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

[Music] thank you welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is The Music Man the host and taco connoisseur he is the
captain it is Taco Tuesday [ __ ] it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling
a friend [Music] 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 roof
deck located in the left field corner of the ballpark it's the ultimate Minnesota
Twins Outdoor Experience it's the king of beers that's right so to all the listeners tuning in from the great state
of Minnesota we say this bud's for you garage grade three 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 dines in Forney Texas
next up we have a shout to Michelle and San Juan Capistrano California and a big
shout out to Tiffany in Buford Georgia and next a big long distance cheers and big thank you to 10 M from Seattle and
last but certainly not least we have Stevie and Bay City Michigan everybody we just mentioned went to True Crime
garage.com and donated to this week's beer fund and for that we give you a big thanks yeah make sure after you donate
to be calm and be patient because we're going to get to you might take a little time but when you hear you know yourself
chill yourself chill yourself out it's going to take a little bit of time but once you hear your name you're going
to get excited so excited that you wee 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 and 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 River's 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 vaseki 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 Annette Swanson one Bloodhound followed a cent
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 that 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 into and then back out
of the river and then continued along a scent path that ended into nothingness investigators are not convinced that
Brandon drowned in the river Sheriff viseki 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 searcher's 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 right
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 drowned or you know and remains in the river to this
day right but the problem is we have we have no evidence we have no evidence of a lot of things so I I do want to go
to a comment that I saw by his mother Annette 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 dog's 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 difficult because we don't know how the dog tracked 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 reporter 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 okay so you say detailed description detailed report I I
want to try a little exercise here okay 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 okay 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 so
okay here's what we do know dogs tracked Brandon from his abandoned car remember
his car was found in Lion Lincoln County Road one and a half miles north of Route
68. so on the map if you're looking at it 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 but right between
390th Street and 160th Avenue so we know from the conversation he had with his folks Brandon thinks he is near
Lind 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 lind 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 south east of land
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 Lent so again if the dogs are right from his
car Brandon walked half a mile south on Lyon Lincoln Road and then turned right onto
390th Street He Walked on 390th 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 um 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 as he
believes that he's making his way in that direction that he wants to go so now he's 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 guess 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 he's not taking a direct cut right to where we have him now oh
well I think this is important because we do have a little bit of a Time Gap um 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 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 there 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 or dogs lose the scent really any number of things could have happened here
to make this Trail end the the scent vanishes he starts off in a very roundabout 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 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
are not not exactly these country roads but country roads in general you might be able to go well I I go down
this main path and then I head down one country road and that gets me to another
town 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 we know
he's not where he thinks he is and and what I think is working against him here in this 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 right should be land oh but it's not
land it's Porter but it's 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 Redwood 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 there's another river
that runs that direction into the town of land that's the Redwood river right that's if he knew the area so well yeah
if he knows this area really well he's going well still going to be confused he's going [ __ ] I'm right there's the
town of lend 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 I think we
can we can debate that here in a little bit but I want to go through some of the
decisions 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 um some of the sources for our research here we have Footprints at The River's
Edge blogspot.com 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
Hassey who has really been the one that's LED these these uh searches and there is a website the search for
brandon.blogspot.com this website but who's this guy he he's in charge we'll get into him in a minute but okay uh 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.blogspot.com that is basically a website that reads like individual journal 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 equisearch 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 and 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 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 and 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 10 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 Hassey hassie 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 srrmn that's that's a handful there that's what we should call the show yeah hassie
is the founder of Midwest Technical Rescue Training Associates a non-profit organization that teaches technical
rescue skills to Public Safety providers well they're going to do some kind of scientific and mathematic equations as
far as you know the average human can walk a mile in in 15 minutes things like that to kind of narrow down the search a
little more thank you Captain and I want to talk about this because we talk so much about criminal profiling on the
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
descent Trail the phone call with Dad saying oh [ __ ] and then the car call drops
they're going to take that information and layering layering that with information in 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 hassie says and 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
5.6 miles from the last known position this is 95 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's situation walks one to
three miles per hour yielding a one to three mile search ring or 3.1 to 28.3 square miles this is
based off of he's in the car he's walking for 47 minutes while talking on the phone to his father right and then
he says oh [ __ ] 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 old [ __ ] 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 98 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] all right we're back cheers cheers to you captain Oh I want to give another cheers here I got a fantastic
message from a very long time friend of the show remember Gina private investigator down
in Texas who helped us out with the dark past episodes yeah uh Gina Gina badass yeah regarding serial killer Felix Vale
so she had some kind of thing to go to at one of her children's uh schools or one of their classes she wore the band
the van t-shirt to the school she said that the teachers loved it and the kids were very confused
she's hoping it's a life lesson for for I guess that class well we're gonna start uh sponsoring please police
departments to go into the schools just like the Dare program we're starting the
band the van program in the van program so regarding the searches Captain 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 twincities.com discuss 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 Hassey who says it's by far the biggest search that he has ever been
involved in in terms of length of time 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 consistently hit on the creek leading Searchers to believe that
the waters from wherever Brandon's body is located somewhere in the Watershed were
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 cent
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 Hassey 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 end quote so we're again we're
assuming those are cadaver dogs and not scent dogs that they used before correct
yes this is according to cadaver dogs they are hitting on areas Northwest of the town of Porter 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 now another search was conducted just last year in May of 2018 and this was
um 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 Derek Woodford BCA special agent said quote the case is
open and just last week I got another lead or two sometimes you need a break in the case all it takes sometimes is
one thing so we're not giving up end quote and we talked about this a little bit on off the Record uh recently where
uh if 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 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
uh I think we it's a big topic on Reddit yeah and and there's so many so much so
out there that we can't list all of them uh but we're going to try to go through
some of them yeah you could read stuff about you know possible uh abducted by aliens uh that was first on my list
alien or some other strange abduction or disappearance [Music] 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
um 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 right maybe I'd have a little more weight to it but I think sometimes in these missing
person case they go he was probably walking down the road and and Bigfoot got him you know or the
aliens took him or um the Mothman or he he went into a time portal uh 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 I brought a tear to my uh
I listened to the thinking sideways and and basically what they said in Brandon's case regarding alien abduction
this was kind of funny uh they were saying Devin Joe and Steve there was no crop circles
if if he were abducted by aliens there would have been crop circles and I 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 the the 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 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 [Music] well we know he was lost we have
evidence of that phone gets disconnected he says oh [ __ ] maybe the old [ __ ] isn't that big of a
deal he keeps walking he goes further he gets even more lost that's a possibility I think the
difficult thing here is I I don't think he'd be so impaired or so unhealthy that by the time
um 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 um passing by and possibly could get help 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
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 yeah there is there is no good math all
right just don't do meth that's what we should call our band good math well here's all right ban the van
campaign was uh 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 um 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 d-a-h-l 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 clearly there there is a problem in that area
well it's 2018 there's a problem in this whole country so correct so yeah we don't have to worry about that that's
that's a possibility uh and again you could have done something um at one of these parties because we
assumed 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 partiness of his his level of partiness 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 that 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 uh 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 none of none of
them are going yeah he was so effed up that 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 or
maybe even less than that but what was he drinking not really for sure uh I don't think he was drinking too
much maybe he didn't want to get him 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 uh would have went on I think his friends would have came out and said you
know what uh we didn't want to get him in trouble at first but it's important for us to let you know that he he's he
smoked meth that night right right uh that has not happened uh and then I think the other thing that has not
happened is with the brand and Lawson case for example we have a 9-1-1 call that makes
zero sense right and that P and we have a um 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 um 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
um well that he's hallucinating and he's totally off his rocker here right it's not like he's because he talked to his
father for 47 minutes that's after other phone calls with his mom and dad right 47 minutes that's a tough time to try to
play the sober game right 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 the thing I want
to really point out here I would say and I'm just going to put this out there I would say he's as impaired from the
alcohol as he is from uh 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 and 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 their their boy shortly before he
vanished forever so one thing I did and I apologize to 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 and their search efforts and what
took place the night that he went missing and and since then regarding Mom and Dad yeah I mean but that 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 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 going to have these overly concerned parents on trying to find their kid but
they're not willing to tell the truth it 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 Janelle hornickel this was
this was a very famous case in Nebraska the two were very high on meth again all meth is bad
meth they suffered delusions and they were calling 9-1-1 multiple times reporting that their truck was
stuck in 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
the 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 I have an 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 that concerns me and again I think
that leads to being impaired somewhat with um just tiredness and then also being
somewhat impaired by the the alcohol maybe enough to just go uh I don't I can't get out of this mess right now so
I gotta I gotta start walking take it off on foot um 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 went to do
something with his car and it just so happened to be the wrong place to do that at and that even even if you're
sober you're gonna get hung up on it yes I 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 that okay so these are these are long Country Roads where
there's not much turn off you know 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 and especially not a lot 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 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 gotta 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 pissed off so he he was 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 that it's such a frustrating
thing to to be going am I going the right way what the hell is going on like you said that that maybe just a little
too aggressive and and that stops you from um being able to drive your car we're rolling
another theory Captain is that Brandon could have been hit by a car 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 gets gets out of the river goes down another path kind of in um
ends its search or ends the scent kind of in the road so that would make you lead you know that's evidence to
show that this Theory makes some sense correct I 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 and 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 or 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 right that they the brand 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 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 led 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 or anything else right and we know like let's just we can assume that
these people search and go okay well here's roughly where 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 him telling
his father oh there's this car coming up on me there's none of that there's that's
where that's where the theory falls apart okay he's saying to his father just before he says oh [ __ ] 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 the car would be on the road if this was it was an accident this
car is not driving in the middle of the field this is between 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 uh 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 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
old [ __ ] 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 too the
reason why I don't like this series we have no evidence of Tire Treads no like uh sign of a vehicle trying to stop uh
no sign of a vehicle trying to speed up um no blood evidence and this would be dark so yeah to be
able to clean up that blood evidence uh 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 and 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 on an accident that that you even decide to take the body with you and clean up the the scene
right 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 I put the probability level
not very high because yeah right right no evidence as an armchair detective or even just a law enforcement 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 in case when we have nothing at the end of the day you have to go did this person
run away did this uh did this you know did this person want to start a new life these are questions that we have to keep
asking ourselves over and over 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 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 intern 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 and unused roads in the middle
of the night right this is remote desolate area with rugged terrain at three 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 someone shot and 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 three 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 uh of the day I think you're a bad person it's nothing but bad
right so therefore uh 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 you're you're outside
of my house creeping around in the middle of the night now the the thing here is this this is a another offshoot
of this theory that I have seen um 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 would think a illegal booby trap I I don't know how that works well booty
track yeah what the what they're said 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 um 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 um 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 uh Brandon they kill Brandon and then find out later it
was just a lost kid and then right and you have to be kind of psycho to to come up with those uh
to want to do that the other thought here Captain is Hunters maybe somebody's out there
hunting either the season 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 I think an intruder
thought uh you know like protecting your land makes a little more sense because you 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
um your suspicion's 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 posts 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 post 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 now 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 you
always 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 oh [ __ ] 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 he 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 uh but again quite a bit of debt before somebody wants to kill you yeah so not if you're
buying from the captain you owe me 10 bucks that's 10 bucks I'm coming after you
um 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 you owe your buddy a thousand bucks
and he didn't come after you and and you just happened to go missing 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 VI cap as a
missing person as we brought up in episode 1 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 vi cap 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 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 or for whatever reason we also have Sheriff vaseki who
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 three 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 Annette Swanson what she told the Saint 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 live
thank you [Music]

Brandon Swanson /// Part 2 /// 333

Part 2 of 3

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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

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Brief Summary

Brandon Swanson disappeared in 2008; extensive searches found no trace, leading to various theories about his fate.

Key points

The Disappearance of Brandon Swanson. Brandon Swanson vanished under mysterious circumstances, leading to extensive searches and speculation.
Search Dogs Lead the Way. Investigators brought in search dogs, which tracked Brandon's scent to a river's edge.
No Evidence Found. Despite multiple searches, no trace of Brandon has ever been found.
Theories on Brandon's Fate. Conflicting reports raise questions about whether Brandon drowned or left the area.
Scientific Search Methods. A private search company used scientific methods to determine search areas for Brandon.
Search Techniques for Missing Persons. Experts use statistics and evidence to prioritize search areas for missing individuals.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Chill yourself out!

2:38WatchNov 21, 2022

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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