Vanished: Three Disappearances Nobody Can Explain

Gather round for three missing persons cases that investigators, search teams, and forensic experts have never been able to explain. A medical student disappeared from a packed bar in Columbus, Ohio — a building covered in cameras, with one way in and one way out. Police confirmed he never left. The footage proves he entered. A family of three vanished from the Oklahoma mountains, leaving behind their dog, their cash, and a piece of security footage that still disturbs everyone who watches it. A nineteen-year-old called his father from the side of a dark road in Minnesota. They stayed on the phone for forty-seven minutes. Then one word — and the line went dead. No bodies recovered in two cases. No suspects charged in any of them. Three families left with open case files and no explanation that holds together. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:06AJ Gentile?

  Gather round. This happened in Columbus, Ohio, on April 1, 2006. Brian Schaefer walked into a bar at 1:15 in the morning with two friends, one way in, one way out. The building was covered in cameras. Every exit monitored, every door, all watched, all recorded. Brian was a 27-year-old medical student. The plan was med school, then residency, then marry his girlfriend Alexis. But that plan would never happen. In a building covered by security cameras, surrounded by 200 witnesses, in a room with one way in and one way out, Brian Schaefer vanished.

• 1:56AJ Gentile?

  Two weeks earlier, Brian's mother died. Renee Schaefer lost her battle with a rare cancer that destroys bone marrow. She was Brian's anchor, the one who pushed him through undergraduate studies in microbiology, the one who celebrated when he got into Ohio State's medical program. She died in March. Brian was at her bedside, holding her hand when she passed. Two weeks later, he carried it everywhere. Friends said he handled it well, kept his grades up, he attended every lecture, but those closest to him noticed the exhaustion, the way he'd stare off during conversations, the forced smile when people asked him how he was doing. The night of March 31st, Brian had dinner with his father Randy, just the two of them. Brian looked drained, dark circles under his eyes.

• 2:41AJ Gentile?

  Randy thought his son shouldn't go out that night, thought he should rest, but he didn't say it. He would regret that silence for the rest of his life. After dinner, Brian called Alexis Waggoner, his girlfriend of two years, also a medical student. She got home to Toledo to visit her parents. Brian asked Alexis if they were still on for Miami. She said she couldn't wait. Brian was excited, three days on South Beach, and Brian planned to surprise her with a proposal. The ring was already picked out. He said he'd see her Monday, then he called Clint Florence, his roommate, his closest friend. Time to celebrate the start of spring break. They started at the Ugly Tuna around 9:00, a bar on the second floor of the Gateway Building near Ohio State University.

• 3:24AJ Gentile?

  They had a round, then went bar hopping through the arena district and short north. One shot at each stop. Nothing excessive, just two friends blowing off steam after a brutal semester and the worst month of Brian's life. Around midnight, they ran into Meredith Reed, a friend of Clint's. She offered to drive them to their next stop. Brian said, "Back to the tuna." The last place Brian Schaefer would ever be seen alive. The last place he would ever be seen at all.

• 4:06AJ Gentile?

  The security camera captured them at 1:15 a.m. Three friends riding the escalator to the second floor. Brian looked relaxed, happy even. The ugly tuna occupied the entire second floor. Exposed brick, industrial lighting, the bar along one wall, tables everywhere, a stage in the corner. The place was packed with college students celebrating spring break, loud music, and louder conversations. Brian moved through the crowd, buying drinks, talking to people. Witnesses later said he was more outgoing than usual, more social, like he was working hard to have a good time. Around 1:40 a.m., Brian and Clint stepped out to the balcony area overlooking the atrium. The camera caught them there, Brian leaning against the railing, Clint beside him.

• 4:50AJ Gentile?

  They talked for a few minutes. But at some point during that conversation, they got into an argument. The camera saw it all. They went back inside. Fifteen minutes later, Brian was outside again, alone. The camera recorded his final moments. He stood near the entrance talking to two young women, blonde, early twenties. The conversation lasted about two minutes. Brian smiled, the women laughed, nothing seemed wrong. Those two women were never identified, not Ohio State students, not locals anyone recognized. They appeared on no other camera in the building or surrounding area that night. Nineteen years later, nobody knows who they were. Brian said goodbye and the camera showed him turning, walking back toward the bar entrance, moving off-screen.

• 5:34AJ Gentile?

  That was the last time anyone saw Brian Schaefer. At closing time, Clint and Meredith searched the entire bar, bathrooms, backrooms, storage areas. They asked the staff, nobody had seen him leave. Two hundred people came down the escalator as the bar closed. Brian wasn't among them. Clint called his cellphone, it went straight to voicemail. They waited outside until sunrise, Brian never came out.

• 6:12AJ Gentile?

  Police reviewed every second of security footage. Every camera, every angle. The lead detective tracked every person who entered the bar that night, then tracked them leaving. Everyone was accounted for. Everyone except Brian. The detective told reporters, "I can say with 100% certainty that Brian Schaefer did not leave via the escalator." The service elevator required a key card. Only employees had access. Staff were on camera using it all night. None matched Brian's description. But the back exit was more complicated than it first appeared. A service door not far from where Brian was last seen opened to a first-floor hallway that was connected to an active construction area with its own exterior exit. Officers said navigating it would be nearly impossible drunk.

• 6:56AJ Gentile?

  But the cameras covering that route weren't fixed. One panned back and forth on a cycle. The other was manually operated. There were gaps. Not many, but enough that a person could slip through unseen. That was the only crack in a sealed box. And nobody can prove Brian went through it. No witnesses saw anyone use the exit. Nobody saw anyone at the construction site. But the gap existed. In a case that seems impossible, every detail matters. Police checked cameras at three other nearby bars. None of them saw Brian either. Wherever he went after walking off-camera at the tuna, no other camera spotted him. K-9 units tracked Brian's scent from the street to the escalator, up to the bar entrance.

• 7:38AJ Gentile?

  Then the dogs circled the same spot near the door and sat down. The trail stopped, as if Brian was there one minute, then gone the next. Police organized search parties. Volunteers combed the campus, construction sites, abandoned buildings. They searched the Alentangi River, which runs through Columbus near the campus. They even convinced the city to let them search the sewer system. Dumpsters, every alley within miles. Brian's apartment was only six blocks from the bar. His car was parked outside. Nothing inside was disturbed. Clothes in his closet, books on his desk. Whatever Brian was planning, he was planning on coming home. His phone went directly to voicemail. There was no GPS in 2006, so no way to track it.

• 8:22AJ Gentile?

  He had his wallet with him, but he didn't use his credit cards. He didn't touch his bank account. No activity on anything. Monday morning, Alexis's engagement ring still sat in his apartment. She waited at the airport, but Brian never showed. And the flight to Miami left without him.

• 8:42Speaker 00

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• 9:20AJ Gentile?

  Everyone who saw Brian that night was asked to take a polygraph. His father, Randy, took one and passed. Meredith Reed took one, passed. Bar staff, other friends, all agreed, all passed. All except Clint Florence.

• 9:34AJ Gentile?

  Clint was the only person to spend the entire evening with Brian, the last friend to see him alive, the one who admitted they argued on the balcony, but wouldn't say why. When police asked him to take a lie detector test, he refused. Then he hired an attorney. Later, he was subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury. He refused to answer questions there, too. Refusing a polygraph is legally smart. Defense attorneys tell clients to refuse them because the machines are unreliable. Clint's refusal doesn't make him guilty, but in a case with zero leads and zero evidence, it's the one thread that won't stop pulling. Meanwhile, the search spiraled outward.

• 10:10AJ Gentile?

  A psychic told Randy Schaefer that Brian's body was in water near a bridge pier. So Randy and Derek, Brian's younger brother, bought waiters. They spent their weekends in the Alentangie River, searching under bridges. Randy had just buried his wife, and now he was standing knee-deep in freezing water, searching for the body of his son. Brian had a Pearl Jam tattoo on his arm. When the band played Cincinnati later that year, Eddie Vedder stopped between songs and asked 15,000 people for information about Brian Schaefer, the lead singer of one of the biggest rock bands in the world, standing onstage, personally asking for help finding a missing fan.

• 10:50Speaker 03

  He seemed to have vanished in there. And he had a girlfriend, Alexis, who loved him. They were planning on getting married. He was going to med school. And he had a great dad, and Randy. He came to one of our shows a number of years ago, maybe seven years ago. And the website, I think, is trying to keep the issue to the forefront and keep reminding people to be on the lookout. He had a 6'2" handsome guy, he had a Pearl Jam tattoo on his right arm.

• 11:25Speaker 03

  So the fans are trying to keep the issue afloat, but no avail. So we just want to... We were taking a second back there, trying to figure out what we played. And we just want to send this one out to everybody. Whoever it is, we'll figure it out.

• 11:49AJ Gentile?

  Nobody had anything. 15,000 people in a stadium, and not one useful lead. Then, in September, something happened. Alexis had been calling Brian's phone every night before bed, every single night since April. The same thing every time, straight to voicemail, straight to voicemail. But then one night, five months after Brian disappeared, his phone rang.

• 12:19AJ Gentile?

  For the first time in months, Brian Schaefer's cellphone rang, but nobody answered. Singular Brian's wireless provider said it was probably just a glitch. But a ping from the phone was detected at a cell tower in Hilliard, Ohio, 14 miles northwest of Columbus. Something activated that phone. The lead was never explained. The phone went silent again, and never pinged another tower. Some investigators looked at the so-called "smiley face killer" theory. Some believed the serial killer was targeting drunk, college-age men in the Midwest and dumping their bodies in rivers. Young men fitting Brian's profile had turned up dead in waterways across several states. Police looked into it. The FBI looked into it. Both rejected any connection.

• 13:02AJ Gentile?

  If the "smiley face killer" was real, and most law enforcement said he isn't, Brian would be the only victim whose body was never found. Now, possible sightings were reported in Michigan, in Texas, in Sweden. A man matching Brian's description was seen at a bar in the Caribbean. Another was spotted at a bus station in the Southwest. Police investigated every single one. Sent officers, compared photos, checked records. Nothing panned out. Randy Schaefer drove to Columbus every weekend for two years. Walked the streets around the Gateway Building, handed out flyers, searched the river, hired investigators, spent everything he had. In 2008, two years after Brian vanished, Randy was killed in a freak accident when

• 13:44AJ Gentile?

  a branch broke from a tree and fell on him. Derek Schaefer, Brian's younger brother, inherited everything alone. The search, the questions, the weight of a family that stopped existing, one member at a time. A mother, a brother, a father. Three people gone in two years. Derek kept searching. He still does. Shortly after Randy's death, Clint Florence's attorney sent a letter to a private investigator working the case. In it, he wrote, "If Ryan is alive," which is what I'm led to believe after speaking with a detective involved, "that it is Brian and not Clint who is causing his family pain and hardship."

• 14:22AJ Gentile?

  The detective on the case believed Brian was alive. In 2020, the Ohio Attorney General's Office digitally aged Brian's photo to show what he might look like in his mid-40s. Dateline covered the case. America's Most Wanted covered it. The internet never let it go. There's a subreddit dedicated to finding him. And every year on April 1st, people share his photo and ask the same question: Where is Brian Schaefer? He would be 46 years old today. 19 years have passed. His phone has never pinged another tower. His credit cards have never been used. His social security number has never appeared in any database. No hospital records, no police reports, no death certificate. His body has never been found.

• 15:04AJ Gentile?

  The ugly tuna closed years ago. The building still stands on North High Street. The cameras are gone now. New businesses occupy the space, but the escalator still runs. But somewhere in those final seconds, in a narrow window between camera angles, between one frame and the next, a 27-year-old medical student vanished. The footage is still there, archived in police evidence, frame by frame, second by second. Cameras prove that Brian Schaefer entered that building. They also prove that somehow, he never left.

• 15:54AJ Gentile?

  Gather round. This happened. In October 2009, hunters found an abandoned pickup truck on a dirt road deep in the San Boi Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma. The engine was cold. The doors were unlocked. Inside, a small terrier named Macy was pressed against the seat. She was barely alive. She was trapped in the cab for days with no food, no water, and no one coming back for her. They also found two cell phones, two wallets, and a GPS unit. There were coats and jackets inside, even though the nights were dropping into the 40s, and sitting in plain sight, $32,000 in cash.

• 16:34AJ Gentile?

  There were no footprints leading away from the vehicle. No blood, no sign of a struggle. The truck was owned by Bobby Jamison. He drove to the mountains with his wife Cheryl Lynn and their six-year-old daughter Madison. For what reason, the police never figured it out. The only thing we know for sure is, the Jamison family is gone.

• 17:05AJ Gentile?

  Bobby and Cheryl Lynn Jamison lived in Eufaula, a quiet town on the shore of Lake Eufaula in southeastern Oklahoma. Bobby was 44. A bad car accident years earlier had left him with chronic back pain. He lived on a disability settlement. Cheryl Lynn was 40. She suffered from bipolar disorder for years. They fought, they struggled. But they had their daughter Madison and made a plan to get out. In the fall of 2009, the Jamisons found a 40-acre plot of land near the town of Red Oak, about 30 miles from home. It was deep in the Sanboy Range, remote and wooded, the kind of place where you could disappear from the world. They wanted a fresh start, to leave Eufaula and everything in it behind. On October 8th, they loaded up the truck and drove out to see the property.

• 17:48AJ Gentile?

  Madison rode in the backseat with their dog Macy. This was the last day anyone saw them alive. The truck was found a few days later by hunters, who reported it to the Latimer County Sheriff. When deputies arrived, the first thing they noticed was the dog. Macy was dehydrated and weak, but alive. The second thing they noticed was the money. About $32,000 in cash, sitting in plain sight. Nobody touched it. The family's belongings also told a strange story. Their IDs were still in the truck, so were their phones. Their coats were still in the truck. And October nights in the Sanboy Range got cold. Wherever the Jamisons went after they parked, they went without identification, communication, money, or the right clothes for the weather. They took nothing.

• 18:33AJ Gentile?

  One detail the sheriff noticed from security camera footage, at one point Cheryl Lynn placed a brown briefcase in the truck. That briefcase was never recovered. Neither was the 22-caliber handgun that she stashed in it.

• 18:47AJ Gentile?

  The cash, all $32,000 of it, sat untouched when the truck was found. The Janisons weren't wealthy. They weren't known for carrying cash. The disability settlement may explain where the cash came from, but it doesn't explain why they brought every dollar they had to look at a piece of land in the mountains. But the security cameras at their house recorded something that investigators have never been able to explain. The footage is timestamped the morning they left. It shows Bobby and Cheryl Lynn making trip after trip between the house and the truck, back and forth, loading boxes, carrying bags. They don't speak to each other. They don't look at each other. Between trips, they stop, stand completely still, and stare at nothing. Not at the ground, not at the sky,

• 19:32AJ Gentile?

  just somewhere in the middle distance. Then, after a few seconds, they start moving again. Same pace, same silence, like robots or zombies. The sheriff who reviewed the tape said they looked like they were in a trance. Not arguing, not rushing, not behaving like a normal couple packing for a day trip. Just silent, mechanical repetition, like two people running on a program, like two people without free will.

• 20:05Speaker 00

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• 20:38AJ Gentile?

  The Jamison's were already in trouble long before they disappeared. And every layer the investigators pulled back, revealed something darker. Bobby was locked in a bitter legal battle with his own father, Bob Dean Jamison. In 2008, Bobby had filed a protective order, claiming his father had tried to run him over with a car. Bobby's petition described his father as "a very dangerous man." He accused him of being involved with meth and other criminal activity. He said his father threatened to kill him, his wife, and daughter. Then, there were the spirits.

• 21:12AJ Gentile?

  Bobby and Cheryl Lynn had both visited their pastor separately. They told him the same thing. Something was living inside their house. Spirits, entities they could see, but couldn't make leave. Bobby told the pastor he'd gone out and bought a copy of the Satanic Bible. Not to worship anything, he said, but to find instructions for driving the spirits out of the house. He asked if he knew where to buy special bullets that could shoot the entities off the roof. The pastor didn't know what to say to that. Nobody did.

• 21:43AJ Gentile?

  A handyman who'd been staying with the family in the weeks before they disappeared, had connections to white supremacist groups. After the Jamison's vanished, investigators took a hard look at him. They interviewed him multiple times. They couldn't tie him to the disappearance. On the property was a large metal storage container the family planned to move into, while building on the new land. Cheryl Lynn had spray painted messages across its sides. One line said, "Witches don't like it when their cats are killed." The neighbors didn't know what to make of it. Neither did the police. Inside the abandoned truck, was an 11-page letter from Cheryl Lynn to Bobby, handwritten, and full of rage. She called him a hermit. She said she resented him. She said she didn't need him.

• 22:25AJ Gentile?

  Friends who read it later said it wasn't a goodbye note. It was angry and raw, the kind of thing you write at 3:00 in the morning when you've had enough. And then, there was the last photo. It was on Bobby's phone, taken the day they vanished. The image shows 6-year-old Madison standing alone in the woods. Not smiling, not crying, just standing perfectly still among the trees, looking directly into the camera, with a blank, hollow expression, like she was waiting for something to happen.

• 22:54AJ Gentile?

  Nobody knows who took that picture. It was on Bobby's phone, but he wasn't in it. Neither was Cheryl Lynn. Madison is alone. Trees behind her, dirt under her feet. And whoever was holding that phone was the last person to see that little girl alive.

• 23:21AJ Gentile?

  Search teams covered hundreds of acres. Dogs tracked scent trails that went nowhere. Helicopters flew grid patterns over the mountains. Volunteers walked shoulder to shoulder through dense brush. And still, they found nothing. And four years passed. In November 2013, two deer hunters were scouting a remote part of Ladera County. Dense oak forest, rocky terrain. Less than three miles from where the truck was abandoned in 2009. One of them stopped walking. Something pale on the ground caught his eye. Half-hidden in the underbrush were bones scattered across the forest floor by four years of storms and animals. Two adults, one child. In July 2014, the Oklahoma Medical Examiner confirmed what everyone already knew, but no one wanted to hear.

• 24:06AJ Gentile?

  Bobby Jamison, Cheryl Lynn Jamison, Madison Jamison. The official cause of death was undetermined. And that word, "undetermined," is rare. Medical examiners almost always find something. A fracture, a puncture, toxicology, something. But the Jamisons gave them nothing. No bullet damage to any of the bones. No knife marks. No damage to the hyoid bone, which means they weren't strangled. Four years of Oklahoma heat, cold, rain, and wildlife destroyed the evidence of whatever killed them. The case became national news. Hundreds of tips came in over the years, and none of them led anywhere. Every theory fell apart. Meth. Police searched the house and found nothing.

• 24:48AJ Gentile?

  No drugs, no paraphernalia, no evidence of dealing or using. Murder-suicide. But Cheryl Lynn's gun was missing, and the bodies were three miles of rough terrain from the truck. Now Bobby's father, he had an alibi and died two months after the family vanished. The handyman with white supremacist ties was a person of interest for a while, but nothing connected him to the disappearance. Sherilyn's mother believed that the family was pulled into a cult, and she never changed her story. The sheriff who worked the case said one thing stayed with him above everything else: not the money, not the letter, not the photo of Madison in the woods. It was the footage. Bobby and Sherilyn moving through their house like they were sleepwalking,

• 25:31AJ Gentile?

  loading that truck in total silence, stopping to stare at nothing, then starting again, over and over and over. He said he watched it more than 100 times, and every time it looked less like a family packing for a trip and more like robots running a program.

• 25:50AJ Gentile?

  The $32,000 is still in an evidence locker. The briefcase has never been found. Sherilyn's gun has never been found. And nobody's ever explained what made Bobby and Sherilyn load that truck like zombies on the last morning of their lives. And most likely, nobody ever will.

• 26:21AJ Gentile?

  Gather round. This happened. Marshall, Minnesota, May 14, 2008, 1:54 a.m. Brandon Swanson called his parents from the side of a dark road. He was 19 years old, last day of college. His car was in a ditch. He just needed a ride. His father, Brian, drove out looking for him. They stayed on the phone for 47 minutes. Brandon saw lights in the distance. He started walking toward what he thought was town. Then on the phone with his father, he said, "Oh [bleep]." Then the line went dead, and Brandon vanished.

• 27:07AJ Gentile?

  Brandon told his parents he crashed near Lind, a small town about seven miles from Marshall. That's where his father searched, up and down those roads, looking for a gray Chevy Lumina in a ditch, looking for a son walking along the road. But he found nothing. At 6:30 a.m., the Swans reported Brandon missing. The officer wasn't concerned. Young guy, last day of school, been out drinking, probably sleeping it off somewhere. One cop told Annette Swanson that her son had a right to be missing. She didn't accept that. She pushed. She demanded they check the cell records. Well, the records told a different story. Brandon's last call didn't ping a tower near Lind. It pinged near Porter, 25 miles in the opposite direction.

• 27:51AJ Gentile?

  Brandon was completely wrong about where he was. He thought he was seven miles from home. He was 30 miles away, on a gravel road in the middle of farmland, surrounded by fields and darkness. No streetlights, no houses, nothing but flat ground and sky in every direction. Yellow Medicine County sits in southwestern Minnesota. It's prairie land, the kind of place where you can see headlights from 10 miles away on a clear night. And in May, the corn hasn't come up yet. The fields are bare dirt and stubble. There's nothing to hide behind. There's nothing to fall into. There's nothing that should swallow a person whole. Police found his car that afternoon, stuck up on an incline near a bridge on a county road. Doors open, keys gone. Brandon had taken them with him when he started walking.

• 28:35AJ Gentile?

  The nearest town was Porter. Population 178, but Brandon never made it. Now, think about that. Brandon grew up in Marshall. He'd driven these roads his whole life. And somehow, after his car went into the ditch, he was convinced he was near Lind, a town he knew. He recognized nothing around him because there was nothing to recognize, just gravel and darkness and the flat line of the horizon. And here's where it gets strange. The lights Brandon saw in the distance, the one he walked towards, were probably a red beacon on a grain elevator in Ton, a single light on top of a tall metal structure, visible for miles across the flat prairie. Now, from that distance through the darkness, it looked like a town. It looked like safety. It wasn't.

• 29:20AJ Gentile?

  Between Brandon and that light was three miles of open farmland, the Yellow Medicine River, and nothing else. No roads leading where he was going, no buildings, just black earth under a pitch-black sky. Brandon walked into the night, phone pressed to his ear, convinced he was heading towards civilization. He was heading into miles of empty fields. Then he cursed into his phone, then the line went dead.

• 29:55AJ Gentile?

  Searches started at first light. Helicopters overhead, officers walking the roads in ditches, volunteers combing the fields. They brought in dogs trained to track human scent across miles of open ground. Canine units with hundreds of successful tracks between them. Dogs that had found bodies buried under six feet of soil. The dogs picked up Brandon's trail near his car and followed it. West-northwest along field roads. Three miles through darkness. Past barbed wire fences and drainage ditches. Then to an abandoned farm. Buildings dark, door is hanging open. No one living there for years. Then the trail turned south and followed the Yellow Medicine River. A shallow waterway that cuts through the farmland. Muddy banks, thick brush on both sides. And Brandon had mentioned hearing water during his call.

• 30:40AJ Gentile?

  He mentioned passing fences. He told his father the ground was getting uneven and harder to walk on. The details matched perfectly. The handlers expected the trail to end at the river's edge, confirming Brandon fell in and drowned. But the dogs didn't stop. They waded across the Yellow Medicine River, waist-deep in places. The current strong enough to push against their legs. The dogs picked up the scent on the opposite bank. Brandon had crossed the river in the dark. He didn't fall in, he didn't drown. He made it to the other side and kept walking. The dogs kept going north along a gravel road until they hit the Yellow Medicine County line. Then the trail ended. Not at the river, not at a body. It stopped in the middle of nowhere.

• 31:24AJ Gentile?

  Open farmland, no structures, no landmarks. As if Brandon had been lifted off the face of the earth. Now searches continued for years. Every spring after snow melt, when the frozen ground thawed and the rivers dropped low enough to wade. Every fall after harvest, when the fields were cut and you can see the ground for miles. Volunteers walked in lines across the prairie. They covered 122 square miles. They walked every inch of the river. They drained ponds. They searched abandoned farm buildings one by one. Barns with collapsed roofs. Root cellars filled with standing water. Grain bins that hadn't been opened in decades. Nothing. No body, no clothes, no phone, no keys. Not a single thread.

• 32:08AJ Gentile?

  Brandon Swanson walked into the darkness that night and disappeared.

• 32:17Speaker 00

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• 32:53AJ Gentile?

  The official story is Brandon drowned in the Yellow Medicine River. Walking in the dark, disoriented, he stumbled into the water, and that's the simplest explanation. But the evidence doesn't support it. The bloodhounds tracked his scent across the river, not into it. If Brandon had drowned, the trail would have ended at the water's edge, but it didn't. The dogs picked up his scent on the opposite bank and kept following it north. His father talked to him for 47 minutes. Brian Swanson says his son didn't sound drunk or confused. He sounded like himself, frustrated about the car, and eager to get home, but coherent. He was navigating by landmarks. He was making decisions, not stumbling blind through the night. And then, there's the final words. "Oh sh-" Now, listen to what that phrase is and what it isn't.

• 33:38AJ Gentile?

  It wasn't a scream. It wasn't a cry for help. It was surprise. The kind of thing you say when you see something unexpected. Brandon saw something in the darkness. He reacted, then he was gone. Foul play has never been ruled out. The area is remote. Miles of empty farmland, isolated roads, abandoned properties. Someone could have been out there. Could have seen his headlights from the road, watched him crash, and followed him into the fields on foot. At 2:30 in the morning, in that kind of darkness, you wouldn't see them coming. You wouldn't hear them over the wind. But there's no evidence of that. No witnesses, no suspects, no motive, no DNA, no tire tracks, no sign of a struggle, just a trail that ends in the middle of nowhere.

• 34:21AJ Gentile?

  Brandon's parents never moved. They kept their porch light on every single night for years. Annette left his bedroom exactly the way it was. Bed unmade, clothes on the floor, textbooks stacked on the desk. She said she wanted it ready for when he finally came home. Brian Swanson replayed that phone call in his head a thousand times. Forty-seven minutes of his son's voice. The last forty-seven minutes, anyone heard Brandon alive. He told reporters, "The hardest part wasn't the silence after the swear. It was the forty-seven minutes before it. The normalcy. The casual frustration of a kid whose car slid off a road. Father and son talking like it was any other night, like everything was gonna be fine." The Swansons lobbied the Minnesota government. They testified, they pushed.

• 35:06AJ Gentile?

  In 2009, Minnesota passed Brandon's law. Police now have to investigate missing adults immediately. No more waiting periods. No more "right to be missing." Every state should have that law, but most don't. Brandon's case was reclassified from missing person to endangered missing person, then to suspected homicide. But no arrests has ever been made. And no person of interest has never been named. The case file remains open with the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office. The Yellow Medicine River still runs through that farmland. The grain elevator in Taunton still has its red light. The gravel roads are still empty at night. And if you drive County Road 10 past Porter at 2:00 a.m., you'll see exactly what Brandon saw.

• 35:47AJ Gentile?

  Darkness so complete, it swallows your headlights thirty feet ahead. And somewhere out there, in the space between Porter and nowhere, is the answer to what Brandon Swanson saw in the last moment of his phone call. A surprise swear, and then silence. He's been out there almost eighteen years, and he's still out there. And his family is still waiting.

• 36:20AJ Gentile?

  Thank you so much for hanging out today. My name is AJ. This is The Y-Files, and that was a Campfire Story. No debunking, no analysis, just a creepy story to scare you and the kids. And that one is true and unsolved. Now, if you had fun, I'd appreciate if you can like, subscribe, comment, and share. That stuff really helps. And like most topics we cover here, today's was recommended by you, so if there's a story you'd like to see, go to theyfiles.com/tips or send us an email. We'd love to cover that story. And if you'd like to hear any of these Campfire Stories expanded into a full episode, there's a few I'd like to do, then definitely let me know. Remember, The Y-Files is also a podcast. You can take us on the road. I post deep dives into the stories we cover on the channel. I also post episodes that wouldn't be allowed on the channel. The podcast is called The Y-Files:

• 37:03AJ Gentile?

  Operation Podcast, and it's available everywhere. And if you're listening on an audio platform, do me a favor, hit the thumbs up, or the like, or the follow, or whatever those buttons are. Those really do help. Now, if you need more Y-Files in your life, check out our Discord. We're about to hit 100,000 members over there. It's a lot of fun. It's a really supportive community. There's someone on there 24/7, and it's free to join. Speaking of 24/7, check out our 24/7... I'm plowing through the plugs. Speaking of 24/7, make sure you check out our 24/7 stream in The Y-Files Backstage. Over there, we run episodes back-to-back with some fun content in between, and the live chat is super, super fun. Special thanks to our patrons who make this channel possible and make every episode of The Y-Files happen. Every episode is dedicated to our Patreon members. I could not do this without you. And if you'd like to support the channel, keep us going, consider becoming a member

• 37:48AJ Gentile?

  on Patreon. For as little as $3 a month, get access to perks like videos early with no commercials, exclusive merch, and two private live streams every week, just for you to hear the whistle in my teeth. It's because I'm going too fast. The private live streams are a lot of fun. For members only, my webcam is on. Everyone on the team has their camera on. You can talk to all of us. Turn your camera on, jump up on stage, ask a question. It's a lot of... I think it's the best perk there is. Another great way to support the channel: grab something from the Y-Files store. That is [email protected]. You'll find it. But if you've got to buy merch, become a member on YouTube. YouTube members get 10% off everything in the Y-Files store for See if you can get us fed forty bucks on t-shirts and festival mugs. Become a member on YouTube for three bucks, pays for itself. And that money goes to the team, that to me.

• 38:34AJ Gentile?

  Those are the plugs, I got through them as fast as I could. And that's gonna do it, till next time be safe, be kind, and know that you are appreciated.

• 38:43Speaker 04

  (Music)

• 38:48Speaker 04

  (Music)

• 38:53Speaker 04

  Oh, oh, oh, yeah. I played for Libya in Area 51. A secret code inside the Bible said I was. I love my UFOs and paranormal fun as well as music. Songs singin' like I should. But then another conspiracy theory becomes the truth, my friends. And it never ends, no it never ends.

• 39:35Speaker 04

  I fear the crackhead and I got stuck inside Mel's hole with MKUltra. I'm being only too aware. Did Stanley Kubrick fake the moon landing alone? On a film set, were the shadows people there? The rats, well aliens just fought the smiling man, I'm told. And his name was Cole. And I can't believe I'm dancing with the fish. Head to fish on Thursday nights with AJ2. And one more zombie beat all through the night.

• 40:16Speaker 04

  All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth. And one more zombie beat all through the night.

• 40:41Speaker 05

  The Mothman sightings and the solar storms still come To have got the secret city underground. Mysterious number stations, planets circle to Project Stargate and what the Dark Watchers found. In a simulation, don't you worry though. The Black Knight said a lot of jokes to me so. I can't believe I'm dancing with the fish. Hens of fish on Thursday nights when they change. And one more time for me all through the night. All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth.

• 41:25Speaker 05

  So one more time for me all through the night. Hens of fish on Thursday nights when they change. And one more time for me all through the night. All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth. So one more time for me all through the night.

• 42:04Speaker 05

  Girlie loves to dance on the dance floor. Because she is a camel and camels love to dance. When the feeling is right on waste in time.

• 42:38Speaker 01

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