Whereabouts of Vermont teen still a mystery

Vermont police received a startling call from a local man, who had been visiting Atlantic City, New Jersey.

“And he says, ‘I was down in Caesar's Palace and I was playing cards.  I saw this woman.  I think it was Brianna Maitland,’” Miller says.

Kellie and Bruce weren't sure what to make of the news.

Stafford: Are you afraid to allow yourself to believe this could be the real thing?

Bruce: Yeah, kind of — I'm, you know — at that point you — you just not — you know, not again, you know, not again, not — not one more time.  I just, you know, don't want another — I don't want another false alarm.

Security cameras barely captured the woman on tape. She and the man sitting next to her are wearing matching T-shirts with an unusual logo on the front. The lighting is poor and the quality of the video is bad.  Still, Kellie sees strong similarities between the woman on the tape, and her daughter Brianna.

“Oh, the side profile is almost identical,” Kellie says. “The only thing that was different slightly was the end of the nose. It kind of had a little bit more of a ball at the end of the nose then what I'd recalled.  Other than that it was — it was a ringer.”

Many of Brianna's friends think it's her too. But Bruce is not convinced.

“I want to believe that it's her. I really do,” he says. “And you kind of — whenever you want something so bad you can't even trust your eyes sometimes, especially when it's not clear.”

If it's not Brianna, then who is the mystery woman? If it is her, where is she now and why hasn't she called her family and friends? 

Stafford: If Brianna is the person on that tape, what do you want her to know?

Kellie: We love her very much.  And that we hope if we've done anything wrong that she could forgive us if we have.  If there's anything that she thinks we couldn't understand we'd be willing to forgive that. The love we have for her is beyond everything. 

Bruce and Kellie are waiting for someone to come forward and positively identify the woman in the casino.  In the meantime, they say that they themselves see Brianna,  everywhere, and nowhere.

Bruce: You see this girl on the cell phone over there?

Kellie: Yes.

Stafford: And, you did a double take.

Kellie: Oh, yeah.

Bruce: Sure. Right there, even now.

Kellie: Yeah.
  
Bruce: Yeah. She looks a little like Brianna.

Kellie: She does. There's a strong resemblance.

The Maitlands have offered a $20,000 reward for information about Brianna's whereabouts. This mystery is their nightmare, and more than three years later, they have no idea how or if it will end.

Bruce: We'll find out.  Or we'll die trying, one of the two. 

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