Disappearance of Brianna Maitland

Early life Brianna Maitland was born October 8, 1986, in Burlington, Vermont, to Bruce and Kellie Maitland (). She was raised with her older brother on their parents' farm in East Franklin, Vermont, near the Canadian border. Prior to disappearance On Maitland's seventeenth birthday in October 2003, she decided she wanted to move away from her parents' farm. To complete her education, Maitland enrolled in a GED program. The motive for the attack was unclear, though Maitland's father, Bruce, later stated he believed it stemmed from jealousy over Maitland's interaction with a male peer at the party. The altercation resulted in Maitland suffering a broken nose and concussion; she later filed charges against Lacross. The complaint was subsequently dropped three weeks after Maitland vanished, and Lacross was cleared of any involvement in her disappearance. ==Disappearance==

Friday, March 19, 2004 Early the next afternoon, on March 20, a Vermont State Police trooper was dispatched to an abandoned house on Route 118 in Richford, about a mile (1.6 km) from the Black Lantern Inn. Maitland's Oldsmobile was found backed into the side of the house. Known locally as "the old Dutchburn house," the siding of the home had been breached by the rear end of the sedan. A piece of plywood that had been covering a window lay on the car's trunk. Two of Maitland's paychecks were on the front seat of the car, and outside it, law enforcement observed loose change, a water bottle and an unsmoked cigarette. • Around 4:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 20, a former boyfriend of Maitland's drove past the scene after a night of partying across the border in Canada. He thought he recognized the vehicle, but he did not see anyone in or around it. ==Investigation==

Initial findings The Vermont State Police, who led the official investigation for the first months after Maitland's disappearance, were skeptical that foul play was involved, considering the possibility that Maitland was a runaway. The area surrounding the old Dutchburn house was combed on foot by police and search dogs, but nothing was found. and a 2007 flyer provided by the FBI stated that the scene at which Maitland's car was discovered may have been staged to appear as an accident. Maitland's parents publicly speculated that she may have been abducted by multiple people, stating that it would have been difficult for a single assailant to subdue her given her jiu-jitsu training. The website was active until at least 2009. According to a March 2017 article published in the Burlington Free Press, the reward remained available. In June 2017, however, it was reported that the reward was due to expire in early July of that year. Allegations and affidavit In the week following Maitland's disappearance, the Vermont State Police received an anonymous tip claiming that she was being held against her will in a house in nearby Berkshire, from Montgomery. The woman who provided the affidavit claimed that Ryans murdered Maitland during an argument over money she had lent him to purchase crack, However, Maitland would have still been 19 years old at the time of the alleged sighting, and New Jersey state law requires patrons to be 21 and over to enter a casino, therefore, if the woman seen was in fact Maitland, it is possible that she may have started a new life under a new identity after her disappearance; this, however, is unknown, as the woman seen on video was never properly identified. In 2012, law enforcement investigated a potential connection between Maitland's disappearance and Israel Keyes, a serial killer who committed numerous rapes and murders in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington, as well as in Vermont and New York, where he owned property in Constable. The FBI ruled out Keyes's potential connection to Maitland's disappearance in late December 2012, On March 19, 2016, the twelfth anniversary of Maitland's disappearance, investigators revealed to a local television station they had recovered DNA samples from Maitland's car. The results of the DNA tests were not made public. In July 2016, the old Dutchburn house, where Maitland's vehicle had been discovered, was destroyed in a fire. In March 2022, the Vermont State Police revealed they had found a match to the DNA sample found in Maitland's car. The identity of the person has not been released, although officials did say it belonged to one of eleven people they tested previously in connection to Maitland's disappearance and "that person has been very cooperative and spoken to us." In 2024, the FBI and Vermont State Police announced a reward of up to $40,000 for information to locate Maitland, with Craig Tremaroli, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Albany Field Office stating, "This reward money today is for information leading to her recovery [...] Someone out there may have information that can help solve this case. It's been too long and it's time to come forward." Matthew Birmingham of the Vermont State Police additionally stated, "This is not a cold case, it's an unsolved case." ==Media depictions==

Maitland's case has been profiled by Dateline NBC and on the Investigation Discovery documentary series Disappeared in December 2011. In 2017, her case was profiled in an episode of the documentary series The Disappearance of Maura Murray on the Oxygen network. In 2023, a book about her disappearance was published by a private investigator who has worked for the Maitland family. ==See also==