Search Captions & Ask AI

Brandon Swanson /// Part 3 /// 334

September 11, 2019 / 46:49

This episode covers the case of Brandon Swanson, discussing theories about his disappearance, search efforts, and the challenges faced by investigators. Key topics include the possibility of an accident, the role of terrain, and the impact of weather conditions.

The hosts, Nick and Captain, analyze the timeline of events leading to Brandon's last known whereabouts, including his phone call with his father. They emphasize the confusion Brandon may have experienced while navigating unfamiliar terrain in the dark.

They also discuss the limitations of the search efforts, including the areas that remain unsearched and the challenges posed by the landscape. The hosts highlight the importance of understanding the geographical layout of the area where Brandon went missing.

Additionally, they touch on Brandon's Law, enacted by his parents, which mandates immediate searches for missing adults under 21. The emotional toll on Brandon's family is evident, as they continue to seek answers about his fate.

The episode concludes with reflections on the case's complexities and the ongoing mystery surrounding Brandon's disappearance, leaving listeners with lingering questions.

TLDR

Brandon Swanson's disappearance is examined, focusing on search theories and the family's ongoing quest for answers.

Episode

46:49
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[Music] [Applause] [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 of course as always from behind the glass is the man steering the ship
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he is the captain and together we would like to point out that only a total psychotic would listen to this show at
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two times the speed welcome to the show cap think you think you think you it's good to be seen it's
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good to see you thanks for listening and thanks for telling a friend this week we
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are drinking anheuser-busch's Budweiser an American lager and an American classic the one-time king of beers
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garage grade three bottle caps out of five and this week our fridge is full thank you to all of you out there but
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specifically first up thanks to Laura P in Washington and a big shout to Emily and Osage Minnesota next up we have
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Brian in Highlands Ranch Colorado and in Birmingham Alabama we have Andrea she is me and next up we
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have our friend Randy in Federal Way Washington and last but certainly not least we have a long-distance Sears way
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out to Lauren in Port Talbot Wales thank you to everybody for helping us out with
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this week's show if you want to contribute to future shows go to true crime garage comm and click on the
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donate button and if you'd like to check out our old episodes download the stitcher app and we have a weekly show
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called off the record so get hip to that it's hip to be square and that's enough
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of the business all right captain everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
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[Music] all right we're back with part three of brandon swanson it's like we never left
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yeah some people cover this case in ten minutes we covered in ten hours ten episodes so going through these
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theories here captain we talked about how thinking sideways said it's impossible for alien abduction you said
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no time warp no sasquatch there are people and i find this a little strange but it is
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something that you do have to consider anytime you have a missing persons case is that the individual chooses to be
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missing that they decide to walk away from their life yeah we both agree in this case the fact that brandon seemed
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to be lost at some point so he's calling for help from friends they don't answer
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so then he calls and gets ahold of his parents and he's asking for help basically right and we agree that he
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didn't walk away from his life based off of his actions leading up to his last known whereabouts right and there's also
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it would make zero sense to call mom and dad yeah and decide to walk away that same
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night yeah and on top of that there is no nothing of his past or anything that his family is pointing to that this is a
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possibility mm-hmm one of the more plausible theories and this kind of branches into a couple different options
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here is that Brandon perished in some type of accident somewhere out there in that night this theory seems to be again
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one of the more likely ones although it's the problem here in this case will continue to be that they've not ever
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found Brandon they've never found any evidence of him clothing a jacket shoes anything of his glasses his phone
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anything like that but let's get into this theory let's break it down right Brandon was
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disoriented and confused about where he was that is not a question he was 20 miles from where he thought he was we
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know he got his car stuck in a ditch we know he was frustrated based off of what
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his parents were saying he decided to abandon the vehicle he starts started he took what he referred to as a more
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direct route across fields farmland off-road areas terrain he was not familiar with well not initially he was
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staying on the road initially and then he went off paths correct he's walking along fences and he states
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to his father he can hear running water meanwhile what else do we know he it's very dark that night
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Brandon is blind in one eye his father heard him exclaim oh [ __ ] and then the phone on Brandon's side goes dead so
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what happened here well let's be clear it doesn't go dead from our knowledge there's a disconnection the call drops
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what I'm sorry about that and and it's just words but you're right we need to clear that up because there is a hot
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debate about if his phone went dead or if it was still active yes after he says oh [ __ ] the call ends on Brandon's end
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from here a lot of people say Brandon could have fallen or could have walked into something this would be the river a
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well a sinkhole or some other type of obstacle let's go through this because I think we can very quickly eliminate some
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of these possibilities and this is based off of information that has come out and
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it's pretty wild you know readily available the sinkhole theories have basically been debunked by Jeff
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Hasse remember he's the search Manager that we spoke about who them methodically and meticulously was
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searching for Brandon all these years he stated that the radius where he calculated that Brandon could have
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possibly walked from his car and this is even after the call went dead according to the blog that he maintained
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that we referenced yesterday the site's details in the search is conducted for Brandon provided you know making these
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public he states that sinkholes form and karst or cave gyah now he also says that the only
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cardiology in Minnesota is in the southeastern part of the state the area where Brandon went missing is in the
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southwestern part of Minnesota basically he's saying he couldn't have fallen into
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a sinkhole because they're not there right the other thing he points out too regarding like Wells open Wells and
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things of that nature on farmland he points out that the farmland in this area of the country is extremely
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valuable and they all old wells have been capped off or replaced per Minnesota law so the days of large wells
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with buckets that people could fall into he saying are long gone right there could be capped off and also in this
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area these farmers and these people who live in the area would hear about this kid going missing and they probably
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checked their property for any signs of Brandon yes he's stating that all the water sources
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on these industrial farms were quote unquote high-tech by 2008 now old cisterns could exist but again if they
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do the searchers have never found one mm-hmm that could leave us with the river so we
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have a local woman who participated in the searches for Brandon she posted that the terrain out there is riddled with
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swamps bogs caves six foot tall grasslands wooded areas and ponds cattails along the riverbanks are eight
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feet tall at this time of year Brandon could have walked or fallen into you know the river or the swamps or the bogs
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at any point along this way his father says after Brandon says oh [ __ ] that he
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heard some type of what he describes as a slipping sound and we know that the scent dogs tracked Brandon to the actual
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River and then seemed to indicate that he got back out of the river so that this is goes into what you were talking
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about earlier captain where you have to wonder is it possible to brand and fall into the yellow
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medicine river and did something happen to his phone that he that he even maybe he didn't drown in the river or maybe he
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did maybe he hit his head and drowned in the river but you also have this theory
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that maybe he slipped into the river he gets out but his phone does not then the
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question is what his phone continued to ring for a few days even after submerged Jeff Hasse says yes
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this is a possibility that the the sound that the caller hears has nothing to do
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with the condition of the actual phone so this makes this a very possible thing here right yeah and sometimes wasn't you
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trying to call somebody if you don't have great service your phone will ring multiple times before it actually tries
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to connect to them right right so the idea being here that maybe something happened to the phone here's here's the
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the thing that you really got to consider right if he did fall into the river even if he got out he very likely
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could be soaking wet then we he's staggering along the road until he decides to stop and rest somewhere maybe
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this is a whole field or in the woods or an abandoned barn he could have died of
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hypothermia temperatures dropped to 39 degrees that night we both agreed that he was wearing fairly warmth clothing
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for that evening the river was only 55 degrees could Brandon have succumb to the cold especially if he was wet his
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body having not been found yet could be because it was either too obscured or has been scattered by animals plowed
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under and broken up by heavy farm equipment we have to remember that searchers were not able to access all of
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the farmland in the area some of which were covered thickly with high tight crops there's some interesting things
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that Jeff has States in his information that he's made public when he's talking about you know
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we reference how many dogs they used in the search for Brandon over the years the problem is at certain times of the
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years the the crops are at different heights and he says that the height of crops can make it extremely difficult if
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not impossible for a dog to find the scent right and it's it's hard to search in general when you have obstacles like
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that you see that in a case like the Long Island serial killer case jeff has he also states that this region
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receives nearly constant winds which can come from any direction these winds move sent from the source
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and deposited into what he refers to as scent pools this can throw off the cadaver dogs meaning there they won't be
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able to settle on an exact location of the remains the other possibility to that he points out is that the remains
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may have been scattered over a wide area and this could be by predators you know
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such as animals or that they were moved by human activities such as farmers tilling their fields or baling hay or
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corn stalks something like that mm-hmm then again we also have these access issues they've not been able to search
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everywhere that they would like to search they have been very careful to protect landowners property over the
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years generally avoiding searching fields with crops in them even though he states there's a very likely chance that
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Brandon ended up in a field right he states that this yeah this only leaves spring and fall available for them to
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search and then we have the difficulty of how much land there is to search remember he pointed out that you're
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prioritizing 98.5 square miles yeah he says Oh Lance yeah he says to effectively search a single 160 acre
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field a team a whole team of people must walk in excess of 10 miles in what he says is difficult footing along these
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same lines here captain he points out that not all the private land own along these
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same lines here captain Jeff points out that not all of these private land owners have agreed to searches because
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let's say Brandon attempted to seek shelter from the wind or from the cold right at some point along his journey
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maybe he crawls into an outbuilding or under some old machinery and then passes there he says that they've not searched
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all of the farmsteads in fact they've only searched very few of the farmsteads in the area
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well you said there was a radius that they had to search and there's a what was the percentage like they've only
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been able to search about sixty percent sixty percent of the area that they've prioritized yes well and to go back to
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the cadaver dogs to if you have like a small pond of water but it has a drains into something that the cadaver dogs
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normally do not hit inside the pond like the body could be in the middle of the pond the cadaver dogs normally hit where
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the water is training because that's where the scent is more dominant he also points out the conditions in Minnesota
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at that time of year and by his all of his knowledge and all of his experience it's his opinion that a body could
00:15:06
become fully skeletonized within a week so that's very quick out there even calculating that Brandon's body was
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likely fully disarticulated by mid July of 2008 and he says this would be very likely at the latest and one of the
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things that makes this case so much more fascinating and like you've been talking
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about is the documentation of the search that really changes everything with as far as like the Brandon Lawson case or
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like even like Mara Murray like we don't have as detailed records of the searches
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that happen and in those cases right and so what is fascinating here and really educating at the same time is all the
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information about the search throughout the years detailed information where we have a complete
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understanding of look so many so many shows in so many news articles in so many website forums and message boards
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they keep coming back to the idea that something weird had to have happened because they've not found Brandon right
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the problem here is we have the the search manager the guy in charge in his team that is very publicly stating we
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had this huge area to search we went over the difficulties of the search or what could have happened throughout the
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the years wherever Brandon may be that adds to the difficulty level of the search and yet we have them saying
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there's still almost 40% of the prioritized area that we have not been able to get to you know which is sad
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because this is somebody's child this is people's friends the you know and I understand why some of the places
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haven't been searched but it's kind of sad yes I mean there's there's a multitude of reasons why certain areas
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have not been searched and some of it is just happenstance some of it is just the
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lay of the land itself what do we think happened here captain we we could spin our tires all day long on the
00:17:16
possibilities and the searches and what has taken place over the course of 11 years or almost you know 11 years now
00:17:24
what do we think happened well well let's take a quick beer break so we can gather our thoughts and gather some
00:17:32
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getting more out of every trip to come [Music] all right got that king of beer sing of
00:22:27
beer king's king of beers sorry what did I say I don't know I'm looking at my notes and trying to talk at the same
00:22:38
time I'm doing the same thing I'm moving some things around would you like to go
00:22:41
first my friend yeah I can I think to me it's where does the evidence take us I think one with this search we will find
00:22:54
you know with a banded car we're gonna find him within this area I think we're the the initial scent dogs hit into the
00:23:04
river that's the yellow medicine river correct where they hit there I then came out of the river I think they should
00:23:15
have just probably stayed in the river that's what my what my gut is telling me is the old [ __ ] again when he was
00:23:24
talking to his father he's saying I'm along this fence line I can hear water and then boom all [ __ ] we have no signs
00:23:33
of foul play but that does not mean that further down the line you know if there's send dogs
00:23:41
just stop that further down the line there wouldn't be maybe something but we haven't had no reports of that so I
00:23:48
think where the car was with possibly being tired I think with possibly being you know let's say buzzed I think
00:24:00
there's some evidence that he had a few drinks he was frustrated he was tired he
00:24:06
was walking he was trying to get help he was definitely lost or not in the area that he thought he was I think that
00:24:15
area is very easy to be confused and I think you're gonna dive into that more but I think like I said the dogs take us
00:24:24
to that area I think his conversation with his father on the phone points to being in that
00:24:30
area and to be around that to that River mm-hmm we have not found his body now I
00:24:37
think that is a leap like you said maybe 60% of this area has been searched for t
00:24:43
he hasn't so could you find his body somewhere else yes and I understand that they also searched this river I think
00:24:50
it'd be a lot harder to find his body in water in general so I I just think that
00:24:56
kind of leads to it and I know like I said I know that's a leap to say well well you haven't found his body on land
00:25:01
so therefore it puts him into water but I think there's other like I said those other pieces of evidence kind of points
00:25:09
us in the direction that there could have been an accident that happened along that that water line mm-hmm mm-hmm
00:25:16
I want to address a few different things that I think are confusing this whole situation from all of the armchair
00:25:26
detectives all the people on the outside looking in I think first I want to address the issue of I'm not totally
00:25:33
discrediting or discounting the possibility of foul play but what I do want to discredit is the
00:25:40
thought that because his name is on ViCAP means that he met with foul play and people keep going back to that well
00:25:49
law enforcement must know something that we don't know because they put him on ViCAP that is a possibility then they
00:25:58
know something that we don't it's definitely a possibility but looking into that specific situation what I
00:26:05
gathered from the database is that ViCAP was alerted of Brandon Swanson's situation on March 5th of 2010 and then
00:26:14
it was released to the public as being part of the ViCAP database on April 7th of 2010 now remember what we reported
00:26:23
earlier that back in March of 2010 the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension became the lead
00:26:30
investigating agency on the case new eyes look a cold case what I'm getting to here
00:26:38
captain is it's my thought that the reason that Brandon is on ViCAP is not because there is evidence of foul play
00:26:46
or that he was met with violence it's simply because a new agency took over his case and decided to ask it to be
00:26:57
applied to ViCAP as something that it can't hurt to put him on the database right the only thing that could hurt is
00:27:04
the rumor mill mm-hmm and then I also want to address the issue of him being disoriented or you know why he got lost
00:27:15
that whole situation first of all I question one how well he would have known any of these areas outside of
00:27:24
route 68 and route 23 I seriously questioned that first of all how experienced of a driver is he he's
00:27:33
only 19 years old and we have some stories that may indicate that he might have even lost his license at one point
00:27:40
and then people point out that well he traveled this route for a full school year to and from Marshall and Camby
00:27:51
where his school was I take I take a little issue with that too because this the typical school year at this school
00:27:58
is late August to mid-may it's not really a full year one and they take about a month-long break in the middle
00:28:06
of the winter so it's not a full year first of all and then second of all why would he know the area's off of Route 68
00:28:15
Grau 68 takes them to and from school so I really questioned how well he knew this area then on top of that we have
00:28:24
some confusion confusing things going on regarding the lay of the land so anybody
00:28:30
that has seen this area on a map will know that the streets and the roads the country roads out there are laid out
00:28:38
basically like a square grid yeah I believe there's a simple version of this map on Wikipedia
00:28:46
yeah I would I would encourage anybody to look up that simple version of the map and then use your own map app to
00:28:54
really zoom in on some areas and go through that trail that we discussed in detail regarding the dog's movements
00:29:03
when they were following or believed to be following Brandon's movements now what you will see here is regarding this
00:29:13
map okay so picture a square if you're not looking at it picture square route 68 runs diagonally from the northwest
00:29:22
corner of that Square to the southeast corner of that square above route 68 and below route 68 you have country roads
00:29:32
that are laid out in a grid now north of 68 we have street names and Avenue names
00:29:40
such as they're all kind of numbers there are some that are named but the overwhelming majority of them are just
00:29:47
numbers meaning like three hundred and sixtieth Street two hundred and eightieth Avenue one hundred in tenth
00:29:56
Street one hundred and fiftieth Avenue so on and so forth you get what I'm talking about now north of route 68 all
00:30:05
of the numbered roads if they're going east to west they are an avenue if they're going north to south or south to
00:30:16
north they are streets if you get south of 68 it flip-flops where all of the numbered
00:30:26
country roads going north to south are avenues and east to west are streets what I'm getting at here is you would
00:30:35
only have to take one wrong turn to end up going the wrong way if you let's say you are somewhat familiar with the area
00:30:45
and you are aware that oh avenues run east-west streets run north to south even though I'm lost I'm going to use
00:30:53
that information to guide me back to where I think I need to get to well if you make one wrong turn
00:30:59
basically take that whole square map that I just described and turn it on its side because now the streets are going
00:31:06
east to west and avenues are going north to south it's a very tricky area so I completely understand why somebody
00:31:14
anyone regardless of their situation how much they've had to drink how little they've had to drink what they've
00:31:21
ingested or not would get turned around and Confused in this situation and again
00:31:27
as we pointed out there are indicators to him that he is right in his statement where he sees I got a go across a major
00:31:34
road there is a river that runs into that town I must be where I think I write in the simple fact of the matter
00:31:40
is the people that say well he knew this area well he didn't because where he told his family he was he was not hmm
00:31:49
and that's all the proof that you need that he didn't know where he was that maybe he does know that area well but
00:31:56
that night um no he didn't know where he was at the other thing too that I think
00:32:02
gets in the way of really sorting through all of this is the oh [ __ ] moment right so this case
00:32:11
oddly enough made me think back to my childhood okay I'm a child of the 90s and what I'm talking about here captain
00:32:20
is the song the things that make you go hmm bye C&C Music Factory this was a 1990 release things that make you go
00:32:29
what hmm don't bother looking up the song it's as bad as you expect it to be mm-hmm okay
00:32:36
now look this case of course this is a tragic case here of this young man but it's truly a big question mark and why
00:32:45
so many people are fascinated by this case is that it's a big question mark now if you look at the lyrics for that
00:32:52
song the things that make you go hmm the lyrics in that song is listing out very
00:32:58
simply the things that make you go hmm now there are a lot of questions in this case but what I was really looking at
00:33:05
regarding the phone call he says oh [ __ ] and then the phone call ends I was really thinking to myself
00:33:13
what are the things that would make me go oh [ __ ] right and so we're going to put
00:33:19
ourselves in Brandon's shoes here so to speak now that could have been any number of
00:33:24
things it could have been some type of accident he could have hurt himself you know people people say a car up to
00:33:31
them pile of [ __ ] right whatever but the the problem is the call ends after this
00:33:39
takes place so you can't you can't just look at this and go oh what would make me say oh [ __ ] what would make me say oh
00:33:47
[ __ ] and then the phone the phone call ends you have to put those two things together because that's what took place
00:33:54
now of course it could have been some type of accident he could have fallen into the river the river kills his phone
00:34:00
but the other thing just as simple could be his phone is going to die right the phone is losing its charge it has no
00:34:10
battery life left his phone according to what you can the specs that you can find
00:34:16
online has 400 minutes of call time of talk time we know that this one phone call the last phone call took up 47
00:34:27
minutes of talk time that's one-eighth of the whole battery life right there now on top of that he
00:34:34
said wasn't a good thumb on top of that he's had multiple calls with mom and dad
00:34:38
before this last one he's also gone to two parties that night I mean this phone is basically a rock with antenna he left
00:34:48
his home by all accounts around 6:00 p.m. that night so he's been gone it's now 3:00 in the morning
00:34:54
he's been gone like nine hours so what I'm getting at here is our charger though that's very possible
00:35:02
but what I'm getting at here is that it's very likely that he could have been talking and talking and talking pulled
00:35:08
the phone away looked at the screen and went oh [ __ ] or got some kind of notification that he heard on his end
00:35:15
but his father didn't hear mm-hm and goes oh [ __ ] and then the phone goes dead simply because the battery life ran
00:35:23
out the thing here is that doesn't get us any closer to what happened to Brandon but what I'm
00:35:29
getting at is what I think is is so polarizing about that case this case is that phone call where I think it's just
00:35:36
kind of confusing and it's really clouding the whole situation the phone call and him saying ol [ __ ] may mean
00:35:44
nothing at all could be something super small something as simple as his phone dying and then
00:35:50
whatever took place took place after he no longer had the use of his phone I do think that there's some type of accident
00:35:58
that took place out there it that led to his demise mm-hmm that he probably did succumb to the elements at some point
00:36:06
that evening and I think it's very likely that he is somewhere in that area that they've been unable to search for
00:36:16
any number of reasons that's 40% of the area mm-hmm I think that's I think that's what it what happened here I
00:36:23
think everything that the people that are closest to this case are saying is probably exactly what happened he wasn't
00:36:31
that messed up he just he got disoriented because the area itself is confusing well it's late at night it's
00:36:40
not well marked it's it would be confusing for anybody traveling in that area he tried to turn around because he
00:36:47
knew had to go an extra mile or two to get to the next intersection and he was frustrated and upset that he wasn't home
00:36:53
already and he just wanted to turn around as quickly as possible and he ran into the bad luck of getting his car
00:36:59
hung up in the ditch and then he ran into further bad luck of having indicators pointing out to him that he
00:37:05
may in fact be where he thinks he is I think this is just at one of those tragic cases and unfortunately I've
00:37:13
heard statements from his mother and from his sister that are just heartbreaking where his mother says I'm
00:37:21
kinda come to the conclusion that we won't find Brandon in my lifetime and then his sister adds to that by going
00:37:29
I'm starting to think we won't find him in my lifetime yeah and because even if you take like I said my theory I lean
00:37:37
more towards the idea that he ended up in that River while we know what what the water can do
00:37:44
to bodies and speed up the composition you know decomposition of the body not to mention the weather out there being a
00:37:53
little more extreme and colder weather then and then also if you're right that he is somewhere in this 40% that they
00:38:05
haven't been able to search like you talked about yeah farm equipment you have you know a
00:38:10
lot of this machinery that's gonna be coming through you have animals you you have the the weather you have all these
00:38:20
things stacked up against you to actually find his remains mm-hmm right and I the thing I want to point
00:38:27
out here too captain is look I'm sure there's a lot of us out there listening to this and
00:38:34
going well whatever happened to Brandon would never happen to me I have GPS on my phone I have a much different phone
00:38:40
than what Brandon had to carry back in 2008 let's let's be smarter than that let's take this a step further put some
00:38:50
things in your vehicle put some safety precautions in your vehicle flashlights and he might have had something he may
00:38:59
he may have but it was a young kid this I think this is just a this was a friendly reminder to me or an unfriendly
00:39:06
reminder however you want to look at it a reminder to me that it's a good idea to have things like a flashlight
00:39:12
first-aid kit flares however far you want to take this thing blankets some people put bottles of water in their
00:39:20
vehicle this can happen to any of us and if you're better prepared you might have
00:39:26
a different outcome yeah and even though I really think my my gut feeling is correct and then even if it's not
00:39:35
correct then I would lean more towards the idea okay well maybe he made it out of the water and now we just haven't
00:39:44
found him and that that forty percent that hasn't been searched I can go with that that one of the things that really
00:39:51
makes me ponder this case more is the vehicles left and both doors are open mm-hmm that doesn't make a lot of
00:40:02
sense to me it seems one super strange to me and a bit creepy and scary at the same time
00:40:08
that's the only indicator throughout this whole story that whatever Brandon was telling his father and his mother
00:40:15
that something totally different could have been going on that's the only indicator to me one one way that I've
00:40:23
tried to apply some just very basic logic to why the the car doors would be open obviously if somebody came along
00:40:31
and tried to wanted to steal something or look for something of value in the car that's an obvious thing right but I
00:40:38
also wondered if look they were trying to use lights earlier in in this whole thing as a way of finding one another by
00:40:48
flashing the lights part of me wonders if Brandon look we know he was a smart guy there's nobody disputing that
00:40:55
I wonder if while he's troubleshooting his problem here if he thought you know I'm gonna head off on foot walking
00:41:02
Northwest towards this town yes I'm going to meet my father there but he's still under the belief at that time that
00:41:09
he is in the area of where his father is searching right so is it possible that he thought I'll take this a step further
00:41:17
and leave the car door open or doors open this leaving on the light inside of the car that my father might see so if
00:41:28
he doesn't find me at least he finds a car and I can we can use that as a landmark er to meet up so I kind of
00:41:36
thought that the only thing that makes that punches a hole in that thought in theory is that you think this might have
00:41:43
been discussed between Brandon and his father and it wasn't as far as we know yeah it's seen that detail to me seems
00:41:51
like something that's gonna keep this mystery around for a while right and his father and mother not only led the
00:41:58
search that night and really pushed to get law enforcement involved as quickly as possible but they've continued to
00:42:06
lead the sir for all these years yeah all missing children cases are difficult I think
00:42:13
there's an element of the fact that you both work getting up that night to go help him makes it even more difficult
00:42:22
mm-hmm well and I hope and pray that his mother and sister are wrong in their thought and their belief that they've
00:42:30
kind of come to the idea that they may never know what happened to Brandon in throughout their course of their
00:42:35
lifetime I hope that they're wrong with that the the family this has got to be haunting for them and they've already
00:42:43
kind of come to the idea in somewhat accepted the idea that Brandon's very likely no longer with us but to have
00:42:53
some answers would would be very big for them in this situation now there is a thing today called Brandon's law and
00:43:04
this is because of Brandon's parents Annette and Brian Swanson are responsible for the enactment of
00:43:12
Brandon's law which became effective in Minnesota on July 1st 2009 this law requires Minnesota police to begin an
00:43:22
immediate search for missing adults under 21 as well as older adults who are missing under suspicious circumstances
00:43:30
and Brandon's situation certainly falls into that regardless of what theory you favor or believe the Swanson's have kept
00:43:40
the porch light on for their son they have burned through many light bulbs in the 11 years he has been missing Brian
00:43:47
Swanson has acknowledged that the family likely won't find Brandon alive but they
00:43:53
still want to find him there has never been a memorial service for Brandon Brandon's sister is now married and
00:44:00
Brandon now has two nephews which he has never met the Swanson's want to know what happened to their son they say
00:44:08
quote you know people don't just vanish into thin air but it sure seems like he did
00:44:16
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00:44:29
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00:45:03
garage all right captain before we wrap things up this week how about a little recommended reading we have one from our
00:45:09
good friend good friend of the show Billy Jensen his new book called chase darkness with me captain you and I hung
00:45:17
out with Billy at crime Con and he was kind enough to send a couple of copies of chase darkness with me to the garage
00:45:24
we can't wait to read it that's by Billy Jensen you don't have to write that title down though because you can go to
00:45:30
true crime garage com click on the recommended page and we will have that title there for you along with other
00:45:37
recommendations yeah and I think he owed us the book because he thought that uh Bob ruff was gonna outdrink me but uh
00:45:46
but like we know like everybody knows Bob ruff said good night therefore disqualifying himself and making me the
00:45:55
winner of the drinking contest at crime Con so Thank You Billy and thank you Bob
00:45:59
for quitting on the drinking contest that's right all right until next week everybody out there be good be kind and
00:46:08
don't let it [Music] [Applause]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 70
    Most heartbreaking
  • 60
    Most emotional
  • 60
    Best concept / idea

Episode Highlights

  • The Case of Brandon Swanson
    Exploring the mysterious disappearance of Brandon Swanson, who vanished after calling for help.
    “Some people cover this case in ten minutes; we covered it in ten hours.”
    @ 02m 40s
    September 11, 2019
  • Search Efforts and Challenges
    A deep dive into the extensive search efforts for Brandon and the obstacles faced.
    “There's still almost 40% of the prioritized area that we have not been able to get to.”
    @ 16m 45s
    September 11, 2019
  • The Mystery of Brandon's Disappearance
    The perplexing circumstances surrounding Brandon's case continue to baffle investigators and his family.
    “This case is truly a big question mark.”
    @ 32m 47s
    September 11, 2019
  • Heartbreaking Family Statements
    Brandon's mother and sister express their fears of never finding him.
    “I'm starting to think we won't find him in my lifetime.”
    @ 37m 29s
    September 11, 2019
  • Brandon's Law Enacted
    Brandon's parents pushed for legislation requiring immediate searches for missing adults under 21.
    “Brandon's law became effective in Minnesota on July 1st, 2009.”
    @ 43m 04s
    September 11, 2019

Episode Quotes

  • Only a total psychotic would listen to this show at two times the speed.
    Brandon Swanson /// Part 3 /// 334
  • It's hip to be square!
    Brandon Swanson /// Part 3 /// 334
  • This is somebody's child, this is people's friends.
    Brandon Swanson /// Part 3 /// 334
  • This case is truly a big question mark.
    Brandon Swanson /// Part 3 /// 334
  • It's a good idea to have things like a flashlight, first-aid kit, flares.
    Brandon Swanson /// Part 3 /// 334

Key Moments

  • Welcome to True Crime Garage00:40
  • Drinking Budweiser01:11
  • Brandon's Last Call03:26
  • Human Element16:52
  • Family's Hope37:21
  • Heartbreaking Reality37:29
  • Brandon's Law43:04
  • Disappearance44:08

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown