Maureen Maher was born on December 3, 1967, just outside Detroit, Michigan, and was given up for adoption as an infant by her parents. She attended Loyola University Chicago, where she began building the foundation for a career in broadcasting. Her career in media began in 1991 as a morning-drive anchor at Chicago’s WLUW-FM. She then moved to television, working as a reporter in Detroit and Flint, Michigan.

Maher joined CBS Newspath in 1997, covering major national stories from Chicago, including the Clinton impeachment. She later served as a CBS News correspondent based in Dallas, reporting for the CBS Evening News. In 2003, she became the host of 48 Hours Mystery, beginning a nearly two-decade run as one of the program’s lead investigative correspondents.

During her 48 Hours tenure, Maher’s reporting on international adoption fraud, particularly in Ethiopia, helped influence federal policy and became one of the defining bodies of work in her career. In 2021, she left full-time broadcasting to attend Chicago Theological Seminary, where she pursued a Master of Arts in Religious Studies focused on Inter-Religious Studies and Public Theology.