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Brianna Maitland vanished 20 years ago. The FBI is now offering $40,000 to help solve the mystery.
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.”
“Together with our partners from Vermont State Police, we will work to cover every lead until we bring Brianna home,” Tremaroli added.
FBI
On March 19, 2004, Maitland, then 17, was finishing her shift as a dishwasher at the Black Lantern Inn, a restaurant in Montgomery. She left work around 11:20 p.m. in a green 1985 Oldsmobile 88 and was headed towards a friend’s house, where she was living.
The car was found later backed into the side of an abandoned barn about a mile from the restaurant at a location known as the “Old Dutchburn Barn.”
Investigators said they believe Maitland is a victim of foul play and didn’t leave willingly. Vermont State Police in 2022 announced they identified a DNA sample linked to the teen found on an item near the abandoned car. The DNA was entered into an FBI database and compared against 11 persons of interest, but no match was found.
After the sample was sent to Othram laboratories in Texas, officials tested the DNA and found that it matched DNA from a candidate donor. The police, however, weren’t able to determine a suspect.
“There have been multiple leads followed up on throughout the years, but none have been able to locate Brianna,” the Vermont State Police says on its case page.
Maitland would be 37 years old today. In 2023, her family started a Facebook page on which her father, Bruce, wrote, “As yet another March 19th approaches, I ask for your prayers for Bri to be found.”
Investigators remain hopeful the award announcement will generate new leads.
“We remain as dedicated to this case now as we were when Brianna disappeared,” said Col. Matthew T. Birmingham, director of the Vermont State Police. “This is not a cold case, but it is an unsolved one — and we’re hoping the announcement of a significant financial reward for information will help change that.”
Tips can be submitted via the FBI’s Toll-Free Tipline at 1-800-CALL-FBI or the Vermont State Police Tipline at 1-844-84-VTIPS.
At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals and residents were urged to shelter in place on Tuesday after an explosion at a Louisville, Kentucky, business.
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services reported on social media a “hazardous materials incident” at 1901 Payne St., in Louisville. The address belongs to a facility operated by Givaudan Sense Colour, a manufacturer of food colorings for soft drinks and other products, according to officials and online records.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said emergency teams responded to the blast around 3 p.m. News outlets reported that neighbors heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the business. Overhead news video footage showed an industrial building with a large hole in its roof.
WLKY-TV
“The cause at this point of the explosion is unknown,” Greenberg said in a news conference. No one died in the explosion, he added.
Greenberg said officials spoke to employees inside the plant. “They have initially conveyed that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred,” he said.
The Louisville Fire Department said in a post on the social platform X that multiple agencies were responding to a “large-scale incident.”
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services first urged people within a mile of the business to shelter in place, but that order was lifted in the afternoon. An evacuation order for the two surrounding blocks around the site of the explosion was still in place Tuesday afternoon.
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A rare square 37-carat emerald owned by the Aga Khan fetched nearly $9 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday, making it the world’s most expensive green stone.
Sold by Christie’s, the Cartier diamond and emerald brooch, which can also be worn as a pendant, dethrones a piece of jewelry made by the fashion house Bulgari, which Richard Burton gave as a wedding gift to fellow actor Elizabeth Taylor, as the most precious emerald.
In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned Cartier to set the emerald in a brooch with 20 marquise-cut diamonds for British socialite Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married.
Dyer then auctioned off the emerald to raise money for animals in 1969.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
By chance that was Christie’s very first such sale in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Geneva, with the emerald finding its way back to the 110th edition this year.
It was bought by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels before passing a few years later into the hands of Harry Winston, nicknamed the “King of Diamonds.”
“Emeralds are hot right now, and this one ticks all the boxes,” said Christie’s EMEA Head of Jewellery Max Fawcett. “…We might see an emerald of this quality come up for sale once every five or six years.”
Also set with diamonds, the previous record-holder fetched $6.5 million at an auction of part of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor’s renowned jewelry collection in New York.
