Amherst PD was, of course, not required by state public records law to release any other notes about the Vasi case if their release might compromise further investigation. In other words, the records released by Amherst PD do not necessarily represent the entire case file, and therefore do not provide a full picture of the Vasi investigation.
With that in mind, however...
It seems safe to assume that on Monday night, 09 February 2004, Haverhill police contacted UMass police in order to discover in whose name the Saturn's UMass parking sticker was issued.
And safe to assume UMass police, in turn, contacted Amherst police about the Saturn. After all, UMass police knew about the Vasi hit. And about Maura's Corolla crash (because UMass, in addition to Hadley, had responded).
In fact, it seems likely Maura was not arrested for OUI at the scene of the Corolla crash because a UMass cop had intervened on her behalf; which must have been learned by Amherst PD when UMass police told Amherst police about the Saturn's NH location.
Did Amherst police just ignore the fact that a UMass student's car, a car with unexplained body damage, was found mysteriously abandoned in NH a few days after Vasi was hit? Presumably not. No surprise then that there's not a single note in the released portion of the Vasi case file about this.
There's also no note in the released file about police examination of the Corolla. If the Corolla crash was such an isolated, irrelevant event, why did police examine the Corolla so closely after learning that the Saturn was found in NH? The only connection is that both vehicles appeared to have been driven by the same person, Maura Murray, a fact initially known only to UMass police.
On a side note, one might wonder why Lt. John Scarinza (NHSP) was baffled by the fact that Maura was not arrested as a result of her having crashed the Corolla in Hadley. Wasn't he told why?
If Amherst police were investigating the Vasi case, which they were, then why look at the Corolla as part of that investigation? The leading explanation, one would think, is that the Saturn was customarily driven by the same person who had crashed the Corolla, Maura. (Both cars were registered to Maura's father.) If there had been no news about the Saturn from NH, would there still have been as strong a reason, or any reason at all, to examine the Corolla?
In other words, police, investigating the Vasi hit, would not have taken any interest in the Corolla if they had not first been interested in Maura as a possible suspect in the Vasi hit - interested because the Saturn, with a UMass parking sticker, was found in NH, found with body damage that had not been sustained nearby, driven there by a driver who had apparently fled.
Since the Corolla damage had already been accounted for by Hadley police as ordinary operator "inattention," the only reason it was so closely examined after the Saturn was found must have been due to police interest in Maura as the person who had struck Vasi - interest inspired by the Saturn's discovery.
So... The Vasi investigation notes - that is, the notes that were released - end at mid-afternoon on Monday. And then Maura disappears. And then the Saturn is found a few hours later in NH.
And that's it? Amherst detectives just stopped investigating the Vasi hit right around the time Maura apparently left UMass? They stopped investigating right after a UMass student's car, with unexplained body damage, was found mysteriously abandoned in NH? While Vasi lay in a coma, on the verge of death?
Seems there are a lot of things police didn't do after the Saturn was found. But one thing police did do was look closely at the Corolla.
How odd that my backyard was lightly vandalized just hours after my having written on Topix in 2008 about this very same police interest in the Corolla. I mean, who would do such a thing? Not LE, right?
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| Although this narrative was filed on Tuesday, 10 FEB, the interview itself took place the day before. |
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