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Picture this. It's the end of a long week. You're unwinding in the tub, listening to your favorite true crime
00:00:36
podcast. And then, chronic hives come back. Again. In the middle of the episode. What a
00:00:44
wet blanket. Looks like another spell of itchy, swollen, red, or skin-colored hives. If you have chronic spontaneous
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urticaria, or CSU, there may be a different treatment option. Worried about your chronic hives
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interrupting our next episode? Learn more at treatmyhives.com/garage. Welcome to Off the Record.
00:01:17
>> [music] >> I'm your host, Nick Rhoades. It's good to be seen, and it's good to
00:01:22
see you. Off the Record. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend. True crime
00:01:28
podcast. [music] Be good. Be kind. And don't look back. Gather around, grab a chair, grab a
00:01:36
beer. Let's talk some true crime. [music] So, on Saturday, April 1st, at 10:00 a.m., Clint picked up his car
00:01:44
from Brian's apartment. And he said that he didn't go up to Brian's door, even though they had lost him the night
00:01:50
before. But he did call him, and he left a voicemail that stated just that, "Hey,
00:01:55
I lost you last night." Alexis continued to call Brian's phone numerous times that Saturday, and of course she didn't
00:02:02
get any answer. Brian was also supposed to show up Saturday morning to either paint or help his dad clean up
00:02:10
the house. I've heard both, so I'm not sure which, but he was just supposed to help Randy, but he didn't show up.
00:02:16
>> Which, again, it's not a huge deal. He's 26 years old, and what we do know is
00:02:20
when he parties, he parties. So, Clint's probably not super worried at this point.
00:02:27
Hey, once he wakes up, or maybe didn't make it home, maybe went home with somebody else, but once he wakes up,
00:02:33
he's going to get a hold of me. This is also probably why Randy Shafer's not that worried. Oh, my my son, I knew
00:02:40
he's going out drinking that night. That's probably why he didn't show up, and then his girlfriend, obviously, is
00:02:46
probably thinking the same thing. I've called him several times, but I haven't heard back from him, but I'm
00:02:53
sure I will. But, also, he said he had plans to meet his father at his father's house to help him paint or do something,
00:03:01
but he also had plans that he made with his friend, one of the Ryan brothers, right? Yeah,
00:03:07
he made friends to hang out with Matt and Melanie Ryan on Saturday evening. But, of course, he didn't show up for
00:03:13
either. And all day Saturday, there was no cell phone activity or credit card activity for anything have to do with
00:03:21
Brian's account. >> Right now, you have cell phone records that you have received
00:03:26
from the private investigator that worked with Randy Shafer, Brian's dad. Am I correct in saying that the
00:03:33
cell phone records you have stop the early mornings of April 1st? Yeah, the bills I have are very sporadic. I have
00:03:42
my last phone call is actually the 2:01 a.m. call where Meredith calls Brian from Clint's phone. That's where my
00:03:49
records stop. So, on Sunday, April 2nd, Alexis was continuing to call Brian's phone, but she was getting a little more
00:03:56
concerned. And when she couldn't get a hold of Brian, she decided to call Clint. And Clint told her that he had
00:04:02
not seen Brian since the night before at the Ugly Tuna Saloona. So, Clint decided
00:04:07
to call around, and he called Brian's friend, Matt Ryan, and asked if he had seen Brian, and Matt
00:04:14
told him, of course, he hadn't, but they did have plans on Saturday, but Brian didn't show up. So, everyone's starting
00:04:21
to get a little more concerned, so Alexis calls Randy. And Randy tells her the same thing, that
00:04:26
Brian didn't show up on Saturday to help him with the cleanup. And that he [clears throat] hadn't seen or talked to
00:04:32
him. Well, since we don't have the cell phone records, we don't know if his father's calling him a bunch or not.
00:04:38
Correct. Alexis then asked Clint to go over to Brian's apartment to wait on him to see if he was there, and Clint did
00:04:47
so. And he checked around and didn't find anything out of the ordinary. Brian's bed was made, the shower was
00:04:54
dry, and everything that seemed to be in place. Do we know how he got into the apartment? We don't. I've actually I've
00:05:01
actually been told two different things. I have been told that he had an extra key,
00:05:09
and I have been told that Derek let him in. But I actually do not think either one
00:05:16
of those is true, but I don't have an answer to that. Clint decided to call Meredith to let her know what was on,
00:05:22
and told her that no one had seen Brian since they were out with him on Friday night. Clint and Alexis decide to wait
00:05:29
around at the apartment, and Clint, Alexis, and Meredith begin calling jails and hospitals, anywhere they could, just
00:05:38
seeing if maybe they had someone matching Brian's description or an unidentified patient. A little
00:05:44
later, Derek showed up at Brian's apartment and shortly after that Randy showed up.
00:05:51
They then decided that they were going to call the Columbus Police Department. But when the officer showed up, he told
00:05:57
them that it had not been 48 hours and that it was completely legal for an adult to go missing.
00:06:04
And that if Brian didn't show up at the airport on Monday, then they would file the police report.
00:06:10
Yeah, which which is I just don't think this is the way we should be handling people going missing even though like
00:06:19
everybody has the legal right to not be found. Everyone wasn't satisfied with not being able to file the police
00:06:26
report, so they decided to do some ground searching themselves and they knew his last location anyone had seen
00:06:34
him was the Ugly Tuna. So Randy and Brian and Clint, Alexis and a few other people
00:06:41
all walked around like the campus area around all of the bars. They were checking every dumpster they could find
00:06:48
just looking for any sign of Brian to see if they could find him. Um of course they didn't.
00:06:55
And Alexis decided to spend the night at Brian's apartment that night before going to
00:07:02
the airport on Monday morning. >> Just because I don't know, she stayed there alone.
00:07:06
>> She did, yes. So what's their their threat level midnight, right? Are they at this point after they search for him
00:07:15
that I'm sure they're making more calls to cell phone. So now we have Derek, his brother, has
00:07:21
searched for him. We have the father, Randy, searching for him. Clint, which was at the bar with him that
00:07:27
night, is searching for him. Brian's girlfriend searching for him. She's going to stay in this apartment by
00:07:34
herself because she's supposed to hit the airport and go on vacation with this guy.
00:07:40
But I am assuming that everybody's going, "This is not good." Is that the pulse of the room or or
00:07:50
or are there some individuals that don't think this is that big of a deal? So, I
00:07:54
actually think that there was some concern, but I don't think that it was it was a huge amount of concern at that
00:08:02
point in time cuz I had mentioned to you that Brian was a wanderer. He wandered off on vacations. He took vacations that
00:08:10
he didn't even tell anyone he was going on. This was just kind of who he was. So,
00:08:16
while they were concerned, I don't think it was to the point where they were really
00:08:22
worried until he did not show up at the airport. >> not even showing up to the airport. So,
00:08:27
okay, I should slow down a little bit. So, does the girlfriend go to the airport?
00:08:33
>> She does. Alexis goes to the airport and she goes to the gate and waits and everything and
00:08:39
he does not show up. >> And to me, that's concerning, but what's more concerning is he doesn't show up to
00:08:44
the apartment before it's time to leave. I agree because the one thing that has always concerned me
00:08:50
and that no one has actually been able to give me an answer to is did Alexis have Brian's ticket or did
00:08:57
Brian have his ticket for the airport that morning because how would he have even gotten to the gate if she had his
00:09:03
ticket? So, she goes to the airport, Brian doesn't show up. What happens next? Alexis and Randy went to the
00:09:09
Columbus Police Department and they filed the official missing person's report. On that same day, Clint emailed
00:09:16
Amber and I had mentioned that she was a student in one of the classes where he was a TA.
00:09:22
And he had told her that no one had seen Brian and Amber emailed him back [clears throat] and sent her phone
00:09:28
number and then Clint called her to tell her everything that was going on. In return, Amber then called Brighton to
00:09:35
let her know that Brian was missing. On this day the Columbus Police Department requested the surveillance
00:09:41
footage from the Gateway security and they also put a communication ping service on Brian's phone through
00:09:49
Cellular Wireless and they paid $3,500 for that. Now, what the ping service would do is
00:09:57
it would not be usage pings. It was just communication pings. It was the tower trying to see if it would find the
00:10:04
phone. In order for the tower to communicate with the phone, the phone had to be on.
00:10:12
So, they started sending pings out on Brian's phone. Yeah, so just to be clear, the phone doesn't have to make
00:10:19
calls. The phone just has to be on and they'll send pings to the phone and what they're hope what they're hoping is that
00:10:27
they'll be able to get some GPS location of Brian and that will lead them to Brian. And correct.
00:10:33
>> Real quick. I'm going to stick on this for one moment here. This was initiated at what
00:10:40
time on what day? This was initiated on Monday afternoon. Monday afternoon >> 3rd.
00:10:48
And the service was with who? The cell phone provider was Cellular Wireless. Okay, so what just to clarify here on
00:10:57
this point and to be very thorough, the phone has to be on for there to be a signal. But also a
00:11:05
factor in this is he that phone has to be in range of Cellular towers. Correct. And that may seem like a silly statement
00:11:15
in 2026. In 2006, it's not such a silly statement as wasn't everybody fighting and and
00:11:23
advertising how good their service was and how many towers they had and what locations across this country. I mean,
00:11:30
Brian's phone didn't even have GPS technology, so we are are definitely in a completely different time than we are
00:11:36
now when it comes to technology. So, where does the investigation go from there? So, actually that Monday evening,
00:11:42
Brian's phone began communicating with the pings, and it was communicating all around campus, and appeared that it was
00:11:51
moving. So, on Tuesday, April 4th, Brian's case hit the local media, and out of fear of someone stealing
00:12:01
Brian's bank card since his wallet and everything went missing with him, Randy Shafer canceled Brian's cards. This is
00:12:09
also the day where a homeless man that was actually known to many officers at the Columbus Police Department,
00:12:17
he claimed that he spotted Brian eating a sandwich behind United Dairy Farmers, which was very close to the Ugly Tuna
00:12:26
Saloona where Brian went missing. So, the the United Dairy Farmers was only a couple blocks away from the Ugly Tuna
00:12:33
Saloona. And not only that, that that United Dairy Farmer receives, I mean, a a lot of business
00:12:42
throughout the night. It I mean, even at the at the 2:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m., 4:00 a.m. hours of the early morning, there
00:12:51
are people going in and out of there all night long. About a month after Brian went missing,
00:12:57
someone actually smashed in the door of his apartment, and they broke in. They stole a 19-in TV that had a built-in DVD
00:13:06
player, and a few different DVDs. And they were making a lot of noise over there, and the people that were in the
00:13:14
apartment next door actually heard it, and they knew that Brian was missing, so they immediately called the Columbus
00:13:21
Police Department. Now, I know this seems strange, but there was actually a couple of break-ins
00:13:27
around that area. So, yes, it's strange that Brian is missing and his apartment was broken into, but
00:13:34
it was kind of the norm in that area. Well, like you said, the the day Brian goes missing
00:13:40
in Columbus and the surrounding areas, like the listeners know, we me and the Colonel, we're from Columbus.
00:13:49
So, the day this hits the news, it was like, "Holy [ __ ] guy goes into a bar and he's not seen leaving the bar." So,
00:13:58
this started This was being talked about a lot, but at this point in my life, I was spending a lot of time on the Ohio
00:14:05
State University campus. Now, you're from a little bit further south than Columbus
00:14:12
than than we are, but are you hearing about these news reports as well? Oh, yeah, it was all over all
00:14:19
of the local news. Of course, we had the Columbus local news station. So, yeah, we were seeing everything. Me and Nick
00:14:26
have talked about this case. I'm I think the first time we talked about this was
00:14:29
probably 10 years ago. So, 10 years has passed. It's 20 years of him going missing,
00:14:36
but I remember at some point, and I could be wrong, you have some remembrance of this as well, but I want
00:14:45
to say that there was a website that they set up where there was a section of surveillance footage that you could
00:14:51
watch. Yeah, there was. Yes. Yeah, cuz I've talked to people about that before, you know, when they when
00:14:57
they're people that I've met that are like, "Hey, I I'm into true crime and I've really looked into this missing
00:15:03
person case, Brian Shaffer." I'm like, "Have you seen the surveillance footage?"
00:15:08
Because at a time period, I remember you could go to a website and and watch it.
00:15:12
And I remember watching it multiple times as if I was going to see anything, because I don't know who Brian is at
00:15:19
this point, and I don't know who his friends are, so I couldn't tell you this person is this person or this person is
00:15:25
that person. We have this tip possibly coming in from a known homeless person to the
00:15:31
Columbus PD, but during that time period, they're also doing searches. Randy Shaffer is in the media. Brian's
00:15:38
dad is talking to pretty much anybody he can, and not only is local news stations
00:15:44
reporting on this, but we also have the Columbus Dispatch running stories on his
00:15:50
disappearance. We have The Lantern, which was, I believe, the the campus paper, running stories on Brian's
00:15:57
disappearance as well. Yeah, his his case was absolutely everywhere. I would love to see the officer's written
00:16:06
statement from this homeless gentleman who provided information, who says, I may have seen
00:16:15
Brian Shaffer or somebody that looks like the because if the way that I take this unless you
00:16:22
have further detail on how they came into this information, my bet would be that they're out, they have a picture,
00:16:30
they have a photo of Brian Shaffer, our missing individual, and who are they going to talk to? They're going to talk
00:16:36
to convenience store clerks, they're going to talk to uh persons that they know that would
00:16:43
regularly be out and about and on the streets late at night, after 2:00 a.m., around 3:00 a.m., and this homeless
00:16:53
individual would be a perfect person to approach and talk to. Look, uh everybody
00:16:59
has a different perception of homeless individuals. My perception of most of them have been that they they usually
00:17:06
play nice with the cops because they frequently are talking with them, not because they're up to no good, but
00:17:12
because they they rely on on the streets that they live on. And they they rely on the neighborhoods that
00:17:20
they are are living in and they want to be friendly with these cops and play nice because they don't want to be
00:17:26
pushed down the road. They don't want to be asked to leave. They don't want to be
00:17:29
asked to move on to a different location. And so, while I think this information is intriguing,
00:17:36
I think we should take this with a grain of salt. There are would be a lot of persons that look like a white male in
00:17:45
their mid-20s dressed like a college student out in the middle of the night on a on a
00:17:51
weekend. And so, while I think that this individual is trying to be helpful, I don't want anybody to walk away from
00:17:57
this conversation going, "Man, they saw Brian Shaffer just a few blocks away eating a sandwich behind the UDF." Yeah,
00:18:04
I I'm glad you brought that up because there's nothing really unique about Brian. He He was a handsome guy. Like I
00:18:12
said, he he was in good shape. But, he's basically average height. He has a typical haircut for, like you said,
00:18:22
college students. He dresses like a typical college student. There wasn't anything It wasn't like he had a face
00:18:29
tattoo like Mike Tyson. >> [laughter] >> Like So, I think the problem with a individual going missing that doesn't
00:18:36
have a unique look or some unique feature, you're going to have a lot of individuals claiming that they possibly
00:18:43
saw Brian. So, Nick, I would actually like to add on a little bit to what you said as well. Um they did the Columbus
00:18:50
Police Department did speak to the homeless man while they were out canvassing and looking for Brian. And
00:18:55
the man stated not only did he see Brian, but he said he yelled out to Brian and said, "Hey, man, they're
00:19:02
looking for you." So, I asked Sergeant Hurst, like, you know, was this a credible man? Do you think he really saw
00:19:08
anything? And based on what Hurst told me, it seems that this man struggled with
00:19:13
alcohol a lot, too, and was not always credible. So, where does the investigation or timeline go from here?
00:19:20
>> So, there were many searches done. Like, there were two sets of dogs from Columbus Police
00:19:26
Department taken into the Ugly Tuna Saloona. There was also dogs taken to Ugly Tuna
00:19:32
Saloona that Randy hired himself from a different part of the state. >> And I think that's important because we
00:19:38
have It wasn't like people in Brian's life weren't doing anything. At this time, we have his
00:19:45
girlfriend constantly calling his phone just to see one if he'd answer, but maybe also to help with this
00:19:52
ping technology. We have these searches by his family members, but also friends. And
00:19:59
[clears throat] then we have his dad involved as far as "Hey, I I'll pay for my own dogs to come in." And Columbus
00:20:08
PD, I think it's I think it's a good look on them to go, "Hey, if he wants to pay for it, we're not going to stop him.
00:20:15
More the merrier, right?" >> You know, we're going to go into the Ugly Tuna Saloona a lot more when we get
00:20:21
to the theories, but I do want to point out that that was probably the most searched location
00:20:27
throughout the whole investigation when it comes to Brian's disappearance. And not only that, the
00:20:34
the building has changed quite a bit since 2006. Um the Ugly Tuna Saloona is not there
00:20:40
anymore. Actually, the entrance where you would even walk into the bar is completely covered over. And that is
00:20:46
offices now for Ohio State. Yeah, and I don't know if Nick has experienced this,
00:20:51
but the amount of true crime friends that I've I've met throughout the years, anytime they come to visit
00:20:59
Columbus, I would take them there. And then eventually, it was like "Well, I can
00:21:04
take you there, but it's totally different. Doesn't look the same. There's not even an entrance point
00:21:09
anymore. Yeah, there's a couple things here that we should make clear. While the captain's absolutely right in his
00:21:18
brief description of the bar, it's kind of square shape, rectangle shape. You can see most, if not You can see most
00:21:25
points of the bar from really any corner while you're standing inside. Maybe with the
00:21:31
exception of of course the there's going to be doors that separate the bar from the restrooms, but there's also um
00:21:38
Forgive me, Captain. I can't recall if the number, but there was three balconies. It's really just the bar
00:21:46
spills out onto these these balconies, but there are were three or four of them that I recall from the last time I've
00:21:53
been in there. And as said, it's you know, and it's not even the Ugly Tuna anymore. So, I've not been in there in
00:21:59
many years. I think the last time I went in there was uh shortly before we covered it in 2015
00:22:06
and shortly after the last time I was in that building that housed the Ugly Tuna
00:22:14
was for a movie. Um it was the 2022 I think it was the 15-year anniversary of the Zodiac movie and they were
00:22:25
showing that again. There was a there's a movie theater in there and I I'm blanking on the name at the moment.
00:22:30
>> Film Center. That's right. >> That's why I like talking to Kelly cuz anytime I don't know something, she
00:22:36
knows the answer. And circling back to the dog conversation, that points to me is the thoroughness of
00:22:44
the intent of the search for Brian Shaffer, okay? The the thoroughness of the intent on behalf of CPD and the
00:22:53
Shaffer family because those canine units those canine officers, meaning the dogs
00:23:00
have a different set a skill set than the a traditional search and rescue dog or a traditional cadaver dog. And so
00:23:10
that to me points towards the thoroughness or at least the intention of being very thorough in this search.
00:23:17
Well, I think also like this case is difficult I think to wrap your head around because you go, "Okay,
00:23:24
well, you go up this escalator and then you go into a bar." Like I said, the bar is small enough.
00:23:31
You have a bar, you have a kitchen, you have restrooms. You have a little bit of a
00:23:36
balcony. But if you gave me 5 minutes and said there there's somebody, let's just say you cleared the whole place,
00:23:43
but you had a a Willy Wonka golden ticket and you said, "You got 5 minutes to go into this
00:23:50
facility and look through the bathroom and look through the kitchen and look through the bar and look through the
00:23:55
balcony." There's no place to really hide it. I could find that golden ticket probably within 5 minutes. Where this
00:24:02
case gets more difficult is it's not just about the Ugly Tuna. It's about this complex and this complex is very
00:24:09
large. It has multiple, like you said, it has a movie theater, it has bars, it has
00:24:17
restaurants. A large parking garage. Then you have a large courtyard. That courtyard then leads you to another
00:24:24
complex that's identical to the other one. Right? They're just mirroring each other. And then, like you said, you have
00:24:31
these alleyways, but then you also have this very large parking garage. So that's where I think it becomes a lot
00:24:39
more complex as far as the searching. Right, but they they did do a lot of searching not just inside the Ugly Tuna,
00:24:45
like the entire Gateway Plaza. They had dogs down in the construction area. They
00:24:52
removed electrical panels from the wall. They They manhole covers lifted. Like they really did search that building top
00:24:59
to bottom. They also searched the local landfill. And I know that that sounds like
00:25:06
a very difficult task. However, they were able to pinpoint down to a very small section of where
00:25:16
the downtown trash was going and where it was dumped inside the landfill. And it was also a very new part of the
00:25:24
landfill that had only been open a couple months where that trash was being dumped. So, it wasn't as difficult to
00:25:31
search as some may think. >> Well, and also, it's the trash going through the different conveyor belts.
00:25:38
And I've talked to individuals that work at these facilities at that have found bodies, but they normally don't find
00:25:46
them inside the dump, but they normally find those bodies as they're sorting the
00:25:52
trash before it even goes into the dump. >> Right, and that's actually what Sergeant
00:25:57
Hurst told me. He told me that the trash would come in and it was sorted. And some of it would go to the local dump,
00:26:04
and then some of it was sent out to Tennessee to a recycling facility. One of the other searches that they used
00:26:11
dogs for to search was they actually went to the Shaeffer family home in Baltimore, Ohio.
00:26:18
And they took search and cadaver dogs through Randy Shaeffer's house and around his property. Yeah, and when I
00:26:24
first heard this, it was like, "Dun, dun, dun." Why are they taking cadaver dogs
00:26:30
multiple times to Brian's father's house? There was actually a tip called in to Columbus Police Department that
00:26:38
Randy Shaeffer had killed Brian and buried him in his backyard. And like we said,
00:26:45
Brian and his father, Randy, go out to dinner the night Brian goes missing. It's
00:26:50
possible that Clint and Brian and Randy had a beer before Randy and Clint went out for the night, but we have no alibi
00:26:59
for Randy Shafer at this point. So, if you're law enforcement, it's not out of the realm of possibility to go, "Okay,
00:27:07
well, we have this, you know, disagreement or we have this tension in the family because the mother
00:27:13
passed away. She changed the will. The husband's upset about that. He's trying to get his children, both boys,
00:27:22
to agree to, "Hey, give me some of the money and you you keep some of it." So, we have this tension, we have this
00:27:29
conflict, and this son goes missing, and the dad has no alibi. So, it's not out of the realm of possibility to
00:27:38
question him, and then also to have either scent dogs or cadaver [music] dogs come out to his property.
00:27:54
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mintmobile.com. Switch now at mintmobile.com/TCG. >> [music] [music] >> So, in September of 2006,
00:33:51
Brian's phone just continued to go to voicemail every time Alexis would try to call him.
00:33:58
But, suddenly his phone began ringing again. It would ring three or four times, and
00:34:03
then the voicemail would kick on. So, she continued to call it, and actually all of his family and friends kept
00:34:09
calling. But, the one thing that Brian's phone didn't do at that point in time, was it did not ping in Hilliard, Ohio.
00:34:18
This was actually a glitch. The ringing of the phone was only due to an overloaded tower, and the phone was
00:34:25
handed or the call was handed off to another tower. So, while it appeared hopeful to
00:34:31
everyone when Brian's phone started ringing. It wasn't anything more than an overloaded cell phone tower. And the
00:34:38
second part of your statement with that is it was not pinging in Hilliard, Ohio. It was not. Yeah, and
00:34:47
this would be very difficult, especially for the girlfriend, cuz you're calling it rings, goes straight to voicemail,
00:34:54
and now all of a sudden it's ringing multiple times, and probably the multiple rings is the service being
00:35:01
passed over. So, but there was a lot of speculation about Brian's phone pinging in Hilliard, Ohio,
00:35:08
which is what? 15-20 minutes from Brian's apartment. >> Yeah, there's a lot of confusion there,
00:35:15
because a lot of people think that that phone ping happened at that point in time. His phone did ping in Hilliard,
00:35:22
Ohio, but it was in the immediate days following his disappearance when Columbus Police Department had that ping
00:35:29
service put on that we talked about earlier. So, let's just talk about this ping service for just let's dive into a
00:35:35
little bit more. So, they they run the service right after he goes missing. We have some pings and
00:35:41
some movement around the Ohio State campus area, and then we have some pings and movement happening
00:35:49
just outside the Columbus area, as well. Yeah, there's some around Grove City. Um there's some around Greenlawn Avenue,
00:35:58
around Louberline Park. There's some around Scioto Darby Creek Road, some in Hilliard. It uh
00:36:06
Kenny and Lane, there was a phone ping. Uh his phone was just all over the place.
00:36:13
And do we have any rhyme or reason for this? I was told it appears that the phone was moving because
00:36:20
it wouldn't have been something as simple as handing off to another tower because some of the towers that it
00:36:27
pinging off of, it would have been too far out for a stationary phone to find that tower, if that makes sense.
00:36:35
>> And this is [clears throat] when? When exactly is this movement taking place?
00:36:39
So, I was told that this ping service was put on and they paid $3,500 and it lasted the whole month of April and a
00:36:47
few days into May. >> And starting on April 3rd, and then during this this month, it's the phone
00:36:54
is moving, it's active and it's moving OSU campus, Grove City, which is a suburb of of Columbus, Hilliard, which
00:37:02
is another suburb of Columbus, and then as well as the Greenlawn area. Greenlawn area, and you also said Kenny
00:37:11
and Lane. Which while if you if you zoom out, those locations all appear to be very close to
00:37:20
one another, but as far as just driving around the greater Columbus area, I would not describe those as extremely
00:37:28
close to one another. This is this is a good amount of distance here. Right. There was actually also one that I
00:37:34
forgot to mention around Scioto Downs. And that's quite a distance away from some of the other locations as well.
00:37:42
That's very very south on High Street, which High Street is also Route 23. Uh we should note here the Gateway
00:37:51
building that house the Ugly Tuna Saloona is on North High Street, or was on North High
00:37:57
Street. This would be South High Street, but it's so South High Street that it is
00:38:02
south of the outer belt that surrounds the greater Columbus area uh 270. Okay, so they're saying there's no rhyme or
00:38:10
reason for this. This wouldn't just be his cell phone being transferred to to different
00:38:16
towers. His phone is moving, but to me this is not evidence that Brian is moving around.
00:38:23
This is just evidence that his phone is moving around. Correct. I have no evidence that Brian actually had his
00:38:31
phone on him when he went missing. We just know that his phone is missing as well.
00:38:36
And you said that we have this possible sighting, but again, it's probably a nothingburger coming from the
00:38:43
homeless individual that claims he saw Brian. But what about other eyewitness reports? Did other people
00:38:50
claim to see Brian? They did. Actually, there was a a tip that came in very early, and it
00:38:58
was of a sighting of a very handsome man with a black backpack sitting on the ground outside of Wendy's in
00:39:07
Pickerington, Ohio. A lady walked up to him because she thought maybe he needed some food or something. So, she was like
00:39:16
just checking on him and ask if she could get him anything, and he said "No, I'm getting ready to hit the road."
00:39:23
That was about the extent of their interaction. So, another caller called in and said they saw a very
00:39:32
handsome man with a black backpack hitchhiking on 270. Of course, you see things like
00:39:39
this all the time, but that second person that called in and said they saw the person hitchhiking was the people
00:39:45
that lived across the street from Randy and Renee Shafer. So, they actually knew
00:39:49
Brian. So, they're they're calling in saying "We saw Brian." Yes, and it just so
00:39:56
happened to be in the same area where the lady said she saw him in Pickerington at the Wendy's. So, it was
00:40:03
two separate tips on the same guy, one of the people actually knowing Brian. And I want to be very clear here because
00:40:10
I'm I'm a person that firmly believes that words have meaning. We mean what we say and we say what we mean, especially
00:40:16
in these critical situations. The people that live that are essentially neighbors of Brian's father,
00:40:26
they are saying we saw a guy hitchhiking on 270 or they're saying we saw Brian Shaffer hitchhiking on 270 cuz those are
00:40:35
two very different statements to me. They said Brian Shaffer. Okay, just to be clear.
00:40:41
I want to point out too here for folks that are you know, not even with this case just
00:40:46
in generalities here, but to hitchhike on an outer belt is not if you were to be riding your bicycle or walking, you
00:40:55
that's that's actually illegal behavior. That's an illegal action here. You could be
00:41:02
pick picked up or ticketed for doing such a thing. So, it's not like he's just on a busy road or a busy
00:41:10
thoroughfare and and walking or biking. This statement is there was a man thumb in the air hitchhiking on the outer belt
00:41:19
and that's something that if an officer state patrol or whatever driving by and spotted this individual, that is cause
00:41:27
for them to stop and talk to that individual. Now, would they on most occasions? I cannot say that, but that
00:41:33
is technically an illegal activity. I would like to state that both of these tips claim that they were
00:41:39
April 1st, the Saturday. So, it was later in that day that they both claimed to see him. So, they go out
00:41:46
partying on Friday. This is just speculation, right? They go out partying. Brian, Clint, and Meredith, they lose
00:41:55
connection with each other. We don't see Brian at his apartment. We see Brian's car. We
00:42:02
don't have his wallet. We have nothing and then we have some eyewitnesses saying
00:42:07
that morning we see somebody hitchhiking because the thing I think it drives me nuts and
00:42:14
I I think it also drives you nuts as well, Kelly, is when people talk about Brian starting a new life or
00:42:21
disappearing on his own accord. People almost assume that it has to happen the night he goes missing.
00:42:30
And my argument has always been, well, he could have left the bar, he could have got home.
00:42:36
This could have been the plan all along and then he wakes up in his apartment on
00:42:40
Saturday and says, "All right, it's time to go missing." Mhm. Yeah, because the the the other half of no one
00:42:48
finding him at his home is also no one confirming that he wasn't at [clears throat] his home the following
00:42:53
day. Exactly. I have no proof that he didn't make it home and when I asked Sergeant Hurst
00:43:00
how they knew that he went missing on Friday night and it was, "Well, the bath or the shower was dry
00:43:08
when we got there on Sunday and his bed was made." Well, I mean, if you take a shower early
00:43:14
Saturday morning and make your bed, it's still going to be dry when they get there on Sunday. So, it doesn't mean
00:43:20
anything to me that the shower was dry and his bed was made. And like you said, all his belongings seemed to be there at
00:43:27
the time. Brian was not only a medical student, but you made the comment you talked
00:43:33
about the comment that Brian made or the post that he made about, "Well, this this medical thing is just for a time
00:43:40
period until I start my band or my band takes off." But it also seems like he left all his guitars behind as well. So,
00:43:49
some people point that out as evidence of well, he didn't go missing on his own,
00:43:56
but I think, you know, if if somebody went looking for him, his friends, his family, his girlfriend and they go into
00:44:02
the apartment and there were items like his guitar missing, I think that would be
00:44:08
giant red flags that he was there. Right. It seemed at like everything was in place, like even his jewelry was
00:44:15
laying on his dresser and things along those lines. It didn't appear that anything was missing in those early days
00:44:22
until after the burglary of his apartment. >> Well, and like you said, he's went on
00:44:27
trips before without telling people. But you'd think if he's going to head to the airport or he's going to head to the
00:44:35
bus station, he drove himself. He wouldn't have to hitchhike and these reports of people seeing him, we have to
00:44:43
remind people that this is in Pickerington. This is his hometown. This is where he went to school. This is
00:44:48
where he went to high school. But this is a good 20-30 minutes from his apartment on campus. Just real quick
00:44:55
for the sake of clarity. There are Obviously, there this being campus area near downtown area, there would be COTA
00:45:04
bus stops on every few every few blocks or corners in this area. So that there there are
00:45:13
are means of him getting around if that was in fact what he was choosing to do. Yeah, and I do know that CPD did check
00:45:21
with um the bus companies and they checked with cab companies and they checked the
00:45:27
airports. So pretty much from the remainder of 2006 until 2008, it was very minimal searches done for Brian,
00:45:38
but Randy Randy would do different events for Brian. He got his picture on the side of a race car.
00:45:45
He got him covered on several different channels. Brian, he continued to just keep Brian's
00:45:50
name out there. So in September of 2008, Ohio was rocked with some hurricane-force winds and I believe it
00:45:59
was from Hurricane Ike. I'm not sure if you guys remember, but it was pretty crazy. It was like 80 to
00:46:05
90 mph winds at some point and sometime. Well, Randy had called around and was checking on all of his friends, everyone
00:46:13
that he knew telling them to make sure they stay inside, that wait until to make sure everything is
00:46:20
safe before they go outside. However, Randy Shaffer did not take his own advice and he went outside to a back
00:46:29
building to get the generator out. Um I'm not actually sure if he lost power or if he was just afraid he was going to
00:46:38
lose power. But when he was doing so, a branch from the tree in his backyard had been
00:46:46
a branch from a tree in his backyard had fallen and it fell on Randy when the winds
00:46:51
picked up and it actually killed him. Which I believe this actually made news because like you said, this is 2 years
00:46:57
after Brian goes missing. But Brian's name was not only in news reports, but it's in
00:47:04
the local papers, it's in the campus papers. And like you said, Randy was in communication with a lot of these
00:47:11
individuals. But this news of Randy passing then kind of sparks more attention on the disappearance of Brian
00:47:20
Shaffer as well. It does. And actually there were governors and I believe a senator and I
00:47:27
can't remember who else that wrote letters after Randy's passing just basically crediting him for all of
00:47:34
his work he did for missing persons including his own son. Yeah, this was a hell of a storm. It was
00:47:42
I was living in Columbus at the time and I believe we lost power at my home for 10 days
00:47:52
which is extremely excessive. Like I I think in my lifetime, that's got to be the longest that any
00:48:00
home I lived in went without power. And that was just due to the the the wind damage that it did here in
00:48:07
Central Ohio. Yeah, my kids were actually little at the time and we watched from our window as the wind
00:48:14
blew away their trampoline and their playhouse. Well, you could blame yourself for not putting those away in
00:48:20
the garage. >> [laughter] >> But his passing then sparks some weird activity. It did. So,
00:48:28
as a lot of people know that when you pass away, you have an obituary, but there's also a website called legacy.com
00:48:35
that posts online obituaries. Well, Don Corbett, the private investigator on Brian's case, had logged
00:48:43
in and was looking at Randy's obituary, and there was a message there that said,
00:48:50
"I love you, Dad." {comma} Brian. And then in parentheses it said, US Virgin Islands. Now, of course, CPD jumped on
00:48:59
it as soon as they were told about it. >> But what do we learn from this? Is is this communication actually coming from
00:49:07
the Virgin Islands? No, it actually came from a public library computer in Hilliard, Ohio.
00:49:13
>> Which again is strange because we have some cell phone possible movements in Hilliard. We have
00:49:22
now this message coming from a local library in Hilliard, Ohio. So, it seems like this weird Hilliard, Ohio is
00:49:30
weirdly connected to the disappearance of this guy. Yeah, definitely comes up a few times. So, I do know that Columbus
00:49:38
Police Department obviously looked into this and unfortunately, you did not have to sign
00:49:45
in to use one of the public computers, so they did not know the identity of the person. But they did try to pull
00:49:52
surveillance footage from a gas station across the street, but unfortunately, there was nothing found
00:49:59
from that. Yeah, so we have no evidence that this was actually Brian, but I think
00:50:05
you know, not to go like too much down the rabbit hole, but it's also possible that Brian, if he did go missing
00:50:16
or just wanted to start a new life or however you want to frame that it is possible that he had somebody
00:50:23
there that was sending this message for him. Yeah, or just someone who possibly knew that did it on their own for
00:50:33
Randy after his passing. >> The The not signing in portion of that strikes me. While I have no reason to doubt
00:50:44
that we're getting honest information on that, as someone who frequents the Columbus libraries and the greater
00:50:53
Columbus libraries I have never used a computer where I didn't have to sign in. When I say sign
00:51:00
in, it's to the point of your you type in your library card number uh to use and access that computer and then they
00:51:08
give you a time limit on the amount of time that you can use that computer as well. Now, what I
00:51:15
will say on that, this would be rather clever of somebody if they wanted to be anonymous the catalog computers
00:51:24
where you would search for books or authors are open and already linked to the internet. So, you do not have to sign in
00:51:34
to those. But they're also not a browsing computer or a working computer. So, if somebody was very crafty
00:51:43
uh and if I am right in my statement, I'm not going to say that I'm 100% right because I don't think I've ever set foot
00:51:50
in a Hilliard library, but the captain will back me up on this. At one point, all the suburb libraries were connected
00:51:58
to the Columbus Public Library. Right. Uh Metropolitan Library as they call it. I believe that that was prior to 2008.
00:52:08
I I feel very strongly that that was prior to 2008. So again, if somebody went off and used one of those catalog
00:52:15
computers, that would be very crafty and that would be a way that that could go down and my statement also be being
00:52:23
correct that you did have to sign in. I don't know that they would be able to pinpoint it to exactly what computer.
00:52:30
That would be interesting too. I I don't want to go down the road of IP addresses
00:52:33
and things of that nature cuz something I just don't understand. Kelly, what are your thoughts on this
00:52:39
post that was made? Uh I kind of go back and forth. I The biggest part of me is how many
00:52:46
coincidences can there be in one case and I feel like that there's just a bunch in Brian's case.
00:52:52
I actually lean towards this not being a hoax. But I actually think CPD knows who did
00:52:58
it. Because Nick's 100% right. I even in growing up in a small town in Ohio, when
00:53:04
we needed to use a computer, you got like an hour time block and you had to sign your name, you had to put in
00:53:11
your library card information. I I feel like maybe they That's just a part that they're they're going to hold
00:53:17
close to the vest and not really put out there, but I do think that Columbus Police Department knows who
00:53:24
knows who made that post. >> And with that sign in, Kelly, and you'll back me up on this, it's not just your
00:53:29
library card, but it's also followed by a four-digit PIN. That is further indicator that, you
00:53:37
know, somebody didn't just find somebody's library card in the parking lot and on the on the ground and walk in
00:53:43
and use that. Uh Uh you would have to have that PIN information as well. >> Nick, that's actually really intriguing
00:53:49
to me cuz I had never thought about the card catalog computers before. And Brian was very tech-savvy. He
00:53:56
actually when he went to Ohio University, his degree was actually computers. And he actually
00:54:05
designed a video game that I accidentally stumbled upon when I was researching his case that he had done
00:54:12
for a class project. So, he was very tech-savvy. Nick also studied computer. Well, it's
00:54:18
for this exact reason that the captain keeps me around. >> [laughter] >> Just so you he you can log in for me at
00:54:26
the library. >> Just just throw in some of these ideas. So, Brian's father, Randy, passes away
00:54:33
due to this windstorm. I mean, what a awful way to go. And now, you have this family that just
00:54:42
2 years basically 2 and 1/2 years prior, you have the mother, Renee, she passes away
00:54:48
from cancer. You have Brian, he goes missing. Then you have the father, he is killed in this windstorm.
00:54:57
And all that's left is Derek Shafer. Yeah, Derek lost his whole immediate family within 2 and 1/2 years. So, I
00:55:04
would actually like to circle back just for a second and talk about that post on
00:55:10
the legacy page because the other thing that is really interesting to me is it had not been
00:55:19
released that there was a tip well, I guess I wouldn't even say tip, there was a sighting
00:55:24
of Brian in the U.S. Virgin Islands. And it was actually one of the first tips that the Columbus Police Department
00:55:32
received. Um it was a a from Columbus who had been on their honeymoon and they were there and they were at a
00:55:43
restaurant or something along those lines having dinner and they had a waiter who had a striking resemblance to
00:55:51
Brian Shaffer and was actually wearing a name tag who said his name was Brian. And as soon as they got home from their
00:55:58
trip Randy's death was all over the news again. And uh uh Brian's case had popped up or
00:56:07
something. So they immediately called the Columbus Police Department and told them about the tip. So the fact that the
00:56:13
US Virgin Islands was on that post could have been a coincidence, but it could have also been someone that knew
00:56:20
something since that was a tip as well. Yeah, and I think the information we don't know about this tip is when they
00:56:28
came home, did this couple hear about this post that was made? And did this Do you see what I'm saying? Did this
00:56:38
spark something of "Well, we had a waiter named Brian and he kind of looked like this guy."
00:56:44
Or was it just simply that they came home and went "Hey, the Remember the guy that went missing from
00:56:50
the Ugly Tuna?" You see what I'm saying? Like I do. I'm not sure actually how it
00:56:55
um came about, but I was told that it was something along the lines that they made the call after Randy's
00:57:03
passing. So I'm not sure. We do have a lot more to get into because at this point in the timeline
00:57:13
you you're not starting your investigation yet. You just know of the case. And so I think we need to dive in to
00:57:23
what you have learned once you get involved in actually investigating [music] this case.
00:57:33
>> [music] >> Want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage each and every week.
00:57:43
Stick around for part three of Brian Shaffer 20 years missing. Until then, be good, be kind,
00:57:52
and don't litter. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Hey everybody, Ted Danson here to tell
00:58:21
you about my podcast with my long-time friend and sometimes co-host Woody Harrelson. It's called Where Everybody
00:58:28
Knows Your Name, and we're back for another season. I'm so excited to be joined this season by friends like John
00:58:34
Mulaney, David Spade, Sarah Silverman, Ed Helms, and many more. You don't want to miss it. Listen to Where Everybody
00:58:41
Knows Your Name with me, Ted Danson, and Woody Harrelson sometimes, wherever you
00:58:47
get your podcasts.