15 years have passed since Brianna Maitland, 17 years old, vanished under mysterious circumstances on the night of March 19, 2004, in Montgomery Vermont. She had been working at a nearby restaurant until about 11:30 that night when she'd left to go home (she'd left her housemate a note, earlier that day, saying she'd be home after work). Her car was found the next morning crashed into the side of an old, abandoned farmhouse. The following pictures exist thanks to the curious eyes of three visitors to the area who had been skiing, were driving by the house around 7 AM and saw the car and thought it looked very unusual.
I recall it was November of that year that I was at work over a hundred miles away, browsing the news on the internet, when I saw her story. The police at the time had chalked up Brianna's disappearance as drug related, strongly suggesting Brianna was fine and had run away. They described her to be of "questionable character" which upset me - bit premature to state that I felt. And why had police jumped so eagerly to a theory that it was drug related? Nothing in the article suggested such a thing and a young woman was missing. Her car keys were missing.
I looked up her parent's phone number and called, something I'd never done before. I offered my services to try to find those keys. With over twenty years experience metal detecting (as a hobby), I offered to see if I could find the car keys, which I never did. However, after my search ended on that cold, rainy day, her father invited me to a local tavern where we could sit down and talk, have something to eat and drink. Brianna's father, encouraged by my communication skills asked me if I would talk to her people, like her friends, persons who felt they had information, and work with a PI/profiler from Texas. I was 50 years old at the time.
Of all the "True Crime" cases I'd ever read about this missing person case was the most bizarre and convoluted ever. One of the worst aspects were the rumors that spread almost immediately, of which I've written about in previous posts. They all mostly involved the people who knew Brianna, some of whom were friends. One such rumor was a confession made to one of Brianna's friends stating that "he had watched the life drain out of Brianna". The person was questioned and I was told denied ever saying it. One can watch the interview with Brianna's friend, Katie Manning, here on CrawlSpace:
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=tightropetb&p=brianna+maitland+youtube+crawlspace#id=1&vid=b5502cf73ca9dcd19a7713b5ee4baf2f&action=view
Chloe, CrawlSpaces' psychological profiler, also has a Blog I would highly recommend:
https://chloefromcrawlspace.blogspot.com/2019/01/missing-in-vermont-18-parking-lot-story.html#comment-form
In my last post about Brianna which you can find here: https://bobkatlair.blogspot.com/2018/03/ I pose and review various theories, some of them are my own. It's no surprise that one of the earliest theories focused on a friend of Brianna's, a girl named Kealie, who grew upset with Brianna while at a party three weeks earlier. Apparently Brianna was flirting with her boyfriend. The consequence of which was that as Brianna left with her ex-boyfriend James, Kealie followed her out into the parking lot and beat her up pretty bad - Brianna didn't fight back and her explanation was that "Kealie was a friend".
Published courtesy of "World Travellers"
Published courtesy of "World Travellers"
The police had seen the car also, with varied accounts of when that was. In the early morning hours a news-crew took photos and collected video of the scene. The video showed the driver's side of the car; of interest is the fact that early (and for a couple of years) on the family wasn't aware that video existed of that side of the car.
The police returned and and did a cursory inspection of the scene, noting the license plate (registered to Brianna's mother), and had the car towed to a garage, where it sat for a few days. The police did not follow up with the registered owner of the car, although their theory at the time was said to have been, that the driver was drunk, spun off the road into the farmhouse.
NBC Local News (VT)
The police returned and and did a cursory inspection of the scene, noting the license plate (registered to Brianna's mother), and had the car towed to a garage, where it sat for a few days. The police did not follow up with the registered owner of the car, although their theory at the time was said to have been, that the driver was drunk, spun off the road into the farmhouse.
That was the theory, but the scenes above seemed not to look anything like that of a drunk driver having an accident, in my opinion and that of others.
My role in all of this was unexpected and I generally recount this as people like to know how I got involved in all of this and how I know what I know.
I recall it was November of that year that I was at work over a hundred miles away, browsing the news on the internet, when I saw her story. The police at the time had chalked up Brianna's disappearance as drug related, strongly suggesting Brianna was fine and had run away. They described her to be of "questionable character" which upset me - bit premature to state that I felt. And why had police jumped so eagerly to a theory that it was drug related? Nothing in the article suggested such a thing and a young woman was missing. Her car keys were missing.
I looked up her parent's phone number and called, something I'd never done before. I offered my services to try to find those keys. With over twenty years experience metal detecting (as a hobby), I offered to see if I could find the car keys, which I never did. However, after my search ended on that cold, rainy day, her father invited me to a local tavern where we could sit down and talk, have something to eat and drink. Brianna's father, encouraged by my communication skills asked me if I would talk to her people, like her friends, persons who felt they had information, and work with a PI/profiler from Texas. I was 50 years old at the time.
Of all the "True Crime" cases I'd ever read about this missing person case was the most bizarre and convoluted ever. One of the worst aspects were the rumors that spread almost immediately, of which I've written about in previous posts. They all mostly involved the people who knew Brianna, some of whom were friends. One such rumor was a confession made to one of Brianna's friends stating that "he had watched the life drain out of Brianna". The person was questioned and I was told denied ever saying it. One can watch the interview with Brianna's friend, Katie Manning, here on CrawlSpace:
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=tightropetb&p=brianna+maitland+youtube+crawlspace#id=1&vid=b5502cf73ca9dcd19a7713b5ee4baf2f&action=view
Chloe, CrawlSpaces' psychological profiler, also has a Blog I would highly recommend:
https://chloefromcrawlspace.blogspot.com/2019/01/missing-in-vermont-18-parking-lot-story.html#comment-form
In my last post about Brianna which you can find here: https://bobkatlair.blogspot.com/2018/03/ I pose and review various theories, some of them are my own. It's no surprise that one of the earliest theories focused on a friend of Brianna's, a girl named Kealie, who grew upset with Brianna while at a party three weeks earlier. Apparently Brianna was flirting with her boyfriend. The consequence of which was that as Brianna left with her ex-boyfriend James, Kealie followed her out into the parking lot and beat her up pretty bad - Brianna didn't fight back and her explanation was that "Kealie was a friend".
Brianna after the fight
It was little wonder that Kealie became a person of interest undergoing intense interrogation and scrutiny; in addition Brianna had gone with a friend to the police to file charges against Keallie, something that in this post - "The Sympathizer's Theory", has significant importance. Eventually police allegedly clear Keallie from having any involvement.
My theory suggests we paid far too much attention on Kealie while ignoring others present at the party. For Kealie's part, yeah she beat Brianna up pretty badly. She admits that and showed remorse. It's others that were at the party that night that concern me. Did one or more of them feel Brianna deserved it?
Based on interviews with her friends it was clear Brianna was actually the "new girl in town". Yes she had grown up in the area, however she went to a school that didn't include many of the people she would befriend in 2004. Brianna changed high schools near her senior year and began to meet some of these people. She met more people after moving out of her parent's house, moving closer to Montgomery VT. However, though she had time to date the boyfriend she was with when the fight happened, she broke up with him and for a short time moved away from the area.
Weeks before she disappeared, and shortly before the fight she moved again, got the job at the Black Lantern restaurant in Montgomery VT. She was back! And it would turn out this would make some people unhappy. Brianna thought she finally found a life, with friends after being isolated as she saw it for so long. That new life included sex, drugs, rock & roll, literally. Along with marijuana, which Brianna was not shy to admit she loved, there were harder drugs, like crack cocaine. Information varies as to just how involved she became with these harder drugs, however it may have provided a medium for what ultimately happened to her. That and the fact that in a small town, relationships and friendships could change often, resulting in feelings of resentment and jealousy. As a result there were those who likely didn't much like Brianna.
Persons who likely were at the party three weeks previously when Kealie beat up Brianna. Of those persons there were those who likely sided with Brianna, and those who didn't. Perhaps those who didn't were annoyed that Brianna didn't lift a finger to defend herself. To them it may have been just one more thing that annoyed them about Brianna. I call these person(s) "the sympathizers", who sided with Keallie.
It's a sad fact that where there are serious drugs being passed around, people are paranoid. Anyone involved is expected to avoid the police - for any reason. Brianna violated this unwritten rule by filing charges against Keallie, which it's likely certain persons found out about before she disappeared. As the saying goes, "a rat is a rat". It's my theory, person(s) at the party three weeks earlier felt motive enough to cause Brianna's disappearance.
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