Brian Shaffer Interview ////// 770 | Forensic Files

n [Music] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who knows that it's never too late to not pay your
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YouTube do so now tons of free and bonus content there Colonel that's enough of the business all right everybody gather
around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime retired Columbus Police police
Sergeant John Hurst can't understand how Brian schaer a 27-year-old man at the time just simply
disappeared but he can understand why it has captivated Central Ohio H said quote
he's got everything going for him why would this individual just disappear like this it's a question Columbus PD in
thousands from Central Ohio have been asking for more than 18 years Brian shaer was a medical student at the Ohio
State University as Legend has it he walked into a campus bar and was never seen
walking out nor has he been seen again the schaer case gets revived from time to time with magazine articles
stories on the internet and podcast shows like True Crime garage H said the attention can always help
investigators a little more detail Brian Schaefer grew up in Pickerington Ohio and he went to the Ohio State University
and graduated with a degree in microbiology then he began studies at OSU College of
Medicine during his time at medical school he became romantically involved with Alexis Wagner another medical
student this was a serious relationship and the two were going to go to Miami together for spring break in early April
of 2006 6 but Brian disappeared just days prior when Brian vanished after going out with friends on the evening of
March 31st according to these friends during the early morning hours of April 1st
Brian was separated from them and they assumed he had gone home the security camera outside the
entrance to the second floor bar recorded him briefly talking to two women just before 2: a.m. and then
walking off screen Sha has not been seen or heard from since Columbus Police have several
theories about what happened some suspicion has been directed at a friend Clint Florence who accompanied him that
night but has refused to take a polygraph test while Foul Play is suspected it has
also been speculated that Brian might be living somewhere under a new identity today we have for you a very
special treat this is an interview with Columbus Police Sergeant John Hurst who was the lead investigator in the
Schaefer case conducting the interview is the captain and longtime friend of the show Maggie freeling the two were
conducting interviews for a project centered on The Disappearance of Brian schaer this audio has not been heard
elsewhere and has never been released to the public this is true crime garage [Music]
that's a great start you're just telling me about who you are um so do you want to introduce yourself and what your
relationship is to the Brian schaer case my name is John hurse I'm retired uh detective Sergeant with Columbus Police
I was the lead investigator on the Brian Schaefer case uh while I was there worked with uh two other detectives
closely with with it and um and any given time we probably in the beginning had uh 100 officers out searching and
talking to people and canvasing the areas what was your experience with missing persons cases before this had
you worked any that's kind of an odd way how I ended up with that I was in charge
of the physical child abuse unit and the missing Sergeant was on vacation and when he was off I would cover the unit
and when I was off that he would cover my unit so I he happened to be on vacation that week um and that's how I
ended up with the investigation um we came in while he was gone prior to that you know I'd worked
with the missing unit on uh numerous cases over the years and uh this just happened to be one of the big ones we
ended up with I going to say how many of them wound up being missing for over a decade yeah well it with me this is the
only one I mean they still have um missing persons with the Department that had been filed and I don't know the
exact count but you know like 20 or so that have went missing over the years and when I talked to a Columbus
detective they said that the missing person's unit normally deals with over 6,000 missing person cases a year yeah
yeah the missing person unit gets uh bombarded with a lot of um missing person reports um the vast major
majority of those are going to be runaways uh which still gets listed as a missing person right and um they have to
go through those to actually you know get to one of the you know and I don't want to say actual or good missing cases
but one where there's somebody really and it's missing missing if that makes sense so when you first took this case
you know what were you thinking we have this attractive young white medical student what was your first thought well
first thought is like any of the missing cases you know guy was out at the bar he's probably going to turn up but we
actually didn't get it until a couple days later so when we got it we we started talking to the family and find
out what was going on but you know initially your thought is this guy he's going to turn up he went he was out
drinking with his friends and um he's just got laid up somewhere and he'll pop up here you know in a day or two well
that didn't happen the call either came in or everyone started freaking out when
he didn't make his flight on his vacation was when it was like the urgency of we think Brian's missing at
that point when you guys first realized okay this person might be missing what did you guys do what were your first
steps well uh we were contacted by the family and I believe it was on Monday we went out to Brian's apartment and um
made contact with his dad his brother and his girlfriend at the time and you know they told us hey we're supposed to
be going on this trip possibly maybe getting engaged uh that was kind of a red flag for us that uh somebody just
take off and disappear when you're plan you know a nice trip down south Florida and uh possibly going to get engaged
while you're there and so that was that was a big red flag for us when when that
occurred we did check to see if maybe he changed the airline ticket decid to go somewhere on his own the ticket was
never used it was never changed so we were like now this isn't looking good right now so there has always been
question about you know was he getting engaged or not but you heard directly from his girlfriend that that might be
that was a potential thing that was happening well that was what they thought at the time again whether that
was the case or not don't know but that was the original thought from the information we were getting from the
family were you able to look at Brian Schaefer's Financial records Randy was able he was had access to Brian's
accounts and stuff so we were able to get that pretty quick there wasn't any indication that he had used his a debit
card or a credit card to purchase a ring but you know I might have paid cash if that that was the case but I think this
is one of the big questions in the Brian schaer case was he planning to get engaged and he was leaving on a Monday
so he still had Saturday and Sunday to make a purchase of engagement ring if he was going to get engaged on the trip
yeah that's definitely a possibility how helpful was his family his girlfriend his friends was everybody Cooperative
with you yeah everybody uh that we contacted cooperated answered our questions uh again we had uh his friend
Clint Florence you know he declined take a polygraph where we had Meredith the the girl that was with him that night
and Randy came in they took a polygraph both of them passed it we also had uh Clint ped down to the grand jury uh we
had a list of questions that uh we wanted to ask we U gave it to his attorney his attorney came back and says
he he doesn't want to talk we're going to take the fifth so we heard from his attorney that he was always cooperative
and always spoke to you guys well he in the beginning he was cooperative and he did come in and uh talk to us and give
us an interview and you know gave us some information then uh when it got down to
the nitty-gritty when it comes to polygraphs if if you have an attorney most attorneys are going to tell you not
I would not take a polygraph you know I mean so a lot of people were like oh my God he didn't take a polygraph you know
in this day and age if you hire an attorney and there may be even some police officers out there to tell you
probably even if you're innocent don't take the you have nothing to win because if you take the polygraph and you fail
well then you look guilty and if you don't want to take one then you look guilty and if you pass the test well
nobody believes in the lie detector test anyways right and you know as law enforcement what we use polygraph for
it's just kind of a tool to see you know do we need to continue looking in this area even if they pass it doesn't mean
we're not going to you know take them completely off the list um but you know we'll we'll start looking a little
harder maybe somewhere else um in a different direction were you suspicious of Clint in any way well I I guess you
could say we became suspicious when we were trying to get him polygraph you know because it would have cleared up a
lot of questions in in my opinion if he would have come in and answer the questions like Randy and Meredith did so
there's still outstanding questions Clint has not answered to your knowledge yeah yeah I mean there was some
questions that we we wanted to ask and uh weren't able to do it you know and again you know I always throw out there
people all you're up innocent people all you're up guilty people lawyer up and um
you know you're paying an attorney to give you advice I I don't like it but that's that's the nature of the
business it's it's you know what the attorneys do is what they get paid for so what can you share some of the
outstanding questions you have uh probably not um I it it may sound accusatory and without having him come
in right and and you know at least give us the opportunity to ask him um I would
probably air on the side of caution and not do that can you share some things that he cleared up that we might not
know I think most of it's out there uh what we've put out I mean I've I've done a ton of interviews over the years and
we've released a lot of different information Clint was just able to to give us some support information on you
know the questions that we were asking that he did answer you know it's I don't have anything new that I could share
with you well obious viously Clint was an eyewitness that night to what was going on with Brian and going on with
his life it seems that when Brian's father confronted Clint a few times about his involvement and claiming that
Clint knows what happened and Clint has the answers that that's kind of when Clint backed away and and lawyered up
that may have had something to do with it I don't know exactly when Randy I know Randy approached him a couple
different times over the years and I don't know if that was before or after we had asked him to take the polygraph I
I don't remember now but that could have played into it so we went yesterday to where the bar used to be and we were
looking around and trying to figure out you know obviously the two biggest questions are was he still in the bar
and something happened to him or did he actually leave the bar so can you help clear up for us you know what kind of
video footage there actually was that was looked at is it possible he did leave the bar oh it's absolutely
possible that he left the bar I mean they had video cameras all over that place um my speculation and my theory is
that he went out one of the construction entrances because they were Plywood And
then they had a chain going through them with a pad locker and when we went down
there you could push on them and somebody would be able to get in or out you know without a lot of difficulty and
there was no cameras looking at that area well there was but uh those cameras uh actually were the
panning and it's a possibility that they had panned away from where he had exited
the the other cameras I mean one of my detectives Andre Edwards he took all the disc we duplicated them
he took some home he had a projector he put his computer on it made it lifelike on the wall um and he sat there and went
through every frame frame tracked everybody coming in tracked every I mean this was a daunting task for him you
know it took a lot of time but we were able to track everybody in and out except for Brian could you tell us about
the orange shirt guy now what happened with him is um during the review of the videos we seen this guy kind he was up
and down the escalator and is kind of suspicious you know so we we tracked him down and uh he was actually drove a taxi
and he was just hanging out waiting for the bar to close pick up a fair um but uh you know it it was one of the things
that we looked into I mean we we tried to uncover every Rock um that we could yeah that was that made for an
interesting story I think a lot of people picked up on that yeah we were able to track the guy down well it also
shows the diligence that was done too in terms of looking at the cameras I was going to ask so I've I've never been to
Ugly Tuna I'm from New York this is my first time in Columbus so hearing today from the band about
this bar and you know we we told them about the theory that the band did it and they were laughing hysterically
because they said there would have been no way to even do that in this particular bar so I guess that's my
question you know is it possible something happened to him in the bar well I mean anything's possible through
our investigation it nothing came to light that anything occurred in there and it would be difficult I mean it's
basically it was a big open room had a bar in the middle and a kitchen off to the side we had dogs come in and Cav
dogs and they would have picked up on blood if there had been any blood in there we had them go through the entire
building we actually went up on the roof make sure he wasn't up there searched all the the you know Corners in that
area and removed plates cover plates you know just to see if maybe somebody might
have stuffed him in there um but you know when we were done building was clean there wasn't anybody in there
right and we were talking about how you know it's renovated today so there was theories that maybe he's in a wall or
something yeah probably wouldn't be possible to be in a wall at this point no no and I never thought that was
really a feasible possibility begin with was the entrance and exit to the bar the
only entrance and exit or was there a exit way through the kitchen uh you couldn't get out through the kitchen
they did have a uh fire Escape set of stairs and went down there was a camera that if somebody opened that door the
camera would cycle to that door unfortunately when it did something like that it started to pan and the security
guard that was working that night overrode it and took it away but we were able to look at other cameras in the
courtyard and didn't see anybody come out of that area the only other way would be like I said you know go down
the stairs uh you can't really see the elevator now but at the time you can see the elevator and then there's a set of
stairs to the left of the elevator so he could have went down one of those and that led right into the construction
site uh then there was a hallway behind the other businesses down there that had
a camera in it so he didn't go down that hallway well it's hard to explain to people that haven't been there that you
see the video footage of the escalators but the blank spot that you're seeing in
the footage is actually two doors that are fire escapes essentially two exit doors so when me and Maggie were there
today we we went through the exit doors I don't know if we're supposed to be there but we we went down there and we
went through the hallways and nobody stopped us so we just kept on exploring if you will well we yeah I mean again
that was my first time so I was like wait a minute were these exits always here he could have gotten in one of
these and we were wondering about the cameras in those exits like I said the building at the time it is nowhere near
what it was right now the elevator there's actually a door you got to go through now to get to the elevator um
where at the time you could just walk up to the elevator push the button and hop
on and then that took you to the the back hallway and down to the const where the construction's going on and we did
check to see if maybe he might have went down and wandered through through a business before he was picked up on
camera and again that was found not to to be a the situation SOG to ask you what what year did you retire three
years ago on January 18th of 19 was this a case you were working on until your retirement did it go cold I mean are you
still were you still getting leads well we we still would get something from time to time um a lot of it would be uh
psychics alleged pyic psychics and again we didn't discard it just because somebody said hey I'm Clairvoyant and
I'm I have this feeling or I'm having this dream whatever we could check out we would the unfortunate situation is
99.99% of the stuff that came in through that Avenue um were very vague we had one you know uh he's in a bunch of oued
under some trees in a field yeah how we going to go find something like that you
know um he's laying in the basement of a brick house in a prone position again how how many brick houses
do we have in the area not just in Columbus but in that area so a lot of the U stuff that came in you know we
look at it and we're like yeah there's nothing we can do with this but we did get tips come in where the somebody
would say they had seen him somebody seen him allegedly working in a restaurant in Detroit so we contacted
the Detroit missing person's unit up there and had them you know send them the the flyer and had them go out and
talk to the management and they're like no he's never worked here uh we had sidings in Texas and Colorado
California uh we had one in Sweden supposedly um somebody seen him over there we had one in the Virgin Islands
uh and you know again we we did what we could to to do uh you know follow through on those um you know we had to
have bi checked the Virgin Island situation and um again that didn't produce anything how extensively was the
FBI involved um their vicap unit was uh in contact with me quite often anytime I
I needed something all I had to do is pick up the phone call and say Hey you know can you go check this out for us uh
we had to Texas Rangers a couple times check some stuff out for us uh down in Texas so it was pretty extensive
investigation so you said during the investigation you were able to give some people polygraph test one of those
people was Brian's father were you able to give a polygraph test to Brian's brother Derek now uh Derek that night um
was out with some friends and and typically Derek and Brian would meet their dad at the same time and uh Derek
wasn't able to go cuz he'd already made plans with uh some friends and they were
out for the evening so Brian and his father had dinner the night that Brian went missing but his brother wasn't able
to join him that night yeah typically when uh Randy would meet with Brian um Derek and Brian would go together and
that night Derek had already made plans by the time you know Randy had asked hey
can you guys meet me for dinner you know Derek was like I can't do it man I you know we already have plans is it true
that Brian and his dad got an argument that at night well that's speculation what we did find out and we knew was um
Brian's mother had um split the her life insurance policy up Randy got half and um the two boys got
25% there's a story that's been floating around out there on the internet that they got into an argument over the life
insurance policy and that the boys weren't supposed to get it and they they should give the money back
um we we never were able to really sustain that information well that's what's tough about looking into a case
like this that's so widely talked about on the Internet is all the speculation and and is what you're hearing true or
is what you're hearing just a fictitious story some rumors that got some legs it's like what we have to do you get we
get all this information you got to sip through it and find out okay what's what
what's the real deal here yeah cuz one of the rumors was that Randy was cut out of the will and so that might be a a
motive for why Randy would want his son to go missing and also the fact that Randy didn't have an alibi for the night
that his son went missing right well and you know like that's why we had him come
in take a polygraph um and you know he passed it with no issues at all you know when we
were blaming him it was just something we needed to get done to answer you know those types of questions and then you're
going to have people argue well maybe he lied and got away with it on the polygraph I'm I'm no expert on
polygraphs but you know for the most part I think uh as long as the operator is properly trained and has experience
behind them um it's not going to be a bad read on it so is there I know you mentioned Clint but
anyone that you wish you could have talked to or anything you wish you could have had during this investigation oh I
wish I could have flown all these locations and did the interviews myself um but that wouldn't be feasible
you know for the Department to do that I mean we we were having sightings all over the place um but yeah I mean
there's um I think her name was Shelly winand um his ex-girlfriend previous girlfriend I would have liked to talk to
her in person I did speak to her on the phone and um ended up I had to send the uh Rangers one of the Texas Ranger went
out and interviewed her for me so I believe she was a high school girlfriend of Brian's and when she'd come back into
town or Brian would come back into town they would end up hanging out together yeah they were still friends um but
that's that's all it was after they had split so [Music] with big Wireless providers what you see
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restrictions apply see mintmobile for [Music] details so Brian went missing April 1st
2006 his father would end up passing away during a heavy wind storm in September of 2008 after his death his
obituary was placed online one of the signatures said to Dad love Brian from the US Virgin Islands yeah we we were
actually uh we we were able to trace that back to uh one of the public libraries on the north side of Columbus
um and we went out to see if we could get any camera video on it and uh unfortunately their camera at the time
wasn't working you know when people come through the door and they didn't have a
camera on the computer so were there cameras that should have been working that weren't oh well when we went and
did a canvas of the area looking for cameras the Wendy's that was across the street at the time we checked to see if
they had a camera on their drive-thru and uh it wasn't working so and even if it had been it may not have
picked him up but then uh when detective Edwards went around looking for he was the one that went around looking for
there was a lot of fake cameras up that looked like real cameras but they were just fake cameras it seemed like every
turn we made there was something that would pop up that is like are you kidding me you
know like the cameras I I don't know I just don't I don't know how to explain it it was just it was a horrible
situation for us because we're thinking well maybe this can get us somewhere and
we go out well our camera's not working or that's not a real C camera and you know that was down in the area the way
Brian would walk home and unfortunately back then we didn't have all the ring doorbell cameras on that maybe we could
have pulled but yeah it was just it was frustrating the Ugly Tuna saluna bar was
in a new complex but can you explain maybe how difficult or tough that area was back when Brian went missing well I
think if you stayed on High Street and maybe one block in either direction Direction at that time it wasn't uh too
bad but the further you drifted away from High Street especially going to the east he went out of back exit he
wouldn't have been on High Street he would have kind of been in that well he he would have came out if he' went out
the back entrance he would have been facing that way and he could have stumbled you know went that way thinking
he was heading home but if he'd went out the side or the front they had three entrances at the construction site so
depending on which one he'd went out but again you know unfortunately we weren't
a will pick anything up on camera so you're saying at the Ugly Tuna saluna there's parts of that building that were
under construction there was three exits through the construction site yeah and what about the the idea that he could
have fallen in a construction pit and been covered with concrete at the at that location or a different location at
the Ugly Tuna location no um when we went in there everything was dug up they were actually uh putting in the Elevator
Shaft which most time they'll do that before they do a lot of the other things um yeah there was no fresh cement poured
anywhere um that would indicate that that would have been the case so I guess where Captain was going is like How
likely do you think it was that he left and something happened to him on the streets well I I would say that's pretty
likely that he got out of there um depending on how much he had to drink he may have passed out some somewhere you
know he could have passed out fell in a dumpster you know it's hard to tell a lot of people think he might have fell
into the old Tangi River at the time but at that time it wasn't but you know a couple feet deep which you could drown
in that but it's not going to carry you away so I mean there's a lot of theories
out there on the internet uh I quit reading them because I I just shake my head I'm like man you know this this is
crazy well this case has really blown up on the internet and there's a lot of rumors and
speculations and one that gets brought up many times when I'm talking to individuals that are fascinated with the
case is Brian's sexuality was he straight was he by did he have any homosexual relationships
with with anybody that did come up during investigation we actually got that information from
Shelly that um he had had experienced uh experimented with it I mean that was brought up and there was
somebody who stated that yeah that happened the story that we have been told is that Brian was going to propose
to his girlfriend on this trip that he didn't make their leaving that Monday when people start speculating that he
might be gay then the question becomes would that be enough of a reason to run away and start a new life yeah yeah and
that was discussed with uh in the unit and um couple of our superiors that were over the the bureau at the time um that
was discussed that maybe he had just taken off and start a new life and you know I mean if if you don't use your
name social security number date of birth you could do that it's not impossible but it's not the easiest
thing to do either we did check um his computers to see if maybe he had done some online searching to you know
to get information on how to do that we also did uh you know for suicide that was another thing out there he killed
himself somewhere but on the on the computer we weren't able to find anything and even though you when you go
on and even if you delete it it's you're still going to have it you know if you have the right equipment you can go in
and and pull this stuff off so was he looking up weird stuff or was he just looking up normal stuff just just normal
stuff I mean there was nothing out of the ordinary um you know he had a computer
he did for school and he had his other computer with the speculation that Brian was going to drop out of school and and
quit everything to start a a new life to have a romantic relationship it just it just
doesn't make a lot of sense to me did you ever discuss his his sexuality or the possible experimentation with his
sexuality with his father um we didn't bring that up with Randy we didn't see any need to do that at the time the
information we got was later and we don't um you know a lot of stuff we didn't put out there because
there just wasn't any need to try to you know make somebody look one way or the other when you know there's no real
substance to that's going to benefit the invest a was there anything that you found that would indicate he wanted to
or or tried to start a new life no no there was nothing um to indicate that uh there was nothing in his apartment I
mean when his apartment was immaculate it was clean bed was made everything was put in order did did he have anything
packed for his vacation at all no I didn't but you know he could have been this was Friday night when he went out
so the morning of we 7 I've done that I've done that but he had guitars as well yeah and he left to that might because
I'm a guitar player I'm like if I'm going to start a new life I'm taking the guitars with me at least one of them
right yeah we did they did have tickets to go see um Pearl Jam and we had uh reached out to the manager and told him
hey you know he's supposed to be there at this concert probably not going to show up
but can you you know put the word out for us and and they did and Randy and um Derek and I think Alexis and a couple
other people went down and handed out flyers to people coming in attendance uh um you know it's this was a pretty
extensive investigation well in a lot of missing person cases we have eyewitness
accounts but there was an eyewitness account from a detective were you the detective that thought that saw Brian no
no detective Edwards thought he seen Brian and he stopped him and it was actually Derek which would make a lot of
sense because Brian and Derek look similar obviously they Brothers do you think the case will be solved I would
like to say yes but I think this is going to be one of them cases that we probably will never know like I said I I
have my theories you know what might happen can you share that yeah um I I don't think he committed suicide a lot
of people think you know you know went out and killed himself somewhere most people if you're going to commit suicide
you want to be found you're not going to go do it somewhere where you're not going to be found and then um you know
it's possibility that with what he was drinking that night he may have stumbled into a
dumpster and you got picked up the next day and emptied and what we did check was to see where the dumpsters were all
taken uh at that time the city of Columbus dumpsters were going down uh to the um landfill here in Franklin County
the commercial dumpsters were being shipped to a site down in Tennessee so um you know and once they get into a
landfill you know they they work an area and they bring the trash in and it's covered with dirt we did take uh caver
dogs down the landfill here uh the only problem was and we you know we talked to
the dog owners that they're going to hit on anything that that has blood on it you know could be something as small as
a Band-Aid and there's you know feminine products those type of things so we we did go down and try to use the dogs to
do that uh wasn't very successful with it you know obviously we didn't find him but the stuff that they did alert on was
the typical stuff you find in a landfill well I think one of the other reasons why this case has fascinated the
internet so much is that you got a guy that goes into a bar he's seen going in but he's not seen coming out but the
more I've looked into the case the more it seems like this investigation was very very thorough more so than a lot of
missing person cases so a theory that makes sense to you is that he was intoxicated and found his way into a
dumpster I think that's a possibility but would you have to climb in the dumpster like climb into it no the the
dumpsters down there having them side doors oh and you know if you walk up to it it's they're usually like right about
here who knows he may have been throwing up and again this is just a theory I have uh went over and started throwing
up in the dumpster and passed out and fell in that's that's a possibility so it seems like you from what you
understand of that night he was pretty drunk cuz we heard that Randy was trying to say he wasn't like a drinker and
wouldn't have been drinking well he he he Brian um from what we found out um liked his alcohol and he didn't do it
all the time but you know on occasion he would go out and you know this wouldn't
have been the first time that he left on his own we you know that was something that the people when we interviewed his
friends and stuff they like yeah he That's Not Unusual him just take off you know he just goes and does his own thing
um you know and then um he's you know might find him passed out in a lawn or something you know so yeah I mean it's
it's possibility that that would be the case that he you know he just had too much drink passed out you know we went
down um and checked the bridge when we had dive teams out doing you know different places and uh we had the
horses out going up the trails we had the bike guys going up the trail well and Randy and his family and friends
they they checked all over the city as well yeah yeah Randy did a lot on his own as well we're going to do our best
to talk to Clint well good luck with it cuz he won't talk to he hasn't talked to
anybody and because Clint won't talk to anybody didn't want to take the polygraph test it's like what is he
hiding and I've heard rumors that it's possible that him and Brian had uh more than friendship relationship that maybe
at some point it became romantic uh they could have been um we interviewed some uh roommates of Clint and Clint and
Brian had roommate for a little while and then Brian moved out and uh we interviewed the two roommates that Clint
had after that in their opinion they they made statements to us that they felt they were a little too touchy
Philly more than what guys normally would do do you think that could be why Clint doesn't want to talk he doesn't
want that out it could be you know he doesn't want that to get out you know that was one of the things we did
discuss in the unit you know that you know what are the possibilities here so yeah I mean it's that's one of the
questions that we would like to find out but but so Clint and Meredith there is footage of them leaving that night from
the garage mhm I mean to me I would think Clint what could Clint possibly know about anything so what could Clint
help us with I mean people think he's like the key to this well they were close so if let's say Brian decide he I
I've had enough you know I lost my mother I don't want to get engaged uh you know I just want to get out of here
Clint would probably have known that if there was a plan for Brian to leave that
night but again we never had the opportunity to ask him those things well and back to Clint real quick you know
like you said he wasn't being super Cooperative he lawyers up and the lawyer has made the statement that Brian should
come forward and and tell everybody what happened and it's not up to Clint to tell everybody what happened well his
attorney and I don't know where he got it um made a statement about um one of the a detective had told him that uh
Brian was alive and you know if if that was the case I think that's why he made that statement is that true that a
detective told him that um none of the detectives I was working with at the time made that comment do you think
there is anybody out there that knows something If he if other than falling in a dumpster and disappearing that way
yeah somebody's had to seen something or no the only problem with that is at one
time they were offering $100,000 reward for any information and nobody came forward nobody I mean we had psychics
coming in with their you know I get you know he's in a the basement of a brick building I guess that you know if we
find him in a basement of brick building then they can make a claim to Crim Stoppers maybe I don't know but so after
talking with the band today and talking with you and never having been here until today I feel very
comfortable personally saying I don't think that he stayed in the bar and I think he left the bar well there's no
doubt in my mind he left the bar you know it's just the what baffles everybody is how to get out of there
without being seen and you know there is an explanation for that whether people want to accept it or not you know I mean
if I had a camera on the front front door here and it's panned to the left and it's looking over here and you go
out the door and go that way it's not going to pick you up and amazing uh coincidence yeah and then we did you
know go through the neighborhood trying to find other cameras there was a 711 across the street um and the only camera
they had was inside didn't have anything outside um you know on the cashier in case somebody come in and Rob them or
well that's what we were wondering too did the bar have cameras inside their own they didn't no there was no cameras
inside the bar so so so we don't actually know for sure I mean we feel confident he left the bar but we don't
know for sure he left the bar well I feel confident he left the bar alive you think he left the bar alive not
dismembered in a something I mean it's somebody even I think there was a speculation out there that they took him
back in the kitchen and cut him out and took him took him out the kitchen door well the only door going into the
kitchen is leading out to the bar so my last question for you and you might have
other follow-ups but my last question is um what is it like to work one of the most infamous missing person cases I
mean you were the first detective you are the guy with all the information I mean what is this like to work this case
and have it have retired without it being solved very frustrating I mean I I think a police officer you know
depending on if you're in a metropolitan area where you have a lot of high crime and this
kind of thing goes on you're going to have a case that pops up that ends up being a thorn in your side and and I say
that not in a bad way but it's just no matter what you've tried no matter what you did you still didn't get any answers
and then to leave and still not have any answers it was very frustrating and still frustrating well there's still a
possibility that somebody comes forward with information oh I would love somebody come even if they did it
anonymously you know to come forward and and you know getting back to maybe he did go start another life you know and
and I've said this before and I've told the news media hey all he's got to do is
contact us we'll verify it's him and if he doesn't want anybody to know where he's at it'll never get told but
wouldn't you have to close the case then yeah you would so if the case was just mist mysteriously closed I mean wouldn't
at least us knowing the way that works we would be like oh maybe they found him well if we find him that would I mean it
would uh if he was alive like I said we're going to respect a person's privacy um you know we would contact you
know the family which is pretty much Derek right now and say hey brother's alive um he doesn't want
anybody to know where he's at but just to give you some peace of mind F he's [Music]
okay if you are a member of law enforcement or a first responder and you have a case that you would like True
Crime garage to feature from your jurisdiction please email the show our contact information is available on our
website for this case and any missing person's case from the great city of Columbus Ohio any tips regarding the
Brian schaer case should be directed to the Columbus Division of police investigative desk at 614 6454 624 want
to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage each and every week have a very happy holiday Colonel do we have
any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners a little recommended listening for you check out wrongful
conviction a true crime podcast hosted by by founding board member of the Innocence Project Jason Flom as well as
Pulitzer Prize winning Maggie freeling and Emy award-winning Lauren bright Pacho wrongful conviction features
intimate conversations with men and women who have spent years in prison for crimes they maintain they did not commit
some have been fully exonerated and reunited with family and friends While others continue to languish was some
facing execution on death row this gripping series reveal feels the tragedy of Injustice as well as the Triumph that
is possible when people demand change check out wrongful conviction a true crime podcast you can find that
recommendation and many more on our recommended page on our website true Crim garage.com and until next week be
good be kind and don't litter [Music] [Applause]

Brian Shaffer Interview ////// 770

Part 1 of 1

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How did Brian Shaffer a 27 year-old man at the time just simply disappear? It's a question Columbus Police detectives and thousands from central Ohio have been asking for more than 18 years. Brian Shaffer, was a medical student at The Ohio State University. As legend has it; he walked into a campus bar and was never seen walking out. Brian vanished after going out with friends on the evening of March 31st, 2006 to celebrate the beginning of spring break. According to friends during the early morning hours of April 1st, Brian was separated from them, and they assumed he had gone home. Shaffer has not been seen or heard from since. Columbus police have several theories about what happened; some suspicion has been directed at a friend. While foul play is suspected, it has also been speculated that Brian might be living somewhere under a new identity. Today we bring to you an interview with Columbus Police Sergent John Hurst who was the lead investigator in the Shaffer case. Conducting the interview is the Captain and investigative journalist Maggie Freleng.

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Brief Summary

Brian Schaefer vanished in 2006; investigation reveals challenges and theories about his disappearance.

Key points

The Disappearance of Brian Schaefer. Brian Schaefer, a medical student, vanished after a night out in 2006, leaving many questions.
Exclusive Interview with Lead Investigator. Retired Sergeant John Hurst shares insights on the unsolved case of Brian Schaefer.
The Investigation's Scope. The investigation involved extensive collaboration with various agencies, including the FBI and Texas Rangers.
Speculation and Rumors. The case is surrounded by rampant speculation, complicating the search for truth.
Brian's Last Night. Brian went missing after a night out, leading to various theories about his fate.
The Mystery of Clint's Disappearance. Detectives discuss the baffling circumstances surrounding Clint's exit from the bar.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He's got everything going for him, why would this individual just disappear?

John Hurst reflects on Brian Schaefer's disappearance.

3:15WatchJul 2, 2024

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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