The Disappearance of Brianna Maitland
Brianna Alexandra Maitland was born on October 8, 1986, in Burlington, Vermont to her parents, Bruce and Kellie Maitland. Brianna had an older brother and they grew up on her parents’ farm in East Franklin, Vermont, close to the Canadian border.
Brianna went to Missisquoi Valley Union High School, but later transferred to Enosburg Falls High School during her sophomore year. On October 8, 2003, Brianna’s 17th birthday, she decided she wanted to move out of her parents home. Kellie, her mom, said there was no stressors in Brianna’s life that would’ve caused her to need to move out, but that her daughter had wanted more independence and to be closer to some of her friends who went to a different high school.
Brianna often moved in and out of different friends’ places and by February 2004 she had dropped out of high school and moved in with her friend Jillian Stout in Sheldon, Vermont. Brianna enrolled in a GED program so she could finish school.
Three weeks before Brianna’s disappearance, she had gotten in a physical altercation with a former friend, Keallie Lacross at a party. The motive was not clear, but Brianna’s father Bruce later said he believed it was jealousy over Brianna talking to a boy at the party. Brianna was actually trained in martial arts, however her friend who was at that same party claimed that Brianna refused to fight Lacross, who had hit her in the face several times while Brianna was sitting in a truck.
Brianna ended up with a broken nose and a concussion, later filing charges against Keallie. The charges were dropped three weeks after Brianna had disappeared, and also Keallie was cleared as a suspect in the disappearance.
On March 19, 2004, in the morning, Brianna had taken an exam to get her GED. After finishing the exam her and her mother Kellie had lunch to celebrate, Bruce was out of town working in New York. Kellie claimed Brianna had been in good spirits and discussed plans to attend college.
After they finished eating, Kellie and Brianna spent the afternoon shopping. In one store while waiting to check out, Kellie noticed that something outside had caught Brianna’s attention and she told her mother she would return shortly, leaving the store. Kellie finished at the check out and met Brianna in the parking lot, where she said Brianna appeared shaken and agitated.
She told Kellie that she needed to go home and get ready for her shift at the Black Lantern Inn, a restaurant in Montgomery where she worked. Kellie did not ask Brianna what had caused her to become shaken up, as she did not want to pry. Kellie dropped Brianna off at her place with Jillian between 3:30 and 4pm.
Before Brianna left for her shift she left Jillian a note saying she was coming back after she worked. Brianna worked her shift and then clocked out around 11:20 pm. She told her coworkers that she needed to go home and sleep before she worked the next day at her other job in St. Albans. It is assumed that Brianna was alone in her car when she left the Black Lantern Inn.
The next afternoon on March 20, 2004, a Vermont State Police trooper was dispatched to an abandoned house on Route 118 in Richford, about a mile from the Black Lantern Inn. Brianna’s car was found backed into the side of the house, which was known locally as “the old Dutchburn house.” A piece of plywood that had been covering a window laid on the car’s trunk. Two of Brianna’s paychecks were on the front seat of the car, and outside of it there was loose change, a water bottle and an unsmoked cigarette. The trooper believed the car to be abandoned by a drunk driver and it was towed to a local garage.
Brianna was not reported as missing for a few days. Kellie did not know about the discovery of her daughter’s car until 5 days after it was found. Jillian, Brianna’s friend who had lived with her, saw the note Brianna left for her on March 19, but had spent the weekend away and found the note undisturbed on Monday.
Jillian assumed Brianna had been staying somewhere else and did not call Kellie until the next day. On March 23, 2004, Kellie began calling around looking for her daughter, but no one had seen or spoken to Brianna since the Friday. Kellie filed a missing persons report that day, unaware still that her daughter’s car had been found abandoned.
On March 25, Brianna’s parents gave photos of her to Vermont State Police in St. Albans. A trooper showed them the photo of the Oldsmobile found at the Dutchhouse where Kellie identified that that was the car her daughter had been driving. Kellie did not believe that Brianna had left the car backed into the house like that and thought someone else must have.
Several witnesses called in to report that they had seen Brianna’s Oldsmobile at the Dutchhouse that night. A man drove by around 11:30-12:30 am and said that the car’s headlights might have been on. He said he did not see anyone in or around the car.
Another man drove by between 12 and 12:30 am, saying he saw a turn signal flashing on the car. Around 4 am, a former boyfriend of Brianna’s drove past after partying and thought he had recognized the vehicle but did not see anyone in or around it.
The next morning, some motorists found the scene odd and took pictures of it. One of the motorists claimed there was loose change, a water bottle and a bracelet or necklace on the ground next to the car.
The police were skeptical that foul play was involved, and considered that Brianna was perhaps a runaway. Nothing was found at the Dutchburn house and Brianna’s car was processed for laboratory evidence on March 30, 2004. When the car was returned to Brianna’s parents, Bruce said that his daughter’s ATM card, glasses, contact lens case and migraine medication had all been left inside the car.
It was later concluded by law enforcement that foul play was probable. In 2007, a flyer by the FBI stated that Brianna’s car might have been staged to appear as an accident. Brianna’s parents said that if she was abducted it would have had to be by multiple people involved, given her jiu-jitsu training.
Brianna’s case has also been compared to the disappearance of Maura Murray, a college student who went missing in northwest New Hampshire the month before Brianna disappeared in February, 2004. It was deemed to be unrelated however both girls disappeared within 90 miles of each other.
The week following Brianna’s disappearance, the police got an anonymous tip that she was being held against her will in a house in Berkshire, Vermont. The rented house, occupied by Ramon L. Ryans and Nathaniel Charles Jackson, two drug dealers, was raided on April 15, 2004. No sign of Brianna was found.
Interviews with Brianna’s friends led to information that Brianna had experimented with hard drugs in the past, specifically crack cocaine, and knew of Ryans and Jackson.
In late 2004, police got a statement from an anonymous “older female” who implicated Ryans and Jackson in Maitland’s disappearance. The statement was signed and given in graphic detail that Brianna had been murdered a week after she went missing. The woman said that Ryans murdered Brianna during an argument over money she had lent him to buy crack and her body was temporarily stored in the basement of a local woman’s home who had recently gone to jail. The woman also claimed that Brianna’s body had been dismembered and disposed of on a pig farm. Police were unable to corroborate any of this.
The Maitland family claimed they had gotten several anonymous phone calls from people claiming Brianna was tied to a tree in the woods or that she was at the bottom of a lake.
A break came through in 2006, where security footage at the Caesars World casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, showed a woman who looked like Brianna sitting at a poker table. The woman was never identified but many people, including Brianna’s family believe the woman could be her or at least looks very much like her.
In 2012, police investigated a potential connection between Brianna’s disappearance and serial killer Israel Keyes, who committed many rapes and murders in Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Vermont and New York. The FBI ruled him out in December 2012, shortly after he committed suicide in Anchorage, Alaska.
In March, 2016, police revealed they had recovered DNA samples from Brianna’s car. The results were not made public. In July, 2016, the farmhouse where Brianna’s car was discovered was destroyed in a fire.
In March, 2022, 18 years since Brianna went missing, police revealed they had found a match to the DNA sample found in Brianna’s car. The police has not released the identity of the person, but said it belonged to 1 of 11 people they tested previously in connection to Brianna’s case.
It does seem likely that they are closer to discovering what happened to Brianna Maitland in March of 2004.
