In Keallie's Words, Part 2

In Keallie's Words, Part 2
Brianna and Keallie, in better days.


As I go through my notes from my conversation with Keallie back in March 2018, I'm struck by how open Keallie was with me. She was brutally honest and introspective. Her transparency about her past certainly required significant vulnerability. She's a working mother of three, and also has gone back to school.  Keallie stuck with me on a call that went from 12:14 to 1:46 a.m.

In addition to sharing her side of the story regarding her fight with Brianna, Keallie shed a lot of light on the aftermath of Brianna's disappearance. If you've been following the Brianna Maitland episodes on Crawlspace Podcast, you may be familiar with a popular theory among locals, in which Brianna died in an accident which was covered up by male acquaintances. This theory, while incredibly widespread, is based entirely on third party accounts, and to this day has not been verified by tangible evidence. The men involved in this theory have not been identified as persons of interest or suspects by the Vermont State Police. So I won't name them. For context, one of those men was Keallie's then-boyfriend. 

"When she came up missing, I came home from school to my boyfriend's house and he's crying. He knew Bri was missing, he was in tears. I said, 'what are you crying for, you fucking bitch? I'm not even crying'. I don't know how he found out". At that point, Keallie didn't think the disappearance was "real" or cause for immediate concern. His concern for Brianna aggravated Keallie. Just three weeks before, he had confessed to Keallie that he had cheated on her with Brianna. 

"I can't remember how long after, but sometime after she went missing, a search team came to his house suited up. They asked if they could search the shit pit. I don't know why they asked me, it wasn't my property. I said, 'suit up, motherfuckers!' and slammed the door. They did search it. I wondered, 'why is he a suspect?'" 

I asked Keallie if they found anything. She told me no, adding that the family owns thousands of acres of land in the area. I asked her if she thought he could be guilty.

"I don't think he did it. I don't think he could live with it". 

Keallie was in the same social circle as Brianna. She was not only close with the men of the "accident theory", but was also acquainted with Nathaniel Jackson (AKA "Low"), whom many believe to be a viable suspect in Brianna's disappearance. Jackson and his cousin Ramon Ryans (AKA "Street") rented a farmhouse on Reservoir Road in Berkshire and lived between Northern Vermont and the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York. The two were known to hang around Enosburg Falls High and supply teenagers with crack cocaine and other drugs. Not long after Brianna's disappearance, her father Bruce received an anonymous tip that Brianna was being held captive at the Reservoir Road house. Bruce quickly relayed the information to the police, but they did not share his sense of urgency on the matter. He told the officers, "if you won't search, I'll round up some friends and we will go and search ourselves". The house was searched by law enforcement, who found no sign of Brianna Maitland. Keallie recalled an experience she had with Low, soon after Brianna went missing.

"After school one day, the girls and I went to McDonalds in Hilary's Subaru. Low pulled up on us. We told him he was the number one suspect. He followed us around the drive-through loop. 'I'll have you all fucking missing!' he said". I had heard this story before, from Katie and Megan who were both in the car. 

Keallie described Low as "pushy", and shared he once tried to convince her to come to Burlington with him, "I'll buy you whatever you want, take you shopping". Several other women have disclosed to me that as teenagers, Low had tried to persuade them to go to Burlington or New York City under similar pretenses. 

Keallie recalled the local talk at the time, "People say Bri was with him, and that she owed him money". 

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