BRIANNA MAITLAND - MISSING 14 YEARS. THE STORY AND VARIOUS THEORIES.

Beginning with some background for those who may have heard of this case for the first time.

 Brianna Maitland, from Montgomery Vermont,  was 17 years of age and disappeared under mysterious circumstances, a bizarre accident, on the night of March 19, 2004. The time is estimated to have been around 11:35 PM.  Something happened at an old abandoned farmhouse called the Dutchburn Place as Brianna was driving home from work that night.

Google Earth: Dutchburn farmhouse

Google Earth: Elevation

Close-up Accident; photo by World Travellers

Accident from afar; photo by World Travellers

Accident, Close-up; photo by World Travellers

Recently I was contacted by a co-host of a show called Crawlspace, asking for an open dialogue regarding Brianna's disappearance. I have published numerous posts about Brianna which the co-host referenced, making me something of a expert. 

I'm not an expert, I assure you. 

In late fall of 2004 I was at work and was browsing the news and saw the story. There were two things that caught my attention: 1) the fact that VSP (Vermont State Police) considered her a drug addict, who owed money to drug dealers, had an accident and ran away; 2) her car keys were missing. 

In a few days it will have been 14 years that Brianna disappeared under suspicious circumstances. I was 50 at the time, and my hobby was metal detecting - yeah, that thing you see some people waving across the sand at the beach. My experience was not at the beaches, but rather woods, fields and ghost-towns. I also had an interest in "true crime" and empathy for the victims. I've been told I have the ability to see into mysteries as I have the ability for being objective. 

I found her parent's phone number online and called, offered my services metal detecting to find her car keys which were considered important in the case. I never did find the keys, though I did find a couple quarters, a dime or two at the scene where her drivers door would have opened. 

A theory is that she backed into the farmhouse by accident, trying to avoid being abducted and worse. That she had fore-warnings about going to work that night from earlier in the day when she went to the mall with her mother. That she left a note for her housemate that she "would be home later". The note wasn't something that Brianna would normally write. So why did she write it?

What do I know that others don't? 

Plenty it seems and a word of warning to others out there wishing they were involved in a real life crime sleuthing into a victim's past. 

The phone call I made that day, whereby I met Brianna's family, turned into a meal at a local tavern with her father, Bruce. That was around the early part of November 2004, several months after she vanished. Her father was in his early 40's, and completely distraught over the events surrounding his daughter's disappearance. He was upset with the attitude held by the VSP. They wouldn't help him. They insisted she ran away for the drug reason I'd read about in the news which honestly, made me upset also. There was no proof  behind their assumptions. 

Bruce had no choice but to fight the battle to learn the truth by himself. As we talked he became interested in my ability to listen and the amiable way in which I discussed things with him. He asked me if I was interested in helping him, to talk with her friends, talk with the PI that had offered his services for free. I said, "sure, I'll help". 

Regarding the earlier warning I had for others interested in becoming a part of something like this is, careful what you wish for! 

At least two years I spent travelling 3 hours to go to her parent's house, staying there on weekends, going out searching for any trace of what happened to her, talking with friends and those less friendly. When I wasn't in Vermont I was in New Hampshire making phone calls. There was the family website and Monday night forum where people chimed in regarding ideas, opinions and information that might be helpful. When I first joined much of the discussion revolved around Brianna's drug use, an obsession with it really, that she overdosed, got in over her head buying crack, and essentially she made a victim of herself, was responsible for what happened. 

I didn't see it that way at all and considered the whole drug angle a red herring and still do. Gradually by offering alternative ideas to the group the topic changed and she was finally seen as the victim of others. There was even a change of authority at VSP and the new officer in charge was more inclined to help and have an open mind. Yet despite all our efforts nothing led to either a brick wall or more nothing. Everything stayed a theory. Rumors couldn't be proven one way or the other. The possibilities simply seemed to keep expanding with nothing solid to go by.

Four years into it, with another PI working the case, the family moved away and the case went cold. A possible sighting of Brianna took the headlines for awhile, that she was photographed at a casino in Atlantic City. The sighting was officially termed erroneous within a year. I became a guest-writer in a Blog operated by a person also interested in the case, whom I knew from the family website, who happened to be a retired police officer. In 2009 I started my own Blog. 

Which brings me back to a co-host of a show called Crawlspace contacting me, wishing to talk. Initially all I had to say was more of the same old thing. 

But it got me thinking. Got me thinking about the fight Brianna had had three weeks previously that heavily figured into initial suspicions. A fight where two girls beat Brianna up quite badly. About how her and a friend went to the police to file charges, which were dropped when Brianna failed to appear at a hear. About how bizzare an accident it was where she disappeared, so bizarre as to be nothing like a drunk driver going off the road, which is what the initial investigation suggested. The co-host also made a statement suggesting someone with "hot-blooded vengeance" in mind abducted her.

One cannot get away from the obvious fact that whatever happened to Brianna was done by someone who was very upset with her, or opens up one other possibility, however unlikely it might be.

I have spent a lot of time going over the possibilities in my mind. I have considered the possibility she was abducted by those wanting to traffick her, that during her abduction she was given crack and overdosed. Or she lived and was actually sold into slavery. I've been over the fact that two uncashed pay-checks were left in her car, that any money she had the drug dealers would want. 

The co-host asked me at one point if I had any epiphanies now nearly 14 years later, and at first I didn't. 

It's a known fact Brianna liked marijuana, so do I and although we are told there is a connection between marijuana and hard drugs like crack, I've never been interested in the hard stuff, and friends haven't been either. Then I received this e-mail from NORML (National Organization for Marijuana Reform)  that rather got me thinking with a whole different perspective:

"Vancouver, Canada: Cannabis use is associated with slower rates of injection initiation among at-risk youth, according to longitudinal data published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review.

Canadian researchers assessed drug use progression in a cohort of 481 street-involved youth over a ten-year period.

Authors reported: "[W]e observed a high rate of injection initiation among at-risk street-involved youth. Our results indicate that periods of frequent cannabis use were associated with slower rates of initiation: daily cannabis use was associated with a 34 percent decrease in the hazard rate of injection initiation."

They concluded: "[F]requent cannabis use was negatively associated with injection initiation. ... Given the expansion of cannabis legalization throughout North America, it is encouraging that cannabis use was associated with slower time to initiation of injection drug use in this cohort. This finding challenges the view of cannabis as a gateway substance that precipitates the progression to using harder and more addictive drugs."

A 2017 study published by several of the same researchers previously reported that cannabis use was associated with reduced consumption of crack cocaine in a cohort of polydrug users.

For more information, contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org. Full text of the study, "Cannabis use is associated with lower rates of initiation of injection drug use among street-involved youth: A longitudinal analysis," appears in Drug and Alcohol Review."

What if...? 

At the time there was a lot of crack related activity in the area, largely due to persons in the area from New York City. One of those persons was a boyfriend of Brianna's according to her roomate whom I spoke with on numerous occasions. It's also a fact that Brianna didn't hide her interests in marijuana, even had a marijuana trinket leaf hanging from the rear-view mirror of her car. She had been to crack parties according to her friends. 

 Photo by World Travellers. Closeup by BobKat

Photo by BobKat

At the same time according to reliable sources of mine there at the time there was a large presence of the DEA, the Vermont Drug Task Force with assistance from the US Border Patrol. My source was recording the license plate numbers of every person visiting their establishment. Including mine.

It is acknowledged that Brianna had a heart of gold, she loved people and was willing to help others. 

In 2005 Bruce (Brianna's father) and I had what we thought was a scheduled meeting with someone who potentially had information to share about her. That person wasn't at home, but another person was outside the house when Bruce and I drove into the driveway. His nick-name was John-Boy. 

I got out of Bruce's truck while Bruce stayed inside at the ready for anything, which we'd come to expect. We got a lot more than we anticipated. I walked up to the stranger nick-named John-Boy and he asked me what I wanted. I told him we had a scheduled appointment with the person we were there to see. "About what?" He asked. 

"Brianna Maitland", I answered. 

To summarize, he went ballistic on me cursing Brianna and telling me for about 10 minutes, culminating his rage with the statement, "the fucking bitch got what was coming to her and you can tell her father that", at which point Bruce yelled out the window, "I am her father, consider it message received".

After 14 years it came to me. The thought of "hot blooded vengeance". What would make someone so angry and hostile to another human being? "She got what was coming to her..." But what did she do? Steal someone's boyfriend or girlfriend? Happened all the time. Owed drug money? No, I don't buy that either. But what if? What if Brianna was working undercover as an informant? Now that would bring out the kind of rage I witnessed coming from Lil' John. Maybe someone simply spread a rumor and group paranoia took hold. Afterall, she did go with a friend to VSP to file charges against her ex-friend.

Or, the Feds staged the accident and put her into a witness protection program - we can dream; but it's unlikely as we know, "she got what she deserved".

It also occured to me at that time, recently, no wonder nothing has ever been found out about why and what happened to her. Maybe Brianna did the one good thing (I too am concerned about the crack/opiate epidemic) that got her shunned, which would explain why no one will talk. Except for one person with an anger management problem.

It's just a theory, which to me now would explain a lot, if true.