Happy True Crime Thursday!
First thing I would like to say is a huge welcome to all the new followers to The Minds of Madness Blog.
I hope you all enjoy it!
One of the topics I like to cover often is missing persons cases.
Especially ones that are still unsolved, it just takes one person to come forward to put a fire back under an investigation again.
So for todays story I am going to cover the disappearance of Brianna Maitland.
Brianna Maitland was born October 8, 1986 to Bruce and Kellie Maitland in Burlington Vermont.
She was raised on a farm near the U.S Canadian border and had an older brother. During her Sophomore year Brianna had decided to move out of her family home in order go to a high school closer to her friends. However, things didn't go according to plan and she dropped out entirely. Despite her rough patch she took on 2 jobs and found more stable living conditions.
On March 19, 2004 the 17 year old completed her GED test and her mom Kellie took her to lunch to celebrate, saying her daughter was in great spirits that day. Afterwards the two ladies went out shopping, a strange incident happened while they were in one store, according to Kellie something or someone had caught Brianna's eye and she went outside to investigate. Kellie made her purchase and joined Brianna outside just a short time after and found that she was "tense, shaken and agitated." Brianna told her that she needed to get home to get ready for her shift at the Black Lantern Inn. Kellie didn't want to pry into her daughters private life so they got in the car and Kellie drove Brianna to her apartment that she shared with her childhood friend Jillian Stout around 3:30pm. This was the last time that Kellie would see her daughter.
Brianna made it to her shift at the Inn that night. After it was over some coworkers asked her to stay and have dinner with them. She declined saying that she was tired and needed to get home as she had to get up early the next day for her second job. She left around 11:20pm to head home, but she never made it back. When her friend Jillian noticed that Brianna didn't arrive back home she assumed that Brianna was at her parents house. It wasn't until March 23rd that Jillian called Brianna's parents asking them about Brianna that everyone realized she was missing.
Unknown to any of them at the time Brianna's car was actually discovered abandoned on March 20th. The day after she disappeared and 2 days before she was known as missing. Her green 1985 Oldsmobile sedan was discovered about a mile outside of Montgomery (where the Black Lantern is located.) The way her car was found was pretty strange, It was discovered off East Berkshire Road and Route 118, the car was found partially parked inside an abandoned barn, which is known to locals as the Old Butchburn house. The vehicle had backed into the building puncturing a hole in the wall of the barn and caused minor damage to the car. Inside they found 2 of Brianna's uncashed paychecks on the front seat, along with her medicine, driver's license, makeup, contact lenses and clothes. There were also additional items belonging to Brianna dispersed on the ground in front of the car. They discovered that Brianna's car was registered to her mom Kellie, so you may be asking yourself how come she wasn't notified about the abandoned vehicle then?
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| Brianna's abandoned vehicle |
Police didn't report it to Kellie because they figured even though she was the registered owner it was obvious that Brianna was the primary driver. They went to her primary place of work to try to inform her about what happened to her vehicle, but the place was closed, police would just come back to it. It wasn't until 3 days later when Brianna's parents filed a missing persons report that the discovery of the abandoned car was connected. While in police custody the car was searched for evidence and the old house was combed on foot by police and search dogs, but they didn't find anything relevant.
When Brianna's disappearance was made public there were several witnesses that came forward; here are some of those witness accounts;
* Between March 19-20 a man that was driving by the barn between 11:30pm and 12:30am reportedly saw the car parked next to the barn, he believed that the headlights were on, but he didn't see anyone in or around the car.
* A second man stated that when he drove by between 12:00am and 12:30am that he saw a turn signal flashing on the car.
* At 4:00am a former boyfriend of Brianna's spotted the car on his way home after a night of partying, he recalled thinking it looked familiar, but he didn't see anyone in or around it.
* Several motorists passing the scene the morning of the 20th reported that the scene seemed very strange, so they stopped and took pictures. One of the photographs showed loose change, a water bottle, and either a necklace or bracelet on the ground beside the car.
Police discovered that about 3 weeks before Brianna went missing she was attacked by a female acquaintance in front of several witnesses, for reasons that were unclear. Reportedly, even though Brianna had several years of martial arts training she did not try to defend herself during the attack. It left her with a concussion, 2 blacks eyes and several cuts to the face, she filed charges against her attacker. At the time of the disappearance the case against the alleged attacker was still pending, the charges were dropped about 3 weeks after Brianna's disappearance despite objections from Brianna's parents.
The first possibility that police looked into was that maybe Brianna left on her own. She had mentioned to friends the possibility of making a short trip out of the area. She was known to be an independent young woman that didn't like living In a rural area. It also wouldn't have been the first time she had run away. This scenario doesn't fit to me. She left behind belongings that would have been important to have, her contact lenses, migraine medication and 2 paychecks. Who would run away without wanting to at least have money?
Investigators later came to believe that she had been a victim of foul play, and that the way her car was found was staged to look like an accident. Her parent's believed that she would have had to been taken by more than one assailant due to her jiu-jitsu training.
Brianna's case at one point was thought to be tied to the disappearance of Massachusetts college student Maura Murray who went missing one month before Brianna in northwest New Hampshire. It was later ruled out that the cases were connected.
In the years following Brianna's disappearance several theories have come forward about what happened to her that night. Both Brianna's family and Police received numerous phone calls from people claiming they knew what happened to her, like; she had been kidnapped and her body was at the bottom of a river or lake, that she had been tied to a tree or disposed of at a hog farm. One person claimed that Brianna was being held against her will in the house of 2 well known drug dealers in a town not far away. 2 men were investigated in relation to the disappearance, but neither of them were charged.
In March of 2016, investigators revealed on a local tv station that they did have DNA from Brianna's car, but the DNA results have not been made public.
In July of 2016, the abandoned barn where her car had been found was destroyed by a fire.
It's been almost 16 years since Brianna went missing and her family is still desperate to get answers. Brianna would be 34 this year. She has brown hair and hazel eyes, she stood at around 5'5" and weighed around 110lbs. When she went missing she was wearing a small ring or stud in her left nostril that was pierced. She has a scar from her left eyebrow to her forehead.
If you or anyone you know knows something about the disappearance of Brianna Maitland please contact the Vermont State police
802-524-5993
Resources:
https://medium.com/of-misdeeds-and-mysteries/the-strange-unsolved-disappearance-of-brianna-maitland-missing-34-18f562e8d5c0
https://the-line-up.com/brianna-maitland-disappearance
https://vsp.vermont.gov/unsolved/missing/a/maitland
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