Brian Shaffer: Revisited /// Part 2 /// 291 | Forensic Files

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that's right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
crime [Music] so we should probably just jump right into some of the possible theories here
right so one of the theories that we discussed when we covered the case back in 2016 was the possibility that somehow
Brian did leave the bar without being seen without his friends seeing him decides to walk home now mind you this
could be at 3 a.m. on a weekend and this area it's while it's not a bad area it's
certainly better today than it was back then I wouldn't label it like a crime ridden trouble area however it's you
know there are a lot of smart people that say nothing good happens after 2:00 a.m. and so one of the theories that we
kicked around when we discussed this was the possibility of and this is a pretty
simple theory that he leaves the bar and during the course of that six blocks walking home somebody he's either
involved in some type of altercation with someone or him walking alone and and I want to point something out here
I'm not an expert at many things but I am an expert at drinking and I do believe from the footage that I saw of
him outside of the ugly tuna that night I believe him to be quite intoxicated and therefore him being by himself
walking alone in the dark visibly intoxicated he's an easy target for someone if you just want to rob somebody
real quick and so one thought in theory that we kicked around was that could this have been a robbery that went bad
or a fight that went wrong somehow he's killed or snatched up and pulled into a vehicle the likely scenario of disposing
of the body might be one of the many dumpsters that are throughout that entire area so we kicked that around for
a little bit when we discuss this case in 2016 it seems pretty plausible but again we have the issue of him getting
out of the bar yeah without knowing where the surveillance camera frames are as far as
the the screen you know he would have had he always would have had to have accidentally not appeared in those
surveillance videos but I do I do think the chance that he got jumped if he was able to get out of there and not picked
up on surveillance I think I think that's possible absolutely so the scenario that you're presenting is that
he's walked a bit of a distance away from the ugly tuna because we have to get away from any cameras that are on
buildings to pick up any sort of activity involving a mugging or him being snatched up and pulled into a car
so yeah I could see that happen I could see where someone or somebodies would be
driving and following him briefly before making a quick decision to pull him in the car clearly drunk and we're going to
see what we can get off of him well it's also interesting area too because it's it is a college area as a college town
so then things get ramped up I had a buddy that was walking home from a bar ends up getting jumped by four guys for
no reason they didn't like talk trash to him they just got out of the car and fight was on and he lost all his front
teeth we also had a friend that I went to high school with that was leaving work crossing the street almost hit by a
car just kind of says hey guys what the hell are you doing those guys turned back around and shot the guy to death
and that was on 11th Avenue which if you look at Google Maps 11th Avenue and it's
pretty close close yeah and this is within a few years of that shooting so there's those possibilities did
something like that happen and then they shoot the guy and put him in a car and drive off and never to be seen again
because this is a lot of people that are in their early 20s not drinking experts
going out to these bars drinking and then doing stupid [ __ ] afterwards no gunshots fine are heard and you know it
wouldn't have the murder weapon if that's what happened couldn't have been a knife either there wasn't any blood on
the street certainly not in the bar or anything like that well it's such a big area and it's so high it's so heavily
populated that I think even if there was blood on the street nobody they wouldn't
throw up any red flags yeah I mean because there's hundreds of thousands of people up on campus every week drinking
and partying there's probably puke on every street and there's probably puke and pizza between yeah behind every
alleyway but not blood possibly blood I'm just saying that noting yours I think what you're saying is that it
could go unnoticed right that's what I'm saying it potentially could go unnoticed
the other thing too is if he's not doing a straight shot walking along the roads
or sidewalks if you're going to do a straight shot you're cutting through some areas to get from that bar to his
apartment and I mean it could be as simple as someone follows him into a dark a dark area where he's alone and
very much so just once his wallet you know here you see a preppy looking drunk guy walking in the middle of the night
by himself that's an easy target to me well I hate to bring up the psychic kids but you know psychic kids did a episode
on this Shafer case and one of the kids were was picking up this vibe that Brian
was being watched by somebody that was on the balcony of the bar so if you're out on the balcony you could see into
the club but like I said any corner of the club you're at you'd be able to see everybody and was Brian a little drunk
confident and being the goodtime guy and flirting with girls and was there some pissed-off guy going man this guy's
talking to all these girls and or he talked to my girl right or right and then you go I got an issue with this guy
or you know the guy that's too shy to talk to girls and he sees this guy and he's angry with him because I do find
you know we were kind of talking earlier like I find the psychic conversations interesting I don't hold a lot of weight
to them but in the conversation with those psychic kids they claimed that they felt that Bryan was at the bar at
one point left and came back and we know that to be true and that information wasn't out there to the public that that
often so the fact that they picked up on that I thought was interesting I would have a much easier time swallowing the
scenario that somebody saw him flirting with all the girls were flirting with his particular girlfriend this like
mystery person right if there was a body or some blood or something people and maybe I'm totally wrong about this this
this is even relatable to anyone who would have picked him up dragged him into a car to mug him like I am I wrong
in thinking that most people just wouldn't know how to dispose of a body so cleanly you know you're not wrong I
mean so you're now talking about someone who's got the capability to spontaneously kill and also the
wherewithal to cover it up so so perfectly my original thought would have been that if let's say a group of thugs
ended up shooting him for some reason or killing him yet as a result of a robbery
having gone bad that the the quick easy disposal would be to somehow hoist him up into one of those dumpsters the
tricky thing with that is we do know the family was searching dumpsters in that area as early as Sunday night Sunday
evening and they did a grid search on the local landfill right which is something I don't think we were totally
aware of or knew the details of when we covered it back in 2016 but the the difficult thing with that is you have to
wonder could any of those dumpster been emptied on Saturday or Sunday before the search was before they were
actively searching for him 1 2 there was as captain points out there was that grid search at the landfill that that
did occur and I can't remember if it occurred the Thursday or Friday after he went missing or if it was the following
week but it was relatively soon well again what's difficult about this too is it's it's a very it's a condensed area
but there's a lot of dumpsters there's yes there's a dumpster around every corner yes that's why that was kind of
my go to but but the but the thing is fir if Bryan let's say got out of the bar and walked 15 minutes north he there
wouldn't be enough people to check all those dumpsters around that area during the search was there any result of did
we talk about like search dogs cadaver dogs did they yeah they at the landfill yeah did they do any searches with dogs
in the bar they did outside of the bar regarding the landfill search other than it being a grid search that was
conducted by law enforcement with the city's help I don't know much about it other than that and that it occurred
relatively soon after he went missing okay it might be pretty tough for cadaver dogs to work in a dump location
anyway and there was video footage of the parking garage right okay because my head immediately went to well he he
probably tried to walk back to Clint and married this vehicle in the parking garage and then maybe you had somebody
pick him up in the parking garage and take off with him for some reason but if there's no account video account of him
entering their garage then I guess that checks that one off the loss what bothers me and maybe this is going to
come off they're very arrogant but to me the cops are saying we checked this and
we checked this footage and we check the back exit footage to me it's I didn't check the footage so I don't know it was
how well it was checked yeah that's very true I mean some somebody missed something somewhere because he's not in
the building anymore well I just don't understand why you can't say if you've looked at the footage from the garage
the footage from the escalator the footage from the the back hallway why not release that to the public other
than what Tim was saying is that the other patrons of that night to protect them but it's like oh who cares you know
and and the footage is not like the clearest footage in the world anyways well when you walk into a place that has
video surveillance you walk by a sign that says you're subject to being right to being your likeness is being taped I
really think because the the main detective retired I believe in January on this case and there's a new detective
on the case now and I wish the first thing they did was to compile this footage and either put it on a website
or to release it onto YouTube for people to analyze I have a kind of a random question I haven't seen anything about
any drug use for Brian and I don't want to attach a stigma because we know that can happen in missing person cases but
was he did he ever dabble in like some kind of upper speed in order to study I did see somewhere that he stayed up all
night at times studying and I know that's kinda common an adderall was big back then yeah yeah and and well pills
in general during that time were pretty big so was he taking adderall and instead of just taking it was he
sniffing it was he was he a coke usage I have not heard any rumors about this I know he went through a period where he
was a little more living the hippie lifestyle and so smoking pot but I want to put put it past somebody that is
in school to be a doctor and and spending long nights studying and long shifts and and everything else he had
going on yeah to use the upper I wouldn't put it past him but I don't know if there's any evidence of that I
was even rumors of it I also just want to point out that he was grieving still his mama died three weeks before so that
is definitely a period of time in a person's life where they're not really thinking clearly probably not even
really remembering too much of that time so and that's in that scenario he's grieving
he's got the pressures of school he's got the pressures of being financially in debt he's got his maybe his
girlfriend that he's feeling pressure to marry and in that moment he's drank just
enough to say [ __ ] it I'm done I'm walking out of here and he chooses to walk away from his life at 2:00 in the
morning without any indication and and a long wait and he's the luckiest man in the world yeah that chose to leave a bar
to leave his life and by the way there's no footage of him leaving the bar I mean
unless he like beautifully orchestrated this elaborate scenario to pretend to be
that intoxicated analyzed all of the cameras in the neighborhood so a new lane ticket bought the plane ticket to
Florida to fool everybody that he was going to floor voicemail to his girlfriend yet right so that's all
playing into his hand he he probably scouted out the area to say I can't walk down that Street or that Street because
of these security cameras but I know that I can walk past the construction site because there's no security cameras
and then he gets into a boat on the Little River and paddles away I mean so even him running away doesn't make any
sense here's what's tough about some of these cases I mean even look at like the
Marke case one of the things that you you go did he ant did Brian Schaeffer analyze all this stuff what one was he
the most lucky guy that decided to go missing on his own ever or did he plan any of this and it
seems so far-fetched but then you come back to the idea of well this guy was intelligent I mean he was clever so is
it possible yes I think it's highly unlikely and same way with like the Maura case was she clever enough to do
that possibly it just seems so highly unlikely that you would decide to as you're drinking and hitting on girls to
be like yeah this life is too much I'm gonna go away and move to a you know some community and meditate all day long
yeah it seems very very unlikely and really this is the surveillance video is is the part that makes it seem the most
unlikely to me because again I he would have had to have accidentally been not seen on those surveillance videos
there's no way for him to have known what the frame was on all those cameras throughout that walk home or in the in
that building right but I think again I this contradicts the the police but I think it goes back to the security
guards telling me how unbelievably easy it would be to leave the building and not be seen and if you base everything
off of what they're saying then he just left and went home we we don't if he was
let's say he got home he didn't get jumped no robbery he gets home he wakes up the next day
and says yeah now I'm going to go missing the difficult thing there is we have no activity with ATM and we have no
movement of his car and nothing's ever been touched as far as this bank account any credit card activity incorrect okay
so one so that would mean that if he if he managed to get home and he slept and woke up in the next morning he said well
this is going to be the day he would have had to have planned for months before to get a new credit card probably
under a different name right because if he's that smart to disappear that he's going to know
that he has to come up with a new identity or he had all those pieces in place was there any search of a computer did
he ever have any searches on things like this on how to fake your identity or the
police did take his computer yeah at some point I don't know what was learned from I don't think there was ever a
report that I heard all right that I'm aware of you know being of anything of concern being on his computer right yeah
I have not heard that either and we do know that the police had his computer and I believe they held it for quite
some time and eventually released it to Brian's father and I think the family still has even though his father has
passed the family still has that computer but it seems to me like if there was anything interesting or of
interest to the police on there they may not have released it the thing though -
that's weird and in Campton you really hit on something in the sense of of one thing if he if he chose to walk away
Biya if it were on purpose that it worked out this way or just on by half an stance it's kind of a it's a very
theatrical departure one - it would make him the luckiest man to disappear not being picked up on camera but if if we
could go the opposite direction and say he met with foul play somehow well now we have the luckiest killer luckiest
criminals right yeah luckiest criminal because now we don't have anything pointing police in their direction right
and we certainly don't have the public being pointed in any direction because you you if you pull if you pull the
public have him we're gonna question the the building and if he ever left the building to begin with we had a really
interesting conversation last night where we ranked we did yeah couple interesting conversations but we said
what's what's more likely with the cases that we have been looking at like Brandon Lawson Brian Schaeffer Moore
Murray and Brianna Maitland which one of those has more of a criminal activity element
to it or strikes you as having the highest percentage of foul play right which I think that's a great a
great experiment because if if you're if we're going to do this I'm Brianna Maitland's would stand out as so
obviously related to foul play just due to where her car was found in how her car was found but on the on the contrary
you could say that that might look like the the highest percentage of a runaway and she's just staging the car to look
like so I was just thinking about like how frustrating this case is because it didn't happen in an area like Mora or
Brianna or Brynn and Lawson those are isolated single person incidents yeah almost in the middle of nowhere almost
in the middle of nowhere and this is in the middle of everywhere in front of a crowded bar in the middle of a crowded
bar and security cameras and there were two police officers there right outside of the bar in the building but outside
the bar or security people well no there were police ever actually please lock a
whole security team that surrounds that whole area so here's a little piece of information that hasn't not been
released to the public that often this breaking news so the situation where when he goes to eat with his father that
day that that wasn't some hey let's just get together for lunch that was kind of
to get together to see if we're gonna be able to keep having a relationship so that to me is a little strange and then
the fact that he was also supposed to hang out with his brother that night now his brother does have an alibi they went
to the funny bone and with his girlfriend people saw them there and then afterwards they were supposed to
meet up with Brian and they never did and then they said okay well we're going to go to a bar I believe it's in
Pickerington and they have a bar there they have a couple drinks there and some people see them there so that's kind of
their alibi but we were talking a little bit earlier there was money Ries that was going to
come to Brian his father and his brother from his mother's death not a lot of money but I still think that has to be
put on the table and that's part of the conversation that has never been but he didn't get the money right no he never
received the money because he went missing but without Brian the other two remaining family members now receive a
larger sum because they're splitting they're splitting that sum three ways do we know how much I the way that I've
heard it reported is that it would have been approximately between twenty to thirty thousand dollars that Brian would
have received so carrying that a step further assuming that it was an even split
right we're talking about you know eighty to a hundred thousand dollars that they would be splitting now who
knows maybe the father was going to receive a larger portion that's not uncommon but the the the tricky thing
with with this with the events of that day is you can really kind of look at them in a under two different lights so
one the having a steak dinner with your father planning to have your brother meet up with you afterwards after he
goes out to the funny bone with with his girlfriend or friends or whomever calling your girlfriend leaving a very
nice voicemail hanging out with one of your quote unquote will you will use quotes there because depending on who
you talk to the the relationship between Clint and Brian varies but uh but under
this scenario though under this scenario you look at at two ways some people have suggested is that him
making an effort to have a final goodbye with the ones that are still close to him right and then there's other people
that say well could the answer to why Brian is no longer with us be within that circle within that network so you
said that he went to dinner with his father and in Reynoldsburg and that was them
having sort of a come to terms moment of in regards to their relationship did they have a rocky relationship well it
seems like they had a decent relationship but why his mother was sick I think it came out that his father was
seeing somebody and it's not clear if his mom knew about that there's I've heard of several cases where somebody
gets sick and they become terminal and they actually pushed their spouse or significant other to find a companion
yeah not the most unusual thing so that's a possibility but so the speculation is that this really upset
Brian and the money that they were getting through the mother's death was actually awarded to we're not awarded
but it was granted to the remaining siblings and the father right okay so so how much would it take for a family to
plan to off well I don't know that anybody's saying that's the suspicion I thought I know but I think you know I
think it needs to be on the table or at least discussed I mean if you're investigating a case like this you have
to go every nook and cranny so one thing that would stand out to me if we're like
actually investigating it is his brother and girlfriend have alibis and they planned to meet him later on and they
didn't meet him later on that's that's correct right right okay so you could have a scenario where they've hired
somebody to do something to them and they knew that they weren't going to meet him later on
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this equation then I just think should be discussed and put on the table that gets often left out is what two years
later the father dies in a very mysterious way an incredibly tragic bizarre accident involving a tree branch
fault leading ribbing being ripped off the tree in a windstorm right right and hitting him and killing him and so then
now what is left because the family is this simple mother father two sons so now you have the moms died well the one
son's missing then the father dies mysterious and now you're left with one son and so he's he in turn inherits
everything so maybe the little bit of money that he's gonna get from his mother isn't not that much but you
combined the whole the total that that's been a motive in a lot of cases so thinking about Brian knowing that he was
going to get something from his mother's death even further makes me think that he didn't run away Brian might as well
might as well stay get some money that'll give me a little relief that's not life changing money but it could be
for him for someone that that old you know I can I can start paying back some of my student loans even twenty thirty
thousand dollars that's a pretty significant amount of money especially for someone that young a lot of those
medical loans too will be forgiven because they'll go they can work in hospitals and certain areas where the
you know parts of there alone are forgiven and if he planned to run away why didn't he why wouldn't he wait for
the money and then run away because he had money well and what of I mean what a very nice gesture and what a very nice
nod to the legacy of your mother to finish school right yeah we she wanted him to she you know she was very proud
of but on the flip side of that there could be some relief if he really didn't want
to become a doctor or his mom his father wanted him to do it more than he did his mom passes away
maybe that's burden off of his shoulders as far as school goes right the very tricky thing and we were talking about
drugs or in substance wait house let me stay on this one point real quick because so like you were saying to meet
up with your father to meet up with your brother to meet up with a friend that your haven't seen in a while is this a
sign of reconnecting to move your life forward after your mom passed away or is this like you said a sign of goodbye
just does anybody have a feeling of it leaning towards one way or the other now I know I don't see that as being
something a sign of a good buy for someone that smart if he was going to run away this successfully and not a
trace just feels like he would want to make the day he runs away be as average as any other day right and I think the
same thing too and the speculation that he's trying to reconnect with his father
some people could say while he's trying to reconnect with his father before he leaves but it's like wouldn't it be that
the wouldn't that be part of the motivation for you leaving in the first place right right so to me it's it's a
it makes it become a lot more odd that he goes missing on that day because it seems like he was trying to reconnect to
me and wouldn't it make it more difficult if you're visiting with all of the people that you care about and then
you try to reconnect with your father who you're it's the relationship is becoming sort of estranged right and
then you're you're connecting with these people that care about you you care about them you're trying to get back in
good graces with your father wouldn't that just almost make it impossible for you to leave I mean you're trying to
make your life better yeah well and I think that there's very good cause for people to believe that this possibly
could be the final goodbye and what what really sets the table for one to believe that
this is a perfect storm because what we have here is the known facts are we know
he's leaving for vacation on Monday morning what is the closest person to him doing his girlfriend visiting with
her family before they leave to go on this spring break trip what is Bryan doing visiting with his
father wants to hang out with his brother his brother says that look we may have drifted apart in our teenage
years and early 20s but but we got closer as mom got more sick we got even closer after she passed his words are it
was almost as if Bryan was trying to get tighter with me to help me through this
tragic event that occurred in our lives so we have a situation where it may be what some perceive it to be it may be a
goodbye and some look at it as a final goodbye I think it looks so much that way because it's a temporary good luck
cuz he is planning to least planning to leave for a week yep and look I've been stressed out I'm trying to get through
school I got I mean it's not easy to be a doctor what if he was so I'm told what
if he was planning on proposing to his girlfriend during that trip and he wanted to make sure that things were
good with him his family because there's gonna be a wedding soon and he wants to
make sure that you know we have a good a good wedding and we have a good a good showing at the wedding with with the
family right and one would argue then we have evidence of him hitting on these girls but I would say look that could be
more due to the alcohol yeah I'd say so yeah because there and there's this also some
guys and you guys would know this I mean sometimes when you're hanging out with guys that even are in relationships the
start of the evening is fine and then after a certain point after their fifth beer or after this six beer they're like
let's go find girls and you're like you're married or you have a girlfriend like what
how's this coming over you now it's almost like they couldn't handle their liquor they're not experts lately
colonel some guys just like to flirt I think though and not right right we're right and then you know and it could
have been as as simple as him giving them their number and just thinking I still got it
yes I won't answer the phone when they call me but I still got it have you guys ever heard the story of
Christopher Knight the hermit in Maine no so this man he was early 20s I want to say 20 or 21 he just out of the blue
one day thought I can't live in this world this this type of world is not for me
mm-hmm so it's the middle of Maine and he drives his car down down a back road and drives it as far into the woods as
he can before I can't go any further right and then he gets out walks into the woods and he lives there for 27
years and he he builds his little area in between boulders was he stealing food from the neighboring house that's how he
was caught he was stealing food from the cabins and then there was a sort of like
a recreation almost like a camp that would get these shipments of food right before their season would start so he
knew how to break into that place and that's how he was caught after 27 years his family provided for themselves like
they live sort of off the grid they were very smart they were very smart with agriculture and all of the people like
you know it's the middle of Maine so there was hardly any neighbors but anybody who knew them knew well they
keep to themselves and they're nice enough but we know that they're they want to be off the grid when the when
the press and law enforcement questioned them about Christopher about their son they they said well you've never filed a
missing person report and they said no we just figured that he just wandered off that he just didn't want to you know
he just went away right we didn't think they do he was like there was any danger
and you know and then you look at Brian I keep thinking of Christopher Knight and how no one really thought that he
would he didn't think that he would go to he didn't he just got overwhelmed at that moment and was like this world's
not for me and he just wandered into the woods and that's where his world was and
he was much more comfortable in there is that is that a possibility with Brian that he was just like you know it's not
for me and then he miraculously walks down away from the bar not around any surveillance
videos and that's that just happens to be something yeah yeah he just lucked out right there well that's the
conversation or the speculation and it's a leap and I know it's a leap but here's
this guy with a Pearl Jam tattoo okay around this time you would have known that they're working on the movie into
the wild okay yeah you have the book it's about Alexander Supertramp that basically
disappeared from his family and went to live in Alaska and so the idea was and then Eddie Vetter was gonna be doing the
soundtrack for it so there's a there was some speculation again it's this huge leap that you'd have to just assume that
he knew that Eddie was doing this and then he got wrapped up into this book and this went okay I'll just take her
off and we we've had we have seen this happen I mean there was they made a movie about it you know so but to me
that's a pretty big leap but that guy was found right yeah he ate something poisonous yeah and he was found by died
yeah yeah yeah yeah but a lot of them are not found yes they died in the wilderness and then
animals get to their body so in that circumstance did Brian hitchhike somewhere it didn't
take his guitar like he didn't take yeah so when they when they went to his apartment there was nothing that the
family or law enforcement perceived to be missing from the apartment or from his car
strangely enough though someone broke into that apartment was it weeks later four or five weeks later right and the
police said that by that time they had removed there were still items in the apartment at that time but they had
removed things of value or of interest to the investigation and they've never caught the person or
or know who it was and so a lot of people speculate well that might have been Brian returning the thing is
police have were very quick to say one the locks were not changed so if he still had his keys he wouldn't have had
to break into his own apartment Brent - they firmly believe that it was just an opportunist someone that this saw on the
news read in the newspaper that this guy is missing nobody knows where he is and decided to bust in and see if there
was anything worth taking did they publicize his address I don't know that they publicized his address but but the
I vote they probably did would be my guess I don't think this said the address but I believe they said King
Avenue mm-hmm six blocks away from King Avenue mm-hmm but here's a larger than there - then
you can lean on the idea of well course if I if I'm gonna go missing but all [ __ ] I gotta go back to my apartment and
get a couple things why wouldn't I break in right because you don't want to show investigators
that you still have your keys I wonder if they they fingerprinted the door where it was broken into and maybe
that's why police think that Brian is still out there somewhere alive yeah so that's the weird and that again that's
all speculation but from people that I've talked to and I I don't want to put words into Nicholas Westmont mouth he
was a guy investigating this case but he has always kind of felt that law enforcement believes he's still that
Brian Schaeffer is still alive yeah it does seem to to lead that way in my research as well that that police do
feel that way I do want to point out something though - I see that it can be easy for someone to go well we're going
to get this lump sum of money amongst these individuals Brian disappears two and a half years later the father dies
I I can see how some people can say on the surface that looks a little strange and a little fishy but I think we should
point out where you could call the death of Randy Schaefer mysterious or not normal or whatever whatever words you
want to use we should point out that in that very same windstorm there were five
other people there were five other fatalities so it's not like this is a very unique situation no I understand I
just think if you look at this case as a whole you have to put that on the table
doesn't mean that you can't eliminate that eventually I just think it has to be on the table initially the other
thing that the this has not been talked about in the public's eyes is let's look
at the players of that night so we have Bryant he eats with his father now we got Bryan and his father he's supposed
to meet up with his brother his brother's girlfriend so that's a player and the story you have his buddy Clint
and Meredith they go to the bar with then of course you have everybody in the bar but we don't know them let's just
focus on the two girls that he talked to at the bar so we have a total of seven players roughly and one of the things
that they haven't been they haven't talked about and in the public is in Brian's program there was other people
from Brian's program at Ohio State University that were in that bar that night and we know that that the cops
talked to Clint and we know they talked to Meredith and they we don't know what the answers that they gave but we know
whether or not cops believed them to be telling the truth or not but you have a group of other students he went to
school with that were at the bar that night that he went missing and have never been talked about and we're
going on how many years so I'd really like to know who they were were they questioned were they cleared reading in
an article that everyone who saw Brian that night was given a lie-detector test except for Clint who didn't who refused
it so that would be the two girls that he talked to and got the phone number I would assume members of the band were
given lie-detector tests is that for real like everybody that saw Brian that night I don't think the band was so in
regards to when they say everyone that this saw Brian that night they're probably they're probably meaning
everyone that had like a interaction interaction where lengthy interaction with him the the what I was able to find
was that the two ladies that he spoke with were can they did lie-detector test oh yeah I believe his father Randy and I
heard Meredith but not Clint but not well Clint was asked his attorney and he and he advised him not to he had already
given it was operating he was cooperating but he he had already got an attorney hmm boy here and how soon well
and he yes so the attorney advised him not to to do the lie detector which is perfectly fair because I don't know it's
not going to if they don't consider him a suspect at that point it's not going to you know not make him less of a
suspect I guess right but and I want to give credit to Nicholas West for really hittin this home because he talked with
the family members because he thought it was strange that here you have a guy Clint that is cooperating with the
police and showing up to searches and then all the sudden stops conversation with the family and basically lawyers up
and says leave me alone both coming from the uncles they were saying that during
the search that Clint was there after he's already talked to police officers that Randy Brian's father was loud and
adamant Andrew towards Clint basically his feeling was that Clint knew more than he was saying
but he's being so vocal about it in a public forum that I think Clint probably went back to his parents and said this
is what happened and his parents probably said you need to lawyer up then I think that's not out of bounds right
no not at all and I don't know what I would do if I was in that circumstance and someone were to ask me to take a
lie-detector test because what if my heart's beating a little too fast I'm nervous and it's inconclusive it doesn't
matter if it's inconclusive people people look at inconclusive almost as they look at you failed but if you say
no that stigmas attached to ya but mind you but you can never say that it failed
right right but mind you they he he did interviews with the police yeah still to
this day you can submit questions to his lawyer and that and they would answer some of them I guess well and to clear
something up I may have said something that is not correct so do you want to point that I don't know if it's the the
article or or or not but we should mention it yeah so we're not sure that this article says the two women
Brian was seen talking to were identified in 2009 and claimed that they had never been asked to take the test
okay yeah we should throw that out there just so to be clear yeah it's a possibility that either they were never
asked to take a test or they're the test was conducted after the the you know after that article was written but
really hard to believe that those two women did something to Brian right but here's what we that might be the reason
for not asking them to submit to a lie-detector test I think is you you have video footage of them leaving and
maybe you have people to to vouch for their whereabouts and their actions after leaving the bar the question that
speaking of leaving the bar the the big question I have is what were the intentions of Clint Meredith and Brian
after leaving the bar I mean is it as simple as we were going to drop him off at his house
we are drugs in origin we were all going to go back to Clint's place we were all
going to meet up with some other people what was the on the itinerary for after the ugly tuna
well well here's what we do know we do know that Clint I believe was a TA and he was watching one of his professors
condos that night and so we have him and Meredith leaving the parking garage and
then going to this condo complex where you'd have to enter in a code well if you look at when they left the parking
garage and when they entered the code and you roughly figure out how fast they were driving in traffic and all that
stuff it makes sense like they didn't stop anywhere to get there and then they spend the night at that condo woke up in
the next day and drove Meredith back to Brian's place to get a vehicle but what but back to lie detector
yes Clinton didn't take a lie detector but Meredith did hi Meredith was with Clint the whole time so you know I mean
like if he did he'd just slip out in the bathroom and and and kill him and then put him in this pocket and then leave
and she just didn't see anything I mean I think the fact that she took a lie detector clears plant hears lot of them
you know what and that could have been something that the lawyer told them like I don't like see she's already taking
she's taking it if you guys are in the clear don't even don't even acknowledge the possibility it can only hurt you
well let's go back to this idea to and I don't know this is a lot of hearsay right but the idea is that Clint and
Meredith were at the teacher's condo the next day they go back to Brian's house now their story is basically we just
picked up the other vehicle and we left and went our separate ways the story for
many years was that both of them went into Brian's apartment and we're at Brian's apartment for about six hours
the next day yeah okay those are two way different stories well we did we didn't
go into his apartment we just picked up the car and we both went our separate ways and they both met up they
met each other back up that night so Clint and Meredith hung out again that night but the way it's been told by
Randy and some other people is no they actually went into Bryan this apartment and they were in his apartment for six
hours or so and I think those are you know like I said completely different stories and I think some of the problem
and I don't put like blame or anything but I think some of the problem is like Randy didn't want to admit to the public
that his son was drunk that night but very intoxicated that night and and I think he was looking to point the finger
at a lot of people and I think he was also trying to create super you know fake narratives not in a bad way just
because he cared about his son and and maybe also cared about their reputation as their family is it possible and it's
gonna sound like a joke at first is it possible that Bryan knowing that it was April Fool's Day walked away and hid
somewhere to play a joke thinking that he would just be gone for a little bit and got himself into a bad physical
situation maybe he was ducking into something and I'm gonna I'm gonna hide out and make it seem you know I'll pull
this sort of prank on my friends but and you know sort of like ELISA Lam being found in the water tank
well now cuz I've always wondered this to like you know he was just out of funeral
for his mother comes up with the idea of well who would go to my funeral you know
so again it's April Fool's let me go missing for 24 hours and to see what kind of fuzzy kids you know I know
people that have thought about that before I've thought about that before that's it's really not the most
far-fetched idea especially when you're under the influence of heavy drinking you
I didn't even think about him coming back from his mom's funeral and then thinking I wonder what it would be like
for people to miss me I wonder what that would feel like can we talk a little bit
more about the water the the little river yeah in that area how deep was that was the water flow
would you like to pronounce that do you Olentangy I would not like Harrington isn't the Scioto by there yes well the
the intersect at some point yeah they intersect a little further south I think yeah from where he was but uh yeah I
guess so so what about that the river that was closest to him so regarding that this
was this was searched and per the family and per someone that worked close with the family and searchers and law
enforcement the the reports that I've seen state that the water was searched extensively to the point where I think
it's his uncle that's on record saying he's not in the water he never was in the water right and and he's saying that
I believe again I believe it's the uncle he's whoever said that it's because they
were they were part of this these searches and even recalls stories of being physically in the water himself
they weren't just they weren't just eyeballing us they were down in the water actively searching and so the
searchers say that at the time of the searches the water was roughly two to three feet deep now of course there were
there is going to be pockets that might be slightly deeper than that and some that will be more shallow but the
general consensus is that it was about two to three feet deep at that time okay so that's enough to drown in but not
necessarily enough to be concealed in probably right how far away is Lake Erie if you were to drive there I don't I
don't know how science works but I don't I don't think if either those rivers lead there I oh no I was thinking if
someone picked him up Oh let's talk him to Lake yeah yeah too science right - now two and a half hours
roughly so we also presented this case to a retired detective when we first covered it back in 2016 and his his main
thought was and it was kind of just like a knee-jerk reaction but when we when we
shot out the idea of maybe as the body of water involved he said his immediately didn't miss a
beat he goes they would have found him now and and I know that that's not 100% all the time every time
but to hear a seasoned retired detective say I'm immediately boom they would have
found him if he was in water they would have found him okay and unfortunately we
lived through that same scenario when Joey LaBute went missing and his body surfaced or was found approximately 30
or so days after he went missing with it being a river most the time things get snagged in the river and they
could they catch and they stay in one spot at some point so it's still a possibility but it seems like it seems
like the people involved in the searches people with a long history in law enforcement all seem to believe that
it's not likely yeah what about the train tracks I'm looking here and there's a looks like the commuter rail
or something there's a train transit station well that's interesting I've never thought of that it's a very
strange that run all through the area I mean it's it's a pretty straight shot to
the train tracks from the ugly tuna freight trains though right Travel yeah well you have the tracks but there's an
idea that I've always kind of wondered is if they check the Greyhound stations because there's a greyhound station
downtown so what was it possible for Brian to just jump on a bus and go somewhere
I've always wondered if they even check those you don't have to imagine they check the surveillance video but no
activity on his card right well and then yes on him as far as financials go one thing that I think is interesting
and I don't know why I find it to be interesting but the report from law enforcement is that Brian paid his tab
that night with cash yeah and in here I want to do a little speculating on that I think that there
might not be such a such a proof positive way of knowing that information I think it's more of deducing what what
didn't happen to determine that he paid the tab with cash okay so there's a chance that he didn't pay it all and
well squink come on now so her death could've paid it well but here's where I want to go with that they would have
asked Clint that they would have asked Meredith that right there's their statement is Brian paid his tab with
cash so where I think they arrived to that might be more of an assumption rather than proof positive his father is
on record saying Brian never carried cash he paid with everything for a credit card or debit card and but that's
also confusing with these cases you hear one thing and then it's almost like it's
always contradicted by his father and that's estranged well I think part of that is that we have a father that
likely believes his son was met with foul play and and he wants to point out anything that doesn't seem right to him
now having worked in several bars typically what would go down is it's very easy obviously to trace the credit
card debit card transaction so we know he didn't pay with a credit card or debit card regardless of what anyone
says now regarding paying the tab with cash that night that's very difficult to prove that he physically paid his tab
with cash most of the time it's not gonna ring up under his name it could be he could have been listed as anything he
could have been paying as he went as he went which is most likely yeah I believe
if you're paying in cash you're paying as you go right and typically if there are unpaid tabs every establishment that
I've worked at there's a logbook and any incident goes in the logbook and an unpaid tab is an incident and you have a
corresponding credit card correct by the way I was on the Bing machine again and I followed the train tracks and
found a freight train on the train tracks oh yes that was a that is a train track that carries Freight okay so so
freight trains move a little slower than commuter trains so that that is something you could actually hop on to
and and like run faster than in a lot of cases that's an interesting take yeah I
don't think anybody's ever presented that before and if you look at the where the train tracks are in relationship to
the ugly tuna you could almost put his apartment right in the middle no way it was it was that direction yeah no yeah
so it makes it even closer to another known point where he may have been or was attempting to go to I want to get to
two more things before we wrap this up first of all you know there's only one family member left that we can talk to
and that's Derek Brian's brother but a lot of people find it odd that he is not so forward with talking with media or
podcasters or whoever but I want you to give your thoughts on that Nick if you could I personally don't find it to be
strange in this situation it is 13 years later and I know that he's kind of always had this stance right or as far
back as I could trace however it seems that he is willing to communicate but it seems more to me I believe the statement
that maybe I'm reading too much into this but in regards to his reaction or turning down interviews or anything like
that the vibe I'm getting from Derek is not so much that he won't communicate regarding the case his brother's missing
persons case it's more so he it's a very emotional thing for him and he wishes not to do that on camera or on
microphone or to be recorded and it might just be it might just be a proud dude that's like you know what I if I
talk about this too much or if I think about this too much I'm gonna get choked up right maybe I don't want to cry on
camera maybe I don't want to you know cry on my core or whatever and he's got to can you imagine
first of all let's let's touch on this with his mom dad and brother in the course of in the course of three years
it's crazy hit from four to one and three years and so it's almost a domino effect when you
think about the emotions in this man is maybe it's not so much just he doesn't want to talk about his brother's case
but it also triggers his father's tragic death his mother losing her life to cancer exams
it's a [ __ ] load man right it's a load you can't leave those out of the equation when you're looking into this
case but I think you know that being said all of us here when we're looking into these cases we're not trying to be
disrespectful to a victim or the victim's family we are just simply trying to come to some kind of
understanding which would then help the victim listen then yeah you know that that this [ __ ] freaks me out I mean you
don't have to be hooked on drugs you don't have to be from a bad neighborhood you don't have to be poor or wealthy you
don't have to stand out at all you can be a Pearl Jam fan someone who's going you know in their six year of medical
school in a crowded bomb in a crowded bar and in in Ohio and and you're you're gone right add that at the very least I
say this because you said we're we're not trying to be disrespectful to the family at the very least a message you
can take from this is just always be aware of your surroundings just try to be aware of where you're at where your
friends are at because it can literally happen to anybody anywhere at any time and I think the another interesting
thing to which I which is the way to handle it in my opinion Derek and the Shafer family have been very consistent
with saying they believe that Clint knows more or could offer more assistance and I applaud them for that
because I think he possibly could even if it's information that he doesn't know that could be
important but I applaud them for not accusing him of anything other than right possibly knowing something in
addition to what's been provided I'd be very interested in talking with Clint or
Derrick and I think it could be done or Meredith yeah or Meredith okay so it was great to
listen you guys talk about this case as you know I've you guys as experts of missing person
cases because of how long you have dealt with the Marberry case is there one thing that sticks out with this case
that you would like to go down that rabbit hole and spend more time on that would be the first question the second
question is you have a gut feeling of what you think happen this start with Tim do you mean in investigating the
case or do you mean in talking the case out to do I want to revisit something no
I'm just saying like if you're investigating this case if you are us and you and we're going to spend more
time on this case Zehra was there something through this conversation or through your research
that you'd go I would dive down this hole a little bit more if you could well I would love to I would love to check
out the roof of that building but I also think the that the train tracks the the
freight train is a pretty good is a pretty good way to have gotten a little further away and just you know right I
gotta say this conversation has been super enlightening because a roundtable discussion of a case like this is really
important because you you get to hear the other people the other person's opinion I'm with you the the train
tracks I'm looking at it now that those that goes up to Canada that goes straight up to Canada well in like you
said Tim I have never heard any me talk anything about a roof in this case and I
like I said I've talked about this case to a thousand people when nobody's ever said what about the room I have to
imagine the police searched that though yeah I'm sure they did I would I would hate it if the police are listening to
this and they're like oh yeah they never saw the hangover yeah but the train tracks yeah I would love
to I would love to look into that because could you imagine that scenario he is walking back I didn't know that he was
walking back it's in the direction of his apartment and he's like I'll just I'll just I'll just you know I'll just
duck down right here maybe he sit by the train tracks the train chugs along yeah
a couple hours later so check a schedule I guess that if you can track down a schedule I think that would be valuable
information I know that the the the family what they've said publicly would disagree with this but I where I once
believed the most likely simplest scenario was that somehow he made it out of the bar he was attacked on his way
home but placed in a dumpster ended up in the landfill and they just missed it I still think that's that's likely
however I'm telling you man two years later I'm sitting here in this chair and looking back into this this
case again I'm I'm now completely changed my viewpoint of I I now actually believe the opposite and believe that
more than ever that he could still be out there and he could still be alive and the captain hit on something very
interesting that we talked about quite a bit and and I was you know pushed it off
the table discussion wise but I want to circle back to it real quick before we finish up is the the footage of that
back hallway of people leaving now we all agreed that if they believed they had proof of Brian leaving they would
have publicly stated that law they being law enforcement and I still stand by that statement however I'm curious if
there are one or two or however many multiple individuals on that footage that maybe they can't identify
they don't believe them to be Brian for whatever reason but they have not been identified
I think that's somewhat of a possibility as the captain pointed out multiple times security is mentioned there are
other ways there were other ways in and out of that building I I think I think the the when we discuss drug use
substance abuse we discussed behaviors mental makeup all that all that stuff the the key thing here to
remind ourselves of is it it doesn't necessarily matter so much who Brian was how he was before a month
before he disappeared because his mother dying is a trigger that could have sent
someone in any different direction lifestyle wise and choices wise absolutely yeah and I've had friends
that were the most talkative person you ever met and a parent passed away and they just became quiet but I'd really
love to if I could like in a perfect world sit down with Clint and talk with him or
sit down Derek and talk with them not and not even record it just be on the phone and ask some questions and you
know if if either one of them hear this and you know would like to even grab a beer you know just to go you drink beer
how's your hangover so uh anyways we should be getting out of here because you guys got to get back to the airport
so you can get back to Boston active worm town well and I do want to go on record saying this too this is one of
few cases that we've circled back to that we've looked into for a second or third time we've talked about it on our
other show off the record several times we very likely will circle back to this one again and again and again and I want
to be very vocal with with these words saying that we want to help in any way shape or form if the shape Shaffer
family or friends of Brian need anything think we can offer anything our information is on true-crime garage comm
we want to help in any shape or form the other thing that I want to help with is
directing a lot of the people that tuned in and join us in the garage today to our very good friends that took time out
of their very busy lives to join us in the garage Tim and Lance tell us briefly again about the podcast about your
projects and where to find you great thank you yeah check us out at crawlspace - Mediacom that's kind of
main landing spot for everything we do we host the missing more amore podcast you can find that on stitcher on Apple
podcasts we actually also have a sort of a revisiting of the more amore case that
we are doing up for stitcher premium and we're calling that creators commentary so that's actually us talking over the
old episodes and updating with new information and making fun of herself a fair share of self-effacing it's a
really cool project that stitcher allowed us to do and we're having a blast putting it together we're
delivering the episodes in batches of 10 so we'll do these marathon sessions where we listen to ourselves from you
know three years ago two years ago and we talked over it one like Tim said we update information so it's super
informative I mean if we said something and since the factors or the circumstance the circumstances have
changed then we update that so if you're looking for new updated case information
you get the parallel right there it's it's a really really cool project I'm really fortunate to be a part of it yeah
and and crawlspace is also available on stitcher Apple podcast and everywhere we
have the full archive on stitcher premium and check out finding more Amaury on amazon prime I can speak for
the colonel when I say the captain the colonel we had a lot of fun having you come visit us and drink with us and I'm
sure Nick will be paying for it for the next couple days well and we will see you guys at crime Conn can't wait
yep and thanks everybody for joining us this week in the garage we will see you back here in the garage next week until
then be good be kind and dauntless [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Source: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-axfwe-ac2667

Brian Shaffer /// Part 2 /// 291 Part 2 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com This week we are joined in the Garage with long time friends of the show and missing persons experts Tim and Lance from the Missing Maura Murray and Crawlspace podcasts. Join us for some cold ones and an in-depth round table discussion regarding the disappearance of Brian Shaffer. Was Brian met with foul play or is Brian living out his days in Parts Unknown? Beer of the Week - Seventh Son American Strong Ale Garage Grade - 4 and 3/4 bottle caps out of 5 Check out Madison Reed and save some CA$H www.Madison-Reed.com use code GARAGE to get 10% off plus FREE shipping on your first color kit The full archive of True Crime Garage is available on the Stitcher listening app - for FREE. Our show “Off the Record” is only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

Brief Summary

The episode analyzes the mysterious disappearance of Brian Schaeffer, discussing theories of foul play and the investigation's challenges.

Key points

Theories on Brian's Disappearance. Exploring various theories about what happened to Brian after leaving the bar.
The Luckiest Man to Disappear. Discussion on the improbability of Brian leaving without being seen.
The Search for Evidence. Investigating the lack of surveillance footage and its implications.
The Inheritance Angle. Speculation arises about the financial motives behind Brian's disappearance and family dynamics.
The Mysterious Dinner. Brian's dinner with his father raises questions about their relationship and his disappearance.
The Father's Tragic Death. Two years later, Brian's father dies in a bizarre accident, adding to the family's mystery.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Nothing good happens after 2:00 a.m.

Discussion about late-night safety.

3:29WatchMar 27, 2019

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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