Brianna Maitland /// Part 1 /// 254 | Forensic Files

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let's talk some true crime foreign [Music] Dark Night in March of 2004 a young 17
year old girl clocked out of work just before midnight she got into her car and drove in the
direction of home she's never been seen again her car was found in what I can only say
has to be one of the strangest vehicular accident scenes I've ever viewed her car was smashed backwards into an
abandoned creepy old farmhouse the old house has a violent history and possible drug connections
but what happened to the driver of that car and was this really even a car accident
at all or did a terrible crime take place something that may have led to the Abduction of this girl
it is very likely that someone out there knows something and still guards their Dark Secrets all of these years later
this week we tell the story of The Disappearance of Brianna Maitland [Music] foreign
this case is an absolute jumble of confusing facts debatable evidence complex characters contradictory
theories and rampant rumors so to break this thing down we are first going to get into what we know to be true based
on tangible evidence as well as reports by Brianna's parents friends and others who interacted with her
so this is what actually happened the day that Brianna Maitland disappeared March 19 2004 Montgomery Vermont this is
a small rural town of about 900 people near the Canadian border this is late winter in Northern New England the
ground is still frozen in the air cold the low temperature that night was only eight degrees this sparsely populated
area features dense Woods Wide Open Fields and houses and Farms set far apart in the landscape Vermont at the
time had a very low crime rate compared to much of the rest of the nation this is Friday and the 17 year old
Brianna Maitland and her mother are going out to lunch after they went shopping at a local mall now Brianna and
her mother had somewhat of a strained relationship all seem normal on this trip until one
point when Kelly Brianna's mom says that they were in a store and Brianna started
staring at something outside of the store Brianna mumbled something to herself and then walked out
by the time Kelly paid for her purchases and walked out to the parking lot Brianna was waiting for her she seemed
agitated and upset Kelly said the mood had noticeably changed she decided not to press her daughter about this issue
though Brianna made no mention of why she left the store so suddenly she just said she needed to hurry back to where
she was staying to get ready for work Brianna was not living at the Maitland home at this time she was staying with
her friend since fourth grade this is Jillian Stout at Jillian's dad's home Kelly dropped her off there between 3 30
and 4 P.M on that day now Brianna had a job as a dishwasher at a local establishment this is the Black Lantern
Inn she's working evenings after uh school and the school's a bit tricky here Captain because it's not
traditional what you would think for a high school age girl 17 year old girl she actually was studying for her GED at
a local community college during the day this was a popular Tavern where she worked where locals and skiers would
gather for meals and drinks that afternoon Brianna left a handwritten note for her friend Jillian the note
told Jillian that Brianna would be home after her shift at work the Vermont State Police retains a copy
of this note but the family has never seen it so we don't know exactly what it says reports are that it just states
that Brianna planned to return to Jillian's after her shift to stay the night there
now there are no accounts captain of anything unusual during her shift at work that night other employees said
that Brianna acted normal Brianna wore a apron like uniform uh that had Pockets her family doesn't know what else she
was wearing that night the end was very busy that Friday night and Brianna didn't finish until after 11
pm her co-workers report that she declined to stick around some of the co-workers would hang out at the Black
Lantern in after their shift and she declined on that night right some Reports say she told colleagues that she
had to get to bed because she had to work her other job the next morning this may have been true Brianna just
days before started work as a waitress at KJ's Diner but we're we aren't certain whether she did have a shift the
next morning or not there are no reports that we've seen to indicate that when she failed to show up the next day or
indeed for nearly a week that anyone at the diner called anybody or notified anyone all right she just started so I
mean they could have just been like well she flaked out right yeah they don't know her character at
that point so Brianna clocked out of from the Black Lantern in at 11 20 p.m on March 19th and she walked out into
the cold Dark Night multiple sources including the Vermont state police report that she was seen by
other employees getting into her car and driving away Brianna's car was a big green four-door 1985 Oldsmobile 88
Royale it was a boat that's right given to her by her grandfather this was nearly 20 years old the vehicle
was nearly 20 years old and it frankly it looked like it the car was registered to Kelly Maitland
this is uh Brianna's mom but Brianna was the driver of the vehicle right so 1.3 miles down the road from the
Black Lantern Inn in the direction of where Brianna was staying with Jillian was an abandoned house known to the
locals as the Old Dutch burn place it was a dilapidated Farmhouse set about 40 or 50 feet off of the East Berkshire
Road Route 118. the windows and the doors are boarded up with plywood The Farmhouse has been abandoned since
1986 when two elderly brothers who lived there Mike and Harry dutchburn were viciously attacked by an intruder
in the home and beaten severely both men had to be hospitalized and seek permanent care after this incident and
neither of them ever returned to the house that case has never been solved the Dutch burn house rests on a small Bluff
overlooking a large field that is bordered on the other side by a river I will post pictures of this so you can
see not only the building but also the crash site so like we said Captain it's 1.3 miles from where she works this
abandoned house so it wouldn't have taken her long at all to get to this location
now the tricky thing here though is early in the morning on March 20th this is a Saturday a group of three skiers
from nearby Jay Peak ski resort we're driving on Route 118 and came to the Dutch born place
what they saw there caused them to pull over Park their car and get out to take a closer look by the light of day they
could see the large green car with the rear corner of the car embedded in the house and the trunk end of the car
partially stuck up on The house's Foundation the plywood covering one of the windows
was knocked out by the impact and was lying on the trunk of the car the ski group was so intrigued by this
strange Tableau that they took a bunch of photos of this scene and photos that can still be seen today online the ones
that you're talking about picking one and posting there yeah then they find a lime on the back of her trunk they did
and we'll we'll get into that later after the this Trio we're done taking the photos and I believe these photos
are the only publicly viewable photos of the car wedged into the side of the abandoned
house that are available to the public but they left after taking these pictures now later that day around 1 20
p.m a State Trooper driving by noticed the Eerie scene and stopped by the car to check it out he found the car doors
closed but unlocked windows up and no keys anywhere in sight peering into the car he likely saw all of the following
things that were in the car and visible in photos so we have a marijuana leaf decoration hanging from the rear mirror
we have litter and objects all over the interior of the car including takeout containers a snow scraper a case of cans
of tuna Cheez-Its and other food there were also two paychecks found inside the car with the name Brianna Maitland on
them there are many reports that there were some things found on the ground outside the car our police officer noted
a broken necklace on the ground and tossed it into the car there was also loose change and a water bottle and by
some reports and unsmoked cigarette the cop basically made an assumption that a drunk driver
had an accident and the car was possibly stuck on The house's foundation and they
ditched the vehicle so that they wouldn't get in trouble he issued a tow order for the vehicle
which it was picked up and towed to a local garage it does not seem that the officer made any attempt to contact the
registered owner of the vehicle this is Kelly Maitland um Brianna's mother so the vehicle here Captain is
look you know I keep saying that it's an eerie scene it's an eerie scene because
we're sitting here talking today and we know that this girl this poor girl is Missing
right and I think for me just driving by if I would have been from the roadside there looking at the scene it's a
strange one I definitely think it's a strange one to see a vehicle backed into an abandoned home right but well it's a
it's more of a barn yeah that's Farmhouse I think is a fair uh thing to call it so but I think you could offer
somebody a hundred bucks to spend the night in it and there would be a lot of people that wouldn't take that offer
well that's it's interesting that you say that because it does have the violent history it is kind of out in the
middle of nowhere uh right beside the road right and it's it's in a dark area that would be it'd be very dark at night
this is not an area that's like lined with street lights right um but we do have the trio that see the
vehicle that morning they take pictures of it there is a rumor that the officer that scheduled the towing of the vehicle
took a picture as well of the car yeah I've heard that as well and but that if that photo exists
either electronically or physically then it's not one that is viewable not one that you will find on the internet well
I think maybe you're confusing that with the story of the officer that uh stopped
and took pictures I believe the night before and but he was on his way he was off duty I think that's I have not heard
that story yeah I believe this The Story Goes that there's a officer off duty he
stopped took pictures and then just went on his way does he report what time that
would have taken place that would have been it would have been like early morning like
a couple hours after she went missing basically so we have the vehicle it is towed from the scene I
do want to throw this out there Captain because I have seen a lot of comments on
this case especially when people looking at pictures of the vehicle backed into this abandoned house
there's a lot of people that really criticize the state trooper the police here for not doing more with the vehicle
in those comments and I tend to disagree with that criticism and I think I mean here's what happens is we have a few of
these cases where it's not a drunk driver and it becomes something more and then the cops get a
lot of criticism here but we're not factoring in the amount of the banded cars they're getting and their
jurisdiction every weekend and this is this is a common thing and this is something that I don't think that well
obviously a bunch of people don't understand in the general public this is a common thing like you said they're now
we live in a major city so driving here it's not uncommon for me to pass at least one abandoned car on my way just
to get to the garage each week so here you know we see it it's right in front of our faces maybe here in this uh where
our case and where our uh story takes place you know it's it's a rural area so maybe this doesn't take place on The
Daily like we have here but this is a common thing for state troopers and police to have to deal with and then on
top of that at look their job is to show up and assess the situation okay and nine times well
not even nine times it's 99 times out of a hundred it's straight up an abandoned
vehicle right either it doesn't run for some reason or the person left it there for any number of reasons the officer
would just look at the vehicle and try to determine if another if some kind of actual crime took place right and if it
doesn't look like that a crime took place you're having the vehicle towed and as
long as if this person you know stays missing right if if somebody's reported missing this is their vehicle we at
least have the car to investigate anything inside the car the other thing too is there's a lot of
criticism by people saying well the officer could have at least reached out to the registered owner of the vehicle
yeah and I I kind of agree with that I I do and I don't and here's why um one the person that ends up going
missing isn't the technically the paper owner of this vehicle right but the cop doesn't know any of that I mean
basically at the end of the day you have a car on the side of the road and who's
responsible for that car the owner whoever it's registered to so you contact the register hey your car is
being towed to such and such location I don't think that's and it doesn't have to be the cop it could be the towing
company somebody should notify the person when you're towing their car I like I said I I have mixed feelings
about that I agree and I disagree with that criticism and there's feelings about you well good for you but what I'm
saying here is the the police are not um it's not their job to contact the owner in my opinion they're they're they
don't need to hunt down the person and say look well we found your car or you abandoned your car here and it's been
towed um right I think where again it's because we know the outcome and we also know that the person driving this car
was a 17 year old you know a teenager right and when this case becomes natural national news and others have that are
similar to this case and we'll get into those later but that's when people start
wondering hey what are they doing over there why aren't they treating this vehicle like it's something serious now
what I will say is this a couple questionable things the the where I might change my mind and
say that I do agree with you captain and agree with the criticism of others that
the registered owner was not um contacted by law enforcement is I see some signs of possibly somebody living
out of this vehicle right and I and I think cans of tuna where I agree with you is it's not protocol but maybe it
should be protocol especially in these situations where if it is a teenager or kid we don't know that by just looking
at the vehicle but like you said there's evidence tuna in the car you have the evidence
that almost somebody's living out of this vehicle and the other thing here though is you say well
I I'm curious did would the car have run was it operational and I think that's a
question in a lot of people's minds and we don't know that because the officer didn't find the vehicle find the keys
right he found a vehicle unlocked the doors closed but unlocked no keys he has no way of determining if it's
operational but that would have to me that that would point us in some different areas because what you're
going to see in this case is there's a lot of different theories and a lot of them are going to have to do with what
actually happened with this vehicle right and so we don't know if the vehicle was operational here's what my
guess is it actually doesn't look to me like anybody you know came spinning off the road and
wrecked into the side of this abandoned house no because they didn't wreck into it side first or head first they backed
into the building and it almost looks to me like I kept saying you know it it appears and others agree with this
statement that it appears that maybe the vehicle the rear portion of the vehicle
the trunk of the vehicle is up on The house's foundation so picture this you have a much more solid foundation
holding up basically a wooden Farmhouse right so the vehicle now mind you this is 1980 this is vehicles in 1985. I had
a 1986 Buick Regal those cars back then were not built the way that our cars are
built today our cars today feel very plasticky and they crumple they're meant to crumple to protect the the passengers
and the driver of the vehicle if there were an accident back then the corners of those Vehicles
were solid man those things were solid the the corner the front corners of my car I know this from experience would do
damage to to anything that they came in contact with back when you had the Buick
so her vehicle this 85 Oldsmobile to me it looks like somebody may have been in the yard near
this abandoned home and tried to back up you know throw the thing into reverse and think about how dark we already said
it would have been there at this location right at night we don't have backup cameras yeah my thought is maybe
someone I I'm not willing to say who was driving the vehicle but let's say it was
Brianna she could have for whatever reason stopped in that yard decided to throw
the vehicle into reverse and the corner of that car smashed Through the Wood portion of the abandoned home and
somehow slid up onto the more solid foundation actually lifting the rear of the vehicle slightly up and off of the
ground underneath the car I think she pulled a juvenile well the thing is a lot of people when they look
at the picture and and I know we're really going into the vehicle a lot but like I said that's kind of the core of
this case in my opinion and a lot of people would say well if she were driving the vehicle and had some kind of
accident into the side of that abandoned home why didn't she just continue driving on well what I'm getting at is
if in fact the rear of the vehicle was lifted up slightly onto the foundation of the of the home right that 1985
Oldsmobile 88 Royale was a rear wheel drive vehicle if the if the back is elevated she's not able to get those
tires on the ground to drive off especially if she's by herself right if you had a few people there you might be
able to figure it out or unwedge the vehicle yeah so whether or not the the car is drivable it could have been
operational and she had no ability to get it right but you're unstuck right the other thing too Captain is that we
have the doors are all closed but unlocked now we have to keep in mind this is an 85 this is a four-door car
these are all individual locks this is not like somebody hit one single button and unlocked all four doors at the same
time right and there's some question as to who was operating that vehicle at the
time that it wrecked into the side of the home or how many people could have been inside that vehicle oh eyewitnesses
that saw her leaving with anybody right and so you have to ask yourself would it
have been more commonplace it'd be interesting to know if she was the type that locked her car doors because if
we're talking about a situation where she wrecked on accident and just hopped out of the car and decided to leave on
foot if she was the type to lock her doors I would expect to find the other three
doors possibly locked I mean it takes a little bit of effort to go through and unlock all four doors
well of course you want to lock your doors to save all that tuna that's right but there are people out there that do
not lock their car doors you know you and I know these you know people like this that say Maniacs well no but you
have some people that have unfortunately their car windows have been smashed out
so somebody can break into the car and I have I do have several friends that don't have alarm systems on their car
and they've just told me straight up look I don't keep anything in my car and I keep my doors unlocked that way if
somebody wants to check my car they can just check the car door and I have to I'm tired of paying for smashed windows
in my car so moving on Captain we do have the car that's towed and we have Brianna who is
missing so on Sunday night March 21st her roommate Jillian returned home from the weekend she spent away at her
grandmother's home she noticed the note left by Brianna was still on the counter she didn't think
much of it actually because Brianna was not living at home like we said but she was also moving around quite a bit
lately she was crashing at friends homes and even boyfriends homes and not staying in one place for too long she
was doing a bit of couch surfing captain but by Tuesday March 23rd when Brianna still hadn't been seen or heard from
Jillian called the maitlands and asked for Brianna Kelly Maitland immediately became
alarmed she called her sister Tammy she called various friends as well and after searching fruitlessly on March
23rd the maitlands contacted the Vermont State Police to file a missing persons report on their daughter they were told
that an APB would be put out on Brianna and her car the maitlands heard nothing from the police for two days
now there are some discrepancies in the the story about the car being found okay according to what the Vermont State
Police told media sources they established the identity of the owner of the car and they called the maitlands on
that Thursday according to what the maitlands told Dateline NBC and other sources that on
that Thursday after Brianna went missing they went down to the Vermont State Police and demanded some attention be
paid to their daughter's case when the maitlands arrived they sat down with an officer now during a
conversation the officer who had actually found the vehicle found the car stuck at the Dutch burn place right
overheard this conversation and came over to which he pulled out a photo that he took of the car and Kelly Maitland
reacted she said the photo of the car made her stomach roll and as she put it quote I saw evil in that photo
foreign all right we're back yes sir so here we have a situation Captain where after
being notified regardless of how it actually went down by the police that the vehicle was found Saturday morning
the Brianna's vehicle was found Saturday morning now we have her mother and father coming to the realization that
you know this conversation is happening on Thursday May we found her vehicle Saturday
they heard from her friend Jillian on Tuesday who said hey I came home on Sunday and I haven't seen her
so likely the parents were thinking that she's been missing since Sunday now they
find out it could be could have been as early as Friday night when she left work
so now they're terrified and the father her father is going to go to the garage where this vehicle is to
view Brianna's car [Music] this was look this has got to be hard for anyone to do but we have a father of
a missing daughter going to view the vehicle and there's an issue here the vehicle's keys were not found with the
vehicle when he arrives to check out this car they have the issue of the trunk somebody's got to look in that trunk and
back then this is not the type of vehicle where you could pull a lever and release the trunk the top of the trunk
right you'd have to have a key for it yeah and because the keys were missing nobody has checked that that trunk and
actually he said you know hey when I walked up to this this car me and the guy that worked there it may have been
an officer I'm not certain but these two guys had to pry open the trunk with a with a crowbar
the whole time he's concerned that he's going to find the body of his daughter in the trunk of that car yeah along with
some of her belongings and you know so you can only imagine the moment of Terror when the lid finally popped
on that thing you know praying that he would not find Brianna in the trunk of that car all they did find thankfully
were boxes and bags of her possessions they did not find her now back then 2004 Brianna did not have a cell phone so
that would also add to the mystery of this quote-unquote car accident at the abandoned house right it's my
understanding though Captain you know this is 2004 Upstate Vermont that there was little to most likely no cell
service anywhere in the area of the vehicle accident right that makes you wonder if she wrecked her car and she
was alone and her car couldn't get she couldn't get the car out of the barn basically right that
would she hitchhike right and the other thing too there is some argument out there that people State well she did
have she did have a cell phone and that's that's not true she didn't have a cell phone what's actually true is that
her mother had a cell phone at the time and on occasion would let her use it even take it with her she just didn't
have it that day correct you're absolutely right so it's kind of clear that the police assumed early on in the
investigation that Brianna was maybe a runaway or at the very least some sort of irresponsible teenager a Bruce and
Kelly the parents became very frustrated early on and this is mainly because one
of her co-workers one of Brianna's co-workers actually told the police that she had said she was going on some sort
of trip some kind of short trip at the time and one of Brianna's friends said that they
often talked about escaping to Florida and another friend said that Brianna often made reference to wanting to get
out of the small town Vermont and head to a city like Montreal or New York so which is a lot different than Florida
well but that's what's tricky for law enforcement when you start talking to people close to her you have one saying
hey she was talking about going on some kind of trip right you have one saying hey she always talked about going and
moving to Florida at some point and then somebody else saying she wanted to move
to a large city this is just proof that most people don't listen to you when you
talk what do you mean it's just I mean the fact that all of our friends have all
these different stories so she could have told different people different things over the course of possibly it's
more who knows how long it's more likely that people just don't pay attention um well the problem here though Captain
is going to be that her family they don't agree with any of this they want the police to be looking for their
daughter but what the police know on the on the surface is look we have a 17 year
old that's not living with her parents at the time that she suddenly disappears right and she's also told multiple
people that she had plans or at least desired to go elsewhere at some point in her life the maitlands demanded uh to be
given lie detector tests because you know knowing that the family would be investigated at some point they wanted
to be involved in the investigation and help so they offered up anything that they could do to be a eliminated at
least the suspects so that they could be involved in the search for their daughter
there are reports that Brianna had left once before without telling her parents now her father Bruce later denied this
on the Nancy Grace TV show at the time she vanished Brianna had moved out of her parents house as we
said they lived on a remote farmhouse in Franklin and she had moved in with various friends and boyfriends from the
time that she moved out I'm a little unclear captain of exactly when she moved out from her parents home the
understanding I have is that the maitlands were likely in the process of separating and that she didn't have a
great relationship with her mother she did have a good relationship by all reports with her father but again I
don't know that situation other than it's important to know she was not living at home there are some reports
like you and I suspected that she may have lived in her car temporarily at times right I mean if she couldn't find
a couch to crash on okay I'll just sleep in the back of my car what we do know is
that in February of 2004 she dropped out of school she enrolled in depending on who you talk to a GED program or a ghd
program right the old ghd and this would have been at a local community college do we know why she dropped out of school
because I heard rumors that she was a good student so I heard two completely different rumors
okay um so one rumor is that she was involved in drugs or had some kind of drug issue
right that was getting in the way of schooling and may have been leading to her getting in trouble at least at on
the school level right and then the other rumor that I heard was that she um didn't get along with some of the
students that she either didn't fit in I'm a little unclear what exactly that meant
um but we do know this she actually attended two different high schools before dropping out right so
well it could be both though right it could be you have a little bit of issues with people you go to school
with so you're using drugs to kind of cope with that it could be both well we also have
a strange issue here that I call in a question because after she went missing according to her mother
she publicly stated her mother published stated several times that she Brianna was starting to get her life together
I'm uncertain as to what that means okay to me when I hear that that indicates that there was something where her life
was not together and we don't know what that means in the perspective of her mother right well makes um
give some validity to the the rumors of possibly she was using drugs right and that was my first thought now I don't
know if if what she's referring to is well she dropped out of one school went to the
other school dropped out of that one and she was working on getting her GED right
is some form of trying to get her life together but what the parents would point out is if she wanted to leave
the problem they pointed to with not believing that theory from the police is the two uncashed paychecks that were
left in her vehicle this seems like something that she would have needed there is some argument by
the parents as well that she would have taken the vehicle with her but as you and I stated if if she were if the
vehicle was stuck that may not have been an option right at the end but the paychecks would have been if if we would
have known that she was going to go missing right the police officers knew they could have done a couple tests to
see if they could even get the vehicle moving right again that's what you're always going to have that argument that
the cops could have done more yeah well we have the Vermont State Police they did work with the FBI and conducted
ground and air searches of the area surrounding the abandoned house because it wasn't their Department very
very small okay so this is my understanding and this almost seems unbelievably small but my understanding
is what she said that they had like 13 officers for the entire County yeah that's what I heard and so there's
thousands of people that were reported missing roughly in that area like not not not from that town but within that
area so you to have the only 13 officers be able to look for anybody that's it's
crazy well and if you're sitting there thinking that 13 doesn't sound like that small of a number let's keep in mind
that the police force is a 24 7 operation okay um and actually in some small towns I
will say State this it does they do shut down from time to time but this is the state police so from my understanding it
would be that a 24 7 operation of 13 men and women patrolling the area 24 hours seven
months a year now regarding these searches Captain I'm a little unclear as to when they actually took place which
you know really can mess up what they could have possibly found but they were days long these searches the ground
searches and they did include hundreds of volunteered citizens with as many as 500 participating at one point now this
area includes many many acres of forest land which can be very difficult to search
so the searches turn up really nothing related to Brianna the maitlands went into search and rescue mode themselves
with Bruce searching areas with friends and Kelly designing Printing and disseminating thousands of missing
persons Flyers all over the area investigators also searched the Dutch burn house and the surrounding Woods a
couple of sources reported that the Vermont State Police their detective Brian Miller told the media
investigators found a gun and drug paraphernalia inside The Farmhouse the area around the Dutch burn house was
searched by a metal detection expert in an attempt to find the missing car keys while he found loose change no keys were
ever located state police officers received quite a few tips and brought in over 160 persons
for personal interviews and at least three individuals were given polygraphed examinations that were quote
inconclusive with at least one revealing deception now we don't know who these people are that were given the polygraph
examinations their names have not been named publicly Witnesses spot the car so we have some
other witnesses that may have spotted the car right so police turned up some witnesses that said they saw Brianna's
car on the night that she went missing one report is around 12 30 a.m March 20th and this time is absolutely crucial
to any reconstruction of the events this is a man who has been described in numerous sources as a quote very
credible witness said he drove by the Dutch burn house and noticed the car outside of it he
pointed at the road with he said the sorry the vehicle was pointed at the road with its headlights on at this time
the car fit the description of Brianna's car a second witness also saw the car sometime around midnight or 1am they're
not certain of the time but this witness states that the blinker was on now whether instead of in addition to
the lights being on or you know instead of or addition two we don't know okay so obviously if it's in addition to
the first guy could have just missed seeing the blinker being on uh if the blinker was on instead of the lights
then someone was in the car after that first sighting right now finally another person reported seeing the car that
night this was closer to 4 a.m this is James robitelli this is Brianna's ex-boyfriend one of
her ex-boyfriends told investigators he drove by on his way home from a party across the border
and saw the car and recognized it to be Brianna's he said there was no sign of her
anywhere it might be strange that he wasn't concerned about Brianna enough to notify any one
of her abandoned vehicle did he see any lights on that I couldn't find a statement from
him stating that lights were on that might have drawn that may have alerted him more later he would say he
was drunk that night and he was afraid of getting in trouble so he didn't report it that night and it's tough too
because you'd think if there's no keys the car's in park then why are the lights on
the other thing too though that's interesting about his statement is he says he saw the car but he all he he
outwardly states that Brianna was nowhere near or not in the area meaning to me that he may have he likely stopped
and investigated that he got close enough to the car to see that there was no one in it at the time right
we should note that one of the homes that Brianna had stayed at during this time away from her parents house was
James's grandparents house now at the end of March a forensic team processed Brianna's car searching it
thoroughly and taking pieces out of the Interior to test they are looking for evidence of a struggle or possible Foul
Play All right so we have the initial investigation it states that it didn't indicate any kind
of violent struggle inside the vehicle although the investigator conceded that the way that the car was backed into the
house it did not look like a quote normal accident no like you said in the trailer I mean this is
that's kind of strange I mean I've seen cars hit houses before right but never back up into them right
and they found Brianna's ATM card they found her contact lenses and migraine medication inside the vehicle
as stated earlier her keys were gone and they have never been found to this day interestingly Lieutenant Nelson
um working the case told reporters the car was discovered at 1 22 a.m on March 20th by a neighbor so this must be the
unnamed witness that is quoted you know stated to be credible who saw the lights and or blinkers on
another thing Lieutenant Nelson said that's interesting is that it wasn't immediately apparent
to investigators that Brianna was the last person to drive the vehicle now he did not expound on this statement
yeah I wonder what they found to make them think that it that's a weird statement and and the
reason why I find that to be a weird statement Captain is you can kind of take that one of two ways
you can take it in a sense that maybe they found something to indicate that possibly there was someone else driving
the vehicle at the time of the accident or that they couldn't find anything to definitively say that Brianna was in
fact the one driving the vehicle right you know it's kind of a very vague statement to throw out there yeah and
the second one's not so bad though I mean just to say well we don't know for sure so let's just keep an open mind
so the maitlands offered up a twenty thousand dollar reward for information leading to Brianna's safe return or the
arrest of the person or persons responsible for her disappearance and they did establish a website this is
bring breehome.com dedicated to finding her so who is Brianna Captain Brianna Alexandra
Maitland was born on October 8th 1986. at the time of her disappearance she was just 17 years old she was five foot tall
five foot four inches tall I'm sorry weighs 105 pounds has hazel eyes and medium length brown hair yeah she also
has a nose stud in her left nostril and a faint scar on her left eyebrow she is a hearty New Englander who can
shoot skeet track deer and zip around on an ATV or snowmobile Brianna's mom says
one time Brianna packed picked up a hitchhiker and brought him home one thing that's important to know about
Brianna is that she is trained in uh Jiu Jitsu thank you just seeing that word on paper threw me
forward so she brought the hitchhiker home so I mean aren't you just supposed to pick
them up and take them drop them off somewhere else you're not supposed to take them home
are you hey you look I've had that I can recall I think I've had one experience with The Hitchhiker and that
was the protocol for that trip was to drop them off at another location this is actually bring them home this was
actually very common in the 70s I mean hitchhikers were very common and people would pick them up all the time
but 2004 not so much but no no but what I'm saying is thinking back on it to think that at one point in in our nation
that in the 70s were like hey just pick people up man it's cool yeah well and it would happen often on
uh college campuses as well like so students that didn't know one another from attending the school but happened
to be from you know hey like if you lived somewhere along my drive home right we there were ways of hooking up
that I'd be like hey I'll drop the captain off on my way back to to my family's home for Thanksgiving right
well I'm an 80s baby so it's like I've heard all the stories from the 70s now we're investigating this case of 2004
and you go she picked up a hitchhiker like that's just not something people do yeah I mean
I've never hitchhiked myself but as far as the Jiu Jitsu thing goes we should note that she wasn't just trained in it
this is a she was studying the practice for several years leading up to her disappearance but I think what's
interesting thing here Captain about the hitchhiker I think if you are knowing in advance that she is
absolutely willing to pick up a hitchhiker I think that points out to the same thought that she might be willing to
accept a ride as well with so much focus on the vehicle and what could have happened to the vehicle what happened to
her afterwards we don't know right and this points to the thought where you know because we've covered other cases
where parents or loved ones or friends are going she would have never gotten to a car not this situation you can't tell
me that if she's willing to let someone in her car I think she's willing to accept a ride especially if you're kind
of out in the sticks in a dark area at midnight yeah I think so yeah I don't want to
look I'm not trying to judge Jujitsu at all but you know there's been a lot of Masters of the the
martial arts that are masters of Jiu Jitsu that say Hey look this stuff works in that setting but
this is grappling this has nothing to do with striking so this idea that if if somebody tried to attack her that she'd
be able to take down any man it's just kind of a ridiculous statement well that's
I mean I don't know who's saying that statement I just stating that she was not she didn't have the inability to do such
right um that it was possible that she's trained in some in a form of martial arts that most people are not so uh but
while we're on the the topic of background information on Brianna we should point out too that there was an
assault on Brianna that occurred on February 27th this is only weeks before she went missing yeah and she took a
selfie well reports are that Brianna was at a party in Richford which is near the
Canadian border James robitelli which is the name that we've heard before who was either her ex or her current
flame at the time of this party was also there right he's the guy that reported seeing her car a number of other kids
were there as well including a girl named Keely lacrosse and a local guy whom Keely was possibly involved with
Keeley thought that Brianna was flirting with this guy so words were exchanged and Brianna walked out of the party and
went out to James's truck apparently she fell asleep but at some point Keely and her cousin came outside
told Brianna to roll down the window and they challenged her to a a fight punching her nuts yeah punching her in
the face friends of Brianna reported that Keely was pushing Brianna to fight her and hit
her again but Brianna refused to fight all right so she just got punched a few times in the face and she left the party
crying uh James apparently drove her home that night Brianna sustained a broken nose and a concussion and two
very black eyes now at the urging of her parents Brianna filed charges these charges were ultimately dropped by the
County District Attorney's office after Brianna went missing we don't know a whole lot about Keely
lacrosse but for what it's worth uh in 2005 she told WCAX quote I got into an argument with her
meaning Brianna and I regret everything that happened I really wish she was here
today end quote Keeley went on to have a few Tangles with the law if you want to
call him that including an arrest for home invasion and assault in 2012. this is this is
problematic I feel I feel like we have a situation here where we have a history we have someone who
I wouldn't call this is not a fight she attacked Brianna broke her nose give her a
concussion yeah yeah so words are exchanged and Brianna left the situation right went outside and chilled out in
the truck and then she's approached Again by this girl and then we have we do know that she
goes on to have this situation of a home invasion an assault here's my understanding I wish I knew a little bit
more about this home invasion because home invasions can be extremely violent hell we discussed one just last week in
the garage right they ended in a double homicide so I don't know the details of this home invasion it could have been
something as simple to break in and recover something or break in and steal drugs but I do have an
understanding of the assault so the assault these were not two separate crimes the assault took place during the
home invasion and from my understanding she bit the victim now I don't know if if they busted into the home and a fight
broke out right and then the assault occurred but this was in 2012. so we have two
two incidents where we see that we have a violent individual is what we do know and unfortunately these charges would
ultimately be dropped because we don't have a victim around anymore we don't have Brianna around anymore to follow
through on the charges being brought against Keeley right so but what you're saying is keeley's house was broken into
no no no home invasion meaning she was either invaded another home or part of a group that invaded another home okay so
she was one of the Invaders yes yes so she's in trouble with law She's Not Just involved with him as a victim yeah
that's not a good thing right so we have I think you and I can agree this is someone that has at least on more than
one occasion shown signs to have been violent well and let me put this you know I want to say this is hearsay rumor
mill stuff but as far as this party goes this whole idea that that Brianna came with her boyfriend and her ex-boyfriend
James James see I heard this story a little different the rumor mill that I heard was that Keely was involved
they're both involved with this guy James and that's what the fight was over okay that was the rumor that I heard now
if is that true I'm not for sure that's that's the room I heard I heard and that
could be right which makes it more suspicious that James saw her car that night possibly yes and but this was what
calls into question for me is Keely a good suspect and you know there are I did find her did you see the picture of
her face uh yeah Brianna's face I mean that's I mean she looked like she was in the
Octagon right the reason why I bring up is Keely a good suspect I think on the surface at
least knowing this background information there's some kind of history there but there I have seen online reports
that state that no she's not a good suspect she's been cleared I couldn't find I couldn't find verification of
what actually cleared her but what I could find was I could find a statement from Brianna's father Bruce Maitland who
says he quote doesn't believe she was ever really cleared okay so let's keep keep open mind we don't
know why she's cleared we don't know what her Alibi was you know I think it's a good lead to go down yes the other
lead we should go down is a possible drug connection to this missing person's case so in 2004 the Vermont Hills area
where Brianna lived was suffering from a drug epidemic there was a massive influx
of drugs brought by dealers from New York and Massachusetts there already was plenty of pot in the area but this newer
infiltration of hard drugs they were bringing in things like crack cocaine and heroin this was not just brought
into the area it was a problem right so two drug dealers who came up to the small town Vermont area from the big
city were Raymond Street Ryan's of Queens New York and Nathaniel Lowe Jackson also from New York these guys
sold crack and Other Drugs to the teens in the area but they didn't just sell to
these kids they hung out with them as well that's normally how it works the two of them attended parties and
socialized with the younger kids they were providing drugs to how much Brianna was involved in this drug scene is hotly
contested she seems to have been a pot smoker some friends say that she may have tried Coke
or crack a time or two others other people say that it went beyond that you know that she had some kind of drug
problem some rumors that she's a full-blown crackhead I mean one of the speculations is one of the reasons why
she got two jobs I mean she's couch surfing and stuff like that so one of the reasons why she got the the
second job was to maintain her drug addiction yeah and so that's interesting Captain because there there's two
schools of thought here I would think is that one you have someone who's working
two jobs because they're living above their means and they're spending money on things like drugs or then I go back
to the statement given by her mother of Brianna was in the process of getting her life back together so maybe she's
working the two jobs and she's she's on a on the bridge to better days right um so but but again about what you tell
your parents at the age of 17 and what they know is two different things well but again though that statement is is
troubling as well because the statement of she is getting in the process of getting her life together what does that
mean what was going on what was wrong before the time period that she went missing and does that involve the use of
hardcore drugs and again like like I was saying to you over the phone last week you know what your parents know of you
at the age of 15 16 17 They Don't Know Much unless you're giving them that information or their suspicious of
something so they're kind of snooping but guess what they can't Snoop if you're not living there right so they're
not going to pick up on who's calling you they're not going to pick up on who you left the house with right they're
not going to pick up on who came over to the house these are all important little
clues that parents have to pay attention to because your teenagers are normally not going to be forthcoming with hey you
know I've been hanging out with um you know this guy and this guy and we've been smoking crack that's normally
not how it goes down so that's never dinner conversation is it I'm just saying I I don't
I don't blame her parents for not knowing I'm just saying let's let's start assuming that they probably don't
know everything that was going on in her life at that time and I had to get me a
second job because the old Captain got me on the crack pipe yeah Mama never got anybody on the crack yeah
Dear Mother um Dear Mother so we have Vermont State Police investigator Brian Miller who
we've discussed before he said publicly that they knew Brianna quote experimented with a wide range of drugs
so the police seem to have some sort of evidence that this may have been going on and that they could not rule out
drugs being connected to her disappearance the other thing though too is it might
be possible that Brianna had some kind of or was in some kind of relationship with one of the dealers that we
discussed and this is lo Jackson the two of them had been seen together multiple times by Brianna's friends and
family we don't know if there was for sure a relationship or any more about this but what what I feel like is it
doesn't look good well what I was going to say about the job the rumor about the
second job was that she was actually in debt as far as she owed money to people that she's getting drugs from
right so it's kind of uh there's two stories one that she wanted to get drugs well multiple stories
do have two jobs get your life together you have two jobs so you can pay for your drugs
get a second job because you're in debt and you owe drug dealers money thank you
band the van order your band the van shirt today they're on the website truecrime garage.com click on the store
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and don't litter [Music] thank you [Applause] [Music]

Brianna Maitland /// Part 1 /// 254

Part 1 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

On a freezing, dark night in March of 2004 a 17 year old girl clocked out at work just before midnight. She got into her car and drove in the direction of home. She has never been seen again. Her car was found soon after and it appeared there was a strange vehicular accident. Her car was smashed backwards into an abandoned, creepy old farmhouse. The old house has a violent history. What happened to the driver of that car and was this even really a car accident at all? Did a terrible crime take place there instead? Did this event lead to the abduction of this girl? Someone out there knows something. This week we discuss the disappearance of Brianna Maitland. Beer of the Week - Heart of Lothian by Drop-In Brewing Garage Grade - 4 and a half bottle caps out of 5

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Brief Summary

Brianna Maitland, 17, vanished in 2004; her car was found abandoned, leading to an ongoing investigation with various theories.

Key points

The Disappearance of Brianna Maitland. A 17-year-old girl vanished after work, leaving behind a mysterious car accident scene.
Eerie Scene at the Dutchburn Place. A group of skiers discover Brianna's car embedded in an abandoned farmhouse.
Confusing Evidence Found in the Car. The police find strange items in Brianna's car, leading to more questions about her fate.
Maitlands' Alarm. Kelly Maitland becomes alarmed after Brianna goes missing and contacts the police.
The Car's Discovery. Brianna's car is found, raising more questions than answers.
The Search for Brianna. The Maitlands launch their own search efforts after Brianna's disappearance.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This case is an absolute jumble of confusing facts.

Describing the complexity of Brianna's case.

4:32WatchNov 24, 2022

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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