Every Town - Texas' Strangest Disappearance - The Brandon Lawson Mystery

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

Get 15% off OneSkin with the code EVERYTOWN at https://www.oneskin.co/  #oneskinpod It was just after 12:50 AM on August 9th, 2013, when a dispatcher picked up a call she’d never forget. On the other end was a man - out of breath, panicked, with his voice full of fear. 👀 Watch This Episode On Youtube: https://youtu.be/4xC91HXl5Eo 👁 Check out our movie AN ANGRY BOY for FREE! ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvtlOlODQ8g&t=5238s⁠ ⁠https://tubitv.com/movies/100029672/an-angry-boy⁠ International & Other Ways To Watch: ⁠https://www.anangryboy.com/⁠ 💀 MERCH: ⁠https://scary-mysteries.teemill.com/⁠ 💀 Free 7 Day Trail on Exclusive Episodes, Podcasts & Perks! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries⁠   🎧 Our Other Podcast Scary Mysteries: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZooEZMoZ421WdsOVJhVkT⁠ 👁 X: ⁠https://x.com/ScaryMysteries1⁠ 👁Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg⁠ 👁 TikTok: ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald⁠ 👁Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial⁠ 👁 X: ⁠https://x.com/ScaryMysteries1⁠   🗣 Business Inquiries, questions and comments hit us up at ⁠[e-mail]⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Into the dark, where true crime meets the eerie unknown. Every town has a dark side. It was just after 12.50 a.m. on August 9th of 2013, when a dispatcher picked up a call she'd never forget. On the other end was a man, out of breath, panicked with his voice full of fear. And then silence. The call just cut out. That man was Brandon Lawson, a 26-year-old father of four from San Angelo, Texas. Within hours, he would vanish without a trace along a desolate stretch of highway, even behind his stranded truck, that eerie 911 recording,

and a whole lot of questions that still linger today, as to what actually is. happened that night to Brandon. Hey guys, it's Andrew, and thanks for tuning in to today's episode of Everytown. But today we're covering a very strange and tragic mystery, one that has no concrete answers, but a few possible outcomes. However, each one is stranger than the next. So, let's head on over to Texas and check out the mysterious disappearance of Brandon Lawson. In the days leading up to him going missing, Brandon had been in San Angelo, where he lived with his girlfriend, friend Lodessa Lofton, whom he had dated on and off, though mostly on, since high school. She was technically his common-law wife at this point, and they shared three children together.

Brandon's fourth child was the oldest, a girl from a previous relationship. Born and raised in the lone star state, Brandon's brother Kyle lived nearby, while his parents were about three and a half hours away in Crawley, which is a suburb of Dallas. By all accounts, at the time, Brandon was trying to build a better life. for his family. He worked long hours in the oil fields, often putting in 60-hour work weeks to provide for his children, and sometimes even up to 90 hours, as he was known to skip out on weekends to chase down that overtime pay. But Brandon also carried some baggage that would prove crucial to understanding his disappearance. He had recently been released from jail after

getting pinched for selling weed to an undercover cop. What made matters worse was something Brandon discovered when he tried to renew his driver's license. Well, he couldn't because there was a warrant out for his arrest, this time from Johnson County for possession with intent to distribute. According to Kyle, Brandon felt this warrant was completely bogus. He had been saving money to hire a lawyer to fight it, but that takes time and time was something Brandon was running out of. With the pressures of life and law mounting, well, then came Brandon's relapse.

And two days before he disappeared, he had called his brother asking if he could get him some drugs. Brandon had recently taken his drug test for work, so he figured he was in the clear for a little bit. And Kyle tried to talk him out of it because he had been clean for almost six months at this point. But addiction is a rough thing for many people, and truly breaking the habit can take many, many attempts before they're successful. Sensing Brandon was going to get drugs one way or the other, no matter what Kyle said. He directed him to his co-worker Chris. He wasn't going to supply him but figured it was better to know what his brother was getting and where it came from instead of some sketchy stranger.

So then, Brandon and Chris linked up and got into a little methamphetamine binge. At this time, Brandon disappeared for around a day or so before Kyle eventually tracked him down at a friend's house around Fort Worth, which was three and a half hours away from San Angelo. And this detail is important because it establishes Brandon's state of mind in the days leading up to his real disappearance, the one he didn't come back from. In August 8th of 2013, started like any other day, but it would end with Brandon, driving out into the darkness of rural Texas, never to be seen alive again. He walked through his front door earlier that evening to find Ladesifurius. He hadn't come home because of what he was up to, and she knew he was.

messing with drugs again, so it was the start of another cycle for her, filled with pain and uncertainty. She had seen him go down this road before. The stress had been building for weeks, and they had a newborn at home, so this was just not a good thing. The argument that followed was heated in Lodessa, would later tell investigators that she regretted the word spoken that night, word she can never take back. That fight escalated to the point where Brandon had had enough, And so at around 11.30 p.m., he called his father and crawley and told him he was coming to visit. By 11.53 p.m., he left his house, driving his silver Ford F-150 north towards his parents' home. And it's here where this story begins to take a whole lot of strange turns.

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actually helps reduce biological aging and it shows. I've used it on my face, my arms, even my hands, and everything just feels healthier. One Skin is the world's first skin longevity company. By focusing on the cellular aspects of aging, One Skin keeps your skin looking and acting for longer. For a limited time, you can try OneSkin with 15% off using Code Everytown at OneSkin.co. That's 15% off OneSkin.com with Code Everytown. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Brandon called Kyle while out on the road, only he didn't tell him he had a fight with his lady.

No, Brandon was claiming that Mexicans from the neighborhood were chasing him out of town. His speech was erratic and a bit incoherent, possibly in part from bad cell reception, but also very possibly it was Brandon being on the influence. Kyle asked him straight up if he was hallucinating from the drugs, but Brandon denied being on any at the time. Even more puzzling, Brandon then told Kyle that a state trooper had pulled one of them over, but there were still two of them chasing him. Who were these guys?

Well, we have no idea. But we don't even know if they existed. And then, Brandon, acting in a frenzy, just hung up the phone. At 12.38 a.m., Brandon called Kyle again. This time his truck was running out of gas along Highway 277, somewhere between San Angelo and Bronte. He needed his brother to bring him some gas, so Kyle immediately set into action. He first drove over to Brandon and Ladesa's house to get the gas can she had left on the porch. Then he headed out with his wife, Audrey, and their four-year-old son in the middle of the night to get it to his brother.

Brandon was about 30 minutes north. As Kyle headed his way, Brandon kept on calling. Each conversation was brief and strange. Brandon would say a few words, then hang up. He wouldn't hold a conversation, and Kyle could tell something was very wrong. During one of these calls, Brandon said something that should have been a red flag. He said he was bleeding. though Kyle would later tell investigators that at the time he didn't feel his brother was in any real immediate danger,

and he thought it was the drugs and expected to find him at his truck when he arrived. By 12.50 a.m., Brandon then made a decision that would define his case for the next decade. That's when he called 911. And just a quick fact, in rural Coke County, Texas, 911 calls don't go to a traditional dispatch center. Instead, they route to a local nursing home and run. Robert Lee, where nurses and staff take the calls before contacting the sheriff's office. The call Brandon made was brief, panicked, and largely incoherent. The audio quality is poor, and in it, Brandon is clearly out of breath.

This heavy Texas accent makes many of his words difficult to understand, but you can judge for yourself. So what investigators could make out was this. Brandon said he was in the middle of a field and that his truck ran out of gas, that there was another car there, and that someone was chasing him into the woods. He pleaded for help to hurry. The dispatcher asked if he needed an ambulance, and Brandon initially said yes, then corrected himself, saying, no, I need the cops. Now Brandon had an active warrant out for his arrest, so he wanted to stay away from the police as much as humanly possible. And still, here he was, begging them to come help him. Whatever was happening out there, whatever had him running into the woods,

it was scary to him than getting locked up. But the most chilling part of the call came in the middle, where Brandon seemed to be describing what he was witnessing in real time. Among the garbled audio, investigators and people online as well have spent years trying to decode what sounds like a stapler just pushed some guys over, or possibly a staper just pushed some guys over. And some believe staper is Brandon attempting to say state trooper while in a state of panic. Others think he might have been saying scraper, though what that would mean in this context is unclear.

What's undeniable is that Brandon was describing some kind of confrontation or incident involving multiple people. He wasn't alone on that desolate stretch of highway, or at least he didn't think he was. The call ended suddenly, just cut off, but before it did, you can hear what sounds like gunshots in the background. It's hard to know for sure. When the nursing home dispatcher tried calling back at 104 a.m., while it went straight to Brandon's voicemail. While Brandon was making his desperate 911 call, Kyle was driving through the darkness towards Highway 277. unaware that his brother had just begged police for help. And Kyle arrived at Brandon's truck around 1.10 a.m.

just as a Coke County Sheriff's deputy was pulling up. That officer was Chief Deputy Brandon Neal, responding to a call from a trucker who had reported a vehicle partially blocking traffic. There, they found Brandon's truck pulled over with the hazard lights on, the front end sticking out a bit into the lane of traffic. It didn't really look like someone who had just run out of gas and drifted to a stop. It looked like someone who had tried to pull back onto the road but didn't make it. As Kyle talked to Deputy Neal telling him what he knew of the situation, his phone rang, and it was Brandon again.

According to Kyle's account, Brandon told him, I can see you, I'm right here. But when Kyle looked around, his brother was nowhere to be seen. And Deputy Neal, who had just driven the same stretch of the same stretch of him, a highway, I hadn't seen anyone walking along the road either. But here's where Kyle made a decision that he would later regret. And knowing about his brother's warrant and assuming he was hiding from the police, Kyle didn't tell Deputy Neal about the phone call he was receiving in real time. Brandon, still on the phone, suddenly saw Deputy Neal's headlights and shouted, one-time run, a code phrase the brothers used, meaning cops were approaching. When Kyle told Brandon,

he wasn't going to run because he hadn't done anything wrong. Brandon asked him, Where is your pride, mother effer? And then hung up. The officer examined the truck and found no signs of a struggle or that other people have been around there. The deputy said he was going to drive south toward the county line to see if he could spot anyone walking.

Kyle asked if he could drive north towards Bronte to look for his brother. Neil told him he wouldn't find anyone that way because he had just come from that direction. After the deputy left, Kyle drove a short distance up the road and waited. He sat there for 30 to 45 minutes, expecting Brandon to emerge from wherever he was hiding, but he never showed. Kyle tried calling him repeatedly, but after 1.19 a.m., all calls then started going straight to voicemail. Confused and concerned, Kyle eventually drove home with his family so they could rest.

He returned to the truck around 5 a.m., half expecting it to be gone. However, it was still there in the exact same spot. A couple hours later, Brandon's truck got towed away, and what should have been a simple case of a stranded motorist and now become something much more complicated. The initial response from the sheriff's office was fairly standard. They organized search efforts, spending Saturday searching surrounding properties for any signs of Brandon.

They used thermal imaging equipment and conducted grid searches on foot, but there was no sign of them. The only evidence that anyone had been in the area was what Deputy Neal described as a spot under a tree, where it appeared someone sat down close to the roadway with an eyesight of where Lawson's pickup broke down. On August 11th, the small private search team gathered and did their own search. By August 12th, the Texas Rangers had joined the investigation. And by the next day, August 13th, they had a helicopter scanning the area and beyond. Horses as well, but again, there was nothing. Because of the 911 call brand in place, there was a sense of urgency.

He appeared to be in danger, and plus he was missing now, so something bad might have really went down. But he was also known to be involved in drugs and spent time in jail, so in other words, a troublemaker. And maybe that trouble. finally caught up with him. The Observer Enterprise was Koch County's local newspaper, and it was owned and operated by Melinda McCutcheon. Melinda was married to none other than Sheriff Wayne McCutcheon, the man in charge of investigating Brandon's disappearance.

And from the very beginning, the media coverage of the case was biased, inaccurate, and seemed designed to support the theory that Brandon had deliberately disappeared to avoid being arrested. On August 13th, the Observer Enterprise created its first Facebook page, and the very first post was about Brandon's case. Melinda posted three more updates that same day, each one emphasizing Brandon's warrant and suggesting he had chosen to disappear. In her second post, she claimed that the original 911 call came to the Cope County Sheriff's Office at 1258 a.m., reporting a stranded motorist. and this was false. Brandon had called 911 himself at 12.50 a.m. And the truckers call about the hazardously parked vehicle came later.

And people caught this, and then Melinda began demanding that readers stopped commenting on the Brandon Lawson story altogether. She deleted all previous comments and said the story would be covered in the print edition, adding that it would be the last coverage until there was a break in the case. But the internet's going to internet. and people started digging into Melinda's own personal Facebook account after that,

trying to find out more information about her, and they did. On August 13th, she had posted a comment on the help-fine Brandon Lawson Facebook page, pretending that she wasn't the one writing those inaccurate newspaper posts, saying, quote-unquote, the paper posted it, as if she had nothing to do with it. In that same comment thread, she questioned why Brandon didn't return to his story. truck after the deputy left, suggesting that his actions proved he didn't want to be found. Meanwhile, the Observer Enterprise was posting at almost the exact same time that reports on the help find Brandon Lawson Facebook page were inaccurate, encouraging readers to share the

newspaper's version to correct the misinformation. So it was all starting to sort of sound like the way our politics do today. The newspaper's report was itself inaccurate, but they were criticizing the family's Facebook page who were just trying to help find their lost son, husband, and brother. This pattern of disinformation continued for months, but why? As a reminder, why would someone with an active warrant specifically call 911 and ask for police to come, only to hide from those same police when they arrived 20 minutes later? Well, Kyle Lawson said in 2019 that he believes either there was foul play involved, or that a police officer actually killed his brother, simple as that.

And if you look closer, this theory gains credibility when you consider the strange response to Brandon's 911 call. That nursing home dispatcher waited 14 minutes before trying to call Brandon back, and there's no record of the sheriff's office being immediately notified about the urgency of Brandon's situation. Why the wait? And did she notify the sheriff's office? me and Brandon sounded like he needed help. There's no denying that the behavior of the why for the lead investigator raised a lot of suspicions,

especially around how information about the case is being handled. It was almost as if they didn't want the family to search for answers. As she muddied the water as much as possible, it appears, to make it harder to get real information out to the masses. So then, did Brandon, under the influence of drugs, think he was being chased? or was he actually being chased? And if so, was it those Mexicans? Or was it perhaps a police officer? And that's the reason why there's still no answers in this case. Whatever the real story may be, for nearly nine years Brandon's case grew cold. His family never gave up searching, though,

organizing volunteer efforts and even hiring private investigators. And finally, on February 4th of 2022, will it all pay. off. On that day, a search party led by Jason Watts, a former classmate of Brandon's, was conducting a foot search in an area that had never been properly searched before. Previous searches have been conducted by air, but the thick brush and vegetation made it nearly impossible to spot anything from above. A Watts had spent years trying to get permission from landowners to search their property. And finally, one of them agreed, and on a January day in 2022, a 10-person search team set out into the land adjacent to Highway 277.

They then found Brandon's shoes and shorts, matching exactly what he had been wearing on the night he disappeared. Law enforcement came in and a professional search team was put together, and not far from where the clothes were found, they discovered human remains. After years of testing and analysis, on December 25th of 2024, Brandon's family found, finally got the news they'd been holding out for. An update tonight about the search for Brandon Lawson,

the West Texas man who went missing more than a decade ago. Laboratory testing has confirmed the human remains found two years ago are in fact his. In an update posted on Christmas Day on the help find Brandon Lawson Facebook page, Lidessa Lofton, Brandon's wife and the Lawson family, said the partial human remains found in February 22 are in fact Lawsons. He was found less than a mile from his truck, which suggests he never got far. But after nine years in the wilderness, there was little left to show how he died. Because of that, the cause of his death is unknown.

If you're in the camp that believes he was drugged out of his mind and that he was hallucinating everything, well, for one, that's a pretty serious hallucination. But if it was, well, how could he have stayed out there in those woods long enough to just die? It would take several days and that seems unlikely. In his call, not long after saying he was in the field, Brandon mentions a state trooper pulling some guys over and talks about someone being taken into the woods. He even says they killed the first guy.

It sounds like he found himself in the middle of something dangerous. Maybe he witnessed something he wasn't supposed to. Brandon's call came as that person who didn't want him snitching, caught up to him. Maybe it was illegal activities or illegal police actions and he was silence for it. But like in so many other cases, we'll probably never know the real answer. So that's going to do it for this week's episode of Everytown. And if you want more content like this, check the links in the description. We have more episodes, exclusive videos, and more.

Thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate you stopping by. Remember to come back next week for an end. another episode filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories, because you never know. Maybe your town will be next.