Investigators have identified a DNA sample in connection with the 2004 disappearance of 17-year-old Brianna Maitland, per CBS News.
Vermont State Police investigators say that identifying the DNA, which was found near Maitland’s abandoned car, doesn’t mean it’ll lead to a suspect. According to authorities, the teen is believed to be a victim of foul play.
“We are continuing our active efforts to investigate every lead associated with this case, and we constantly look for new technological advances to aid in our investigation,” lead investigator Detective Sgt. Angela Baker said. “The use of genetic genealogy to identify the DNA found 18 years ago is just one example of how detectives continue to track down every potential lead in this case.”
Maitland was last seen on March 19, 2004 and never arrived at a friends home after leaving work that day in Montgomery, Vermont. Her 1985 Oldsmobile was then found the next day in an abandoned building, and the DNA sample was located near the car. It was entered into the FBI’s DNA database, and compared with 11 persons of interest, but led to no matches, and later sent to a forensic sequencing laboratory in 2020.
Authorities were then able to “locate, interview, and obtain DNA samples from possible donors,” as the samples were sent to the Vermont Forensic Laboratory, which confirmed that one of the people’s DNA matched that found by the car, per CBS.
“I want to find Brianna so, you know, so much,” her father Bruce Maitland told NBC 5. “That’s my, my life’s goal. And as I get older, you know, that, you know, that becomes a, you know, the being able to reach that and be able to find her.”
