HAVERHILL, N.H. (AP) — A tree that was used as a memorial to a 21-year-old nursing student who disappeared after a 2004 car crash in New Hampshire has been cut down.
For years, the family of Maura Murray kept a blue ribbon tied around the tree, where Murray was last seen, near the road in Haverhill. The tree and several others were cut down last week, the Caledonian-Record reported. The property owner had approached the family last year about that possibility.
The family is still asking for a state highway historical marker to be installed at the location.
The University of Massachusetts-Amherst nursing student was last seen on Route 112, which leads to the White Mountain National Forest, on February 9, 2004. She had crashed her car into a snowbank.
Her professors said she claimed, falsely, that there had been a death in her family and that she needed to leave. Her damaged car was later recovered; Maura has never been found.
The family believes she was a victim of a crime; others theorized that she fled, possibly to Canada, or was injured, wandered off into the woods, and died of exposure.
She is classified as a missing person, and the case remains open and active.
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