101. Brandon Lawson: The Chilling 911 Call That Baffled Investigators

In August of 2013, Brandon Lawson made a concerning 911 call, and then was never heard from again. However, just a few weeks ago, there was a huge update in the case. Get the full story in this episode. TW: mentions of suicide Show Notes: https://www.heartstartspounding.com/episodes/brandonlawson Subscribe on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/heartstartspoundingfor bonus content and to become a member of our Rogue Detecting Society. Patrons have access to bonus content as well as other perks. And members of our High Council on Patreon have access to our after-show called Footnotes, where I share my case file with our producer, Matt. Apple subscriptions are now live! Get access to bonus episodes and more when you subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Follow on Tik Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@heartstartspounding?lang=enand Instagram https://www.instagram.com/heartstartspounding/ for a daily dose of horror.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Kaelyn Moore?

  This episode is brought to you by Primally Pure. I feel like every time I run out of a product in my bathroom, I have this moment where I go, okay, do I just order the same thing? Or do I finally make a better swap? And that thinking is exactly what got me into Primally Pure. They're a female-founded brand that keeps it really simple. Fewer, better ingredients, and nothing you can't pronounce. I just got an order from Primally Pure and I am obsessed with their lip oil. I also got Eucalyptus and Lavender Body Butter, which has spa vibes for sure. If you want an easy starting point, their Clean Start Bundle is a great place to start. For under $50, you get three everyday essentials. Their best-selling aluminum-free deodorant, a mini body butter, and the lip oil that I love. It's also a really thoughtful gift

• 0:44Kaelyn Moore?

  if you know someone who's been wanting to clean up their routine. Use code HSP to get 15% off your Primally Pure purchase. That's www.p-r-i-m-a-l-l-y-p-u-r-e.com and use code HSP at checkout for 15% off your order. This episode is brought to you by Toyota. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it all starts with a great deal from your local Toyota dealer. Make a smart buy on an all-wheel-drive Camry, Corolla Cross, or get a Corolla Sedan, packed with the latest features, advanced tech, and head-turning style. Take a test drive in two of Toyota's most popular SUVs, the spacious, family-friendly Grand Highlander and adventure-ready RAV4. And with so many hybrid and plug-in hybrid models

• 1:29Kaelyn Moore?

  available across the lineup, plus efficient all-electrics like the BZ, BZ Woodland, and all-wheel-drive CHR, you can drive your way and skip the pump. And long after you leave the lot, your Toyota keeps delivering with legendary resale value, built on a reputation for quality and reliability. So when it's time for your next Toyota, you could trade in for more. From a great deal today to a great value tomorrow, a Toyota is right for you. Shop toyota.com for deals and details or stop by your local Toyota dealer today. Toyota, let's go places. Today, I want to tell you the story of a man who vanished under very mysterious circumstances. But the most mysterious part of all is the 911 call he made, which I'm gonna play for you in this episode.

• 2:14Kaelyn Moore?

  And if you're a fan of horrors, hauntings, and mysteries, welcome, you're one of us. Make sure to like this video, subscribe to this channel, and hit the notification bell so you never miss a video of my dark creation.

• 2:31Speaker 01

  It's when your heart starts pounding.

• 2:35Kaelyn Moore?

  It was a hot night in West Texas on August 9th, 2013, when Deputy Neal drove down a desolate stretch of highway in the dark. He had gotten a relatively easy dispatch to go look at a truck someone said was parked strangely on the edge of Highway 277, a two-lane road with miles of brush and fields on either side, stretching out into infinity. Why anyone would be parked on that road? Well, he had no idea. A few miles south of Brant, Texas, Deputy Neal saw what the call was all about. There, parked over the white line on the side of the road so that it was in the way of traffic, was a truck.

• 3:19Kaelyn Moore?

  But the driver was nowhere to be found. So Deputy Neal pulled over to inspect it. It was a Ford F-150 with no visible signs of damage, no flat tire, no cracked windshield. The driver's side window was half down. No keys or phone were in the car. It looked like the driver must have run out of gas and just started walking to the nearest gas station, miles down the road. But just then, Neal caught something out of the corner of his eye. There was actually another car parked on the opposite side of the road, and a man and woman exited the vehicle with really worried expressions. In the backseat, there was a young boy. Officer Neal looked at his watch. It was 1:15 in the morning.

• 4:04Kaelyn Moore?

  What were they doing here? The man and woman appeared to be in their mid to late twenties, and they didn't say anything to Neal at first. The man had his phone to his ear, and he was looking out into the brush, spinning around like he was trying to find something. He nervously shot a glance over to the deputy, and then continued looking around, speaking too quietly for Neal to hear. The woman was rapidly texting on her phone as if trying to shoot a message off in between glancing at the abandoned truck. Neal looked back at the vehicle. What was going on? And then he approached the couple and asked them a question that would spawn a decade of search efforts.

• 4:49Kaelyn Moore?

  Do you know where the driver is?

• 4:58Kaelyn Moore?

  Welcome back to Heart Starts Pounding. I'm your host, Kaelyn Moore, and today I have a very strange story for you all. One that I wanted to tell you because it actually had a huge update just last month, so you'll definitely want to stick around to the end of the episode to hear it. If you're new here, welcome to the Rogue Detecting Society Headquarters and the study of our old Victorian fixer-upper. We put out new episodes every Wednesday evening here in the US, and I wanted to actually update you all because, starting soon, we'll be putting out a special bonus episode for everyone, every month. Right now, Patreon and Apple subscribers get a monthly bonus episode, one that they submit topics for and vote on.

• 5:40Kaelyn Moore?

  And of course, our Patreon High Council members get Footnotes every week, a sort of after-show where I talk through the case file for the week's episode with our producer. But starting already with the Psychopedia episode from a few weeks ago, we're gonna be doing five episodes a month for everyone, instead of our normal four. Now, this fifth episode will be a little different. It might be interviews, it might be more current event things that have caught my attention or gotten the Rogue Detecting Society talking. It could even be new experimental formats. Next month, towards the end of February, it will feature me staying overnight in a very haunted location with a couple of girls who also have a ghostly podcast

• 6:25Kaelyn Moore?

  that many of you are probably familiar with. So you're definitely gonna want to stay tuned for that. And as always, thank you to everyone listening, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, however much traffic you're sitting in or laundry you have piled up. I'm glad you followed your dark curiosity here. Okay, back to the story.

• 6:47Kaelyn Moore?

  Back at the truck, Officer Neal asked the man what he was doing at the scene. And the man introduced himself as Kyle Lawson. He was the brother of the truck's owner, Brandon Lawson, a 26-year-old father of three. The woman with him was Kyle's girlfriend. He explained that he had just been on the phone with his brother, who had called him when he ran out of gas. Brandon had been making the three-and-a-half-hour drive from San Angelo to Fort Worth after he had an argument with his girlfriend of 10 years, Ledessa. On the phone, he said that he was walking down the side of the highway towards a gas station. Kyle was trying to stay on the phone with him, but his brother kept losing reception. But then, why?

• 7:32Kaelyn Moore?

  When Kyle arrived, had he been searching in the bushes around the vehicle? The deputy wondered. If his brother was walking down the road, why not go looking for him there? Well, it turned out that the story Kyle relayed to Deputy Neal was only partially true. Yes, the truck belonged to his brother, Brandon Lawson, and yes, he had run out of gas. But Brandon wasn't walking down the side of the highway. Kyle actually didn't know where his brother was, but on that last phone call, he gave him a chilling message. He said, "I can see you. I'm right here," suggesting that he was somewhere in the dark brush.

• 8:16Kaelyn Moore?

  Kyle looked around the area for his brother, but couldn't see him. He watched as Deputy Neal climbed back into his car and drove off. He didn't really seem too concerned. He just figured that some guy had run out of gas and abandoned his car. Not really a big deal. But Kyle didn't want to leave without really knowing where his brother was. See, deep down, he thought he knew why his brother hadn't come out of the brush. He had been hiding from the deputy, probably. See, Brandon had learned in the last few days that he had a felony warrant out for his arrest, so he probably was just laying low. In the brush until the officer left, but Kyle didn't want to just leave his brother stranded

• 9:01Kaelyn Moore?

  there with no gas, so he and his girlfriend got back in his car and went up the road a bit. They waited there for around 30 minutes, but Brandon never appeared. Eventually Kyle's young son, who was in the backseat, started crying about being hungry and tired, and he needed to get him home. So they ended up driving back to San Angelo. Maybe he thought he would hear from Brandon later that night, but he never did. And every call he made to his brother went straight to voicemail. So he came back to where the truck was the next morning around 5:00 a.m. And when he arrived, his heart dropped. Brandon's truck

• 9:42Kaelyn Moore?

  was still there, and he was still nowhere to be found. In the predawn light, there was still no evidence of Brandon, no keys, no wallet, nothing. Kyle stood by the truck and screamed out for his brother, but no response. He ended up driving up and down Highway 277 for a few hours, but didn't see any sight of his brother. He was starting to get pretty concerned. This area was full of rattlesnakes and wild hogs, was also pretty desolate. If Brandon had wandered too far from the road, he may have gotten lost. By 8:30 a.m., the police had come back to tow the truck. On August 13th, four days after

• 10:25Kaelyn Moore?

  the disappearance, Brandon's family filed a missing persons report. Kyle went down to the police station to give them some more information on his brother, and that's when he confessed that he had lied to Deputy Neal initially. Now that his brother was officially missing, he thought it was important for everyone to know that Brandon wasn't walking down the road when they were on the phone. He was somewhere near his car, where he could see the officer and Kyle, but they couldn't see him. And also, Kyle admitted that in one of the phone calls that Brandon had made to him that night, he said that he was bleeding, and he wanted Kyle to hurry up and get there fast with gasoline.

• 11:08Kaelyn Moore?

  The officer asked Kyle if he had been worried about his brother that night when all of this happened, and he admitted that that night he wasn't. He didn't know exactly what was going on with his brother, but he didn't think that he would vanish. "So your brother was bleeding and hiding from police, but you weren't really worried?" the officer asked. Turns out that talking to the police really backfired on Kyle. Soon, all eyes were on him. Not knowing what else to do, Kyle offered to take a polygraph test so he could clear his name officially. He wouldn't have done anything to his brother. He loved Brandon. Brandon was a hardworking father of three young children,

• 11:52Kaelyn Moore?

  and he was his best friend. And so, of course, the officers took him up on his offer, and Kyle passed the first polygraph test, but the results of the second were a little ambiguous. He was fidgeting around a lot during the test, and he coughed a ton, which skewed the results. "Was he nervous?" the police wondered. "Was he fidgety because he was hiding something? He had already lied to them once. Was he lying again?" There was still a lot about the night that Brandon went missing that needed to be put together, but it wasn't long before a huge piece of evidence was revealed. Brandon's girlfriend, Ledessa,

• 12:34Kaelyn Moore?

  was going through Brandon's phone statement when she saw a call on it that no one had been made aware of. Not Kyle, not the officers, not Deputy Neal. But that night, in between phone calls to his brother, Brandon had actually called 911 and had a very concerning conversation with the dispatcher. That call, after a short break.

• 13:05Kaelyn Moore?

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• 13:48Kaelyn Moore?

  To learn more about Prenuvo and get $300 off your whole body MRI, go to prenuvo.com/hsp and use code HSP. That's P-R-E-N-U-V-O dot com slash HSP. Terms and conditions apply.

• 14:05Speaker 02

  The Unsolved Mysteries podcast is back. I'm Jordan Murphy, and each week I'll take you inside a new investigation. It could be an unsolved murder, an unexplained disappearance, the search for a wanted fugitive, any mystery that still needs answers. We'll follow every new lead, every break in the case, and the moments when a mystery is finally solved. Because after all these years, one thing hasn't changed. Someone, somewhere, knows the truth. Listen to and follow Unsolved Mysteries. Available now, wherever you get your podcasts.

• 14:37Kaelyn Moore?

  I'm going to play you the contents of that call right now, first at regular speed and then slowed down. It's hard to understand what Brandon is saying, so I want you to listen closely.

• 14:51Speaker 03

  Now, an emergency.

• 14:54Speaker 03

  Yes, I'm in the middle of a field. This guy put this person out of his way. I'm here going toward the other one on both sides. Bus truck coming out of gas. There's one car here that I've taken to the woods. Two cars. Okay, now, what I mean, when I talk until... I tell you that until... Ah, you ran into him, okay. That's a hard start.

• 15:27Speaker 03

  Do you need an ambulance? No, I need to call. Okay.

• 15:35Speaker 03

  Is anybody hurt?

• 15:43Speaker 03

  Hello?

• 15:49Speaker 04

  Is anyone in the middle of a field? Yes, I'm in the middle of a field. A staper just pushed some guys over. Right here, going toward Abilene on both sides. Not turning around, the gas. There's one car here, you gotta take it to the woods. Push hard. Okay, now, run that, running. I wanna talk to him. Try to run into him. Ah, you ran into him, okay. Shut the door, Scott.

• 16:20Speaker 04

  You need an ambulance?

• 16:23Speaker 04

  No, I'm the cop. Okay.

• 16:27Speaker 04

  Is anybody hurt?

• 16:34Speaker 04

  Hello?

• 16:40Kaelyn Moore?

  Like I said, it's really difficult to understand what Brandon is saying. And a lot of what he says has not been confirmed. But I wanna break it down based on what our best guess of what he says is. So at first, it sounds like he says something like, yes, I'm in the middle of a field. A staper just pushed some guys over. And so according to some people in the area, a staper is actually slang for a state trooper. And then he goes on to say something like, we're out here going towards Abilene on both sides. So Abilene is a small city in Texas that he was headed towards on the highway. It was on the way to Fort Worth, which was believed to be his intended destination.

• 17:26Kaelyn Moore?

  The next part is a little harder to understand, but it kind of sounds like, my truck ran out of gas. There's one car here. A guy's chasing blank into the woods. Please hurry. The 911 dispatcher then asks him to run that by him again because it doesn't make a lot of sense and it's hard to hear. And Brandon interrupts him by saying something that sounds like, "Blink, not talking to him, blank, something ran into him." His words are slurred, but the dispatcher confirms they understand by saying, "Ah, you ran into him." So, that part is also up in the air as to what Brandon meant.

• 18:08Kaelyn Moore?

  Did he run into someone else, as in hit them with his vehicle? Or did he run across someone, like you would in a store? I've seen a few people say that this is a regional thing, using "ran into" can mean "come across." But the way that the dispatcher responds makes me think that they assumed Brandon had hit someone, which is why they then asked if he needed an ambulance later. And then, Brandon says something about "the first guy." Some people think he says "shot the first guy," and then when asked if he needs an ambulance, he says, "No, I need the cops." Though, some people think it sounds more like, "Yeah, no, I need the cops," with a "yeah"

• 18:52Kaelyn Moore?

  confirming it first. There's also a lot of debate about what can be heard in the background of this call. Some people insist they can hear gunshots, or another person talking, but like I said, none of that has been confirmed. But obviously, this very strange call changed a lot of people's thoughts about what happened that night. Was Brandon in danger? Was he being chased? Was he running from someone? One thing that a lot of people who have heard this phone call have brought up is that Brandon may have said that he watched a state trooper push someone over. So some suggest that he maybe saw something he shouldn't have.

• 19:37Kaelyn Moore?

  Could that have also been a part of the reason that he was hiding from Deputy Neal when he arrived on the scene? While Kyle didn't really think that any of this made sense, Brandon had asked for the cops to come to the scene, but then was hiding from the deputy that arrived. The truth of the matter was that the entire night leading up to Brandon going missing had been pretty strange. On the night that he went missing, Brandon arrived at the home he shared with his long-term partner, Ledessa, and their young children. He had not stayed in the house the previous night, and according to Ledessa, they had a fight while he was there. Ledessa would later tell police that the couple fought about normal couple things.

• 20:20Kaelyn Moore?

  Brandon had been working 60-plus-hour weeks as an oilfield worker, a physically demanding job that doesn't typically pay the high salaries some oil industry jobs pay. On top of that, his children were still very young. But he had actually just taken a new job, one that paid better and had better benefits. And he was set to start on Monday morning. So maybe things were about to get better for them. Regardless, during the fight, Brandon stormed out, got in his truck, and drove off. It's believed that Brandon was driving to his parents' home near Fort Worth, about three hours away. And this is based on a call that he had with his father at 11:30 PM. Though I've seen statements from the Lawson family

• 21:04Kaelyn Moore?

  that indicate they weren't exactly sure where he was going, but he was headed northwest along Highway 277 in that general direction. Just after 12:30 AM, Brandon called Kyle and let him know that his truck had run out of gas and he needed help. On this call, he told Kyle that he believed three people were chasing him out of town because Ledessa told them to. The only description he gave of these people is that they were Mexican, male, and that they were from his neighborhood. This caught Kyle off guard. He started to think that maybe his brother was on something and hallucinating. So he asked point-blank, "Are you tripping?" But Brandon insisted that no, he was not,

• 21:49Kaelyn Moore?

  and this was not in his head. This was one of a series of phone calls that Brandon made that night, most of which were catalogued by the San Angelo Times. After that first call, Kyle started making arrangements to go bring his brother some gas. He was going to have to get a gas can from Ledessa, grab Brandon so they could use his credit card, and then bring the gas back to the truck. But meanwhile, Brandon's phone record shows the following calls. At 12:51, Kyle called Brandon and left a voicemail, probably because that's when Brandon tried to call Ladesa, but she didn't answer. 12:54, Kyle called Brandon again. 12:58, Brandon called Kyle and then called again. 12:59, Kyle called Brandon.

• 22:35Kaelyn Moore?

  1:04, the dispatcher he had spoken to called Brandon back to get more information about what was happening. She left a voicemail and then called once more, but it doesn't appear that call connected. Between 1:09 and 1:19, Kyle and Brandon called each other multiple times, sometimes in quick succession. Kyle said that during these calls on the call log, Brandon would say things really quickly, some of it was nonsensical, and then he would just hang up. He also told him that he was bleeding and in a field. Kyle arrived on the scene at 1:10, and that's when his brother told him that he could see him and that he was right there.

• 23:18Kaelyn Moore?

  The last outgoing phone call from Brandon was at 1:15, and after 1:19, all phone calls to him went to voicemail, and he was never heard from again. Did something happen in those four minutes? Did he fall? Did someone hurt him? Did he just stop answering and then run away? Was he in another location? A small search group gathered to look for Brandon, starting on August 11th. Coke County was in the middle of a serious drought, so most of the vegetation had actually thinned out, which made it slightly easier to search the area than it would have been otherwise. And Deputy Neal confirmed that the drought was making it a lot easier to do overhead searches.

• 24:03Kaelyn Moore?

  He said that from up in a plane, he could see corn sacks on the ground. And if you could see those from a plane, he said in an interview, you could see a person. And yet, no trace of Brandon was ever found. The area was even searched with a thermal camera, but still nothing. "The only sign of anyone being in that area," the police report read, "was a spot under a tree where it appeared someone sat down close to the roadway within eyesight of where Brandon's pickup truck broke down." By August 12th, just one day after search efforts began, Deputy Neal met with Coke County Sheriff Wayne McCutcheon,

• 24:44Kaelyn Moore?

  and the two of them came to a conclusion. They said that Brandon had made an escape, and that he was no longer in Coke County. They said they came to this realization after they learned that Brandon had a big fight with Ledessa that evening and had been hiding from the officers. On top of that, they discovered that he had cashed out his 401K just a week before his disappearance, which, mind you, is something that is less suspicious when you remember that he was in the middle of switching jobs. Later on in October, cadaver dogs were actually called to the area, and they got no hits. To the officers, it seemed like a classic case of a man who wanted to escape it all

• 25:27Kaelyn Moore?

  and start fresh, even when it was revealed that Brandon's phone may have pinged a tower that made it seem like he was just a few miles from his truck. But officers pointed to another case from the area, the case of John Shadden, a 36-year-old father of four that disappeared in 2007. So John was reported missing on June 12th, 2007, after he failed to return to work. He was last seen at his vacation trailer home three days prior to that, and then never again. Even though his profile on the Charlie Project website says "in danger, missing," officers believed that he simply left his

• 26:09Kaelyn Moore?

  life to start anew. But there were problems with that theory. John had apparently mentioned, weeks before his disappearance, that he had considered taking his own life, and there were rumors of a burned note inside of his trailer home that may have been a suicide note. So he wasn't really an example of a man who had abandoned his life for greener pastures, yet Coke County officers were using him as one. And then, on October 31st, 2013, The Observer Enterprise, which was a weekly newspaper in Coke County, posted an article that opened with "Law Enforcement Concludes: Man Not In Coke County."

• 26:54Kaelyn Moore?

  What was that based on, though? On the fact that they didn't find a trace of him in the area that was searched? Brandon's family and a lot of the community felt like it was pretty audacious to conclude firmly that he was no longer in the county. And so, online forums were created to share information pertaining to Brandon. One of those was a Facebook page called Find Brandon Lawson that was updated by Ledessa and others close to the missing man. The page quickly grew to thousands of people who were invested in Brandon's whereabouts, but soon, some strange posts started popping up on some of these forums.

• 27:38Kaelyn Moore?

  One said, quote, "My question is, after the deputy left and in the hours before the truck was towed, why didn't he go back to his truck and drive off? Could it be that he thought he would be stopped while driving? His actions prove he didn't want to be seen by law enforcement. Could it be he still doesn't want to be found, especially after all the publicity?" Now, taken on its face, that statement doesn't seem all that strange. It reads like an internet sleuth coming up with theories as to why Brandon would still be hiding from police. But what is strange about that post?

• 28:17Kaelyn Moore?

  Is that the author was Melinda McCutcheon, wife of Coke County Sheriff Wayne McCutcheon, who concluded that Brandon was no longer in Coke County. Oh, and she's also the owner of the Observer Enterprise, the local newspaper that also reported Brandon was no longer in Coke County. So why would someone who is supposed to be unbiased in all of this as a journalist, comment on Facebook and web sleuth forums her personal theories? That was one of the many posts where Melinda theorized publicly that Brandon had run away on foot, but also gave up sensitive information to the case.

• 29:01Kaelyn Moore?

  She used the Observer Enterprise Facebook account- To write, quote, "The reports on the Help Find Brandon Lawson page are inaccurate." She claimed that Ledessa was lying when she said that she saw the 911 call on Brandon's phone records. She also said that she was given an exact quote, that Brandon probably could not have gone more than 100 yards in his condition. She doesn't explain what that condition is, but she insinuates that he was on a substance. She also said that she wouldn't publicly post the exact quote, but she would private message people if they asked for it because she didn't want Ledessa to see the quote on a public forum.

• 29:43Kaelyn Moore?

  But that statement that he couldn't have gone more than 100 yards in his condition contradicts what she said before, that he was not in Coke County. So I bring all of this up to say that this investigation was kind of a mess from the start. You have the sheriff who is claiming that Brandon left Coke County, even though none of his credit cards, bank accounts, nor his cellphone had ever been used. You have the sheriff's wife acting like a Reddit sleuther all over the internet, sharing private information with strangers. It's no wonder that Brandon's family eventually hired a private investigator, Paula Boudreaux, to help lead the search around Highway 277. But that search didn't

• 30:25Kaelyn Moore?

  turn up anything, not a single trace of Brandon. And eventually, months without Brandon turned into years. There was no word from him. Ledessa said her children would ask if their dad was coming home for their birthdays each year, and how do you explain that to a child? In 2019, though, in an effort to get more information out about the case, Brandon's brother Kyle went on an episode of the Crawl Space podcast called Missing Brandon Lawson. And on this episode of the podcast, Kyle gave some information to the public about that night that wasn't previously known. First, and this detail shocked a lot, but

• 31:07Kaelyn Moore?

  he disclosed what Ledessa and Brandon were actually fighting about on the last night anyone saw him. Wasn't quote "normal" couple things like Ledessa had said, it was drugs. See, earlier that night, Brandon had called Kyle and asked him to get him some meth. Kyle told his brother he thought that was a bad idea. Brandon had been clean for a while now. Why go and mess all of that up? He did not go and get his brother drugs, but he did know that Brandon found some that day. He described his brother's drug use as somewhat under control. He would use occasionally, but could put the drugs down for a long time. He had been to jail previously for drug-related charges and

• 31:51Kaelyn Moore?

  actually, in this interview, Kyle explained that the warrant for Brandon's arrest was drug-related. But it had been from an incident that occurred before the last time Brandon had gone to jail, hence why he wasn't really aware of it. He actually didn't learn about this warrant until he went to the DMV after being released from prison recently. Ledessa had called Kyle after the fight devastated that Brandon had been using. She said that his head wasn't right and asked Kyle to come help. But by the time Kyle had gotten to their house, his brother was gone. He didn't think that Brandon had done any other substances that night or had done any more meth after he left Ledessa's.

• 32:34Kaelyn Moore?

  But knowing there were drugs in his system did affect how people viewed this case. Maybe Brandon didn't run into a state trooper that night who was chasing him, or whatever the cryptic 911 call revealed. Maybe he was actually suffering from what's known as meth psychosis. So meth psychosis can affect up to 40% of users and symptoms include hallucinations and paranoia. Kyle insisted that his brother had never acted this way before while on the drug, and he didn't seem to believe that this was psychosis. But was this really just a textbook case of drug-induced paranoia? Was Brandon hallucinating people chasing him? Did he hallucinate seeing a state trooper do something?

• 33:20Kaelyn Moore?

  Maybe, but what does that mean for where he was? If he had run away in fear, would he have come down from his high and returned home? Or did he get hurt while he was out there? Well, the surrounding area had been searched, so it didn't seem like he had gotten hurt anywhere near his vehicle, at least. As I was listening to this interview, I was certain that drugs had something to do with the outcome of that night. I just didn't know exactly what. But then Kyle actually brought up something very interesting that I hadn't seen or heard anywhere else. He mentioned how after his brother went missing, he got a phone call.

• 34:00Kaelyn Moore?

  A woman in town had bought a used laptop and found something concerning on it, something that she thought the Lawson family needed to see. When she got the laptop, she realized that not everything from the previous owner had been scrubbed from it. And one night, she was going through some of the old files, and she saw a document that looked like a short story someone had written. Intrigued by this, she started reading it, and quickly she realized that she had to call Kyle. The short story detailed someone coming across Brandon that night and killing him. Now, Kyle doesn't give a ton of info on this short story in the podcast, so it's unclear

• 34:44Kaelyn Moore?

  if this was like a short story or like a diary entry someone had written, but it detailed how this person was walking down Highway 277 that night, saw Brandon, and proceeded to kill him. The woman, I guess, didn't know who the previous owner was, so the laptop was turned over to the police. But as of the time the interview was recorded, nothing had happened with it. One thing that really stood out to Kyle about this story, though, was that the writer never explained what they did with Brandon's body, leading Kyle to believe that the author must have left it at the scene, which meant that it would be near his vehicle.

• 35:27Kaelyn Moore?

  But the police said Brandon wasn't in Coke County, and searches of the immediate area all came up empty. That is, until years later, in January of 2022, when Kyle got a call that human remains were found, not far at all from where Brandon's truck was discovered.

• 35:52Kaelyn Moore?

  In January of 2022, a small search group of nine people led by an advocate named Jason Watts was combing through the area near where Brandon's truck was left on the side of Highway 277. They were searching a field that was on private property when all of a sudden, someone found an article of clothing that matched what Brandon was last seen in, just a mile from where Brandon's truck had run out of gas, in an area that had been previously searched by law enforcement via air. Authorities were called and police collected a few items around the scene and sent them to the lab for testing. Within a few weeks, they confirmed that human remains were found with the articles of clothing.

• 36:36Kaelyn Moore?

  While it was not yet confirmed to be Brandon, Ledessa took to the Find Brandon Loss On Facebook page and wrote, "In our hearts, we know that it's Brandon." His family and other advocates like Jason Watts thanked everyone who aided in the search over the last few years, including people who spread word about it on social media. And then, on Christmas of 2024, just a few weeks ago, it was officially confirmed that the remains were Brandon. The search was officially over. The Find Brandon Loss On Facebook page updated the group, adding that the date the remains were confirmed was symbolic because it was Christmas,

• 37:19Kaelyn Moore?

  and in a way, closure is a gift. It's heartbreaking, but at least now they knew for a fact where Brandon was. And while the question of Brandon's disappearance has been answered, some people still believe that there are many questions about how and why this happened. Were any of the theories true? Did Brandon get killed by a state trooper, or a stapler, as he called them? Was he attacked by a passerby on the highway? We still don't know how he died. But at least what I can gather from some of those closest to Brandon in the case, they don't necessarily believe there was any foul play and having him home is closure enough for now. So that's all I have for you this week.

• 38:04Kaelyn Moore?

  If you're interested, I'll be sharing more from my case file on this story over on Footnotes, available on the High Council tier on Patreon, which also you can sign up for seven days free if you're so inclined. This month's bonus episode for subscribers only is on Remarkable and Eerie Stories of Reincarnation, available on Apple Podcast subscriptions and Patreon. And until next time, stay curious.

• 38:32Kaelyn Moore?

  Heart Starts Pounding is written and produced by Kaelyn Moore. Heart Starts Pounding is also produced by Matt Brown. Additional research and writing by Marissa Dow. Sound design and mix by Peachtree Sound. Special thanks to Travis Dunlap, Grayson Jernigan, the team at WME, and Ben Jaffe. Have a heart pounding story or a case request? Check out heartstarts pounding.com. Do you want more Darkly Curious stories in your life? Sign up for our Patreon for free and get access to a rotating shelf of bonus content, our weekly Rogue Detecting Society newsletter, and the HSP Book Club. Paid members also get monthly bonus episodes and archive access, which I think is more than 40 episodes at this point. You also get a cool jinx sticker after your first three months. And you can check it all out with a free seven day trial.

• 39:15Kaelyn Moore?

  Link in the bio or go to patreon.com backslash heartstarts pounding. But whatever you do, stay curious.