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n [Music] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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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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taxes here is the captain it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend
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this week we are featuring henna chocolate praline macaroon by The Delectable and creative folks over at
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with cocoa nibs and pecan Imperial Stout 14% ABV so drink this one at home in your garage garage grade four and a half
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bottle caps out of five and let's give some thanks and praise to our friends for helping us out first up a big cheers
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to longtime friends of the show Janelle and west from Round Lake Illinois and big we like your jib goes out to Sonia
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from Fort Worth Texas next up here's a cheers to John from Guilford Connecticut and last but certainly not least we have
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a double fisted cheers to Alexa and Kate from right here in Columbus Ohio everyone we just mentioned contributed
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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
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around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime retired Columbus Police police
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Sergeant John Hurst can't understand how Brian schaer a 27-year-old man at the time just simply
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disappeared but he can understand why it has captivated Central Ohio H said quote
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he's got everything going for him why would this individual just disappear like this it's a question Columbus PD in
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thousands from Central Ohio have been asking for more than 18 years Brian shaer was a medical student at the Ohio
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State University as Legend has it he walked into a campus bar and was never seen
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walking out nor has he been seen again the schaer case gets revived from time to time with magazine articles
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stories on the internet and podcast shows like True Crime garage H said the attention can always help
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investigators a little more detail Brian Schaefer grew up in Pickerington Ohio and he went to the Ohio State University
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and graduated with a degree in microbiology then he began studies at OSU College of
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Medicine during his time at medical school he became romantically involved with Alexis Wagner another medical
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student this was a serious relationship and the two were going to go to Miami together for spring break in early April
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of 2006 6 but Brian disappeared just days prior when Brian vanished after going out with friends on the evening of
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March 31st according to these friends during the early morning hours of April 1st
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Brian was separated from them and they assumed he had gone home the security camera outside the
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entrance to the second floor bar recorded him briefly talking to two women just before 2: a.m. and then
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walking off screen Sha has not been seen or heard from since Columbus Police have several
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theories about what happened some suspicion has been directed at a friend Clint Florence who accompanied him that
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night but has refused to take a polygraph test while Foul Play is suspected it has
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also been speculated that Brian might be living somewhere under a new identity today we have for you a very
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special treat this is an interview with Columbus Police Sergeant John Hurst who was the lead investigator in the
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Schaefer case conducting the interview is the captain and longtime friend of the show Maggie freeling the two were
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conducting interviews for a project centered on The Disappearance of Brian schaer this audio has not been heard
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elsewhere and has never been released to the public this is true crime garage [Music]
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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
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relationship is to the Brian schaer case my name is John hurse I'm retired uh detective Sergeant with Columbus Police
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I was the lead investigator on the Brian Schaefer case uh while I was there worked with uh two other detectives
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closely with with it and um and any given time we probably in the beginning had uh 100 officers out searching and
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talking to people and canvasing the areas what was your experience with missing persons cases before this had
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you worked any that's kind of an odd way how I ended up with that I was in charge
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of the physical child abuse unit and the missing Sergeant was on vacation and when he was off I would cover the unit
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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
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ended up with the investigation um we came in while he was gone prior to that you know I'd worked
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with the missing unit on uh numerous cases over the years and uh this just happened to be one of the big ones we
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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
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only one I mean they still have um missing persons with the Department that had been filed and I don't know the
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exact count but you know like 20 or so that have went missing over the years and when I talked to a Columbus
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detective they said that the missing person's unit normally deals with over 6,000 missing person cases a year yeah
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yeah the missing person unit gets uh bombarded with a lot of um missing person reports um the vast major
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majority of those are going to be runaways uh which still gets listed as a missing person right and um they have to
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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
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but one where there's somebody really and it's missing missing if that makes sense so when you first took this case
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you know what were you thinking we have this attractive young white medical student what was your first thought well
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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
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actually didn't get it until a couple days later so when we got it we we started talking to the family and find
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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
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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
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that didn't happen the call either came in or everyone started freaking out when
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he didn't make his flight on his vacation was when it was like the urgency of we think Brian's missing at
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that point when you guys first realized okay this person might be missing what did you guys do what were your first
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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
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made contact with his dad his brother and his girlfriend at the time and you know they told us hey we're supposed to
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be going on this trip possibly maybe getting engaged uh that was kind of a red flag for us that uh somebody just
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take off and disappear when you're plan you know a nice trip down south Florida and uh possibly going to get engaged
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while you're there and so that was that was a big red flag for us when when that
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occurred we did check to see if maybe he changed the airline ticket decid to go somewhere on his own the ticket was
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never used it was never changed so we were like now this isn't looking good right now so there has always been
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question about you know was he getting engaged or not but you heard directly from his girlfriend that that might be
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that was a potential thing that was happening well that was what they thought at the time again whether that
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was the case or not don't know but that was the original thought from the information we were getting from the
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family were you able to look at Brian Schaefer's Financial records Randy was able he was had access to Brian's
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accounts and stuff so we were able to get that pretty quick there wasn't any indication that he had used his a debit
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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
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is one of the big questions in the Brian schaer case was he planning to get engaged and he was leaving on a Monday
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so he still had Saturday and Sunday to make a purchase of engagement ring if he was going to get engaged on the trip
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yeah that's definitely a possibility how helpful was his family his girlfriend his friends was everybody Cooperative
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with you yeah everybody uh that we contacted cooperated answered our questions uh again we had uh his friend
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Clint Florence you know he declined take a polygraph where we had Meredith the the girl that was with him that night
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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
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had a list of questions that uh we wanted to ask we U gave it to his attorney his attorney came back and says
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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
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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
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us an interview and you know gave us some information then uh when it got down to
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the nitty-gritty when it comes to polygraphs if if you have an attorney most attorneys are going to tell you not
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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
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in this day and age if you hire an attorney and there may be even some police officers out there to tell you
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probably even if you're innocent don't take the you have nothing to win because if you take the polygraph and you fail
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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
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nobody believes in the lie detector test anyways right and you know as law enforcement what we use polygraph for
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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
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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
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harder maybe somewhere else um in a different direction were you suspicious of Clint in any way well I I guess you
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could say we became suspicious when we were trying to get him polygraph you know because it would have cleared up a
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lot of questions in in my opinion if he would have come in and answer the questions like Randy and Meredith did so
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there's still outstanding questions Clint has not answered to your knowledge yeah yeah I mean there was some
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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
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people all you're up innocent people all you're up guilty people lawyer up and um
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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
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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
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outstanding questions you have uh probably not um I it it may sound accusatory and without having him come
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in right and and you know at least give us the opportunity to ask him um I would
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probably air on the side of caution and not do that can you share some things that he cleared up that we might not
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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
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we've released a lot of different information Clint was just able to to give us some support information on you
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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
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with you well obious viously Clint was an eyewitness that night to what was going on with Brian and going on with
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his life it seems that when Brian's father confronted Clint a few times about his involvement and claiming that
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Clint knows what happened and Clint has the answers that that's kind of when Clint backed away and and lawyered up
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that may have had something to do with it I don't know exactly when Randy I know Randy approached him a couple
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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
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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
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looking around and trying to figure out you know obviously the two biggest questions are was he still in the bar
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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
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video footage there actually was that was looked at is it possible he did leave the bar oh it's absolutely
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possible that he left the bar I mean they had video cameras all over that place um my speculation and my theory is
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that he went out one of the construction entrances because they were Plywood And
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then they had a chain going through them with a pad locker and when we went down
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there you could push on them and somebody would be able to get in or out you know without a lot of difficulty and
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there was no cameras looking at that area well there was but uh those cameras uh actually were the
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panning and it's a possibility that they had panned away from where he had exited
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the the other cameras I mean one of my detectives Andre Edwards he took all the disc we duplicated them
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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
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through every frame frame tracked everybody coming in tracked every I mean this was a daunting task for him you
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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
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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
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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
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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
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that we looked into I mean we we tried to uncover every Rock um that we could yeah that was that made for an
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interesting story I think a lot of people picked up on that yeah we were able to track the guy down well it also
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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
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Ugly Tuna I'm from New York this is my first time in Columbus so hearing today from the band about
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this bar and you know we we told them about the theory that the band did it and they were laughing hysterically
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because they said there would have been no way to even do that in this particular bar so I guess that's my
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question you know is it possible something happened to him in the bar well I mean anything's possible through
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our investigation it nothing came to light that anything occurred in there and it would be difficult I mean it's
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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
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dogs and they would have picked up on blood if there had been any blood in there we had them go through the entire
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building we actually went up on the roof make sure he wasn't up there searched all the the you know Corners in that
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area and removed plates cover plates you know just to see if maybe somebody might
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have stuffed him in there um but you know when we were done building was clean there wasn't anybody in there
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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
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something yeah probably wouldn't be possible to be in a wall at this point no no and I never thought that was
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really a feasible possibility begin with was the entrance and exit to the bar the
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only entrance and exit or was there a exit way through the kitchen uh you couldn't get out through the kitchen
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they did have a uh fire Escape set of stairs and went down there was a camera that if somebody opened that door the
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camera would cycle to that door unfortunately when it did something like that it started to pan and the security
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guard that was working that night overrode it and took it away but we were able to look at other cameras in the
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courtyard and didn't see anybody come out of that area the only other way would be like I said you know go down
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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
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stairs to the left of the elevator so he could have went down one of those and that led right into the construction
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site uh then there was a hallway behind the other businesses down there that had
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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
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see the video footage of the escalators but the blank spot that you're seeing in
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the footage is actually two doors that are fire escapes essentially two exit doors so when me and Maggie were there
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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
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went through the hallways and nobody stopped us so we just kept on exploring if you will well we yeah I mean again
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that was my first time so I was like wait a minute were these exits always here he could have gotten in one of
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these and we were wondering about the cameras in those exits like I said the building at the time it is nowhere near
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what it was right now the elevator there's actually a door you got to go through now to get to the elevator um
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where at the time you could just walk up to the elevator push the button and hop
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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
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check to see if maybe he might have went down and wandered through through a business before he was picked up on
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camera and again that was found not to to be a the situation SOG to ask you what what year did you retire three
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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
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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
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psychics alleged pyic psychics and again we didn't discard it just because somebody said hey I'm Clairvoyant and
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I'm I have this feeling or I'm having this dream whatever we could check out we would the unfortunate situation is
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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
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under some trees in a field yeah how we going to go find something like that you
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know um he's laying in the basement of a brick house in a prone position again how how many brick houses
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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
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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
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would say they had seen him somebody seen him allegedly working in a restaurant in Detroit so we contacted
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the Detroit missing person's unit up there and had them you know send them the the flyer and had them go out and
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talk to the management and they're like no he's never worked here uh we had sidings in Texas and Colorado
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California uh we had one in Sweden supposedly um somebody seen him over there we had one in the Virgin Islands
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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
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have bi checked the Virgin Island situation and um again that didn't produce anything how extensively was the
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FBI involved um their vicap unit was uh in contact with me quite often anytime I
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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
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we had to Texas Rangers a couple times check some stuff out for us uh down in Texas so it was pretty extensive
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investigation so you said during the investigation you were able to give some people polygraph test one of those
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people was Brian's father were you able to give a polygraph test to Brian's brother Derek now uh Derek that night um
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was out with some friends and and typically Derek and Brian would meet their dad at the same time and uh Derek
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wasn't able to go cuz he'd already made plans with uh some friends and they were
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out for the evening so Brian and his father had dinner the night that Brian went missing but his brother wasn't able
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to join him that night yeah typically when uh Randy would meet with Brian um Derek and Brian would go together and
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that night Derek had already made plans by the time you know Randy had asked hey
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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
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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
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Brian's mother had um split the her life insurance policy up Randy got half and um the two boys got
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25% there's a story that's been floating around out there on the internet that they got into an argument over the life
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insurance policy and that the boys weren't supposed to get it and they they should give the money back
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um we we never were able to really sustain that information well that's what's tough about looking into a case
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like this that's so widely talked about on the Internet is all the speculation and and is what you're hearing true or
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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
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get all this information you got to sip through it and find out okay what's what
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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
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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
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that his son went missing right well and you know like that's why we had him come
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in take a polygraph um and you know he passed it with no issues at all you know when we
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were blaming him it was just something we needed to get done to answer you know those types of questions and then you're
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going to have people argue well maybe he lied and got away with it on the polygraph I'm I'm no expert on
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polygraphs but you know for the most part I think uh as long as the operator is properly trained and has experience
00:26:13
behind them um it's not going to be a bad read on it so is there I know you mentioned Clint but
00:26:22
anyone that you wish you could have talked to or anything you wish you could have had during this investigation oh I
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wish I could have flown all these locations and did the interviews myself um but that wouldn't be feasible
00:26:36
you know for the Department to do that I mean we we were having sightings all over the place um but yeah I mean
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there's um I think her name was Shelly winand um his ex-girlfriend previous girlfriend I would have liked to talk to
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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
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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
00:27:07
town or Brian would come back into town they would end up hanging out together yeah they were still friends um but
00:27:15
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
00:29:18
2006 his father would end up passing away during a heavy wind storm in September of 2008 after his death his
00:29:28
obituary was placed online one of the signatures said to Dad love Brian from the US Virgin Islands yeah we we were
00:29:39
actually uh we we were able to trace that back to uh one of the public libraries on the north side of Columbus
00:29:47
um and we went out to see if we could get any camera video on it and uh unfortunately their camera at the time
00:29:57
wasn't working you know when people come through the door and they didn't have a
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camera on the computer so were there cameras that should have been working that weren't oh well when we went and
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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
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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
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picked him up but then uh when detective Edwards went around looking for he was the one that went around looking for
00:30:28
there was a lot of fake cameras up that looked like real cameras but they were just fake cameras it seemed like every
00:30:36
turn we made there was something that would pop up that is like are you kidding me you
00:30:43
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
00:30:49
situation for us because we're thinking well maybe this can get us somewhere and
00:30:54
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
00:31:01
Brian would walk home and unfortunately back then we didn't have all the ring doorbell cameras on that maybe we could
00:31:08
have pulled but yeah it was just it was frustrating the Ugly Tuna saluna bar was
00:31:14
in a new complex but can you explain maybe how difficult or tough that area was back when Brian went missing well I
00:31:23
think if you stayed on High Street and maybe one block in either direction Direction at that time it wasn't uh too
00:31:31
bad but the further you drifted away from High Street especially going to the east he went out of back exit he
00:31:36
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
00:31:41
the back entrance he would have been facing that way and he could have stumbled you know went that way thinking
00:31:45
he was heading home but if he'd went out the side or the front they had three entrances at the construction site so
00:31:53
depending on which one he'd went out but again you know unfortunately we weren't
00:31:57
a will pick anything up on camera so you're saying at the Ugly Tuna saluna there's parts of that building that were
00:32:04
under construction there was three exits through the construction site yeah and what about the the idea that he could
00:32:12
have fallen in a construction pit and been covered with concrete at the at that location or a different location at
00:32:18
the Ugly Tuna location no um when we went in there everything was dug up they were actually uh putting in the Elevator
00:32:28
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
00:32:38
anywhere um that would indicate that that would have been the case so I guess where Captain was going is like How
00:32:44
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
00:32:52
likely that he got out of there um depending on how much he had to drink he may have passed out some somewhere you
00:32:58
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
00:33:04
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
00:33:11
in that but it's not going to carry you away so I mean there's a lot of theories
00:33:15
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
00:33:24
crazy well this case has really blown up on the internet and there's a lot of rumors and
00:33:30
speculations and one that gets brought up many times when I'm talking to individuals that are fascinated with the
00:33:38
case is Brian's sexuality was he straight was he by did he have any homosexual relationships
00:33:48
with with anybody that did come up during investigation we actually got that information from
00:33:55
Shelly that um he had had experienced uh experimented with it I mean that was brought up and there was
00:34:05
somebody who stated that yeah that happened the story that we have been told is that Brian was going to propose
00:34:11
to his girlfriend on this trip that he didn't make their leaving that Monday when people start speculating that he
00:34:19
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
00:34:30
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
00:34:40
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
00:34:48
name social security number date of birth you could do that it's not impossible but it's not the easiest
00:34:55
thing to do either we did check um his computers to see if maybe he had done some online searching to you know
00:35:04
to get information on how to do that we also did uh you know for suicide that was another thing out there he killed
00:35:11
himself somewhere but on the on the computer we weren't able to find anything and even though you when you go
00:35:17
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
00:35:22
and and pull this stuff off so was he looking up weird stuff or was he just looking up normal stuff just just normal
00:35:31
stuff I mean there was nothing out of the ordinary um you know he had a computer
00:35:35
he did for school and he had his other computer with the speculation that Brian was going to drop out of school and and
00:35:42
quit everything to start a a new life to have a romantic relationship it just it just
00:35:52
doesn't make a lot of sense to me did you ever discuss his his sexuality or the possible experimentation with his
00:36:00
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
00:36:07
information we got was later and we don't um you know a lot of stuff we didn't put out there because
00:36:16
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
00:36:24
substance to that's going to benefit the invest a was there anything that you found that would indicate he wanted to
00:36:32
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
00:36:40
mean when his apartment was immaculate it was clean bed was made everything was put in order did did he have anything
00:36:49
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
00:36:56
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
00:37:07
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
00:37:12
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
00:37:23
hey you know he's supposed to be there at this concert probably not going to show up
00:37:29
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
00:37:37
other people went down and handed out flyers to people coming in attendance uh um you know it's this was a pretty
00:37:46
extensive investigation well in a lot of missing person cases we have eyewitness
00:37:51
accounts but there was an eyewitness account from a detective were you the detective that thought that saw Brian no
00:37:59
no detective Edwards thought he seen Brian and he stopped him and it was actually Derek which would make a lot of
00:38:05
sense because Brian and Derek look similar obviously they Brothers do you think the case will be solved I would
00:38:12
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
00:38:21
have my theories you know what might happen can you share that yeah um I I don't think he committed suicide a lot
00:38:28
of people think you know you know went out and killed himself somewhere most people if you're going to commit suicide
00:38:35
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
00:38:41
it's possibility that with what he was drinking that night he may have stumbled into a
00:38:48
dumpster and you got picked up the next day and emptied and what we did check was to see where the dumpsters were all
00:38:56
taken uh at that time the city of Columbus dumpsters were going down uh to the um landfill here in Franklin County
00:39:06
the commercial dumpsters were being shipped to a site down in Tennessee so um you know and once they get into a
00:39:14
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
00:39:21
dogs down the landfill here uh the only problem was and we you know we talked to
00:39:26
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
00:39:34
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
00:39:42
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
00:39:49
the typical stuff you find in a landfill well I think one of the other reasons why this case has fascinated the
00:39:55
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
00:40:03
more I've looked into the case the more it seems like this investigation was very very thorough more so than a lot of
00:40:13
missing person cases so a theory that makes sense to you is that he was intoxicated and found his way into a
00:40:20
dumpster I think that's a possibility but would you have to climb in the dumpster like climb into it no the the
00:40:26
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
00:40:32
here who knows he may have been throwing up and again this is just a theory I have uh went over and started throwing
00:40:39
up in the dumpster and passed out and fell in that's that's a possibility so it seems like you from what you
00:40:45
understand of that night he was pretty drunk cuz we heard that Randy was trying to say he wasn't like a drinker and
00:40:50
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
00:40:58
all the time but you know on occasion he would go out and you know this wouldn't
00:41:02
have been the first time that he left on his own we you know that was something that the people when we interviewed his
00:41:09
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
00:41:16
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
00:41:23
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
00:41:30
down um and checked the bridge when we had dive teams out doing you know different places and uh we had the
00:41:38
horses out going up the trails we had the bike guys going up the trail well and Randy and his family and friends
00:41:46
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
00:41:53
to talk to Clint well good luck with it cuz he won't talk to he hasn't talked to
00:41:57
anybody and because Clint won't talk to anybody didn't want to take the polygraph test it's like what is he
00:42:05
hiding and I've heard rumors that it's possible that him and Brian had uh more than friendship relationship that maybe
00:42:16
at some point it became romantic uh they could have been um we interviewed some uh roommates of Clint and Clint and
00:42:28
Brian had roommate for a little while and then Brian moved out and uh we interviewed the two roommates that Clint
00:42:35
had after that in their opinion they they made statements to us that they felt they were a little too touchy
00:42:42
Philly more than what guys normally would do do you think that could be why Clint doesn't want to talk he doesn't
00:42:49
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
00:42:55
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
00:43:01
questions that we would like to find out but but so Clint and Meredith there is footage of them leaving that night from
00:43:08
the garage mhm I mean to me I would think Clint what could Clint possibly know about anything so what could Clint
00:43:17
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
00:43:27
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
00:43:35
Clint would probably have known that if there was a plan for Brian to leave that
00:43:40
night but again we never had the opportunity to ask him those things well and back to Clint real quick you know
00:43:46
like you said he wasn't being super Cooperative he lawyers up and the lawyer has made the statement that Brian should
00:43:54
come forward and and tell everybody what happened and it's not up to Clint to tell everybody what happened well his
00:44:02
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
00:44:11
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
00:44:18
detective told him that um none of the detectives I was working with at the time made that comment do you think
00:44:24
there is anybody out there that knows something If he if other than falling in a dumpster and disappearing that way
00:44:31
yeah somebody's had to seen something or no the only problem with that is at one
00:44:36
time they were offering $100,000 reward for any information and nobody came forward nobody I mean we had psychics
00:44:44
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
00:44:51
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
00:44:57
talking with the band today and talking with you and never having been here until today I feel very
00:45:05
comfortable personally saying I don't think that he stayed in the bar and I think he left the bar well there's no
00:45:11
doubt in my mind he left the bar you know it's just the what baffles everybody is how to get out of there
00:45:17
without being seen and you know there is an explanation for that whether people want to accept it or not you know I mean
00:45:26
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
00:45:31
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
00:45:39
know go through the neighborhood trying to find other cameras there was a 711 across the street um and the only camera
00:45:46
they had was inside didn't have anything outside um you know on the cashier in case somebody come in and Rob them or
00:45:53
well that's what we were wondering too did the bar have cameras inside their own they didn't no there was no cameras
00:45:58
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
00:46:05
know for sure he left the bar well I feel confident he left the bar alive you think he left the bar alive not
00:46:11
dismembered in a something I mean it's somebody even I think there was a speculation out there that they took him
00:46:19
back in the kitchen and cut him out and took him took him out the kitchen door well the only door going into the
00:46:25
kitchen is leading out to the bar so my last question for you and you might have
00:46:30
other follow-ups but my last question is um what is it like to work one of the most infamous missing person cases I
00:46:39
mean you were the first detective you are the guy with all the information I mean what is this like to work this case
00:46:45
and have it have retired without it being solved very frustrating I mean I I think a police officer you know
00:46:55
depending on if you're in a metropolitan area where you have a lot of high crime and this
00:47:01
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
00:47:09
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
00:47:18
and then to leave and still not have any answers it was very frustrating and still frustrating well there's still a
00:47:25
possibility that somebody comes forward with information oh I would love somebody come even if they did it
00:47:31
anonymously you know to come forward and and you know getting back to maybe he did go start another life you know and
00:47:38
and I've said this before and I've told the news media hey all he's got to do is
00:47:44
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
00:47:52
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
00:47:59
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
00:48:06
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
00:48:15
know the family which is pretty much Derek right now and say hey brother's alive um he doesn't want
00:48:23
anybody to know where he's at but just to give you some peace of mind F he's [Music]
00:48:40
okay if you are a member of law enforcement or a first responder and you have a case that you would like True
00:48:46
Crime garage to feature from your jurisdiction please email the show our contact information is available on our
00:48:54
website for this case and any missing person's case from the great city of Columbus Ohio any tips regarding the
00:49:02
Brian schaer case should be directed to the Columbus Division of police investigative desk at 614 6454 624 want
00:49:12
to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage each and every week have a very happy holiday Colonel do we have
00:49:18
any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners a little recommended listening for you check out wrongful
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recommendation and many more on our recommended page on our website true Crim garage.com and until next week be
00:50:14
good be kind and don't litter [Music] [Applause]