Vanished in the Night: Brianna's Last Day - Part 1

Brianna Maitland, a 17-year-old from Vermont, vanished after leaving work in 2004. Her car was found abandoned with her belongings. The mystery of her disappearance has captivated many for 20 years. The podcast "Dark Dialogue" delves into her story, exploring her background, family, and the search for answers. Brianna was described as independent, sweet, and kind-hearted. Her family has since founded a non-profit to fund private investigators for missing persons. The podcast discusses Vermont's history and cultural heritage, as well as the stunning fall scenery in the region. March 19, 2004, a small town in Vermont, 17 year old Brianna Maitland leaves her job at a rural inn, winds into her car, and disappears into the night. The next day, her car is found backed into an abandoned barn. Her belongings inside, but no trace of her. For 20 years, her family, investigators, and a captivated public have chased answers. Was it a drug deal gone wrong, a random abduction, or something else entirely? In this series, we'll unravel the mystery of Brianna Maitland's disappearance, keeping together clues, theories, and the lives forever changed. Let's begin with who Brianna was, and the day that she vanished. You, the brain thrives on carbs. You have to have some. Actually, my brain thrives on zero carbs. If I'm true keto, and in ketosis, I feel much better. Is that 30 a day, or zero a day? Well, for me to get into ketosis, it has to be under 20 a day. Okay, well. Well, last I heard from a nutritionist, you have to have some sugar to run the brain, and your brain doesn't ever stop. Yeah, but. So, you gotta feed it something. Yeah, but your body, through gluconeogenesis, turns protein into glucose. That was an Ivy League word. I don't know about all that. Anyway, are you ready to dive into this new series? We're always diving. Can I jump, like, feet first? This head first scares me. Yeah, jump. Are you ready to jump feet first into this new series? Let's do that one. Alright, well, let's go ahead and kick this off then. Some people out there are like, what is wrong with them? Welcome listeners to Dark Dialogue, the podcast where we unravel the shadows of the human mind and dive deep, or jump deep first, into the mysteries that haunt small towns and big cities alike. I'm your host, John. We're supposed to be listening this much during a Dark Dialogue, but here we are. I am Angela, and alongside John, we're here to explore the stories that keep you up at night, tales of mystery, betrayal, and the kind of truth that's stranger than fiction. Each episode, we dive deep into the cases that haunt us, the mysteries that linger, and the questions that refuse to fade, giving voice to those left forever voiceless. So, grab your headphones, get a strong drink or a bit of ice cream, like Ben and Jerry's probably fit right about now. Dim the lights and join us for a conversation that's as gripping as it is unsettling. This is Dark Dialogue. Let's step into the darkness together. So, we're headed kind of all over Vermont. There's a certain area of Vermont today. Are we tapping trees for maple syrup? I'd like to. Okay, well, let's put that in there somewhere. I agree. But, you dug up a little bit of location history for us, or information? A little. Perfect. We're in New England. End of story. We are in New England. Not good enough? Not enough, sorry. Okay. So, as with many of the communities in New England, covered bridges are a common theme. Montgomery is no different, in fact. It is known as the covered bridge capital, because in the 1940s, there were 13 covered bridges within the town. We'd love to have seen all of those. Yep. Today, only six of those are left within the town limits, and are all listed on the National Register of Historic Places. So, at least we can still see those. Those six right there. I know, but I mean in person, because they're historic places. I've never been to Vermont. I haven't either. No way. I haven't either. So, located in northern Vermont, Montgomery sits at the base of the Green Mountains, and was granted charter by the Vermont General Assembly on March 15, 1780. It was named to honor revolutionary war hero, General Richard Montgomery. Apparently, I'm just not going to get that word right. That's all right. We'll get it correct. Oh, man. Despite its small size, 31 residents in 1800, and only 1,184 in the 2020 census, Montgomery boasts a rich cultural heritage that is reflected in its many museums and galleries. The Montgomery Historical Society Museum, located in the heart of town, offers visitors a glimpse into the region's fascinating past, including its early settlement, logging industry, and agricultural heritage. Meanwhile, the Montgomery Center of the Arts showcases the work of local artists, and hosts a variety of cultural events throughout the year, including art exhibits, concerts, and theater productions. The town includes villages like Montgomery Center and Montgomery Village, with amenities like the Vermont Salt Cave Spa, Montgomery Center for the Arts, and local dining spots such as Bernie's Restaurant and Snowshoe Lodge and Pub. Did you see the snow cave? I didn't. Or the snow cave, the salt cave? I didn't. That's it. That's awesome. It is. I've kind of always wanted to go to one. They're supposed to be really healing. I've never been either, but this place looks pretty damn relaxing. It's supposed to be really healing. So, one of the many reasons I'd like to visit the area is the stunning fall scenery. In fact, in 2010, it was listed in Yankee Magazine as one of the top 25 foliage towns of New England. Yeah, I believe it. I've never been to Vermont. Oh, great. But, you know, the East Coast in general, man, I've been down through the Smoky Mountains in the fall time. I mean, pretty much all over. The whole East is covered in trees, and they're all deciduous. It's unbelievable. There's a small place up South Fork here that looks like it's on fire in the fall, and I imagine that's what all of Vermont looks like in the fall. It's just various degrees of fire. Yeah, and there's places as you're driving down, I used to drive from Ohio down to North Carolina, and as you're driving down through the Smokies, there's all kinds of places actually through the Smoky Mountains where the trees literally are canopying right over the top of the road. So, you're almost driving through like a bright orange or yellow or red tunnel. Wow. It's pretty freaking exciting. Let's go. So, thank you for all that information. You are welcome. So, tonight we are talking about a young lady by the name of Breanna Maitland. She was born October 8, 1986 at Fletcher Allen Hospital in Burlington, Vermont. And she's the daughter of Bruce and Kelly Maitland, and then she has an older brother named Waylon. And so, you know, she grew up different than a lot of kids. Waylon Maitland? Waylon Maitland. How is he not a country singer? Right? How? I'm almost willing to bet you he's named after one. They missed the boat on that, though. Waylon Maitland, that's, okay. I'm not sure what he does for sure, but so... That's an incredible name. I just, I'm just saying. It really is. And so, Breanna was fiercely independent, quick-witted, and just loyal, and everybody just describes her as being, like, really, really sweet and just couldn't see the bad in anybody. Like, one time her mom, Kelly, came home, and there was this kid in their house, and she's like, what the hell's going on? Yeah, right. And Breanna had picked him up. He was hitchhiking and taking him home and letting him stay there until his ride got there or something. And Kelly, her mom, said, you know, I kept telling her, you can't do this. Don't do that. Don't pick people up. But that's just the kind of girl that she was. She just didn't see bad in anybody. Scares me a little bit. Yeah. And I don't think that it plays a role in our story tonight, but we don't know, because it's really a complete mystery. So, and I couldn't really find a lot of pictures of Bruce and Kelly, but this one here is from right after Breanna's disappearance. And I don't know if you recognize the guy in the white shirt right there, but that's Fred Murray. That's Nora's dad. Oh. And this would have been a little after a month that his daughter went missing. And he, the Murray family, immediately reached out to the Maitlands for a couple reasons. One, they wanted to compare notes and see if maybe the same person was involved. Right. And two, to lend support, you know. But they were very early on in their whole tragedy, you know. So, it's not like a lot of parents that, I think that Bruce is kind of this kind of person now, this many years later, where, you know, they kind of, they don't give up looking for their own daughter. They don't quit trying themselves, but they also come to a place where they help other people. So, what Bruce has thrown himself into is he's created this organization called Private Investigators for the Missing. And it's a non-profit group where they provide funding to pay private investigators to search for, you know, missing people. Because what their family discovered through this whole tragedy is you have to be like a millionaire in order to be able to afford investigators, you know. And so, that's what he did. And then you have, you know, like John Walsh. I don't know if many people, I would assume most people know, but, you know, his boy was kidnapped. That's what started him on his journey. Yep. And then was found murdered. And then he spent literally the rest of his life helping other parents and stuff like that. And, you know, a lot of these stories you hear, especially when they're little kids like his boy was, he's one of the first to get on the phone. He was under 10, wasn't he? I think he was 10 if I remember right. I think 10 at the very oldest. He was just a little guy. And John Walsh is on the phone with these parents like right away, you know, talking to them and helping them through and guiding them because, I mean, how do you prepare for something like that? You just don't. You can't. No. So, it's just a tragedy. And Brianna, she went by Bree, she went by Bee and Brianna, but she was something else. So, she practiced jujitsu and so she was no freaking pushover. And she grew up different than most kids for sure. Her childhood reminds me a little bit of mine, only they were roughing it even more. So, they lived on a property, a 100-acre farm in northern Vermont. And when I say northern, they were 300 feet from Canada. Oh, okay. So, they literally could just walk into Canada from their property easily, you know. And you think a football field is 100 yards, that's about how far they were from Canada. And they had no electricity and they had, I mean, they were, yes, they were off-grid. So, they were growing their own food. And so, she grew up with no TV out there in the middle of nowhere riding four-wheelers. She could hunt deer with the best of them. She was a great skeet shooter. And she learned pretty early on to entertain herself with books because they didn't have TV. So, she didn't have a lot of choices there, you know. And, you know, she grew up feeding animals and, you know, tending the garden and doing all that kind of stuff that you do when you're essentially living off the land. Right. She attended Nifiqua, I think is how you say it, high school. And that was, it was difficult for her. So, I couldn't understand exactly why this was. I have not been able to find it. And, you know, as I do these, a series like this, I kind of uncover more information as I go along. So, maybe I'll discover it, but I'm not, I don't think I will. I'm not confident that I will. And that is why she decided to leave this high school. And, actually, I know why she decided to. The situation was that her group of friends was about 15 miles away and went to a different school. And so, she was essentially alone at this school. I don't know what created that dynamic. I'm not entirely sure why or how she made these friends that were not part of her school group, because that's not normal. Most of us make friends with the ones we go to school with, you know. So, I don't, I really don't know. And I wasn't really able to find it. And I do know that Bruce and Kelly have both been, like, you know, pretty close-lit about their family life and Brianna's childhood and stuff. And I remember Bruce saying, I think at one time, it's like having somebody peering through your living room window, which it is, you know. And so, I totally respect that they don't want just everything out there. They're entitled to a little bit of privacy, too. What's important needs to be out there. The rest of it's nobody's business. Right. And the reason that she had a group of friends not in her high school is not one of those important things. No. But she, because of this, she left the Missisquoi High School, and she started attending school in, I think it was in Sheldon Springs, and kind of moved out on her own at that time at, like, 16, 17. And then ended up dropping out of school shortly thereafter. And so, it was a little bit of a complicated dynamic, I guess you could say. Within the family? Like, there was family trouble, is that what you're saying? It doesn't really sound like it. It sounds to me like it was a teenager that was, like, rebelling a little bit. Because I know that Bruce had said, you know, we tried to talk her out of it, she's 17 years old. And so, I did go through this with my daughter as well at 17. I was the daughter at 17. It is that age. I was, too. I moved out when I was 17, too. So, it's not at all unusual. But I do know that Bruce said one thing, and that was that, because she was, like, couch surfing, staying with friends. She stayed with a couple of her ex-boyfriend's families for a while. And then for whatever reason, that didn't work out. She kind of was couch surfing. She lived in her car for a little bit. And Bruce had said, I told her, I'm not supporting this. And that means that if you want to be an adult, you can go get a job. You can pay for it yourself, because I am not going to bankroll you not living in my house. I can't fault a guy for that. I think that that's probably pretty much exactly how I would handle it, too. If you want to stay here until you graduate high school, I will take care of you. I'll take care of your bills. You can do it. But if you're leaving, then you're on your own. I'm not going to pay for you to go run around with your friends and do this and that. So, right, wrong, or indifferent, that's the approach that they took. And so, and like I say, I can't really fault them. No, it's life lessons. I didn't actually move out at 17, but I did go, let's say, add a new member to the family at 17. Yep. Well, I did. I moved out when I was 17, and I lived in a place that had no drywall on the walls on the inside of it. It was just bare insulation. I had a rattlesnake that lived under my kitchen sink. I have her buddies, and then my roommate shot him full of bulls. So, yeah, it wasn't the best living situation, but for a 17-year-old, it was definitely all I could afford. Well, yeah. And at the time, it was so much cooler than living with your parents. Right. So she dropped out, and she did jump into a GED program right away that she was working on. And she had kind of started to gravitate towards a bit of a rougher crowd. And I'm not entirely sure what the dynamics were with, like, all of her friends and stuff, but it does sound like her traditional friends were kind of concerned about her because she was kind of starting to do some drugs and kind of get into that stuff and party a little bit. And so, you know, it's going to come up throughout this story that she was a druggie and a crackhead, and that's just not the case. I've seen nothing to make me believe that whatsoever. But she was experimenting a little bit with drugs, you know. She smoked pot, I think, on a fairly regular basis and then had done cocaine and crack cocaine. And there was a major crack epidemic going on in this area, which we'll be talking about. Okay. But during this period of time, there was a lot of crack going on. And so, but, you know, she was, like I said, she was in that GED program, and she was working hard and studying hard. And so, by the time we get to March 19th of 2004, she's ready to take her equivalency test. And so, to kind of just demonstrate, you know, the relationship between her and her parents, I think it's really important to just highlight that her mom, Kelly, picked her up that morning, took her out to breakfast. Brianna went and took her GED equivalent, her G-Exam, sailed through it, no problems. And then her and mom went out and celebrated. So, they went. Since? Yeah. So, they took a trip up to Burlington, Vermont, which was not, it's not too far from where they were, where all the stories happening, you know. And so, they went to Burlington, and they did some shopping, and went out to eat, and, you know, that kind of stuff. And so, it was a bit of a celebratory day, for sure. And then, let's just crack. She needed to get a pair of, so, she had just started two new jobs. One of those jobs was at a place called KJ's Diner, where she was going to be a server. And the other one was at the Black Lantern Inn, where she was going to be a dishwasher. And so, both of these are relatively new jobs at this time. And so, she needed a pair of pants for her KJ's Diner gig. And so, mom, Kelly, took her shopping to get those pants and stuff like that. And she said that when they were in the store, Brianna, all of a sudden, kind of was looking outside and acting a little bit funny. And then, she said that she was going to go outside, that she would just meet Kelly at the car. And then, when Kelly went ahead, she bought the pants and everything, and went out and saw Brianna standing by her car. And she said that it had kind of, everything had changed, kind of at that point, that her demeanor had changed. And she was kind of acting a little nervous and jittery, and was like, I just, I got to get home. I got to get home. I just got to get to work. So, the rumor mill has said multiple times that she was warned at that time not to go to work that night. That something was going to happen. Now, there's absolutely nothing backing that up. There's nothing to confirm it. I will say that I watched by her. Who? Nobody else. Okay. Like, somebody that Kelly didn't see, but Brianna did, that, like, motioned Brianna to come out of the store. That's interesting. It's kind of the thought process. And so, she went out of the store and talked to this person. But I don't know really where the root of that came from. For a long time, when I first heard about this story, I just thought that that was fact. That just was something that happened. But then as I get to digging into it, it's not fact. It is fact that Kelly said that. I watched the interview. Actually, it was on the Disappeared show. Brianna has an episode on Disappeared, and Kelly's in there. And she says on that show that, yeah, she acted way funny and stuff like that. Well, later, her dad would say, yeah, I think she was going outside to have a cigarette. And she didn't want to hear her mom complaining about it or didn't want to hear anything about it. So, he doesn't put any stock in that whatsoever. And it seems like maybe Kelly has backed off of that a little bit as well since. So, I don't know. But I do know that if you go to research in this case, especially if you just kind of do a cursory search of it, that shows up as though it was fact. But when you go listening to podcasts and stuff like that out there, I mean, it's everywhere that this did happen. Somebody came, warned her not to go to work. I couldn't find any place where that could be corroborated. I think it's a rumor. And I think that maybe she did act a little bit funny. Maybe something happened. Maybe somebody did talk to her. But there's no way that I could find how anybody would know what was said. Right. Because it was just Brianna and this other person. And if this other person never came forward, then it's just guesses and rumor. How weird it would be that that person knew exactly where she was, what store she was in? Especially considering the fact that they were in Burlington. And so, that is not near. So, Montgomery here, this is up here where this is the Maitland residence up here. Burlington is way down here. Yeah. So, somebody followed them to tell her? That seems sketchy. Yeah. It's not like all this was occurring in the same town that they were in or anything. I mean, it was a bit of a jaunt to Burlington from Montgomery. And I can't remember the town that they live in. East Franklin is up near where the Maitland residence is. And so, to get to Burlington, it's kind of like for us going to Billings, it sounds to me like. There's a bunch of tiny little towns up in this area. To hold quite a ways to just follow someone to say. Well, that's my point. Yeah. It's not like they were shopping downtown in their local town. No. They're driving quite a ways away to go shopping. So, I just don't think that there is a lot to that. But I have to mention it. So, that came from local rumor, like I said. And these were kids that she was hanging out with. But she was hanging out with a much rougher crowd, for sure. And we'll get into exactly who that is, especially in later episodes as we dive into it. But she was hanging out with a couple of drug dealers from New York. Ooh. And, yeah. So, we're not talking about some local meth heads or something like that that are cooking meth in the bathtub. We're talking about guys that were running, from what I understand, a major drug pipeline up from New York through Vermont and up into Canada. So, it kind of seems or sounds to me like they were kind of soldiers of a larger organization or, you know, working under a larger organization. She was potentially a mule? No. I don't think that she was involved in the drug trade whatsoever. But she was associated with these couple of douchebags. Okay. And, yeah. They are douchebags. I don't argue with you when you name people. Well, I got a couple pictures I'll show you, and they're real winners. But suffice it to say, she was running with a much rougher crowd. Okay. But she was also, I mean, it's obvious that she wasn't just a freaking crackhead because she's working her ass off. She has two jobs now. She went to school. I mean, she dropped out of high school, but she still had to go. She did the GED through a local college, and she sailed right through it and had no problems passing her test. And so, when you get to research in her case, there's a lot of people that make her sound like she was a drug mule, potentially, into trafficking drugs or something like that or was a major crackhead. And there's just no way. I just don't think there's any possible way. Okay. So, after this strange incident, maybe strange, maybe not, whatever you decide to believe, whatever happened at the store in Burlington, after they left, she was like, I got to get home, got to get ready for work, whatever. And so, Kelly went ahead and took her home, and she got ready and then headed to work at the Black Lantern Inn, which is in Montgomery. And it's a pretty small little, it's like a little inn, and then they have like a restaurant bar and stuff like that. And like I said, she worked as a dishwasher at that place. And so, there's been a lot of speculation because she said that she would be home, she expected to be home sometime between 11 and 12. And I've seen in a lot of different places where people have said, oh, well, you know, she was working the clothing shift. You never know when you really get off. The truth is, she was a dishwasher, and as a dishwasher, you never know when you're getting off. Yeah, so you're done when you're done. And that's the restaurant industry in general, but it's especially true with dishwashers. Sometimes, they're out the door way early because they're the first ones to leave when things get slow. And they'll hold on to like a couple servers or something in case somebody comes in. If they're slammed, they're sometimes the last to leave because they got to make sure everything's washed and cleaned up and everything before they can go home. So, she worked her shift just like everything was normal. No issues were reported at all during her shift. And then, the Black Lantern Inn, it sounds like they fed their staff if you're on shade or whatever. And so, it's pretty common in the restaurant industry, yeah. And apparently, they offered her dinner or whatever. And she said, no, I got to get home because I got to work my other job in the morning. So, she was scheduled to work at KJ's Diner the following morning. She was burning a candle at Wolfson's. Yeah, so she's really busting her butt. It doesn't matter really, but I'm finding myself slightly annoyed that the Black Lantern Inn is red and white. I don't know. I have a little literal feeling sometimes. And I was a little upset to see that there was no lanterns. Why? Well, there might be lanterns. I know. I don't know. My brain does something when you say it. And now that you're showing me pictures, I'm like, that's not what my brain said. Anyway, I get rambling. Give me a minute. Take a breath. I have no idea. But this is old country, too. That's true. That's true. We're in some of the oldest part of the United States. It's still beautiful. It's just all in neon. But I don't know what kind of food they have and all that kind of stuff. But, you know, it was a restaurant bar. But I don't get the impression that it was like a bar where people are going to go party. I mean, Montgomery at this time in 2004. Like a cigar bar type feel? More like a restaurant that has a bar as a part of it. Gotcha. So you're going to have a drink with your meal or something like that. But I don't think that there's people, like, partying it up. It's not really a sports bar kind of place. You know, it's more you sit down, you have a glass of wine or maybe a cocktail or something with your dinner. But I don't know. Bacon, potatoes. Yeah. I don't know what kind of food they serve. I don't know what it feels like. Well, it is New England, so they could have some really killer lobster. But I don't know for sure. That might be something I dive into a little bit deeper for another episode. It's a little bit more about the Black Lantern Inn. But it doesn't factor real heavily into this story with the exception of it's the last place she was seen alive. And it's where, you know, she left from. Where she was told not to go. Allegedly told not to go. Right. Okay. And so just a, you know, a quick rundown of the day so far. That morning, her and Kelly went out to breakfast, whatever, and then she went and took and passed her GED test. And then she spent the whole afternoon with her mom. And so, you know, any insinuation that the family was, you know, struggling or whatever, I mean, that kind of puts it to ease in my mind. I just don't get that impression at all. I think she was a rebellious kid. She was maybe a little more rebellious than some teenagers, but definitely one hell of a lot less rebellious than other teenagers. Yeah. And so, but we do have that weird shopping thing maybe, but it could have been explained, like Bruce said, it could have been explained by her going out and having a cigarette. Or it could have been somebody coming and warning her that something bad was going to happen. Yeah. I don't freaking know what to think about it. But I do know that there's a couple of private investigators that have been working this case for like 18, 19 years now, which is impressive because they're basically doing it on their own dime just out of the goodness of their hearts. And they don't put any stock into that at all. So a lot of people that are close to the case seem to say this just doesn't, it just doesn't matter. It just, either it didn't happen at all or it just wasn't tied to this at all. Right. And so, you know, this started really as a day of triumph for her, you know, getting, I mean, that's a big milestone. That's the same kind of milestone as graduating high school. You know, if you've decided that you're not going to finish high school, then passing that GED and receiving that is huge. Yeah, it feels like I would actually put that it might be even a little more triumphant. Maybe because you're doing it entirely on your own. Yeah, of your own steam. Like the state's not making you do it. Your parents aren't making you do it. Yep, you're doing it to better yourself. Yeah. So it's, in my book, that's a little bit more triumphant. It's pretty huge. It's pretty huge. So she was probably feeling good that night. Yeah. Now, it's important, and we'll wait and we'll talk about that here in a little bit, but, you know, it's a cliffhanger. But, you know, it's important to reiterate that she was involved in the drug scene while, you know, not heavily, like I said, in my opinion, anyway. No, doing rat, just dabbling here and there. Right. But she was an acquaintance, and it sounds like maybe even a little bit more than an acquaintance to a couple of douchebags by the name of Ramone Ryans and Nathaniel Jackson. And Ramone Ryans is the one that she was seen with multiple times, just the two of them. And so that's why I say more than a casual acquaintance because this isn't necessarily people that she's running into at a party. It's just they're there and she's there. Right. Actually, her friend said that the way that she met Ramone Ryans was Brianna brought her over, it was just the two of them, and introduced her to him. Okay. So they at least were hanging out together some, just the two of them, which I think is very important in the story. So these two are the two creeps I told you that came up out of New York, and they come up out of New York, and they were the ones that were major drug dealers in the area. And so, you know, they were pretty freaking popular, it sounded like, especially with the kind of 17, 18-year-old girls in town. They always had money and they never had to work because they were drug dealers. Yeah. And so, and again, this wasn't, from everything that I understand, this wasn't like a situation where you just have a couple of douchebags that are dealing drugs in a small town. It sounds like they were part of something bigger, and it's this kind of drug pipeline that was running up through northern Vermont at that time. So Brianna leaves work at the Black Lantern Inn at 1120, and she was heading to Sheldon because that's where she was staying with her friend. Now I think it's important to note that she had left her friend a note saying that she was headed to work and that she would be home between 11 and 12 or 1130 and 12 or something like that. But she would be home by midnight. And along that route that she would have been traveling is a place called the Dutch Burn House. And so if you know anything at all about this story, then the Dutch Burn House comes up all the freaking time because it's going to be where her car is going to be found. And that discovery is just odd as all hell. So the Dutch Burn property was located at 3451 North Main Street in Enosburg Falls, Vermont, which is right along Route 118. And it was an old two-story farmhouse. Like I said, it was known as the Old Dutch Burn Barn or Old Dutch Burn House. The barn was kind of attached to the house. It's one of the more odd things that I've kind of seen. But, you know, we're talking old, old here. So it was built, I think, like in the early 1900s. There's a couple of guys that owned it. They were actually brothers and they lived there together. It was Mike and Harry Dutch Burn. And so Harry was born in 1909 and Mike was born in 1911. And they were dairy farmers that lived in this house. But at the time, by 2004, it was vacant and it was boarded up. Nobody was living there at the time. And so we don't really know. It's only about a mile from the Black Lantern Inn. So she would have left the Black Lantern and been at this property in about two minutes, probably at the most because it's just down the road. And nobody knows when exactly, but her ex-boyfriend would later tell a myriad of different stories. So it's hard to freaking pin him down on what is the truth and what isn't. But her car was seen. It backed into the Dutch Burn property by around 12 or shortly thereafter, 12. So she left the Black Lantern Inn at 1120 and she's gone by midnight or shortly thereafter with her car left in this weird-ass position, which is backed into this farmhouse. And the boyfriend, ex-boyfriend, boyfriend, whatever, they were exes at the time. But he claimed that when he saw the car, the door was wide open, the lights were on, and the blinker was on. And he shut the lights off, turned the blinker off, and shut the door. And so we don't really know. Why would you do that? Well, so one of his stories was he was drinking. He was drunk. And initially he said that he wasn't there. And then he said, actually, I was there, and I shut the lights off and everything because I was coming back from Canada. And then they checked with the border. Of course, this was back in the days where you could, like, freaking walk across the border. This was not a big deal. Anyway, they were able to confront him and say, you were not in Canada. And he was like, you're right, I was not in Canada. And so his story has changed so many freaking times, it's usually hard to know. I don't think the kid is involved. I think that he was up to some no good that night, whether it be drinking and driving, whether it be drugging, something that made him kind of lie. Now, I don't know that. Who the hell knows? But that's kind of the impression that I get. But it's very odd. This situation is very odd, the way that her car is backed into this place. And the really kind of crazy thing about it is in order for her to have gotten into that position, so she'd have to have driven. She's coming from the Black Lantern Inn. She would have had to have passed the Dutch Burn property because she's heading towards Sheldon. So she would have had to pass it and then back into it. You see what I'm saying? Pass it, turn it in reverse, and back into it? And back into it, yeah. So maybe she saw somebody on the road and backed up into it? I've been racking my brain trying to come up with, you know. How far into the building is she? Well, she's not terribly far into the building. She's far enough, though, that I think that she was stuck. Okay. Because I think that this is a 1985 Oldsville 88. So this is an old 85 rear-wheel drive boat is what this thing is. It has a couch in the front and a couch in the back, typically. That's what those cars, that's what they were known for. Like you literally could lay down and take a nap in the back seat of one of these things. I kind of loved mine. But they were rear-wheel drive. And so from the pictures, you can tell that bumper is up on the foundation. Yeah. And so those tires have no weight on them. And, you know, if you don't understand mechanics or whatever, in rear-wheel drive cars, the engine's in the front and the tires that are pushing are in the rear. Yeah. So now most all cars are front-wheel drive. And so the engine puts weight down on those tires to help it get traction. But in rear-wheel drive cars, there was no weight back there unless you put sand or something in the trunk. And so if there was nothing pushing down on those tires for traction, you just spin and spin and spin all day long. And I did look it up for those My Cousin Vinny fans. The 1985 Oldsmobile did not have positive traction. And so that actually does matter in this case because if it would have had positive traction, if one tire would have had more grip, it would have been able to kind of, you know, direct more power to that tire. But it didn't. It didn't have positive traction. So it just would have stood there as fun. And it was kind of hung up on the foundation anyway. And so we cannot be sure that the boyfriend came along, shut the doors and shit. But there was some other witnesses that had said that they saw it with the lights on and the blinker on. So I tend to think that he's probably telling the truth about that. There's a believable to think that he said he shut the door, the lights and all it just said. That's why my fingerprints are there. And that's that has been brought up multiple times. And yeah, you're right. We just don't know. But I don't think it was necessary because he was her ex-boyfriend. She had lived with her with his grandparents for a time. I said after she moved out, she'd move or she'd live with a couple of ex-boyfriends. Well, this is one of those ex-boyfriends. And so I don't think it would have been necessary to explain his his parents or DNA or anything because he was a boyfriend. Yeah. Even an ex, he could be like, oh, yeah, well, I've been in and out of her car a million times. We were still friends, whatever. So, you know, I don't think it was necessary for him to say that. So and I don't really think that like I said, I really don't think that he was involved. I think that he was a dumbass kid. And this story, unfortunately, has a lot of dumbass kids. And, you know, I would I never like attack victims or anything like that. But, you know, a 17 year old that moves out and all that kind of a dumbass kid thing to do, you know. And so I think we're dealing with a lot of dumbass kids. And we'll be talking about some other stuff that kind of falls in line with that. So we've got kind of a combination of some real shitheads. These drug dealing asshats that come up from freaking New York and start peddling freaking crack cocaine to the youth of northern Vermont. Yeah, these guys are pieces of shit. And then we're dealing with a bunch of kids in small town Vermont that maybe aren't doing the, you know, the smartest things or whatever. But I think that it's really important to note that, you know, there's if you guys, you know, for the listeners, they can't see if you go online. There's several pictures of Brianna's car in this location. And I think it's really important to note, not as actually I should ask, who do you think took these pictures? They don't really look police worthy. That's because they're not. Yeah. So no, the cops did not take any pictures or nothing. They may have taken one. It sounds like maybe they took one picture. This was actually all of the pictures that you see when you look up the Brianna Maitland case were taken by a couple of skiers. They were coming back and were like, holy shit, did you see that? And they stopped and they took pictures. And they said that at the time they saw, you know, evidence laying on the ground. There was a broken necklace by the driver's door. There was a water bottle that was thrown out. And so they're the ones that took these pictures. It was not free. Yeah. Or it did not look like law enforcement pictures. No. So it's. This story is going to piss you off more than the Maura Murray story did. So as it goes, this Buick was titled to Brianna's mom, Kelly. OK. And so she was the registered owner of it. Well, a call comes in. I think it was called in. And an officer of Vermont State Patrol went out there and saw it. And he took the picture of it. And there was two uncashed checks from the Black Lantern Inn in the car. Not for very much money because, like I said, she just started working there. I think one was for like $37. And the other one was, you know, something like that. But two uncashed checks. We've got a broken necklace on the ground. We've got a car that's backed into the side of the building. And so he orders it towed. And apparently he snapped a picture, orders it towed, goes to the Black Lantern. And it was closed. And so he goes on an extended weekend vacation, whatever, and never passes this off to anybody else. And so, as it turns out, the girl, and I'll have all of these names as we dive into this throughout this series, but just running off of memory, the girl that she was staying with actually was going out of town that weekend. And so she found a note that Branna would be back, but she left. And she just kind of assumed that Branna decided to stay with her parents or whatever. I mean, this is kind of the hazard when you're couch surfing is you don't necessarily have somebody that's looking for you every night to be home. And so when she gets back from her trip, from her long weekend trip, then she calls Kelly and is like, is Branna there? And then Kelly, again, that's Branna's mom, is like, no, I thought she was with you. Well, that's when now it's time to raise the alarm. It's time to say, oh, shit, what's going on? And so then Kelly calls Bruce who's on a sales trip up in New York. And he comes racing back home, drives all night to get there. And then they go into the police station. I think now this is on, if I remember right, this is now on Tuesday. They go into the police station to report her missing. They go in and they're like, yeah, we've got our daughter's missing. And they're kind of explaining to the doozer at the front desk, you know, hey, yeah, she drives this green 1985 Oldsmobile. And a cop from the back pipes up and he's like, oh, yeah, hey, come over here. Does it look like this? And shows them a picture of their daughter's car backed into the side of a freaking house. Geez. And they're like, holy shit, yeah. Yeah. And then come to find out the car was towed to a local automotive shop in town. So they go running over there. Bruce actually takes out a crowbar and opens the trunk because the keys were not inside. At one time, apparently the cop said he had the keys but then decided he didn't have the keys. And the keys have never been seen since. I think that's probably, I don't think that's probably true. I don't think the cop ever had the keys. I think the keys are with Brianna wherever she's at. But anyways, the first thing that he thinks is the first thing that every parent thinks in a situation like this. My daughter's in the trunk. And so he goes and takes a crowbar and opens the trunk. And then he ends up going to the Black Lantern Inn. And so they're pissed. They're pissed at the freaking cop. Because he's not handled correctly. He goes to the Black Lantern Inn five days after his daughter's been missing. And he talks to him before the cops ever had gotten there. And so now I challenge you. What do you think that the cops said when they saw this car sitting there? What do you think their excuse was for not getting a hold of anybody? She'd been out partying. Yeah. It was a drunk driver. And we have abandoned vehicles all the time. And so even, I've got to disagree with a few different people here. And even people that are kind of on the maitland side on this. A couple of the private investigators that I was telling you about that say, or at least one of them, Overdecker, says, you know, I kind of agree they get a lot of the abandoned vehicles and stuff like that up there. Okay. That's not an abandoned vehicle. The problem that I have with this is different than what I have in the Maura Murray case. Because if I'm looking at this as a first responder, I am not thinking that this is an accident that's going to cause significant injuries. Backing into this house, I would not be looking for somebody like in Maura's case, where you potentially have a head injury. I'm not saying it's not possible. I'm just saying it's way less likely. In Maura's case, you had a cracked windshield, which in this case, the momentum is going to push you backwards, not forwards. Maybe whiplash. Maybe whiplash. But I don't think you're going to have injury. No, because those seats are tall. Yeah, they are. So my point is I don't necessarily fault them because they could have an injured person. I fault them because this is property damage. A drunk driver, let's assume it was a drunk driver. A driver, if it's abandoned, somebody owns it. Right. If a drunk driver destroyed somebody else's property and you still don't investigate it. You tow it away and let it go. Am I diving too deep asking if anyone identified the necklace they found? It was confirmed to be hers. Okay. And so that's the other big part of this that pisses me off. If you have broken jewelry at the scene in a vehicle back into a building, then that is signs of a struggle. I don't give a shit where you go to cop school. Yeah. That is signs of a struggle. And granted, the boyfriend came along apparently and shut the door so the door wasn't left open. But still, if I come across this, and it's not just me, the skiers, they came across it and it was strange enough for them to stop and take pictures. Who does that? I would, I think. I mean, if you just see like a normal wreck on the side of the road. Oh, no. This one is unusual. This one is very unusual. And then you have to ask yourself, how did he get there? Like, explain to me the dynamics of a crash that is going to end up with the car Backwards. Backwards into this place. Yeah. Because I can't come up with it. And not even very far. No. Like, I expect it to be more if it was, like, if she hit ice and lost control, it to me feels like there should be a little bit more damage. Yeah, and I mean, you've got to keep in mind, too, how this house is facing. It's basically parallel with the road. And so, how do you end up with the ass end of it, regardless of the direction of travel, how would you ever end up like this? And the answer is you can't. It is not physically possible. If it was nose in to the house, that would be a different story entirely. But it's not. It's ass end into the house. So it was obviously in reverse. But we have no clue because this dipshit cop did nothing. We have no clue even if it was in gear or not. Was this car in reverse? Yeah. At the time? Or was it in park? We don't know. Was it in track? We don't know. Right. And so, you know, as we go through this series, we're going to be talking about what situations could have come into play for this car to end up like this. And, you know, I have some theories. Not just me. I'm certainly not coming up with this shit by myself. I mean, there's a lot of theories out there. Did somebody sneak into the back seat when she was at the Black Lantern Inn? Yeah. Urban legend situation. Right. You know, or did somebody run her off the road? But if they did, they almost would have had to run her off the road and pulled in front of her. And then she threw it in reverse to try to get away from them. And she backed into the house and she couldn't get it off of the... Because just looking at this car, and I've blown up on these photos and I'll be posting them and stuff. But it really looks to me like the tires are up off the ground enough. Yeah, they aren't touching anything. It would not have been able to pull off of that concrete. Because this is right above or right below where the bumper would be is where the foundation to this house is. Yeah. And so the car is sitting on concrete. It's not on wood. It's kind of hard to tell. But it is most certainly concrete. And so how it gets there, I don't know. You know, like I said, we have some theories we'll be discussing and everything. But we just don't know. But it's damn sure strange on how it gets there. And I think it was... I really recently think that it's a travesty. What's this deputy or... I'm sorry, it was State Patrol, whatever, State Police, whatever they call it in Vermont. But the fact that there was absolutely zero follow-up at all, I think is beyond irresponsible. And I say that because, like I said, we're not talking about a vehicle that was abandoned on the side of the road. We're talking about an accident where a property was damaged. So the fact that he didn't call the registered owner of that car and be like, hey, what the hell. Well... It's a little crazy that he's going off on a vacation. The fact that he didn't pass that off and say, hey, we've got a follow-up on this. I don't know. It rubs me the wrong way. Very much so. So we also got to talk about the fact that this is not the first crazy thing that's happened at the Dutch Burn property. Really? So on January 31st, 1986, about 2 o'clock in the morning, the brothers were home asleep. And again, it's Mike and Harry. And so at that time, Mike was 75, Harry was 76. So they're asleep in their beds, and they hear somebody pounding on the door. Again, 2 o'clock in the morning, somebody's pounding on the door, hollering, Harry, Harry! Claiming that they were having car trouble, and then apparently they said they had ran out of gas. And so Harry called down and said, I don't have any gas. And then I think Mike headed down to see what the hell was going on. But before he could get to the front door, they kick in the front door and attack Mike. And he claimed, and we don't know for sure, but he claimed that they had brass knuckles. And they beat this poor old man like crazy. And then Harry grabbed a stick that he used to prod cows with and went to defend his brother while they took the stick away from him and beat the piss out of him with the stick. And so the Dutch Burns were known to, and this was not at all unusual for people of their generation, especially people that came through the Depression, had a strong distrust for banks. That's something that still lingers in the elderly community now, because you've got to keep in mind that when the Depression hit, people who had their money in banks lost all of it. So they stashed it in odd places. So they were known to have a lot of money on hand, and it was stolen. And I heard anywhere between $6,000 and $8,000 was stolen from them in cash. And then the home invaders took off, and the old men were taken to the hospital. Harry ended up getting 10 stitches. Both of them had severe facial injuries. I mean, they had the shit kicked out of them, essentially. In their 70s. In their upper 70s, 75 and 76. So we're getting pretty damn close to the G. Terrible. Well, and the sad part of it is, is they were never able to return to their place. I mean, I don't know. I heard it reported a couple different ways. Either they returned for a very short period of time, or they never went back at all, because both of them were put into extended care facilities after this. Whether it was immediately after or a little while after, it seems pretty obvious that this was the reason that they were put into extended care facilities. But a kind of a unique aspect of this crime is we're talking about a couple of dairy farmers. And so what does a dairy farm have a lot of other than cows? Milk buckets. And cow shit. Oh, yeah. So the cops kind of put the word out that said, hey, you know, keep an eye out for cash that smells like a barn. Well, it turns out Champlain Chevrolet in Enosburg, a couple of these bright bastards went in right after the crime to pay cash for a brand new car. And the cash smelled like cow shit. Nice. So obviously Champlain Chevrolet calls up the cops, and they come and they arrest Darryl Clark, who was 37 at the time, and Louis Gilbeau, who was 31. And this is the jacked-up part. And, you know, listening to especially the private investigators on Brianna's case, I think what an overrecker say, like, you have to drive a pickaxe into the head of the governor to get any kind of prison time in this state. They don't. They just don't penalize crime. And so Darryl gets sentenced to five to ten years. He's out in five. Louis is sentenced to eight to ten, but he's out in five. So he has all but five suspended. That's how it works. So he was sentenced to eight to ten years, but they suspended all of it in but five years. So both of them do five years for what is a violent home invasion assault on two elderly guys. It could have been attempted murder. Oh, absolutely it could have been considered attempted murder and robbed them of a substantial amount of money. And so I think it's – What's that, $5,000 grand or something? I don't know in Vermont. I have no clue. Oh, okay. But yeah, I mean, it's – Regardless, the felonies are stacking up here. Yeah, but five years is nothing. I know. I mean, nothing. People get five years for all kinds of nonviolent crime. I know. This was a very violent crime. So one thing, one good thing, I would say, is Gilboa's dead. He died in 2011. I mean, any piece of shit that would beat an old man is a piece of shit. I don't care less whether they're alive or dead. Exactly. These two men are absolutely defenseless at almost 80 years old. Yeah. You know? And so – That's ridiculous. And who are they hurting? Absolutely no one. Yeah, they weren't hurting anybody. They were just a couple of old farmers. I mean, I've known a million of these guys in my life. And, you know, it was pretty common. I know it sounds kind of odd now, but in their age group, it was very common for siblings to not marry and to – Just stay on the farm. Stay on the farm. And I know of several old ranchers that either lived with, like, brother, sister, or brother, brother, and they never married. They stayed single forever, and they just stayed on the farm. You know? So it was very common. Or with their parents, and it doesn't leave because by the time you would leave, the parents needed you. Right. Or it passed, and so – You just inherited it. Did they all reach him, or – Not that I know of. I think they were kind of the last of the line. Aw. You know? And so – There were more. Yeah. So Mike ended up dying in 91, and then his brother Harry died in 1999, and both of them died in, like, care facilities. Yeah. Sad. So, you know, I don't bring that up because it has anything whatsoever to do with the case, but I do think it's kind of important to understand why this house was vacant and why it was just boarded up and left like it was because it is unusual. And it is literally right on the road. I mean, it is right on the damn road. I don't understand why the state hadn't auctioned it off and it was inhabited by another family by then. Well, I don't know that they didn't still own it. I'm sure the brothers still owned it. I don't think the state – Oh, so this house – Oh, yeah. This happened while they were still alive. They were just – No, no. They were dead by this point. Oh. But anyway, this is the Dutch Burn House now. So in 2016, some kids burned it to the ground, and so it is completely gone at this point. But I see what you're saying. I don't know who owned the property because it wasn't just this house. It was a huge farm. Yeah. This house kind of sat right on the edge of a huge field, and so I'm sure that it went to some next of kin or something. Who that was, I don't know. I don't know if they had any siblings. I don't really know a lot about the Dutch Burn family other than the two brothers that worked the farm and then the terrible thing that happened to them. Yeah. So – and then just one more thing that I want to talk about tonight, and then as we jump into this, we'll do kind of like we did with Maura Murray. We'll dive into each component of this, but tonight is just kind of an overview of this entire case and setting the scene a little bit with what we're dealing with. Do you have any questions or anything to this point? No, I better ask you. Is there anything I haven't covered that you think the listeners are going to hear? I think I've been asking anything that comes to mind. So you called it. You told me I would. I did. So it's really important to note that because this is going to come up as a possible theory for what happened to Brianna, and that is at the end of February – so keep in mind we're March 19th right now. So towards the end of – on the night that she disappeared, it's March 19th. Towards the end of February, her friend, a girl by the name of Keely LaCrosse, had left town. Apparently, Brianna slept with or, quote, unquote, spent time with Keely's boyfriend. And so I kind of understood that as they hooked up. But I can't say that for sure. But whatever spent time with means to 17-year-olds. Well, Keely was pissed, and I can't say that I really blame her. And Brianna knew that she'd screwed up. So pretty much at this period of time, Brianna's entire friend group, which was, again, the kind of more rough for not the best bunch of friends, but her friend group was pissed off at her because of this incident with Keely. And so on February 27th, they ended up at a party together. Well, Keely kept trying to get Brianna to fight her, just wanted to fight her over this boy situation. Well, Brianna didn't want to fight her, so she went out and sat in the truck. Well, Keely and another girl ended up coming out and getting Brianna to roll down the window, and then Keely punched her in the face. And when she did, it broke her nose. Oh, my. And, I mean, she and Brianna absolutely refused to fight back. Now, keep in mind, this girl had been in jujitsu, and so she could definitely defend herself. And when Kelly, her mom, asked her why she didn't defend herself, she said that she didn't want any of them to be mad at her. So it's been explained that Brianna had kind of a low self-esteem and was always afraid of, like, making her friends mad at her or anything like that. And so she seems like she was a little bit kind of a meek kind of kid. She could defend herself, but she just didn't want any more out of this mess. But I bring it up for a couple of reasons. One, because it is claimed that Keely killed her, and one of Brianna's other friends shortly after this saw Keely, because Brianna's friend picked her up, and they couldn't get her nose to stop bleeding because it was broken. And so they took her, and she was taken to the hospital, and she was put in the hospital, and then her friend talked her into pressing charges, which she did. And so then the friend saw Keely after Brianna's disappearance and said, you know, what's happening with the case? And she kind of, you know, scoffed and said, well, there ain't no case now because she's gone, which definitely draws some attention to her. Yeah. My own personal feelings on that, for reasons that will become clear throughout this series, is I don't think this kid had anything to do with it. I think this was a fight like, I mean, I don't know how it is nowadays, but when I was a kid, this kind of shit went on. Cat fight. All the time. Well, between guys and girls. Yeah. I mean, it just was not that unheard of. And, yeah, Brianna did press charges on her. Kind of the sense that I got from hearing several people talk is there was no way Brianna was going to go through with pressing charges. She was probably going to drop them. I don't think that, you know, a simple assault charge is worth killing somebody over. No. And I don't, I mean, this Keely's not like a great person. She ended up getting in trouble for getting in another fight and biting some lady's leg or some shit. I don't know. So, I mean, she's a little bit of a troublemaker, but it just, it just doesn't seem to fit that she's going to kill somebody over this. And that entire friend group, they have, you know, they have said, yeah, we were pissed at her. You know, it was a shitty thing she did. I think she knew it was a shitty thing. I think she regretted doing it. And so the claim is that she, one of the theories that we'll be covering is that she went to a party and overdosed that night and they disposed of the body, which seems to be a very common theory in these missing persons cases. And so she apparently left the Black Lantern in 1120, ran as fast as she could go to a party, ran through the door and shot up all kinds of shit, because I think you'd have to shoot it up in order to OD that fast. Yeah. OD'd in time. And then whoever was at the party decided we're going to dispose of the body and we're going to go wreck the car into the Dutch burn property quick, bitch of shit. We got to go because between 1120 and like midnight, all of this shit would have had to have happened because like I said, the car was seen at midnight or just shortly thereafter. Yeah. So they literally have like 40 minutes for her to get to a party, overdose, make the decision to dispose of the body and get the car out there and wreck it in one of the most obvious places in the history of the world. In the oddest way. Why wouldn't she do that? Pull it behind the building. At least you couldn't see it as easily on the road. I mean, this is one of the most conspicuous places this car could possibly be put. So the idea that it was put there on purpose for something, I have a really hard time believing that. And then the second big issue that I have with that is Brianna was on the couch with like this entire friend group. And so she was really kind of weighing low. And I mean, I can remember back in those days when I was, you know, my teens or whatever, and you know, you'd have, you'd, I don't know, something stupid had happened or whatever. And, you know, several people are mad at you and you just like lay low for a few days and maybe you don't go out. You just stay home for a weekend or something like that. And then shit kind of blows over. So the idea that she's going out partying with these people, it just doesn't fit that the timeline, the fact that she needed to be at work the next morning. And so, you know, she was headed home to get to bed. So she might get to work. None of it fits. I think that's an absolutely ludicrous story, but it's worth mentioning because it's part of the story. It is brought up as, you know, but it seems like I can't tell you how many of these missing person cases that I research where they say they overdosed and they decided to hide the body. It's like every woman that goes missing overdosed and they decide to hide the body. So March 19th, 2004, biting cold grips, the rural stretches of Montgomery, Vermont, where the night hides secrets in its shadows. At the heart of our story is Brianna Maitland, a 17 year old born October 8th, 1986 in Burlington, a city that feels a world away from the quiet fields of Franklin County. Brianna was no ordinary teenager. She was a force shaped by a life that demanded resilience raised on her family's 100 acre farm. She grew up mucking stalls, feeding livestock and hauling hay under the wide Vermont sky. That farm life forged her independence, a toughness that carried her through challenges most kids her age couldn't even fathom. Brianna found strength in jujitsu, training at a St. Albans dojo from the age of 12. She practiced grappling and submissions, earning a junior belt and a confidence that matched her five foot three frame. School though, was a different story. Mississippi Valley Union High didn't suit her restless spirit. She clashed with rules, felt caged, and at 16, she walked away, dropping out to carve her own path. Living with friends, couch surfing in Sheldon Springs, she chased her GED with a determination that spoke to her dreams of something bigger, a stable job, maybe college, a way out of the chaos. That day, March 19th was a high point. Brianna drove 40 miles to Burlington, sat for her GED exam, and passed. A hard won victory after months of balancing study with work and an unstable life. She met her mother Kelly for lunch, their smiles bright with pride. They shopped at a Burlington mall, a rare mother-daughter moment, though Brianna seemed distracted, stepping outside briefly, returning maybe shaken. Some whisper she was warned not to go to work that night, but we don't know for sure. What we do know is that she headed to the Black Lantern Inn, a rustic spot in Montgomery where she worked as a dishwasher and a part-time waitress. From 3.30 PM to 11.20 PM, she scrubbed plates, chatted with coworkers, and gave no hint of trouble. At 11.20, Brianna climbed into her green 1985 Oldsmobile Delta 88 and drove into the darkness of Route 118. That's the last anyone saw her. The next morning, March 20th, her car was found a mile away, backed into an abandoned farmhouse, the old Dutchburn Barn, a weathered relic on a tricky curve. The rear bumper was lodged into the barn's foundation, a piece of plywood from a broken window draped over the trunk. Inside, she left behind two uncashed paychecks, her migraine medicine, which she needed, contact lenses for her vision, loose change scattered on the seat, and a half-drunk water bottle. Outside, a broken necklace, hers, lay with more change and an unsmoked cigarette. No blood, no torn clothes, no signs of a fight, but no keys either. And the doors were unlocked as if she stepped out and just never came back. The police didn't realize it was Brianna's car at first. The trooper had it towed, thinking it was a drunk driver's mistake, and no crime scene photos were taken, a misstep that haunts the case. It wasn't until days later when Kelly saw a photo of the car that the truth hit. Her daughter was gone, and that barn held secrets no one could yet unravel. This is then the introduction to the Brianna Maitland story, a girl who fought for her future, who vanished on a night that should have been a triumph, and whose mystery has gripped Vermont for 21 years. We're going to dig into every detail, every lead, and every question, starting here, at the edge of that cold, dark road. So before we close this out, Angela, what are your thoughts? What are you thinking about all this? Because you haven't really dug into this case too much, right? No. I need more. Oh, yeah, I'm nervous. It's awful. It's horrible. But are you leaning one direction or the other? I've been in several directions. Like, somebody took her. She ran away. Like, the same thing with Laura. I mean, all of those directions come out immediately, and it's wiping them away that we need to do. Now, I will tell you that there is a little break in the case. Yeah? Since when? About two weeks ago. Really? Yeah. Okay. That was a little loud. I'm sorry. So do you remember Tim and Lance from the Missing Maura Murray podcast? Exactly, yes. We talked about them, and I gave them kudos because they do a really damn good job, and I have a lot of respect for them and the work they do. Well, they actually broke with the two private detectives that have been working with the Maitlands. And, you know, full disclosure, this is their breaking news, because I'm not stealing their thunder. So if you want to hear this in detail and see the interviews and everything, I encourage you to go over to the Missing podcast. So they have the Missing Maura Murray podcast. That's kind of where they got their start. Now they have the Missing Grant of Maitland, and they have Missing, they're kind of like us. They have several different things going on. They have a John whose brain doesn't stop. Yeah. But, I mean, they're, like, full-time at this all the time, and they've been very, they both sit on the board of private investigators for the Missing, the nonprofit that Bruce Maitland set up. Both Tim and Lance are on the board of that, so they're very heavily involved in this case. They know these guys really well. And so both private investigators came on their show, just like I said a couple weeks ago, and said that a couple of new witnesses have come forward and said that they were driving past that night and saw a man walking around the front of that car, and they turned around to, like, see if they needed help or anything, and the guy thought they were going to pull up and his girlfriend or fiancé or whatever was going to be on the same side as the guy. He didn't want to do that, so they, like, turned back around. And this Honda, a gray Honda, like, flew past them and picked this guy up and took off and almost hit him. And so I don't know. It sounds like it could potentially be a pretty big lead in the case. So I don't add anything further than that. The entire thing, like I said, is on the Missing podcast. I encourage you to check it out because they have both the detectives on there and everything. So I don't know. Hopefully more of that unfolds as we're unfolding this. But, yeah, we could see some traction in this case. You know, I mean, it would be really interesting to know if Douchebag 1 or Douchebag 2 happened to drive a gray Honda during that period of time because my suspicion is they're involved in this shit. I will tell you that Douchebag 1, who is... Oh, what the hell is his name? Ramone Ryan, was later involved in another murder situation, which I haven't dug all the way to the bottom of yet. But anyway, this woman killed this other woman, I believe, and said that she had information on Brianna's murder. And it sounds like she told multiple stories and was just trying to get out of trouble. I don't think there was any truth to it. The poor Maitland had to deal with rumor after rumor after rumor, and her rumor was particularly gruesome, saying that they killed her, took her to a farm, cut her up using a table saw, and fed her to the pigs. And so, but like I said, she told multiple stories. I think she was just trying to play it chip to get out of jail. But, you know, we'll be talking about all that. But I do think, you know, where I'm at right now, I really believe that they are the ones that we need to be looking at very seriously. I'm sure that we will. Oh, we will be, yes. We'll be diving into all the different theories. Now, this one is definitely different than Morris. There's a lot of similarities, and we can't discount the fact that they could be linked. It's been talked about. I don't think it's very likely. Okay. Like I said before, I guess if there was a serial killer that ran women off the road and kidnapped them somehow, I don't know. But the Breanna Maitland case just does not strike me as a stranger abduction. I really think it was somebody that she knew. I really, really think that it was somebody that she knew, which is kind of where I settled with the more murder, frankly. But, you know, I mean, she was involved with some pretty shady characters. And, you know, there's been rumors that she had this big drug debt, and they killed her for that. You know, and we'll be digging into it. But the fact of the matter is, number one, drug dealers just don't kill people for drug debts all that often. They want their debt paid. You can't pay it if you're dead. Yeah, exactly. And number two, if they do, it's usually like a statement piece. You don't just disappear. Like, they just drive by and freaking fill you full of holes so that everybody knows. Yeah, they're saying something with it. Yeah, you don't just disappear. And then you've got to add on top of that, she wasn't out of Mom and Dad's house very long. And she was only 17. How much drug debt can you really rack up when you're going to school, getting your GED, and just 17? You see what I'm saying? Not enough to die over. I mean, we're not talking. I don't care what anybody says. We definitely are not talking about a crackhead that is just doing, like, a $1,500 a day habit type thing. She's functioning. She's working two jobs. She's going to school. She passed her GED. From everything I understand, she, like, sailed through it like it was the easiest pipe. And, you know, she was a really smart kid. I mean, you know, they said that she would read. She just consumed books like crazy. But, you know, I mean, she read all different kinds of authors. But a couple of them that they noted was Homer and Plato, I think. Goodness. We're not just talking about somebody that's reading, you know. Random stuff. Whatever. She was a smart girl. And so. What are you trying to say? I'm just kidding. I was trying to say she was a smart girl. But I'm kidding. But it's not somebody that's going to rack up enough drug debt to make it worth somebody killing her over. Exactly. But now, when you run with drug dealers, there's a chance that you might see something that you weren't supposed to see. Definitely. And I think that there might be a component of that in this case. So. Privy to knowledge you should not be privy to. And, you know, I realize that tonight was kind of a skim over of the case. We're just kind of really setting the scene of introducing. Just letting the whistle, per se. Exactly. Introducing everybody to Brianna. You know, who she was. And, you know, kind of just the basic back story of what happened. And then we're going to start digging into all of everything that there is in this case. But, you know, it is important to note that this is literally just over a month after Maura. And about 100 miles away. It is creepy and weird. The similarities between these two stories. And the distance is not great at all. I mean, we're talking, I think it's like 90 some miles. It's not outlandish that people put it together. Well, not only that, but I do want to remind you, Maura had directions to Burlington, Vermont. And that's, you know, it's at least assumed that that's where she was headed. Right. So, the stories do definitely intersect. It's not just crazy talk where people have put them together. Right. But we'll be digging into all of that. But I just wanted to kind of introduce this case and tell everybody what we're going to be diving into over the next few episodes. So, as the cold Vermont night closes in on Brianna Maitland's story, her spirit calls us to keep searching. A 17-year-old with dreams of a brighter future vanished on March 19, 2004, leaving behind a car, a mystery, and a family aching for answers. A dark dialogue, Vermont's vanished. We're not just telling her story. We're fighting for truth. Brianna's resilience, her jujitsu grit, her hard-won GED. They demand justice. Angela, how can our listeners step up? Well, your support fuels our pursuit. So, you can join our Patreon at patreon.com forward slash dark dialogue for exclusive content and case updates. You can make a one-time contribution by visiting ko-fi.com forward slash dark dialogue to keep us going. For deep dives into Brianna's case and others, subscribe to our Substack at darkdialogue.substack.com. Every dollar and every subscriber helps us uncover the truth. We need your voice, too. Brianna's case will be open in our Adopt a Victim program, and I'll let you champion her case or one of the many others that we feature there. Researching leads or spreading awareness, or join the Dark Dialogue Collective to connect with others dedicated to on-the-ground searches to solve mysteries like hers. Have thoughts, questions, kudos, or critiques, or case suggestions, email us at info at darkdialogue.com. Your input shapes this journey. Most urgently, if you know anything about Brianna Maitland, her last months at the Black Lantern Inn, the Old Dutch Fern Barn, or what happened after 1120 p.m. that night, please speak up. Contact the Vermont State Police at 802-524-5993 or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI. Tips can be anonymous, and if you're hesitant, reach out to us at info at darkdialogue.com, and we'll guide your information into the right hands. No questions asked. A $40,000 reward awaits answers leading to Brianna. For 21 years, Bruce and Kelly Maitland have carried the weight of not knowing. One detail, your detail, could bring them peace. Brianna's laughter, her determination, her fight for a better life, they live on in our refusal to let her case fade. That car, those paychecks, that broken necklace, they're clues, not closure. Together, we can honor Brianna. Support us, join us, share what you know. Let's keep her name alive and bring her home. In the dark hills of Vermont, we chase justice for those who can't. Make the guilty face the reckoning and keep the dialogue alive. For more information, visit www.darkdialogue.com