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[music] [music] [music] Heat >> [music] >> Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever
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you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me, [music] of course, as always,
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from behind the glass is the man steering the ship. He is the captain and together we would like to point out that
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only a total psychotic would listen to this show at two times the speed. Welcome to the show, Captain.
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>> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's good to be seen. It's good to see you. Thanks for listening and thanks for
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telling a friend. This week we are drinking Annheiser Bush's Budweiser, an American logger and
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an American classic. the one-time king of beers garage grade three bottle caps out of five. And this week, our fridge
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is full. Thank you to all of you out there, but specifically first up, thanks to Laura P in Washington. And a big
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shout out to Emily in Osage, Minnesota. >> Next up, we have Brian in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. And in Birmingham,
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Alabama, we have Andrea. Cheers, mate. And next up, we have our friend Randy in Federal Way, Washington. And last, but
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certainly not least, we have a long-distance cheers way out to Lauren in Port Talbet, Wales. Thank you to
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everybody for helping us out with this week's show. If you want to contribute to future shows, go to true crimegar.com
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and click on the donate button. And if you'd like to check out our old episodes, download [music] the Stitcher
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app. And we have a weekly show called Off the Record, so get hip to that. It's hip to be square. And that's enough
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of the business. >> All right, Captain. Everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's
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talk some true crime. [music] >> All right, we're back with part three of Brandon Swanson.
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>> It's like we never left. Yeah, some people cover this case in 10 minutes. We cover it in 10 hours.
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>> 10 episodes. So, going through these theories here, Captain, we talked about how Thinking Sideways said it's
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impossible for alien abduction. You said no time warp, no Sasquatch. Um, there are people, and I find this a
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little strange, but it is something that you do have to consider anytime you have
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a missing person's case, is that the individual chooses to be missing, that they decide to walk away from their
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life. >> Yeah. And we both agree in this case, the fact that Brandon seemed to be lost
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at some point. So, he's calling for help from friends, they don't answer. So then
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he calls and gets a hold of the his parents and he's asking for help basically, >> right? And we agree that he didn't walk
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away from his life based off of his actions leading up to his last known whereabouts,
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>> right? And there's also >> it would make zero sense to call mom and dad >> and then decide to walk away that same
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night. >> Yeah. And on top of that, there is no nothing of his past or anything that his
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family is pointing to that this is a possibility. >> Mhm. One of the more plausible theories,
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and this kind of branches into a couple different options here, is that Brandon perished in some type of accident
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somewhere out there in that night. This theory seems to be again one of the more
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likely ones, although it's the problem here in this case will continue to be that they've not ever found Brandon.
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They've never found any evidence of him. clothing, a jacket, shoes, anything of his glasses, his phone, anything like
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that. But let's get into this theory. Let's break it down, right? Brandon was disoriented and confused about where he
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was. That is not a question. He was 20 miles from where he thought he was. >> We know he got his car stuck in a ditch.
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We know he was frustrated based off of what his parents were saying. He decided to abandon the vehicle. He start started
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walking. He took what he referred to as a more direct route across fields, farmland, off-road areas, terrain he was
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not familiar with. >> Well, not initially. He was staying on the road initially and then he went off
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path. >> Correct. He's walking along fences and he states to his father he can hear
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running water. Meanwhile, what else do we know? He It's very dark that night. Brandon is blind in one eye. His father
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heard him exclaim, "Oh shit." And then the phone on Brandon's side goes dead. >> So what happened here?
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>> Well, no, it Let's be clear. It doesn't go dead. From our knowledge, there's a
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disconnection. >> The call drops is what what I meant. Sorry about that. >> Uh and and it's just words, but you're
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right. it. We need to clear that up because there is a hot debate about if his phone went dead or if it [snorts]
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was still active. >> Yes. >> After he says, "Oh shit," the call ends on Brandon's end.
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From here, a lot of people say Brandon could have fallen or could have walked into something. This would be the river,
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a well, a sinkhole, >> or some other type of obstacle. Let's go through this because I think we can very
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quickly eliminate some of these possibilities and this is based off of information that has come out and it's
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pretty wild, you know, readily available. >> The sinkhole theories have basically
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been debunked by Jeff Hassie. Remember, he's the search manager that we spoke about who methodically and meticulously
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was searching for Brandon all these years. He stated that the radius where he calculated that Brandon could have
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possibly walked from his car and this is even after the call went dead. According
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to the blog that he maintained that we referenced yesterday that the sites details in the searches conducted for
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Brandon provide you know making these public. He states that sinkholes form in karst or cave geology. Now, he also says
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that the only car geology in Minnesota is in the southeastern part of the state. The area where Brandon went
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missing is in the southwestern part of Minnesota. >> Mhm. >> Basically, he's saying he couldn't have
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fallen into a sinkhole because they're not there. >> Right. The other thing he points out too
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regarding like wells, open wells and things of that nature on farmland, he points out that the farmland in this
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area of the country is extremely valuable and that all old wells have been capped off or replaced per
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Minnesota law. So the days of large wells with buckets that people could fall into, he's saying
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are long gone, >> right? They could be capped off. And also in this area, these farmers and
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these people that live in the area would hear about this kid going missing and they'd probably check their property for
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any um signs of Brandon. >> Yes. He's stating that all the water sources on these industrial farms were
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quote unquote high tech by 2008. Now, old sistns could exist, but again, if they do, the searchers
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have never found one. >> That could leave us with the river. So, we have a local woman who participated
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in the searches for Brandon. She posted that the terrain out there is riddled with swamps, bogs, caves, 6-ft tall
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grasslands, wooded areas, and ponds. Cattails along the river banks are 8 feet tall at this time of year. Brandon
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could have walked or fallen into, you know, the river or the swamps or the bogs at any point along this way.
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His father says after Brandon says, "Oh shit," that he heard some type of what he describes as a
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slipping sound. >> Mhm. And we know that the scent dogs tracked Brandon to the actual river and
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then seem to indicate that he got back out of the river. So th this is goes into what you were talking about
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earlier, Captain, where you have to wonder, is it possible that Brandon fall into the Yellow Medicine River?
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And did something happen to his phone that he that he even maybe he didn't drown in the river? Or maybe he did.
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Maybe he hit his head and drowned in the river. But you also have this theory that maybe he he slipped into the river,
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he gets out, but his phone does not. >> Then the question is, would his phone continue to ring for a few days even
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after submerged? Jeff Hassie says yes, this is a possibility that the the sound that the caller hears has nothing to do
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with the condition of the actual phone. So this makes this a a very possible thing here, right?
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>> Yeah. And sometimes when you're trying to call somebody, if you don't have great service, your phone will ring
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multiple times before it actually tries to connect to them. >> Right. Right. So the idea being here
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that maybe something happened to the phone. Here's [clears throat] here's the the thing that you really got to
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consider. Right. If he did fall into the river, even if he got out, he very likely could be
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soaking wet. Then we he's staggering along the road until he decides to stop and rest somewhere. Maybe this is a
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hole, a field, or in the woods, or an abandoned barn. He could have died of hypothermia.
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Temperatures dropped to 39° that night. We both agreed that he was wearing fairly warmth clothing for that evening.
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The river was only 55°. Could Brandon have succumbed to the cold, especially if he was wet?
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His body, having not been found yet, could be because it was either too obscured, or has been scattered by
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animals, plowed under and broken up by heavy farm equipment. We have to remember that searchers were
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not able to access all of the farmland in the area. Some of which were covered thickly with high tight crops. There's
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some interesting things that Jeff Hassy states in his information that he's made
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public when he's talking about, you know, we we reference how many dogs they used in the search for Brandon over the
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years. Mhm. [clears throat] The problem is at certain times of the years the the
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crops are at different heights and he says that the height of crops can make it extremely difficult if not impossible
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for a dog to find the scent, >> right? And and it's just hard to search in general when you have obstacles like
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that. You see that in a case like the Long Island serial killer case. Jeff Hassie also states that this region
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receives nearly constant winds which can come from any direction. These winds move scent from the source and deposit
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it into what he refers to as scent pools. >> Mhm. >> This can throw off the cadaavver dogs,
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meaning they they won't be able to settle on an exact location of the remains. The other possibility too that
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he points out is that the remains may have been scattered over a wide area. And this could be by predators, you
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know, such as animals. >> Mhm. >> Or that they were moved by human activity such as farmers tilling their
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fields or bailing hay or cornstcks, something like that. >> Mhm. >> Then again, we also have these access
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issues. They've not been able to search everywhere that they would like to search.
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They have been very careful to protect landowners property over the years, generally avoiding searching fields with
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crops in them, even though he states there's a very likely chance that Brandon ended up in a field.
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>> Right. >> He states that this Yeah, this only leaves spring and fall available for
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them to search. >> And then we have the difficulty of how much land there is to search. Remember
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he pointed out that you're prioritizing 98.5 square miles. >> Yeah. >> He says a lot of land.
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>> Yeah. He says to effectively search a single 160 acre field, a team, a whole team of people must walk in excess of 10
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miles in what he says is difficult footing. Along these same lines here, Captain, he points out that not all of
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the private land own along these same lines here, Captain Jeff points out that not all of these private land owners
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have agreed to searches because let's say Brandon attempted to seek shelter from the wind or from the cold, right?
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at some point along his journey. Maybe he crawls into an out building or under some old machinery and then passes
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there. He he says that they've not searched all of the farmsteads. In fact, they've only
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searched very few of the farmsteads in the area. >> Well, you said there was that radius
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that they had to search and there's a what what was the percentage like they've only been able to search about
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60%. 60% of the area that they've prioritized. Yes. >> Well, and to go back to the cadaavver
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dogs, too. If you have like a a small pond of water, but it has a drains into something
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>> Mhm. >> that the cadaavver dogs normally do not hit inside the pond like the body could
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be in the middle of the pond. The cadaavver dogs normally hit where the water is draining because that's where
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the scent is um more dominant. He also points out the conditions in Minnesota at that time of year. And
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by his all of his knowledge and all of his experience, it's his opinion that a body could become fully skeletonized
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within a week. >> Mhm. So that's very quick out there. Even calculating that Brandon's body was
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likely fully disarticulated by mid July of 2008. and he says this would be very likely at the latest. And one of the
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things that makes this case so much more fascinating is like you've been talking
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about is the documentation of the search >> that really changes everything with as
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far as like the Brandon Lawson case or or like even like Mara Murray like >> we don't have um as detailed records of
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the searches that happened and in those cases >> right and so what is fascinating here
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and really educating at the same time is all the information about the searches throughout the years. Detailed
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information where we have a complete understanding of look so many so many shows and so many news articles and so
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many website forums and message boards they keep coming back to the idea that something weird had to
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have happened because they've not found Brandon. >> Right. The problem here is we have the
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the search manager, the guy in charge in his team that is very publicly stating we had this huge area to search. We went
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over the difficulties of the search or what could have happened throughout the the the years wherever Brandon may be
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that adds to the difficulty level of the search. And yet we have them saying there's still almost 40% of the
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prioritized area that we have not been able to get to. >> Yeah. Which is sad because this is
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somebody's child. This is people's friends. The you know and I understand why some of the places haven't been
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searched but it's kind of sad. >> Yes. I mean there's there's a a multitude of reasons why certain areas
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have not been searched and some of it is just happen stance. Some of it is just the lay of the land itself. What do we
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think happened here, Captain? We We could spin our tires all day long on the possibilities and the searches and what
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has taken place over the course of 11 years >> or almost, you know, 11 years now. What
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do we think happened? And >> well, well, let's take a quick beer break so we can gather our thoughts and
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[music] gather some beers. >> [music] [music] >> All right. Got that [music] king of
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beer. >> King of beer. Kings. King of beers. >> What did I say? >> I don't know. Uh, I I'm looking at my
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notes and trying to talk at the same time. >> I'm doing the same thing. I'm moving
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some things around. Would you like to go first, my friend? >> Yeah, I can. I think um
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to me it's where does the evidence take us? I think one with this search, we we will find,
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you know, with a the abandoned car. We're going to find him within this area. I think where the the initial
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scent dogs hit into the river. That's the yellow medicine river. >> Correct. >> Um where they hit there and then came
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out of the river. I think they should have just probably stayed in the river. Um that's what my what my gut is telling
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me is the Oh [ __ ] Again, when he was talking to his father, he's saying I'm I'm along this fence line. I can hear
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water and then boom. Oh [ __ ] Um, we have no signs of foul play, but that does not mean that further down the
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line, you know, uh, if the send dogs just stopped that further down the line, there wouldn't be maybe something, but
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we have had no reports of that. So, I think where the car was with possibly being tired, I think with um possibly
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being, you know, let's say buzzed, I think there's some evidence that he, you know,
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had a few drinks. He was frustrated. He was tired. He was walking. Uh he was trying to get help. He was
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definitely lost uh or not in the area that he thought he was. I think that area is very easy to be confused and I
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think you're going to dive into that more. But I think, like I said, the dogs take
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us to that area. I think his conversation with his father uh on the phone points to being in that area and
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to be be around that that river. >> Mhm. >> We have not found his body. Now, I think
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that is a leap. Like you said, maybe 60% of this area has been searched, 40 hasn't. So, could you find his body
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somewhere else? Yes. And I understand that they also search this river. I think it'd be a lot harder to find his
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body in water in general. So, I I I I just think that kind of leads to it. And I know, like I said, I know that's a
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leap to say, well, we haven't found his body on land, so therefore it puts him into water. But I think there's other,
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like I said, there's other pieces of evidence kind of points us in the direction that there could have been an
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accident that happened uh along that that water line. >> Mhm. Mhm. I want to address a few
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different things that I think are confusing this whole situation from all of the armchair detectives, all the
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people on the outside looking in. I think first I want to address the issue of I'm not totally discrediting or
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discounting the possibility of foul play. But what I do want to discredit is the thought that because his name is on
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VCAP means that he met with foul play. And people keep going back to that. Well,
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law enforcement must know something that we don't know because they put him on VCAP.
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>> That that that is a possibility that they know something that we don't. It's definitely a possibility, but looking
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into that specific situation, what I gathered from the database is that VCAP was alerted of Brandon
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Swanson's situation on March 5th of 2010. And then it was released to the public as being part of the VCAP
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database on April 7th of 2010. Now, remember what we reported earlier that back in March of 2010, the Minnesota
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Bureau of Criminal Apprehension became the lead investigating agency on the case. New eyes looking at a cold case.
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What I'm getting to here, Captain, is it's my thought that the reason that Brandon is on Vicap is not because there
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is evidence of foul play or that he was met with violence. It's simply because a
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new agency took over his case and decided to ask it to be applied to Viccap as something that it it can't
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hurt to put him on the database. >> Right. The only thing it could hurt is the rumor mill.
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>> Mhm. And then I also want to address the issue of him being disoriented or you know why he
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got lost that whole situation. First of all, I question one, how well he would have known any of these areas outside of
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Route 68 and Route 23. I I seriously question that. First of all, how experienced of a driver is he? He's only
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19 years old, and we have some stories that may indicate that he might have even lost his license at one point.
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And then people point out that well he traveled this route for a full school year to and from Marshall and Cami where
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his school was. I take I take a little issue with that too because this the typical school year
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at this school is late August to miday. It's not really a full year one and they
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take about a monthlong break in the middle of the winter. So, it's not a full year, first of all. And then second
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of all, why would he know the areas off of Route 68? Route 68 takes him to and from school. So, I really question how
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well he knew this area. Then on top of that, we have some confusion confusing things going on regarding the lay of the
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land. Mhm. >> So, anybody that has seen this area on a map will know that the the streets and
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the roads, the country roads out there are laid out basically like a square grid.
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>> Yeah, I believe there's a simple version of this map uh on Wikipedia. Yeah, I
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would I would encourage anybody to look up that simple version of the map and then use your own map app to really zoom
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in on some areas and go through that trail that we discussed in detail regarding the dogs movements when they
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were following or believed to be following Brandon's movements. >> Now, what you will see here is
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regarding this map. Okay. So, picture a square. If you're not looking at it, picture a square. Route 68 runs
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diagonally from the northwest corner of that square to the southeast corner of that square.
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>> Mhm. >> Above Route 68 and below Route 68, you have country roads that are laid out in
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a grid. Now, north of 68, we have street names and avenue names such as they're all kind of numbers.
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There are some that are named, but the overwhelming majority of them are just numbers. Meaning like 360th Street,
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280th Avenue, 110th Street, 150th Avenue, so on and so forth. You get what I'm talking about?
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Now, north of Route 68, all of the numbered roads, if they're going east to west,
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>> Mhm. They are an avenue. If they're going north to south or south to north, they are streets.
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If you get south of 68, it flip-flops where all of the numbered country roads going north to south are avenues and
00:26:00
east to west are streets. What I'm getting at here is you would only have to take one wrong turn
00:26:08
to end up going the wrong way. If you, let's say you are somewhat familiar with the area and you are aware that, oh,
00:26:17
avenues run east to west, streets run north to south. Even though I'm lost, I'm going to use that information to
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guide me back to where I think I need to get to. Well, if you make one wrong turn, basically take that whole square
00:26:30
map that I just described and turn it on its side because now the streets are going east to west and the avenues are
00:26:37
going north to south. It's a very tricky area. So, I I completely understand why somebody, anyone, regardless of
00:26:46
their situation, how much they've had to drink, how little they've had to drink,
00:26:50
what they've ingested or not, would get turned around and confused in this situation. And again, as we pointed out,
00:26:58
there are indicators to him that he is right in his statement >> where he sees, I got to go across a
00:27:03
major road. There is a river that runs into that town. I must be where I think I am.
00:27:08
>> Right? And the simple fact of the matter is the people that say, "Well, he knew
00:27:11
this area." Well, he didn't because where he told his family he was, he was not.
00:27:19
>> Mhm. >> And that's all the proof that you need that he didn't know where he was at.
00:27:23
Maybe he does know that area well, but that night, um, no, he didn't know where he was at.
00:27:30
The other thing too that I think gets in the way of really sorting through all of
00:27:35
this is the oh [ __ ] moment, right? So this this case, oddly enough, made me think back to my childhood. Okay, I'm a
00:27:46
child of the '9s. And what I'm talking about here, Captain, is the song The Things That Make You Go Hm by CNC Music
00:27:54
Factory. This was a 1990 release. >> Things that make you go, "What?" Mhm. >> Mhm.
00:28:01
>> Don't bother looking up the song. It's as bad as you expect it to be. >> Mhm.
00:28:05
>> Okay. Now, look, this case, of course, this is a tragic case here of this young
00:28:10
man, but it's truly a big question mark. And why so many people are fascinated by
00:28:16
this case is that it's a big question mark. Now, if you look at the lyrics for that song, the things that make you go,
00:28:23
hm. The lyrics in that song is listing out very simply the things that make you go hm. Now, there are a lot of questions
00:28:32
in this case, but what I was really looking at regarding the phone call, he says, "Oh shit." And then the phone call
00:28:39
ends, I was really thinking to myself, what are the things that would make me go, "Oh shit." Right? And so, we're
00:28:48
going to put ourselves in Brandon's shoes here, so to speak. Now, that could have been any number of things. It could
00:28:54
have been some type of accident. He could have hurt himself. You know, people people say a car,
00:29:00
>> stepped in a pile of [ __ ] >> right? Whatever. But the the problem is the call ends after this takes place.
00:29:10
So, you can't you can't just look at this and go, "Oh, what would make me say, "Oh, shit." What would make me say,
00:29:17
"Oh, shit." And then the phone the phone call ends. You have to put those two things together because that's what took
00:29:23
place. Now, of course, it could have been some type of accident. He could have fallen into the river. The river
00:29:28
kills his phone. But the other thing just as simple could be his phone is going to die,
00:29:36
>> right? >> The phone is losing its charge. It has no battery life left. His phone
00:29:43
according to what you can the specs that you can find online has 400 minutes of call time of talk time.
00:29:52
>> We know that this one phone call, the last phone call took up 47 minutes of talk time. That's 1/8 of the whole
00:30:00
battery life right there. Now, on top of that, he's had >> That wasn't a good phone.
00:30:05
>> On top of that, he's had multiple calls with mom and dad before this last one.
00:30:10
>> Mhm. He's also gone to two parties that night. >> I mean, this phone is basically a rock
00:30:15
with an antenna. >> He left his home by all accounts around 6:00 p.m. that night. So, he's been
00:30:22
gone, it's now 3:00 in the morning. He's been gone like 9 hours. So, what I'm getting at here is
00:30:28
>> car charger though could >> that's very possible. But what I'm getting at here is it's very likely that
00:30:34
he could have been talking and talking and talking, pulled the phone away, looked at the screen and went, "Oh
00:30:40
shit." Or got some kind of notification that he heard on his end, but his father
00:30:45
didn't hear. >> Mhm. >> And goes, "Oh shit." And then the phone goes dead simply because the battery
00:30:52
life ran out. The thing here is that doesn't get us any closer to what happened to Brandon. But what I'm
00:30:58
getting at is what I think is is so polarizing about that case, this case is that phone call where I think it's just
00:31:05
kind of confusing and it's really clouding the whole situation. The phone call and him
00:31:12
saying, "Oh shit," may mean nothing at all. Could be something super small, something as simple as his phone dying
00:31:19
and then whatever took place took place after he no longer had the use of his phone. I do think that there's some type
00:31:27
of accident that took place out there that led to his demise >> that he probably did succumb to the
00:31:34
elements at some point that evening and I think it's very likely that he is somewhere in that area that they've been
00:31:43
unable to search for any number of reasons. That's 40% of the area. >> Mhm. >> I think that's I think that's what what
00:31:52
happened here. I think everything that the people that are closest to this case are saying is probably exactly what
00:31:59
happened. He wasn't that messed up. He just he got disoriented because the area itself is confusing.
00:32:08
>> No, >> it's late at night. It's not well marked. It's it would be confusing for
00:32:11
anybody traveling in that area. >> Right. >> He he tried to turn around because he
00:32:16
knew he had to go an extra mile or two to get to the next intersection. and he was frustrated and upset that he wasn't
00:32:22
home already and he just wanted to turn around as quickly as possible and he ran
00:32:26
into the bad luck of getting his car hung up in the ditch and then he ran into further bad luck of having
00:32:33
indicators pointing out to him that he may in fact be where he thinks he is. I think this is just a one of those tragic
00:32:40
cases and and unfortunately I've heard statements from his mother and from his sister that are just
00:32:47
heartbreaking where his mother says I'm kind of come to the conclusion that we won't find Brandon in my lifetime
00:32:56
and then his sister adds to that by going I'm starting to think we won't find him in my lifetime.
00:33:02
>> Yeah. And because even if you take, like I said, my theory, I lean more towards
00:33:08
the idea that he ended up in that river. Well, we know what what the water can do
00:33:14
to to bodies and and speed up the composition, you know, decomposition of the body. Not to mention the weather out
00:33:21
there being a little more extreme and and um colder weather. And then it and then also if you're right that he is
00:33:32
somewhere in this 40% that they haven't been able to search like you talked about you have farm equipment you have
00:33:39
you know a lot of this machinery that's going to be coming through you have animals you you have the the weather
00:33:47
uh you have all these things stacked up against you to actually find his remains.
00:33:53
>> Mhm. Right. And I the thing I want to point out here too, Captain, is look, I'm sure there's a lot of us out
00:34:02
there listening to this and going, "Well, whatever happened to Brandon would never happen to me. I have GPS on
00:34:08
my phone. I have a much different phone than what Brandon had to carry back in 2008."
00:34:15
Let's Let's be smarter than that. Let's take this a step further. Put some things in your vehicle. put
00:34:22
some safety precautions in your vehicle. Flashlights. >> Yeah. And he he might have had some.
00:34:28
>> He he may he may have, but >> he was a young kid. >> This I think this is just a this was a
00:34:33
friendly reminder to me or an unfriendly reminder, however you want to look at it. A reminder to me that it's a good
00:34:39
idea to have things like a flashlight, first aid kit, flares, however far you want to take this thing.
00:34:46
Blankets. Some people put bottles of water >> in their vehicle. This can happen to any
00:34:51
of us. And if you're better prepared, you might have a different outcome. >> Yeah. And even though I I really think
00:35:01
my my gut feeling is correct. And then even if it's not correct, then I I'd lean more towards the idea. Okay. Well,
00:35:08
maybe he made it out of the water and now uh we just haven't found him in that that 40% that hasn't been searched.
00:35:17
I can go with that. The one of the things that really makes me ponder this case more
00:35:24
is the vehicles left and both doors are open. >> Mhm. >> That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
00:35:32
>> It seems one super strange to me and a bit creepy and scary at the same time.
00:35:37
>> Mhm. That's the only indicator throughout this whole story that whatever Brandon was telling his father
00:35:44
and his mother that something totally different could have been going on. That's the only indicator to me. One one
00:35:51
way that I've tried to apply some just very basic logic to why the the car doors would be open. Obviously, if
00:36:00
somebody came along and tried to wanted to steal something or look for something
00:36:04
of value in the car, that's an obvious thing, >> right? But I also wondered if look, they
00:36:10
were trying to use lights earlier in in this whole thing as a way of finding one another by flashing the lights.
00:36:19
>> Part of me wonders if Brandon Look, we know he was a smart guy. There's nobody
00:36:23
disputing that. >> I wonder if while he's troubleshoot shooting his problem here, if he
00:36:29
thought, you know what, I'm going to head off on foot walking northwest towards this town. Yes, I'm going to
00:36:35
meet my father there. But he's still under the belief at that time that he is in the area of where his father is
00:36:41
searching. Right? So, is it possible that he thought I'll take this a step further and leave the car door open or
00:36:49
doors open? This leaving on the light inside of the car >> that my father might see. So if he
00:36:57
doesn't find me, at least he finds the car and I can we can use that as a landmarker to meet up. So I I kind of
00:37:05
thought that the only thing that that that makes that punches a hole in that thought and theory is that you think
00:37:12
this might have been discussed between Brandon and his father and it wasn't as far as we know.
00:37:18
>> Yeah, it see that detail to me seems like something that's going to keep this
00:37:22
mystery around for a while. >> Right. and his father and mother not only led the search that night and
00:37:30
really pushed to get law enforcement involved as quickly as possible, but they've continued to lead the search for
00:37:37
all these years. >> Yeah. And all missing children cases are difficult. I I think there's an element
00:37:43
of the fact that you both were get getting up that night to go help him makes it even more difficult.
00:37:52
>> Mhm. Well, and I hope and pray that his mother and sister are wrong in their thought and their belief that they've
00:37:59
kind of come to the idea that they may never know what happened to Brandon in throughout their the course of their
00:38:05
lifetime. I hope that they're wrong with that. The the family, this has got to be
00:38:10
haunting for them. And they've already kind of come to the idea and somewhat accepted the idea that Brandon's very
00:38:19
likely no longer with us. But to have some answers would would be very big for them in this situation. Now there is a
00:38:30
thing today called Brandon's law and this is because of Brandon's parents. Annette and Brian Swanson are
00:38:39
responsible for the enactment of Brandon's law which became effective in Minnesota on July 1st, 2009.
00:38:48
This law requires Minnesota police to begin an immediate search for missing adults under 21 as well as older adults
00:38:57
who are missing under suspicious circumstances. And Brandon's situation certainly falls into that regardless of
00:39:05
what theory you favor or believe. The Swanson have kept the porch light on for their son. They have burned through many
00:39:13
light bulbs in the 11 years he has been missing. Brian Swanson has acknowledged that the family likely won't find
00:39:20
Brandon alive, but they still want to find him. There has never been a memorial service for Brandon. Brandon's
00:39:28
sister is now married, and Brandon now has two nephews, which he has never met. The Swanson's want to know what happened
00:39:35
to their son. They say, quote, "You know, people don't just vanish into thin air, but it sure seems like he [music]
00:39:43
did. All >> [music] >> right, Captain. Before we wrap things up this week, how about a little
00:39:53
recommended reading? We have one from our good friend, good friend of the show, Billy Jensen. His new book called
00:40:00
Chase Darkness with Me. Captain, you and I hung out with Billy at Crime Con, and
00:40:05
he was kind enough to send a couple of copies of Chase Darkness with Me to the garage. We can't wait to read it. That's
00:40:12
by Billy Jensen. You don't have to write that title down though because you can go to true crimegar.com,
00:40:18
click on the recommended page and we will have that title there for you along with other recommendations.
00:40:25
>> Yeah. And I think he owed us the book because he thought that uh Bob Ruff was
00:40:30
going to outdrink me. But um but like we know like everybody knows Bob Ruff said
00:40:36
good night therefore disqualifying himself and making me the winner of the drinking contest at Crime Con. So thank
00:40:44
you Billy and thank you Bob for quitting on the drinking contest. >> That's right. All right. Until next week
00:40:52
everybody out there. Be good, be kind, and don't litter. Heat. Heat. [music] [music]