VT VT - Brianna Maitland, 17, Montgomery, 19 March 2004

[QuocLikesGuac]

Brianna distanced herself from that group after the attack.

Doesn't matter, deciding to have her former friend prosecuted would have rendered her a stoolie whether she stuck around with the group or turned over a new leaf.

 

[QuocLikesGuac]

I understand it's been suggested there was some
crime boss type criminal who people believe may
have ordered her death. Maybe it was this instead:
I think that she probably knew of several street-level
drug dealers, (3 to 5 different sets, say), and one of
these sets (a duo drug dealing team, say) became
concerned when it became known that she was
going to give evidence in a court. I think they may
have thought that although she would not particularly
have wanted to give evidence about any drug dealing
(she was just going to be in court for the victim of
assault thing), that as she was known to have been
peripherally aware of some drug dealing activities/
people, that the drug dealer{s} might be identified in
court - not deliberately by her, but rather if the
prosecuting attorney forced her into answering
questions about the criminality of people she knew
(or people the assaulter knew/was associated with).
So the concern of the drug dealers was that she, under
threat of contempt of court (if the court was helmed
by a judge compliant to the prosecuting attorney
proceeding on a 'fishing expedition' for information)
would be made to answer questions whilst on the
stand about drug activities and the identity of drug
dealers specifically.
So some drug dealing criminals decided to kill her
before the court case would occur and did in fact
track and plan and cause her to drive off the road
and then they removed her from the car she was in
and killed her.

I really like where you're going. However, some caveats:

• "Crime boss" is ambiguous ... in the same way "Senior VP" is for a national bank or "Regional Sales Director" for a medical device dealer. Fancy titles aside, the hierarchy of any major enterprise is layers high.

In this case, "crime boss" is not (theoretically) a single individual but a local operation that imported its illicit goods from a bigger supplier. The locality (Vermont) is so small that the cutters and cooks were probably in direct contact with the street soldiers, who in turn sold to the end user. With just one tier separating them, it's completely believable an end-user would have common knowledge of the "hub" (especially if the dealers or their friends were young, impulsive, and enjoyed a surface-level relationship with their customers).

But, it begs the question: what would everyone think if a user decided to go clean and work with authorities (even if the complaint was not related to their business)? Surely that would raise alarm bells all around?

• Piggybacking off the above, other crimes are often associated with drug dealing such as human trafficking, organized theft rings, fraud/forgery/counterfeiting, bribery/extortion and of course, murder. That's not to say any of the above was involved and the missing victim knew of it .... but the vines of the criminal underworld do stretch far.