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

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a friend [Music] this week we are drinking anheiser Bush's Budweiser an American logger 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
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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 denz in forny Texas next up we have a shout to Michelle in San Juan capestrano California and a big
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last but certainly not least we have Stevie and Bay City Michigan everybody we just mentioned went to True Crim
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[Music] crime we covered the details and 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 High 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 kneed deep up to 15 ft 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 veki quote there are 2 miles of the river in that area and it took 6 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 scent to The River's Edge according to Brandon's mother Annette Swanson one Blood Hound followed a scent
from the stranded car down a gravel road to a farm she said this was a long trail
it was about 3 miles this long trail is what led to the yellow Medicine River and nette 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 lion and Lincoln counties mhm 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
sent path that ended into nothingness investigators are not convinced that Brandon drowned in the River Sheriff
feki 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 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 trying 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 they've actually brought in
kadav dogs dogs that are looking for human remains right the problem here is again Captain the the yellow 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 the problem is we
have we have no evidence of 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 and net 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 goad 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 reporter we don't have 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 M 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 1 and2 miles north of Route 68 so on the map if you're looking at it go north of Route 6 68 and
continue North past 390th Street on my map I placed a pin on Lian Lincoln Road at the halfway mark
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 in Lind via him walking there he says he sees the
town of Lind 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 southeast of Lind 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 Lion 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 quar of a mile and then veers off the
driveway and continues on 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 would that be safe to say
right and 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 me medicine River traveling Northwest but but how how much is the
distance between the car and and 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 think this is
important be 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 blood hound 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 in 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 not know at all you know he may just take the simplest way to and from school
and 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 you might be able to go well I I go down this main path and then I head down one country road and then 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 wouldn't 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's 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 town L right should be Lind oh but it's not Lind 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 red wood I'm sorry the the North Branch of the yellow medicine river runs into
Porter now if he were to walk Northwest in to Lind again he would have to cross a major road 23 instead of 68 mhm
there's another river that runs that direction into the town of Lind 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's still going to be confused he's going
[ __ ] I'm right 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 want to go through some of the search I want to go through
some of the search efforts here Captain but to 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 blog spot.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 hassie who has really been the
one that's LED these these uh searches and there is a website the searchfor brandon.
blogspot.com this website is 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 Equis search 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 hassie
MH 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 srrr MN 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 nonprofit
organization that teaches technical rescue skills to Public Safety providers well they're going through 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 and I
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 returned lost persons basically taking
whatever evidence they have here we got the car the sent 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 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 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 toal search area of
98.5 squ mil the median distance is 1.3 mil 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 1 to 3 milph yielding a 1 to 3 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 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 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 what do we say 6 square miles so roughly 100 square miles that's a huge air 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 this show is sponsored by better help do
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to answer call us at 1888 [Music] Freedom all right we're back cheers mate cheers to you captain 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 Gina Gina badass yeah regarding serial
killer Felix Vil so she had some kind of thing to go to at one of her children's
uh schools or at one of their classes she wore the ban 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 it's a life lesson for for I guess that class well
we're going to start uh sponsoring please um police departments to go into the schools just like the Dare program
we're starting the ban the van program B 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 5year anniversary of Brandon's disappearance twin cities.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 hassie who says it's
by far the biggest search that he has ever been involved in in terms of length of time number of mission
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 kadaver dogs consistently hit
on the creek leading Searchers to believe that the waters from wherever Brandon's body is located somewhere in
the Watershed where Poss 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
hassie 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 kadaver 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 MH 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 Eric 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 if 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 another
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 uhhuh there's a lot of them right because Brandon's disappearance is it's very frustrating
and it's my serious 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
M uh but we're going to try to go through some of them yeah you could read stuff about you know possible abducted
by aliens um that was first on my list alien or some other strange abduction or disappearance 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 ruled that 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 Moth Man or he he went into a time portal uh you know just have some kind of evidence of
this I 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 Devon 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 Devon 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 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 Andor alcohol that
he have he consumed and he got so disoriented enough so that he got totally lost mhm well we know he was
lost we have evidence of that so this they mean lost for good right so phone gets disconnected he says oh [ __ ] maybe
the old [ __ ] isn't that big of a deal he keeps walking he goes further gets even
more lost that's a possibility mhm 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 pass him by and possibly
could get help so that's the only reason that's the only problem I have with this
Theory you know and this theory in itself almost seems cut and pasted from Brand Lawson's case right Brandon same
first name tried some bad meth that night mhm 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 meth yeah
there is there is no good meth all right just don't do meth that's what we should
call our ban 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 meth bad meth 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 do that I hope I'm saying that right it's D
AHL 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 right 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 2019 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 and again you could have done something um at one of these
parties cuz 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 paress of his his level of Partin that 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 was on something he wasn't so messed up that he wasn't afraid to call his parents
right 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 the everybody on the outside
is going well he probably just did some meth and 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 you 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 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 Brandon Lawson case for example we have a 911 call that makes zero
sense right and that PE 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 being that late at night and being a little confused on where he was at M but I
don't think there's really any any indication that he was on some psychotic um well then he's
hallucinating and he's totally off as rocker here right it's not like he's cuz 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 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 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 I apologized 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 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 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 mhm 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 hornickle 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 911
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 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 concerns me and again I think
that leads to being impaired somewhat with um just tired Ness and then also being somewhat impaired by the the
alcohol um maybe enough to just go I don't I can't get out of this mess right now so I got to I got to start walking
take off on foot mhm um but again I don't know the road that well so it could be just you know happen
St where here's this kid that went 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 if you're sober you're going to get hung up on it yes I I would think so and
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 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 and especially 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 man
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 turnoff 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 pissed off and
so he he was a little too aggressive yeah it's a a narrow road and I think he thought he could make the turn but he
didn't and also if your drive is taking you 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's 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 rolling another theory Captain is that Brandon could have been hit by a car mhm
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 way 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 um ends its search or ends the scent kind of in the road mhm 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 that they point out that that doesn't actually mean that the scent
went away or that they that 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 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 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
going to 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 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 that a car would be driving through a car would be on the road if
this was was an accident this car is not driving in the middle of the field 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 I'm walking along this fence line I
hear water old [ __ ] and maybe that old [ __ ] is I felt 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 the is we have no evidence of 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 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 SC 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 of like you said right as a armchair detective or even just a law enforcement
has to put this on the list of things that we have to dive into and 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 uh 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 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 mhm one Brandon fell victim to 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 Psy 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 3: 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 someone shot and killed him and hit his body right or this is a area that you
shouldn't be out in it's like it's like my neighborhood right at 3:00 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 M 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 going to 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 you're outside of my house creeping around in the middle of the night now the the thing here is this
this is 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 elal 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' think illegal booby trap I I don't know how that works well booty
track yeah what what they're say 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' 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 mhm and then right and you have to be
kind of of psycho to to come up with those uh to want to do that mhm the the other
thought here Captain is Hunters maybe somebody's out there hunting out a 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
shoot 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 uh which would get you you You' raise um your suspicions a lot higher you know
I do want to go back to the idea that maybe this was wasn't a stranger that it wasn't 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 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 posts are 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 always had all these 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 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 hardcore drug user uh but again
usually you have to rack up quite a bit of debt before somebody wants to kill you yeah not so not if you're buying
from the captain you owe me 10 bucks it'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 th000 bucks and he didn't come after you and you just happened to go missing
MH 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 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 V vience 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 assume 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 vasi 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 caver dogs and Searchers he
explain 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
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 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 [Music] thing 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 [Music] [Applause] live the Angie's List you know and trust is
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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's disappearance is examined, focusing on search efforts, theories, and his last known movements.

Key points

The Disappearance of Brandon Swanson. Exploring the mysterious circumstances surrounding Brandon Swanson's last known whereabouts.
Search Efforts for Brandon. A detailed look at the exhaustive search efforts after Brandon's disappearance.
Sheriff's Conflicting Statements. The sheriff's evolving beliefs about Brandon's fate raise questions.
Scientific Search Techniques. Jeff Hassie uses scientific methods to narrow down search areas for missing persons.
Massive Search Efforts for Brandon. Over 500 volunteers searched for Brandon, covering 120 square miles.
The Case Remains Open. The BCA continues to investigate Brandon's case, with new leads coming in.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This buds for you, Minnesota!

Cheers to listeners from Minnesota

2:41WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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