Mike Safo with James Renner

Joined today from remote Hancock, Maine by true crime author and investigative journalist James Renner. James jumps on to talk about one of the most mysterious missing person’s cases in recent memory, Maura Murray. Maura was a 22-year-old nursing student from UMASS, in 2004 she emailed her professors and said that she had a death in the family (when in fact nobody died); She emptied her bank account and drove into the New Hampshire mountains. There she got into a car accident. From when the accident happened until the police responded 7 minutes later, something happened and Maura has been missing ever since. James is the author of “True Crime Addict: How I lost myself in the mysterious disappearance of Maura Murray”. James takes us through this roller coaster case and talks in depth about Maura’s father showing up on campus with $4000, a party that people refuse to talk about and some of the personal problems Maura dealt with. As an expert on the case, James Renner brings new insight and we debunk many rumors, such as: she went to the mountains to commit suicide, or that she was abducted after the accident. We also hear about the tumultuous relationship that James had with the Murray family when he started writing this book. We track down possible Maura sightings in Canada and Florida, hear James theory about what really happened to her and why his opinion has changed the last 15 years. James explains why he is driving from Maine to Washington DC to cover Maura’s ex boyfriends rape trial. He shares how he got fully immersed in the case to where his own son was threatened online. Finally, we hear about James’ podcast: “The Philosophy of Crime”, what makes people so obsessed with the true crime genre and social media in the true crime world.

http://jamesrenner.com/