AUTHOR’S NOTE: February 9, 2025 marked the 21st anniversary of the disappearance of 21-year-old Massachusetts college student Maura Murray from a New Hampshire roadside near I-91 after allegedly crashing her car. I’ve done three previous tarot readings on this subject, but nothing has panned out to date. I decided to try again in light of this milesone, and modified an old spread for the purpose, with one operation for the event and another for contributing circumstances. After some deliberation and a look at Murray’s photographs (not knowing her birth-date), I settled on the Princess of Swords to represent her 21-year-old self. After the shuffle, it turned up in the “Kidnapped” position with her current location as “At Some Distance” from where she was last seen. The rest of the face-up cards are not read. (All images are from the Thoth Tarot, copyright of US Games Systems Inc, Stamford, CT.)

The supplemental spread was derived from the three cards that lay immediately beneath the significator after the draw, as is my custom when there are too many underlying cards to yield a concise narrative. I read them as conditions leading up to the matter of concern (in this instance it appears to be an abduction).

This is the third time that the King (Thoth Knight) of Swords has turned up reversed in my readings for this case. The opinion of law-enforcement is that someone from the local area with an ability to move about unseen absconded with Murray, although area residents insist that it was an individual from outside the region who just happened by. In my two earlier analyses I noted the following composite impressions about the possible perpetrator:

“In this spread it is the King of Swords reversed, reflecting a self-assured, tough-minded, overbearing, meticulous, possibly harsh or ruthless older man. It may describe a successful businessman, educator or government official – CEO, lawyer, judge, lawman, professor, etc (if not at that time, possibly now). The reversal implies that he did a very good job of covering his tracks

. . . the King of Swords reversed, suggests an older man who deceived her (perhaps offering her a ride and then kidnapping her); the man shown here may have been well-established in the community (with Swords, possibly a lawyer, doctor or other ‘pillar’ of professional dignity). The King is the 14th card of the suit, and turning it upside-down places the ‘4’ before the ‘1,’ giving the idea that sensuality and desire overrode reason in his mind. The red sword in his hand symbolizes the same thing. But this King is certainly clever (and devious) enough to hide any incriminating evidence.”

The presence of water is also prominent in the earlier readings, leading me to believe that she was hidden in a lake or pond as a way to conceal her body. In one spread it was the 6 of Swords, about which I said:

‘Traditionally, the Rider-Waite-Smith version of this card is often interpreted as ‘a voyage by water,’ and the reversal could be construed as ‘under water’ (or perhaps ‘under the cover of night’). In my first (2018) reading about Murray, I mentioned the likelihood that she was murdered and submerged in a lake or other body of water. If the suspect indicated here by the King of Swords was in fact a prominent small-town personage, he may have had a boat capable of ferrying Murray to a place of deeper, more remote water. It’s also interesting that both the 6 of Swords and the King of Swords reversed appeared in my 2018 reading for the disappearance of Trish Haynes; about that case I said she was most likely ‘in a wet place after being transported over water’ or, if still alive, was at the mercy of a cruel man. Her remains were ultimately found inside an abandoned washing machine at the bottom of Grant’s Pond in Grafton, New Hampshire. All of this reinforcement of the watery theme implies that I’m on the right track here.”

In another reading it was the 4 of Cups reversed, adding another piece to the puzzle:

“Reversal of the 4 of Cups imparts a doubling of the ennui usually associated with this card; the King was most likely bored and looking for excitement. The overturned cups make me think the opportunity fell in his lap like “mana from heaven.” He has been able to keep the sordid memory untouched by guilty conscience for the last 14 (now 21) years.”

Water in the current layout is represented by the Queen of Cups, whom I’m thinking of as a docile accomplice who was in the man’s car on the night of the kidnapping. This individual may have provided a “cover” or alibi for the principle actor over the course of the next few years, deflecting any probes into his whereabouts and conduct on the fateful evening. The Thoth card conveys the idea of a reflecting pool, a featureless mirror that defeats the prying gaze of official attention and reiterates the notion of deflection, although there is no hint that a “person of interest” has been identified by the investigation at this point in time. On the other hand, it could mean that Maura is in a deep, placid, secluded place that may also be “wet,” as was the situation in the Trish Haynes case.

Regarding the 4 of Swords, the Waite-Smith version does a better job of conveying “repose,” but I’m thinking that the Thoth card portrays “forcible restraint” much more clearly. Preceding the Queen of Cups, it could indicate Murray being “tied up,” then weighted down and tossed into deep water. If the kidnapper was as cagey as I’m assuming he was, it’s highly unlikely that she is buried anywhere near his property, or in any other terrestrial setting where she might be inadvertently dug up by an animal or other random excavator. If I were to hazard a guess, she would be somewhere in north-central Massachusetts where a businessman or perhaps a skier since it was February – either alone or with a companion – returning home along the I-91 corridor might be headed, and who got off the Interstate to find gas or food. At that time of year most of the open water in northern New England would have been frozen over, so farther south makes sense in my portrayal of the situation.

Considering all those instances of the reversed King/Knight of Swords, I’m going to stand by the original premise that she was waylaid by an accomplished, well-connected, unfeeling, mature man who has since gone on with his life as if nothing happened. This sort of casual malice is not outside the purview of the suit of Swords, and the King is its standard-bearer.