Brian Shaffer /// 20 Years Missing /// Timeline /// Part 2 | Forensic Files

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Picture this. It's the end of a long week. You're unwinding in the tub, listening to your favorite true crime
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>> [music] >> I'm your host, Nick Rhoades. It's good to be seen, and it's good to
see you. Off the Record. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend. True crime
podcast. [music] Be good. Be kind. And don't look back. Gather around, grab a chair, grab a
beer. Let's talk some true crime. [music] So, on Saturday, April 1st, at 10:00 a.m., Clint picked up his car
from Brian's apartment. And he said that he didn't go up to Brian's door, even though they had lost him the night
before. But he did call him, and he left a voicemail that stated just that, "Hey,
I lost you last night." Alexis continued to call Brian's phone numerous times that Saturday, and of course she didn't
get any answer. Brian was also supposed to show up Saturday morning to either paint or help his dad clean up
the house. I've heard both, so I'm not sure which, but he was just supposed to help Randy, but he didn't show up.
>> Which, again, it's not a huge deal. He's 26 years old, and what we do know is
when he parties, he parties. So, Clint's probably not super worried at this point.
Hey, once he wakes up, or maybe didn't make it home, maybe went home with somebody else, but once he wakes up,
he's going to get a hold of me. This is also probably why Randy Shafer's not that worried. Oh, my my son, I knew
he's going out drinking that night. That's probably why he didn't show up, and then his girlfriend, obviously, is
probably thinking the same thing. I've called him several times, but I haven't heard back from him, but I'm
sure I will. But, also, he said he had plans to meet his father at his father's house to help him paint or do something,
but he also had plans that he made with his friend, one of the Ryan brothers, right? Yeah,
he made friends to hang out with Matt and Melanie Ryan on Saturday evening. But, of course, he didn't show up for
either. And all day Saturday, there was no cell phone activity or credit card activity for anything have to do with
Brian's account. >> Right now, you have cell phone records that you have received
from the private investigator that worked with Randy Shafer, Brian's dad. Am I correct in saying that the
cell phone records you have stop the early mornings of April 1st? Yeah, the bills I have are very sporadic. I have
my last phone call is actually the 2:01 a.m. call where Meredith calls Brian from Clint's phone. That's where my
records stop. So, on Sunday, April 2nd, Alexis was continuing to call Brian's phone, but she was getting a little more
concerned. And when she couldn't get a hold of Brian, she decided to call Clint. And Clint told her that he had
not seen Brian since the night before at the Ugly Tuna Saloona. So, Clint decided
to call around, and he called Brian's friend, Matt Ryan, and asked if he had seen Brian, and Matt
told him, of course, he hadn't, but they did have plans on Saturday, but Brian didn't show up. So, everyone's starting
to get a little more concerned, so Alexis calls Randy. And Randy tells her the same thing, that
Brian didn't show up on Saturday to help him with the cleanup. And that he [clears throat] hadn't seen or talked to
him. Well, since we don't have the cell phone records, we don't know if his father's calling him a bunch or not.
Correct. Alexis then asked Clint to go over to Brian's apartment to wait on him to see if he was there, and Clint did
so. And he checked around and didn't find anything out of the ordinary. Brian's bed was made, the shower was
dry, and everything that seemed to be in place. Do we know how he got into the apartment? We don't. I've actually I've
actually been told two different things. I have been told that he had an extra key,
and I have been told that Derek let him in. But I actually do not think either one
of those is true, but I don't have an answer to that. Clint decided to call Meredith to let her know what was on,
and told her that no one had seen Brian since they were out with him on Friday night. Clint and Alexis decide to wait
around at the apartment, and Clint, Alexis, and Meredith begin calling jails and hospitals, anywhere they could, just
seeing if maybe they had someone matching Brian's description or an unidentified patient. A little
later, Derek showed up at Brian's apartment and shortly after that Randy showed up.
They then decided that they were going to call the Columbus Police Department. But when the officer showed up, he told
them that it had not been 48 hours and that it was completely legal for an adult to go missing.
And that if Brian didn't show up at the airport on Monday, then they would file the police report.
Yeah, which which is I just don't think this is the way we should be handling people going missing even though like
everybody has the legal right to not be found. Everyone wasn't satisfied with not being able to file the police
report, so they decided to do some ground searching themselves and they knew his last location anyone had seen
him was the Ugly Tuna. So Randy and Brian and Clint, Alexis and a few other people
all walked around like the campus area around all of the bars. They were checking every dumpster they could find
just looking for any sign of Brian to see if they could find him. Um of course they didn't.
And Alexis decided to spend the night at Brian's apartment that night before going to
the airport on Monday morning. >> Just because I don't know, she stayed there alone.
>> She did, yes. So what's their their threat level midnight, right? Are they at this point after they search for him
that I'm sure they're making more calls to cell phone. So now we have Derek, his brother, has
searched for him. We have the father, Randy, searching for him. Clint, which was at the bar with him that
night, is searching for him. Brian's girlfriend searching for him. She's going to stay in this apartment by
herself because she's supposed to hit the airport and go on vacation with this guy.
But I am assuming that everybody's going, "This is not good." Is that the pulse of the room or or
or are there some individuals that don't think this is that big of a deal? So, I
actually think that there was some concern, but I don't think that it was it was a huge amount of concern at that
point in time cuz I had mentioned to you that Brian was a wanderer. He wandered off on vacations. He took vacations that
he didn't even tell anyone he was going on. This was just kind of who he was. So,
while they were concerned, I don't think it was to the point where they were really
worried until he did not show up at the airport. >> not even showing up to the airport. So,
okay, I should slow down a little bit. So, does the girlfriend go to the airport?
>> She does. Alexis goes to the airport and she goes to the gate and waits and everything and
he does not show up. >> And to me, that's concerning, but what's more concerning is he doesn't show up to
the apartment before it's time to leave. I agree because the one thing that has always concerned me
and that no one has actually been able to give me an answer to is did Alexis have Brian's ticket or did
Brian have his ticket for the airport that morning because how would he have even gotten to the gate if she had his
ticket? So, she goes to the airport, Brian doesn't show up. What happens next? Alexis and Randy went to the
Columbus Police Department and they filed the official missing person's report. On that same day, Clint emailed
Amber and I had mentioned that she was a student in one of the classes where he was a TA.
And he had told her that no one had seen Brian and Amber emailed him back [clears throat] and sent her phone
number and then Clint called her to tell her everything that was going on. In return, Amber then called Brighton to
let her know that Brian was missing. On this day the Columbus Police Department requested the surveillance
footage from the Gateway security and they also put a communication ping service on Brian's phone through
Cellular Wireless and they paid $3,500 for that. Now, what the ping service would do is
it would not be usage pings. It was just communication pings. It was the tower trying to see if it would find the
phone. In order for the tower to communicate with the phone, the phone had to be on.
So, they started sending pings out on Brian's phone. Yeah, so just to be clear, the phone doesn't have to make
calls. The phone just has to be on and they'll send pings to the phone and what they're hope what they're hoping is that
they'll be able to get some GPS location of Brian and that will lead them to Brian. And correct.
>> Real quick. I'm going to stick on this for one moment here. This was initiated at what
time on what day? This was initiated on Monday afternoon. Monday afternoon >> 3rd.
And the service was with who? The cell phone provider was Cellular Wireless. Okay, so what just to clarify here on
this point and to be very thorough, the phone has to be on for there to be a signal. But also a
factor in this is he that phone has to be in range of Cellular towers. Correct. And that may seem like a silly statement
in 2026. In 2006, it's not such a silly statement as wasn't everybody fighting and and
advertising how good their service was and how many towers they had and what locations across this country. I mean,
Brian's phone didn't even have GPS technology, so we are are definitely in a completely different time than we are
now when it comes to technology. So, where does the investigation go from there? So, actually that Monday evening,
Brian's phone began communicating with the pings, and it was communicating all around campus, and appeared that it was
moving. So, on Tuesday, April 4th, Brian's case hit the local media, and out of fear of someone stealing
Brian's bank card since his wallet and everything went missing with him, Randy Shafer canceled Brian's cards. This is
also the day where a homeless man that was actually known to many officers at the Columbus Police Department,
he claimed that he spotted Brian eating a sandwich behind United Dairy Farmers, which was very close to the Ugly Tuna
Saloona where Brian went missing. So, the the United Dairy Farmers was only a couple blocks away from the Ugly Tuna
Saloona. And not only that, that that United Dairy Farmer receives, I mean, a a lot of business
throughout the night. It I mean, even at the at the 2:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m., 4:00 a.m. hours of the early morning, there
are people going in and out of there all night long. About a month after Brian went missing,
someone actually smashed in the door of his apartment, and they broke in. They stole a 19-in TV that had a built-in DVD
player, and a few different DVDs. And they were making a lot of noise over there, and the people that were in the
apartment next door actually heard it, and they knew that Brian was missing, so they immediately called the Columbus
Police Department. Now, I know this seems strange, but there was actually a couple of break-ins
around that area. So, yes, it's strange that Brian is missing and his apartment was broken into, but
it was kind of the norm in that area. Well, like you said, the the day Brian goes missing
in Columbus and the surrounding areas, like the listeners know, we me and the Colonel, we're from Columbus.
So, the day this hits the news, it was like, "Holy [ __ ] guy goes into a bar and he's not seen leaving the bar." So,
this started This was being talked about a lot, but at this point in my life, I was spending a lot of time on the Ohio
State University campus. Now, you're from a little bit further south than Columbus
than than we are, but are you hearing about these news reports as well? Oh, yeah, it was all over all
of the local news. Of course, we had the Columbus local news station. So, yeah, we were seeing everything. Me and Nick
have talked about this case. I'm I think the first time we talked about this was
probably 10 years ago. So, 10 years has passed. It's 20 years of him going missing,
but I remember at some point, and I could be wrong, you have some remembrance of this as well, but I want
to say that there was a website that they set up where there was a section of surveillance footage that you could
watch. Yeah, there was. Yes. Yeah, cuz I've talked to people about that before, you know, when they when
they're people that I've met that are like, "Hey, I I'm into true crime and I've really looked into this missing
person case, Brian Shaffer." I'm like, "Have you seen the surveillance footage?"
Because at a time period, I remember you could go to a website and and watch it.
And I remember watching it multiple times as if I was going to see anything, because I don't know who Brian is at
this point, and I don't know who his friends are, so I couldn't tell you this person is this person or this person is
that person. We have this tip possibly coming in from a known homeless person to the
Columbus PD, but during that time period, they're also doing searches. Randy Shaffer is in the media. Brian's
dad is talking to pretty much anybody he can, and not only is local news stations
reporting on this, but we also have the Columbus Dispatch running stories on his
disappearance. We have The Lantern, which was, I believe, the the campus paper, running stories on Brian's
disappearance as well. Yeah, his his case was absolutely everywhere. I would love to see the officer's written
statement from this homeless gentleman who provided information, who says, I may have seen
Brian Shaffer or somebody that looks like the because if the way that I take this unless you
have further detail on how they came into this information, my bet would be that they're out, they have a picture,
they have a photo of Brian Shaffer, our missing individual, and who are they going to talk to? They're going to talk
to convenience store clerks, they're going to talk to uh persons that they know that would
regularly be out and about and on the streets late at night, after 2:00 a.m., around 3:00 a.m., and this homeless
individual would be a perfect person to approach and talk to. Look, uh everybody
has a different perception of homeless individuals. My perception of most of them have been that they they usually
play nice with the cops because they frequently are talking with them, not because they're up to no good, but
because they they rely on on the streets that they live on. And they they rely on the neighborhoods that
they are are living in and they want to be friendly with these cops and play nice because they don't want to be
pushed down the road. They don't want to be asked to leave. They don't want to be
asked to move on to a different location. And so, while I think this information is intriguing,
I think we should take this with a grain of salt. There are would be a lot of persons that look like a white male in
their mid-20s dressed like a college student out in the middle of the night on a on a
weekend. And so, while I think that this individual is trying to be helpful, I don't want anybody to walk away from
this conversation going, "Man, they saw Brian Shaffer just a few blocks away eating a sandwich behind the UDF." Yeah,
I I'm glad you brought that up because there's nothing really unique about Brian. He He was a handsome guy. Like I
said, he he was in good shape. But, he's basically average height. He has a typical haircut for, like you said,
college students. He dresses like a typical college student. There wasn't anything It wasn't like he had a face
tattoo like Mike Tyson. >> [laughter] >> Like So, I think the problem with a individual going missing that doesn't
have a unique look or some unique feature, you're going to have a lot of individuals claiming that they possibly
saw Brian. So, Nick, I would actually like to add on a little bit to what you said as well. Um they did the Columbus
Police Department did speak to the homeless man while they were out canvassing and looking for Brian. And
the man stated not only did he see Brian, but he said he yelled out to Brian and said, "Hey, man, they're
looking for you." So, I asked Sergeant Hurst, like, you know, was this a credible man? Do you think he really saw
anything? And based on what Hurst told me, it seems that this man struggled with
alcohol a lot, too, and was not always credible. So, where does the investigation or timeline go from here?
>> So, there were many searches done. Like, there were two sets of dogs from Columbus Police
Department taken into the Ugly Tuna Saloona. There was also dogs taken to Ugly Tuna
Saloona that Randy hired himself from a different part of the state. >> And I think that's important because we
have It wasn't like people in Brian's life weren't doing anything. At this time, we have his
girlfriend constantly calling his phone just to see one if he'd answer, but maybe also to help with this
ping technology. We have these searches by his family members, but also friends. And
[clears throat] then we have his dad involved as far as "Hey, I I'll pay for my own dogs to come in." And Columbus
PD, I think it's I think it's a good look on them to go, "Hey, if he wants to pay for it, we're not going to stop him.
More the merrier, right?" >> You know, we're going to go into the Ugly Tuna Saloona a lot more when we get
to the theories, but I do want to point out that that was probably the most searched location
throughout the whole investigation when it comes to Brian's disappearance. And not only that, the
the building has changed quite a bit since 2006. Um the Ugly Tuna Saloona is not there
anymore. Actually, the entrance where you would even walk into the bar is completely covered over. And that is
offices now for Ohio State. Yeah, and I don't know if Nick has experienced this,
but the amount of true crime friends that I've I've met throughout the years, anytime they come to visit
Columbus, I would take them there. And then eventually, it was like "Well, I can
take you there, but it's totally different. Doesn't look the same. There's not even an entrance point
anymore. Yeah, there's a couple things here that we should make clear. While the captain's absolutely right in his
brief description of the bar, it's kind of square shape, rectangle shape. You can see most, if not You can see most
points of the bar from really any corner while you're standing inside. Maybe with the
exception of of course the there's going to be doors that separate the bar from the restrooms, but there's also um
Forgive me, Captain. I can't recall if the number, but there was three balconies. It's really just the bar
spills out onto these these balconies, but there are were three or four of them that I recall from the last time I've
been in there. And as said, it's you know, and it's not even the Ugly Tuna anymore. So, I've not been in there in
many years. I think the last time I went in there was uh shortly before we covered it in 2015
and shortly after the last time I was in that building that housed the Ugly Tuna
was for a movie. Um it was the 2022 I think it was the 15-year anniversary of the Zodiac movie and they were
showing that again. There was a there's a movie theater in there and I I'm blanking on the name at the moment.
>> Film Center. That's right. >> That's why I like talking to Kelly cuz anytime I don't know something, she
knows the answer. And circling back to the dog conversation, that points to me is the thoroughness of
the intent of the search for Brian Shaffer, okay? The the thoroughness of the intent on behalf of CPD and the
Shaffer family because those canine units those canine officers, meaning the dogs
have a different set a skill set than the a traditional search and rescue dog or a traditional cadaver dog. And so
that to me points towards the thoroughness or at least the intention of being very thorough in this search.
Well, I think also like this case is difficult I think to wrap your head around because you go, "Okay,
well, you go up this escalator and then you go into a bar." Like I said, the bar is small enough.
You have a bar, you have a kitchen, you have restrooms. You have a little bit of a
balcony. But if you gave me 5 minutes and said there there's somebody, let's just say you cleared the whole place,
but you had a a Willy Wonka golden ticket and you said, "You got 5 minutes to go into this
facility and look through the bathroom and look through the kitchen and look through the bar and look through the
balcony." There's no place to really hide it. I could find that golden ticket probably within 5 minutes. Where this
case gets more difficult is it's not just about the Ugly Tuna. It's about this complex and this complex is very
large. It has multiple, like you said, it has a movie theater, it has bars, it has
restaurants. A large parking garage. Then you have a large courtyard. That courtyard then leads you to another
complex that's identical to the other one. Right? They're just mirroring each other. And then, like you said, you have
these alleyways, but then you also have this very large parking garage. So that's where I think it becomes a lot
more complex as far as the searching. Right, but they they did do a lot of searching not just inside the Ugly Tuna,
like the entire Gateway Plaza. They had dogs down in the construction area. They
removed electrical panels from the wall. They They manhole covers lifted. Like they really did search that building top
to bottom. They also searched the local landfill. And I know that that sounds like
a very difficult task. However, they were able to pinpoint down to a very small section of where
the downtown trash was going and where it was dumped inside the landfill. And it was also a very new part of the
landfill that had only been open a couple months where that trash was being dumped. So, it wasn't as difficult to
search as some may think. >> Well, and also, it's the trash going through the different conveyor belts.
And I've talked to individuals that work at these facilities at that have found bodies, but they normally don't find
them inside the dump, but they normally find those bodies as they're sorting the
trash before it even goes into the dump. >> Right, and that's actually what Sergeant
Hurst told me. He told me that the trash would come in and it was sorted. And some of it would go to the local dump,
and then some of it was sent out to Tennessee to a recycling facility. One of the other searches that they used
dogs for to search was they actually went to the Shaeffer family home in Baltimore, Ohio.
And they took search and cadaver dogs through Randy Shaeffer's house and around his property. Yeah, and when I
first heard this, it was like, "Dun, dun, dun." Why are they taking cadaver dogs
multiple times to Brian's father's house? There was actually a tip called in to Columbus Police Department that
Randy Shaeffer had killed Brian and buried him in his backyard. And like we said,
Brian and his father, Randy, go out to dinner the night Brian goes missing. It's
possible that Clint and Brian and Randy had a beer before Randy and Clint went out for the night, but we have no alibi
for Randy Shafer at this point. So, if you're law enforcement, it's not out of the realm of possibility to go, "Okay,
well, we have this, you know, disagreement or we have this tension in the family because the mother
passed away. She changed the will. The husband's upset about that. He's trying to get his children, both boys,
to agree to, "Hey, give me some of the money and you you keep some of it." So, we have this tension, we have this
conflict, and this son goes missing, and the dad has no alibi. So, it's not out of the realm of possibility to
question him, and then also to have either scent dogs or cadaver [music] dogs come out to his property.
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mintmobile.com. Switch now at mintmobile.com/TCG. >> [music] [music] >> So, in September of 2006,
Brian's phone just continued to go to voicemail every time Alexis would try to call him.
But, suddenly his phone began ringing again. It would ring three or four times, and
then the voicemail would kick on. So, she continued to call it, and actually all of his family and friends kept
calling. But, the one thing that Brian's phone didn't do at that point in time, was it did not ping in Hilliard, Ohio.
This was actually a glitch. The ringing of the phone was only due to an overloaded tower, and the phone was
handed or the call was handed off to another tower. So, while it appeared hopeful to
everyone when Brian's phone started ringing. It wasn't anything more than an overloaded cell phone tower. And the
second part of your statement with that is it was not pinging in Hilliard, Ohio. It was not. Yeah, and
this would be very difficult, especially for the girlfriend, cuz you're calling it rings, goes straight to voicemail,
and now all of a sudden it's ringing multiple times, and probably the multiple rings is the service being
passed over. So, but there was a lot of speculation about Brian's phone pinging in Hilliard, Ohio,
which is what? 15-20 minutes from Brian's apartment. >> Yeah, there's a lot of confusion there,
because a lot of people think that that phone ping happened at that point in time. His phone did ping in Hilliard,
Ohio, but it was in the immediate days following his disappearance when Columbus Police Department had that ping
service put on that we talked about earlier. So, let's just talk about this ping service for just let's dive into a
little bit more. So, they they run the service right after he goes missing. We have some pings and
some movement around the Ohio State campus area, and then we have some pings and movement happening
just outside the Columbus area, as well. Yeah, there's some around Grove City. Um there's some around Greenlawn Avenue,
around Louberline Park. There's some around Scioto Darby Creek Road, some in Hilliard. It uh
Kenny and Lane, there was a phone ping. Uh his phone was just all over the place.
And do we have any rhyme or reason for this? I was told it appears that the phone was moving because
it wouldn't have been something as simple as handing off to another tower because some of the towers that it
pinging off of, it would have been too far out for a stationary phone to find that tower, if that makes sense.
>> And this is [clears throat] when? When exactly is this movement taking place?
So, I was told that this ping service was put on and they paid $3,500 and it lasted the whole month of April and a
few days into May. >> And starting on April 3rd, and then during this this month, it's the phone
is moving, it's active and it's moving OSU campus, Grove City, which is a suburb of of Columbus, Hilliard, which
is another suburb of Columbus, and then as well as the Greenlawn area. Greenlawn area, and you also said Kenny
and Lane. Which while if you if you zoom out, those locations all appear to be very close to
one another, but as far as just driving around the greater Columbus area, I would not describe those as extremely
close to one another. This is this is a good amount of distance here. Right. There was actually also one that I
forgot to mention around Scioto Downs. And that's quite a distance away from some of the other locations as well.
That's very very south on High Street, which High Street is also Route 23. Uh we should note here the Gateway
building that house the Ugly Tuna Saloona is on North High Street, or was on North High
Street. This would be South High Street, but it's so South High Street that it is
south of the outer belt that surrounds the greater Columbus area uh 270. Okay, so they're saying there's no rhyme or
reason for this. This wouldn't just be his cell phone being transferred to to different
towers. His phone is moving, but to me this is not evidence that Brian is moving around.
This is just evidence that his phone is moving around. Correct. I have no evidence that Brian actually had his
phone on him when he went missing. We just know that his phone is missing as well.
And you said that we have this possible sighting, but again, it's probably a nothingburger coming from the
homeless individual that claims he saw Brian. But what about other eyewitness reports? Did other people
claim to see Brian? They did. Actually, there was a a tip that came in very early, and it
was of a sighting of a very handsome man with a black backpack sitting on the ground outside of Wendy's in
Pickerington, Ohio. A lady walked up to him because she thought maybe he needed some food or something. So, she was like
just checking on him and ask if she could get him anything, and he said "No, I'm getting ready to hit the road."
That was about the extent of their interaction. So, another caller called in and said they saw a very
handsome man with a black backpack hitchhiking on 270. Of course, you see things like
this all the time, but that second person that called in and said they saw the person hitchhiking was the people
that lived across the street from Randy and Renee Shafer. So, they actually knew
Brian. So, they're they're calling in saying "We saw Brian." Yes, and it just so
happened to be in the same area where the lady said she saw him in Pickerington at the Wendy's. So, it was
two separate tips on the same guy, one of the people actually knowing Brian. And I want to be very clear here because
I'm I'm a person that firmly believes that words have meaning. We mean what we say and we say what we mean, especially
in these critical situations. The people that live that are essentially neighbors of Brian's father,
they are saying we saw a guy hitchhiking on 270 or they're saying we saw Brian Shaffer hitchhiking on 270 cuz those are
two very different statements to me. They said Brian Shaffer. Okay, just to be clear.
I want to point out too here for folks that are you know, not even with this case just
in generalities here, but to hitchhike on an outer belt is not if you were to be riding your bicycle or walking, you
that's that's actually illegal behavior. That's an illegal action here. You could be
pick picked up or ticketed for doing such a thing. So, it's not like he's just on a busy road or a busy
thoroughfare and and walking or biking. This statement is there was a man thumb in the air hitchhiking on the outer belt
and that's something that if an officer state patrol or whatever driving by and spotted this individual, that is cause
for them to stop and talk to that individual. Now, would they on most occasions? I cannot say that, but that
is technically an illegal activity. I would like to state that both of these tips claim that they were
April 1st, the Saturday. So, it was later in that day that they both claimed to see him. So, they go out
partying on Friday. This is just speculation, right? They go out partying. Brian, Clint, and Meredith, they lose
connection with each other. We don't see Brian at his apartment. We see Brian's car. We
don't have his wallet. We have nothing and then we have some eyewitnesses saying
that morning we see somebody hitchhiking because the thing I think it drives me nuts and
I I think it also drives you nuts as well, Kelly, is when people talk about Brian starting a new life or
disappearing on his own accord. People almost assume that it has to happen the night he goes missing.
And my argument has always been, well, he could have left the bar, he could have got home.
This could have been the plan all along and then he wakes up in his apartment on
Saturday and says, "All right, it's time to go missing." Mhm. Yeah, because the the the other half of no one
finding him at his home is also no one confirming that he wasn't at [clears throat] his home the following
day. Exactly. I have no proof that he didn't make it home and when I asked Sergeant Hurst
how they knew that he went missing on Friday night and it was, "Well, the bath or the shower was dry
when we got there on Sunday and his bed was made." Well, I mean, if you take a shower early
Saturday morning and make your bed, it's still going to be dry when they get there on Sunday. So, it doesn't mean
anything to me that the shower was dry and his bed was made. And like you said, all his belongings seemed to be there at
the time. Brian was not only a medical student, but you made the comment you talked
about the comment that Brian made or the post that he made about, "Well, this this medical thing is just for a time
period until I start my band or my band takes off." But it also seems like he left all his guitars behind as well. So,
some people point that out as evidence of well, he didn't go missing on his own,
but I think, you know, if if somebody went looking for him, his friends, his family, his girlfriend and they go into
the apartment and there were items like his guitar missing, I think that would be
giant red flags that he was there. Right. It seemed at like everything was in place, like even his jewelry was
laying on his dresser and things along those lines. It didn't appear that anything was missing in those early days
until after the burglary of his apartment. >> Well, and like you said, he's went on
trips before without telling people. But you'd think if he's going to head to the airport or he's going to head to the
bus station, he drove himself. He wouldn't have to hitchhike and these reports of people seeing him, we have to
remind people that this is in Pickerington. This is his hometown. This is where he went to school. This is
where he went to high school. But this is a good 20-30 minutes from his apartment on campus. Just real quick
for the sake of clarity. There are Obviously, there this being campus area near downtown area, there would be COTA
bus stops on every few every few blocks or corners in this area. So that there there are
are means of him getting around if that was in fact what he was choosing to do. Yeah, and I do know that CPD did check
with um the bus companies and they checked with cab companies and they checked the
airports. So pretty much from the remainder of 2006 until 2008, it was very minimal searches done for Brian,
but Randy Randy would do different events for Brian. He got his picture on the side of a race car.
He got him covered on several different channels. Brian, he continued to just keep Brian's
name out there. So in September of 2008, Ohio was rocked with some hurricane-force winds and I believe it
was from Hurricane Ike. I'm not sure if you guys remember, but it was pretty crazy. It was like 80 to
90 mph winds at some point and sometime. Well, Randy had called around and was checking on all of his friends, everyone
that he knew telling them to make sure they stay inside, that wait until to make sure everything is
safe before they go outside. However, Randy Shaffer did not take his own advice and he went outside to a back
building to get the generator out. Um I'm not actually sure if he lost power or if he was just afraid he was going to
lose power. But when he was doing so, a branch from the tree in his backyard had been
a branch from a tree in his backyard had fallen and it fell on Randy when the winds
picked up and it actually killed him. Which I believe this actually made news because like you said, this is 2 years
after Brian goes missing. But Brian's name was not only in news reports, but it's in
the local papers, it's in the campus papers. And like you said, Randy was in communication with a lot of these
individuals. But this news of Randy passing then kind of sparks more attention on the disappearance of Brian
Shaffer as well. It does. And actually there were governors and I believe a senator and I
can't remember who else that wrote letters after Randy's passing just basically crediting him for all of
his work he did for missing persons including his own son. Yeah, this was a hell of a storm. It was
I was living in Columbus at the time and I believe we lost power at my home for 10 days
which is extremely excessive. Like I I think in my lifetime, that's got to be the longest that any
home I lived in went without power. And that was just due to the the the wind damage that it did here in
Central Ohio. Yeah, my kids were actually little at the time and we watched from our window as the wind
blew away their trampoline and their playhouse. Well, you could blame yourself for not putting those away in
the garage. >> [laughter] >> But his passing then sparks some weird activity. It did. So,
as a lot of people know that when you pass away, you have an obituary, but there's also a website called legacy.com
that posts online obituaries. Well, Don Corbett, the private investigator on Brian's case, had logged
in and was looking at Randy's obituary, and there was a message there that said,
"I love you, Dad." {comma} Brian. And then in parentheses it said, US Virgin Islands. Now, of course, CPD jumped on
it as soon as they were told about it. >> But what do we learn from this? Is is this communication actually coming from
the Virgin Islands? No, it actually came from a public library computer in Hilliard, Ohio.
>> Which again is strange because we have some cell phone possible movements in Hilliard. We have
now this message coming from a local library in Hilliard, Ohio. So, it seems like this weird Hilliard, Ohio is
weirdly connected to the disappearance of this guy. Yeah, definitely comes up a few times. So, I do know that Columbus
Police Department obviously looked into this and unfortunately, you did not have to sign
in to use one of the public computers, so they did not know the identity of the person. But they did try to pull
surveillance footage from a gas station across the street, but unfortunately, there was nothing found
from that. Yeah, so we have no evidence that this was actually Brian, but I think
you know, not to go like too much down the rabbit hole, but it's also possible that Brian, if he did go missing
or just wanted to start a new life or however you want to frame that it is possible that he had somebody
there that was sending this message for him. Yeah, or just someone who possibly knew that did it on their own for
Randy after his passing. >> The The not signing in portion of that strikes me. While I have no reason to doubt
that we're getting honest information on that, as someone who frequents the Columbus libraries and the greater
Columbus libraries I have never used a computer where I didn't have to sign in. When I say sign
in, it's to the point of your you type in your library card number uh to use and access that computer and then they
give you a time limit on the amount of time that you can use that computer as well. Now, what I
will say on that, this would be rather clever of somebody if they wanted to be anonymous the catalog computers
where you would search for books or authors are open and already linked to the internet. So, you do not have to sign in
to those. But they're also not a browsing computer or a working computer. So, if somebody was very crafty
uh and if I am right in my statement, I'm not going to say that I'm 100% right because I don't think I've ever set foot
in a Hilliard library, but the captain will back me up on this. At one point, all the suburb libraries were connected
to the Columbus Public Library. Right. Uh Metropolitan Library as they call it. I believe that that was prior to 2008.
I I feel very strongly that that was prior to 2008. So again, if somebody went off and used one of those catalog
computers, that would be very crafty and that would be a way that that could go down and my statement also be being
correct that you did have to sign in. I don't know that they would be able to pinpoint it to exactly what computer.
That would be interesting too. I I don't want to go down the road of IP addresses
and things of that nature cuz something I just don't understand. Kelly, what are your thoughts on this
post that was made? Uh I kind of go back and forth. I The biggest part of me is how many
coincidences can there be in one case and I feel like that there's just a bunch in Brian's case.
I actually lean towards this not being a hoax. But I actually think CPD knows who did
it. Because Nick's 100% right. I even in growing up in a small town in Ohio, when
we needed to use a computer, you got like an hour time block and you had to sign your name, you had to put in
your library card information. I I feel like maybe they That's just a part that they're they're going to hold
close to the vest and not really put out there, but I do think that Columbus Police Department knows who
knows who made that post. >> And with that sign in, Kelly, and you'll back me up on this, it's not just your
library card, but it's also followed by a four-digit PIN. That is further indicator that, you
know, somebody didn't just find somebody's library card in the parking lot and on the on the ground and walk in
and use that. Uh Uh you would have to have that PIN information as well. >> Nick, that's actually really intriguing
to me cuz I had never thought about the card catalog computers before. And Brian was very tech-savvy. He
actually when he went to Ohio University, his degree was actually computers. And he actually
designed a video game that I accidentally stumbled upon when I was researching his case that he had done
for a class project. So, he was very tech-savvy. Nick also studied computer. Well, it's
for this exact reason that the captain keeps me around. >> [laughter] >> Just so you he you can log in for me at
the library. >> Just just throw in some of these ideas. So, Brian's father, Randy, passes away
due to this windstorm. I mean, what a awful way to go. And now, you have this family that just
2 years basically 2 and 1/2 years prior, you have the mother, Renee, she passes away
from cancer. You have Brian, he goes missing. Then you have the father, he is killed in this windstorm.
And all that's left is Derek Shafer. Yeah, Derek lost his whole immediate family within 2 and 1/2 years. So, I
would actually like to circle back just for a second and talk about that post on
the legacy page because the other thing that is really interesting to me is it had not been
released that there was a tip well, I guess I wouldn't even say tip, there was a sighting
of Brian in the U.S. Virgin Islands. And it was actually one of the first tips that the Columbus Police Department
received. Um it was a a from Columbus who had been on their honeymoon and they were there and they were at a
restaurant or something along those lines having dinner and they had a waiter who had a striking resemblance to
Brian Shaffer and was actually wearing a name tag who said his name was Brian. And as soon as they got home from their
trip Randy's death was all over the news again. And uh uh Brian's case had popped up or
something. So they immediately called the Columbus Police Department and told them about the tip. So the fact that the
US Virgin Islands was on that post could have been a coincidence, but it could have also been someone that knew
something since that was a tip as well. Yeah, and I think the information we don't know about this tip is when they
came home, did this couple hear about this post that was made? And did this Do you see what I'm saying? Did this
spark something of "Well, we had a waiter named Brian and he kind of looked like this guy."
Or was it just simply that they came home and went "Hey, the Remember the guy that went missing from
the Ugly Tuna?" You see what I'm saying? Like I do. I'm not sure actually how it
um came about, but I was told that it was something along the lines that they made the call after Randy's
passing. So I'm not sure. We do have a lot more to get into because at this point in the timeline
you you're not starting your investigation yet. You just know of the case. And so I think we need to dive in to
what you have learned once you get involved in actually investigating [music] this case.
>> [music] >> Want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage each and every week.
Stick around for part three of Brian Shaffer 20 years missing. Until then, be good, be kind,
and don't litter. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Hey everybody, Ted Danson here to tell
you about my podcast with my long-time friend and sometimes co-host Woody Harrelson. It's called Where Everybody
Knows Your Name, and we're back for another season. I'm so excited to be joined this season by friends like John
Mulaney, David Spade, Sarah Silverman, Ed Helms, and many more. You don't want to miss it. Listen to Where Everybody
Knows Your Name with me, Ted Danson, and Woody Harrelson sometimes, wherever you
get your podcasts.

Brian Shaffer /// 20 Years Missing /// Timeline /// Part 2

Part 2 of 6

Episode: 904

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://www.truecrimegarage.com/)

Ohio State Medical Student, Brian Randall Shaffer disappeared without an apparent reason on April 1, 2006. His last known whereabouts was a second-floor campus area bar where he was having drinks with friends. Near the entrance of the Ugly Tuna Saloona just before 2 a.m. Brian is seen on security footage talking briefly with two women. Brian later became separated from his friends who have stated that they assumed that Brian had left and gone home. At the time of his disappearance Brian Shaffer was 6’2” tall and approximately 160 to 165 lbs. He’s a caucasian male with brown hair and hazel eyes. Brian had a Pearl Jam tattoo on his upper right arm and he plays guitar. If you have any information regarding Brian’s disappearance or his whereabouts please contact Columbus Police Missing Person Unit at 614-645-2358

Brian Shaffer - National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) - MP#1709

ViCAP Alert# 2006-06-01 - vicap@leo.gov

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Brief Summary

Brian Shaffer disappeared in 2006 after a night out, sparking a complex investigation and numerous theories about his fate.

Key points

The Disappearance of Brian Shaffer. Brian Shaffer goes missing after a night out, leaving friends and family concerned.
Police Protocol Frustration. Police inform Brian's loved ones that they cannot file a missing person report yet.
The Search Begins. Friends and family search for Brian after he fails to show up for plans.
Communication Pings Initiated. Authorities begin pinging Brian's phone in hopes of locating him.
Media Attention Grows. Brian's case hits local media, raising awareness and concern.
The Search for Brian Shaffer. The thoroughness of the search for Brian Shaffer is highlighted, showcasing the efforts of canine units and police.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

But I actually do not think either one of those is true.

Doubting the explanations of how Brian got into his apartment.

5:16WatchFeb 11, 2026

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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