget process also spoke.

“If you feel like the town has been really with us for the last year, hand-in-hand trying to reason this out and being supportive, then I would approach this one way,” Whitman resident Shawn Kain, an advocate for capital planning said. “I do think this is a fundamental question. This is a negotiation and keep on negotiating with them, but I think they are negotiating strongly. …People are taking strong action for their departments and if you are taking a mild action because they’ve been pretty supportive over the last year, I think you are going to get a harsh result.”

Kain said there should be an override on the ballot, but Whitman officials weren’t prepared, for that lack of preparation he said he could not support an override right now.

School Committee member Christopher Howard said, while he respects Kain and his passion, he does not view the process as a negotiation.

“I don’t care whether the town can support it or not, I think we need to do what is right for the students of this district,” Howard said. “I’m not here to play games or negotiate.”

Emphasizing that he was speaking for himself, Whitman Selectman Randy LaMattina said that, at last year’s Town Meeting three members of the Whitman Board of Selectmen chose to use an “unorthodox funding solution to try to make every department whole.”

“It was very clear to me that evening exactly what we were doing — that we were putting ourselves in a shortfall situation and we would require an override,” he said. “What I will agree with is [it] failed. The process failed. We should have been ahead of this. The town of Whitman absolutely should have been going for an override this year, no doubt. Time was wasted. I’m not going to point fingers at anyone — I’ll shoulder the burden myself. Maybe I should have been more vocal, but we shouldn’t be in this position again.”

But at this point, Whitman is not in the position to go for an override before the fall, he added. He said he also didn’t want the schools to be left with a 4-percent assessment increase, so he supported the proposal to pursue a debt exclusion to remove the new police station and renovations to the Town Hall and fire station from within the levy limit and seek an operational override in the fall. He did disagree with Howard’s statement that the budget situation was not a negotiation.

“If you were dealing with an infinite amount of money, no, it’s not a negotiation,” LaMattina said. “But in the position I’m in, there’s a limited source of funds and we need to negotiate those alleys to determine the best possible result.”

Finance Committee Vice Chairman Dave Codero said no motions or commitments were made after the April 9 joint meeting with Selectmen, which he said — in his opinion — was “the most anti-school meeting I have ever, ever attended.”

He said he was shocked by a selectman’s contention that “our people didn’t get cut,” in reference to town employees.

After the 12.5 percent assessment discussion, Whitman parent Leah Donovan of Old Mansion Lane said, while she was pleased that nine positions could be saved, that still meant many positions would be cut.

“I don’t think that’s true across other departments in town,” she said.  “I’m not here to consider what other departments can do. … We’re here to fight for the kid. We’re not here to be considerate of the others — there’s a time and place for that — but right now is not that time.”

Special education teacher Jill Kain also warned about the impact of cutting special education paraprofessionals, who she described as key to the success of students on IEPs.

“The next few years, if we cut these paras, there’s going to be more kids going out of district  [at more than the $20,000 paraprofessional salary],” she said.

Maura Murray, pictured on a missing persons poster. (Courtesy image)

A lack of evidence during an excavation in a New Hampshire basement crosses something off the list of questions surrounding Hanson native Maura Murray, a family member says.

Despite a day of hope last week, no evidence was found in the search for Maura Murray, a Hanson resident and UMass Amherst student missing for 15 years. After an extensive search of a long-suspected house close to where the 21-year-old Murray was involved in a single-car crash along Route 112 in February 2004, New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey A. Strelzin made the announcement Wednesday, April 3.

Maura Murray’s half brother, Kurt Murray, 30, of Halifax, said in a later interview that his family was given less than 24 hours’ notice regarding the imminent search of the basement. He said it was important to him and his family that they be there.

No evidence was found in connection with the case, said Strelzin, and, “certainly no evidence of human remains.”

Kurt Murray said, “No scenario is a particularly good one,” when asked what the family was hoping to find.

The Murray family has been critical of law enforcement over the years, blasting authorities for not doing enough to find Maura.

Officials from the New Hampshire State Police, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office and the FBI searched the house at times over the month of March, culminating in law enforcement tearing up a basement floor April 3 with a jackhammer, with the present homeowner’s consent.

“We certainly did not believe there was any credible evidence,” but searched anyways, said Strelzin. “It was really done to cross something off a list.”

“There certainly wasn’t any probable cause to search the house,” he added.

But, he said, “Everybody involved remains committed to following every lead that’s out there. There’s a lot of information we continue to follow up on.”

Kurt Murray said of the next step for his family, “We’ll have to try to work with New Hampshire authorities.”

The nursing student’s mysterious disappearance has sparked attention in the press, on the internet and on social media over the course of the last decade-and-a-half across the world.

“The community support has really been astonishing,” said Kurt Murray.

Her father, Fred, said that the house that was searched was “astonishingly close” to the site of the accident, in a previous interview with the Express. According to him, locals first tipped him off about suspicious activity at the house in the first year after his daughter’s disappearance, including a rumor of new concrete being poured in the basement, but the owners of the house would not cooperate with the investigation.

In November and December 2018, Fred Murray brought in two trained, accredited cadaver detecting dogs to the house, after it had changed ownership, each one on separate occasions. They alerted, he says, by lying down in the same spot in the basement of the house.

Later, he brought in ground-penetrating radar which he said indicated strong findings of an abnormality in the same spot in the concrete.

“It’s astounding that this [basement] wasn’t looked at before. I told the police about this in the first year … the State Police did an inadequate job when my daughter first went missing,” he added.

Exactly where Maura Murray was headed, and why, has remained a mystery over the years. Moments after the crash, a good Samaritan stopped to assist her, but she waved him off and told him not to call the police, according to original police reports from 2004. The passerby called local police anyway, although he did drive off. A Haverhill police cruiser arrived 19 minutes later, but Maura Murray’s Saturn was locked, and she was gone. She has remained missing ever since.

“The case is still open and active.  We do receive tips and information periodically, as well as generate new information from investigative efforts,” said Streizen in a previously emailed statement.

But this does not satisfy Kurt Murray. “Not knowing for 15 years … she deserves to be home. She’s too special a person to be left unfound somewhere,” he said.

Maura Murray, pictured on a missing persons poster. (Courtesy image)

HAVERHILL, NH — Despite a day of hope, no evidence has been found in the search for Maura Murray, a Hanson resident and UMass Amherst student missing for 15 years. After an extensive search of a long-suspected house close to where the 21-year-old Murray was involved in a single-car crash along Route 112 in February 2004, New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey A. Strelzin, Wednesday, April 3, made the announcement.

Officials from the New Hampshire State Police, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office and the FBI searched the house at times over the month of March, culminating in the tearing up of a basement floor today with a jackhammer, with the present homeowner’s consent.

No evidence was found in connection with the case, said Strelzin, and, “certainly no evidence of human remains.”

The Murray family has been critical of law enforcement over the years, blasting authorities for not doing enough to find Maura.

“We certainly did not believe there was any credible evidence,” but searched anyways, said Strelzin. “It was really done to cross something off a list.”

“There certainly wasn’t any probable cause to search the house,” he added.

But, he said, “Everybody involved remains committed to following every lead that’s out there. There’s a lot of information we continue to follow up on.”

The nursing student’s mysterious disappearance has sparked attention in the press, on the internet and on social media over the course of the last decade-and-a-half.

Her father, Fred, said that the house was “astonishingly close” to the site of the accident, in a previous interview with the Express. According to him, locals first tipped him off about suspicious activity at the house in the first year after his daughter’s disappearance, including a rumor of new concrete being poured in the basement, but the owners of the house would not cooperate with the investigation.

In November and December 2018, Fred Murray brought in two trained, accredited cadaver detecting dogs to the house, after it had changed ownership, each one on separate occasions. They alerted, he says, by lying down in the same spot in the basement of the house.

Later, he brought in ground-penetrating radar which he said indicated strong findings of an abnormality in the same spot in the concrete.

“It’s astounding that this [basement] wasn’t looked at before. I told the police about this in the first year … the State Police did an inadequate job when my daughter first went missing,” he added.

Exactly where Maura Murray was headed, and why, has remained a mystery over the years. Moments after the crash, a good Samaritan stopped to assist her, but she waved him off and told him not to call the police, according to original police reports from 2004. The passerby called local police anyway although he did drive off. A Haverhill police cruiser arrived 19 minutes later, but the Saturn was locked, and Maura Murray was gone.

“The case is still open and active.  We do receive tips and information periodically, as well as generate new information from investigative efforts,” said Streizen in a previously emailed statement.

Murray’s family members could not be reached for immediate comment.