It's been 17 years today from when Brianna Maitland disappeared under very strange circumstances. Evidence in the case indicates that she was seen leaving work that evening at approx. 11:35 PM. She had been working at a restaurant/tavern named "the Black Lantern". Her car was discovered the morning of March 20th 2004 backed into the stone foundation of an old farmhouse - an abandoned farmhouse called "the Dutchburn Place".
Photos of the car's odd accident recorded that morning are courtesy of a group that went by the name, "The World Travelers". They were an out of state group of three persons, in Vermont that winter to ski. Early that morning they were driving by the Dutchburn Place and thought "how odd it was, with that car backed into that house".
Several months later, sometime in November of 2004, I was at work reading up on the news. I fell upon this story, of Brianna missing... and two things emerged in my mind, from reading the article.
1) That the police were considering her a runaway at the time, of "questionable character", a suspected drug abuser and drug dealer. The police at the time speculated that she had gotten herself into a bind with the local area drug distributors and had either run away or was the victim of foul play because of it. The former theory was the favorite at the time and the website the family had put together was full of speculations and accusations regarding the drug dealer angle; and 2) that her car keys were missing.
Briefly, I'm one of those people interested in mysteries and missing persons. At the time I was around 50 years old and I felt like I was in my prime. I found the phone number for the family, called, spoke to her father and volunteered my time, using a metal detector to try and fine her car-keys, maybe at "the scene of the crime". The keys it was finally revealed several years later were not found.
It was a cold day in November with a cold drizzly rain when I drove the more than 3 hours to get to that part of Vermont. Afterwards I sat with her father at a local tavern and discussed the disappearance. Her father asked for my help speaking with friends and the private investigator on the case at the time.
I have written previously about this case multiple times and one of the things I have tried to make clear is that my enthusiasm and excitement was short-lived... it is one thing to read mysteries and true crime stories of missing persons, but it's a whole different experience when actually being involved. The seriousness of the case combined with the despair and fear her family and friends felt was striking and when a case such as this is not solved, it is extremely heart-breaking and becomes very discouraging.
Whether I liked it or had wanted it, I became "an expert" on the case... beginning with posting on the website established by the family, steering the discussion away from Brianna the "drug lord" to something more realistic, that being that she is most likely a victim of foul play. For at least a year or more I drove up weekends to help the family search. Private Investigators changed and I changed with them. I became a guest writer on a blog called "Slamdunks" around 2008-09 writing some 13 posts and bringing out at least a few leads. I also began my own blog, this blog here around 2009.
The focus of this post, 17 years after the fact, is is to inform my readers that whatever timeline we thought we had completed and mapped over the years is incorrect. Many of the rumors seem to have built up over these many years. Many rumors. In fact so many rumors that this case takes on a whole life of it's own on top of what may have happened.
I would suggest that this post is not a minor post... again, whatever was believed to be the timeline at the time is now ruled to be incorrect... and I'm going to provide the "correct timeline"... as to who I am and how do I know this stuff, like I said, I got involved in this whether I liked it or not and I guess you'll just have to have faith that I have my sources.
Most notable 17 years later are the destructive sum totals of all the local rumors that have suffocated efforts to find out what happened. Even today we can't really discount or wave away any of the many rumors. Primarily that either one of two things occurred. That there existed a hateful lover's triangle at the time or that she owed drug money and was kidnapped and murdered.
Although both rumors have potential merit, neither one is actually considered all that likely or viable... Then again, hatred between "friends" over a love triangle has gained some additional traction.
Documentation recently surfaced suggesting that a fight 3 weeks before Brianna disappeared may have been more relevant than originally thought. However the documentations origin is unknown and it uses information which plagiarizes my own "Profile of Brianna" without giving me credit (it's not so much the fact that my documentation was used without my permission but the way in which the writer combined my info with his making it difficult to distinguish who the source of the information is). Basically it is my timeline expanded to include "information" from this other source.
This other (unidentified) source states that the fight Brianna was in three weeks prior was not a simple assault. The author claims to know that the girl Keallie (the name of this person is well documented and so is not slandering anyone)... was not solely responsible for the bruising Brianna suffered... that multiple persons were involved and rather than suffer a punch or two through a truck window, as she sat there, that instead she never made it to the truck, but rather, she was seized by the group, thrown to the ground and assaulted by many persons.
Alleged charges she filed with the VSP a week or so after the event were originally considered to be Brianna's own decision but it has now been suggested that her parents were instrumental in this decision. These charges as filed were witnessed by a friend who is said to have accompanied her, are significant as they became unenforceable when Brianna disappeared, providing motive to whoever was named in the report. As to who were the parties were, motivated to file the charges, it would make a difference in my opinion, between if Brianna decided to file charges on her own or she was of encouraged to do so. As there's no proof either way, my only thought is why would conspirators hold it against a teen-aged girl if she filed charges with the police based on the demands of her parents? Well, I guess they could if they didn't know the reason behind the charges, and for God's sake, look at the picture of Brianna's face again and tell me she didn't have every right to file charges?
The above describes one potential motive for Brianna's disappearance and again the theory has been widely disseminated and hashed about.
What follows however may change everything.
It is unlikely that many of those people Brianna were acquainted with even knew she was working at the Black Lantern that night. The possibility that Brianna's disappearance was the result of people she knew becomes more remote. Here again, from whatever source the rumors have evolved, whether it be the truth or simply small town hysteria, it complicates finding out what did happen to her.
Originally and for all these years I had been led to believe that Brianna had been working at the Black Lantern when the assault took place at what's called the "pallet factory". I had reported a rather simple setting... That Brianna had not been living in the Montgomery area until a short time prior to her disappearance. That from wherever she had been living that sometime in February of 2004 she "moved back into the area". That she had gotten her job at the Black Lantern and that there were actually two party's of significance that took place.
March 05, 2004 was the date at which Brianna got her job at the Black Lantern. The fight at the pallet factory, where it's now said she was held down and beaten up, was the week before - Saturday, February 28th, 2004. As you see above, her picture with her bruises, this is likely pretty much how she looked on the first Friday night she worked at the Black Lantern.
These dates create a major problem with the timeline as I have believed it all these years. For example, I had believed, that early on, the week before the pallet factory party, that she had been discovered by a childhood friend to be at a party held at the "Crossing" in Richford VT., a "wild, drug-fueled" party and that she had gone to her friend's house later and stayed the night. In the morning I had believed she had been picked up and brought to work at her job at the Black Lantern.
This is important as it would have been the way that her friends learned of her new job. Problem is, it would be another two weeks before her first night. She also didn't work days, so this information becomes inaccurate pretty quickly.
Brianna was beaten up at the pallet party a week before she started at the Black Lantern.
Two paychecks were found in Brianna's car - these were for work done March 05 and March 12. She had worked two Friday nights and on the third Friday she vanished.
The problem raised with this new timeline becomes the limited time by which her friends (and those whom she had angered) would know she worked Friday nights. Whoever these people are they would have had to know what time she started work and even more problematic what time she finished working.
Assuming she was targeted by a jealous person, that person, would have had to have had quite a commitment to causing Brianna harm, to have known she was working, to the waited untold time before Brianna left work. Then, if we are to believe that a jealous party followed her, caused her to backup off the road where she got hung-up that night, we have to consider the formidable effort and odds of such a coordinated effort to succeed.
What we know:
1) The widespread rumors, friends crying or claiming they saw her die, that she had been kidnapped, that she owned a major debt in drug money makes whatever happened to Brianna nearly impossible to figure out... that there are those friends who know things about the case and they are not telling, if for no other reason than they are afraid... small town hysteria could be the cause of many of the rumors. One rumor for example is one where after work that night she goes to a party house and overdoses... her friends see her die, panic and dispose of her.
The biggest problem with this rumor is that any friends alleged to have been involved at the time or especially today, with an overdose, are not criminally liable for her death. Even considering that they panicked and then buried her, the statute of limitations for illegal body disposal are expired. There is absolutely no consequences now in 2021 for any friend or person to come forwards and disclose any truth. If there was an accident, which is what the primary theme here is, that whatever happened was an accident. If this is true, please come forwards because there is no liability now to disclosing the truth.
Under the circumstances, given the updated timeline, a crime of opportunity, a stranger abduction becomes a more likely possibility. There are leads, for many possibilities. A jealous rival for example, not off the table but if so, why such a strange abduction... ? ... why run her off the road at the Dutchburn Place? Why not abduct her where she was living at the time?
We are burdened by all the rumors... burdened by confessions... by lies... her friends these days sounding so sympathetic and committed to the task, yet these friends seem to still embrace a lot of the misinformation that has been spewed forth since the beginning.
Brianna's disappearance likely, in my opinion, should have been solved soon after it happened... we now have a new timeline so the next step is getting those "in the know" to talk. And unless you're talking about 1st or 2nd degree murder, most any crime committed at the time is well beyond any statute of limitations.
Please let's stop the hurt and let's bring Brianna home. We need all her friends to come forwards and explain away all the lies and rumors. Do people really want to live out their lives knowing what they know about Brianna, leaving the family in pain, when those in the know don't even have a need for fear to come forwards. It's been 17 years.
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