Morbid - Spooky Lighthouses: Volume 4

Episode Date: September 2, 2024

Weirdos! Everyone Rejoice!! September is upon us! Let's welcome the 'BER' months with the FOURTH installment of Spooky Lighthouses! Today Alaina & Ash talk about the morbid history of two lighthouses: The Cape Romain Lighthouse in South Carolina & Little Ross Lighthouse in Scotland! Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, weirdos. I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is morbid. Morning, but it's like morbid brunch a little. Yeah, morbid mid-morning. Morbid in mid-morning. Yeah. That has the same feel. It doesn't. Absolutely. Hi, everybody. We hope your mornings are going well. Ours are. Ours are really happy right now. We're having a good morning. Having a good old morning. Good morning. Good morning. The patrons are having a good morning too. Yeah, we hope you are because we love you. And we appreciate you. And you deserve the world.

And we would like to give it to you if we could. You do. You do. On a sadder, like not like a note at all. There's some real updates. I do have an update about the Lauren Smithfield's case. We mentioned Lauren Smith Fields on a past episode. She was the woman who had met an older man on Bumble.

And he was the last person to see her alive. He called the police the morning after their first date and just said that she was unresponsive. Yeah. And I didn't actually know this part of the story. Lauren's mother, Chantelle, wasn't able to get into contact with her during all of this, obviously. And so she drove over to Lauren's apartment. And there was a note left on the door that said, if you're looking for Lauren, call this number. What?

So the family was informed. I did not know that. The family was informed that she had been found dead in her apartment a day and a half earlier. Oh, come on. There was no effort made to let them know. I'm sorry. This is so beyond horrific in every way. Like, this is handled so poorly.

And they were told, quote, this is a quote, we didn't need to reach out to any family member. We had her passport and her ID, so we knew who she was. And we already performed an autopsy. Her body's at the medical examiner's office. Are you shitting me? They were also hung up on during this interaction when they asked for more information. luckily, this one detective was taken off the case. But they were also told that because they were like, okay, so who is this man that she was last

seen with? Like, is he being investigated? And they were like- She's our child. Can we know anything about her death, please? No, he's not being investigated. And he, quote-unquote, seems like a nice man. Yeah, totally.

Like, okay, again, so did Ted Bundy. Yeah. So did Jeffrey Dahmer to some people. So did fucking John Wayne Gacey. And look what was in his crawl space. Exactly. So this man. did speak with police.

And this is his story. He said that he and Lauren had met on Bumble and they had spent the night together drinking. They were watching a movie. He said that she went outside to meet somebody at some point. And that later on in the night, she fell ill, but they continued to drink. And he said that she eventually fell asleep and he carried her to bed, which I was like on your first date. Like I feel like, I don't, I feel like you're lying about something. Just nothing about this seems real.

No. And he said then he went. next to, he went to sleep next to her. And then he woke up several hours later about 6.30 in the morning. She wasn't breathing and her nose was bleeding. So that's when he called 911. And that's the first I heard about her nose bleeding at this point. I don't know. So the family wasn't contacted for at all. And then a day and a half later they find that note and then they find out what's going on. So it's like would they have just never told them? If they didn't find that note, what would have happened here? Exactly. This is wild.

So and also like they performed an autopsy without even talking to the family first. That's the other thing. Which obviously they would have wanted an autopsy performed, but you talk to the family first, I would assume. We have to get full consent from a family before we can even attempt to begin an autopsy. That's what I always thought. Yeah. Sometimes it holds, you know, the entire schedule up because that's the important part is you need that. You need next of kin to consent.

Yeah. So the medical examiner did rule her death an accidental overdose due to quote unquote, acute intoxication due to the combined effects of fentanyl, promethazine, hydroxazine, and alcohol. Whoa. And again, ruled the death an accident. There's fentanyl in her system. Like, something's wrong here.

What? Something is wrong here. Something is wrong here. Oh, you think? Because they also didn't investigate evidence that was left at the scene, which, according to the Smithfield's family attorney, Darnel. Crossland, I believe is how you say his name. He told CBS News that bloodied sheets were not processed at the scene until two and a half weeks later. And they also found a pill at the scene and a

condom with semen in it. And none of that wasn't processed. What exactly did they do? Did they walk in and go, oh well. Yep. That's literally what they did. Yep. So this family is like, that's outrageous. This is exactly. This family is like, this is outrageous. This is clearly racially charged. why we're being treated this way. So the mayor of Bridgeport, actually on Monday, so yesterday, announced that the police department's interaction with the family of Lawrence Smith Fields will be investigated by the Office of Internal Affairs, excuse me, and also announced that they will be updating its policies on family death notifications. Yeah, no shit.

Saying, quote, death notification should be done in a manner that illustrates dignity for the deceased and respecting compassion for the family. Therefore, I will work with the chief of police to make appropriate changes here in Bridgeport to our department's policies and practices regarding notifying family members of a death. I support and add my voice to the family community and elected officials who are calling for state legislation on this issue. That is shameful. Sh shameful. I have never in my life heard of a police department sticking a note on a door. If you're looking for Lauren call this number, how about you fucking sit down at your desk and try your best to get in touch with me? And that's literally part of what you do as a police detain. That's your job.

That is your job. Any police detective worth their weight would say to you, one of the worst parts of their job is having to inform the next of kin, the family members, about what happened to their loved one. Of course. That is literally a standard part of their job. It's insane to me that this is being treated like, oh, we just miss that step. No, it's like, no, that's literally the most important step at that point, is getting that family to know what happened. it's just like so fucked up this is i mean this is their child this is their sibling this is like friends like it's so this is insane like Lauren deserves it's so fucking justice here and her family does

it's just something's off here it's just something's off i'm not accusing anyone of anything right now but i'm saying something's off it's very something is off and it's very clear what's going on here it needs to be investigated and luckily it is but I'm like, let's make sure that this is what you just said, investigated properly. And maybe don't wait to do this shit. Maybe do it when you're supposed to do it, instead of when the family who is grieving the loss, the tragic and brutal loss of their child and sister, instead of waiting until they have to like bang on your door to get you to do it, maybe just do your job.

Exactly. When you're supposed to do it. It's the same thing what we're going to talk about in the Brandon Swanson case when they were like, well, he's 19, he probably just left. And they didn't do their job right away. And they missed valuable time. It's so fun. I don't understand that like the lack of urgency in some of these police departments.

It's like really wild when your job is all about responding to urgency. Well, I was just going to say like that's exactly what I was going to say. That's your whole job is being urgent. That's it. Like in your resume, you should write that you have a sense of urgency. You are supposed to protect and you are supposed to serve. When you do neither of those things, what exactly are you being paid for? Right.

I just don't understand that. And it's so clear that it's racially motivated in this case and it is disgusting. It like makes me sick. Well, hopefully this case, I mean, I see people trying to push it on social media. Keep pushing this case on social media the way that, you know, we pushed like Gabby Petito because that got really pushed out there and it helped. And that's the thing. Like these cases need to be pushed out in front of a lot of people so that things can happen. Like, this should be international news.

That should be everywhere. And it's not. And it's crazy. So let's keep pushing it out, guys, because it's just important. Because people are getting, like, lost in the cracks here. It's so fucked. But we're going to keep you as updated as possible on Lauren's case because clearly something has gone awry in that situation. Something is a miss.

That is. Something wicked this way comes for sure. That is foul play, in my opinion. Yeah. So definitely keep an eye out for that. and keep sharing it as much as you can. But let's get into part two of Brandon Swanson because... Yeah, dude, let's.

Because the fact that I had to wait with you guys. Just like, what, two days, not even? Yeah. And she wouldn't tell me anything. No, because... She wouldn't fucking tell me a thing. I had asked you guys, like, you know, if you have any theories, if you have any insights into, like, little pieces of this,

by all means, send them. I would like to, like, include you guys in this episode because you guys have a lot of, like, cool and, like, interesting things to say about this stuff. So you did. So thank you very much. You did. And so I waited just that day to let everybody kind of throw in their theories if they could. And I kind of was just mulling through them. I'll say like first names, but I won't say like your full name or anything like that. But I really appreciate you guys sending them in because it's going to help you everybody kind of understand this a little better and help us kind of piece what possibly

could have happened together. So going back to where we ended, we ended with them finding his car off the beaten path there on that Lions County, you know, like, what was it, Lions Lincoln County Road. Yep. And they have not yet found Brandon. And to this day, 2022 have not found Brandon Swanson. That's crazy. Beginning of 2020. I wanted to say something about the car too.

When I was looking for the images to post on Instagram, I'm pretty sure that the car that pops up that's like, totally off the road is not a real crime scene photo. Well, there's a few different photos of different cars. Yeah. So we weren't going to post anything because I can't figure out which one is the real one. And most of them are on like paved roads. Yeah. And we were saying that this was like a gravel road.

So don't pay attention to those. Yeah. So it feels pretty safe to say. And everyone agreed in the emails and in all the comments I saw. I think we were all on the same page that Brandon was likely on those backroads. The reason he was on any backroads, was probably to avoid getting pulled over. Yeah.

Or going through a sobriety checkpoint of some sort, you know. You know, those things are always on main routes like Route 68 that you would take directly to Marshall. And especially around that time of night. It doesn't make it easier to understand how he was so far away from where he thought he was. It just makes us understand why he was out on those country roads to begin with instead of that straight shot. So I agree with all of you. I'm in the same camp. I think he turned off that road to begin with to stay away from main roads.

It makes sense. Because he was drinking at the party. So he was probably just like, I don't even want to. Yeah, whether or not he was intoxicated, I'm sure it would still show up on it. Now, this is confirmed in my mind when I finally found a police report for Brandon's DUI arrest before this. Okay. It was an arrest in, it was 914, 2006 that the arrest happened. So it was two years before this.

He was 17. Okay. So he was pretty young. You know, 17-year-olds, you know what I'm saying? It happened. His blood alcohol level was 0.08, which is considered legally impaired. Oh, okay. He was found guilty and all that mess, like, went through the whole thing.

So it is very likely that he was really nervous driving home after drinking at those parties. And again, we still don't know exactly how many drinks he had. Uh-huh. officials also believe this is the reasoning for him taking those back roads to begin with. It's really the only thing for me that makes sense. Nothing else makes sense. Why else would he be doing that? And that's just like such a like, yeah, that perfect sense.

Yeah, it just makes sense. Now, investigators have also said, though, that they don't believe that Brandon was intoxicated to the point of impairment that night. I cannot find why they feel this way or what led them to this conclusion, but they have stated that. Huh. as we said before his parents are also in agreement with this statement i don't know if they're just taking the statements from the parents and being like all right we can see or they have something else i don't know

yeah but again the parents were on the phone with him all night that night right so they do have they know their son of course so let's talk about some theories theory number one he staged his own disappearance that's a big theory everywhere don't buy it there is absolutely no indication that brand and would have just wanted to leave without a trace. He had a very specific plan academically that he was making like actual strides towards. He had tons of friends. He was close to his family. He had that small legal hiccup in 2016, a DUI at 17.

That's not like he was, you know, in some big like ring of criminals or anything like that. No, it's very. Yeah. The, and there was, from what I looked in research, there was no other legal thing attached to his name. So there was that like, whoops, hiccup. Y at 17. We move past it. That's it. Now, the other major thing here is that he voluntarily called his friends for help and then his parents. Yeah. This wasn't a situation where they reached out to him. He called, he called them for help. Yeah. And stayed on the phone for a long time.

In fact, it was 47 minutes that he was on the phone with his father walking, trying to get towards where he thought was Lind. That's not really screaming. I'm faking my own death or disappearance to me. No. So I say absolutely not to that one. I thought. I agree with you. But it's always something that people grab onto in these situations. Like the Bryce Las Pisa case is one that comes to mind. That one makes more sense. Where it actually makes sense.

This one just doesn't have anything. No, not in this case. Now, the second theory, Brandon fell into the river. Okay, but why didn't they find him? Well, that's the thing. This is absolutely plausible. Yeah. It's plausible, but with a caveat in my mind.

A caveat, if you will. I believe it is entirely possible and probably probable, actually. that he fell into the river. Maybe he slipped. His phone fell as he went in. His father did indicate in an interview that he thinks he heard a slipping sound like Brandon fell. Okay. But I believe he got out of the river. The dogs hit and indicated that and also they never found his body in the river. Or his cell phone. Or his cell phone. He never washed up and by now they would have found him. Absolutely. Investigators also don't believe he is still in that river. They were like, I don't think he drowned in that river. No, and the fact that I know like dogs can be like a little bit tricky, but the fact that they got his scent out of the river, exactly. That's that's pretty big for me. And it's just they, I mean, we can talk about it in a second, but that brand that, uh, that brandon, that river has dried up recently. Oh, at one point. It's because of like a drought. So it fills in dress up. Yeah. But when it dry, they found nothing. Yeah. They would have like they just, no, they would have found something. I believe he very well could have fallen in, but he definitely crawled out or waded through it and out.

And maybe that is the problem here, because let's get to the next one. The elements. Theory three, he died from exposure. Yes. So if Brandon went into the water that night and got out, he would be soaking wet, of course. And it was already 40 degrees. It was below 40 degrees that evening in Minnesota. Wet clothing in particular is a killer in cold weather conditions.

Even in like temperate weather conditions, cold, wet clothing can give you hypothermia. it's just waiting to strike. Yeah. Now, survivalists say that if you get soaking wet in cold weather, you should immediately take the clothing off and ring it out the best to your ability before putting it back on. Good to know.

Because soaking wet clothing will suck the heat right out of your body way faster. Oh, that freaks me out. Now, this is because heat is lost via conduction and evaporation. Hypothermia can also happen because of convection while the wind blows. It will blow the air that your body warms away from you.

and it will begin to cool you. I'm getting triggered to like sixth grade science class when I was like not so good at like the difference between conduction and convection. It's very interesting when it comes to hypothermia though. It is. It can also happen by radiation where heat is lost through exposed areas like your face or head. That's why they always say like wear a hat. You lose heat through your head.

Or like don't go out with wet hair. That's radiation. But we are going to concentrate for a moment on wet clothes because this is if Brandon fell into the river somehow and got out. So wet clothing will conduct heat like water. And water conducts heat away from the body. Oh. Water conducts heat 25 times faster than dry air does because it has a greater density,

so it has a greater capacity for heat. Fun. Now, I looked back at Brandon's clothing, and he was wearing a polo shirt and a sweatshirt. I'm assuming cotton was a big part of these shirts. I saw that, like, some shirts are like polyester or a blend of cotton and polyester. A lot of times these kind of sweatshirts and stuff are like 100% cotton. Yeah. Because it's the fabric of our lives, you know.

I'm obsessed with you. If this is, wait, wait. Cotton, the fabric of our lives. There you go. There it is. So I'm assuming it could have been cotton. Yeah. Now, if this is true, getting those wet and then wandering around for even under an hour

could prove fatal for Brandon. Cotton is the worst fabric to get wet in cold or even. mild temperatures. And why is that? Cotton absorbs water and the fibers that make cotton up stick together when they're wet. So it will hold a massive amount of water against your bare skin and it will not insulate the heat at all. Oh, goody. So it'll literally like just kill you by holding all the cold water against your skin. Oh. Since the cold water will absorb the heat faster than the air around you, cotton will cause you to lose heat very quickly too. So there is a saying in the, survivalist circles that I found. I'm not a survivalist, so I had to find this.

That is cotton kills. So they don't recommend that you wear like cotton when you're, you know, going on like crazy hiking things and like could be exposed to elements. Like at least have other things as well. Yeah, people usually wear those like thermal shirts. Exactly. Like things that are going to be able to bring the water away from your body. Now if Brandon was indeed wearing a cotton shirt or any shirt really, but cotton just really intrigued me with how fatal it is. Well, and I'm sure his shirt, even if it wasn't 100% cotton, had some kind of cotton. He also was wearing a white t-shirt underneath the Polish shirt, and that was very likely 100% cotton. Probably Haynes.

It probably was. Fruit of the loom even. Exactly. Now, if Brandon was indeed wearing a cotton shirt and he fell into the water but managed to get out, he could have very likely, very quickly died of exposure. Yeah. But here's theory 3B. Oh. So we're working right off of that thing.

Sure, sure. We love an outline. Brandon fell into the water. got wet, started to succumb to the effects of hypothermia, but passed out somewhere in a field or a farm, because that's what happens during hypothermia, I'll get into it, and was run over by farm equipment. Oh. I know you're like, what the fuck. I was like, that's a big jump. I know, but hear me out. I shall. This is a real theory. People really have this theory. I've seen it in many, many places, and it very much intrigued me. Okay. And there are reports that a dog, some of the dogs,

on a piece of farm equipment on one of the farms. Do we know what it was? But the owner of the property wouldn't allow a complete search. Oh. Now that is something that happens because farms are, you know, places they don't want tons of people trampling over their crops. The dog scaring the cattle, all that stuff. Yeah, yeah.

But interesting. Especially in like a case where there's like a missing child. In fact, investigators are still searching for Brandon. Like it's a very active thing still. People still go out and search for him. as recently as last year in 2021. And they confirm that there are still places they have not been able to access within the search area. And this is because certain property owners are not allowing them on their property.

If the dogs hit a certain piece of farm equipment on one specific farm, would that be enough to get a warrant? The investigators say it's not. I mean, it makes sense. Yeah, it's not very much. It's not probable cause. Apparently a lot of cattle farmers, you know, don't want the dogs on their property for that reason. And I get it. But like, can we like put the cattle away for a minute?

Like there's a missing person. Yeah. The dogs like freak out the cattle and shit. I get it. But and you know, they don't want to trample over crops. That's how they make their living. That is a very understandable thing that they don't want people just like digging up their farms. Of course.

But like this is hard. This is a hard thing. And the sheriff did say most farmers and property owners in that area are absolutely cooperative. happy to help this family, happy to aid in this search, but there's just a few that are really holding out. Interesting. Yeah, makes things that make it go, hmm. So sheriff says, unfortunately, they can't get that probable cause

to force a search at these farms. Yeah. And they kind of just have to rely on the farmers just telling them, yeah, I looked around, I didn't find anything. That's, to me, that votes well. That's a big hole in this. There's a big hole in here. Well, and it would be one thing if that was just a theory.

Like, it's a pretty good theory. But the fact that it also goes hand in hand with a dog, like, going right up to a piece of farm equipment. Oh, yeah. And I'll get to it because I actually have, like, a statement that confirms that. Now, if it seems crazy that a farmer might just, like, accidentally run over a body in a field, because I'm sure they're, like, it's like, what? Yeah, like, how would you not notice that or something? Well, in September 2020, a 14-year-old boy in Michigan was run over by a cornhole. harvester after falling asleep in a field. Oh, God. And the farmer never noticed he was there until he

ran over him. In 2012, a Montana person, a man fell as a Montana person. One of those people from Montana. Montana people. A guy fell asleep in a cornfield and was sucked into a combine that just ran over him. What the fuck? According to the Billings Gazette, quote, the farmer didn't see the sleeping man from atop his massive farm equipment because it's hard to see ahead of you. And he ran over him on Wednesday afternoon. Police say he drove for 50 yards with the man stuck in the blades before the machine began to shudder. Oh, God. The farmer

told officers in Billings, Montana that he believed he had hit a fence post or an irrigation pipe. Because I'm sure that happens a lot. Absolutely. The Billings Gazette reports that the farmer only realized what had happened when he turned off the combine and heard screams. This man lived.

Craving. What? I know. In 2021, in Italy. So not even, we're going outside. Can you fucking? I can imagine being like, yeah, one time I fell asleep in a fucking cornhole maze. Cornhole maze. Cornhole maze. Cornhole maze is a game. The maze is something different. I fell asleep in the crops guy. In a corn combine just sucked me into the blades. If you've, go look at a corn compound. I'm about to, okay? A farm combine. I will. So in 2021 in Italy, so it doesn't just happen in

the United States, two women were run over in a cornfield by a corn harvester and both of them died. One of them called 9-1-1-1. one and said, we've been run over by a corn combine. And they both were found dead. What? They called 911 while being run over. One of them was like my girlfriend was just run over by, we were run over. She's dead. And I need help. And they couldn't get to them in time. Yeah, these are no joke. Massive. And it's hard for farmers to see, you know? And it's, it would be easy for that to happen. Yeah. It really was. Now Jeff Hassee is the professional search manager on the case, and he writes the blog The Search for Brandon, where he updated in detail the search efforts for years.

And he confirms via a post that dogs once hit on a piece of farm equipment he was there for it. Do we know what it was? This is the post verbatim. The fields within two to three miles of the last known position of Brandon were searched early, because the fields were not planted yet or newly planted with no growth, PODs were relatively high. The canine teams initially avoided searching fields for several reasons. One, the assumption that a few fields had been planted when Brandon went missing,

therefore the farmers would have found him while planting. Two, farmers tend to be very sensitive about crop damage and we wanted to avoid that issue. Sure. Three, the constant wind blow. through that area allowed the dogs to effectively sample many of the fields from their edges. Okay. Which is cool. I didn't know that they could do that.

They could get a sample of that field with the wind blowing off of it. That's cool. Once we determined that their remains were likely within the mud creek drainage, and we found out that over 60% of the fields in that area had already been planted when Brandon went missing, we felt we could no longer ignore those fields because they had already been planted. So if he's in there, they might not know. Right. This occurred in the late spring of 2009.

Since then, we have been systematically detail searching each of the fields in the area, an exhausting process. Recently, five different certified HRD dogs gave full-trained final responses on a field cultivator sitting by the side of a field. This may or may not indicate that the body is scattered in a nearby field. This is one of the more puzzling findings. It makes sense. This is the search manager, like the official search manager that said this. Yeah. A field cultivator.

Yikes. So there is a real possibility that this happened. And Jeff also indicates in a Q&A that although they can't say the exact location they believe he went into the water, when the dogs hit on that part, the dogs indicated an area that they did search thoroughly. And he said they could tell within a couple of hundred feet where he went in. And he said in a post that it was not deep in these areas or any area. is around it. So he probably waited. He said mostly it was less than a foot deep on average, and once you fell in, it would be easy to get back out. Okay. So say this happened. He fell in. Whoops, ah, oh shit. Drops the phone. Can't find the phone. Doesn't have his glasses. Doesn't know

where that phone is. Maybe the phone is faced down and he can't see the light. Uh-huh. You never know. Or who knows? Actually, I think the phone at that point was a flip phone. I was going to say that. probably fell and he can't see it. Again, doesn't have his glasses, which are we're going to get to in a minute because somebody had a great theory about that. Oh, shit. So he's wet now. Wet clothing.

We already talked about what happens in cold or mild weather when you have cold, wet clothing on. You are going to lose heat very quickly. Hypothermia creeps up sometimes within an hour. Yeah, very quickly. So when this happened, he could have gone through the stages until incapacitation or death occurred. So mild hypothermia is. is when you start hypothermia.

And it's going to happen at 36 to 35 degrees Celsius. You're going to start shivering, but it's going to be involuntary shivering. It's going to be like crazy shivering. You're not going to be able to do complex motor functions, but you can still walk and talk to some to a degree. Sure. The blood vessels in your hands and feet are going to narrow because they're going to want to keep heat inside your body. Your body knows what to fucking do when shit is going on. So it tries to keep everything moving, but also keep you alive with the least like the least amount.

of energy and fuel used as possible. So when you go into moderate hypothermia, which is 35 degrees to 33 degrees, you may begin to feel woozy here, like you're going to start feeling off. There's going to be loss of coordination. There's going to be slurred speech. Violent shivering is going to happen, like uncontrollable. This is when paradoxical undressing can happen in this, in the moderate hypothera because it starts to make your mind just think irrationally and logically.

Then you move into severe hypothermia. Violent shivering follows, but it's going to be violent shivering, and then you're going to have these moments where it just stops completely. And then you violently shiver again and then it stops. Is that your body like preserving energy? Exactly. The body is going to try to conserve glucose, so it's going to try to shut that shivering down, but it's kind of involuntary at that point.

You won't be able to walk anymore. Oh, God. And we'll naturally curl into the fetal position to try to stay warm. That is so crazy. That's when your pulse rate is going to decrease. And according to Mayo Clinic, at 32 degrees Celsius, the body tries to move into hibernation, shutting down all peripheral blood flow and reducing breathing rate and heart rate. And then at 30 degrees Celsius, the body is in a state of metabolic icebox.

Oh. The casualty, that's what they called it in this article I read, the casualty looks dead, but is still alive. Okay. If treatment is not initiated, the breathing will become erratic and very shallow. the level of consciousness will continue to fall and cardiac arrhythmias may develop. So that's when death is coming, basically. But you will look dead. Like, people will think you're dead.

And you won't be able to move out of the way of, say, a corn harvester coming towards you or a combine. You're just going to be laying in the fetal position in a field somewhere. Yeah, nobody's going to see you. So what if this occurred in a field and the property owner didn't see them? Yeah. And we have, like, how many examples? I think you give three or four if that happening.

And there's many more Google. Google that like people being run over by farm equipment and it's just endless. You can see it everywhere. Just don't let the FBI guy on your phone see that. No, definitely not. I'm not going to run anybody over with the farm equipment I don't have. But so what if he was run over and this person didn't want to deal with the consequences and he buried or disposed of him?

And that's a really shitty person. It makes no sense to me that his body was never found. To me it feels like someone put him somewhere. Well, would his body be like very, very, very destroyed in that? Yeah, I mean, it could be, it really depends. It's like there could be just a ton of lacerations on his body or he could be completely shredded. Like, almost like a wood chipper kind of. Yeah, it could be a really, I mean, it could be a thing where it's just, or they just, I don't know.

I just don't, to me, the fact that we have these big missing pieces in the search area and that we haven't found him yet or any part of him, there's no cell phone. There's no clothing. He had his keys on him. The keys weren't in the car. They were with him. Where's his keys? Right. Where's his necklace that he was wearing? Yeah. Like, we haven't found anything of him. Nothing, not a piece of clothing, not blood, nothing. It is really bizarre. It's very strange to me that there's nothing of him over a decade later. Yeah. So that to me seems pretty likely, but we'll go through a couple more theories because a lot of people have more theories. Okay, yeah, definitely. Theory four. There was a wild animal attack. I mean, not a bad theory. I don't love this one because there would be evidence left behind

and then dad would have probably heard this happen on the phone, I would think. Yeah. Now, there is the possibility that he was attacked after the phone call went dead. Sure. That could have. Maybe he fell into the river, lost his phone and was attacked while wandering back. Still, why wasn't his phone found and why weren't his clothing? I don't feel it. Yeah. There are black bears timber and gray wolves coyotes and big cats like bobcats and cougars out there in minnesota that's fucking terrifying but still i don't really feel this one because like you said where his keys where his phone yeah where are his phone i don't love that one but theory five he fell into an unmarked cistern what now a cistern is basically a well she said what he fell in a what

he fell in a who a well essentially oh bitch no it's an underground tank for storing water and Minnesota has a ton of them. Now, according to Minnesota Department of Health, most of these wells should be visible, at least partially. Yeah. Because they should have a steel pipe sticking out of the ground. But older wells are not part of that. Older wells, because these whales can be like 100 years old.

Yeah. Well, and you're in like farmland too. Exactly. Older wells can have tops made of concrete, tile, brick, rock, or stone. Uh-huh. And then they can be covered over by dirt. Oh. Which makes the black.

into the ground. It's very dangerous. And if these are hundreds of years old, that is going to weaken eventually. Yeah, of course. And some older wells were actually buried intentionally. That seems problematic. It does. Especially if properties have been built around or over them. So they're just straight up hidden. And farm properties likely have more wells because of the barns and the need for irrigation and shit. There's a lot needed on the farm. So do people fall into wells? Yes. Do you ask? Yes. Yes. Samara.

Well. Yes. Well. Aside from the big cases like baby Jessica, which I'm sure everybody knows, adults fall into hidden old cisterns all the time. Yeah. Now in 2016, a man fell into an abandoned cistern in Louisville, Kentucky and was rescued. In 2019, a man in Connecticut fell down a cistern while renovating his really old historic home. Oh, shit.

It was in the middle of his living room. Oh, my God. It was 30 feet deep and completely hidden. He survived. And that was just in his home the whole time. Just in his home while he was renovating. Also in 2019, a man in Portland, Oregon, a 57-year-old private detective named Mike Zerwis

was walking out to begin gardening in his backyard and literally fell into a 100-year-old, brick-lined, 35-foot-deep cistern. How do I find out if I have a cistern? I don't know. Who do I call? We can look with Ghostbusters. Probably not, though.

Cistern well, busters. Well, this one was filled with water, and he died. in there. Oh my God. Which is horrific because nobody could hear him. And he didn't have a cell phone. He fell into it.

I'm glad I have a new biggest fear. Yeah, I'm sorry about this. Thank you for that. In Pennsylvania in 2021, a man fell into an abandoned and hidden 20 foot deep cistern and stayed in there for three days before luckily being rescued. What a bad bitch. 2021 struck again in Ohio when a horse named Anna fell into an abandoned cistern on a farm but was brought out alive and was totally recovered.

But like horse just walking along. The well never bothered her anyway. So could he have, that was amazing. Thank you. That was really great. Thank you so much. So could he have been wandering while on the phone with his parents and could he have happened to fall into a cistern while crossing through one of these farms?

Could that actually be the oh shit his father heard? He mentioned farms and at least two fence lines while he was talking to his father. He was walking through these places. So he could have definitely been around some abandoned cisterns. the only like problem that I have with that and this is just like not even a complete thought that I'm having but when he was falling I feel like it would have been like echoy like the oh shit would have been echoey you would think right I would think and it would last like longer and yeah I feel like he would hear like the phone would make some kind of noise on the way down you would think and I agree

but then I'm like where would my I don't know what microphones picked up back then on phones Do they pick up as much as we see as we pick up now? I know, I don't know. I think I'm also picturing this in like a very like cartoon kind of way where you'd be like, oh shit. Yeah. Or was he like, oh shit and then fell? Yeah, like stumbled. Like saw it coming almost but like couldn't stop falling.

I don't know. It's not a bad theory. It's not. It's there at least. And it's possible. Now I just want to get to a couple of like questions and theories from you guys because you had some really good ones. So this first one, I actually, maybe I won't say names just because like none of you gave me specific

permission to. So I don't want to like, none of you said anything that would be like upsetting. But like, you know, you never know. So people are private. This one says, hi ladies, just got done listening to the episode. I love you too, smiley face. I love you. Just wanted to share my thoughts real quick. As a former police officer, the jargon for the car doors would have been specified in the report. Unsecured would have meant it was unlocked. where open would have meant physically opened. Okay. Not sure if all departments use those terms to differentiate.

Doesn't sound like that department had it all together anyways since they didn't do anything at first. LAPD question mark, LOL? Also, I may be jumping ahead, but did the phone records say anything? You said that he had called his friends before his parents. Maybe that's what he was doing in those two hours. Were there any mystery numbers? One more thing.

Did they fingerprint the car? Again, maybe you were saving. that for part two, but as I was listening, I was yelling these questions at you. So, first of all, thank you for clarifying the open doors thing. Because that, like, really, I was like, open. They were open. Open. Unlocked.

Which one? Someone tell me. So that makes me even more concerned about what the fuck happened here. Yeah. But it's just interesting. I could not find anything about fingerprints being taken. And it bothered me as well because at first I was like, did they fingerprint those doors? Probably not.

Probably not. The phone records were not released, but from investigators and from Jeff Hassee, the search manager, the records basically help lead them to the car by pinging off that miniota tower. And they helped confirm the parents' stories that evening, like when they had talked to him how long. They also showed he had made a few phone calls to friends before his parents. There was never a mention of any weird number, any text messages that could be weird, because that almost makes it weirder, that there's no weird thing on his phone. Yeah. Like nothing. Everything was pretty out of the ordinary on his phone. Or it just makes sense. Inside the ordinary on his phone. So far I'm really going for the farm equipment theory. Me too. That's the one I'm really sticking on. It really just makes sense. Now the glasses. Okay. Yeah. Why was he driving without his glasses? So we had a listener right in that I was like, wow, you just gave me something to think about. Oh shit. So this is what the email said. I just listened to part one of where is Brandon Swanson and wanted to give some insight into being legally blind. out of one eye. Okay. I have amblyopia after 34 years on this earth. Still no clue on how to pronounce that one. That's what they say. Which is basically just lazy eye, but not necessarily

the kind that wanders. One eye is weaker than the other and can be so weak that you can be declared legally blind. I would think maybe Brandon had a similar condition if it wasn't an injury, but I obviously do not know. Anyway, I'm legally blind out of my right eye, but can still see light colors in motion. This primarily affects peripheral vision and depth perception. Okay. I have a few theories about Brandon's glasses being off. Back in my younger partying days, a drive home on a dark road used to give me a wicked double vision. Like the center line on the road would cross over, even if I had only had one or two light beers. This still happens now if I'm a little too tired. Brandon being not a big guy and minimally having that one shot of whiskey at the last party

maybe caused him to have the same reaction. When you wear glasses that try to correct help the vision in the legally blind eye, and you mix that with drinking and or being sleepy, the blind eye that's working overtime to see stuff gets legit tired. So you end up with weird double vision that is partially normal sight and partially super blurry blind eye sight. Based on the time of night he was driving in that he had gone to a few parties, even if he wasn't inebriated, he might have taken the glasses off to avoid double.

vision. Like if you think of a time you got too drunk and in order to see straight or stop the spins, you closed one eye. Yeah. Taking the glasses off is basically closing the blind eye. Hopefully all of that makes sense or you can kind of picture what I mean, because all of that being said with the glasses off a U-turn or three-print turn on a dark rural road would be crazy hard because your depth perception is way off, which maybe led to him kind of going off the road a bit or overshooting the amount of space he had to maneuver. Also, if I remember correctly, I don't think backup cameras were super common or maybe not even a thing in 2008. I don't think so.

Yeah, depending on which eye he was blind in, but if it was the right eye like me, there's no backing up unless you turn your entire upper body around. And even when, even then it's ridiculously hard and you lose all spatial awareness in front of you. And then walking through a dark field and crossing a river slash ravine area or if there was like a, depression in the ground, depth perception would be off. So could result in the, oh, shit, or in a darker thought, someone coming up on your blind side would for sure be an oh shit moment. Anyways, I thought I'd share because it sounded like it was really throwing you off. But when I was listening, my first thought was, oh, we had to take them off to see the road properly. If this is all useless, I'm sorry. Oh, no, it's not. That was all very useful. Yeah. Hopefully your coverage of this case helps bring in new tips and help find Brandon So's family might have some peace. I agree. And also, holy shit, that gave me so much. I was like, thank you. Yeah, I didn't even think of that. It makes so much sense now. It does because I actually didn't think of this and this is great that this is like my relation to this. But like I used to drink a lot in like my younger years. And I couldn't close both of my eyes if I had the spins. I would close one. Because if I closed both, I would still be spinning. And then two was like really intense. So I would close one eye.

That's why like people tell you to do that. Because it kind of just like. balances it out a little. If you close your eyes, you're just going to be spinning in the dark. Right. And then you're just going to vomit everywhere. Yeah. So maybe he was having trouble seeing that he knows his own eyes. He knows what works for him driving. He makes that same trek all the time. And I mean somebody who's legally blind in one eye, like that's a very similar. The exact same thing. Just maybe a different. Yeah. That's crazy. I didn't think of that. I think this might be why his glasses were in the car. But I think so too. But I also couldn't understand though. The part of this that I can't understand is if he needed the. them so badly all the time. I can understand him taking them off to drive because that makes perfect sense right now. But why would he take them off and then not put them back on when he was leaving the car? Because I think I was thinking that too in my head while you were reading that. And then my brain said to me, well, Ash, he thought his parents were going to be right there. Like he thought they were literally like a little bit away. And then I think he only thought it was going to take a certain amount of

time to get to that parking lot. So maybe it just, like, he walked away from the car without even thinking in the first place. Yeah. And then he had already made it so far by that point that he was like, I'll just fucking walk to that parking lot. No, that's true. That definitely could have been in it. And maybe it was just like, I don't want to walk back and get them at this point.

It was definitely risky as fuck. Yeah. Because it's like, if you need those glasses, like, why are you walking in the dark without your glasses? Like, that's not a good move. But maybe it was also. Maybe he was just frustrated. He was definitely, he had a drink.

so maybe he just wasn't thinking like he normally would. Yeah. And he was like trying to like focus on that parking lot area. So maybe it would have made it wonky for him. Yeah. Trying to focus on that. That's true. Because he was really focused on those city lights.

He was saying that the city lights were kind of far away but far enough, but close enough that he could walk. Yeah. But he was on that phone for 47 minutes. So he knew it was far enough away that he was probably going to need his glasses to get through there. Yeah. I wonder if it was just a thing of like I made it this.

far now like I don't want to turn around and then I can also understand too like sometimes who knows if he was wearing his glasses when he was driving and then when I'm on the phone if I'm wearing my glasses sometimes I'll take them off just to like rub my eyes and like give them a minute or I'll even like fidget with my glasses just to like kind of and if you're frustrated maybe you're sitting there he took out he took off his glasses on the phone he's like guys I'm right here I'm in the fucking car yeah like like holding his head he was doing that um a lot of some people not a lot of people but a few people were confused when I said that the mom and dad could hear the click of the headlights. They could hear it over the phone?

They couldn't hear it. Some people were like, wait, could they hear it like outside? And they were like, what the fuck? Is this a parallel universe? And I trust me, I was with you on that one. I planted that seed. In the phone, they could hear him. While they were on the phone, they could hear him clicking it.

So maybe while he was sitting there clicking those headlights, he's on the phone. He's getting frustrated because he eventually hung up on them. Yeah. He was that annoyed. Maybe he's just rubbing his eyes, just kind of being like, dude, I'm tired. I just want to get home. Like, just find me where I am. I know where I am, even though he didn't. I think that this case, like, as it unfolds is, like, kind of becoming, like, more, like, simpler. Yeah. It does. I really, I really agree with, like, the farm thing. And parts of it becomes simpler,

but then other parts, I mean, the whole part of where the hell he is is the part that's like, yeah, doesn't make sense. But it just, it's like so gut wrenching because it's like, it just could have been avoided in a couple ways here. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Now, the next. person who wrote in said, and it was just this at the email, and I was like, I appreciate your brevity. I love it. I have always wondered if he walked into a sinkhole. That was it. That was the only, that was the email and I was like, yes. Because I was like, okay. I just say no more. Somebody just, this is my thought. Here it is. That's a valid thought. So this is actually one that I was already considering as well. So when I got this, I was like, there you are. Great.

There's another person thinking that. So I did some digging and sinkholes are actually very much a thing in Minnesota. Oh. In fact, Fountain Minnesota, which is a little over three hours away from Marshall, more maps, is known as the sinkhole capital of the U.S. sometimes. Sometimes? Just like, I don't know if it's like an official name. I was like, people refer to it. Do they get rid of them? I don't know if everybody agrees, but it's, it's been known as that. What? They're known as cover collapse sinkholes and are common because of ground rocks like limestone and dolomite. Now, these rocks are soluble, soluble and can start fading away

as water runs under the soil and mixes with like plant root gases. The water mixes with carbon dioxide, makes a carbonic acid, and that acid erodes the limestone and dolomite. Once that happens, the ground just weakens because all of that

topsoil gets too heavy for those weakened rocks, boom, sinkhole. What the fuck? Yeah, I actually found a recent Facebook posts that had been deleted, and I was like what are you trying to cover up in a city of marsha it's like a city of marshall minnesota facebook group obviously where someone was complaining about a sinkhole in a bike path off of route 23 or um highway 23 that's in the immediate area of where we talked about connecting route 68 to lend

complaining about a sinkhole like it was just like a really like like guys is a fucking sinkhole in this bike path so so fucking pesky and when i saw it i was like oh my god cover up uh but what What if Brandon fell into a sinkhole and he's still in it? It's a thing. Can you, could we, ah, sinkholes? That would also explain the keys in the phone never being found. They went in with them. That very much explains that.

Possible. Could you find a sinkhole and like dig it up? Like how does that work? I don't know. I don't either. They would have to find the sinkhole, I suppose, but it's probably been filled in by now. But I don't know. This one, I mean, it's like definitely possible, but it's not like the theory I hang my hat on.

Do you hang your hat on the farm equipment? A farm equipment for me, man. Yeah. But, I mean, it is the same, like, sometimes, the sinkhole capital of the U.S. Just sometimes. Occasionally, when it feels like it. Comes out of hibernation. It's like, here I am again.

Back, back, back again. That, like, the cistern is a very interesting thing and very possible. And very fucking ominous. Very terrifying. I don't know. I can't say for sure. I don't know. I don't really, like, understand sinkholes.

because I never know how deep they are. I don't know how they just like happen. They're scary. They just open up. I don't like them. Yeah, nobody likes sinkholes, I think. I mean, if you do, I'm sorry. Sorry to.

If any sinkholes are listening right now, I'm very sorry, but nobody likes you. So I'm sorry. You should get a new gig. To the sinkhole community. I apologize. But if you are a sinkhole listening to this podcast, I apologize. I don't mean too much. Stop eating the earth.

Just like chill out. Yeah, just eat something else. So here's a single whole. another theory from a health care worker. Okay. This one's very interesting as well. My theory is about the lost time. I'm a health care. I'm saying. I'm a health care worker and deal with concussions and traumatic brain injuries very often. The one thing I can think of is if he crashed, he maybe hit his head, was unconscious for X amount of time, then woke up without realizing the time difference and called his parents. Okay. Concussions and TBIs can do some crazy things,

which kind of makes me think. That's why he was so confused. with where he was even at. Yeah. Common signs and symptoms are confusion, anger, unconsciousness, etc. You don't even need to bleed or have any external signs, which is why he thought he was fine. I've had a kid get hit with a football, knocked unconscious, and then be confused and angry at us because he didn't know where he was. They also tend to think they're fine, even if they're stumbling or having other issues.

Think buzzed, drunk person actions and behavior without alcohol. These are just my two cents. I guess we would need to get like the phone records to see. when he started calling his friends. Well, that's, and I also think this is just a great point. Yeah. And one that I had not seen explored. Well, it just, that so perfectly accounts for the last time.

And for his confusion about where he was, which is the part that I can. That doesn't accept my brain around. Right. There's a real possibility that he knocked his head when the car went off road. Of course. This wouldn't necessarily leave behind any evidence of an injury. All it takes is one good shake of your skull to get a concussion. Yeah.

All it has to do is your brain slap an. against your skull. That's it. He was frustrated as hell with his parents and maybe this is why. Frustration is one of the symptoms. And then I guess that could also account for taking off the glasses like he may have just taken them off. Had a headache and was like, I just was like, oh, like. Right. Or they fell off. It doesn't say where they were. They weren't. I don't know if they were properly placed in the glove, like next to him in the seat. Or if they were on the floor, maybe they fell off when he hit his head and he just couldn't find them again. Exactly. That's a possibility. I hate how like this is like being wrapped up.

Yes. We still don't know. He wasn't able to convey what he was trying to say and he's also dealing with symptoms of a TBR concussion. Maybe he's getting frustrated. He's like, no, this is where I am. He has no idea where he is. He could have been stumbling through those fields and complaining about climbing fences

and shit to his parents sounding normal and ended up falling into the river any number of things we mentioned above. Yes. It makes a lot of sense. It also is like really like pissing me. off that back then you couldn't just send somebody a pang of your location. Isn't it so frustrating? It's like why I had a technology coming that far yet. Thank goodness we have that technology now. I know because it's saved lives. It has. And the searches for Brandon happened to this day.

I had mentioned before in 2021 the yellow medicine riverbed dried up because of a drought. Yeah. It was exigated. Nothing was found. They keep running into those issues with farmers, not wanting to allow people on their property. And it's interesting to me that it's only a few farmers. It is because they said in general these people are. very cooperative, very kind, very into the community and this family and want to help. Is this like a group of farmers that like maybe like works together? Like I'm sure they like trade different things. And it's like did one, does one of them know some shit? And they're just keeping. Yeah. Keeping each other's back. Honestly, if that is the case in your listening farmer John,

that's not cool. Just tell someone. You got it. Like it's not your fault. Yeah, you can say it was an accident. You freaked out. I mean, now it's pretty bad now. But like, like, Like you've been holding this in for a while, but do you want that feeling in your gut? That's bad for you. And it's like, this guy has family. He's has a sibling, has a mom and a dad. Searching for him. Just give them peace.

Yeah. If that's the case, that's really, that's really shitty. It's really jacked up. I hope that's not the case, but I also hope it's not the case that he fell into a fucking sinful. None of these are good scenarios, for sure. For sure, for sure. But at least it's like, I would hope that, I would hope that like he didn't suffer too

much. Yeah. And hopefully, which if it's hypothermia, it's like that's horrific. Yeah. I don't love that. There's really, there's no good outcome here. There really isn't. No.

But one good thing that happened was March 12th, 2009, a year after Brandon went missing, Brian and Annette Swanson, his parents took action. They spoke in front of the house and got Brandon's law passed. Oh. It's an expansion of Minnesota's Missing Children's Act and basically gets investigators moving quicker for missing and endangered adults. Isn't it so fucked that they had to do that? They had to literally get a law passed to be like, you should look for people.

Yeah. It takes that waiting period away and would stop what happened in Brandon's case from happening again. Good. They waited, they argued with the parents instead of immediately looking for him when they were clearly showing that they were distressed and that he was distressed. Invaluble time, valuable evidence was lost as a result. Because that's the other thing if this, God forbid, was the farm thing. They would have found his body.

before that had happened. Exactly. If that is the case. Because they would have found him that night, hopefully, or in that morning, or at least told farmers in the area, there's a guy missing. Don't run your fields. Don't run your equipment right away. Yeah.

Or be on the lookout. And this could have been. They could have even found him in the early stages of hypothermia before it progressed to death. And maybe saved him. Right. Well, this law was, it was officially signed into law by Governor Tim Pawlenty on May 6th, 2009. Good. And it went into action in June.

So if you know anything about this case, have any information they are still taking tips. So please call the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension at 651-7993-700-7-000-000-000-000-000-000-000-000- sorry, Lincoln County Sheriff's Office at 507-694-1664. We also mentioned a couple of others in the first episode, so please just, if you know anything, if you're in Minnesota, if you were in Minnesota, you know anything. Just give them a call. For real. We got to.

And if you're one of those people, won't let them search your properties. Let them search your property. Yeah, come on. Go on. Just do it. We got to get an answer here. Put the cattle in the barn for a minute. The corn.

Honestly, can get another year. There you go. Another year for corn. Another year for corn. There's plenty of corn. We'll lend you some. Yeah. I mean, like, corn is a band as well.

So, yeah. Like there might be like children in the corn. Yeah. Malachi. Isaac. They might be in there. Yeah. He who walks behind the rose, you know.

You don't know. But in all seriousness, I truly believe he definitely went into that river at one point, either by accident or tried to wade through it. I think he probably had some exposure issues. I think hypothermia played a role here. I think hypothermia played a role here. I wonder about the farm equipment. I really do. That's the strongest theory.

I think it's a strong theory. It's a horrific theory. But I don't know what else could have happened. But thank you guys for writing in with your theories and you're clearing some things up because you truly did. Like you were a massive part of this episode because they were things I didn't think of. The glasses, the TBI, the sinkhole. I mean, who the fuck knew that sometimes it was the sinkhole capital? You never know.

That's nuts. Thank you guys. But thank you so much for writing in for. all your comments on this and hopefully this gets some some memories ticking of somebody who knows something some consciousness consciousness consciousness yes i always get those confused it's hard to say consciences but hopefully brandon one way or another can be brought home to his family at some point let's make 2022 the year i know let's get him home he deserves the swanson's deserve it they do but thank you for sticking in here. And we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But that's

where you will let the police search your farm for a boy that's been missing for a really long time because his family deserves to bring him home. And if you're not going to be able to let them search your farm, then that's just not very nice of you. And I think that you should let them because it will wash away the icky feeling that's been on your conscience for a really long time. Yeah. Just sit at that up.