An alleged 2006 sighting of Maitland at a casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, brought renewed interest to the case, but the woman seen was never properly identified.

In 2012, law enforcement investigated a possible connection between Maitland's disappearance and serial killer Israel Keyes, who was active in Vermont, but he was ultimately ruled out as a suspect by the FBI.

In 2017, the case was discussed in the documentary series on missing college student Maura Murray, who vanished a month prior to Maitland in Woodsville, New Hampshire.

[4] Her mother, Kellie, stated there were no serious stresses at home, but that Maitland wanted to be more independent and to live closer to a group of friends who resided 15 miles (24 km) away and attended a different high school.

[4] By the end of February 2004, Maitland dropped out of high school and moved in with her childhood friend, Jillian Stout, in Sheldon, Vermont, approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of Montgomery.

[4] Maitland told her mother that she needed to go home and prepare for her upcoming work shift at the Black Lantern Inn, a restaurant in Montgomery.

[13] Early the next afternoon, on March 20, a Vermont State Police trooper was dispatched to an abandoned house on Route 118 in Richford,[14] about a mile (1.6 km) from the Black Lantern Inn.

Two of Maitland's paychecks were on the front seat of the car, and outside it, law enforcement observed loose change, a water bottle and an unsmoked cigarette.

Upon the car's return to the Maitland family, Bruce noted that his daughter's ATM card, glasses, contact lens case and migraine medication had all been left inside.

Maitland's parents publicly speculated that she may have been abducted by multiple people, stating that it would have been difficult for a single assailant to subdue her given her jiu-jitsu training.

[10] In 2004, Maitland's family organized a website, now defunct, titled bringbrihome.org, with a posted maximum reward of USD$20,000 for information leading to her whereabouts.

[23] In the week following Maitland's disappearance, the Vermont State Police received an anonymous tip claiming that she was being held against her will in a house in nearby Berkshire, 10 miles (16 km) from Montgomery.

[4] The rented house, then occupied by Ramon L. Ryans and Nathaniel Charles Jackson, two known drug dealers from New York, was raided by police on April 15, 2004.

[4] In late 2004, police received a statement from an anonymous "older female" who implicated both Ryans and Jackson in Maitland's disappearance and alleged murder.

[4] In 2006, security footage at the Caesars casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, showed a woman resembling Maitland sitting at a poker table.

[4] In 2012, law enforcement investigated a potential connection between Maitland's disappearance and serial killer Israel Keyes, who committed numerous rapes and murders in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington,[26][27] as well as in Vermont and New York, where he owned property in Constable.

[29] In March 2016, on the case's twelfth anniversary, investigators revealed to a local television station they had recovered DNA samples from Maitland's car.