In Keallie's Words, Part 1

In Keallie's Words, Part 1

Brianna's injuries included two black eyes, a broken nose,

and a concussion. 

"I hit her two times. She didn't fight back. It looks like I annihilated her, but I didn't. I hit her twice and she didn't fight back. I said, 'you're not worth it' and walked away. They look at me like I'm a monster, and I jumped her with a crew of women, but that's not what happened."

If you've looked into the Maitland case, you know Brianna was injured in a fight three weeks before she disappeared. She had a falling out with her friend Keallie LaCross because of a love triangle (or rectangle). Because of the timing of this fight, some have speculated that Keallie may be involved in Brianna's disappearance. Keallie was kind enough to grant me an interview back in March, and we spoke on the phone for nearly two hours. I know people are waiting for a podcast episode with Keallie as a guest. We are working on it! In the meantime, I thought I could shed some light on her side of the story.

Keallie has been described by the media as a "female acquaintance" of Brianna's, but it was clear from our conversation that the two were actually close friends. Keallie described Brianna as "super friendly, happy, easy to get along with, and wicked nice". They met when Brianna approached Keallie in the Enosburg Falls High School gym and joined her on the bleachers. She introduced herself and the two began chatting. They became very close, and the group of friends (including Katie, Megan, Sydney, and Hillary) would "pile up into her green car and go my boyfriend's house at night. That's where we hung out. Brianna would drive me home every night". 

Brianna and Keallie were interested in the same men. The two were both on-and-off with the same two guys, one of whom was James Robitaille. Keallie felt betrayed by Brianna when at one point, Brianna had gone behind her back with one of the men, who was officially Keallie's boyfriend of two years. Keallie went to Massachusetts for a week to visit her mother. When Keallie's returned, her friends informed her that Brianna had been staying with Keallie's boyfriend while she was away. When Keallie confronted her boyfriend, he admitted it.

By then, Brianna had already been growing apart from her Enosburg friends and was no longer going to school with them. Keallie hadn't seen Brianna in a few weeks. Not long after Keallie returned to Vermont, she spotted Brianna in the passenger's seat of James's car. For Keallie, this added insult to injury.

"That really pissed me off," Keallie recalled. She began to shout at Brianna and call her names. Brianna kept her head down and James shouted back at Keallie to stop. They drove off. A couple of days later, James showed up at a party at the Pallet Factory with Brianna. 

"The Pallet Factory party, everyone was there. James showed up with Bri. I intimidated her all night. I was fucking mad. I was trying to get a reaction out of her, but she wouldn't say anything. At one point I realize she's missing from the party. James said, 'she's out in the truck'. I walked out to the truck by myself, no one was with me. I knocked on the window, and she rolled it down.

"'Bri are you gonna come out and fight?' I punched her. 'Come on, let's go, let's fight!' I punched her again. Her head was down, she was crying. I said, 'you're not worth it'. James came out and yelled, 'Keallie, what the fuck did you do? What the fuck did you do?' I said she had it coming.

"She wouldn't speak, probably because there was more she knew that I didn't. She was ashamed of herself, she'd fucked up everything. She was living with and relying on friends, and I fucked it all up for her".

I could hear in Keallie's voice how angry and hurt she was by the memory of the betrayal, even fourteen years later. However, at one point she tried to see it from Brianna's perspective: "She just wanted someone to love her, and wanted to be in, a part of us".

I asked her how she feels about the public reaction toward her.

"Have you ever Googled me?", she asked.

"Yes," I responded. 

"My mom told me to, and it's bad. I don't let it bother me, because if I did, it would be too much. That's one of the reasons why I want to be on the podcast, because anyone doing their homework will come by and hear it from me.

"I know her family hates me, but I'd love to talk to them, and give them closure from my side. I pray her family finds her and puts her to rest. I can't believe it's drawn out this far. How have they not found her in Vermont? I hope it gets put to rest". 

I asked her why it was stated on Disappeared that she was cleared by law enforcement. What was her alibi?

"I have no idea. There wasn't a formal alibi. But I was always very cooperative, always talked to them (the Vermont State Police), so maybe that was why. When I got hit with Federal charges, they said 'tell us what happened to Bri and we'll clear you, we're giving you 100 years'. But I didn't know".

I asked her how she found out Brianna was missing.

"I found out in school. The police came to question me, Katie, Syd, the girls. I wasn't devastated, I didn't think it was real. When Shauna told me I was being charged, I said something fucked up like, 'how's she going to do that? Good luck, she's missing'. I was mean. It's not like I didn't care. I didn't think it was real.

"I watched the video on the ID Channel. Her mom said, 'why didn't you fight back?' and Bri said, 'I didn't want people to not like me'. Vermont's not like that, everyone loves everyone, we're all on the same team. It wasn't 'Team Bri' and 'Team Keallie'. I didn't hang out with her anymore. I saw her one time after I hit her, her face was fucked up. We didn't talk, no words were exchanged. She might have been with Jillian. That was the last time I saw her".