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changer [Music] [Applause] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:43
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is The Music Man the host and taco connoisseur he is the
00:01:51
captain it is Taco Tuesday [ __ ] it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling
00:01:58
a friend [Music] this week we are drinking anheiser Bush's Budweiser an American logger and
00:02:08
an American Classic this may seem like an odd pick but hear me out we've been discussing The Disappearance of Brandon
00:02:15
Swanson and Brandon loved the Minnesota Twins and was known to always be wearing
00:02:20
a twins hat anyone that has been to a Twins baseball game knows you can grab a beer at the Budweiser roof deck located
00:02:28
in the left field corner of the ballpark it's the ultimate Minnesota Twins Outdoor Experience it's the king of
00:02:35
beers that's right so to all the listeners tuning in from the great state of Minnesota we say this buds for you
00:02:41
garage grade three big bottle caps and we would also like to thank and send a big cheers to Jill in Columbus Ohio and
00:02:48
a big shout out to denz in forny Texas next up we have a shout to Michelle in San Juan capestrano California and a big
00:02:57
shout out to Tiffany and Buford Georgia and next a big longdistance cheers and big thank you to Tim from Seattle and
00:03:05
last but certainly not least we have Stevie and Bay City Michigan everybody we just mentioned went to True Crim
00:03:13
garage.com and donated to this week's beer fund and for that we give you a big thanks yeah make sure after you donate
00:03:20
to be calm and be patient cuz we're going to get to you it might take a little time but when you hear your name
00:03:25
cool yourself chill yourself chill yourself out it's going to take a little bit of time
00:03:31
but once you hear your name you're going to get excited so excited that you wee in your pants and that is enough of the
00:03:37
business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
00:03:49
[Music] crime we covered the details and some of the speculation regarding the night and
00:04:01
early morning hours of 19-year-old Brandon Swanson's last known whereabouts last week now we need to cover the
00:04:08
search that ensued for Brandon after the discovery of his abandoned green Chevy Lumina which was found hung up in a
00:04:16
ditch on the side of a gravel road and reminder this was approximately 20 miles from where Brandon thought he was the
00:04:24
searches have been exhaustive thorough and in my humble garage opinion High professional investigators brought in
00:04:32
search dogs which started at the vehicle the dogs LED investigators up and down some country roads and then to a Woods
00:04:41
by the banks of the yellow Medicine River the descriptions of this River are really all over the shop here Captain
00:04:48
while the depths of the river range from anywhere from just kneed deep up to 15 ft in certain areas this particular area
00:04:57
meaning parts of the yellow medicine River within walking distance of where Brandon's vehicle was found several
00:05:04
people have stated that this part of the river is much more like a creek sized Waterway but we should also keep in mind
00:05:12
that like with most waterways the yellow medicine River's depth can vary greatly
00:05:17
depending on the time of year at the time Brandon disappeared it's reported that the river was flowing high and fast
00:05:25
with spring runoff still impacting the flow so by most reports we are talking about a very strong current at the time
00:05:34
according to sheriff veki quote there are 2 miles of the river in that area and it took 6 hours for deputies to walk
00:05:43
it he said he personally walked the river every day for 30 Days quote at the time the dogs indicated and it was
00:05:52
believed that he must have fallen in the river in that area end quote the sheriff
00:05:57
then added so we searched that area on the premise that he had been washed Downstream but the dogs didn't just
00:06:05
track Brandon scent to The River's Edge according to Brandon's mother Annette Swanson one Blood Hound followed a scent
00:06:13
from the stranded car down a gravel road to a farm she said this was a long trail
00:06:20
it was about 3 miles this long trail is what led to the yellow Medicine River and nette says when the dog walked them
00:06:29
up to The River's Edge the dog jumped in the river but then jumped back out after
00:06:35
jumping out of the water the dog continued to walk following a trail up to another Gravel Road this was a road
00:06:44
that separates lion and Lincoln counties mhm and then at some point the dog loses
00:06:50
the scent she says now because the dog actively jumped into and then back out of the river and then continued along a
00:06:59
sent path that ended into nothingness investigators are not convinced that Brandon drowned in the River Sheriff
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feki pointed out that had Brandon fallen into the river he should have been found
00:07:13
in the river or Downstream somewhere no trace of Brandon has been found anywhere
00:07:20
but if he was washed away in the yellow Medicine River you'd think that something like a you know a shoe his
00:07:27
jacket anything would have been found as the river dried up later in the season this exposed more of the land
00:07:36
along its banks more searches were done during this time but still again nothing
00:07:42
turned up the area of the river that is in question that was searched it was searched over 50 times all with no
00:07:51
results absolutely no evidence other than the dog leading them to the river that Brandon you know that he was was
00:07:59
ever even in the river that he drowned in the river or remains in the river to this day were there multiple dogs
00:08:06
because sometimes they'll have multiple dogs and sometimes they have one dog and
00:08:09
they do multiple tests with that one dog so throughout the years what gets a little difficult with in this case when
00:08:18
we're reporting on it there have been so many searches and I'm certain that throughout the years there's probably
00:08:25
been a search or two that only contained one dog but a lot of the stuff that I was reviewing they're referring to dogs
00:08:34
plural so I believe that we're talking about multiple dogs now I don't know that using the Searchers words and the
00:08:43
sheriff's words it's a little conflicting because at times they say the dog led us to The River's Edge and
00:08:50
then other times they say the dogs LED investigators to the river so I don't know if in this exact point
00:08:59
if it was just one dog or multiple dogs the other thing we need to keep in mind too is sometimes we're dealing with
00:09:06
different kind of tracking dogs dogs that are trying to look for different things right you know sometimes when
00:09:13
you're looking for search and rescue you're you're tracing a scent and other times they they've actually brought in
00:09:19
kadav dogs dogs that are looking for human remains right the problem here is again Captain the the yellow River I
00:09:30
think could hold some Secrets but the problem with that is other than the dog or the dogs leading
00:09:37
the investigators to the river there's never been any other evidence that Brandon went into the river or drowned
00:09:44
or you know and remains in the river to this day right but the the problem is we
00:09:49
have we have no evidence of we have no evidence of a lot of things so I I do want to go to a comment that I saw by
00:09:58
his mother and net Swanson and this seems to be backed up or at least a shared Feeling by other
00:10:06
family members they don't seem to be 100% convinced that Brandon drowned that night and then I think you have to go
00:10:14
back to this because if in fact if you believe the search dogs accuracy Brandon entered and then exited the river yeah
00:10:24
so look I want to try a little exercise if you will Captain this but hold on a second goad it's it's difficult because
00:10:31
we don't know how the dog track let's say the dog jumped into the river jumped out of the river and then walked the The
00:10:37
River's Edge for you know a quarter mile or whatever and then veered off into this other path that would make me
00:10:45
believe more likely that he went into the river and went down the river for a time period enough for the dog to follow
00:10:52
the scent the problem with some of these reports is that we don't have this great
00:10:58
detailed reporter we don't have video footage of what actually happened so to speculate too much either way you might
00:11:06
as well pull out your crystal ball and and make a guess because you don't know well of course nobody knows and that's
00:11:14
why this is a an interesting case and that's why it's still talked about so much to this day but okay so you say
00:11:23
detailed description detailed report I I want to try a little exercise here okay
00:11:28
and this will be quite helpful I believe especially to those who are either familiar with the area or for those who
00:11:36
did look up a map of this area like we mentioned last week I want to go through a detailed description of the part of
00:11:44
this search okay there's a lot of searches throughout the years but I want to go through this one in in very good
00:11:51
detail here because again I believe with with the dog information the dog tracking information
00:12:00
if we believe the accuracy of the dogs this is really one of very few pieces of possible evidence that we have to go on
00:12:09
right M so okay here's what we do know dogs tracked Brandon from his abandoned car remember his car was found in Lion
00:12:19
Lincoln County Road 1 and2 miles north of Route 68 so on the map if you're looking at it go north of Route 6 68 and
00:12:29
continue North past 390th Street on my map I placed a pin on Lian Lincoln Road at the halfway mark
00:12:40
right between 390th Street and 160th Avenue so we know from the conversation he had with his folks Brandon thinks he
00:12:51
is near Lind and he eventually comes up with the idea to meet them in Lind via him walking there he says he sees the
00:13:02
town of Lind or the lind Town lights from his car right and he's going to walk towards the light so there are two
00:13:12
things we can deduce from his statements here one Brandon is basically heading in
00:13:19
a Northwest walking direction so he believes he is southeast of Lind Well Northwest of Brandon's car is the town
00:13:29
of Porter so he is very likely seeing the lights coming from the town of Porter so number two he thinks he is
00:13:38
southeast of Lent so again if the dogs are right from his car Brandon walked half a mile south on Lion Lincoln Road
00:13:49
and then turned right onto 390th Street He Walked on 390th Westbound for about a
00:13:56
mile then he makes another right onto County Road 16 walking Northbound he walks for about a half a mile and then
00:14:05
he decides to go off of the road and make a left now walking westbound on a private driveway of what has been
00:14:14
described by at least three sources that I could find this is a driveway belonging to a an abandoned farm right
00:14:22
he continues westbound for approximately a quar of a mile and then veers off the
00:14:27
driveway and continues on on roughly following the course of the yellow Medicine River traveling Northwest well
00:14:35
again we also have to be clear about these driveways because a lot of these back roads are rough right they're not
00:14:42
not every single one is paved nicely a lot of them are gravel roads yes so you have to you you can't um assume at this
00:14:51
point that that he knows if he's going on a road or a driveway right would that be safe to say
00:14:59
right and and again he may not even care as long as he believes that he's making
00:15:03
his way in that direction that he wants to go so now he's he's he's kind of very
00:15:10
roughly following the course of the yellow me medicine River traveling Northwest but but how how much is the
00:15:17
distance between the car and and the river like if you had to guess well it's difficult because there it's very
00:15:27
different between where the you know how the crow flies to the route that he is taking
00:15:35
because he's taking a very roundabout way of getting there he's he's going we see him going south and then he's going
00:15:43
west and then he's going north and then he's going Northwest right so he's traveled a few miles once you add this
00:15:50
all up but again he's he's not taking a direct cut right to where we have him now oh well I think think this is
00:15:59
important be because we do have a little bit of a Time Gap um from when his when his father decides
00:16:08
to take his mom home to come back out and we have a Time Gap and then they're back on the
00:16:14
phone and and do and I know that time Gap is kind of blurry but I I think the key thing here is what I'm what I want
00:16:22
to point out to everybody if they are following along on the map you can you can really see where about he would be
00:16:29
based off of the information of the dogs and it's once he starts doing this this
00:16:34
route that that roughly follows the yellow Medicine River there traveling Northwest this is approximately where
00:16:42
the blood hound jumped into the river and then jumped back out now the the Handler as we said interpreted this
00:16:50
Behavior as possibly indicating that Brandon might have fallen into the river at that point but then Brandon traveled
00:16:57
onward walking heading North toward a gravel road it is here that the Trail Ends the dog or dogs lose the scent
00:17:07
really any number of things could have happened here to make this Trail end the the scent vanishes he starts off in a
00:17:16
very roundabout way of walking Northwest with the idea that he is walking into town this obviously regardless of what
00:17:24
town it may actually be or what town he thinks he's walking in into I want to point out some things here too that are
00:17:32
kind of working against Brandon if that is his exact movements remember we talked about this is a route you know
00:17:40
Route 68 would be a route that he would have taken from school to his house I think rather than assuming that
00:17:49
he knows the area well I would debate that quite heavily I question that that off of anything off of Route 68 he may
00:17:58
not not know at all you know he may just take the simplest way to and from school
00:18:03
and his house day after day after day and never veering off of that Route 68 which he is clearly off of at this point
00:18:12
right and anybody that knows these Country Roads or not not exactly these country roads but country roads in
00:18:19
general you might be able to go well I I go down this main path and then I head down one country road and then that gets
00:18:26
me to another town right and then that's your path but once you jump onto these you know other country roads that you're
00:18:33
not familiar with they could take you anywhere you wouldn't know right you know I mean so and again
00:18:41
so I think there's also evidence that backs up that he doesn't know the this area so well because we have evidence
00:18:48
that he's not where he thinks he is 100% we we know he's not where he thinks he is and and what I think's working
00:18:55
against him here in this situation alcohol no I think that there are things there are indicators that to to tell him
00:19:04
that he is where he thinks he is meaning if I if I'm looking around and I go oh Northwest of me there's the lights
00:19:11
coming from town L right should be Lind oh but it's not Lind it's Porter but it's something yeah yeah it's it's an
00:19:19
indicator to him that he's he's right even though he's clearly wrong and then on top of that the direction he's taking
00:19:26
from his vehicle to walk into town traveling Northwest Let's Pretend he does know the area very well this would
00:19:34
work against him even more because to walk into Porter he would need to cross a major road and there's a river that
00:19:45
runs into Porter okay that's the red wood I'm sorry the the North Branch of the yellow medicine river runs into
00:19:55
Porter now if he were to walk Northwest in to Lind again he would have to cross a major road 23 instead of 68 mhm
00:20:06
there's another river that runs that direction into the town of Lind that's the Redwood river right that's if he
00:20:12
knew the area so well yeah if he knows this area really well he's going Well's still going to be confused he's going
00:20:18
[ __ ] I'm right there's the town of Lind I know it because here's the river backing my feelings up and here's the
00:20:25
road that I have to cross backing my feelings up as well I still think he's impaired he could be he could be and and
00:20:33
I think we can we can debate that here in a little bit but I want to go through some of the search I want to go through
00:20:38
some of the search efforts here Captain but to to go through all of them would be ridiculous if you want to to dive
00:20:46
into that even further that stuff is available online and specifically I want to point out um some of the sources for
00:20:54
our research here we have Footprints at The River's Edge blog spot.com that site
00:21:01
has been raising awareness for specifically for missing young adult males since 2002 and then there's a really
00:21:09
interesting thing regarding this case we have Jeff hassie who has really been the
00:21:16
one that's LED these these uh searches and there is a website the searchfor brandon.
00:21:26
blogspot.com this website is this guy he he's in charge we'll get into him in a minute but okay uh one thing I want to
00:21:33
point out while I'm telling people if you want to look into it yourself check out that the search for brandon.
00:21:40
blogspot.com that is basically a website that reads like individual journal entries for each search that took place
00:21:49
and they have journal entries listed for searches that were conducted over a three-year time period right so very
00:21:58
detailed information there the areas around Brandon's car where his car was found they were searched using ground
00:22:06
Searchers ATVs horses and helicopters yeah a company that we've talked about many many times Texas Equis search did
00:22:14
come in to help bringing in underwater sonar devices a remote controlled plane and other high-tech equipment to help
00:22:22
the search efforts and still nothing was found before you have to raise a bunch of money to get somebody to go up in a
00:22:29
helicopter now with technology we can use these these drones to cover so much area and detail right and then by July
00:22:39
of the year that he went missing the Lincoln County Sheriff acknowledged that he personally believed that Brandon
00:22:46
Swanson was likely deceased by this time and they're still searching at this and
00:22:52
this is where we have the if you review the the sheriff's statements throughout the years
00:22:59
I think he's just really kind of perplexed by this whole situation because you will see statements where
00:23:05
they say he can't be in the river we've searched it so many times but then here in July of the year that we went he went
00:23:12
missing we have the sheriff saying we believe he's deceased and and he likely fell into the river yeah now within a
00:23:20
few months after the quote unquote official search for Brandon stopped which was actually about 10 days after
00:23:27
he went missing a new private search company took over the search for Brandon this was and this is going to answer
00:23:35
your question this was search rescue and Recovery resources of Minnesota which was headed up by a man named Jeff hassie
00:23:45
MH hassie is not your amateur civilian search organizer he uses scientific methods in mathematical calculations
00:23:54
such as theoretical maximum distance traveled equations probability studies and statistics to come up with the
00:24:03
search areas and likely scenarios besides his work for the srrr MN that's that's a handful there that's
00:24:15
what we should call the show yeah hassie is the founder of Midwest Technical Rescue Training Associates a nonprofit
00:24:23
organization that teaches technical rescue skills to Public Safety providers well they're going through some kind of
00:24:30
scientific and mathematic equations as far as you know the average human can walk a mile in in 15 minutes things like
00:24:38
that to kind of narrow down the search a little more thank you Captain and and I
00:24:43
I want to talk about this because we talk so much about criminal profiling on the show well when you think about it
00:24:52
Jeff and his team are using similar techniques to try and find and Rescue or returned lost persons basically taking
00:25:01
whatever evidence they have here we got the car the sent Trail the phone call with Dad saying oh [ __ ] and then the car
00:25:09
call drops they're going to take that information and layering layering that with information and statistics
00:25:16
collected from previous search efforts you throw that algebra equation into a blender and boom now you have
00:25:24
prioritized search areas you have a game plan one of these statistics is quite interesting hassie says and and this was
00:25:34
to the independent where he said this he says quote retrospective studies based on the international search and rescue
00:25:41
incident database found that in these circumstances involving abandoned vehicles the subjects were found within
00:25:50
5.6 miles from the last known position this is 95% of the time this yielding a total toal search area of
00:26:00
98.5 squ mil the median distance is 1.3 mil so 5.3 square miles search area there's one statistic used to help
00:26:11
prioritize the search areas and also you might use this equation as well the average person as you pointed out and
00:26:20
this is what they're going to use in Brandon situation walks 1 to 3 milph yielding a 1 to 3 Mile search ring
00:26:30
or 3.1 to 28.3 square miles this is based off of he's in the car he's walking for 47 minutes while talking on
00:26:40
the phone to his father right and then he says old [ __ ] and the call drops you
00:26:46
would use this information in regards to what you know by the information provided by Brandon's mother and father
00:26:55
what time he started walking from where he left left his car and ending with the
00:26:59
old [ __ ] moment that's the indicator for his disappearance or demise if that's
00:27:05
the thinking now I think that that's some fascinating stuff and we will get back into that in a bit when when we get
00:27:12
to the theories and our thoughts but that's what they're kind of working with here look he points out
00:27:19
98 what do we say 6 square miles so roughly 100 square miles that's a huge air area to try to search and anybody
00:27:30
that knows this area we're dealing with Farmland that's difficult especially when you we're talking about when the
00:27:37
the crops are high yeah very much so and then also like you said there's multiple
00:27:43
water sources yeah yeah so you you have to use this information to profile where
00:27:50
you think he may be to prioritize your search areas and your search efforts this show is sponsored by better help do
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to answer call us at 1888 [Music] Freedom all right we're back cheers mate cheers to you captain Oh I want to give
00:30:19
a another cheers here I got a fantastic message from a very longtime friend of the show remember Gina private
00:30:29
investigator down in Texas who helped us out with the dark past episodes yeah Gina Gina badass yeah regarding serial
00:30:37
killer Felix Vil so she had some kind of thing to go to at one of her children's
00:30:44
uh schools or at one of their classes she wore the ban the van t-shirt to the school she said that the teachers loved
00:30:52
it and the kids were very confused she's hoping it's it's a life lesson for for I guess that class well
00:31:01
we're going to start uh sponsoring please um police departments to go into the schools just like the Dare program
00:31:08
we're starting the ban the van program B the van program so regarding the searches Captain there there were
00:31:14
multiple searches as we said over a number of years parts of the river were even
00:31:20
drained now on the 5year anniversary of Brandon's disappearance twin cities.com discuss the scale of the search for
00:31:29
Brandon saying more than 500 volunteers including 34 Dog Handlers from nine different states spent more than 120
00:31:39
days searching for Brandon and covered part of 120 square miles we have Jeff hassie who says it's
00:31:50
by far the biggest search that he has ever been involved in in terms of length of time number of mission
00:31:57
and number of Searchers involved remember he's the search manager a search in October of 2013 focused on the
00:32:07
Mud Creek area this is a few miles Northwest of the town of Porter the kadaver dogs consistently hit
00:32:15
on the creek leading Searchers to believe that the waters from wherever Brandon's body is located somewhere in
00:32:25
the Watershed where Poss washing into this Creek and that's why the dogs are hitting on this area again
00:32:34
in 2015 Searchers searched Farm Fields Northwest of Porter where the dogs were hitting on a scent this included an area
00:32:45
that they had not been able to search for several years and this is because of harvest schedules and bad
00:32:51
weather Ken Anderson president of emergency Support Services in Minneapolis who partnered with Jeff
00:32:59
hassie said Searchers concentrated on the area Northwest of Porter because search dogs were quote still getting the
00:33:07
scent that says there are remains of a human in this area end quote so we're again we're assuming those are cadaver
00:33:16
dogs and not scent dogs that they used before correct yes this is according to kadaver dogs they are hitting on areas
00:33:26
Northwest of the town of Porter so it may be likely that Brandon's remains are somewhere in that area again this is a
00:33:34
large area right and it's my understanding that these dogs when they hit on this scent because of winds and
00:33:43
such they can be hitting on this even for Miles Away MH now another search was conducted just last year in May of 2018
00:33:53
and this was um just another search where they really they found nothing now I do want to
00:34:01
point out here too something that I think is important to this case is that back in March of
00:34:07
2010 the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal apprehension the BCA they became the lead investigating Agency on this case
00:34:17
the BCA has said that the case remains open and leads continue to trickle in in fact last year in
00:34:25
2018 Eric Woodford BCA special agent said quote the case is open and just last week I got another lead or two
00:34:35
sometimes you need a break in the case all it takes sometimes is one thing so we're not giving up end quote and we
00:34:42
talked about this a little bit on off the Record uh recently where if if if you are working a case
00:34:50
and the trail has gone cold for you you may trade it off to another investigator
00:34:56
you may hand it off to somebody else put some new eyes on this thing to see if I
00:35:01
missed anything and we also see situations with these cases where they will hand it over to a whole another
00:35:09
agency completely and that's what happened here in 2010 March of 2010 let's start to get into some of the
00:35:19
theories here Captain uhhuh there's a lot of them right because Brandon's disappearance is it's very frustrating
00:35:25
and it's my serious he was on the phone with his dad and then he wasn't and now no trace of him has ever been found well
00:35:34
not just that I mean he says oh [ __ ] and then the phone gets disconnected right
00:35:40
right and and so the Internet is just Rife with rumors and theories about what could have happened to Brandon right uh
00:35:49
I think we it's a big topic on Reddit yeah and and there's so many so much so out there that we can't list all of them
00:35:57
M uh but we're going to try to go through some of them yeah you could read stuff about you know possible abducted
00:36:03
by aliens um that was first on my list alien or some other strange abduction or disappearance possible Sasquatch right I
00:36:14
think I think if that were to be the case it would be better recognized on some other show right yeah um unless you
00:36:23
feel different no I don't think there's any evidence of that I'm not saying I'd ruled that as out as a possibility on a
00:36:32
case if if there was like some sightings that night oh well we we had 300 sightings of a UFO and then this kid
00:36:40
went missing right maybe I'd have a little more weight to it but I think sometimes in these missing person case
00:36:45
they go he was probably walking down the road and and Bigfoot got him you know or
00:36:51
the aliens took him or um The Moth Man or he he went into a time portal uh you know just have some kind of evidence of
00:37:02
this I you know what I thought there were a ton of theories out there I think you just added two more to to the
00:37:09
possible theories but there's no evidence of those so they're not well and you know what I one sad thing well I
00:37:16
mean this this whole case is tragic and sad but when I was doing research for Brandon's case our old friends thinking
00:37:26
sideways covered the case oh yeah and it brought a tear to my eye Devon I listened to the thinking
00:37:33
sideways and and basically what they said in Brandon's case regarding alien abduction this was kind of funny uh they
00:37:42
were saying Devon Joe and Steve there was no crop circles if if he were abducted by aliens
00:37:48
there would have been crop circles and I obviously I don't know that to be true but I found I found that to be funny on
00:37:53
their show and I missed their show and I missed those the the those guys yeah so
00:37:58
let's get into some of the much more likely theories here's one that that that is
00:38:05
constantly in this case it says Brandon tried and and some of this is ripped straight off of the internet Brandon
00:38:13
tried some bad meth that night and had a bad reaction to drugs Andor alcohol that
00:38:19
he have he consumed and he got so disoriented enough so that he got totally lost mhm well we know he was
00:38:28
lost we have evidence of that so this they mean lost for good right so phone gets disconnected he says oh [ __ ] maybe
00:38:38
the old [ __ ] isn't that big of a deal he keeps walking he goes further gets even
00:38:44
more lost that's a possibility mhm I think the difficult thing here is I I don't think he'd be so impaired or so
00:38:55
unhealthy that by the time um and yes this is a rural area but by the time that the the sun would come up up I
00:39:06
would think that Brandon would get to a road and at least see somebody um pass him by and possibly
00:39:15
could get help so that's the only reason that's the only problem I have with this
00:39:19
Theory you know and this theory in itself almost seems cut and pasted from Brand Lawson's case right Brandon same
00:39:29
first name tried some bad meth that night mhm that's that's a theory in both of those cases and what I want to just
00:39:36
like scream from from the top of the mountain is this shouldn't be any news flash for anybody it's all bad meth yeah
00:39:45
there is there is no good meth all right just don't do meth that's what we should
00:39:49
call our ban good math well here's all right ban the van campaign was uh was this year maybe next year's campaign is
00:40:00
don't do meth bad meth right so again this is ripped straight off of the internet um it's total speculation but
00:40:11
here's some things here it's been thrown out there that Brandon maybe tried drugs
00:40:15
that night possibly meth and then behaved just as Brandon Lawson did disoriented and Confused possibly even
00:40:25
seeing things now we referenced a pipe that was found in Brandon Swanson's car the pipe found in his car is of Unknown
00:40:34
Origin these are the words of sheriff do that I hope I'm saying that right it's D
00:40:40
AHL he said that it is not known whether the pipe even belonged to Brandon police
00:40:46
in my opinion must not have given it much weight because they have publicly stated that they do not believe that
00:40:52
Brandon was impaired that night the problem here though right meth is a real possibility apparently this
00:41:01
area of Minnesota is so it's no stranger to meth troubles in fact the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal apprehension website
00:41:10
contains two options for Public Access One search public criminal history the other one is search methamphetamine
00:41:19
offender registry it's there's so much of it that they have to give a whole category to it on its website so clearly
00:41:28
there there is a problem in that area well it's 2019 there's a problem in this whole country so correct so yeah we
00:41:36
don't have to worry about that that's that's a possibility and again you could have done something um at one of these
00:41:42
parties cuz we assume that he went to two different parties so there's two different accounts of possibly where he
00:41:48
was at and is in you know and his paress of his his level of Partin that that that night but we have a situation where
00:41:59
he's a little lost he's a little confused tries to call some of his friends they don't
00:42:04
answer I think if he was on something he wasn't so messed up that he wasn't afraid to call his parents
00:42:12
right right or so messed up that that there's no there's nobody inside there's nobody involved in this case that is
00:42:21
saying we believe he was so messed up that that's what led to his demise yeah and think the everybody on the outside
00:42:27
is going well he probably just did some meth and and ended up hallucinating but we have the father we have the mother we
00:42:35
have the sheriff we have friends none of none of them are going yeah he was so effed up that that he ended up God knows
00:42:42
where and we can get into that right now because like I said we have these two accounts of these parties yes maybe the
00:42:51
first 60 days or so or or maybe even less than that but what was he drinking not really for sure uh I don't think he
00:43:00
was drinking too much maybe you didn't want to get him trouble maybe he smoked some weed maybe they did some more than
00:43:06
that I think if they would have done more than that as time uh would have went on I think his friends would have
00:43:13
came out and said you know what uh we didn't want to get him in trouble at first but it's important for us to let
00:43:20
you know that he he he smoked meth that night right right uh that has not happened uh and then I think the other
00:43:28
thing that has not happened is with the Brandon Lawson case for example we have a 911 call that makes zero
00:43:35
sense right and that PE and we have a um we have a situation here with Brandon Swanson where he's talking not only to
00:43:44
his father but also to his mother and both of them are saying that he sounded fine right now he now that could be he
00:43:53
sounded fine for um it being being that late at night and being a little confused on where he was at M but I
00:44:00
don't think there's really any any indication that he was on some psychotic um well then he's
00:44:09
hallucinating and he's totally off as rocker here right it's not like he's cuz he talked to his father for 47 minutes
00:44:16
that's after other phone calls with his mom and dad right 47 minutes that's a tough time to try to play the sober game
00:44:23
right and look I think you and I could agree that he's probably somewhat impaired I mean it's late at night we
00:44:30
know he's had a couple of drinks but right the the thing I want to really point out here I I would say and I'm
00:44:38
just going to put this out there I would say he's as impaired from the alcohol as
00:44:43
he is from uh just being tired and well and here here's one thing that I want to
00:44:49
I want to really go into and maybe not stay on it too long but one thing that I really looked at when looking at this
00:44:56
case was okay I go into a lot of these with with the idea that there may be Foul Play so let's at least look at
00:45:05
that angle okay if there was Foul Play who had the means and the opportunity to be involved in that Foul Play well in
00:45:14
this situation we have Mom and Dad who are saying they spoke to this boy their their boy shortly before he vanished
00:45:23
forever so one thing I did and I I apologized to the family but when I went into this case looking into it I wanted
00:45:29
to know as much as I could find out about Mom and Dad and their search efforts and what took place the night
00:45:36
that he went missing and and since then regarding Mom and Dad yeah I mean but that that's what you have to do right
00:45:43
and what I can tell you from from what I've spent two weeks on looking at Mom and Dad I can tell you they only have
00:45:50
one agenda in this entire huge story and that is to find their son they have at no point I don't I've never got the
00:45:59
feeling at any point that these are parents that are going well yeah he was really messed up but we don't want the
00:46:05
memory of Brandon to be that we want the memory of him to be good and wholesome no no no no I'm telling you his parents
00:46:14
the vibe I get captain is that if whatever would help them find their son they will say it they will do it right
00:46:22
they don't care about public opinion these people have spent years they spent time they've spent money lots of money
00:46:30
some of these searches were volunteers and a lot of this stuff they they spent their own hard-earned money trying to
00:46:37
find their son and we all know somebody that has struggled with addiction of some level and you know
00:46:46
their parents and most of the time those parents do not shy away from their kids'
00:46:51
problems mhm so I don't think it's like you said you're going to have these overly
00:46:57
concerned parents on trying to find their kid but they're not willing to tell the truth it just doesn't make a
00:47:03
lot of sense right and the other thing too which is you know people compare this case to Brandon Lawson but they
00:47:10
also the the meth Believers or the people that state that he did some bad drugs on this night they often point to
00:47:20
the case of Michael Wamsley and Janelle hornickle this was this was a very famous case in Nebraska the two
00:47:29
were very high on meth again all meth is bad meth they suffered delusions and they were calling 911
00:47:37
multiple times reporting that their truck was stuck in some snow they ended up freezing to death
00:47:44
just within two miles of their truck again though this kind of points back to me that Mom and Dad don't think
00:47:53
he's messed up the sheriff doesn't think that messed up the friends don't think that Brandon's messed up and what
00:47:59
happened in this other case that everybody keeps pointing to they found the bodies they don't find Brandon we
00:48:05
don't know where Brandon Swanson is I have an issue though with with the whole car thing and again I don't know the
00:48:12
road that well and so getting to the point where your car is stuck that concerns me and again I think
00:48:21
that leads to being impaired somewhat with um just tired Ness and then also being somewhat impaired by the the
00:48:28
alcohol um maybe enough to just go I don't I can't get out of this mess right now so I got to I got to start walking
00:48:37
take off on foot mhm um but again I don't know the road that well so it could be just you know happen
00:48:47
St where here's this kid that went to turn around or went to do something with his car and it just so happened to be
00:48:52
the wrong place to do that at and that even if you're sober you're going to get hung up on it yes I I would think so and
00:49:01
looking at pictures that I found of the site and of the area that's what it looks like to me that okay so these are
00:49:09
these are long Country Roads where there's not much turnoff you there's not like a spot where you're like oh I'll
00:49:15
just pull in here and back out and turn around right this is and especially a lot not a lot of houses on these on
00:49:21
these roads and especially think of think of yourselves out there right okay we've all been in a situation where man
00:49:30
I'm handsome where we're frustrated where we might be in a hurry or we're lost or turned around or whatever and
00:49:36
we're frustrated and and we do something out of haste that in the end we realized
00:49:42
was just a dumb stupid move right and the thing that I think here is looking at these pictures it appears to me
00:49:49
there's not any turnoff and he's like you know what I got to turn around I think he just made a bad turn I think I
00:49:55
think there's ditches on both sides of this road and maybe a little pissed off and
00:50:01
so he he was a little too aggressive yeah it's a a narrow road and I think he thought he could make the turn but he
00:50:07
didn't and also if your drive is taking you a little bit longer or that it's such a
00:50:14
frustrating thing to to be going am I going the right way what the hell's going on like you said that that maybe
00:50:21
just a little too aggressive and and that stops you from um being able to drive your
00:50:29
car we rolling another theory Captain is that Brandon could have been hit by a car mhm
00:50:38
many people like this Theory and believe that possibly the oh [ __ ] that he uttered was in response to an
00:50:45
approaching vehicle for this to be the case obviously whoever hit Brandon had to
00:50:52
take his body and the body was taken away way to hide after this accidental death okay so the the reason why I like
00:51:03
this is that we have evidence that the dog goes to the river get gets out of the river goes down another path kind of
00:51:10
in um ends its search or ends the scent kind of in the road mhm so that would make you lead you know that's evidence
00:51:18
to show that this Theory makes some sense correct I you know I've heard this I found this to be quite
00:51:26
strange some of the Searchers were saying you know the the dogs can only follow the scent for so
00:51:33
long yeah I believe that I believe that too but I don't fully comprehend it and and what I'm getting at is so so what
00:51:42
they're pointing out is that at this spot on the road where the dog lose the scent or the dogs lose the scent right
00:51:50
is because they've been following it for so long that they point out that that doesn't actually mean that the scent
00:51:56
went away or that they that branded that something happened to Brandon in that spot the problem with with look there
00:52:04
are several holes in this Theory I like this Theory too at first but when I really started thinking about it I I I I
00:52:13
distance myself from this Theory because because of the holes one if something happened to Brandon at that spot it's
00:52:20
not like they can't find that spot they were led to that spot by the dogs there should be some you would think there
00:52:25
would be some indication that something happened there possibly blood or or anything else right and and we know like
00:52:33
let's just we can assume that these people search and go okay well here's roughly where the scent stops we're
00:52:39
going to look you know before that and after that again we have no blood evidence we have no we also have no
00:52:48
evidence of him telling his father oh there's this car coming up on me there's none of that there's that's where that's
00:52:54
where the the theory falls apart okay he's saying to his father just before he says oh [ __ ] he's describing that he's
00:53:02
walking along a fence line that he's off of the road he's going through a field and that he can hear water so this
00:53:11
doesn't sound like an area that you're going that that a car would be driving through a car would be on the road if
00:53:18
this was was an accident this car is not driving in the middle of the field driving on top of a fence
00:53:25
right so so if if that in fact is true then that part that makes the theory impossible now let's pretend go back to
00:53:34
what you were saying let's pretend that Brandon was walking on the road uh if here's the problem with
00:53:44
that his father is driving around looking for him there is no way in hell that Brandon does not say to his father
00:53:54
oh I see you you just turned I'm right up here do you see me I see your headlights he would if he saw a car he
00:54:00
would very likely assume it to be his father first or even if he didn't assume it to be his father he would say wait
00:54:08
there's somebody coming or he would these are these are things he would say to his father we could have evidence of
00:54:13
that the same scenario is that we have evidence that he's telling his father I'm I'm walking along this fence line I
00:54:20
hear water old [ __ ] and maybe that old [ __ ] is I felt into water I get out of
00:54:26
the water I keep going down the path I'm not on the phone with my father that's where I get hit by a car that's a that's
00:54:34
very likely too the reason why I don't like this the is we have no evidence of of Tire Treads no like uh sign of a
00:54:42
vehicle trying to stop uh no sign of a vehicle trying to speed up um no blood evidence and this would be dark so yeah
00:54:54
to to be able to clean up that blood evidence uh would be nearly impossible the other thing I don't like is we know
00:55:01
that he had a cell phone on him we don't have you know a broken cell phone somewhere well and some people
00:55:09
regarding this Theory even point out what would be the probability that if you hit a total stranger in the middle
00:55:16
of the night of on an accident that that you even decide to take the body with you and clean up the the SC right you
00:55:22
would just drive away right A lot of people point out that that there is a certain percentage that would just
00:55:28
continue along their way so I it's an interesting Theory to ponder but I I put the
00:55:35
probability level not very high because of like you said right as a armchair detective or even just a law enforcement
00:55:44
has to put this on the list of things that we have to dive into and and rabbit holes we need to go down it's with any
00:55:51
missing person case when we have nothing at the end of the day you have to go did
00:55:55
this person run away did this uh did this you know did this person want to start a new life we these are questions
00:56:03
that we have to keep asking ourselves over and over and and I think this is an important question to ask I think that
00:56:09
there's just zero evidence of this the other another theory is that Brandon met with Foul Play now this Theory
00:56:17
encompasses several possibilities but but most likely two possibilities mhm one Brandon fell victim to to a random
00:56:25
killer or that someone who knew him followed him and there was some type of Confrontation or Ambush and Brandon was
00:56:34
killed let's address these in turn Okay first the random killer this theory is that Brandon was unlucky enough to
00:56:43
stumble upon a opportunistic killer who murdered him and disposed of his body we have to consider what are the
00:56:52
chances that Brandon would encounter some random Psy killer in rural Minnesota on farmland and unused roads
00:57:00
in the middle of the night right this is remote desolate area with rugged terrain
00:57:06
at 3: in the morning now an offshoot of this theory of the random killer theory is that and
00:57:14
this is probably well definitely more plausible in my opinion is that Brandon was on private land and maybe stumbled
00:57:22
upon a pissed-off farmer someone shot and killed him and hit his body right or this is a area that you
00:57:31
shouldn't be out in it's like it's like my neighborhood right at 3:00 in the morning I know all my neighbors you
00:57:39
shouldn't be driving down my road right yeah it's it's not good so in this case you got a kid that's lost maybe the
00:57:48
farmer doesn't know he's lost M but you're on my property if you're on my property at this time uh of the day I
00:57:56
think you're a bad person it's nothing but bad right so therefore uh you know you're going to be met with my shotgun
00:58:05
right the farmer doesn't have to be a psycho the the farmer might be scared and assume that you are a psycho you're
00:58:12
you're you're outside of my house creeping around in the middle of the night now the the thing here is this
00:58:19
this is another offshoot of this theory that I have seen um very rarely discussed so
00:58:26
I do want to point this out as well this is an interesting one that possibly Brandon fell into an elal booby trap
00:58:34
intended for poachers or for thieves or for you know any number of reasons right
00:58:39
and then eventually was was killed trapped there or was killed by the person that set the
00:58:47
Trap yeah again You' think illegal booby trap I I don't know how that works well booty
00:58:58
track yeah what what they're say what this is suggesting is that somebody has set some type of traps on their property
00:59:07
these could be for animals they could be for against people anything um it's I wouldn't throw it out of the realm of
00:59:15
possibility it does lead to the idea of why they've not found any evidence because this Theory would suggest that
00:59:24
somebody then later covered up whatever took place yeah but again it doesn't have to be illegal it could be you know
00:59:34
if somebody's coming through this field it's nothing but bad right um so he gets
00:59:39
hurt by one of these things they go out there they go again the only reason why You' be out here is bad they take care
00:59:46
of uh Brandon they kill Brandon and then find out later it was just a lost kid mhm and then right and you have to be
00:59:54
kind of of psycho to to come up with those uh to want to do that mhm the the other
01:00:01
thought here Captain is Hunters maybe somebody's out there hunting out a season yeah we talked about on boys of
01:00:11
boys on the tracks they're out spotting for animals so yeah but you should know that this I mean if it's accidental
01:00:19
shoot shooting you should know it's not an animal because this person was talking to somebody on the phone see
01:00:27
that's where I I think an intruder thought uh you know like protecting your land makes a little more sense because
01:00:33
you you would hear this kid talking and so maybe you would start assuming that he's talking to somebody else that's
01:00:40
with him uh which would get you you You' raise um your suspicions a lot higher you know
01:00:49
I do want to go back to the idea that maybe this was wasn't a stranger that it wasn't there was Foul Play but the
01:00:59
offender is not a stranger because we really should address that there are several message boards online containing
01:01:07
posts where they're talking about local rumors regarding what took place in this
01:01:12
case and people suggesting that Brandon either owed some people money for vehicles or drugs it varies depending on
01:01:21
the post that you see and that he was actually targeted and killed as a result of these debts
01:01:27
yeah it's an interesting Theory and an interesting rumor but do we have evidence that he owed anybody
01:01:35
money other than those rumors no there doesn't seem to be anything that's backing that up and again what's
01:01:40
confusing about those rumors and why I think they may just be rumors is they're citing two different things that he has
01:01:49
a debt for right right it's not like you know in some of the posts are stating that he had a debt because of drugs
01:01:58
other posts are stating he had a debt because of vehicles I think the vehicle thing would
01:02:03
be if there was any truth to that it seems like Mom and Dad would be like yeah he always had all these different
01:02:09
vehicles and all these strange trucks and cars and whatnot so and the other problem with that too is if you in fact
01:02:17
believe that he's he's going oh [ __ ] because he sees somebody that he's afraid of then you have to believe why
01:02:25
wouldn't he say anything to his father about seeing headlights seeing a vehicle coming toward him that did not take
01:02:33
place so again that doesn't it it makes it not ring true I don't think either of
01:02:38
those rumors are true I think it's just people trying to come up with some rationale of what happened and and even
01:02:44
if you could prove that he owed somebody you know bought a little weed from somebody and owed him 20 bucks or
01:02:50
something like that I don't think there's any evidence of Brandon you know being hardcore drug user uh but again
01:02:58
usually you have to rack up quite a bit of debt before somebody wants to kill you yeah not so not if you're buying
01:03:04
from the captain you owe me 10 bucks it's 10 bucks I'm coming after you um no I just don't think there's a lot of
01:03:12
evidence of that and again like how how much money would you have to owe somebody on a car it seems like it's
01:03:19
almost like somebody came up with this idea and yes it's possible but it's also possible that you owe somebody money you
01:03:26
you owe your buddy a th000 bucks and he didn't come after you and you just happened to go missing
01:03:32
MH well there are two things that I believe do tend to point to Brandon being the victim of Foul Play One
01:03:42
Brandon is listed in vicap as a missing person as we brought up in episode one vicap stands for the violent criminal
01:03:51
apprehension program there is is not a long list of missing persons on vicap last time I
01:04:00
checked vicap there were 64 missing persons listed on there and what people will point to in
01:04:10
this case is that they believe that there is a reason why he would be on there on this short list right meaning
01:04:19
that someone whoever put him on there believes that V vience was involved in his
01:04:26
disappearance people point to this because they wonder if the FBI in fact has reason to believe that Brandon was
01:04:33
the victim of a violent crime the other thing regarding this too is that the vicap entry for Brandon contains one
01:04:42
interesting tidbit of information that we did mention earlier his vehicle the Chevy Lumina was
01:04:49
found with the doors open and the keys missing we can presume assume that Brandon took his keys but then why would
01:04:57
he leave the doors open that seems very strange to me was somebody else actually
01:05:03
in the vehicle or did someone come along later perhaps the following day and open
01:05:09
up the car you know looking for things to steal or or for whatever reason we also have Sheriff vasi who definitely
01:05:19
considered and left open the possibility of Foul Play saying quote the only thing
01:05:24
would have been if someone was in the shadows and they got him that way he said he said he can't say that there
01:05:32
wasn't someone else out there but adding that he can't find any evidence of it stating that caver dogs and Searchers he
01:05:40
explain should have found a body or some evidence if Swanson had succumbed to the
01:05:46
elements adding I can't explain why clothing belongings wouldn't Surface after all these searches and after all
01:05:54
all this time now in episode 3 Captain we will tear through some of these theories get into some more but before
01:06:01
we go I want to leave you with Brandon's mother Annette Swanson what she told the
01:06:07
Saint Cloud Times she said her greatest fear is that people will forget Brandon she says talk about Brandon Brandon is a
01:06:16
real person he touched a lot of lives and don't forget him he has a smile that lights up his whole face he is
01:06:24
big-hearted and kind and he really believed in doing the right [Music] thing so much more to get to stick
01:06:44
around for part three tomorrow in the garage thanks for listening thanks for telling your mother thanks for telling
01:06:51
your brother thanks for telling your sister thanks for sharing on social media all right and everybody make sure
01:06:57
you be good be kind and don't [Music] [Applause] live the Angie's List you know and trust is
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