Brandon Swanson /// Part 2 /// 333 | Forensic Files

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this week we are drinking anheuser-busch's Budweiser and American lager and an American classic this may
seem like an odd pick but hear me out we've been discussing the disappearance of brandon swanson and brandon loved the
Minnesota Twins and was known to always be wearing a Twins hat anyone that has been to a Twins baseball
game knows you can grab a beer at the Budweiser roofdeck located in the left-field corner of the ballpark it's
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from the great state of Minnesota we say this Bud's for you garage grade 3 big bottle caps and we would also like to
thank and send a big cheers to Jill in Columbus Ohio and a big shout out to de Nez in Forney Texas next up we have a
shout to Michelle in San Juan Capistrano California and a big shout-out to tiffany him Buford Georgia and next a
big long-distance cheers and big thank you to Tim from Seattle and last but certainly not least we have Stevie and
Bay City Michigan everybody we just mentioned went to true-crime garage calm and donate it to this week's beer fund
and for that we give you a big thanks yeah make sure after you donate become and be patient cuz we're gonna get to
you it might take a little time but when you hear you're know yourself kill yourself kill yourself out it's gonna
take a little bit of time but once you hear your name you're gonna get excited so excited that you we in your pants and
that is enough of the business all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab
a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] we covered the details in some of the speculation regarding the night in early
morning hours of 19 year old Brandon Swanson's last known whereabouts last week now we need to cover the search
that ensued for Brandon after the discovery of his abandoned green Chevy Lumina which was found hung up in a
ditch on the side of a gravel road and reminder this was approximately 20 miles from where Brandon thought he was the
searches have been exhaustive thorough and in my humble garage opinion highly professional investigators brought in
search dogs which started at the vehicle the dogs led investigators up and down some country roads and then to a woods
by the banks of the yellow medicine River the descriptions of this river are really all over the shop here captain
while the depths of the river range from anywhere from just knee-deep up to 15 feet in certain areas this particular
area meaning parts of the yellow medicine River within walking distance of where Brandon's vehicle was found
several people have stated that this part of the river is much more like a creek sized waterway but we should also
keep in mind that like with most waterways the yellow medicine rivers depth can vary greatly depending on the
time of year at the time Brandon disappeared it's reported that the river was flowing high and fast with spring
runoff still impacting the flow so by most reports we are talking about a very strong current at the time according to
Sheriff gazecki quote there are two miles of the river in that area and it took six hours for deputies to walk it
he said he personally walked the river every day for 30 days quote at the time the dogs indicated and it was believed
that he must have fallen in the river in that area end quote the sheriff then added so we searched
that area on the premise that he had been washed downstream but the dogs didn't just track Brandon sent to the
river's edge according to Brandon's mother and net Swanson one bloodhound followed a scent
from the stranded car down a gravel road to a farm she said this was a long trail
it was about three miles this long trail is what led to the yellow medicine River
and net says when the dog walked them up to the river's edge the dog jumped in the river but then jumped back out after
jumping out of the water the dog continued to walk following a trail up to another gravel road this was a road
that separates Lyon and Lincoln counties and then at some point the dog loses the
scent she says now because the dog actively jumped in - and then back out of the river and then continued along a
scent path that ended into nothingness investigators are not convinced that Brandon drown in the river Sheriff
gazecki pointed out that had Brandon fallen into the river he should have been found in
the river or downstream somewhere no trace of Brandon has been found anywhere but if he was washed away in the yellow
medicine river you'd think that something like a you know a shoe his jacket anything would have been found as
the river dried up later in the season this exposed more of the land along its banks more searches were done during
this time but still again nothing turned up the area of the river that is in question that was searched it was
searched over 50 times all with no results absolutely no evidence other than the dog leading them to the river
that Brandon you know that he was ever even in the river that he drowned in the river or remains in the river to this
day were there multiple dogs because sometimes they'll have multiple dogs and sometimes they have one dog and they do
multiple tests with that one dog so throughout the years what gets a little difficult with in this case when we're
reporting on it there have been so many searches and I'm certain that throughout the
years there's probably been a search or two that only contained one dog but a lot of the stuff that I was reviewing
they're referring to dogs plural so I believe that we're talking about multiple dogs now I don't know that
using the searchers words and the sheriff's words it's a little conflicting because at times they say
the dog led us to the river's edge and then other times they say the dogs led investigators to the river so I don't
know if in this exact point if it was just one dog or multiple dogs the other thing we need to keep in mind too is
sometimes we're dealing with different kind of tracking dogs dogs that are trained to look for different things
right you know sometimes when you're looking for search and rescue you're you're tracing a scent and other times
they're they've actually brought in cadaver dogs dogs that are looking for human remains
the problem here is again captain the the yellow medicine River I think could hold some secrets but the problem with
that is other than the dog or the dogs leading the investigators to the river there's never been any other evidence
that Brandon went into the river or drown or you know and remains in the river to this day right but the problem
is we have we have no evidence that we have no evidence of a lot of things so I want to go to a comment that I saw by
his mother and NAT Swanson and this seems to be backed up or at least a shared feeling by other family members
they don't seem to be 100% convinced that Brandon drowned that night and then I think you have to go back to this
because if in fact if you believe the search dogs accuracy brandon entered and then exited the river yeah so look I
want to try a little exercise if you will captain this but hold on a second it's it's difficult because we don't
know how the dog track let's say the dog jumped into the river jumped out of the
river and then walked the the river's edge for you know a quarter mile or whatever and
then veered off into this other path that would make me believe more likely that he went into the river and went
down the river for a time period enough for the dog to follow the scent the problem with some of these reports is
that we don't have this great detailed report or we don't have a video footage of what actually happened so to
speculate too much either way you might as well pull out your crystal ball and and make a guess because you don't know
well of course nobody knows and that's why this is a an interesting case and that's why it's still talked about so
much to this day but ok so you say detailed description detailed report I I want to try a little exercise here ok
and this will be quite helpful I believe especially to those who are either familiar with the area or for those who
did look up a map of this area like we mentioned last week I want to go through a detailed description of the part of
this search ok there's a lot of searches throughout the years but I want to go through this one in in very good detail
here because again I believe with with the dog information the dog tracking information if we believe the accuracy
of the dogs this is really one of very few pieces of possible evidence that we have to go on right mm-hmm
so ok here's what we do know dogs tracked Brandon from his abandoned car remember his car was found in a lion
Lincoln County Road one and a half miles north of route 68 so on the map if you're looking at a go north of route 68
and continue north past 3 90th Street on my map I placed a pin on lion Lincoln Road at the halfway mark
right between 390 a--the Street and one hundred and sixtieth Avenue so we know from the conversation he had with his
folks Brandon thinks he is near Lynde and he eventually comes up with the idea to
meet them inland via him walking there he says he sees the town of land or the Linda town lights from his car right and
he's going to walk towards the light so there are two things we can deduce from his statements here one Brandon is
basically heading in a Northwest walking direction so he believes he is southeast
of Lynde well northwest of Brandon's car is the town of Porter so he is very likely seeing the lights coming from the
town of Porter so number two he thinks he is southeast of land so again if the dogs are right from his car Brandon
walked half a mile south on lion Lincoln Road and then turned right onto 390 a--the Street he walked on 390 ahthe
westbound for about a mile then he makes another right onto County Road 16 walking northbound he walks for about a
half a mile and then he decides to go off of the road and make a left now walking westbound on a private driveway
of what has been described by at least three sources that I could find this is a driveway belonging to a an abandoned
farm right he continues westbound for approximately a quarter of a mile and then veers off
the driveway and continues on roughly following the course of the yellow medicine River traveling Northwest well
again we also have to be clear about these driveways because a lot of these back roads are rough right they're not
not every single one is paved nicely a lot of them are gravel roads yes so you have to you you can't assume at this
point that that he knows if he's going on a road or a driveway right that'd be safe to say right and again he may not
even care as long right believe that he's making his way in that direction that he wants to go so
now he's he's kind of very roughly following the course of the yellow medicine River traveling Northwest but
but how how much is the distance between the car and in the river like if you had
to yes well it's difficult because there it's very different between where the you know how the crow flies to the route
that he is taking because he's taking a very roundabout way of getting there he's he's going we see him going south
and then he's going west and then he's going north and then he's going Northwest right so he's traveled a few
miles once you add this all up but again he's not taking a direct cut right to where we have him now no one I think
this is important because we do have a little bit of a time gap from when his when his father decides to take his mom
home to come back out and we have a time gap and then they're back on the phone and and do and I know that time gap is
kind of blurry but I think the key thing here is what I'm what I want to point out to everybody if they are following
along on the map you can you can really see where about he would be based off of
the information of the dogs and it's once he starts doing this this route that that roughly follows the yellow
medicine river they're traveling Northwest this is approximately where the bloodhound jumped into the river and
then jumped back out now the the handler as we said interpreted this behavior as
possibly indicating that Brandon might have fallen into the river at that point but then Brandon traveled onward walking
heading north toward a gravel road it is here that the trail ends the dog where dogs lose the scent really any number of
things could have happened here to make this trail end the descent vanishes he starts off in a very round of
way of walking Northwest with the idea that he is walking into town this obviously regardless of what town
it may actually be or what town he thinks he's walking into I want to point out some things here too that are kind
of working against Brandon if that is his exact movements remember we talked about this is a route you know route 68
would be a route that he would have taken from school to his house I think rather than assuming that he knows the
area well I would debate that quite heavily I question that that off of anything off of Route 68 he may not know
at all you know he may have just take the simplest way to and from school into his house day after day after day and
never veering off of that route 68 which he is clearly off of at this point right
and anybody that knows these country roads or not not exactly these country roads but
country roads in general he might be able to deal wha III go down this main path and then I head down one country
road and that gets me to another town all right and then that's your path but once you jump onto these you know other
country roads that you're not familiar with they could take you anywhere you want to know right you know I mean so
and again so I think there's also evidence that backs up that he doesn't know the this area so well because we
have evidence that he's not where he thinks he is 100% we know he's not where he thinks he is and and what I think's
working against him here in the situation alcohol no I think that there are things there are indicators that to
to tell him that he is where he thinks he is meaning if I if I'm looking around and I go oh northwest of me there's the
lights coming from behind right should be Lind oh but it's not lend its porter but in something yeah yeah it's it's an
indicator to him that he's he's right even though he's clearly wrong and then on top of that the direction he's taking
from his vehicle to walk into town traveling Northwest let's pretend he does know the area very well this
would work against him even more because to walk into Porter he would need to cross a major road and there's a river
that runs into Porter okay that's the red wood I'm sorry the the north branch of the yellow medicine river runs into
Porter now if he were to walk Northwest into Lind again he would have to cross a
major road 23 instead of 68 hmm there's another river that runs that direction into the town of Lind
that's the red wood River right that's if he knew the area so well if he knows this area really well he's gone well
she'll go meet him for you he's going [ __ ] I'm right hmm there's the town of Lind I know it
because here's the river backing my feelings up and here's the road that I have to cross backing my feelings up as
well I still think he's impaired he could be he could be and and I think we can we can debate that here in a little
bit but I I want to go through saw the same ish now I want to go through some of the search efforts here captain but
to go through all of them would be ridiculous if you want to to dive into that even further that stuff is
available online and specifically I want to point out some of the sources for our
research here we have footprints at the river's edge blogspot.com mm-hmm that site has been
raising awareness for specifically for missing young adult males since 2002 and then there's a really interesting thing
regarding this case we have Jeff Cassie who has really been the one that's led these these searches and there is a
website the search for Brandon dot blog spot.com this website who's this guy he he's in charge we'll get into him in a
minute but okay one thing I want to point out while I'm telling people if you want to look into it yourself
check out that the search for Brandon blog spot.com that is basically a website that reads like individual juror
entries for each search that took place and they have journal entries listed for
searches that were conducted over a three-year time period right so very detailed information there the areas
around Brandon's car where his car was found they were searched using ground searchers ATVs horses and helicopters
yeah a company that we've talked about many many times Texas Equusearch did come in to help bringing in underwater
sonar devices a remote-controlled plane and other high-tech equipment to help the search efforts and still nothing was
found before you have to raise a bunch of money to get somebody to go up in a helicopter now with technology we can
use these these drones to cover so much area in detail right and then by July of
the year that he went missing the Lincoln County Sheriff acknowledged that he personally believed
that Brandon Swanson was likely deceased by this time and they're still searching
at this and this is where we have the if you review the the sheriff's statements
throughout the years I think he's just really kind of perplexed by this whole situation because you will see you
statements where they say he can't be in the river we've searched it so many times but then here in July of the year
that we went he went missing we have the sheriff saying we believe he's deceased
in and he likely fell into the river yeah now within a few months after the quote-unquote official search for
Brandon stopped which was actually about ten days after he went missing a new private search company took over the
search for Brandon this was and this is going to answer your question this was search rescue and recovery resources of
Minnesota which was headed up by a man named Jeff Hasse Hasse is not your amateur civilian search organizer he
uses scientific methods in mathematical calculations such as theoretical maximum
distance traveled equations probability studies and statistics to come up with the search areas and likely
scenarios besides his work for the SRR RM n that's that's a handful there so we should call the show yeah hassey is the
founder of midwest technical rescue training associates a nonprofit organization that teaches technical
rescue skills to public safety providers well they're gonna do some kind of scientific in mathematic equations as
far as you know the average human can walk a mile in 15 minutes things like that mm-hmm had to kind of
narrow down the search a little more you'd Thank You captain and I want to talk about this because we talked so
much about criminal profiling on this show well when you think about it Jeff and his team are using similar
techniques to try and find and rescue or return lost persons basically taking whatever evidence they have here we got
the car the scent trail the phone call with dad saying old [ __ ] and then the car call drops they're going to take
that information and layering layering that with information and statistics collected from previous search efforts
you throw that algebra equation into a blender and boom now you have prioritized search areas you have a game
plan one of these statistics is quite interesting hassey says and this was to the independent where he said this he
says quote retrospective studies based on the International search-and-rescue incident database found that in these
circumstances involving abandoned vehicles the subjects were found within five point six miles from the last known
position this is 95 percent of the time this yielding a total search area of 98.5 square miles the median distance is
1.3 miles so 5.3 square miles search area there's one statistic used to help prioritize the search
areas and also you might use this equation as well the average person as you pointed out and this is what they're
going to use in Brandon situation walks one two three miles per hour yielding a one two three mile search
ring or three point one two twenty eight point three square miles this is based off of he's in the car he's walking for
forty seven minutes while talking on the phone to his father right and then he says old [ __ ] and the call drops you
would use this information in regards to what you know by the information provided by Brandon's mother and father
what time he started walking from where he left his car and ending with the ol [ __ ] moment that's the indicator for his
disappearance or demise if that's the thinking now I think that that's some fascinating stuff and we will get back
into that in a bit when when we get to the theories and our thoughts but that's what they're kind of working with here
look he points out ninety eight point what did we say six square miles so roughly a hundred square miles that's a
huge area to try to search and anybody that knows this area we're dealing with farmland that's difficult especially
when you we're talking about when the the crops are high yeah very much so and then also like you said there's multiple
water sources yeah yeah so you you have to use this information to profile where
you think he may be to prioritize your search areas and your search efforts [Music]
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mateys cheers to you camp oh I want to give a another Cheers here I got a fantastic message from a very longtime
friend of the show remember Gina private investigator down in Texas who helped us
out with the dark past episodes yeah Deena Deena badass yeah regarding serial killer
Felix Vale so she had some kind of thing to go to at one of her children's schools or one of their classes she wore
the band the van t-shirt to school she said that the teachers loved it and the kids were very confused she's hoping
it's a life lesson for four I guess that class we're gonna start a sponsoring police police departments to go into the
schools just like the DARE program we're starting to band the van program the van
program so regarding the searches captain there there were multiple searches as we said over a number of
years parts of the river were even drained now on the five-year anniversary of Brandon's disappearance Twin Cities
dot-com discussed the scale of the search for Brandon saying more than 500 volunteers including 34 dog handlers
from nine different states spent more than 120 days searching for Brandon and covered part of 120 square miles we have
Jeff Hasse who says it's by far the biggest search that he has ever been involved in in terms of length of time
or a number of missions and number of searchers involved remember he's the search manager a search in October of
2013 focused on the Mud Creek area this is a few miles northwest of the town of Porter
the cadaver dogs consist gently hit on the creek leading searchers to believe that the waters
from wherever Brandon's body is located somewhere in the watershed we're possibly washing into this Creek and
that's why the dogs are hitting on this area again in 2015 searchers searched farm fields northwest of Porter where
the dogs were hitting on a scent this included an area that they had not been able to search for several years and
this is because of harvest schedules and bad weather ken Anderson president of emergency
support services in Minneapolis who partnered with Jeff Hasse said searchers concentrated on the area northwest of
Porter because search dogs were quote still getting the scent that says there are remains of a human in this area and
quote so we're again we're assuming those are cadaver dogs to not send dogs that they used before correct yes this
is according to cadaver dogs they are hitting on areas northwest of the town of Florida so it may be likely that
Brandon's remains are somewhere in that area again this is a large area right and it's my understanding that these
dogs when they hit on this scent because of winds and such they can be hitting on
this even for miles away mm-hmm now another search was conducted just last year in May of 2018 and this was just
another search where they really they found nothing now I do want to point out here too something that I think is
important to this case is that back in March of 2010 the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension the BCA they
became the lead investigating agency on this case the BCA has said that the case
remains open and leads continue to trickle in in fact last year in 2018 Derick Woodford BCA special
agents said quote the case is open and just last week I got another leader too sometimes you need a break in the case
all it takes sometimes is one thing so we're not giving up and quote and we talked about this a little bit on off
the record recently where if you are working a case and the trail has gone cold for you you
may trade it off to another investigator you may hand it off to somebody else put
some new eyes on this thing to see if I missed anything and we also see situations with these cases where they
will hand it over to a whole nother agency completely and that's what happened here in 2010 March of 2010
let's start to get into some of the theories here captain uh-huh there's a lot of them right because Brandon's
disappearance is it's very frustrating and it's mysterious he was on the phone with his dad and then he wasn't and now
no trace of him has ever been found well not just that I mean he says oh [ __ ] and then the phone gets
disconnected right right and and so the internet is just rife with rumors and theories about what could have happened
to Brandon right I think we big topic on reddit yeah and and there's so many so much so out there that we can't list all
of them but we're going to try to go through some of them yeah you could read stuff about you know possible abducted
by aliens that was first on my list alien or some other strange abduction or disappearance hmm possible Sasquatch
right I think I think if that were to be the case it would be better recognized on some other show right yeah unless you
feel different no I don't think there's any evidence of that I'm not saying I'd rule down as out as a
possibility on a case if if there was like some sightings that night oh well we we had 300 sightings of a UFO and
then this kid went missing maybe I have a little wait to it but I think sometimes in
these missing-person case they go he's probably walking down the road and in Bigfoot got him you know or the aliens
took him or the Mothman or he he went into a time portal you know just have some kind of evidence of this you know
what I thought there were a ton of theories out there I think you just added two more to to the possible
theories but there's no evidence of those so they're not well and you know what I one sad thing well I mean this
this whole case is tragic and sad but when I was doing research for Brandon's case our old friends thinking sideways
covered the case oh yeah and it brought a tear to my eye Devin I listened to the thinking sideways in and
basically what they said in Brandon's case regarding alien abduction that this was kind of funny they were saying that
Joe and Steve there was no crop circles if if he were abducted by aliens there would have been crop circles and I'd
obviously I don't know that to be true but I found I found that to be funny on their show and I missed their show and I
missed those those guys yeah so let's get into some of the much more likely theories here's one that that is
constantly in this case it says Brandon tried and some of this is ripped straight off of the Internet Brandon
tried some bad meth that night and had a bad reaction to drugs and/or alcohol that he have he consumed and he got so
disoriented enough so that he got totally lost well we know he was lost we have evidence of that so this one I
think they mean lost for good right so phone gets disconnected he says the old [ __ ] maybe those [ __ ] isn't that big of
a deal he keeps walking he goes further it gets even more lost that's a possibility
mm-hmm I think the difficult thing here is I don't think you'd be so impaired or so
unhealthy that by the time and yes this is a rural area but by the time that the
the Sun would come up up I would think that Brandon would get to a road and at least see somebody pass him by
and possibly could get help mmm so that's the only reason that's the only problem I have with this theory you know
in this theory in itself almost seems cut and pasted from Brandon Lawson's case right Brandon same first name tried
some bad meth that night mm-hmm that's that's a theory in both of those cases and what I want to just like
scream from from the top of the mountain is this shouldn't be any news flash for
anybody it's all bad math good math all right just don't do math that's what we should call our band good math well
here's a right band the van campaign was was this year maybe next year's campaign
is don't do math bad math right so again this is ripped straight off of the Internet it's total speculation but
here's some things here it's been thrown out there that Brandon maybe tried drugs
that night possibly meth and then behaved just as Brandon Lawson did disoriented and confused possibly even
seeing things now we referenced a pipe that was found in Brandon Swanson's car the pipe found in his car is of unknown
origin these are the words of sheriff doll that I hope I'm saying that right it's da HL he said that it is not known
whether the pipe even belonged to Brandon police in my opinion must not have given it much weight because they
have publicly stated that they do not believe that Brandon was impaired that night the problem here though meth is a
real possibility apparently this area of Minnesota is so it's no stranger to meth troubles in
fact the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension website contains two options for public access one search
public criminal history the other one is search methamphetamine offender registry
it's there's so much of it that they have to give a whole category to it on its website so hourly there there is a
problem in that area well it's 2019 there's a problem in this whole country so rekt so yeah we don't
have to worry about that that's that's a possibility and again you could have done something at one of these parties
because we assume that he went to two different parties so there's two different accounts of possibly where he
was at and is in you know and his party Ness of his his level part enos then that that night but we have a situation
where he's a little lost he's a little confused tries to call some of his friends they don't answer I think if he
is on something he wasn't so messed up that he wasn't afraid to call his parents right or so messed up the that
there's no there's nobody inside there's nobody involved in this case that is saying we believe he was so messed up
that that's what led to his demise yeah and think about the everybody on the outside is going
he probably just did some meth and ended up hallucinating but we have the father
we have the mother we have the sheriff we have friends around of none of them are going yeah he was so effed up that
he ended up God knows where and we can get into that right now because like I said we have these two accounts of these
parties yes maybe the first 60 days or so or maybe even less than that but what was he drinking not really for sure I
don't think he was drinking too much maybe you didn't want to get in trouble maybe he smoked some weed maybe they did
some more than that I think if they would have done more than that as time would have went on I think his friends
would have came out and said you know what we didn't want to get him in trouble first but it's important for us to let
you know that he he smoked meth that night right right that has not happened and then I think the other thing that
has not happened is with the Brandon Lawson case for example we have a nine one one call that makes zero sense right
and that be and we have a we have a situation here with Brandon Swanson where he's talking not only to his
father but also to his mother and both of them are saying that he sounded fine right now he now that could be he
sounded fine for it being that late at night and being a little confused on where he was at but I don't think
there's really any any indication that he was on some psychotic well that he's hallucinating he's totally off his
rocker here right it sound like he's cuz he talked to his father for forty seven
minutes that's after other phone calls with his mom and dad right forty seven minutes
that's a tough time to try to play the sober game but and look I think you and I could agree that he's probably
somewhat impaired I mean it's late at night we know he's had a couple of drinks but
right the thing I want to really point out here I would say and I'm just gonna put this out there I would say he's as
impaired from the alcohol as he is from just being tired and well and here's one
thing that I want to I want to really go into and maybe not stay on it too long but one thing that I really looked at
when looking at this case was okay I go into a lot of these with with the idea that there may be foul play so let's at
least look at that angle okay if there was foul play who had the means in the opportunity to be involved in that foul
play well in this situation we have mom and dad who are saying they spoke to this boy there there boy shortly before
he vanished forever so one thing I did and I apologized the family but when I went into this case looking into it I
wanted to know as much as I could find out about mom and dad in their search efforts and what
took place the night that he went missing and since then regarding mom and dad yeah I mean but that's what you have
to do right and what I can tell you from from what I've spent two weeks on looking at mom and dad I can tell you
they only have one agenda in this entire huge story and that is to find their son
they have at no point I don't I've never got the feeling at any point that these
are parents that are going well yeah he was really messed up but we don't want the memory of Brandon to be that we want
the memory of him to be good and wholesome no no I'm telling you his parents the vibe I get captain is that
if whatever would help them find their son they will say it they will do it right they don't care about public
opinion these people have spent years they've spent time they've spent money lots of money some of these searches
were volunteers and a lot of this stuff they they spent their own hard-earned money trying to find their son and we
all know somebody that has struggled with addiction of some level and you know their parents and most of the time
those parents do not shy away from their kids problems so I don't think it's like
you said you're gonna have these overly concerned parents on trying to find their kid but they're not willing to
tell the truth I just doesn't make a lot of sense right and the other thing too which is you know people compare this
case to Brandon Lawson but they also the the meth believers or the people that state that he did some bad drugs on this
night they often point to the case of Michael Wamsley and Jenelle hor nickel this was this was a very famous case in
Nebraska the two were very high on meth again all methods bad meth they suffered
delusions and they were calling 911 some snow they ended up freezing to death just within two miles of their truck
again though this kind of points back to me that mom and dad don't think he's messed up this sheriff doesn't think
that he's messed up the friends don't think that Brandon's messed up and what happened in this other case that
everybody keeps pointing to they found the bodies they don't find Brandon we don't know where Brandon Swanson is have
a issue though with with the whole car thing and again I don't know the road that well and so getting to the point
where your car is stuck that concerns me and again I think that leads to being impaired somewhat with just tiredness
and then also being someone impaired by the alcohol maybe enough to just go yeah
I don't I can't get out of this mess right now so I gotta I got to start walking take off on foot mm-hmm but
again I don't know the road that well so it could be just you know happenstance where here's this kid that wanted to
turn around or when to do something with this car and it just so happened to be the wrong place to do that at and that
yes even if you're sober you'll get hung up on it yes I would think so in looking at pictures that I
found of the site and of the area that's what it looks like to me did okay so these are these are long country roads
where there's not much turnoff you there's not like a spot where you're like oh I'll just pull in here and back
out and turn around right this is the in especially not a lot of houses on these
on these roads and especially think of think of yourselves out there right okay we've all been in a situation where I'm
handsome where we're frustrated where we might be in a hurry or we're lost or turned around or whatever and we're
frustrated and and we do something out of haste that in the end we realized was just a dumb stupid move from right and
the thing that I think here is looking at these pictures it appears to me there's not any turn offs and he's like
you know what I got to turn around I think he just made a bad turn I think I think there's ditches on both sides of
this road and maybe a little dust off it so he had a little too aggressive yeah it's a
narrow road and I think he thought he could make the turn but he didn't and also if your drive is taking a little
bit longer or it's such a frustrating thing to be going and I going the right way what the hell's going on and like
you said that maybe just a little too aggressive and that stops you from being able to drive your car we rollin another
theory captain is that Brandon could have been hit by a car mmm many people like this theory and
believe that possibly the oh [ __ ] that he uttered was in response to an approaching vehicle for this to be the
case obviously whoever hit Brandon had to take his body and the body was taken away to hide after this accidental death
okay so the the reason why I like this is that we have evidence that the dog goes to the river get gets out of the
river goes down another path kind of in ends its search or ends the scent kind of in the road mm-hmm so that would make
you leave you know that's evidence to show that this theory makes some sense correct uh you know I've heard this I
found this to be quite strange some of the searchers were saying you know the the dogs can only follow the scent for
so long yeah I believe that I believe that too but I don't fully comprehend it and in what I'm getting at is so so what
they're pointing out is that at this spot on the road where the dog lose the scent where the dogs lose the scent
right is because they've been following it for so long they they point out that that doesn't actually mean that the
scent went away or right that they branded that something happened to Brandon in that spot the problem with
with look there are several holes in this theory I like this theory too at first but when I really started thinking
about it I I I distance myself from this theory because because of the holes one if
something happened to Brandon at that spot it's not like they can't find that spot they were fled to that spot by the
dogs there should be some you would think there would be some indication that something happened there possibly
blood or anything else right and we know like let's just we can assume that these
people searching okay well here's roughly or the scent stops we're gonna look you know before that and after that
again we have no blood evidence we have no we also have no evidence of the hem telling his father all there's this car
coming up on me there's none of that there's gnats where that's where the theory falls apart okay he's saying to
his father just before he says all [ __ ] he's describing that he's walking along a
fence line that he's off of the road he's going through a field and that he can hear water so this doesn't sound
like an area that you're going that a car would be driving through car would be on the road if this was an accident
this car is not driving in the middle of the field this is between are driving on
top of a fence right so so if if that in fact is true then that part that makes the theory impossible now let's pretend
go back to what you were saying let's pretend that Brandon was walking on the road if here's the problem with that his
father is driving around looking for him there is no way in hell that Brandon does not say to his father oh I see you
you just turned I'm right up here do you see me I see your headlights he would if
he saw a car he would very likely assume it to be his father first or even if he
didn't assume it to be his father he would say wait there's somebody coming or he would these are things he would
say to his father we could have evidence of that the same scenario is that we have evidence that he's telling his
father I'm walking along this fence line I hear water oh [ __ ] and maybe that ol [ __ ] is I fell into
water I get out of the water I keep going down the path I'm not on the phone with my
father that's where I get hit by a car that's a that's very likely to the reason why I don't like this serie is we
have no evidence of tire treads no like a sign of a vehicle trying to stop no sign of a vehicle trying to speed up no
blood evidence and this would be dark so yeah to be able to clean up that blood evidence would be nearly impossible the
other thing I don't like is we know that he had a cell phone on him we don't have
you know a broken cell phone somewhere well in some people regarding this theory even point out what would be the
probability that if you hit a total stranger in the middle of the night of it on an accident that you even decide
to take the body with you and clean up the this is like you would just drive away right a lot of people point out
that that there is a certain percentage that would just continue along their way
so I it's an interesting theory to ponder but I put the probability level not very high because yeah right right I
know as as armchair detective or even just a law enforcement it has to put this on the list of things that we have
to dive into and rabbit holes we need to go down it's with any missing person case when we have nothing at the end of
the day you have to go did this person run away did this did this you know did this person want to start a new life we
these are questions that we have to keep asking ourselves over and over and and and I think this is an important
question to ask I think that there's just zero evidence of this the other another theory is that Brandon met with
foul play now this theory encompasses several possibilities but but most likely two possibilities mm-hmm one
Brandon fell victim to a random killer or that someone who knew him followed him and there was some type of
confrontation or ambush and Brandon was killed let's address these in turn okay first the random killer
this theory is that Brandon was unlucky enough to stumble upon a opportunistic killer who murdered him and disposed of
his body we have to consider what are the chances that Brandon would encounter some random psycho killer in rural
Minnesota on farmland in unused roads in the middle of the night right this is remote desolate area with rugged terrain
at 3:00 in the morning now an offshoot of this theory of the random killer theory is that and this is probably well
definitely more plausible in my opinion is that Brandon was on private land and maybe stumbled upon a pissed-off farmer
yeah killed him and hit his body right or this is an area that you shouldn't be out in it's like it's like my
neighborhood right at 3 o'clock in the morning I know all my neighbors you shouldn't be driving down my road right
yeah it's it's not good so in this case you got a kid that's lost maybe the farmer doesn't know he's lost but you're
on my property if you're on my property at this time of the day I think you're a
bad hearse is nothing but bad right so therefore you know you're gonna be met with my shotgun right the farmer doesn't
have to be a psycho the the farmer might be scared and assume that you are a psycho yeah your your your outside of my
house creeping around in the middle of the night now that the thing here is this this is a pub scene another
offshoot of this theory that I have seen very rarely discussed so I do want to point this out as well this is an
interesting one that possibly Brandon fell into an illegal booby trap intended for poachers or for thieves or for you
know any number of reasons right and then eventually was was killed trapped there or was killed by the
person that set the trap yeah again you'd think well illegal booby-trap I don't know how that works well the
booty track yeah what that what their set what this is suggesting is that somebody has set some type of traps on
their property these could be for animals they could be for against people anything it's I wouldn't throw it out of
the realm of possibility it does lead to the idea of why they've not found any evidence because this theory would
suggest that somebody then later covered up whatever took place yeah but again it
doesn't have to be illegal it could be you know if somebody's coming through this field it's nothing but bad right so
he gets hurt by one of these things they go out there they go again the only reason why you'd be out here is bad they
take care of Brandon they kill Brandon and then find out later it was just a lost kid and then right and when you
have to be kind of psycho to to come up with those two want to do that mm-hmm the other thought here captain is
hunters maybe somebody's out there hunting either he's in yeah we talked about on boys of boys on the tracks
they're out spotting for animals so yeah but you should know that this I mean if it's accidental shooting you should
know it's not an animal because this person was talking to somebody on the phone see that's where I think an
intruder thought you know like protecting your land makes a little more sense because you would hear this kid
talking and so maybe you would start assuming that he's talking to somebody else that's with him which would get you
you'd raise your suspicions a lot higher you know I do want to go back to the idea that maybe this wasn't a stranger
that it wasn't that there was foul play but the offender is not a stranger because we really should address
that there are several message boards online containing post where they're talking about local rumors regarding
what took place in this case and people suggesting that Brandon either owed some
people money for vehicles or drugs it varies depending on the posts that you see and that he was actually targeted
and killed as a result of these debts yeah it's an interesting theory and an interesting rumor but do we have
evidence that he owed anybody money other than those rumors no there doesn't seem to be anything that's backing that
up and again what's confusing about those rumors and why I think they may just be rumors is they're citing two
different things that he has a debt for right right it's not like you know in some of the posters stating that he had
a debt because of drugs other posts are stating he had a debt because of vehicles
I think the vehicle thing would be if there was any truth to that it seems like mom and dad would be like yeah he
was have some different vehicles and all these strange trucks and cars and whatnot so and the other problem with
that too is if you in fact believe that he's he's going all [ __ ] because he sees
somebody that he's afraid of then you have to believe why wouldn't he say anything to his father about seeing
headlights seeing a vehicle coming toward him that did not take place so again that doesn't it makes it not ring
true I don't think either of those rumors are true I think it's just people trying to come up with some rationale of
what happened and and even if you could prove that he owed somebody you know bought a little weed from somebody and
owed him 20 bucks or something like that I don't think there's any evidence of Brandon you know being a hardcore drug
user but again you know history back up quite a bit of debt before somebody wants to kill you yeah
so if you're buying from the captain you owe me ten bucks it's ten bucks I'm coming after ya no I just don't think
there's a lot of evidence of that and again like how how much money would you have to owe somebody on a car it seems
like it's almost like somebody came up with this idea and yes it's possible but it's also possible that you owe somebody
money you know your buddy a thousand bucks and he didn't come after you and you just happen to go missing huh
well there are two things that I believe do tend to point to Brandon being the victim of foul play one Brandon is
listed in ViCAP as a missing person as we brought up in Episode one ViCAP stands for the violent Criminal
Apprehension program there is not a long list of missing persons on ViCAP last time I checked ViCAP there were 64
missing persons listed on there and what people will point to in this case is that they believe that there is a reason
why he would be on there on this short list right meaning that someone whoever put him on there believes that violence
was involved in his disappearance people point to this because they wonder if the
FBI in fact has reason to believe that Brandon was the victim of a violent crime
the other thing regarding this too is that the ViCAP entry for Brandon contains one interesting tidbit of
information that we did mention earlier his vehicle the Chevy Lumina was found with the doors open and the keys missing
we can presume that Brandon took his keys but then why would he leave the doors open that it seems very strange to
me was somebody else actually in the vehicle or did someone come along later perhaps the following day and open up
the car you know looking for things to steal or for whatever reason we also have Sheriff Vacek
hee-hoo definitely considered and left open the possibility of foul play saying quote the only thing would have
been if someone was in the shadows and they got him that way he said he said he can't say that there wasn't someone else
out there but adding that he can't find any evidence of it stating that cadaver dogs and searchers he explained should
have found a body or some evidence if Swanson had succumbed to the elements adding I can't explain why clothing
belongings wouldn't surface after all these searches and after all this time now in episode 3 captain we will tear
through some of these theories get into some more but before we go I want to leave you with Brandon's mother and NAT
Swanson what she told the st. cloud times she said her greatest fear is that people will forget Brandon
she says talk about Brandon Brandon is a real person he touched a lot of lives and don't forget him he has a smile that
lights up his whole face he is big hearted and kind and he really believed in doing the right thing
[Music] so much more to get to stick around for part three tomorrow in the garage thanks
for listening thanks for telling your mother thanks for telling your brother thanks
for telling your sister thanks for sharing on social media all right and everybody make sure you be
good be kind and don't let [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-quie4-bf011b

Brandon Swanson /// Part 2 /// 333 Part 2 of 3 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com This week we take a deep dive into a fascinating missing persons case. Brandon Swanson went missing in May of 2008. The strangest part of his case, he was on the phone with his father when he vanished. Beer of the Week - Budweiser by Anneuser Busch Garage Grade - 3 out of 5 Bottle Caps This week’s show is sponsored by: www.GreenLightCard.com/Garage - Greenlight is a Debit card for kids that parents manage with a handy app www.HelloFresh.com/Garage80 - Use code GARAGE80 for $80 off your first month! www.ThirdLove.com/Garage - get 15% off your first purchase! www.Stamps.com - click on the microphone and enter code GARAGE for a special offer that includes a 4 week trial plus FREE postage and a digital scale!

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Brief Summary

Brandon Swanson's disappearance leads to extensive searches and multiple theories, with no evidence found after years of investigation.

Key points

Brandon Swanson's Disappearance. Exploring the mysterious case of Brandon Swanson, who vanished under puzzling circumstances.
Search Efforts Intensify. Investigators utilize search dogs and extensive searches in hopes of finding Brandon.
Conflicting Evidence. Discrepancies arise regarding the scent tracking of Brandon's whereabouts.
Sheriff's Doubts. Sheriff Gazecki expresses skepticism about Brandon's drowning in the river.
New Search Techniques. A private search company employs advanced methods to locate Brandon.
The Search for Brandon. Over 500 volunteers searched for Brandon, covering 120 square miles over 120 days.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The yellow medicine river could hold some secrets.

Discussion about the river's potential evidence

9:02WatchSep 11, 2019

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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