Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings, and Mysteries - 101. Brandon Lawson

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

In August of 2013, Brandon Lawson made a concerning 911 call, and then was never heard from again. However, just a few weeks ago, there was a huge update in the case. Get the full story in this episode. TW: mentions of suicide Subscribe on Patreon for bonus content and to become a member of our Rogue Detecting Society. Patrons have access to bonus content as well as other perks. And members of our High Council on Patreon have access to our after-show called Footnotes, where I share my case file with our producer, Matt. Apple subscriptions are now live! Get access to bonus episodes and more when you subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Follow on Tik Tok and Instagram for a daily dose of horror. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Today, I want to tell you the story of a man who vanished under very mysterious circumstances. But the most mysterious part of all is the 911 call he made, which I'm going to play for you in this episode. And if you're a fan of horrors, hauntings, and mysteries, welcome, you're one of us. Make sure to like this video,rors, hauntings, and mysteries, welcome, you're one of us. Make sure to like this video, subscribe to this channel, and hit the notification

bell so you never miss a video of my dark creation. It was a hot night in West Texas on August 9th, 2013, when Deputy Neal drove down a desolate stretch of highway in the dark. He had gotten a relatively easy dispatch to go look at a truck someone said was parked strangely on the edge of Highway 277, a two-lane road with miles of brush and fields on either side stretching out into infinity. Why anyone would be parked on that road? Well, he had no idea.

A few miles south of Bronte, Texas, Deputy Neal saw what the call was all about. There, parked over the white line on the side of the road so that it was in the way of traffic, was a truck. But the driver was nowhere to be found. So Deputy Neal pulled over to inspect it. It was a Ford F-150 with no visible signs of damage, no flat tire, no cracked windshield. The driver's side window was half down. No keys or phone were in the car. It looked like the driver must have run out of gas

and just started walking to the nearest gas station miles down the road. But just then, Neil caught something out of the corner of his eye. There was actually another car parked on the opposite side of the road, and a man and woman exited the vehicle with really worried expressions.

In the backseat, there was a young boy. Officer Neal looked at his watch. It was 1 15 in the morning. What were they doing here? The man and woman appeared to be in their mid to late 20s and they didn't say anything to Neal at first. The man had his phone to his ear and he was looking out into the brush,

spinning around like he was looking out into the brush, spinning around like he was trying to find something. He nervously shot a glance over to the deputy, and then continued looking around, speaking too quietly for Neil to hear. The woman was rapidly texting on her phone as if trying to shoot a message off in between glancing at the abandoned truck. Neil looked back at the vehicle. What was going on?

And then he approached the couple and asked them a question that would spawn a decade of search efforts. Do you know where the driver is? Welcome back to Heart Starts Pounding. I'm your host, Kaylyn Moore, and today I have a very strange story for you all. One that I wanted to tell you because it actually had a huge update just last month, so you'll definitely want to stick around to the end of the episode to hear it. If you're new here, welcome to the Rogue Detecting Society headquarters and the study

of our old Victorian fixer upper. We put out new episodes every Wednesday evening here in the US, and I wanted to actually update you all because starting soon we'll be putting out a special bonus episode for everyone, every month. Right now Patreon and Apple subscribers get a monthly bonus episode, one that they submit topics for and vote on. And of course, our Patreon High Council members get footnotes every week, a sort of after show where I talk through the case file for the week's episode with our producer. But starting already with the Psychopedia episode from a few weeks ago, we're going to be doing five episodes a month for everyone

instead of our normal four. Now, this fifth episode will be a little different. It might be interviews, it might be more current event things that have caught my attention or gotten the rogue detecting society talking. It could even be new experimental formats. Next month, towards the end of February,

it will feature me staying overnight in a very haunted location with a couple of girls who also have a ghostly podcast that many of you are probably familiar with, so you're definitely gonna want to stay tuned for that. And as always, thank you to everyone listening wherever you are, whatever you're doing, however much traffic you're sitting in or laundry you have piled up, I'm glad you followed your dark curiosity here. Okay, back to the story.

Back at the truck, Officer Neal asked the man what he was doing at the scene. And the man introduced himself as Kyle Lawson. He was the brother of the truck's owner, Brandon Lawson, a 26 year old father of three. The woman with him was Kyle's girlfriend. He explained that he had just been on the phone with his brother who had called him when he ran out of gas. Brandon had been making the three and a half hour drive from San Angelo to Fort Worth after he had an argument with his

girlfriend of ten years, Lidessa. On the phone, he said that he was walking down the side of the highway towards a gas station. Kyle was trying to stay on the phone with him, but his brother kept losing reception. But then why, when Kyle arrived, had he been searching in the bushes around the vehicle, the deputy wondered. If his brother the bushes around the vehicle, the deputy wondered.

If his brother was walking down the road, why not go looking for him there? Well, it turned out that the story Kyle relayed to Deputy Neal was only partially true. Yes, the truck belonged to his brother, Brandon Lawson. And yes, he had run out of gas, but Brandon wasn't walking down the side of the highway.

Kyle actually didn't know where his brother was, but on that last phone call, he gave him a chilling message. He said, I can see you. I'm right here. Suggesting that he was somewhere in the dark brush. Kyle looked around the area for his brother, but couldn't see him. He watched as Deputy Neal climbed back into his car

and drove off. He didn't really seem too concerned. He just figured that some guy had run out of gas and abandoned his car. Not really a big deal. But Kyle didn't wanna leave without really knowing where his brother was. See, deep down, he thought he knew But Kyle didn't want to leave without really knowing where his brother was.

See, deep down, he thought he knew why his brother hadn't come out of the brush. He had been hiding from the deputy, probably. See, Brandon had learned in the last few days that he had a felony warrant out for his arrest. So he probably was just laying low in the brush until the officer left. But Kyle didn't want to just leave his brother stranded there with no gas. So he and his girlfriend got back in his car and went up the road a bit. They waited there for around 30 minutes, but Brandon never appeared. Eventually, Kyle's young son, who was in the backseat, started crying about being hungry and tired, and he needed to get him home, so they ended up driving back to San Angelo.

Maybe he thought he would hear from Brandon later that night, but he never did, and every call he made to his brother went straight to voicemail. So he came back to where the truck was the next morning around 5 a.m. and when he arrived, his heart dropped. Brandon's truck was still there and he was still nowhere to be found. In the pre-dawn light, there was still no evidence of Brandon, no keys, no wallet, nothing. Kyle stood by the truck and screamed out for his brother,

but no response. He ended up driving up and down Highway 277 for a few hours, but didn't see any sight of his brother. He was starting to get pretty concerned. This area was full of rattlesnakes and wild hogs. It was also pretty desolate. If Brandon had wandered too far from the road, he may have gotten lost. By 8.30am, the police had come back to tow the truck. On August 13th, four days after the disappearance, Brandon's family filed a

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

he said that he was bleeding and he wanted Kyle to hurry up and get there fast with gasoline. The officer asked Kyle if he had been worried about his brother that night when all of this happened, and he admitted that that night he wasn't. He didn't know exactly what was going on with his brother, but he didn't think that he would vanish.

So your brother was bleeding and hiding from police, but you weren't really worried, the officer asked. Turns out that talking to the police really backfired on Kyle. Soon all eyes were on him. Not knowing what else to do, Kyle offered to take a polygraph test so he could clear his name officially. He wouldn't have done anything to his brother. He loved Brandon.

Brandon was a hardworking father of three young children, and he was his best friend. And so of course the officers took him up on his offer, and Kyle passed the first polygraph test, but the results of the second were a little ambiguous. He was fidgeting around a lot during the test, and he coughed a ton, which skewed the results. Was he nervous, the police wondered? Was he fidgety because he was hiding something? He had already lied to them once, was he lying again? There was still a lot about the night

that Brandon went missing that needed to be put together, but it wasn't long before a huge piece of evidence was revealed. Brandon's girlfriend, Lidessa, was going through Brandon's phone statement when she saw a call on it that no one had been made aware of. Not Kyle, not the officers, not Deputy Neal.

But that night in between phone calls to his brother, Brandon had actually called 911 and had a very concerning conversation with the dispatcher. That call after short break. Today's episode is sponsored by Acorns. New Year's resolutions are really hard to maintain. I always get this big burst of inspiration in January to read more, go to the gym more, get more sleep. But did you know only 8% of people will stick with their resolutions all year long? Well, with Acorns, you can lock in years and years of healthy money habits in just 5 minutes.

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HSP Like so worried about my sister I was sick, but I'm here returning to W network and stack TV You're not killing these people then who is that's what I know. Starring Kaylee Cuoco and Chris Messina. The only investigating I'm doing these days is who shit their pants. Killer messaged you yesterday? This is so dangerous. I got to get out of this.

Based on a true story. New season premieres Monday at 9 Eastern and Pacific. Only on W, stream on Stack TV. This episode is brought to you by Hero Bread. What's your health goal for the year? Mine, maybe some of you can relate to this, is for my stomach to feel good. I just feel like my whole life is better when my digestion is working right.

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So go to hero.co, that's hero.co and use code HSP at checkout. I'm going to play you the contents of that call right now. First at regular speed and then slowed down. It's hard to understand what Brandon is saying, so I want you to listen closely. I was out here going towards that window on both sides. My truck ran out of gas. There's one car here that got taken to the woods. Three cars.

Okay, now, run that round. I'm not talking to them. I told you that I need to go. Ah, you ran into him. Okay. That's a hard stop. Do you need an ambulance? No, I need to call. Okay.

Is anybody hurt? Hello? I told you I went on both sides. Not sure if I had a gas. There's one more here that got taken to the woods. Push hard. Okay, now. Why am I talking to them? Why did you let me into them? Ah, you let into them, okay. Just a first stop. You need an ambulance? No, I'm the cop.

Okay. Anybody hurt? Hello? Like I said, it's really difficult to understand what Brandon is saying, and a lot of what he says has not been confirmed, but I want to break it down based on what our best guess of what he says is. So at first, it sounds like he says something like, yes, I'm in the middle of a field, a stapler just pushed some guys over.

And so according to some people in the area, a stapler is actually slang for a state trooper. And then he goes on to say something like, we're out here going towards Abilene on both sides. So Abilene is a small city in Texas that he was headed towards on the highway. It was on the way to Fort Worth, which was believed to be his intended destination. The next part is a little harder to understand,

but it kind of sounds like my truck ran out of gas. There's one car here, a guy's chasing blank into the woods. Please hurry. The 911 dispatcher then asks him to run that by him again because it doesn't make a lot of sense and it's hard to hear. And Brandon interrupts him by saying something that sounds like blank, not talking to him,

blank, something ran into him. His words are slurred, but the dispatcher confirms they understand by saying, ah, you ran into him. So that part is also up in the air as to what Brandon meant. Did he run into someone else, as in hit them with his vehicle, or did he run across someone like you would in a store? I've seen a few people say that this is a regional thing.

Using ran into can mean come across. But the way that the dispatcher responds makes me think that they assumed Brandon had hit someone, which is why they then asked if he needed an ambulance later. And then Brandon says something about the first guy. Some people think he says shot the first guy, and then when asked if he needs an ambulance, he says, no, I need the cops. Though some people think it sounds more like, yeah, no, I need the cops, with a yeah confirming it first.

There's also a lot of debate about what can be heard in the background of this call. Some people insist they can hear gunshots or another person talking, but like I said, none of that has been confirmed. But obviously, this very strange call changed a lot of people's thoughts about what happened that night.

Was Brandon in danger? Was he being chased? Was he running from someone? One thing that a lot of people who have heard this phone call have brought up is that Brandon may have said that he watched a state trooper push someone over, so some suggest that he maybe saw something he shouldn't have. Could that have also been a part of the reason that he was hiding from Deputy Neal

when he arrived on the scene? While Kyle didn't really think that any of this made sense, Brandon had asked for the cops to come to the scene, but then was hiding from the deputy that arrived. The truth of the matter was that the entire night leading up to Brandon going missing had been pretty strange. On the night that he went missing, Brandon arrived at the home he shared

with his long-term partner, Ladessa, and their young children. He had not stayed in the house the previous night, and according to Ladessa, they had a fight while he was there. Ladessa would later tell police that the couple fought about normal couple things. Brandon had been working 60 plus hour weeks

as an oil field worker, a physically demanding job that doesn't typically pay the high salaries some oil industry jobs pay. On top of that, his children were still very young. But he had actually just taken a new job, one that paid better and had better benefits. And he was set to start on Monday morning. So maybe things were about to get better for them.

Regardless, during the fight, Brandon stormed out, got in his truck and drove off. It's believed that Brandon was driving to his parents' home near Fort Worth, about three hours away. And this is based on a call that he had with his father at 11.30 PM. Though I've seen statements from the Lawson family that indicate they weren't

exactly sure where he was going, but he was headed northwest along Highway 277 in that general direction. Just after 1230 a.m. Brandon called Kyle and let him know that his truck had run out of gas and he needed help. On this call, he told Kyle that he believed three people were chasing him out of town because Ledessa told them to. The only description he gave of these people is that they were Mexican, male, and that they were from his neighborhood. This caught Kyle off guard. He started to think that maybe his brother was on something and hallucinating.

So he asked point blank, are you tripping? But Brandon insisted that no, he was not. And this was not in his head. This was one of a series of phone calls that Brandon made that night, most of which were cataloged by the San Angelo Times. After that first call, Kyle started making arrangements to go bring his brother some gas. He was going to have to get a gas can from La Desa, grab Brandon so they could use his credit card, and then bring the gas back to the truck. But meanwhile, Brandon's phone record

shows the following calls. At 1251, Kyle called Brandon and left a voicemail, probably because that's when Brandon tried to call LaDessa, but she didn't answer. 1254, Kyle called Brandon again. 1258, Brandon called Kyle and then called again. 1259, Kyle called Brandon. 104, the dispatcher he had spoken to called Brandon back to get more information about what was happening. She left a voicemail and then called once more, but it doesn't appear that call connected. Between 1-09 and 1-19, Kyle and Brandon called each other multiple times, sometimes in quick

succession. Kyle said that during these calls on the call log, Brandon would say things really quickly, some of it was nonsensical, and then he would just hang up. He also told him that he was bleeding and in a field. Kyle arrived on the scene at 1 10, and that's when his brother told him that he could see him and that he was right there. The last outgoing phone call from Brandon was at 1 15 and after 1 19 all phone calls to him went to voicemail and he was never heard from

again. Did something happen in those four minutes? Did he fall? Did someone hurt him? Did he just stop answering and then run away? Was he in another location? A small search group gathered to look for Brandon starting on August 11th. Cote County was in the middle of a serious drought, so most of the vegetation had actually thinned out, which made it slightly easier to search the area than it would have been otherwise.

And Deputy Neal confirmed that the drought was making it a lot easier to do overhead searches. He said that from up in a plane, he could see corn sacks on the ground. And if you could see those from a plane, he said in an interview, you could see a person. And yet, no trace of Brandon was ever found. The area was even searched with a thermal camera, but still nothing. The only sign of anyone being in that area, the police report read, was a spot under a tree where it appeared someone sat down close to the roadway within eyesight of where Brandon's pickup truck broke down. By August 12th, just one

day after search efforts began, Deputy Neal met with Coke County Sheriff Wayne McCutcheon, and the two of them came to a conclusion. They said that Brandon had made an escape and that he was no longer in Coke County. They said they came to this realization after they learned that Brandon had a big fight with LaDessa that evening and had been hiding from the officers.

On top of that, they discovered that he had cashed out his 401k just a week before his disappearance. Which, mind you, is something that is less suspicious when you remember that he was in the middle of switching jobs. Later on in October, cadaver dogs were actually called to the area and they got no hits. To the officers, it seemed like a classic case of a man who wanted to escape it all and start fresh, even when it was revealed that Brandon's phone may have pinged a tower that made it seem like he was just a few miles from his truck. But officers pointed to another case from the area, the case of John Shadden,

a 36-year-old father of four that disappeared in 2007. So John was reported missing on June 12, 2007, after he failed to return to work. He was last seen at his vacation trailer home three days prior to that, and then never again. Even though his profile on the Charlie Project website says endangered missing, officers believed that he simply left his life to start anew. But there were problems with that theory. John had apparently mentioned weeks before his disappearance that he had considered taking his own life, and there were rumors of a burned note inside of his trailer home

that may have been a suicide note. So he wasn't really an example of a man who had abandoned his life for greener pastures, yet Coke County officers were using him as one. And then on October 31st, 2013, the Observer Enterprise, which was a weekly newspaper in Cote County, posted an article that opened with, Law enforcement concludes man not in Cote County.

What was that based on, though? On the fact that they didn't find a trace of him in the area that was searched. Brandon's family and a lot of the community felt like it was pretty audacious to conclude firmly that he was no longer in the county. And so online forums were created to share information pertaining to Brandon. One of those was a Facebook page called Find Brandon Lawson

that was updated by LaDessa and others close to the missing man. The page quickly grew to thousands of people who were invested in Brandon's whereabouts, but soon some strange posts started popping up on some of these forums. One said, quote, my question is, after the deputy left and in the hours before the truck

was towed, why didn't he go back to his truck and drive off? Could it be that he thought he would be stopped while driving? His actions prove he didn't want to be seen by law enforcement. Could it be he still doesn't want to be found, especially after all the publicity? Now, taken on its face, that statement doesn't seem all that strange. It reads like an internet sleuth coming up with theories as to why Brandon would still be hiding from police. But what is strange about that post? Is that the author was Melinda McCutcheon, is that the author was Melinda McCutcheon, wife of Coke County Sheriff Wayne McCutcheon,

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

the reports on the help find Brandon Lawson page are inaccurate. She claimed that Ledessa was lying when she said that she saw the 911 call on Brandon's phone records. She also said that she was given an exact quote that Brandon probably could not have gone more than 100 yards in his condition. She doesn't explain what that condition is, but she insinuates that he was on a substance. She also said that she wouldn't publicly post the exact quote, but she would private message people if they asked for it, because she didn't want Ladessa to see the quote on a public forum. But that statement that he couldn't have gone more than a hundred yards in his condition

contradicts what she said before that he was not in Coke County. So I bring all of this up to say that this investigation was kind of a mess from the start. You have the sheriff who was claiming that Brandon left Coke County, even though none of his credit cards, bank accounts, nor his cell phone had ever been used. You have the sheriff's wife acting like a Reddit sleuther all over the internet, sharing private information

with strangers. It's no wonder that Brandon's family eventually hired a private investigator, Paula Boudreau, to help lead the search around Highway 277. But that search didn't turn up anything, not a single trace of Brandon. And eventually, months without Brandon turned into years. There was no word from him. Ladeza said her children would ask if their dad was coming home for their birthdays each year and how do you explain that to a child? In 2019, though, in an effort to get more information out about the case, Brandon's

brother Kyle went on an episode of the Crawl Space podcast called Missing Brandon Lawson, and on this episode of the podcast, Kyle gave some information to the public about that night that wasn't previously known. First, and this detail shocked a lot, but he disclosed what Ledessa and Brandon were actually fighting about on the last night anyone saw him. It wasn't, quote, normal couple things

like Ledessa had said, it was drugs. See, earlier that night, Brandon had called Kyle and asked him to get him some meth. Kyle told his brother he thought that was a bad idea. Brandon had been clean for a while now. Why go and mess all of that up? He did not go and get his brother drugs, but he did know that Brandon found some that day.

He described his brother's drug use as somewhat under control. He would use occasionally, but could put the drugs down for a long time. He had been to jail previously for drug-related charges, and actually in this interview Kyle explained that the warrant for Brandon's arrest was drug-related. But it had been from an incident that occurred before the last time Brandon had gone to jail, hence why he wasn't really aware of it. He actually didn't learn about this warrant until he went to the DMV after being released from prison recently. Ladessa had called Kyle after

the fight, devastated that Brandon had been using. She said that his head wasn't right and asked Kyle to come help. But by the time Kyle had gotten to their house, his brother was gone. He didn't think that Brandon had done any other substances that night or had done any more meth after he left La Desa's. But knowing there were drugs in his system

did affect how people viewed this case. Maybe Brandon didn't run into a state trooper that night who was chasing him or whatever the cryptic 911 call revealed. Maybe he was actually suffering from what's known as meth psychosis. So meth psychosis can affect up to 40% of users and symptoms include hallucinations and paranoia. Kyle insisted that his brother had never acted this way

before while on the drug, and he didn't seem to believe that this was psychosis. But was this really just a textbook case of drug-induced paranoia? Was Brandon hallucinating people chasing him? Did he hallucinate seeing a state trooper do something? Maybe, but what does that mean for where he was? If he had run away in fear,

would he have come down from his high and returned home? Or did he get hurt while he was out there? Well, the surrounding area had been searched, so it didn't seem like he had gotten hurt anywhere near his vehicle at least. As I was listening to this interview, I was certain that drugs had something to do with the outcome of that night. I just didn't know exactly what.

But then Kyle actually brought up something very interesting that I hadn't seen or heard anywhere else. He mentioned how after his brother went missing, he got a phone call. A woman in town had bought a used laptop and found something concerning on it, something that she thought the Lawson family needed to see. When she got the laptop, she realized that not everything from the previous owner had been scrubbed from it. And one night she was going through some of the old files

and she saw a document that looked like a short story someone had written. Intrigued by this, she started reading it and quickly she realized that she had to call Kyle. The short story detailed someone coming across Brandon that night and killing him. Now, Kyle doesn't give a ton of info on this short story in the podcast, so it's unclear if this was like a short story or like a diary entry someone had written, but it detailed how this person was walking down Highway 277 that night, saw Brandon, and proceeded to kill him. The woman, I guess, didn't know who the previous owner was,

so the laptop was turned over to the police, but as of the time the interview was recorded, nothing had happened with it. One thing that really stood out to Kyle about this story, though, was that the writer never explained what they did with Brandon's body, leading Kyle to believe that the author must have left it at the scene, which meant that it would be near his vehicle. But the police said Brandon wasn't in Cote County, and searches of the immediate area all came up empty. That is, until years later, in January of 2022, when Kyle got a call that human remains were found.

Not far at all from where Brandon's truck was discovered. final buzzer. You're always taken care of with a sports book born in Vegas. That's a feeling you can only get with bet MGM. And no matter your team, your favorite player or your style, there's something every NBA fan will love about that MGM download the app today and discover why bet MGM is your basketball home for the season. Raise your game to the next level this year with bet MGM, a sports book worth a slam dunk and authorized gaming partner of the NBA season. Raise your game to the next level this year with Bet MGM, a sports book worth a slam dunk and authorized gaming

partner of the NBA. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge.

BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. In a darkly comedic look at motherhood and society's expectations, Academy Award-nominated Amy Adams stars as a passionate artist who puts her career on hold to stay home with her young son. But her maternal instincts take a wild and surreal turn, as she discovers the best, yet fiercest, part of herself. Based on the acclaimed novel, Nightbitch is a thought-provoking and wickedly humorous film from Searchlight Pictures. Stream Nightbitch January 24 only on Disney+.

With TD Direct Investing, new and existing clients could get 1% cash back. Great! That's 1% closer to being part of the 1%. Maybe, but definitely 100% closer to getting 1% cash back with TD Direct Investing. Conditions apply. Offer ends January 31st, 2025. Visit td.com slash dioffer to learn more. In January of 2022, a small search group of nine people led by an advocate named Jason Watts was combing through the area near where Brandon's truck

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

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

the remains were Brandon. The search was officially over. The find Brandon lost on Facebook page updated the group, adding that the date the remains were confirmed was symbolic because it was Christmas. And in a way, closure is a gift. It's heartbreaking, but at least now they knew for a fact where Brandon was. And while the question of Brandon's disappearance

has been answered, some people still believe that there are many questions about how and why this happened. Were any of the theories true? Did Brandon get killed by a state trooper, or a stapler as he called them? Was he attacked by a passerby on the highway? We still don't know how he died. But at least what I can gather from some of those closest to Brandon in the case, they don't necessarily believe there was any foul play, and having him home is closure enough

for now. So that's all I have for you this week. If you're interested, I'll be sharing more from my case file on this story over on footnotes available on the high council tier on Patreon, which also you can sign up for seven days free if you're so inclined. This month's bonus episode for subscribers only

is on remarkable and eerie stories of reincarnation, available on Apple Podcasts, subscriptions, and Patreon. And until next time, stay curious. Heart Starts Pounding is written and produced by Kaelyn Moore. Heart Starts Pounding is also produced by Matt Brown. Additional research and writing by Marissa Dao. Sound design and mix by Peachtree Sound. Special thanks to Travis Dunlap,

Grayson Jernigan, the team at WME, and Ben Jaffe. Have a heart-pounding story or a case request? Check out heartstartspounding.com.