Going West: True Crime - Brianna Maitland // 38

Episode Date: September 9, 2019

One night in March 2004, a 17-year-old girl goes missing after leaving her restaurant job. The following day, her car is found crashed into an abandoned barn but she is nowhere to be found. This is the disappearance of Brianna Maitland. Private Investigations of the Missing Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Heath and I'm your other host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. Before we get into our introductions today, I want to give a huge shout out to one of our biggest fans, my mom. It's her birthday, and I just wanted to say thank you for listening to our episodes. We love you and happy birthday. Love you so much Mama Bee, happy birthday. Today we have a very tragic story to tell, and we also got a chance to interview someone very close to the case. But before we get into this episode, as always, we want got a chance to interview someone very close to the case but before we get into this episode as always we want to give thanks to everyone who gave us some five star reviews on Apple Podcasts so thank you so much to Jessica from Old Town Maine and Ebi from Liberty Hill Texas and a big thanks to

Julie from Washington and Brittany from South Carolina thank you to Deanna from Torell Texas and Belinda from Melbourne, Australia. And then we have Alexandra from Scotland and Sarah from the UK. Thank you so much to Charlotte from Hampshire and Jess. We're not sure where you're from but I hope you had a good move. And of course we have to give thanks to the lovely patrons who subscribe this week on Patreon. Thank you to Kimberly, Mary, Ashley, Tristan, Allie, Sarah, and Mary. And if you guys aren't a part of the Going West gang, head over to patreon.com slash Going

West podcast. We release bonus episodes every month and it's a really great way for you to show your support for the show. Alright everybody, this is episode 38 of Going West, so let's get into it. A 17-year-old went missing from her hometown. The disappearance of Brianna-Mateland has haunted her family, police, and the Montgomery community ever since. Brianna-Mateland drove home from work at the Black Lantern Hidden Montgomery. Her car only made it about a mile down the road, and she hasn't been seen since. They need to find a body, they need to have someone admit to doing whatever they did. We deserve a funeral, everyone that loves her deserves that. [♪ Music playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, playing in background, 1986 in Burlington, Vermont to her parents Bruce and Kelly

Maitland. She was the second and last child after her older brother Wailin and they were both raised on the family's farm in Franklin, Vermont. Growing up, Brianna was known to be an exceptionally wonderful and down-to-earth girl. She was gorgeous, creative, considerate and very independent. She loved her friends and kept them close and was always very social. She was also incredibly adventurous, she loved being outside as much as she loved sitting inside with a book. She was very smart and loved learning new things. One of her high school teachers even stated that she had a real thirst for knowledge.

While Brianna was in high school and more specifically on her 17th birthday in October of 2003, she felt like she was ready to move out of her parents' house. She was looking to have more independence and to be closer to her friends. She had just switched high schools from the year before, and although she got along with her family, she wanted to be with her friends. She started couch surfing at different people's houses, but they were all pretty temporary. In February 2004, Brianna dropped out of high school and got an apartment with her longtime friend, Jillian Stout. They moved to Sheldon, Vermont, which is about 20 miles or 32 kilometers

west of her job at the Black Lantern Inn in Montgomery, Vermont, and about 10 miles south of her family's home in Franklin. So she didn't move very far away from home at all. Aside from working as a dishwasher at the black lantern in, she also had a second job as a server. But she wasn't completely done with school, she actually enrolled in a GED program to finish her education. So she was working really hard to be financially stable all on her own while finishing up her schooling. Soon after she moved on February 27th, 2004, Brianna went to a party with some of her friends. After some time, Brianna went out to her friend's truck to wait for them so they could leave when a girl named Keely LaCrosse approached and asked her to roll down the window. When Brianna did, Keely punched her multiple times in the face.

It's believed that she did this out of jealousy because Brianna had been talking to her boyfriend at the party. And although Brianna was heavily trained in Jiu-Jitsu, she didn't fight back at all. Unfortunately, she was pretty badly injured by this attack and ended up getting a concussion and a broken nose. Brianna decided to press charges against Keely after her mom told her that she should, but unfortunately, something else happened that forced the charges to eventually be dropped. On Friday, March 19, 2004, Brianna finished up her GED test and then, to celebrate, her mom Kelly took her out

for lunch and shopping. According to Kelly, Brianna had been in a good mood all day and even talked to her about potentially beginning college courses part-time later that year. While Brianna and Kelly were shopping, Brianna decided to go outside and told her mom that she would be right back. Kelly was in the checkout line so she continued to pay for her items before she found Brianna outside a Kelly was in the checkout line so she continued to pay for her items before she found Brianna outside a few minutes later. And apparently Brianna was all shaken up and upset. But her mom didn't wanna ask what was wrong

in case Brianna wanted to keep it private. Then Brianna told her that she had to go home so she could get ready for her dishwashing shift at the restaurant in the Black Lantern in that night. And this was only her second weekend working at this job. So Kelly drove back to her apartment and shelled in around 3.30 pm. There's a lot of speculation revolving around what could have happened in the parking lot to make Brianna upset or if something even happened at all. And I did get a chance to talk to her dad Bruce and that interview is a little bit later in the episode and he kind of explains

his thoughts on that. So like we mentioned before Brianna lived with her childhood friend Jillian Stout. So before Brianna went to work she left Jillian a note explaining that she was going to be at work that night but she would be home right afterwards. Brianna clocked out of work at 11.20pm and a few of her co-workers asked her if she wanted to join them for dinner, but she told them that she was really tired and didn't want to stay out late because she had to work early the next morning at her second job. Brianna left the restaurant and was seen walking to her car, which was a 1985 Oldsmobile and drove out of the parking lot.

Co-workers say that she appeared to be alone as she drove off. So remember, this is 2004, so her car was about 30 years old and this was her first car. The following day, March 20, 2004, police were sent to an abandoned house after several people had reported seeing a car back into the side of it. For anyone who has not seen this photo,

you should definitely pause and check it out on our Instagram at Going West Podcast, unless you're driving. Don't do that. It's basically an old farmhouse called the Old Dutch Burn House that is sad on a plot of land just feet away from the road. So, as people passed it throughout the night in the early morning, I'd assume it was a very strange sight to see. When police got to the scene, they noticed that it was a 1985 olds-mobile, but there was no one inside. Two of Brianna's paychecks were sitting on the front seat of the car, and inside, there was also migraine medication, makeup, contact lenses, and Brianna's driver's license. Although there was a lot of stuff in the car, there was also items strewn outside of it.

There was a woman's fleece jacket that turned out to be not owned by Brianna. There was also loose change, an unsmoked cigarette, and a bottle of water outside of the car. Unfortunately, the officer that had reported to the scene had assumed that a drunk driver had crashed into the house and a band in the scene, so he called the tow truck to have the car removed. So, Brianna's car was originally spotted around midnight and the first person to report it said that the headlights were on and shining into oncoming traffic and both her driver door and passenger doors were all the way open. The second person to call was around 12.30am and they said that the headlights were not on but they thought that the turn signal was on.

Then at 4am, Brianna's ex-boyfriend drove past the old Dutchburn house and recognized the car to look like Brianna's. He even stopped to see if it was hers, but he didn't see her in or near the vehicle, so he got back into his car and left. But before he left, he apparently closed the doors and turned off the headlights. He had been at a party all night just over the Canadian border because Montgomery is extremely close to Canada, and he was driving home when he saw her car. So from all these accounts, we know that her car must have gotten

there very shortly after she left work. Her car was found less than two miles or three kilometers from her work and was on the way to her apartment. So she likely passed this farmhouse every time she went to and from work. Gillian Stout, who remember is Brianna's roommate, saw Brianna's note the night before, stating that she was going to be home right after work. She didn't think much of it because she had plans to go to town to visit her boyfriend for the weekend,

so she wouldn't have seen Brianna when she got home anyway. But on Monday, March 25th, so about three days later, Gillian came home and noticed that the note was still there. She originally thought that maybe Brianna had gone to her parents' house, but still felt a little weird about the whole thing, because to her, it didn't look like anyone had been in the apartment all weekend. So Jillian called Brianna's parents to see if they had seen her, but they hadn't. Kelly, Brianna's mom, started calling Brianna's friends to see if anyone knew where she was, but none of them did. She then called into both of Brianna's jobs to see if she had been at work,

but they both said that she hadn't. Then, Kelly called 911 and reported her missing. Bruce, who had left for a business trip just two days earlier, came back early to see if he could help find her. They brought photos of her to the police station and then drove around town to see if they could find her at any of her usual hangout spots. But they didn't have any luck. Kelly and Bruce told the police what kind of car Brianna had so they knew what to look for. And that's when police realized that it was Brianna's car that they towed five days earlier. The frustrating part is that the car had been registered in Kelly's name and the police never even attempted to contact her to inform her that her car had been registered in Kelly's name, and the police never even attempted to contact

her to inform her that her car had been towed. So even if the car hadn't belonged to her missing daughter, she still would have not known what happened to her car, so they definitely dropped the ball there in general. Bruce went over to the garage where Brianna's car had been towed so he could have a look at it. When he peaked inside, he saw all of Brianna's belongings, and many items that she wouldn't go a day without, such as, like we mentioned before, glasses, contacts, medication, her debit card, and her driver's license.

So he immediately knew that something was very wrong. The keys hadn't been in the car when they found it, so the police never opened the trunk. Not like they probably would have anyways though since they didn't realize it belonged to a 17-year-old missing girl. Bruce, who feared the worst, pried the trunk open with a crowbar, but the only contents were some clothes and other miscellaneous items of Brianna's. Days went by and no one had seen or heard from Brianna. On April 3, so about two weeks after Brianna went missing, search parties started searching within a five mile radius of the old Dutch burn house

and over 500 volunteers showed up to look for her. But unfortunately, after two days of searching, no evidence turned up. A few of the people who showed up to help search had actually seen Brianna's car hours before police showed up to tow it. Since police had showed up on Saturday afternoon, there had been many hours of people curiously driving by. So the photos that exist today were thankfully taken by passorbys since police didn't know it was a crime scene when they arrived, they hadn't taken any photos themselves. So this kind of goes to show you, all these people driving by thought this scene was so weird looking but somehow police didn't, but like I said, luckily some people did take

photos. After witnesses showed police the photos they had taken, police became even more suspicious about the whole situation, and they fully believed that foul play was involved in her case. And they also believed that someone had staged that crash. Hey gang, so instead of having ads spots in this episode, we really wanted to focus on private investigations for the missing. And that is a nonprofit organization founded by Bruce Matlin, who is Brianna Matlin's father.

PI for the missing provides investigative services for loved ones of missing people who usually wouldn't have been able to afford it otherwise. So Bruce Matlin obviously has a lot of experience working with private investigators because his own daughter went missing, so coming from his standpoint, he felt very passionate to start this nonprofit organization to help other families just like him. So please donate whatever you can, go to InvestigationsForTheMissing.org. This is an incredible cause and actually for our Patreon we are now going to donate 10% of all of our proceeds

monthly to PI for the missing. So again that's InvestigationsForTheMissing.org. The maintenance release to statement regarding reward money and originally offered $10,000 cash to anyone that could disclose the exact location of their daughter. A year later, they increased the reward money to $20,000. What I would really like to know is if they could tell anything from the damaged barn and the back of Brianna's car. Because usually when you get into an accident, they view the damage on both cars to determine exactly what happened to cause the accident so they can determine fault. So even though the police had Brianna's car towed originally, I wonder if they would

have still been able to tell if Brianna's car was backed into the barn, or let's say she or someone else had swooped into it while they were making a sharp turn, if that makes sense. I almost wonder if they can determine speed as well. Because looking at the images, I cannot think of any scenario that would lead her car to become backed up into the barn and then just not continue to drive forward. Because it wasn't some horrible wreck, there wasn't even really too much damage done

at all to her car, so her car was definitely drivable, but if you look at the photo, you can see that her two front wheels are completely turned to the left, proving that she was potentially trying to do a three point turn to leave but was then for whatever reason stopped. I think it's definitely possible that when she was backing up her car that it could have got stuck inside the barn whether the bumper got hung up on some wood boards or some planks I think that that's definitely an option here. That's actually a really great point and I wish that we knew that I wish that that's definitely an option here. That's actually a really great point, and I wish that we knew that. I wish that the police officer would have reported whether or not the car was hung up and that it wasn't drivable,

because I don't know that they did. They seem to have just kind of written this off as a drunk driver and not really taken that many details from the scene. So as far as I read, I didn't see anything about her car being hung up, but that would make a lot of sense. We also have to consider the fact that it was pretty icy that night, so it's possible with her car being kind of older, I mean, an oldsmobile doesn't have a lot of horsepower, so it's definitely possible that it got hung up and she just couldn't pull out of the barn and pull forward. Yeah, and it looks like her trunk or at least part of her trunk is completely

inside the house and part of her car went into just the side of the building, but then the other part of the trunk went into what looks like was a window because there isn't opening in the wall that she hit. So it definitely, I mean, zooming in to where her back wheel is and the end of her car, it definitely looks like it could be caught on something that would have inhibited her from driving away. Police say that they believe Brianna's car was potentially staged, but I don't see why the perpetrator would back her car into a barn and risk being seen, also because it was right next to the road so it would attract all kinds of attention. Yeah, you think if someone did something to Brianna, they wouldn't purposefully have her car so out in the open,

especially since it was reported very early that her headlights and or turn signal were on, so I mean it was extremely noticeable. There's one theory that when Brianna got into her car at work, there was someone in the back seat and they jumped out and attacked her while she was driving, which then caused her to veer off the road by the farmhouse. But I definitely believe that there would have had to have been someone else at the old barn who had a car because she was taken out of the area and her car was left there, so I personally don't believe that theory. It seems like there would have had to have been another car involved.

When police did search Brianna's car on March 30, so five days after she was reported missing, they took various DNA samples, but unfortunately, the results were never released. So we can assume that there wasn't anything astronomical found, or else it would have led to an arrest. In her car, they didn't notice any signs of struggle at all. Like we said, the passenger seat had her uncashed paychecks, so it doesn't appear that anyone had been sitting there that night. Meaning she was likely alone in her car the whole evening. She did have a box with a half-eaten burrito in it on the front passenger floor, which

also helps us determine that there was likely no one sitting there that night because the box was never stepped on, and it's believed that she had gotten this burrito from work after her shift. She also had a marijuana-leaf car air freshener that said emerald bay on it hanging from her mirror. In the backseat area, there were two red solo cups, a CD player with headphones, an empty beer bottle, and an ice scraper. As we mentioned, there was a plastic water bottle and loose change in the vicinity of her car, but they also found a broken necklace that turned out to belong to Brianna. And on the trunk of her car, there was a lime wedge.

On the driver's side of the car, police also noticed a light-colored spot on the carpet, and so they tested it. It turned out to be vomit. Since days had passed before it was tested, they couldn't tell how old it was, but it's been reported that Kelly said Brianna had been sick around the time she disappeared, and that she'd even gone to the doctor. So some speculate that maybe Brianna was eating the burrito on her way home and then she pulled over to get sick by the old barn And she was met with foul play there It has not been reported that any vomit was found on the ground in the vicinity of her vehicle though

But it's also possible that she had just gotten sick in her car instead of outside if this even occurred that night Another theory is that Brianna was meeting someone at the old Dutchburn house for drugs, and that she was then taken out of the area for various reasons. It was known that Brianna smoked marijuana and had even recently dabbled in cocaine, so some theorized that she was potentially in debt to a drug dealer in the area. However, there was a gravel pullout outside of the farmhouse, so if she was meeting someone there, she probably would have parked there rather than driving into the field where the barn was. But this also doesn't seem like a very good place to meet someone to buy drugs, because it's very much out in the open. The barn sits pretty close to the

road and is surrounded by open fields, so it's not very discreet at all. A couple weeks after Brianna disappeared, the Vermont State Police received a very anonymous tip. The person on the other line told them that Brianna was being held captive in the town of Berkshire, Vermont, which is about 10 miles or 16 kilometers away from the black lantern in. On April 15, the police went to the given address and turned the place upside down. It turns out it was owned by Ramon Ryan's and Nathaniel Jackson, who were two drug dealers

from New York. Inside the house, they found large quantities of cocaine and marijuana, but unfortunately Brianna was nowhere in sight. Apparently Brianna knew both Ramon and Nathaniel, and they admitted to knowing her too, but they said they hadn't seen her since around a week before she went missing. As far as the drug theory goes, and as much as it makes sense in a broad way, I'm not sure it really fits here. Investigators who had worked in many drug cases said that, for someone like Brianna, who, according to friends, had really mostly just been into smoking

weed and drinking alcohol, and had only recently started slightly experimenting in crack cocaine, wouldn't rack up enough of a debt to warrant being murdered. As investigators stated, when drug dealers kill people because they're owed money, first of all, it doesn't happen all too often because if you kill a customer, you're never going to get your money back, and second, they would have it done in a more public way to make a statement and kind of scare off any other customers into paying their own debts if they had any. It's not very likely that they would just make a 17-year-old girl disappear without a trace. I mean, there's definitely some sketchy people involved in like the crack cocaine culture or the drug culture in general so

it's not hard for me to believe that something could have potentially happened to her. She definitely could have got caught up with a wrong crowd. Of course and obviously she could have been taken advantage of because she wasn't very familiar with buying crack cocaine and maybe she was trying to and she was a beautiful young girl so she could have been met with a lot of awful things. So I definitely think that the drug theory makes sense, it's just not my personal number one theory. And the biggest reason for that is because Brianna didn't have a cell phone, so how could

she meet someone at the barn, especially because she was a dishwasher, so she had unpredictable hours. Her note to Jillian suggested that she didn't know when she was getting off work, especially since Brianna had just started this job. She wasn't used to getting off at a specific time, and she didn't even have an end time on her schedule because her release was based off of how busy or slow the restaurant was. So when she clocked out at 11.20pm, that hadn't been pre-planned, and without a cell phone, or a known end time, how would she have arranged to meet someone at the

old Dutchburn house? Towards the end of 2004, an older woman went to police saying that Ramone Ryan's in Nathaniel Jackson murdered Brianna one week after she disappeared. Then she explained that they mutilated her and put her remains on a pig farm somewhere and that the reason for this was directly related to her giving them thousands of dollars to supply her with crack. But apparently, they jipped her and they kept the money without supplying her drugs. Then Brianna confronted them about getting the drugs she was owed and instead of giving them to her, they killed her.

So police couldn't find any evidence that this statement was true, and it doesn't seem that likely to me that a couple young drug dealers would murder a beautiful girl after she asked for the drugs that she was rightfully owed. So again, we don't know how much weight this theory holds, but this is just something that was reported to police. There is, of course, also thoughts that Keely, the girl who hit Brianna at the party, was involved in Brianna's disappearance in order to avoid getting charged with assault. Early on in this investigation, police questioned and cleared Keely of any involvement, but we don't know the exact details of this.

Since Brianna had just started working at the Black Lantern Inn, no one knew she was working there, and after the incident with Keeley, she separated herself from that whole group. So none of them were up to date with what she was up to, meaning Keeley and friends wouldn't have known where she was that night. In 2006, so two years after Brianna's disappearance, a woman who resembled Brianna was seen on security footage sitting at a poker table at Caesar's World Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with an older man. The tape was shown to the maintenance, but none of them were able to tell whether or not it was her. The footage was then

sent in to be enhanced, and the image became a bit clearer, but the family doesn't believe that it was Brianna. In 2016, the old Dutchburn house was destroyed by a fire, but it isn't believed to have any relation to Brianna's case because it supposedly was just some kids causing trouble. Before we get into the interview with Bruce Maitland, I wanted to give my personal theory on this case, so I kind of bounced my theory off of Heath's when he was telling me his earlier, and I think it's a really good theory that I hadn't read online anywhere, but I was thinking about how cold it was that night. I even read somewhere that it had dropped to seven degrees Fahrenheit that night, which is obviously very cold, and so the roads could have been frozen and even when the police found Brianna's car the next day, the ground next to her car was frozen. So you would imagine around 11.30 pm maybe the roads or part of the

roads were frozen or there was at least slick ice on the road. Especially since this was 11.30 at night. So I'm thinking maybe Brianna was driving home from work and her car slipped on some ice, causing it to spin, and then the back of her car hit the barn and got stuck, and then she couldn't drive forward. So she turned on her headlights in order to kind of maybe flag down a passing driver, and then maybe somebody suspicious or sketchy or dangerous picked her up. Because we do know that she once picked up a hitchhiker and I do talk to Bruce about this briefly. So she doesn't seem like the kind of person who is scared of that.

So I don't think that it's out of the question to assume that she would flag down a driver. And I'm completely with you on this theory because I feel like her leaving the headlights on is kind of a sign for us that maybe she was trying to flag down someone that night. Obviously it's really really cold. It's about seven degrees, so she's not just going to sit in her car and wait for someone to stop by. I think that if somebody did pick her up and she was met with foul play, this would be a really easy breeding ground for someone to do that, because, you know, it is a very rural area, so it's not like it's in the middle of the city where somebody's gonna potentially see this happening. It's definitely possible that somebody dangerous could have driven by. Well, her dad said it was a very rural area, so I mean, if somebody did pick her up, there would be no evidence of that, of course, and there's no evidence of anything in this case.

So I think that happening was very, very likely. And the one thing that gets me in this case is the broken necklace of Brianna's that was on the ground. To me, that screams struggle, like there could have potentially been a struggle between Brianna and somebody. But right now, let's get into the interview with Bruce Matlin and hear his opinion and his thoughts on his daughter's case. So my first question to you is how did you feel about Brianna moving out of the house? And how was her relationship with you Kelly and

Wayland when this happened? I guess the expression that could probably, I mean, Brandon was probably 17 going on 25. I raised both my kids to be really independent. So she moved out of the house actually to initially to attend another school, which was next door. And she was stayed with a friend and we weren't happy about that, but she was very independent

and she checked back at home. She was back at home, off and on quite a bit. We weren't crazy about it, but kind of tolerated it. So I know at the time of her disappearance, she had just started working her dish-washing black lantern in and so I wanted to know was there a specific reason that you know of that she got a second job was she just

working part-time at both? Well I mean it's part of it it's part of the thing is I mean we wanted her back home so I wasn't gonna enable her to stay out so she had to work. And plus she was a hard worker. So that was just a natural thing that she was picking up jobs where she could. I read originally that you were in New York when Brianna went missing and you came back as soon as Kelly told you what was going on. But I also read that you and Kelly almost went to the Black Lantern in that Friday night to visit Brianna, but you didn't want to be the kind of parents that showed about your

daughter's work kind of thing. So which is true? Well, I was not, I had traveled for work. I did, I did sales work and I still do. I was not in New York. I was actually in New Hampshire kind of on my way over to Maine. And that was through on the Friday night. We actually went up and had dinner.

At Montgomery is a little ski town, just below Jake Peake. Pretty good restaurants there, actually. So we went up and we had dinner. Just about my or two off the road, and then the way back, we did discuss stopping. But it was like, well, we didn't really want to father her or I don't know, I just kind of thought. And that was my decision.

And actually, that's the one, one of those things that you wish you would have, I wish I would have spacked in retrospect. And yeah, we decided not to stop and we moved on. So that night you were in town, so did you just get back from being out of town or did you leave after that? If that kind of I was in town.

I left first thing Monday morning because that's following that Friday night. Because at that time we didn't know anything was going on. I see. And then you had to come right back like a couple days later once Kelly called you then. Right. Got it. Okay. And then was that area relatively safe? Where Brianna worked and where her car was found? It's a really low crime oil area. So I originally read that the party where Brianna got punched by Keely.

She was with her boyfriend and she had gone out to her boyfriend's truck. But I also read that she was not in a relationship at that time, so could you clear that up? She was not, according to all her friends, she was not dating anyone at that time, but she was missing. No. She had broken up with that boyfriend, probably, probably at least a few months previously. Okay, so nothing suspicious surrounding him at all? Not really.

It was a bizarre situation with him. They were done. I think they were still, you know, reasonably, at least speaking to each other. And he was actually the first, one of the first ones to see the car. I think probably the second one. It just a lot of people kind of time it because of the circumstances all this, they tend to jump to the boyfriend, which maybe statistically that's probably true, but in this case that just wasn't true. You know, they were done, you know, the police, the police

grilled him up and down, very, very, very hard interviews with him. And they were convinced, and we were convinced that really he had nothing to do with it. And people often say, well, how, you know, it's your strange that he was the first one, one of the first ones to see the car. And, but what they don't realize, you know, that's, it's an isolated little ski town in the mountainous area. And really, if you're coming in from a westerly direction, Pennie East, that road where the

car was found, there's really only a way in and out of there. Okay, that's good to know, because I wasn't aware that the ex-boyfriend who saw her car at 4am is the same one that she had just recently been with and that people thought she was at the party with. So that's great to know. And then it's interesting to me that so many people reported seeing her car throughout the night and people took pictures of it but that nobody saw anything happened as it happened because obviously her car got there so it's interesting to me that nobody saw the crash occur and then whatever else did happen to her that nobody witnessed that so is it a very busy road do you know yeah I think that situation were probably after 11 o'clock at night there might be you, I don't know what I'm just speculating, but there might be 10 cars all night long.

Now jumping to the mall situation when Brianna had gone outside and Kelly had then gone out and seen her kind of upset. Do you know if there was surveillance footage outside the mall? No. So do you think that whatever happened outside the mall had anything to do with what happened to Brianna? I don't. No. I think that was just kind of a blow-up kind of a story. And I think that Brianna was anxious and worried about being late, getting back so she could get back to work. I was told Brianna had started smoking, so she didn't smoke around her mother. I just think of something blew up afterwards into something that really nothing. I read about an incident where Brianna picked up a hitchhiker. Do you know if this was true and then when it was?

I'm trying to figure out if she would have done this the night that she went missing or if she would have gotten into somebody's car. Uh, that was true. Yep. And that happened probably. I'm not sure at the time, but it was quite some time before she was still living at home. I would have guessed that might have been six months or a little bit longer before she went missing. Come home for work and here's this guy there and you know, my life's the time you know they're they're feeding me and oh well we you know it's picking up. So did they pick him up together or was it just Brianna? Brianna picked him up. Was he like older or younger? I would say you know maybe early 20s.

So do you think something like that could have happened the night she went missing? Well I don't think it's very likely that that happened that late at night. For once, it's something that happened to Brianna. I mean, there, you know, what would the hitchhiker do? There's no, because the car is still there. Obviously, there's another car involved. So Brianna's necklace had been found in the vicinity of her car at the old Dutchburn house. Is it known if she had been wearing it the night that she

disappeared and did you recognize it? It is a little bit complicated. The car was initially found. Both car doors were open and the headlights were on. There was stuff strewn outside the car. According to the best reports that I know, the trooper found the car, picked up the stuff that was kind of cheering around and threw it back in the car. There was never, I mean, I don't know anything about the necklace per se, whether the necklace something was on the ground, or the necklace something that had broken weeks to months before. At that point, it just becomes hard to say. I mean, the car was kind of an old bomb, given, you know, came down to her grandfather that

passed away, and we just allowed her to run it for a first car because, you know, I don't know, you're like most kids, your first car is not one to usually laugh for it lost. It never did to me. And it just was kind of a, you know, there was old stuff in the car, you know, an old take out meal and odd demands and, you know didn't keep her car very clean. I think, personally, I think, you know, there was definitely some kind of struggle that happened to the car without a doubt in my mind. I mean, Brianna was abducted right there at that car. Why would you leave a car with both the words open and headlights on? I mean, to this day, the keys had never been found

for that car. It's a really weird scene, but when the ex-boyfriend came by that night, he stopped. I said, all that you know that's bringing his car and he walked over and no one was there. So he got the doors and just had lights off. That is interesting. A little odd I mean I'm thinking at the time you know he confessed that you know he was under the influence of that time driving home so maybe he just thought well I'll just, maybe, I don't know what he was thinking. My only thought is that maybe he was thinking, well, I wonder why Brianna laughed.

I'll just shut the doors and the lights off so that her battery's not there. So when she comes back, you know, the car will start or something, you know, I don't know. Thank you so much, Bruce, for answering all of those questions regarding Brianna and now I just wanted to talk a little bit about your nonprofit private investigations for the missing. So do you want to tell us a little bit about it? Sure. I mean I decided to start this actually last year and it was just kind of a case of trying

to, you know, I work with private investigators, some goods, I'm not so good, they cost it the tremendous amount of money. And it's just outside the realm of most middle class people to be able to afford to pay. So the need for that is just incredible around the country. And good private investigators have helped me out a lot in a lot of different ways.

And so I decided to start this so that other people would have the opportunity to have qualified people look into their cases that can't afford to. It's going to take a lot of money to raise the funds, but investigators will work with us and will be able to direct the investigations, help families. Well, we think that's absolutely amazing,

and we're really excited to work with you guys and for everyone out there listening, please visit investigations for the missing.org and donate what you can. So Bruce, do you have any last words that you want to say to our listeners? Well, it's just, I mean, when somebody's missing, it's just kind of never end for

you. Every holiday or every celebration, it's just always different. end for you. Every holiday or every celebration, it's just always different. I know a lot of people with the sentence for just entertainment, but I just wanted to remember the human element in that too. Part of the foundation thing is, is the healing thing for me,

I mean, when you can try to make something good happen out of something bad, it actually, I think, helps. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode and a big thanks to Bruce Maitland for doing this interview as well. Yes, big thanks to Bruce. You were amazing to talk to you, and everybody please go check out Bruce's non-profit organization, private investigations for the missing. And don't forget to go check us out on Instagram, we'll have photos from this case and a photo of Brianna's car on our page at Going West Podcast.

Also, check out Heath on Twitter at Going West Pod. Also we have a Facebook page so come check that out. If you guys want to shout out on the show make sure to give us a five star review on iTunes and don't forget to leave your name and your location. So for everybody out there in the world don't be a stranger. you you