Pod Insights Criminology Brandon Swanson About this episode In 2008, 19-year-old Brandon lived with his parents in Marshall, Minnesota. He was home from college and attending some parties on the night he went missing. The mysteries surrounding this case continue to perplex law enforcement and the online true crime community. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss Brandon Swanson's disappearance. Brandon spoke to his parents that night and indicated his car was stuck, leaving him stranded. However, even after a prolonged call with his father, Brandon was not found. What happened to Brandon Swanson? For news about the podcast, old episodes and more, visit our website. You can help support the show through Patreon We'd love to connect with listeners on social media. We are available on the following platforms: Facebook - Facebook Discussion group - Instagram - Threads - X Formerly Twitter - Blue Sky - Twitch - Tik Tok Find all of our social media in one place at: https://linktr.ee/criminologypodcast Criminology is an Emash Digital production hosted by Mike Ferguson and Mike Morford.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.
0:37 Speaker 01 Hello everyone and welcome to episode 360 of the Criminology Podcast. This is Mike Ferguson.
0:44 Speaker 02 And this is Mike Morford.
0:46 Speaker 01 Mr. Morford, how you doing this week, buddy?
0:48 Speaker 02 I'm doing pretty good, other than some minor coffee issues that I'm having today with my coffee pot. I have rounds of my coffee and I'm a big coffee person, so I can't have that. So I gotta figure out what's going on there.
1:00 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's a, that is a big no-no. I, like you, am a huge coffee person, man. If I don't have my coffee, people know in my family, don't, don't talk to dad.
1:12 Speaker 02 Either.
1:13 Speaker 01 Until, uh, you know, he gets a few cups of coffee.
1:16 Speaker 02 Yeah, can't, can't do this show or anything else for that matter, without getting some coffee in the morning, so.
1:21 Speaker 01 All right, well, let's go ahead and give our Patreon shout-outs. We had Mia, Chris Chamberlain, and Bernie Doodle Mom. So a lot of great new support. We really appreciate it.
1:32 Speaker 02 Thank you so much for taking the time to support the show. It really helps us out. For anyone else that would like to, you can head over to patreon.com/criminology and get signed up.
1:42 Speaker 01 All right, Morf, let's dive into this week's case and we're covering a case that just doesn't seem to make any logical sense. It's a missing persons case that actually has some shades of the Brandon Lawson case. A lot of our listeners are probably familiar with that one. His remains wound up being found. In this episode, we're talking about a different Brandon, who went missing, Brandon Swanson. And unlike Brandon Lawson, Brandon Swanson has never been found. And he's been missing 17 years this month. And when you hear the details about his case, you'll probably be left scratching your head, asking what happened to Brandon Swanson?
2:24 Speaker 02 In 2008, 19-year-old Brandon Swanson was living with his parents in Marshall, Minnesota. That year, he was attending Minnesota West Community and Technical College in nearby Canby, where he had just completed a year-long wind energy program. On Tuesday, May 13th, the spring semester ended, and there were a lot of celebrations and get-togethers planned. Brandon went to two parties that night with friends and classmates. The first was in Lind, closer to his hometown. He had a few beers before heading to a second party back in Canby sometime between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. This party was a going-away party for a classmate. Friends at the small gathering recall Brandon having one shot of whiskey while he was there.
3:08 Speaker 02 Everyone at both places recalled a normal college party with no incidents or anything out of place. They were just celebrating their accomplishments and letting off some steam together before having to get back into gear for the next semester.
3:21 Speaker 01 And more if I don't do much of this, actually none of this type of partying anymore, but I do remember, you know, that kind of graduating high school into the college years, especially college, right? You partied at college, but then when you came home, it was like a party all the time because you hadn't seen some of your high school friends. And everybody was coming back into town. There was always a party going on.
3:49 Speaker 02 Yeah, I didn't go to college, but I lived in a small town where everybody in high school went to parties on weekends or if it was a special event, end of school, that kind of thing. And it was always a big get-together, keggers, bonfires, that kind of thing. So, you know, this kind of brings back some memories of these people getting together, having, you know, a good time maybe before they go their separate ways or do something else with their lives.
4:16 Speaker 01 At around midnight on Wednesday, the 14th, Brandon decided to head home. It was only about a 30 mile drive on a straight highway, and he had driven the route multiple times back and forth from school. It should have taken him no longer than 45 minutes to get back to his house. But at 1:54 a.m. on the 14th, he called his parents, Brian and Annette, for help. He told them that his car had gotten stuck on the side of the road and that he was stranded. This is the middle of the night call that no parent ever wants to receive. But luckily, Brandon was totally fine. It wasn't a true car wreck or anything like that. He just couldn't get the car unstuck.
4:59 Speaker 01 He told his parents that he was on Highway 23 and that he wasn't too far from the town of Lind, which is southwest of Marshall. So this is where his parents headed, hoping to help him out. They stayed on the phone with him so that it would be easier to find him in the dark. Remember, this is a time before finding your friends and tracking apps that could help someone find your exact location. So staying on the phone seemed like the best option. Once they got to the area of Lind that Brandon described, they pulled over and began to flash their lights because they didn't see him or his vehicle anywhere. Brandon didn't see anything. So he got into his car and started flashing the lights,
5:42 Speaker 01 but his parents didn't see anything either. Everyone involved was getting increasingly frustrated.
5:48 Speaker 02 This had to be really nerve wracking from both Brandon's and his parents' perspectives. From Brandon's perspective, he had told his parents exactly where he was, and for whatever reason, they went somewhere else and were acting like it was his fault. From his parents' point of view, their adult son woke them up in the middle of the night and was giving them an attitude when it was his directions that were wrong. Brandon's father, Brian, would tell CNN, he was absolutely positive he knew where he was. Brandon got so upset, he actually hung up the phone. So Brian decided to drop Annette back off at home. This is probably a good time to discuss if alcohol played a role. Is it possible? That Brandon was drunk and didn't give his parents the right location. Is that how his car got stuck to begin with?
6:32 Speaker 02 We know what Brandon drank from secondhand information. We don't know how accurate that information was. Because at parties, who can really keep track of what someone else is drinking? I think we also need to keep in mind that Brandon was five foot six, 125 pounds. So not a big guy. It might not have taken a lot of alcohol from to get impaired.
6:52 Speaker 01 And more if we talked about, you know, going to parties when we were younger. It's something that everyone does. Now, the danger in those parties is that when there is alcohol involved, it seems like everyone, or most everyone, is leaving that party at some point and driving somewhere. And that is a little bit of what we're talking about here. Right? You mentioned it. Brandon was five, six, 125 pounds. It's not a big guy. Depending on how much he had to drink, and we know he did drink some, he could have been impaired to the point where he shouldn't have been driving.
7:34 Speaker 01 Now, he, he could have had a couple of beers and a shot over a number of hours and been totally fine. We just don't know.
7:45 Speaker 02 Yeah, we don't really know how he handled his alcohol. You know, some people can drink more and be okay to drive still. But in this case, we don't have a lot of information about how he was affected. It seems like he thought he was okay to drive. So that's why he, you know, he set out to go home.
8:05 Speaker 01 At 2:17 a.m., Brandon's parents called him again. By this time, he had already decided to head off on foot, leaving his car. He told his parents he was gonna walk to Lindt, where a friend of his lived and that he would just spend the night there. According to Brandon, it didn't look very far from the lights of the city skyline that he could see. Randomly showing up to someone's house after two in the morning didn't seem like a great plan. So instead, his dad agreed to pick him. At the Lindwood Tavern, they both knew where it was and thought it would be easier than trying to find each other in the middle of nowhere in the dark. At 2:23 a.m., Brandon and his father
8:48 Speaker 01 began another call. While Brandon was walking, this was their final 47-minute phone call. At first, Brandon described a gravel road that he was walking down, but eventually he decided not to stick to that road. It would be much faster to cut through the fields and farmland. He also described running into two different fences and mentioned that he could hear the sound of water.
9:13 Speaker 02 I grew up in a small town that had a lot of farms, farm fields, back roads. So I'm just imagining some of those areas at night with no lighting out there. Some of those places would be difficult to navigate, even for me who lived in a place like that. So if somehow he was in an area he wasn't super familiar with, or as we talked about, maybe he was a little bit impaired, I could see how this would be real tricky for him to navigate and find his way out there.
9:49 Speaker 01 Yeah, I too grew up in a, in a small town. It's pretty rural. There's a lot of farmland, stuff like that. Now, if you're walking, you know, at 2, 3 in the morning in a big city, okay, is there some dangers there? Well, sure, there is danger that, that, you know, you could find around a corner, but there's also danger in the middle of nowhere. Maybe you're thinking not so much from other people, but you know, it's dark. There's terrain. There's water. We mentioned that, you know, could someone fall, have an accident? There's definitely that type of danger.
10:30 Speaker 02 At 3:10 a.m., while Brandon was still walking and talking to his dad, he yelled out suddenly, "Oh shit." His father called out his name, but there was no response. Figuring that Brandon had dropped his phone in the dark and couldn't find it, Brian ended the call so he could try to call back. If the ringtone was on, it might help him hear where his phone was at. And some phones lit up when they were ringing. So he would potentially be able to see it in the dark, even if he had it on silent. Brian said to CNN that he called his son at least five or six more times, but he never picked up the phone again. After searching for hours and finding no trace of Brandon or his car, at 6:30 a.m., Brandon's parents decided to call police and report him as a missing person.
11:15 Speaker 02 No search was immediately launched because Brandon was 19, and according to one officer, he had a right to be missing. I think this is what frustrates so many of us when we are talking about missing persons cases. Sure, the person does have a right to go missing if they're an adult, but we all know that the first 48 hours are crucial and every minute counts. And after all, how could they be sure that Brandon hadn't injured himself and was in need of help?
11:40 Speaker 01 And I think you're right, Moore. If this is a, you know, kind of a point of contention in a lot of missing persons cases. You know, in older missing persons cases, they used to say this about, you know, minors. "Oh, they'll show back up, you know, don't worry." Now, thankfully, that most authorities don't do that anymore. You know, minors reported missing, they take that very seriously. But adults are a different story. Because, yeah, technically, as an adult, you have the right to go quote unquote "missing." But I look at it in context.
12:24 Speaker 01 And I think, I'm sure some authorities do, but a lot don't. You know, here we're talking about a very specific situation. Not that, you know, they don't know anything about what happened. They had been talking to Brandon on the phone for hours. So I do think, you know, when you put context to it, well, it means a little bit more.
12:53 Speaker 02 Yeah, I think it should be. On a situation by situation basis, not just a broad, he can go missing if he wants. This is a case where he's obviously lost. He's walking on foot in the dark. And then all of a sudden, after screaming out, oh shit, his dad doesn't hear from him anymore. So this seems like a different kind of situation than somebody that just took off with their friends for a couple of days to party and they'll be back in a couple of days. This is a clear cut case to me of someone that's lost, seeking help, and something may have happened to them.
13:31 Speaker 01 Eventually, authorities launched their investigation and got Brandon's cell phone records. They confirmed that something was very off. The tower being utilized by Brandon's phone was near the town of Minnetonka, which was northwest of Marshall and closer to Canby. He was about 20 miles away from where he told his parents they would be able to find him. With a new search area, investigators discovered Brandon's car, a green Chevrolet Lumina, abandoned in a ditch on the side of a gravel road around 12:30 PM on the 14th. So this is about 12 hours after he had left the party.
14:12 Speaker 01 Lincoln County Sheriff Jack Visecki told CNN of the car's condition. It was nothing major, but enough that the car would get hung up. So the wheels are too high off the ground to get any traction due to it being sort of a sharp incline. Immediately, the location of Brandon's car was puzzling because this wasn't in Lind or Marshall, or even anywhere near Highway 23. Brandon's car was stuck between Porter and Taunton, both on the way home from Canby, not Lind. The phone records in his car indicate that Brandon was telling the truth about getting stuck,
14:53 Speaker 01 but that for some reason, he either had no idea where he was when he called his parents, or he lied to them about his location. And more if we talked about the frustration on both parties, right? Brandon was frustrated. His parents were frustrated because they couldn't find each other.
15:12 Speaker 01 I think with each side wondering why they couldn't find each other. Brandon thought that, you know, he was giving them great directions. His parents thought that he wasn't. But we now know why they weren't able to find each other. He wasn't anywhere close to where he said he was, probably where he thought he was.
15:36 Speaker 02 Yeah, to me, this is, goes back to what I said earlier about navigating your way around an area. Maybe you don't know that well in the dark and you may think you're in one spot, but you're actually in another. And I think that's what caused all this confusion and delayed police finding his car because they started off in a totally different location. From looking through notes from Jeff Hesse of Search, Rescue and Recovery Resources of Minnesota, it seems possible that Brandon realized he took a wrong turn down a road that cut through the middle of two fields. It was a minimum maintenance road, so it may not have been passable in a sedan after a certain point. He turned around after a mile down that field road
16:19 Speaker 02 and was making a left south onto Lyon-Lincoln County Road when the car got stuck. Hesse stated that Brandon missed the field approach and went into the ditch at low speeds. So police at least knew where to start based on Brandon's car. The problem was they didn't know which direction he headed in after he left his car.
16:38 Speaker 01 The gravel and the grass near the roadway meant that there weren't a lot of footprints left behind for police to follow. According to Jeff Hesse, who eventually took over the search for Brandon, the roads were also graded that morning. So if there were any footprints, they could have been smoothed over before anyone had a chance to follow them. Yellow Medicine County Sheriff Bill Flaton said to the Marshall Independent, if you take that immediate area where the car was, and then the timeframe when he was talking on the phone with his parents, who knows what direction he went and how far he traveled? It's a huge area.
17:16 Speaker 02 Also confusing was it's not even clear which lights Brandon was talking about heading toward when he said he could see lights in the distance. From the location where he got out of his car, there were a few visible lights from grain elevators, porch lights, and two flashing lights from wind turbines in the distance, but nothing bright enough to look like a larger city. He could have even been seeing the lights of cars on Highway 68.
17:41 Speaker 01 According to Jeff Hasi, the most visible lights in the area that Brandon's car was discovered in were actually lights in Marshall. They may have looked close, like they were coming from Minnioda, which Brandon likely thought was Lynn, but they were over 15 miles away. But it's not a guarantee that these were the lights that Brandon was talking about, because there were apparently visible lights in pretty much every direction. You know, there's probably a goal weight in your head and getting there on your own is the hard part. Weight loss by Hers offers access to a range of FDA-approved GLP-1 medications, including the Wegovy pill and the Wegovy pen, plus support along the way. With Wegovy, you can lose up to 20% of your body weight. People lost an average of 14% body weight
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19:10 Speaker 01 trademark of Novo Nordisk AS. To get started and learn more, including important safety information, Wegovy clinical study information, and restrictions, visit forhers.com. If he was walking at a normal pace, Brandon would have covered anywhere from 3/4 of a mile to 2 and 1/2 miles during the time he was on the phone with his dad. Brandon had mentioned to his dad hearing water, but there are multiple sources of water nearby, so that doesn't really help narrow down one specific location. Brandon's phone didn't stop ringing until sometime on Thursday. Even if investigators could find Brandon's cell phone, there's No guarantee that his body would be near it if he dropped the phone and couldn't find it.
19:56 Speaker 01 He could have decided to keep walking, sticking to the plan so he could meet up with his dad. Since we don't know what happened to the phone, we can't really assume that he stayed with it after he said, oh shit. The search was also complicated because Brandon disappeared so close to the borders of three different counties. Lyon, Lincoln, and Yellow Medicine Counties. So more of the, you know, the one thing that stuck out to me here was Brandon's phone. They had some cell tower records. They knew a general location, but they, they couldn't find his phone. But it didn't stop ringing for pretty much a day.
20:38 Speaker 02 It seems like it was a pretty strong charge on that phone to ring for that long because like we talked about, he had been on the phone with his parents for quite a while too. So for it to last and keep ringing all that time, it seems shocking that it would go that, that long. But trying to find this phone out there, you know, having the general area where the towers ping still makes it like a needle in a haystack, trying to find the phone in the middle of all this terrain.
21:09 Speaker 01 And like you mentioned, right? There was, uh, this was before the kind of find my phone app or find your friend apps and, and things like that. Today I think it would be much easier to get closer to where that phone was.
21:24 Speaker 02 Brandon was only about halfway home when he got stuck. This leaves a pretty big gap in time. Maybe he tried for a long time to get the car unstuck, but it took him almost two hours to call his parents for help. If we assume that the drive took 45 minutes max, then he should have called for help closer to 20 minutes or a half hour after leaving the party. Even accounting for time, it took him to call a few of his friends who didn't answer before ultimately calling his parents. It still seems like there's something we're missing about that period of time. Of course, it's possible that not anticipating their friend would go missing when he left. No one took note of the exact time he walked out the door. And when they guessed to the best of their memory, they were a little bit off.
22:07 Speaker 02 So this timeline could have been a bit of a rat herring, but if it's the correct timeline, it leaves some room for something to have happened.
22:15 Speaker 01 Many sources state that investigators found Brandon's glasses in his car. They weren't reading glasses or sunglasses. He was legally blind in one eye and had been since he was a child. He was in an area with no streetlights. There's no way that taking off his glasses would have helped him in this scenario. So it's puzzling why he would leave them behind if he was walking off into the night, where he would need them most. However, a few sources mentioned that no trace of Brandon was ever found. And they include his glasses in that. That would eliminate the question of why he took them off and left them behind. So the issue of the glasses is one that is unconfirmed.
23:00 Speaker 02 Yeah, to me, that makes this scenario even more worrisome because you would think at night with very little light, he's going to put those glasses on so he can maximize what he can see out there. So it makes me wonder, why did he venture out without those glasses on?
23:18 Speaker 01 But isn't that even more complicated by the fact that we know he was talking on the phone with his dad? You know, you could hypothesize a scenario where something happens and he doesn't have time to grab his glasses. But that doesn't seem to be the case here, knowing that, you know, he's walking, he's talking on the phone with his dad. And to me, it just, it just muddies the water even more.
23:46 Speaker 02 Yeah, because if something had happened where he had to run from the car without having a chance to grab them, he most likely would have told his dad about that and he didn't. So it just seems possible that he walked off and maybe forgot them, or for whatever reason, didn't think he needed them. According to a segment on Nancy Grace, investigators also found a glass pipe in Brandon's car. We don't know whether it belonged to Brandon or maybe a friend that he gave a ride to. And it's not even clear whether it was a pipe for marijuana or for something else. If he used some kind of drug, it could explain the disorientation and decision to cut through the darkness on foot. Even marijuana mixed with alcohol wouldn't have helped the situation.
24:29 Speaker 02 It's entirely possible that Brandon's friends thought they were looking out for him by saying that he didn't really drink enough to be too intoxicated to drive, especially because there are some rumblings about a previous DUI he had. He was still under the legal drinking age and would be under more scrutiny if he seen buzzed due to his history. This could explain why he was taking gravel back roads zigzagging across farmland instead of taking the straight shot home, which was on the highway. He may have been wary of police. There are more patrols on the highway and more of a chance to be stopped there than there are on back roads.
25:04 Speaker 01 And to me, more of this is a big part of this case. You know, how much did Brandon have to drink? Was he using, you know, some other type of drug along with alcohol? Because I think the answers to those questions then help frame, you know, everything else. You know, maybe those answers help explain why he thought he was at one location when he was actually, you know, pretty far away from it. And like you said, is that the reason why he was taking the back roads and decided to to cut through fields and things like that?
25:45 Speaker 01 Because he didn't want to get picked up by the police even on foot. They're going to wonder, okay, where are you out walking? Where's your car? They could still tie him possibly back to having driven under the influence.
26:02 Speaker 02 And it's a real contrast. You know, you have a scenario where he could be out there totally sober with his glasses, walking around at night versus no glasses and possibly buzzed or drunk trying to navigate. You know, it makes two different drastically different situations.
26:25 Speaker 01 The biggest mystery in this case on the minds of most people is what caused Brandon to be so wrong about his location when he was talking to his parents. It's almost like Brandon forgot that he was back in Canby when he left for home. The things he was doing made a lot more sense if he thought he was really heading home from Lynn. Aside from the more missing time, because it's a much shorter drive. He told his dad he was on highway 23, but he should have been on highway 68 coming from Canby. Highway 23 is the correct highway. If you're trying to get to Marshall from Lynn.
27:05 Speaker 01 This again brings into question, was Brandon's thought process affected by alcohol or some type of drug? Other people have asked if he could have hit the ditch just hard enough that he hit his head, causing a little bit of memory loss, leading to disorientation. Obviously, we don't know. And there were no signs inside the car that this had happened. No blood, no evidence that his head struck anything. It is just a theory, but you know, that's what you're going to have in cases like this. You're going to have a lot of speculation and people are going to bring forth a lot of different theories.
27:46 Speaker 01 And I may have mentioned it more if I don't know if I did or not, but you know, last year my wife tripped and fell and hit her head pretty hard. And she has had over the last year, some pretty severe complications from that. You know, head injuries are nothing to mess with.
28:07 Speaker 02 And it's just a theory that he could have hurt his head. But if he did, now you have that going on with the fact he doesn't have his glasses, maybe under the influence of something. It just seems like a real recipe for disaster. Once Brandon was already out there on foot, it's easy to see how he could have gotten disoriented about which direction he was heading. Since it was dark and he was trying to backtrack on gravel roads, he had likely never been down before. But it's not easy to see how Brandon thought he was all the way down near Lynn. Even if he thought he had made it far south on those gravel roads, he hadn't been driving for long enough to have made it anywhere near Lynn. It may be hard for listeners to do without having visuals, but if you can, put yourself in Brandon's shoes.
28:51 Speaker 02 His route isn't that illogical. If you look at the golf course in Lynn where he believed he was on Google Maps, it does look very similar to the area we know Brandon was actually in. If he was so disoriented that he believed he was going south on the minimum maintenance road toward the golf course, going down that minimum maintenance road makes sense. And if he thought he was that close to the golf course, he thought he was way closer to civilization than he was. So trying to walk wouldn't have been a crazy idea for him.
29:22 Speaker 01 While most people seem to feel that Brandon was disoriented due to drinking, other people have asked the question, was there something else going on here? Seeing that it was the end of a year-long program, there were likely some high-pressure exams and all-nighters in the days or weeks before Brandon disappeared. We can't rule out a lack of sleep being a factor here in his decision-making and in his disorientation. If he hadn't been getting enough sleep, then he wouldn't have needed to drink much for it to have an effect on him. And more, if I have two girls in college right now, and I can tell you, at the end of a semester, the pressure on them is
30:06 Speaker 01 so much greater around exam time. I can tell it, you know, when I talk to them on the phone, they're frazzled. There's so many exams, there's so much effort that has to be put into studying. I know they, they don't get as much sleep. So I don't think you can discount this theory at all.
30:30 Speaker 02 Yeah, I think it's pretty clear that lack of sleep can cause you not to function properly, not to think clearly. And if you add that to the mix here with Brandon, it's just one more issue on top of some other possibilities. That may have played into what happened to him. While we don't have an answer as to how Brandon ended up lost, there are a few main theories about what happened to him. The first was that he wasn't actually lost. Instead, he purposely disappeared and ran off to start a new life. This would definitely explain why no body has ever been found. But this theory has a lot of problems. If he just needed to get away, he could have waited until August when he was transferring to Iowa
31:13 Speaker 02 Western Community College in Council Bluffs, Iowa. He would have been in a different state in just a few months. Why would he need to run away in the middle of the night in such a dramatic fashion?
31:24 Speaker 01 And more if this comes up in a lot of the missing persons cases that we do. I mean, it's always a theory that it's possible someone decided that they just wanted to take off. They didn't want their family to know where they were and they wanted to start a new life. Now, most of the time, I discount that theory very heavily. And it's often because of the circumstances, right? People don't take their purse, they don't take their wallet, identification. They don't take any money out of the bank. And we don't have all the details here around what Brandon did. We also know he didn't have his eyeglasses.
32:09 Speaker 01 You know, it just doesn't scream out that this was a scenario in which he just vanished in order to start a new life. And in most of the cases we do, I think that scenario is pretty far fetched. Now, I did just run across a news article the other day about a woman who vanished like over 60 years ago. And they found her alive and well, living a few states away. And she had been for like 60 years. And she said, you know what? I'm fine. I just decided I wanted to get away. So it does happen.
32:51 Speaker 01 I just don't think that in the majority of cases, it's the most likely outcome.
32:59 Speaker 02 Yeah, I think statistically, the outcome is usually a person is met with foul play, or maybe accidental death, something along those lines. It's not very common of somebody choosing to go missing and, and being alive and while out there someplace else, living a new life. I think maybe people latch on to that sometimes because it gives them hope that the person is okay, but it, it usually is not the case.
33:30 Speaker 01 Another theory is that Brandon met with foul play after running into the wrong person. It's possible that someone picked Brandon up, but it seems very unlikely. If it was a random person, would Brandon have gotten in their car? Is it possible that he grew tired of walking and got frustrated enough that he would have left with a stranger? If Brandon was picked up by someone, why have they not come forward? It's possible that avoiding the police wasn't the only reason. Brandon took the backroads home that night. He could have been trying to get home without running into someone specific. It's a straight shot to his home. So if you knew he was heading there, you would easily be able to catch up to him on
34:14 Speaker 01 the highway, especially at that time of night. There are theories that he owed someone money for drugs and they decided to teach him a lesson that night, or even that he stumbled upon some kind of drug deal or large scale operation. But these are all just unsubstantiated theories. And I asked the question, if Brandon was picked up by someone, why have they not come forward? And that makes sense if a stranger gave him a ride, you know, a little farther down the road and then let him out. Okay, why would they not come forward and say that? But if this stranger did something to Brandon, well, then they have a reason not to come forward.
34:59 Speaker 01 And I say stranger, it doesn't have to be a stranger. Maybe it's somebody that, you know, Brandon knew. You would think though, that if it was someone Brandon owed money to, he wouldn't just be happy to jump into the car with them.
35:15 Speaker 02 It's interesting to think about being in his situation. If you're the kind of person that normally would never dream of hitchhiking or taking a ride with a stranger, you might backtrack on that if it's the middle of the night and you're cold, wet, walking in the dark. And somebody comes along, you might just let down your guard enough to get in the car when you normally wouldn't do that.
35:41 Speaker 01 But that's the thing with these types of cases, right? Can you discount any theory at this point? And I'd say it's hard to do so because we don't have enough facts to really take anything off the table.
35:58 Speaker 02 A more likely theory in the minds of many people is that Brandon fell into or down something. Brandon's father has also mentioned that after he said, oh shit, it sounded like his foot slipped. It's unclear what kind of sound this was or what it could have been that happened. If it was his foot slipping, what would you hear it slipping off of? Fence, the edge of the river? An old well? Could he have went into the water? Investigators don't believe this scenario is likely because they think they've identified and searched all of these possible locations within walking distance of Brandon's car. By law, these wells and cisterns are required to be covered or capped so that they don't pose any hazard,
36:40 Speaker 02 specifically so that no one can fall in and be injured or killed.
36:44 Speaker 01 Still, another theory is that Brandon was killed on a farm in the area, either in a terrible accident or as an act of foul play. Maybe a farmer saw him flashing his lights or heard him near their fence and decided to investigate and somehow killed Brandon during the interaction before covering it up. Farmers and other property owners likely wouldn't expect someone to be cutting through their fields at two in the morning. It's worth noting that search dogs used to find Brandon, caught a scent and followed it up the driveway of an abandoned farm into the bank of the Yellow Medicine River. There are areas of the Yellow Medicine River that can be 15 feet deep.
37:28 Speaker 01 He didn't have to enter the river at a deep spot to have ended up in one. All it takes is one slippery rock to lose your footing. And if there's any current, it's going to drag you downstream.
37:41 Speaker 02 A scent dog did also signal near a piece of equipment on a farm not far from Brandon's car. Many people believe this proves that he made it to that farm and there was some kind of accident. It's also been stated that the owner of the farm where the equipment with a scent hit was located refused to allow authorities to search the entire property. As far as we can tell, this property still hasn't been completely searched. It may seem suspicious that a property owner wouldn't allow a search, but at the same time, farmers in the area were worried that their crops would be trampled over or their livestock would be spooked. A search could interfere with their livelihoods. Maybe Brandon got so weak and tired he passed out in a field of crops, only to die or fall deeply unconscious
38:25 Speaker 02 by the time a farmer used some heavy equipment on their field, killing or covering Brandon's remains in the process. The farmer may not have even been aware of it.
38:34 Speaker 01 The night Brandon vanished, he was wearing only jeans, a polo shirt, and a hoodie. It was below 40 degrees that night. If he was sweaty or got wet at all, he could have started to experience hypothermia, which can cause even more confusion, loss of consciousness, and even terminal burrowing, a phenomenon seen among those experiencing paradoxical undressing as a result of hypothermia. Sometimes, when you get so hypothermic, you can actually begin to feel unbearably hot. When people experience this and take off their clothes, they also usually start to try to hide in or under something. This could explain why
39:19 Speaker 01 Brandon hasn't been found, because before succumbing to the elements, he had covered himself. The problem with all of these theories is that they are just theories. There's no evidence or clues to support any of the scenarios or theories we've discussed. As odd as Brandon's disappearance is, the circumstances are not unheard of. There is a nearly identical case in the United Kingdom. On April 17, 2001, 21-year
39:50 Speaker 01 Old David Plunkett was kicked out of a concert at the Daytona racetrack in the Trafford Park area of Manchester, England. He was thrown out of the venue after throwing up and falling down in front of a bouncer. At 1:30 a.m. on April 18th, one of David's friends called his parents, Ann and Michael. He told them that he and the rest of their group had gotten separated and they couldn't find him. Ann called David's cell phone. It's unknown whether they tried to get ahold of him and couldn't, or if they called his parents first. Either way, David ended up on the phone with his mother. She had to call him three times before he answered.
40:32 Speaker 01 He was talking, but he wasn't making any sense. Ann noticed that she couldn't hear anything other than her son. There was no background noise of any kind. Ann told the Manchester EV News, after about 10 minutes on the phone, David started screaming. He was howling and yelling. It was horrendous.
40:54 Speaker 02 They described the noises David was making as an unearthly howl. Using another phone line, Ann called 999, the equivalent of 911 in America, and held the phones next to each other so that the dispatcher could hear David. Unfortunately, they had no idea where to start looking for David. In 2001, cellphone tracking and pinging wasn't like it is today. The dispatcher stayed on the phone for an hour but made no progress. David's parents continued the call, hoping to hear something that could give them a clue. They managed to stay on the line until 4:30 that morning, about three hours in total. After almost two weeks with no sign of him, David's body was discovered in the Manchester Ship Canal.
41:37 Speaker 02 After an autopsy, David's death was ruled an accidental drowning.
41:42 Speaker 01 So there are some similarities here between David and Brandon Swanson. I think the difference here with David is that David was obviously very intoxicated. I mean, he was thrown out of the concert after throwing up. The issue of how intoxicated Brandon Swanson was is still up for debate.
42:10 Speaker 02 I think if anything, it just shows had his remains not been found, people today might be wondering what happened to David and theorizing all these different scenarios when we know what happens. Pretty simple. He drunkenly fell into a canal and drowned.
42:28 Speaker 01 Yeah, I think that is a good point. As we mentioned early on, Brandon Swanson's disappearance is similar to that of another brand. 26 year old Brandon Lawson out of Texas. We covered this case in a previous episode, and many people get the two cases confused due to the similar names and circumstances. Brandon Lawson called his brother Kyle around 12:30 in the morning on August 8, 2013, because he was almost out of gas. He also told his brother that people were chasing him out of town. Kyle got a gas can and headed to his location, but before he made it there, Brandon called 911. He wasn't making a lot of sense to the dispatcher,
43:13 Speaker 01 but he did mention that he was in a field and he was headed toward Abilene on the Bronte side. Minutes later, a trucker called 911 due to a vehicle blocking part of the road. It was Brandon Lawson's truck. Kyle got to Brandon's truck, but he wasn't there. Kyle's wife called Brandon and to her, it sounded like Brandon said he was bleeding. At one point, Brandon told Kyle on their call, I can see you. I'm right here, but Kyle couldn't find Brandon. Eventually, an officer showed up. Brandon indicated that he could see the lights of the police car, but after initially heading to the lights, he ran away from them despite having called 911.
43:57 Speaker 02 For years, Brandon Lawson's disappearance stumped investigators. Searches of the area turned up nothing, and his case took on a life of its own in online forum discussions. His body wasn't found until January 2022. His remains were exactly where cell phone records and the circumstances indicated that he should be. Apparently, police never searched that very piece of property where his remains were found because they couldn't get permission from the landowner. It was thought that Brandon Lawson likely died of exposure or dehydration and was possibly related to meth induced psychosis or a mental break. So into the cases that are similar to Brandon Swanson's remains of the missing young
44:39 Speaker 02 men were eventually found. So why were remains not found in Brandon Swanson's case? Over the years, more searches were done, including searches near the river with the distinct possibility that Brandon drowned. But authorities don't believe that Brandon drowned. Lincoln County Sheriff Jack Vasecki told CNN that the search dogs aggressively searched the river area, saying, "The dog actually jumped in the river, jumped back out, worked trail up another gravel road, and then lost his scent." In the end, all areas searched to the state have come up empty.
45:14 Speaker 01 On July 1, 2009, Brandon's law was put into effect in the state of Minnesota. As a result, authorities must now treat all missing persons cases involving people aged 21 and under, as well as senior adults, as urgent, instead of delaying the initial response if there are suspicious circumstances involved. Brandon's mom, Annette, told the Marshall Independent, "It shouldn't matter whether your child is 18, 25, or 30. We're all somebody's child. We don't know whether Brandon would have been found, either alive or deceased, if the search had started sooner, but his scent likely would have been much
45:59 Speaker 01 more fresh. So it's not out of the question, especially if he had fallen into water. The search area would have been established sooner, and his body, if it was in the river, would not have gone as far downstream, possibly out of the search perimeter." By 2015, investigators had searched 122 square miles and never found a clue as to what happened to Brandon Swanson, but his case remains open. If you have any information about the disappearance of Brandon Swanson, you can contact the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office by calling 507-694-1664.
46:42 Speaker 01 So more of as we wrap up this case. You know, like we said in the beginning and talked about just a little bit ago, the cases of Brandon Swanson and Brandon Lawson are often mixed up. Some of the circumstances are very similar. You know, in the case of Brandon Lawson, his body was eventually found. They were able to determine, I think with, you know, some degree of certainty, what they believe happened to him. And my thought is if Brandon Swanson's body could be found,
47:25 Speaker 01 you know, they would be able to make a similar determination. You know, what most likely happened to him. As we go through some of the different scenarios and theories, you know, this theory that Brandon just kind of decided to up and leave and start a new life somewhere. Can you totally discount it? No, I don't think you can, but for me, it's at the bottom of the list. I just don't think it happens all that often. And there really are no signs that number one, he did that. You know, bank records, stuff like that.
48:09 Speaker 01 Or two, that he was wanting to do that. Yeah, I don't know that he had issues with his family. I don't know that he had any issues where he felt as though he just needed to get away. And I think in cases where that does happen, you would expect to see something like that. You know, a bad family life, an event that breaks down a person's mental state or something like that.
48:41 Speaker 02 And the odds may be against Brandon having left on his own, but I can see why people still, after all this time, consider that, talk about that as a possibility because of the lack of a body. Had Brandon died of natural causes, exposure, hypothermia, or whatever, could have been drowning. People ask, why hasn't his body been found by a hunter, by a farmer, by someone that was in that area over all these years? You think his remains would have turned up because they should be where somebody might find them, unless somehow
49:20 Speaker 02 they wound up in the river and submerged and were trapped under the water. Because even someone that drowns, typically their body will rise to the surface. So you would think that eventually he'd be found if he was in the river. So that complete lack of any sign of his remains, I think is what keeps fueling speculation that there's something else going on here.
49:46 Speaker 01 Yeah, there's no doubt about that. But we've also seen a lot of different cases where people are found, you know, 10, 20, 30, even more years later and identified. You know, this is a rural area. There are a lot of places to look for. And I know we said they have searched over 100 square miles. But that doesn't mean they, they could have missed him. And like you said, if he did somehow end up in the water, there are a lot of different things that could happen. You also have, and it's hard to think about, but
50:25 Speaker 01 you have, you know, scavenger animals that could possibly scatter his remains. That's tough. It's a tough thing to think about, but it is a possibility. I guess for me, although there's no way to be certain about it, obviously, if you're looking at kind of the most plausible explanations, you have to think maybe along the lines of Brandon Lawson, where Brandon Swanson had some type of accident out, you know, in this rural area. He succumbed to the elements, but for whatever reason,
51:09 Speaker 01 his body just has not been found. Or that he did meet with foul play, either from someone who was following him. You know, did he owe someone money for drugs or something like that? Or he ventured into the wrong farmer's field and his death was covered up. I mean, to me, those are probably the more likely scenarios.
51:39 Speaker 02 Yeah, it's frustrating to not have any answers. And it's easy to play Monday morning quarterback and go back and look at this years later, but I think there's a lesson to learn, to be learned here. And that's maybe if you find yourself in that kind of situation, you stay with your car until daylight. You sleep in your car, maybe keep, you know, that's a lot of people keep a blanket in their trunk, some kind of first aid kit, maybe some rations of storable food or water that they can have if they're in a situation where they're trapped in their car. And reassess things in the morning when it's daylight. You can get a better, you can see better.
52:22 Speaker 02 You can get a better understanding of where you're at. And maybe if Brandon had done that, instead of leaving his car. He would have woke up the next morning and this wouldn't be a story right now. He would have found his way home.
52:37 Speaker 01 Yeah, all good things to consider, but again, like so many cases, this will remain a mystery and people will continue to talk about the different scenarios and theories online until Brandon Swanson is found. But that is it for our episode on Brandon Swanson. If you love the show and haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, leave us a review. You can leave a rating. Also, keep telling your friends. Word of mouth about the criminology podcast really goes a long way.
53:11 Speaker 02 If you want to find us on social media, we're on X with the handle at CriminologyPod. You can also find us on Facebook by going to facebook.com/criminologypodcast and you can join our Facebook discussion group, Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans.
53:26 Speaker 01 So that's it for another episode of Criminology, but Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, from Mike.
53:36 Speaker 02 And Morph.
53:37 Speaker 01 We'll talk to you next week.
53:38 Speaker 02 Take care, everyone.
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