Disappearance of Brianna Maitland

Maitland then departed for the Black Lantern Inn in a 1985 Oldsmobile sedan registered to Kellie.

After completing her shift at work, Maitland clocked out and left the Black Lantern Inn at approximately 11:20p.m. She told her co-workers she needed to get home and rest before working the next day at her second job in St. Albans.

By all accounts, Maitland was alone in her vehicle when she left.

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.

Brianna Alexandra Maitland (born October 8, 1986; disappeared March 19, 2004) is an American teenager who disappeared after leaving her job at the Black Lantern Inn in Montgomery, Vermont.

She was 17 years old at the time.

Maitland's car was discovered the following day, backed into the side of an abandoned house about a mile (1.6 km) away from her workplace.

She has not been seen or heard from since.

Due to a confluence of circumstances, several days passed before Maitland's friends and family reported her missing.

In the days and weeks following her disappearance, numerous tips were investigated by state law enforcement, including a claim that Maitland was being held captive in a house occupied by local drug dealers of whom she was an acquaintance; however, none of the tips resulted in her discovery.

Brianna Maitland was born October 8, 1986, in Burlington, Vermont, to Bruce and Kellie Maitland (née Fisher).

She was raised with her older brother on their parents' farm in East Franklin, Vermont, near the Canadian border.

In her youth, she was extensively trained in jiu-jitsu.

Maitland attended Missisquoi Valley Union High School before transferring to Enosburg Falls High School in nearby Enosburg Falls, during her sophomore year.

On Maitland's 17th birthday in October 2003, she decided she wanted to move away from her parents' farm.

Her mother, Kellie, said there were no serious stresses at home, but that Maitland wanted more independence, and to be closer to a group of friends who lived 15 mi away and attended a different high school.

Maitland enrolled at her friends' high school, but her living arrangements were unstable, as she moved in and out of several friends' homes.

By the end of February 2004, she dropped out of high school and moved in with her childhood friend, Jillian Stout, in Sheldon, Vermont, approximately 20 mi west of Montgomery.

To complete her education, Maitland enrolled in a GED program.

Three weeks prior to her disappearance, Maitland was physically attacked at a party by a female former friend, Keallie Lacross.

The motive for the attack was unclear, though Brianna's father, Bruce, later stated he believed it stemmed from jealousy over Maitland's interaction with a male peer at the party.

One of Maitland's friends at the party claimed that Maitland, despite her martial arts training, refused to fight with Lacross, who subsequently hit her in the face several times while Maitland was seated in a truck.

The altercation resulted in Maitland's suffering a broken nose and concussion; she later filed charges against Lacross.

The complaint was subsequently dropped three weeks after Maitland disappeared, and police stated that Lacross was cleared of any involvement in her disappearance.

On the morning of Friday, March 19, 2004, Maitland took an exam to receive her GED.

After completing the test, she and her mother, Kellie, had lunch to celebrate the occasion; her father, Bruce, was out of state working in New York at the time.

Her mother described her as being in good spirits, and that Maitland had discussed plans of attending college.

After lunch, Maitland and her mother spent the afternoon shopping and running errands.

While waiting in the check-out line of a store, Kellie said something outside caught Brianna's attention; she told her mother she would return shortly, and left the store.

Kellie completed her purchase and met Brianna in the parking lot, and noticed that her daughter seemed unnerved, shaken, and agitated.

She told her mother that she needed to go home and prepare for her upcoming work shift at the Black Lantern Inn, a restaurant in Montgomery.

Not wanting to pry, Kellie did not ask what had happened, and dropped Brianna off at Stout's home between 3:30 and 4:00pm.

This was the last time she saw her daughter.

At some point before leaving for her work shift, Maitland left a note for Stout saying she would return after work that evening.

An alleged 2006 sighting of Maitland at a casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, brought renewed interest to the case, but the woman seen was never properly identified.

In 2012, law enforcement investigated a possible connection between Maitland's disappearance and serial killer Israel Keyes, who committed numerous rapes and murders in Vermont, New York, and throughout the Pacific Northwest, but he was ultimately ruled out as a suspect by the FBI.

Maitland's case was profiled across various local media, on Dateline NBC, and the documentary series Disappeared.

In 2017, the case was discussed in the documentary series on missing college student Maura Murray, who vanished a month prior to Maitland in Woodsville, New Hampshire.

Maitland's disappearance remains unsolved.