The internet has brought about a major industry of aspiring detectives hoping to solve cold cases and puzzling disappearances.
Such has been the case with the disappearance of Brianna Maitland — a young woman who vanished two decades ago.
Twenty years ago, Brianna Maitland vanished from her Vermont workplace. On Tuesday, the FBI announced a reward of $40,000 to help solve the mystery surrounding the teenager's disappearance.
"Someone out there may have information that can help solve this case," said special agent Craig Tremaroli, who is in charge of the FBI's field office in Albany. "It's been too long, and it's time to come forward. No tip is too small."
Maitland's disappearance is baffling. In March 2004 she left her job at a local inn in Montgomery, Vermont. She was last seen leaving the job a little before midnight. The following day her vehicle, an Oldsmobile, was found backed into the side of an abandoned home ("the old Dutchburn House"). Maitland was nowhere to be found.
Local police assumed the car was the result of a drunk driving incident; Maitland herself was not reported missing for days. When her parents began following up with law enforcement, the state police showed them a photo of Maitland's car. They confirmed it was hers.
Maitland's mother described her immediate negative reaction to the photo, as if her parental intuition was going off:
Kellie said in interviews that she was "instinctively revulsed" by the photo, and believed someone else, not Maitland, had left the car in such a way
A few witnesses came forward to say they had seen the car on the night of the accident, though none of them saw Maitland herself. Police initially suspected she might be a runaway, though they eventually abandoned that theory.
The young woman, who would now be about 35 years old, has not been seen since. Among the most promising leads in the case is that she may have been the victim of a drug dealer relationship gone awry:
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, 10 miles (16 km) from Montgomery. The rented house, then occupied by Ramon L. Ryans and Nathaniel Charles Jackson, two known drug dealers from New York, was raided by police on April 15, 2004. Various drug paraphernalia was discovered inside, as well as substantial amounts of cocaine and marijuana, but no sign of Maitland was found. Ryans was arrested during the raid on drug charges. Upon interviewing Maitland's close friends, law enforcement was informed that Maitland had allegedly experimented with hard drugs in the recent past, specifically crack cocaine, and was an acquaintance of Ryans and Jackson.
An anonymous affidavit subsequently claimed that the two dealers had killed Maitland in an argument over money and eventually fed her remains to pigs. No evidence has ever been substantiated to support those claims, though no other compelling theories have ever been put forward.
The Albany FBI, meanwhile, is actively soliciting tips that may lead to her discovery:
Renewed interest in Maitland's case comes as investigators continue to search for Maura Murray, another young woman who disappeared in similarly bizarre circumstances just a month before Maitland and less than 100 miles away:
Let's hope someone comes forward and these cases get solved.
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