Family dynamics

Since Fred Murray refuses to ever answer questions about what was going on in Maura's life prior to her disappearance, people are left to speculate on messageboards about just what sort of person Maura was and what life at home in Hanson was like. At this point, I am pretty convinced the answer to what happened to her lies in the puzzle of her past. And, after some effort, I'm beginning to see a little of what that life was like.
According to Maura's aunt, Janis Panttila, Fred Murray was always an "odd duck." Fred met Laurie, Maura's mother, when he was in college and Laurie was a 15 year-old high schooler. The parents didn't like him. But he was persistent. They married. Had four kids: Fred Jr., Kathleen, Julie, and Maura. Laurie had another child, Kurt, with a man named Kevin Noble. The marriage dissolved around this time and Fred moved back in with his parents while Laurie lived at the home in Hanson with the kids.
"My sister was an excellent mother...when the kids were little," says Janis, fighting back emotion. She doesn't like to speak ill of her sister but says as she got older, drinking became a problem. She never remarried. Neither did Fred. On May 4, 2009, Laurie died after a fight with cancer. It was Maura's birthday.
Growing up, Maura was very close to her aunt Janis and her grandmother and spent most spring breaks and summers at their house in Weymouth. "She was a very very shy young woman and just the most beautiful girl. And she had a little temper."
Though Fred no longer lived with the family, he was a constant presence. He pushed the girls to run. And took them on overnight camping trips in the North Country. Their favorite place to stay the night was at the Jigger Johnson Campground. Jigger Johnson is on Highway 112 (aka Wild Ammanoosuc Rd., about forty-five minutes East from where Maura's car was found). It's the only campsite in that area with showers and it is open year round for a small fee.
"I always thought it was strange that Fred would take the girls up there on their own. They would be 14, 15, 16 years old, camping together. If my Dad had ever asked me to go camping with him I'd have said, 'what are you, nuts?'"
In Janis' window is a green electric candle which she keeps lit for her missing niece.