ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) – Missing for nearly two years, a Vermont teenager may have turned up at an Atlantic City casino, police said. On Jan. 17, surveillance cameras at Caesars Atlantic City Hotel Casino captured the image of a woman police say may be Brianna Maitland, 19, gambling next to a man.

The video, taken from ceiling-mounted surveillance cameras, shows a dark-haired woman at a table game but her face is only partly visible. It was obtained from the casino after a man who lives near Maitland’s hometown returned from a trip to Atlantic City and contacted Vermont State Police, telling them he saw a woman who looked like Maitland at the casino. That was on Jan. 19.

The man, who knew of Maitland’s disappearance and what she looked like from fliers posted in Vermont, didn’t alert authorities on the scene.

But he told Vermont State Police the number of the table where she was playing, the day and the time, and investigators contacted New Jersey State Police, according to Detective Lt. Brian Miller of the Vermont State Police, the chief investigator in the case.

The casino provided the footage, which was reviewed by Vermont investigators and Maitland’s parents, who said they believe it is her. Her mother, Kellie Maitland, said the movements of the hands and feet of the woman on the video remind her of her daughter, according to Detective John Donegan, a missing persons investigator with the New Jersey State Police.

The woman spent about an hour at the table, he said.

“There hasn’t been too many leads (in Maitland’s case) with Mom and Dad saying they believe it’s her,” said Donegan. “Whether it’s legitimate or not, if Mom and Dad are telling me they’re pretty certain it’s her, it’s incumbent on me to follow through.”

Bruce and Kellie Maitland, who now live in DeKalb, N.Y., traveled to Atlantic City to look at original copies of the footage but couldn’t say for sure it was their daughter in the pictures, Donegan said.

The family, which has offered a $20,000 reward, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. A voice mail message left at their home was not immediately returned.

Unlike some Atlantic City casinos, Caesars’ surveillance department does not have facial recognition software, which allows camera operators to capture still images of faces and compare their features digitally with those in thousands of photos contained in law enforcement databases.

A still image, taken from the surveillance video and published on a flier released by New Jersey State Police, shows the top of the woman’s head, her eyes and forehead but doesn’t give a clear view.

Maitland of Sheldon, Vt., was 17 when she vanished after working a shift at the Black Lantern Inn in Montgomery, Vt., on March 19, 2004. The next day, her 1985 Oldsmobile 88 was found about a mile away, its rear end smashed into an abandoned barn.

When last seen, she was about 5-foot-4 inches tall and weighed about 110 pounds.

Alyce Parker, a spokeswoman for Harrah’s Entertainment, which owns the casino, said the gambling hall was cooperating with investigators but said no one – to her knowledge – had interviewed the employees who were working in that area of the casino that night.

“We want to be extremely helpful to the state police both in New Jersey and in Vermont in assisting them with their ongoing investigation and will provide any support we can possibly provide,” said Parker.

Miller said authorities in Vermont suspect foul play.

“The circumstances in which her vehicle was found makes you tend to believe there was some foul play involved. If not, then it was a carefully planned thing. Based on her age, it seems unlikely but not impossible that she would have staged her own disappearance,” he said.

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Bring Brianna Home web site: www.bringbrihome.org

Vermont State Police: www.dps.state.vt.us

New Jersey State Police: www.state.nj.us/njsp

AP-ES-03-08-06 1714EST