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[Music] [Applause] thank you welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is the bass player for scrantonicity 2 not to be confused with
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scrantonicity he is the captain thank you thank you thank you it's good to be sane and it's good to see you thanks for
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listening and thanks for telling a friend [Music] tonight and tomorrow we will be sipping
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on heart of Lothian by drop in Brewing Company in Middlebury Vermont garage grade four and a half bottle caps out of
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five heart of Lothian is one of drop-in's Flagship beers and it's brewed year round this is a traditional
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Scottish 90 Shilling ale brood with Scottish golden promise barley malt British floor malted Crystal and
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chocolate molds 5.6 ABV and this great beer was brought to us by our good friends first up we have Miriam in Good
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patient people we'll get to you it's first come first serve Captain everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer
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let's talk some true crime foreign [Music] Dark Night in March of 2004 a young 17
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year old girl clocked out of work just before midnight she got into her car and drove in the
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direction of home she's never been seen again her car was found in what I can only say
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has to be one of the strangest vehicular accident scenes I've ever viewed her car was smashed backwards into an
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abandoned creepy old farmhouse the old house has a violent history and possible drug connections
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but what happened to the driver of that car and was this really even a car accident
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at all or did a terrible crime take place something that may have led to the Abduction of this girl
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it is very likely that someone out there knows something and still guards their Dark Secrets all of these years later
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this week we tell the story of The Disappearance of Brianna Maitland [Music] foreign
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this case is an absolute jumble of confusing facts debatable evidence complex characters contradictory
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theories and rampant rumors so to break this thing down we are first going to get into what we know to be true based
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on tangible evidence as well as reports by Brianna's parents friends and others who interacted with her
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so this is what actually happened the day that Brianna Maitland disappeared March 19 2004 Montgomery Vermont this is
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a small rural town of about 900 people near the Canadian border this is late winter in Northern New England the
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ground is still frozen in the air cold the low temperature that night was only eight degrees this sparsely populated
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area features dense Woods Wide Open Fields and houses and Farms set far apart in the landscape Vermont at the
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time had a very low crime rate compared to much of the rest of the nation this is Friday and the 17 year old
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Brianna Maitland and her mother are going out to lunch after they went shopping at a local mall now Brianna and
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her mother had somewhat of a strained relationship all seem normal on this trip until one
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point when Kelly Brianna's mom says that they were in a store and Brianna started
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staring at something outside of the store Brianna mumbled something to herself and then walked out
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by the time Kelly paid for her purchases and walked out to the parking lot Brianna was waiting for her she seemed
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agitated and upset Kelly said the mood had noticeably changed she decided not to press her daughter about this issue
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though Brianna made no mention of why she left the store so suddenly she just said she needed to hurry back to where
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she was staying to get ready for work Brianna was not living at the Maitland home at this time she was staying with
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her friend since fourth grade this is Jillian Stout at Jillian's dad's home Kelly dropped her off there between 3 30
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and 4 P.M on that day now Brianna had a job as a dishwasher at a local establishment this is the Black Lantern
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Inn she's working evenings after uh school and the school's a bit tricky here Captain because it's not
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traditional what you would think for a high school age girl 17 year old girl she actually was studying for her GED at
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a local community college during the day this was a popular Tavern where she worked where locals and skiers would
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gather for meals and drinks that afternoon Brianna left a handwritten note for her friend Jillian the note
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told Jillian that Brianna would be home after her shift at work the Vermont State Police retains a copy
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of this note but the family has never seen it so we don't know exactly what it says reports are that it just states
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that Brianna planned to return to Jillian's after her shift to stay the night there
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now there are no accounts captain of anything unusual during her shift at work that night other employees said
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that Brianna acted normal Brianna wore a apron like uniform uh that had Pockets her family doesn't know what else she
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was wearing that night the end was very busy that Friday night and Brianna didn't finish until after 11
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pm her co-workers report that she declined to stick around some of the co-workers would hang out at the Black
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Lantern in after their shift and she declined on that night right some Reports say she told colleagues that she
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had to get to bed because she had to work her other job the next morning this may have been true Brianna just
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days before started work as a waitress at KJ's Diner but we're we aren't certain whether she did have a shift the
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next morning or not there are no reports that we've seen to indicate that when she failed to show up the next day or
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indeed for nearly a week that anyone at the diner called anybody or notified anyone all right she just started so I
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mean they could have just been like well she flaked out right yeah they don't know her character at
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that point so Brianna clocked out of from the Black Lantern in at 11 20 p.m on March 19th and she walked out into
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the cold Dark Night multiple sources including the Vermont state police report that she was seen by
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other employees getting into her car and driving away Brianna's car was a big green four-door 1985 Oldsmobile 88
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Royale it was a boat that's right given to her by her grandfather this was nearly 20 years old the vehicle
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was nearly 20 years old and it frankly it looked like it the car was registered to Kelly Maitland
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this is uh Brianna's mom but Brianna was the driver of the vehicle right so 1.3 miles down the road from the
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Black Lantern Inn in the direction of where Brianna was staying with Jillian was an abandoned house known to the
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locals as the Old Dutch burn place it was a dilapidated Farmhouse set about 40 or 50 feet off of the East Berkshire
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Road Route 118. the windows and the doors are boarded up with plywood The Farmhouse has been abandoned since
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1986 when two elderly brothers who lived there Mike and Harry dutchburn were viciously attacked by an intruder
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in the home and beaten severely both men had to be hospitalized and seek permanent care after this incident and
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neither of them ever returned to the house that case has never been solved the Dutch burn house rests on a small Bluff
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overlooking a large field that is bordered on the other side by a river I will post pictures of this so you can
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see not only the building but also the crash site so like we said Captain it's 1.3 miles from where she works this
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abandoned house so it wouldn't have taken her long at all to get to this location
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now the tricky thing here though is early in the morning on March 20th this is a Saturday a group of three skiers
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from nearby Jay Peak ski resort we're driving on Route 118 and came to the Dutch born place
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what they saw there caused them to pull over Park their car and get out to take a closer look by the light of day they
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could see the large green car with the rear corner of the car embedded in the house and the trunk end of the car
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partially stuck up on The house's Foundation the plywood covering one of the windows
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was knocked out by the impact and was lying on the trunk of the car the ski group was so intrigued by this
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strange Tableau that they took a bunch of photos of this scene and photos that can still be seen today online the ones
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that you're talking about picking one and posting there yeah then they find a lime on the back of her trunk they did
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and we'll we'll get into that later after the this Trio we're done taking the photos and I believe these photos
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are the only publicly viewable photos of the car wedged into the side of the abandoned
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house that are available to the public but they left after taking these pictures now later that day around 1 20
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p.m a State Trooper driving by noticed the Eerie scene and stopped by the car to check it out he found the car doors
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closed but unlocked windows up and no keys anywhere in sight peering into the car he likely saw all of the following
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things that were in the car and visible in photos so we have a marijuana leaf decoration hanging from the rear mirror
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we have litter and objects all over the interior of the car including takeout containers a snow scraper a case of cans
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of tuna Cheez-Its and other food there were also two paychecks found inside the car with the name Brianna Maitland on
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them there are many reports that there were some things found on the ground outside the car our police officer noted
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a broken necklace on the ground and tossed it into the car there was also loose change and a water bottle and by
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some reports and unsmoked cigarette the cop basically made an assumption that a drunk driver
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had an accident and the car was possibly stuck on The house's foundation and they
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ditched the vehicle so that they wouldn't get in trouble he issued a tow order for the vehicle
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which it was picked up and towed to a local garage it does not seem that the officer made any attempt to contact the
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registered owner of the vehicle this is Kelly Maitland um Brianna's mother so the vehicle here Captain is
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look you know I keep saying that it's an eerie scene it's an eerie scene because
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we're sitting here talking today and we know that this girl this poor girl is Missing
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right and I think for me just driving by if I would have been from the roadside there looking at the scene it's a
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strange one I definitely think it's a strange one to see a vehicle backed into an abandoned home right but well it's a
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it's more of a barn yeah that's Farmhouse I think is a fair uh thing to call it so but I think you could offer
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somebody a hundred bucks to spend the night in it and there would be a lot of people that wouldn't take that offer
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well that's it's interesting that you say that because it does have the violent history it is kind of out in the
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middle of nowhere uh right beside the road right and it's it's in a dark area that would be it'd be very dark at night
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this is not an area that's like lined with street lights right um but we do have the trio that see the
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vehicle that morning they take pictures of it there is a rumor that the officer that scheduled the towing of the vehicle
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took a picture as well of the car yeah I've heard that as well and but that if that photo exists
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either electronically or physically then it's not one that is viewable not one that you will find on the internet well
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I think maybe you're confusing that with the story of the officer that uh stopped
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and took pictures I believe the night before and but he was on his way he was off duty I think that's I have not heard
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that story yeah I believe this The Story Goes that there's a officer off duty he
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stopped took pictures and then just went on his way does he report what time that
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would have taken place that would have been it would have been like early morning like
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a couple hours after she went missing basically so we have the vehicle it is towed from the scene I
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do want to throw this out there Captain because I have seen a lot of comments on
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this case especially when people looking at pictures of the vehicle backed into this abandoned house
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there's a lot of people that really criticize the state trooper the police here for not doing more with the vehicle
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in those comments and I tend to disagree with that criticism and I think I mean here's what happens is we have a few of
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these cases where it's not a drunk driver and it becomes something more and then the cops get a
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lot of criticism here but we're not factoring in the amount of the banded cars they're getting and their
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jurisdiction every weekend and this is this is a common thing and this is something that I don't think that well
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obviously a bunch of people don't understand in the general public this is a common thing like you said they're now
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we live in a major city so driving here it's not uncommon for me to pass at least one abandoned car on my way just
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to get to the garage each week so here you know we see it it's right in front of our faces maybe here in this uh where
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our case and where our uh story takes place you know it's it's a rural area so maybe this doesn't take place on The
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Daily like we have here but this is a common thing for state troopers and police to have to deal with and then on
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top of that at look their job is to show up and assess the situation okay and nine times well
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not even nine times it's 99 times out of a hundred it's straight up an abandoned
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vehicle right either it doesn't run for some reason or the person left it there for any number of reasons the officer
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would just look at the vehicle and try to determine if another if some kind of actual crime took place right and if it
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doesn't look like that a crime took place you're having the vehicle towed and as
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long as if this person you know stays missing right if if somebody's reported missing this is their vehicle we at
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least have the car to investigate anything inside the car the other thing too is there's a lot of
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criticism by people saying well the officer could have at least reached out to the registered owner of the vehicle
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yeah and I I kind of agree with that I I do and I don't and here's why um one the person that ends up going
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missing isn't the technically the paper owner of this vehicle right but the cop doesn't know any of that I mean
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basically at the end of the day you have a car on the side of the road and who's
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responsible for that car the owner whoever it's registered to so you contact the register hey your car is
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being towed to such and such location I don't think that's and it doesn't have to be the cop it could be the towing
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company somebody should notify the person when you're towing their car I like I said I I have mixed feelings
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about that I agree and I disagree with that criticism and there's feelings about you well good for you but what I'm
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saying here is the the police are not um it's not their job to contact the owner in my opinion they're they're they
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don't need to hunt down the person and say look well we found your car or you abandoned your car here and it's been
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towed um right I think where again it's because we know the outcome and we also know that the person driving this car
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was a 17 year old you know a teenager right and when this case becomes natural national news and others have that are
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similar to this case and we'll get into those later but that's when people start
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wondering hey what are they doing over there why aren't they treating this vehicle like it's something serious now
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what I will say is this a couple questionable things the the where I might change my mind and
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say that I do agree with you captain and agree with the criticism of others that
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the registered owner was not um contacted by law enforcement is I see some signs of possibly somebody living
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out of this vehicle right and I and I think cans of tuna where I agree with you is it's not protocol but maybe it
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should be protocol especially in these situations where if it is a teenager or kid we don't know that by just looking
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at the vehicle but like you said there's evidence tuna in the car you have the evidence
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that almost somebody's living out of this vehicle and the other thing here though is you say well
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I I'm curious did would the car have run was it operational and I think that's a
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question in a lot of people's minds and we don't know that because the officer didn't find the vehicle find the keys
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right he found a vehicle unlocked the doors closed but unlocked no keys he has no way of determining if it's
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operational but that would have to me that that would point us in some different areas because what you're
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going to see in this case is there's a lot of different theories and a lot of them are going to have to do with what
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actually happened with this vehicle right and so we don't know if the vehicle was operational here's what my
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guess is it actually doesn't look to me like anybody you know came spinning off the road and
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wrecked into the side of this abandoned house no because they didn't wreck into it side first or head first they backed
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into the building and it almost looks to me like I kept saying you know it it appears and others agree with this
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statement that it appears that maybe the vehicle the rear portion of the vehicle
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the trunk of the vehicle is up on The house's foundation so picture this you have a much more solid foundation
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holding up basically a wooden Farmhouse right so the vehicle now mind you this is 1980 this is vehicles in 1985. I had
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a 1986 Buick Regal those cars back then were not built the way that our cars are
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built today our cars today feel very plasticky and they crumple they're meant to crumple to protect the the passengers
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and the driver of the vehicle if there were an accident back then the corners of those Vehicles
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were solid man those things were solid the the corner the front corners of my car I know this from experience would do
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damage to to anything that they came in contact with back when you had the Buick
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so her vehicle this 85 Oldsmobile to me it looks like somebody may have been in the yard near
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this abandoned home and tried to back up you know throw the thing into reverse and think about how dark we already said
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it would have been there at this location right at night we don't have backup cameras yeah my thought is maybe
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someone I I'm not willing to say who was driving the vehicle but let's say it was
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Brianna she could have for whatever reason stopped in that yard decided to throw
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the vehicle into reverse and the corner of that car smashed Through the Wood portion of the abandoned home and
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somehow slid up onto the more solid foundation actually lifting the rear of the vehicle slightly up and off of the
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ground underneath the car I think she pulled a juvenile well the thing is a lot of people when they look
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at the picture and and I know we're really going into the vehicle a lot but like I said that's kind of the core of
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this case in my opinion and a lot of people would say well if she were driving the vehicle and had some kind of
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accident into the side of that abandoned home why didn't she just continue driving on well what I'm getting at is
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if in fact the rear of the vehicle was lifted up slightly onto the foundation of the of the home right that 1985
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Oldsmobile 88 Royale was a rear wheel drive vehicle if the if the back is elevated she's not able to get those
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tires on the ground to drive off especially if she's by herself right if you had a few people there you might be
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able to figure it out or unwedge the vehicle yeah so whether or not the the car is drivable it could have been
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operational and she had no ability to get it right but you're unstuck right the other thing too Captain is that we
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have the doors are all closed but unlocked now we have to keep in mind this is an 85 this is a four-door car
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these are all individual locks this is not like somebody hit one single button and unlocked all four doors at the same
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time right and there's some question as to who was operating that vehicle at the
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time that it wrecked into the side of the home or how many people could have been inside that vehicle oh eyewitnesses
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that saw her leaving with anybody right and so you have to ask yourself would it
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have been more commonplace it'd be interesting to know if she was the type that locked her car doors because if
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we're talking about a situation where she wrecked on accident and just hopped out of the car and decided to leave on
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foot if she was the type to lock her doors I would expect to find the other three
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doors possibly locked I mean it takes a little bit of effort to go through and unlock all four doors
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well of course you want to lock your doors to save all that tuna that's right but there are people out there that do
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not lock their car doors you know you and I know these you know people like this that say Maniacs well no but you
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have some people that have unfortunately their car windows have been smashed out
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so somebody can break into the car and I have I do have several friends that don't have alarm systems on their car
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and they've just told me straight up look I don't keep anything in my car and I keep my doors unlocked that way if
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somebody wants to check my car they can just check the car door and I have to I'm tired of paying for smashed windows
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in my car so moving on Captain we do have the car that's towed and we have Brianna who is
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missing so on Sunday night March 21st her roommate Jillian returned home from the weekend she spent away at her
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grandmother's home she noticed the note left by Brianna was still on the counter she didn't think
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much of it actually because Brianna was not living at home like we said but she was also moving around quite a bit
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lately she was crashing at friends homes and even boyfriends homes and not staying in one place for too long she
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was doing a bit of couch surfing captain but by Tuesday March 23rd when Brianna still hadn't been seen or heard from
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Jillian called the maitlands and asked for Brianna Kelly Maitland immediately became
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alarmed she called her sister Tammy she called various friends as well and after searching fruitlessly on March
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23rd the maitlands contacted the Vermont State Police to file a missing persons report on their daughter they were told
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that an APB would be put out on Brianna and her car the maitlands heard nothing from the police for two days
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now there are some discrepancies in the the story about the car being found okay according to what the Vermont State
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Police told media sources they established the identity of the owner of the car and they called the maitlands on
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that Thursday according to what the maitlands told Dateline NBC and other sources that on
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that Thursday after Brianna went missing they went down to the Vermont State Police and demanded some attention be
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paid to their daughter's case when the maitlands arrived they sat down with an officer now during a
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conversation the officer who had actually found the vehicle found the car stuck at the Dutch burn place right
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overheard this conversation and came over to which he pulled out a photo that he took of the car and Kelly Maitland
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reacted she said the photo of the car made her stomach roll and as she put it quote I saw evil in that photo
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foreign all right we're back yes sir so here we have a situation Captain where after
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being notified regardless of how it actually went down by the police that the vehicle was found Saturday morning
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the Brianna's vehicle was found Saturday morning now we have her mother and father coming to the realization that
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you know this conversation is happening on Thursday May we found her vehicle Saturday
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they heard from her friend Jillian on Tuesday who said hey I came home on Sunday and I haven't seen her
00:29:47
so likely the parents were thinking that she's been missing since Sunday now they
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find out it could be could have been as early as Friday night when she left work
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so now they're terrified and the father her father is going to go to the garage where this vehicle is to
00:30:06
view Brianna's car [Music] this was look this has got to be hard for anyone to do but we have a father of
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a missing daughter going to view the vehicle and there's an issue here the vehicle's keys were not found with the
00:30:23
vehicle when he arrives to check out this car they have the issue of the trunk somebody's got to look in that trunk and
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back then this is not the type of vehicle where you could pull a lever and release the trunk the top of the trunk
00:30:41
right you'd have to have a key for it yeah and because the keys were missing nobody has checked that that trunk and
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actually he said you know hey when I walked up to this this car me and the guy that worked there it may have been
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an officer I'm not certain but these two guys had to pry open the trunk with a with a crowbar
00:31:03
the whole time he's concerned that he's going to find the body of his daughter in the trunk of that car yeah along with
00:31:10
some of her belongings and you know so you can only imagine the moment of Terror when the lid finally popped
00:31:17
on that thing you know praying that he would not find Brianna in the trunk of that car all they did find thankfully
00:31:24
were boxes and bags of her possessions they did not find her now back then 2004 Brianna did not have a cell phone so
00:31:35
that would also add to the mystery of this quote-unquote car accident at the abandoned house right it's my
00:31:41
understanding though Captain you know this is 2004 Upstate Vermont that there was little to most likely no cell
00:31:49
service anywhere in the area of the vehicle accident right that makes you wonder if she wrecked her car and she
00:31:58
was alone and her car couldn't get she couldn't get the car out of the barn basically right that
00:32:06
would she hitchhike right and the other thing too there is some argument out there that people State well she did
00:32:15
have she did have a cell phone and that's that's not true she didn't have a cell phone what's actually true is that
00:32:21
her mother had a cell phone at the time and on occasion would let her use it even take it with her she just didn't
00:32:28
have it that day correct you're absolutely right so it's kind of clear that the police assumed early on in the
00:32:37
investigation that Brianna was maybe a runaway or at the very least some sort of irresponsible teenager a Bruce and
00:32:45
Kelly the parents became very frustrated early on and this is mainly because one
00:32:51
of her co-workers one of Brianna's co-workers actually told the police that she had said she was going on some sort
00:32:59
of trip some kind of short trip at the time and one of Brianna's friends said that they
00:33:05
often talked about escaping to Florida and another friend said that Brianna often made reference to wanting to get
00:33:12
out of the small town Vermont and head to a city like Montreal or New York so which is a lot different than Florida
00:33:22
well but that's what's tricky for law enforcement when you start talking to people close to her you have one saying
00:33:29
hey she was talking about going on some kind of trip right you have one saying hey she always talked about going and
00:33:36
moving to Florida at some point and then somebody else saying she wanted to move
00:33:39
to a large city this is just proof that most people don't listen to you when you
00:33:43
talk what do you mean it's just I mean the fact that all of our friends have all
00:33:50
these different stories so she could have told different people different things over the course of possibly it's
00:33:56
more who knows how long it's more likely that people just don't pay attention um well the problem here though Captain
00:34:03
is going to be that her family they don't agree with any of this they want the police to be looking for their
00:34:10
daughter but what the police know on the on the surface is look we have a 17 year
00:34:15
old that's not living with her parents at the time that she suddenly disappears right and she's also told multiple
00:34:22
people that she had plans or at least desired to go elsewhere at some point in her life the maitlands demanded uh to be
00:34:31
given lie detector tests because you know knowing that the family would be investigated at some point they wanted
00:34:38
to be involved in the investigation and help so they offered up anything that they could do to be a eliminated at
00:34:45
least the suspects so that they could be involved in the search for their daughter
00:34:51
there are reports that Brianna had left once before without telling her parents now her father Bruce later denied this
00:34:59
on the Nancy Grace TV show at the time she vanished Brianna had moved out of her parents house as we
00:35:06
said they lived on a remote farmhouse in Franklin and she had moved in with various friends and boyfriends from the
00:35:15
time that she moved out I'm a little unclear captain of exactly when she moved out from her parents home the
00:35:23
understanding I have is that the maitlands were likely in the process of separating and that she didn't have a
00:35:31
great relationship with her mother she did have a good relationship by all reports with her father but again I
00:35:37
don't know that situation other than it's important to know she was not living at home there are some reports
00:35:44
like you and I suspected that she may have lived in her car temporarily at times right I mean if she couldn't find
00:35:51
a couch to crash on okay I'll just sleep in the back of my car what we do know is
00:35:57
that in February of 2004 she dropped out of school she enrolled in depending on who you talk to a GED program or a ghd
00:36:07
program right the old ghd and this would have been at a local community college do we know why she dropped out of school
00:36:14
because I heard rumors that she was a good student so I heard two completely different rumors
00:36:22
okay um so one rumor is that she was involved in drugs or had some kind of drug issue
00:36:30
right that was getting in the way of schooling and may have been leading to her getting in trouble at least at on
00:36:37
the school level right and then the other rumor that I heard was that she um didn't get along with some of the
00:36:46
students that she either didn't fit in I'm a little unclear what exactly that meant
00:36:52
um but we do know this she actually attended two different high schools before dropping out right so
00:37:00
well it could be both though right it could be you have a little bit of issues with people you go to school
00:37:08
with so you're using drugs to kind of cope with that it could be both well we also have
00:37:15
a strange issue here that I call in a question because after she went missing according to her mother
00:37:21
she publicly stated her mother published stated several times that she Brianna was starting to get her life together
00:37:30
I'm uncertain as to what that means okay to me when I hear that that indicates that there was something where her life
00:37:37
was not together and we don't know what that means in the perspective of her mother right well makes um
00:37:45
give some validity to the the rumors of possibly she was using drugs right and that was my first thought now I don't
00:37:53
know if if what she's referring to is well she dropped out of one school went to the
00:38:00
other school dropped out of that one and she was working on getting her GED right
00:38:05
is some form of trying to get her life together but what the parents would point out is if she wanted to leave
00:38:13
the problem they pointed to with not believing that theory from the police is the two uncashed paychecks that were
00:38:21
left in her vehicle this seems like something that she would have needed there is some argument by
00:38:26
the parents as well that she would have taken the vehicle with her but as you and I stated if if she were if the
00:38:33
vehicle was stuck that may not have been an option right at the end but the paychecks would have been if if we would
00:38:40
have known that she was going to go missing right the police officers knew they could have done a couple tests to
00:38:45
see if they could even get the vehicle moving right again that's what you're always going to have that argument that
00:38:52
the cops could have done more yeah well we have the Vermont State Police they did work with the FBI and conducted
00:38:59
ground and air searches of the area surrounding the abandoned house because it wasn't their Department very
00:39:06
very small okay so this is my understanding and this almost seems unbelievably small but my understanding
00:39:14
is what she said that they had like 13 officers for the entire County yeah that's what I heard and so there's
00:39:21
thousands of people that were reported missing roughly in that area like not not not from that town but within that
00:39:30
area so you to have the only 13 officers be able to look for anybody that's it's
00:39:38
crazy well and if you're sitting there thinking that 13 doesn't sound like that small of a number let's keep in mind
00:39:44
that the police force is a 24 7 operation okay um and actually in some small towns I
00:39:52
will say State this it does they do shut down from time to time but this is the state police so from my understanding it
00:39:59
would be that a 24 7 operation of 13 men and women patrolling the area 24 hours seven
00:40:07
months a year now regarding these searches Captain I'm a little unclear as to when they actually took place which
00:40:15
you know really can mess up what they could have possibly found but they were days long these searches the ground
00:40:21
searches and they did include hundreds of volunteered citizens with as many as 500 participating at one point now this
00:40:29
area includes many many acres of forest land which can be very difficult to search
00:40:37
so the searches turn up really nothing related to Brianna the maitlands went into search and rescue mode themselves
00:40:45
with Bruce searching areas with friends and Kelly designing Printing and disseminating thousands of missing
00:40:52
persons Flyers all over the area investigators also searched the Dutch burn house and the surrounding Woods a
00:41:01
couple of sources reported that the Vermont State Police their detective Brian Miller told the media
00:41:07
investigators found a gun and drug paraphernalia inside The Farmhouse the area around the Dutch burn house was
00:41:16
searched by a metal detection expert in an attempt to find the missing car keys while he found loose change no keys were
00:41:25
ever located state police officers received quite a few tips and brought in over 160 persons
00:41:33
for personal interviews and at least three individuals were given polygraphed examinations that were quote
00:41:40
inconclusive with at least one revealing deception now we don't know who these people are that were given the polygraph
00:41:49
examinations their names have not been named publicly Witnesses spot the car so we have some
00:41:56
other witnesses that may have spotted the car right so police turned up some witnesses that said they saw Brianna's
00:42:03
car on the night that she went missing one report is around 12 30 a.m March 20th and this time is absolutely crucial
00:42:12
to any reconstruction of the events this is a man who has been described in numerous sources as a quote very
00:42:21
credible witness said he drove by the Dutch burn house and noticed the car outside of it he
00:42:30
pointed at the road with he said the sorry the vehicle was pointed at the road with its headlights on at this time
00:42:37
the car fit the description of Brianna's car a second witness also saw the car sometime around midnight or 1am they're
00:42:46
not certain of the time but this witness states that the blinker was on now whether instead of in addition to
00:42:54
the lights being on or you know instead of or addition two we don't know okay so obviously if it's in addition to
00:43:04
the first guy could have just missed seeing the blinker being on uh if the blinker was on instead of the lights
00:43:11
then someone was in the car after that first sighting right now finally another person reported seeing the car that
00:43:18
night this was closer to 4 a.m this is James robitelli this is Brianna's ex-boyfriend one of
00:43:27
her ex-boyfriends told investigators he drove by on his way home from a party across the border
00:43:34
and saw the car and recognized it to be Brianna's he said there was no sign of her
00:43:40
anywhere it might be strange that he wasn't concerned about Brianna enough to notify any one
00:43:48
of her abandoned vehicle did he see any lights on that I couldn't find a statement from
00:43:55
him stating that lights were on that might have drawn that may have alerted him more later he would say he
00:44:02
was drunk that night and he was afraid of getting in trouble so he didn't report it that night and it's tough too
00:44:08
because you'd think if there's no keys the car's in park then why are the lights on
00:44:15
the other thing too though that's interesting about his statement is he says he saw the car but he all he he
00:44:22
outwardly states that Brianna was nowhere near or not in the area meaning to me that he may have he likely stopped
00:44:31
and investigated that he got close enough to the car to see that there was no one in it at the time right
00:44:37
we should note that one of the homes that Brianna had stayed at during this time away from her parents house was
00:44:45
James's grandparents house now at the end of March a forensic team processed Brianna's car searching it
00:44:53
thoroughly and taking pieces out of the Interior to test they are looking for evidence of a struggle or possible Foul
00:45:00
Play All right so we have the initial investigation it states that it didn't indicate any kind
00:45:08
of violent struggle inside the vehicle although the investigator conceded that the way that the car was backed into the
00:45:15
house it did not look like a quote normal accident no like you said in the trailer I mean this is
00:45:23
that's kind of strange I mean I've seen cars hit houses before right but never back up into them right
00:45:31
and they found Brianna's ATM card they found her contact lenses and migraine medication inside the vehicle
00:45:39
as stated earlier her keys were gone and they have never been found to this day interestingly Lieutenant Nelson
00:45:48
um working the case told reporters the car was discovered at 1 22 a.m on March 20th by a neighbor so this must be the
00:45:57
unnamed witness that is quoted you know stated to be credible who saw the lights and or blinkers on
00:46:06
another thing Lieutenant Nelson said that's interesting is that it wasn't immediately apparent
00:46:13
to investigators that Brianna was the last person to drive the vehicle now he did not expound on this statement
00:46:21
yeah I wonder what they found to make them think that it that's a weird statement and and the
00:46:27
reason why I find that to be a weird statement Captain is you can kind of take that one of two ways
00:46:32
you can take it in a sense that maybe they found something to indicate that possibly there was someone else driving
00:46:39
the vehicle at the time of the accident or that they couldn't find anything to definitively say that Brianna was in
00:46:47
fact the one driving the vehicle right you know it's kind of a very vague statement to throw out there yeah and
00:46:54
the second one's not so bad though I mean just to say well we don't know for sure so let's just keep an open mind
00:47:00
so the maitlands offered up a twenty thousand dollar reward for information leading to Brianna's safe return or the
00:47:08
arrest of the person or persons responsible for her disappearance and they did establish a website this is
00:47:14
bring breehome.com dedicated to finding her so who is Brianna Captain Brianna Alexandra
00:47:24
Maitland was born on October 8th 1986. at the time of her disappearance she was just 17 years old she was five foot tall
00:47:33
five foot four inches tall I'm sorry weighs 105 pounds has hazel eyes and medium length brown hair yeah she also
00:47:42
has a nose stud in her left nostril and a faint scar on her left eyebrow she is a hearty New Englander who can
00:47:52
shoot skeet track deer and zip around on an ATV or snowmobile Brianna's mom says
00:47:59
one time Brianna packed picked up a hitchhiker and brought him home one thing that's important to know about
00:48:06
Brianna is that she is trained in uh Jiu Jitsu thank you just seeing that word on paper threw me
00:48:15
forward so she brought the hitchhiker home so I mean aren't you just supposed to pick
00:48:23
them up and take them drop them off somewhere else you're not supposed to take them home
00:48:28
are you hey you look I've had that I can recall I think I've had one experience with The Hitchhiker and that
00:48:35
was the protocol for that trip was to drop them off at another location this is actually bring them home this was
00:48:41
actually very common in the 70s I mean hitchhikers were very common and people would pick them up all the time
00:48:49
but 2004 not so much but no no but what I'm saying is thinking back on it to think that at one point in in our nation
00:48:58
that in the 70s were like hey just pick people up man it's cool yeah well and it would happen often on
00:49:06
uh college campuses as well like so students that didn't know one another from attending the school but happened
00:49:12
to be from you know hey like if you lived somewhere along my drive home right we there were ways of hooking up
00:49:19
that I'd be like hey I'll drop the captain off on my way back to to my family's home for Thanksgiving right
00:49:25
well I'm an 80s baby so it's like I've heard all the stories from the 70s now we're investigating this case of 2004
00:49:32
and you go she picked up a hitchhiker like that's just not something people do yeah I mean
00:49:39
I've never hitchhiked myself but as far as the Jiu Jitsu thing goes we should note that she wasn't just trained in it
00:49:46
this is a she was studying the practice for several years leading up to her disappearance but I think what's
00:49:53
interesting thing here Captain about the hitchhiker I think if you are knowing in advance that she is
00:50:03
absolutely willing to pick up a hitchhiker I think that points out to the same thought that she might be willing to
00:50:10
accept a ride as well with so much focus on the vehicle and what could have happened to the vehicle what happened to
00:50:17
her afterwards we don't know right and this points to the thought where you know because we've covered other cases
00:50:23
where parents or loved ones or friends are going she would have never gotten to a car not this situation you can't tell
00:50:30
me that if she's willing to let someone in her car I think she's willing to accept a ride especially if you're kind
00:50:37
of out in the sticks in a dark area at midnight yeah I think so yeah I don't want to
00:50:44
look I'm not trying to judge Jujitsu at all but you know there's been a lot of Masters of the the
00:50:52
martial arts that are masters of Jiu Jitsu that say Hey look this stuff works in that setting but
00:51:01
this is grappling this has nothing to do with striking so this idea that if if somebody tried to attack her that she'd
00:51:09
be able to take down any man it's just kind of a ridiculous statement well that's
00:51:17
I mean I don't know who's saying that statement I just stating that she was not she didn't have the inability to do such
00:51:25
right um that it was possible that she's trained in some in a form of martial arts that most people are not so uh but
00:51:35
while we're on the the topic of background information on Brianna we should point out too that there was an
00:51:41
assault on Brianna that occurred on February 27th this is only weeks before she went missing yeah and she took a
00:51:50
selfie well reports are that Brianna was at a party in Richford which is near the
00:51:57
Canadian border James robitelli which is the name that we've heard before who was either her ex or her current
00:52:06
flame at the time of this party was also there right he's the guy that reported seeing her car a number of other kids
00:52:13
were there as well including a girl named Keely lacrosse and a local guy whom Keely was possibly involved with
00:52:21
Keeley thought that Brianna was flirting with this guy so words were exchanged and Brianna walked out of the party and
00:52:30
went out to James's truck apparently she fell asleep but at some point Keely and her cousin came outside
00:52:38
told Brianna to roll down the window and they challenged her to a a fight punching her nuts yeah punching her in
00:52:46
the face friends of Brianna reported that Keely was pushing Brianna to fight her and hit
00:52:53
her again but Brianna refused to fight all right so she just got punched a few times in the face and she left the party
00:53:01
crying uh James apparently drove her home that night Brianna sustained a broken nose and a concussion and two
00:53:10
very black eyes now at the urging of her parents Brianna filed charges these charges were ultimately dropped by the
00:53:18
County District Attorney's office after Brianna went missing we don't know a whole lot about Keely
00:53:25
lacrosse but for what it's worth uh in 2005 she told WCAX quote I got into an argument with her
00:53:35
meaning Brianna and I regret everything that happened I really wish she was here
00:53:41
today end quote Keeley went on to have a few Tangles with the law if you want to
00:53:47
call him that including an arrest for home invasion and assault in 2012. this is this is
00:53:56
problematic I feel I feel like we have a situation here where we have a history we have someone who
00:54:05
I wouldn't call this is not a fight she attacked Brianna broke her nose give her a
00:54:12
concussion yeah yeah so words are exchanged and Brianna left the situation right went outside and chilled out in
00:54:20
the truck and then she's approached Again by this girl and then we have we do know that she
00:54:26
goes on to have this situation of a home invasion an assault here's my understanding I wish I knew a little bit
00:54:32
more about this home invasion because home invasions can be extremely violent hell we discussed one just last week in
00:54:40
the garage right they ended in a double homicide so I don't know the details of this home invasion it could have been
00:54:49
something as simple to break in and recover something or break in and steal drugs but I do have an
00:54:58
understanding of the assault so the assault these were not two separate crimes the assault took place during the
00:55:04
home invasion and from my understanding she bit the victim now I don't know if if they busted into the home and a fight
00:55:12
broke out right and then the assault occurred but this was in 2012. so we have two
00:55:19
two incidents where we see that we have a violent individual is what we do know and unfortunately these charges would
00:55:27
ultimately be dropped because we don't have a victim around anymore we don't have Brianna around anymore to follow
00:55:33
through on the charges being brought against Keeley right so but what you're saying is keeley's house was broken into
00:55:39
no no no home invasion meaning she was either invaded another home or part of a group that invaded another home okay so
00:55:49
she was one of the Invaders yes yes so she's in trouble with law She's Not Just involved with him as a victim yeah
00:55:57
that's not a good thing right so we have I think you and I can agree this is someone that has at least on more than
00:56:03
one occasion shown signs to have been violent well and let me put this you know I want to say this is hearsay rumor
00:56:11
mill stuff but as far as this party goes this whole idea that that Brianna came with her boyfriend and her ex-boyfriend
00:56:21
James James see I heard this story a little different the rumor mill that I heard was that Keely was involved
00:56:29
they're both involved with this guy James and that's what the fight was over okay that was the rumor that I heard now
00:56:36
if is that true I'm not for sure that's that's the room I heard I heard and that
00:56:42
could be right which makes it more suspicious that James saw her car that night possibly yes and but this was what
00:56:51
calls into question for me is Keely a good suspect and you know there are I did find her did you see the picture of
00:56:58
her face uh yeah Brianna's face I mean that's I mean she looked like she was in the
00:57:05
Octagon right the reason why I bring up is Keely a good suspect I think on the surface at
00:57:12
least knowing this background information there's some kind of history there but there I have seen online reports
00:57:20
that state that no she's not a good suspect she's been cleared I couldn't find I couldn't find verification of
00:57:27
what actually cleared her but what I could find was I could find a statement from Brianna's father Bruce Maitland who
00:57:35
says he quote doesn't believe she was ever really cleared okay so let's keep keep open mind we don't
00:57:44
know why she's cleared we don't know what her Alibi was you know I think it's a good lead to go down yes the other
00:57:52
lead we should go down is a possible drug connection to this missing person's case so in 2004 the Vermont Hills area
00:58:00
where Brianna lived was suffering from a drug epidemic there was a massive influx
00:58:07
of drugs brought by dealers from New York and Massachusetts there already was plenty of pot in the area but this newer
00:58:15
infiltration of hard drugs they were bringing in things like crack cocaine and heroin this was not just brought
00:58:22
into the area it was a problem right so two drug dealers who came up to the small town Vermont area from the big
00:58:30
city were Raymond Street Ryan's of Queens New York and Nathaniel Lowe Jackson also from New York these guys
00:58:40
sold crack and Other Drugs to the teens in the area but they didn't just sell to
00:58:45
these kids they hung out with them as well that's normally how it works the two of them attended parties and
00:58:51
socialized with the younger kids they were providing drugs to how much Brianna was involved in this drug scene is hotly
00:59:00
contested she seems to have been a pot smoker some friends say that she may have tried Coke
00:59:07
or crack a time or two others other people say that it went beyond that you know that she had some kind of drug
00:59:16
problem some rumors that she's a full-blown crackhead I mean one of the speculations is one of the reasons why
00:59:23
she got two jobs I mean she's couch surfing and stuff like that so one of the reasons why she got the the
00:59:30
second job was to maintain her drug addiction yeah and so that's interesting Captain because there there's two
00:59:38
schools of thought here I would think is that one you have someone who's working
00:59:43
two jobs because they're living above their means and they're spending money on things like drugs or then I go back
00:59:52
to the statement given by her mother of Brianna was in the process of getting her life back together so maybe she's
00:59:59
working the two jobs and she's she's on a on the bridge to better days right um so but but again about what you tell
01:00:08
your parents at the age of 17 and what they know is two different things well but again though that statement is is
01:00:15
troubling as well because the statement of she is getting in the process of getting her life together what does that
01:00:21
mean what was going on what was wrong before the time period that she went missing and does that involve the use of
01:00:27
hardcore drugs and again like like I was saying to you over the phone last week you know what your parents know of you
01:00:34
at the age of 15 16 17 They Don't Know Much unless you're giving them that information or their suspicious of
01:00:43
something so they're kind of snooping but guess what they can't Snoop if you're not living there right so they're
01:00:48
not going to pick up on who's calling you they're not going to pick up on who you left the house with right they're
01:00:55
not going to pick up on who came over to the house these are all important little
01:00:59
clues that parents have to pay attention to because your teenagers are normally not going to be forthcoming with hey you
01:01:06
know I've been hanging out with um you know this guy and this guy and we've been smoking crack that's normally
01:01:12
not how it goes down so that's never dinner conversation is it I'm just saying I I don't
01:01:21
I don't blame her parents for not knowing I'm just saying let's let's start assuming that they probably don't
01:01:28
know everything that was going on in her life at that time and I had to get me a
01:01:32
second job because the old Captain got me on the crack pipe yeah Mama never got anybody on the crack yeah
01:01:39
Dear Mother um Dear Mother so we have Vermont State Police investigator Brian Miller who
01:01:45
we've discussed before he said publicly that they knew Brianna quote experimented with a wide range of drugs
01:01:53
so the police seem to have some sort of evidence that this may have been going on and that they could not rule out
01:02:01
drugs being connected to her disappearance the other thing though too is it might
01:02:07
be possible that Brianna had some kind of or was in some kind of relationship with one of the dealers that we
01:02:14
discussed and this is lo Jackson the two of them had been seen together multiple times by Brianna's friends and
01:02:22
family we don't know if there was for sure a relationship or any more about this but what what I feel like is it
01:02:32
doesn't look good well what I was going to say about the job the rumor about the
01:02:35
second job was that she was actually in debt as far as she owed money to people that she's getting drugs from
01:02:42
right so it's kind of uh there's two stories one that she wanted to get drugs well multiple stories
01:02:51
do have two jobs get your life together you have two jobs so you can pay for your drugs
01:02:57
get a second job because you're in debt and you owe drug dealers money thank you
01:03:09
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01:03:48
and don't litter [Music] thank you [Applause] [Music]