An introduction to the characters: who is who?!

Due to the influx of newer people aswell as the ever increasing number of characters in this case, I've created a list of people involved and a short description of who they are and what they do. Hopefully it will help in the maze of personalities.

The Neighbors and direct Witnesses

Butch Atwood was a school bus driver who lived just a couple of yards from Maura’s crash site. On the night of the evening, according to his reports, he passed the accident scene in his bus and shortly spoke to Maura. His version of how they spoke and her status changes which each version, but the most given one is they were both seated in their vehicles, she seemed slightly dazed but unhurt and okay. He asked her if she called triple A, which she confirmed. He knew that was a lie since there is no reception up there. He then went home and called 911 to report the accident. Later on the same evening he helped out in the search in his own vehicle. Couple of things to note with BA is that he apparently parked his bus unusually that night (and never again), as well that he mentioned a phone call Maura had made to her boyfriend to Christine McDonald shortly after the accident. 

Rick Forcier lived relatively close to Maura's accident scene (just around the corner on Bradley Hill Rd). He has multiple stories out about what happened the night of the accident, the first to come out being that he saw someone jogging about 5 miles away from the scene that night that would fit Maura's description. Over the course of time he has made a lot of crude comments to towns people (Maura is now cooking for me, she came to my door, she wanted to sleep with me) which has put him into a spotlight of having to do with her disappearance.

The other neighbors directly to the crash were the Marottes and the Westmann's. The Westmann’s also called the crash into 911, speaking about a "man smoking a cigarette", but could later not agree on if that was what they really saw. None of the neighbors saw Maura leave the accident scene. 

Karen McNamara is a reported witness that drove by the accident scene between 7:35 and 7:40pm that Monday evening. This is more or less mathematically substantiated by her cell phone records and the distance to get into cell phone range. Kate claims that she saw LE-vehicle 001 standing nose to nose with the stranded Saturn with the doors on both vehicles open. She did not see any person at any vehicle, but felt uneasy about the situation. This was also called into the police information tip line, upon which police called her back asking if she was sure she had seen the 001 vehicle. What the police did after that is unknown.

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Law Enforcement

Cecil Smith was the police officer who responded to the scene that evening. There is a lot off weird stuff about this one involving whether or not he was driving police car 001 or 002, how he knew he was looking for Maura, how he knew about items under the car before moving it, if the car was open or locked. Far more then is good to go into here, so I suggest looking deeper into him if it interests you. It is however important to note that especially the 001 theory has always been contested by Cecil Smith aswell as Attorney General Jeff Strelzin.

Jeff Williams was the police chief at the time. He was a reported alcoholic and a heavy smoker. His whereabouts that evening is unknown (supposedly he was out for dinner but has no clue where). He is important due to the 001 theory.

State Trooper officer John Monaghan arrived at the accident scene at a time where Smith was noting down details. EMS and Fire Emergency had not yet arrived at the scene. He had a short chat with Smith, who claimed it was a simple drunk hit and run accident and that he had found liquor inside the car as well as red liquid stains. Upon Smiths request, Monaghan drove the area, shining his spotlight along the road to see if he could spot anything. Critically, Smith searched the area to the West (where he had also come from), thus no one ever searched the area going east away from the crash site. 

Bruce McKay was a police officer in Franchonia, New Hampshire. This is a different jurisdiction from Haverhill, but McKay was known to cross those lines a number of times. After 7pm, McKay telephonically checked in at a Butsons location in Haverhill. This is interesting in combination with the rumored sighting of Maura in that store, along with 2 friends. It is important to note here that this sighting has never been proven without a doubt. Coincidentally, Bruce McKay was radio silent during the accident time, as well as the two hours that followed, and called out of responding to a situation. McKay has since passed away, after being involved in a shooting situation with Liko Kenney. This shooting on its own is worth a research. Bruce was also driving Franconia car 001. 

Maura’s family and friends 

Bill Rausch: Maura's boyfriend (engaged to be engaged). He was in the military, stationed in Oklahoma (if i recall correct) at the time of the crash. He is interesting because he did not search the crash site itself, yet rather in a 70-mile radius and various hospitals. His call history the day of the disappearances is also very interesting.

Kate Markopoulos and Sarah Alfieri where Maura's friends at Amherst. They, together with Maura, where at a small party the Saturday evening where it is alleged Maura hooked up with Sarah's cousin. This is the same evening where she totaled her father's Toyota. None of them ever spoke publicly about the evening, or about anything involving this case.

Sharon Rausch is Bills mother. She flew to NH directly after the crash and started interviewing people on her own accord. Also provided police with important records, like her cell phone roaming bill, where page 9was deemed to be missing, but has since been made public.

Other characters possibly involved.

Petrit Vasi was a student at Amherst. The Thursday before Maura disappeared, in the evening close to midnight, Vasi left a club on Amherst and crossed the street where he was struck by a vehicle. The vehicle took off and left him there with his injuries. It is theorized this may have been Maura as she was seen very upset that night and had to be escorted from her work back to her dorm room by her supervisor. It's never been proven who the driver was and Vasi can't remember anything about the crash or Maura. There's also some debate due to work, timing and an upsetting phone call whether this could have been Maura running into him.

Claude Molton was the resident of the “A-Frame House” during the time of Mauras disappearances. After he passed away, his brother claimed that Claude confessed to him he had killed Maura. A bloody knive was given to Fred, who send it to the police for analyses. The results of that are unknown. The cast of the Oxygen show along with the podcast collected woodchip samples from the house and had them tested. There was blood of two people found on them, however they could not determine whether one of them was Maura. New testing of the house will be done in the future.

The Loon Mountain three are suspected of involvement in the case, more or less after a psychic pointed towards them. There is close to nothing known about these individuals apart from them working on a Ski-resort and not appearing at work on the evening of the disappearance. 

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This post will be updated with more individuals involved periodically.

More entries will follow soon including more family members, people from UMass aswell as the public faces for this case (podcast crew etc). Please leave a comment if you'd like specific people included or explained.