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

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grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime on a freezing 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 has 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 creep 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 [Music] Matlin this 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 maitlin disappeared March 19th 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 8° 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 maitlin 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 seemed 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 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 maand 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 4:00 p.m. on that day now Brianna had a job as a dishwasher at a local establishment this
is the Black Lantern in she's working evenings after uh School mhm uh 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 then 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 jillians 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 in was very busy that Friday night and Brianna didn't finish until
after 11:00 p.m. 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 well 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 um the car was registered to Kelly maitlin 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 in
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 dilapitated farmhouse set about 40 or 50 fet off of the East Burkshire Road Route 118 the
windows and the doors are boarded up with plywood M The Farmhouse has been abandoned since 1986 when two elderly
brothers who live there Mike and Harry dutchburn were viciously attacked by an intruder in the home and beaten severely
h 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 dutchburn house rest 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 mil 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 J Peak ski resort were 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 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 uh picking one and posting there yeah
didn't they find a lime on the back of her trunk they did and we'll we'll get into that later um after the this Trio
were 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 um 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 notice the Eerie scene and stop 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 cheit and other food there were also two paychecks
found inside the car with the name Brianna maitlin on them there are many reports that there were some things
found on the ground outside the car uh police officer noted a broken necklace on the ground and tossed it into the car
there was also loose change in a water bottle and by some reports an un smoked 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 in tow to a local garage it does not seem that the officer made any attempt to contact the registered owner
of the vehicle the this is Kelly maitlin um Brianna's mother so the vehicle here
Captain is look you know I keep saying that it's an eerie scene M 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 want to 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 um 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 exist 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 H 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 uh backed into this abandoned house mhm 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 well I mean here's what happens is we have a few of these cases where it's not a
drunk driver mhm and it becomes something more and then the cops get a lot of criticism here but we're not
factoring in the amount of abandoned cars they're getting in their jurisdiction every weekend mhm and this
is this is a common thing and this is something something that I don't think that a 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 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 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 100 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 the a crime took place you're having the vehicle towed and as long as
if this person you know stays missing right mhm if if somebody's reported missing this is their vehicle we at
least have the car to investigate anything inside the car mhm the other thing too is there's a lot of CR
criticism by people saying well the officer could have at least reached out to the registered owner of the
vehicle I 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 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 makes feelings about you well good for you but what I'm saying here is 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 we found your car or you abandoned your car here and it's been towed um
right I think where again it's cuz we know the outcome and we also know that the person driving this car was uh
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 a kid we don't know that by just looking at the vehicle but
like you said there's evidence got this tuna in the car you have this evidence that almost somebody's living out of
this vehicle mhm 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 vehic 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 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 vehicle is a 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 passenger 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 true 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 the Buick so her vehicle mhm this 85 uh Oldsmobile to me it looks like somebody
may have been in the yard near this abandoned home and try 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 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 wheeel
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 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 no 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 it takes a bit of effort to go through and unlock all four
doors 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 I'm tired of paying for smashed windows and
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 boyfriend's 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 maand and asked for Brianna Kelly maitlin immediately
became alarmed she called her sister Tammy she called various friends as well and after searching fruitlessly on March
23rd the maand contacted the Vermont State Police to file a missing person's report on their daughter they were told
that an APB would be put out on Brianna and her car the maand 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 EST
establish the identity of the owner of the car and they called the maeland on that
Thursday according to what the maand 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 maand 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 bur place right overheard this conversation and came over to which he
pulled out a photo that he took of the car and Kelly maitlin reacted she said the photo of the car made her stomach
roll and as she put it quote I saw evil in that photo this show is sponsored by better help do
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to answer call us at 1888 freedom 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 realiz ation that
you know this conversation is happening on Thursday right 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 going to go to the garage where this vehicle is to view Brianna's car mhm 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 mhm 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 may have been an officer I'm not certain but these two
guys had to pry open the trunk with a with a crow bar 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 um 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 kind of clear that the police assumed early on in the investigation that uh Brianna was maybe a runaway or
at the very least some sort of irresponsible teenager now 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 the time and one of Brianna's friends
said that they often talked about escaping to Florida and another friend said that Brian 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 her friends have all these different stories well 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 maand demanded uh
to be given lie detector test 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
eliminated at least as 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 um 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 matlins 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 uh 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 uh 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
cuz 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 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 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 into question because after she went missing according to her mother uh she publicly
stated her mother publicly stated several times that she Brianna was starting to get her life
together I'm uncertain as to what means okay to me when I hear that that indicates that there was something where
her life was not together MH and we don't know what that means in the perspective of her mother right well
makes um gives 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 at 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 it 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
the area surrounding the abandoned house well because wasn't their Department very very small okay so this is my
understanding and this almost seems unbelievably small but my understanding is that's what she said that they had
like 13 officers for the entire County yeah that's what I heard and so there was thousands of people that were
reported missing roughly in that area like not not not from that town but within that area so to to have only 13
officers be able to look for anybody that's that'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 247 operation M 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 247 operation of 13 men and women patrolling the area
24 hours 7 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 maand 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 in the surrounding Woods a a
couple of sources reported that the Vermont State Police uh 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
polygraph 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 Witness 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 1:00 a.m. 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 to we don't 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
robelli this is Brianna's ex-boyfriend one of her ex-boyfriends told investigators he drove by on 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 anyone 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 it's tough too because you'd think
if there's no keys and the cars in park then why are the lights on mhm the other
thing too though that's interesting about his statement is he says he saw the car but he he he outwardly states
that Brianna was nowhere near or not in the area meaning to me that he may have 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 it'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 uh they found her
contact lenses and migraine medication inside the vehicle mhm 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
you know stated to be credible who saw the lights Andor 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 him 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 Briana 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 maand offered up a $20,000 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 Bri home.com uh dedicated to finding her so who is Brianna Captain Brianna Alexandra
maen was born on October 8th 1986 at the time of her disappearance she was just 17 years old she was 5 tall
5' 4 in tall I'm sorry weighs 105 lb 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 ski 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 jiujitsu thank you just seeing that word on paper threw me for
aop um so she brought the hitchhiker home mhm 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 I 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 not not bring them home this was actually very common in the 70s I mean
hitchhikers were very common and people would pick him up all the time MH um 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 we're like hey just pick people up man it's cool yeah well and it it would happen often on uh college
campuses as well like so students that didn't know one another from attending the school but happen to be from you
know hey like if you lived somewhere along my drive home right we 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 and 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 cuz 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 and I don't want to look I'm not trying to judge jiujitsu at all but you
know there's been a lot of Masters of the the martial arts that or masters of jiujitsu 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 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 robelli which is a name that we've heard before uh 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 key lacrosse and a local guy whom key was possibly involved with key
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 key and her cousin came outside told Brianna to roll
down the window and they challenged her to a a fight punching her in yeah punching her in the face mhm friends of
Brianna reported that key was pushing Brianna to fight her and hit her again but Brianna refused to fight 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 key lacrosse but for what it's worth uh
in 2005 she told WCA x 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 key 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 sit situation here where we have a history we have someone
who I wouldn't call it this is not a fight she attacked Brianna she broke her nose gave
her 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 and 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 that 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 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 key right so but what you're saying is ke's house was broken into no 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 okay 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 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 uh Brianna came with her boyfriend her ex-boyfriend James James see I heard
this story a little different the rumor mill that I heard was that key was involved they were 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 rumor I 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 key a
good suspect and you know there are I did find reports 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 but the reason why I bring up is key 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 M 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 Maan 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 from the big city were Raymond Street Ryan of Queens New York and
Nathaniel low 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 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 is hotly contested she seems to have been a pot smoker some friends say
that she may have tried Coke or crack uh a time or two others other people say that it went beyond that you know that
she had some kind of drug problem yeah 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 uh 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 yeah but 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 they're s 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 clues
that parents have to pay attention to because your teenagers are 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 you know I I don't blame that's never dinner conversation is it I'm just saying I 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 I had to get me a second job cu the old Captain got me on the
crack pipe yeah 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 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 low 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 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 ban the van order your ban the van
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Brianna Maitland /// Part 1 /// 254

Part 1 of 2

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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 disappeared in 2004 after leaving work; her car was found in an abandoned farmhouse, sparking a complex investigation.

Key points

The Disappearance of Brianna Maitlin. A 17-year-old girl vanished after a late-night shift, leaving behind a mystery.
Eerie Accident Scene. Brianna's car was found embedded in an abandoned farmhouse, raising questions.
Missing Person Report Filed. Brianna's roommate reports her missing after several days without contact.
Brianna's Vehicle Found. Brianna's parents learn that her car was found, raising their concerns.
Search Efforts Begin. The Vermont State Police and FBI conduct extensive searches for Brianna.
Brianna's Car Discovery. Witnesses report seeing Brianna's car with its lights on, raising questions about her disappearance.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This case is an absolute jumble of confusing facts.

Describing the complexity of the case.

5:31WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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