Morbid - Where is Brandon Swanson? Part 1

Episode Date: January 23, 2022

Brandon Swanson was 19 years old when he went missing in the state of Minnesota. He had been out earlier that night and gone to a couple of parties before making his way home to Marshall, Minnesota. Unfortunately, on the way home, he ran into a bit of car trouble when his car veered a bit off the side of a gravel road and got stuck in a ditch. He called his parents for help and explained exactly where he was but when they got there Brandon was nowhere to be seen and neither was his car. This case is truly one of the most bizarre we’ve covered to date and sadly, there is a lack of any closure involved. If you or someone you know has any information about Brandon Swanson's location or disappearance, please contact: The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office 1-507-694-1664 FBI ViCap 1-800-634-4097 or [e-mail] As always, thank you to our sponsors: FirstLeaf: Head to  TRY Firstleaf.com/MORBID for 6 bottles of wine for $29.95 with free shipping. Modern Fertility: Right now, Modern Fertility is offering our listeners $20 off the test when you go to ModernFertility.com/MORBID Honey: Get Honey for FREE at Join Honey.com/MORBID GoodRX: For simple, smart savings on your prescriptions, go to GoodRX.com/morbid 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.

If you have any information on Brandon Swanson, his disappearance, or where he might be, literally any information, you can contact the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office in Minnesota at 1.507-694-1664. You can also contact Agent Derek Woodford of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. That's at 651-793-7-0-0-G-O-0. Or you can contact the F-V-I-C-C-E-C-A-C-E-O-N-G-E-O-G. Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash, and I'm Elena. And this is morbid. I apologize because I might sound a little congested. Oh, no.

What's wrong with you? I do not have the Rona. I already had that and don't have it right now. But I think it's that the kids went back to school and they bring things home that they don't necessarily get infected by, but they just pass it on to me. Yeah, they're like little freaking carriers. It's very nice. It's a nice part of parenting that I'm enjoying right now. Yeah, kids are really gross.

I haven't had like just a random cold in a long time because we haven't gone anywhere. Because yeah, we're not going anywhere. But alas, we can't escape any of them. this apparently. We're all just going to be incubuses of viral plague. Delicious. Yeah, you know what? Shout out to Miranda Priestley. Yeah, that line. Love you.

I think one of the only things we really wanted to talk about before we dive into this two-parter is, I don't know, is we wanted to mention that the FBI has officially closed the Gabby Petito, Brian Laundry investigation. They said that they know exactly what happened. There's no reason to investigate it further. Brian Laundry is a horrible murderer who got to escape the justice that he should have faced living forever. And instead just confessed in a notebook. Yeah, he just confessed in a notebook that they found that none of us have seen. And he apparently took his own life with a single gunshot. and never has to face the consequences of his actions.

So that's horrific. And I feel so bad for Gabby Petito's loved ones in her family. Absolutely. I think that, you know, Brian Laundry's parents should be talked to. I think there's an obstruction of justice charge in there somewhere, I feel like. Maybe a few. I think we need to look into that timeline a little bit and what they knew and what they didn't know. That's just me, though.

I am not the FBI, so I cannot make that happen. I think they just want to like tie it up in a quick bow and let that be the end of it. Put a bow on it and that be that. But yeah. So we just wanted to mention that because we had mentioned as that was all ongoing. But again, Gabby Petito deserve to live a long, happy life. She deserves so much more than that piece of absolute garbage. Garbage, exactly.

Rest in distress to him. Rest in peace to Gabby. Don't even rest, Brian. Yeah, you shouldn't be resting. But unfortunately, that's the way the cookie grumbled here. But I hope her family is doing well. They're amazing people. And I hope that they are able to find some kind of peace in this.

But we will move on from that. And we will start this episode because this is something I'm excited to talk about, just because it's a scary case. Yeah. But there's just a lot to get into here. Now, I initially had a serial killer case that I will be. doing probably next week. Okay. And I was into it and I'm like, I'm like, oh, this is going to be a multiple parter. And then I happen to just like, like it happens all the time. I saw this case on

the side of a website and I was like, huh. And I just clicked on it. I was like, oh, I remember this case. You have like case ADD. I really do. It's just like something else draws me in and I have to do it. Regular ADD. I just have very specific focused ADD, which is weird, very much an oxymoron. But I realized I haven't done like a missing person in a long time. Yeah, I've done a lot of murders, a lot of like spooky phenomenon, but I have not done a missing person. All right. And so I was like, I got to do this one.

So I'm going to cover Brandon Swanson. And a lot of people might know this name. They might know this case a little bit. It's a fascinating one. It's a really sad one. His parents were on the phone when he went missing. That's so crazy. Which is something you don't find in any other case.

No, well, in other cases, but it's not a very common occurrence. And this one just has so many, like, unanswered questions that I would like to discuss. That's why this is going to be a two-parter. I want to get into the nitty gritty here. And then the second part, I want to talk about some theories, what could have happened, some, you know, things that are said in a lot of sources that turned out to be a little different than what the people who were actually their claim to happen. There's just a lot.

So I think the second one, we can really get into theories and such. But we are going to start at the beginning here, which is a good place to start. I think I know like some of the details in this case, but I definitely haven't heard it told in a while. So I'm excited to hear your telling. I got real into this. You did? I.

That's so crazy for you. You never get into anything. Why don't you ever get into things? I never get into anything. Nothing. It's just, it's wild. This is the one. And, you know, I call, I was calling John in to look at like.

the monitor and I had like Google Maps like very just like just I was Google mapping this very rural part of Minnesota and John was like what's happening like what and you said what don't you know and I was like you got to come here and I was like look at this place now look at this place where what role would you take to get to this place like I don't know I don't know I've never been to Minnesota I don't know like what are you doing and then I call him back and be like let me tell you this part this is where this was found And what do you think of that? And he's like, I don't know.

I don't know this case. Like, please. I'll wait for the episode, I guess. You and I both do that. And it's always the same reaction from the both of them. Like, I'll call Drew and I'll be like, do you see like the look in his eyes? Like, clearly he's guilty. Or like, I'll be like, do you see the look in his eye?

Like, that guy is innocent. And he's like, yeah, whatever you say. He's like, totally. I have no fucking idea. 100% my, that's what I see. He's like, I feel how you feel. Exactly. So we are going to get into this.

So this case is from 2008, which upon hearing at first, if you were like me, you're like that was a few years ago. Yep. It was a lot of years ago. So, and it's very like when you finally like count the years, you're like, oh, okay, that's not like five years ago. What's that going on like 15? It's a lot. Yeah, that's fucked. So we are going to talk about May 14th, 2008 in Marshall, Minnesota.

This is 19-year-old Brandon Victor Swanson. and he calls his mother and father that evening. His mother and father are Brian and Annette Swanson. He called them at 154 a.m. and tells them everything's fine, which I'm sure is like the first thing you want to hear from your kid when they call you at 154 in the morning is like everything's fine. And he tells them he's totally fine.

He's not hurt, but he did accidentally drive his green Chevy Lumina off the road on his way home. Oh God. And he just couldn't get it out of this ditch. And it became wedged in this ditch. And I think what had happened is it like, it like kind of, I think he was trying to turn around in a dirt road, like a rural dirt road. And he went off the side. And then his wheels couldn't catch the dirt.

So they were just spinning in the air. So he literally just couldn't move the car. Oh, that's terrifying at 2 o'clock in the morning in the middle of nowhere. So it's not really that he got in like a car accident. It's that he just like made a mistake turning around. Sure. Yeah. Now again, he calmed them by telling them he was completely unhurt, but just needed some help with his car.

and none of his friends were answering the phone. So they of course told him, stay where you are, and we're going to be there in minutes. We're coming. And he was calm. He explained exactly where he was located so that they could find him. He was on the phone with them. And off they went into the night, never to see their sun again. What happened?

So let's rewind a bit. That was May 14th. We're talking about May 13th, 2008, the day before. Classes at Minnesota West Community and Technical College had just like, let out and students decided to blow off some steam that evening to celebrate. Yeah, of course, as we all do. Brickin party. Now, one of these students was 19-year-old Brandon Swanson, who we just talked about. Brandon was born January 30th, 1989, to Annette and Brian Swanson. And Aquarius. There you go. And I have that right. I know it. Boom. He, oh yeah, because actually, is it, it's Aquarius season

right now. Yeah, there you go. Now, he lived with them in Marshall, Minnesota, while he attended school at the technical college. He had one younger sister. Okay. Now everyone says everything I could find about him is that he was a good kid. Everyone said he was very smart. He loved to read. He loved to research. He was a true scientist at heart, but also had kind of like a philosopher way about him. Cool. Because he loved discussing complex theories and ideas. It's a very aquarius tendency. There you go. He seemed very cool to be around and like he was someone who would kind of constantly keep you on your toes and thinking about things in different ways. That's like a great person to hang out with.

Yeah, it seems like a cool person to hang with. He was a good student. He had a lot of friends. He got along with his parents. He was close to his sibling. Nothing out of the ordinary. All right. Now, he was studying wind turbines and wind energy in school.

That's cool. I'm like, I've literally, I know that they exist. I've never heard of somebody studying them. So I'm like, cool. I'm glad somebody is studying them because we need that. This was super important to him because he was also very dead. dedicated to renewable energy and the environment. So that's why he wanted to go into this.

He was someone that we kind of need more of in the world in that sense. He had just received his credits for his degree, and he was going to be starting another program at a technical school, I believe in Iowa, at the end of that summer. And then he was going to try to transfer to a four-year college and, like, keep going. Good for him. And I think he wanted to major in science, like, really keep this engineering, this whole wind turbine renewable energy career.

we're going. So he was going to like stack those degrees which like get it. Yeah, like let's go. So he had plans. He was doing things to make them happen. He wasn't just saying I want to do these things. He had plans in motion. Now according to the FBI ViCap website, he had brown hair, blue eyes and was about five, six and 120 pounds. Okay. He was like a smaller guy. Yeah, he's my height. Yeah. And he's not like, he doesn't weigh a ton. Yeah. So he's less than me. So he left him. So he left him. He was a little. He's his parents' house that evening, and the party he attended first was in Lynn to Minnesota. It was close to his home, only about seven miles, and he stayed for a bit, without incident. Witnesses saw him throughout the evening wearing baggy jeans, a blue striped polo shirt,

a dark sweatshirt that zipped up the front, and a white Minnesota Twins baseball hat, his favorite team. All right. He was also wearing his glasses, which he always wore, and a silver chain and had his ears pierced. Love it. Like very 2000. at some point during the night around 1030-ish he left that party in Lind and he went to one in Canby which is in the opposite direction trust me I studied these maps like crazy I was gonna say you were on the Google Maps because when you start reading this I don't know anything about Minnesota I don't know anything about Minnesota so like Camby, Lind, Marshall I'm like I lit I got it's all Greek to me you could not like you could have me like hanging off a cliff and be like you have to point to that on a map and I'd be like well just drop me right

And so when I looked at this, not now, not now, now I know everything about Minnesota. I'm coming for you. Don't you know. Don't you know. So basically it's like Marshall is kind of in the middle here and Lind is one side and Canby is way the other. Okay. And obviously there's ways to get to both, but you should, you know, you could go through Marshall to get back to Canby. And it's an easier way.

Exactly. So this location, the Canby location, was about 40 minutes away and was where. where his college was actually located. Okay. That's where the technical school was. So it makes sense why he's headed that way. Knew this area very well. It was about 30 minutes from his parents home in Marshall because that extra 10 minutes

that I tack on is because he was coming from Linde, the opposite direction. A different party. Lindy. Lind is about 10 minutes from Marshall, about 40 minutes from Kambi. Minutes. So minutes and miles. Minutes and miles all over here. Now, he stayed there in Kambi for a while at this party and it was like kids from school.

He partied, but not like two weeks. Hardy, according to everybody. Because he was driving. Yeah. And he had left around midnight. Okay. Now, witnesses said he was not drunk, that he didn't slam down drinks all night, but he definitely drank.

Okay. That is something everybody said. Yeah. Everyone agreed that he was not intoxicated to like an impaired point when he left. Okay. But no one can really say exactly how much he drank. Because nobody's like counting or keeping tabs. Right.

everybody else's drinks. And he had just come from another party. So nobody can really be like, I don't know if he had some drinks there. And then he had drinks here. So I don't know. Well, and I can't imagine he drank too much at the first party because then he drove 40 minutes. And he showed up and they seemed, he seemed like he was fine. Exactly. And in a lot of sources, I found that he may have had a DUI at some point and had just come off of like dealing with that and like a probation period and all that. So there is thoughts that like he was being a little careful here because he had already had a little bit of issues like 19 years old.

Of course. Because again, he's not of legal drinking age either. So you don't really want to be caught that. But what we do know for sure is that multiple people said at the Canby party, he did have one shot at least of whiskey. Okay. So that is something everybody can say because they saw it. Other than that, they were like, I think he was just kind of like having a drink all night.

Yeah, like a beer. Just whatever. Having some beers. Now, before that, like I said, he maybe had another drink or two, but no one can say for absolute certain. What we do know is when he left that party, he left alone and it was around midnight. No one thought he was drunk or was concerned about him driving. That's a big thing.

No one felt like they needed to stop him or say to ease, offer him a ride, nothing. They knew he was going 30 minutes back home to Marshall and no one was like, you're not okay to drive. Again, this is also a party of 18, 19 year olds and like 20 year olds. Yeah. So of course it might be difficult for them to discern what is the correct way to go about that. You know what I mean? Like it might be they didn't think he was bad to drive.

But who knows, it's hard when you're not in the body of the person that's going to get in the car. It's also a very different thing to, and I'm not saying this is the case for him, but it's different when you're leaving a party. Yeah. Like I've left a party with somebody before him and like, oh, they're totally fine. drive. Like I think they're fine and then gotten in the car with them and been a little more concerned about being in a car with somebody. Exactly. Because I think when you're in the party atmosphere, everything gets kind of muffled a little bit because the party kind of takes like there's a lot of people. You're talking. You're in this adrenaline thing. And then you get in the car and it's like woo. Reality kind of hits. So who knows? Yeah. But we'll get to that because his parents also have a say in this because they talk to him on the phone. They obviously have known him since birth. They know him very well. And they have something to say about what. They believed he was intoxicated or impaired. Okay. Now, the road home to Marshall, where his parents lived, was a straight road, route 68.

It's just a straight road that connects Camby to Marshall. And so just driving straight 30 minutes would have brought him home. He didn't need to pull off. It's literally Route 68. Just go straight to Marshall. And it was on this drive home that he somehow ran his car into a ditch on the side of the road turning around. Which why would he be turning around if he's just going straight? Exactly.

And again, according to him, he was unhurt and it wasn't even a bad accident or anything like that. The car was okay. Just stuck. So after trying a bunch of friends, he tried to call a bunch of his friends because you would. Yeah, especially now it's like late and you don't want to wake your parents up. You really don't want to wake your parents up in the middle of the night at 19 after

you've been to two parties and have had anything to drink. He finally decided though that they're the only ones who'd probably answer and come to his rescue. He just couldn't get their kids. He just couldn't get their. car moving. And it's, I've, like, I've been with people in that position before of, like, I don't understand how fucking tires or anything like that work, but where, yeah, you're just like so connected to the road. Like, they were just hovering over the road. They couldn't grip. So it was

just spinning in air. And again, like, he's not a huge guy. Like, he can't push his car. Exactly. He's not a big guy. And you don't want to do that alone anyway, because then you could fall underneath the car. And that could be like, yeah. And it's like, he's probably tired. He's been hanging out all night. He's had school. It's like, he's probably like, oh, whatever. I'm just going to call my parents. So at 154 a.m., he calls and tells them what happened, and they left immediately with directions he gave them to find him in the car. Now, what he told them, he said, I'm actually only like 10 minutes from home. He was like, I'm very close. He was saying he was somewhere between his home and Marshall and Lind. Now, if you remember, it was not. It's Marshall and you go straight up

Route 68 to Canby. Along the way is like Taunton, I think, a place called Mawin. miniota, but then the other way outside of Marshall is Lind, the 10 minutes away. Now, he was at Lind first. Yeah. And he went to Canby. Yeah. And was coming home from Canby. So he shouldn't even be anywhere.

Why is he saying he's in between Lynn and Marshall? Like, that's strange. But they didn't know that. They just, he's telling them that's where he is. Okay. Now, it's, and again, it's like, I just, there's literally, I was trying to figure out any way that this made sense. Any root.

But it's a real headscrunk. for me. He went, if he was there, which we're going to say whether he was or not, it would be unbelievably out of the way. Well, Andy would have had to pass through his hometown to get there. If he went down Route 68, there are back roads. So, which I'll get into in a second. If he went back roads from Canby, he would technically go through Lind, but it would be an unbelievably long route. And it would almost be like a hook. It would, yeah, it would loop around and it would through and back around you be coming into Marshall from like the backside instead of just coming straight into Marshall. And I might be getting like way ahead of myself here, but is there any

reason why he would have needed to stop back in Lind or like any, does anybody think that's a possibility? That's what we'll get into in the second part is like whether that's a thing. Yeah. Because again, it doesn't make sense, but but we'll get to it. Don't worry. So it should be noted, like I said before, his parents had a, had something to say about whether he was a, inebriated or not. What did they think? It should be noted that his parents maintain that he did not sound inebriated or incapacitated in any way, shape, or form to them. Okay. And your parents know. And they have not wavered on this. Yeah, your parents know. His father was on the phone with him a lot that night in particular his father was. And his mom was too, but his dad was on the phone with him

literally the entire night. And he said he did not believe he sounded drunk high or anything of the like. Wow. Okay. He said he sounded like frustrated because he couldn't. Because his car. They were trying to find them, but he was like he didn't sound like he was slurring or like mixing up words or anything like that. So Brian and Annette get to the 10 minute mark near Lund where Brandon had described and he's nowhere to be found. So they're like, okay. So he said he was on the left side of the road off a gravel road off Highway 23. Now this highway is one that is really out of the way of Route 68, which is that straight shot from Camby to Marshall. Looking at Google Maps makes you even more confused, but that he didn't just take that straight shot.

Because the only way taking major routes he could have connected with Lind from Canby without actually going through Marshall, like we said, would be to take Route 75, which that goes through a place called like Ivanhoe, Minnesota, all the way up to Lake Benton, before turning on to Route 14 and then taking it to Highway 23, where then you're then you. you would make it to Lind and find yourself in between Lind and Marshall. Okay. But you would likely be on the road known as Hiawatha Pioneer Trail. Now, looking at the map along this particular crazy route, there's a lot of farmland and mills and campgrounds, a lot of areas to really get lost in the middle of the night. And there's a Black Rush Lake Waterfowl production area,

which is listed as a nature preserve, and it's huge right off of that. After passing that on the right, you come. to a Camden State Park with a historic mill site on your left, like two huge areas to get in a lot of trouble if you're lost. Yeah. Now, I can only imagine he had a reason for taking that kind of crazy way out of the way. Because again, not a straight shot at all. Yeah.

Like you have that straight shot right in front of you. And it's just highway 68. You can just take it. But instead, he's taking this like route 75 through all. these towns and rural back roads and then he's having to turn onto Route 14 and then he's got to take that to another highway and then you're at Lind on the backside of Marshall it's just and there's like there's no way that this was faster at all to me I don't see it at all the only thing that I can say is and you've driven with me before been like why the fuck are you taking this way yeah I think

like I have shortcuts for everything and you and drew are like this is the longest way possible that's true going this way except that he goes to school in camp every single day. Oh yeah, but I live in this town. But he takes root 68 every time he goes. Okay. There's literally no reason he should have gotten himself lost in these back roads. And he's lived in Minnesota his whole life. And he takes this route every day. He takes this route every single day. This is his route. Like why? Why? Like why would he do that? I mean, if he left the party around midnight, there's a possibility he went through to Marshall on that straight shot, which would take about 30 minutes, bringing us to only about 1230,

1245. And maybe he went to Lind again to see someone? That's the... Well, that's the other thing that I was confused about, because you said he left this party at midnight and he didn't call his parents until almost 2 o'clock in the morning. And even if he went to Lind, that would only take us to a round one, not even. And then he may have went to go back to Marshall from Lind again and actually did crash there, but we find out later that's not the truth. But even going from Lynn, to Marshall wouldn't have, would only, like, be 10 minutes. Yeah. The timeline doesn't make sense either. No, this is spooky. So they called him, we're in the area between Lynd and Marshall where you said you were, we don't see you. And he was like, what the fuck? I'm right here, but I don't see you either.

And so both. A parallel fucking universe. Exactly. So both parties see nothing. They're both like, what the fuck? And Annette and Brian decided to flash their headlights and honk their horn and we're like, do you hear that? Like, do you see any lights? Yeah. Brandon's like, no, I don't see anything. I don't hear anything. Oh, this is freaking out. Now, he's insistent. He's like, I told you the right location.

That's where I am. I am between Linden and they're like, you're not. We're right here. So they ask him, they're like, can you flash your headlights? Because maybe we're just not seeing your car on these side. I don't know. So they were like, maybe we'll see you in the ditch. So he said he was doing it and his mom said,

I heard the clicking sound of him flicking his lights. Yeah. Saw nothing. But he is still insisting, I know exactly where I am. This is where I am. So they started searching for him, keeping them on the phone. And they're like, dude, you're not here. You're not anywhere.

We're going up and down this road. We don't see you. And they just couldn't see him anywhere. And they're telling him like, are you sure this is the location? Like, let's go over this one more time. And he's like, I am. I told you. And he's getting frustrated.

Basically thinking his parents are like tired and just not understanding where he was. So he ended up hanging up on his mom at one point, which I was like, that's not great. Wouldn't you need them to find you? But 19. Yeah. And she called him right back and she's like, I calmed him down. And I told him, you know, like, I'm sorry, but I'm like trying here. I know you're frustrated.

You're, it's cold out here. It was like 40 degrees that night. Oh, man. So she's like, I know you're cold. I know you're frustrated. You're probably like a little scared out here. So let's work on this together. But she's like, I'm really trying to help you here.

Like, just like, everybody calmed down. She's like, we're frustrated too. Yeah. Everybody take a chill. And she's probably like, listen, I want to find you as much as you want me to find you. She's like, I'm worried about you. Like, I want to find you. You're my baby.

So after trying some more with no luck, Brandon said, you know what? Maybe we should just meet somewhere specific that we both can go to, not just like side of the road, not any of that. Okay. So he says, you know what? I see lights from like a town. So he's like, I see Lind, like the town of Lind. That's where the lights are coming from. So he's like, you know what?

I'm going to walk to Lind because it's not far. He's like, it's 10 minutes up there. Okay. And he's like, and you know what? why don't I meet you in the parking lot of this bar called the Lindwood and Trev's kitchen. And he's like, why don't I meet you in the parking lot there? That way we both know where we're going. We can't mix this up.

This dresses me out. So this is one of the first, I was like, I got to find this tavern. I need to know where this is. So I looked, this is one of the first Lind landmarks off that Hiawatha Pioneer Trail off of Highway 23. So he was smart to say that because he's saying, there's Lind. I see it. The lights. I'm going to hit that first landmarks.

that you enter that town it's right there okay so he's like we can't we can't fuck this up and again like I said it's 40 degrees by this point and it's dropping lower it's cold in Minnesota so Brian dropped a net off at home first because he was like I'm going to go meet him because he's like he's going to take a minute to walk there so I'm going to drop you out of off at home just so we have somebody at a home base you know like I'm getting freaked out here yep drop you up at home I'm going to meet him at the bar and we'll we'll figure that out. Okay. So he's like, okay. Now this entire time his dad was like, stay on the phone with me. Yeah, because you're walking in the middle of the night. And he's like, I'm dropping your mom off. Like, you're going to keep me on the phone. But I'm going to keep you

company while you're walking. Sure. Like this was smart. Oh God, I'm freaking out. So he's on the phone. They never hung up. He was walking to what he thought was Lind. And he said he, and he was on the phone letting him know every step of the way what he was seeing. I have this feeling that he's not walking to Lynn. So he was walking along the road, telling his father, each step. up and at some point he told his dad, you know what, I'm going to get off this road, I'm going to cut through this field because he said it's going to be quicker than following the road the entire way and I'm a little, it feels dangerous to be on the road. Okay.

So I couldn't figure out what field he was talking about or where it would have been quicker to cut through a field off of the road. And it proved to me that he definitely had no idea where he was and he was not in that space between Lind and Marshall. As I was reading this case, I didn't look ahead. So I was like, okay, I'm going to see if I can figure out if he was within that area first, before I find out the real truth of whether he was. He's not.

And when I was looking at it, I'm like, there's no field that you can cut through. That would be quicker than walking directly along the road. It just doesn't make sense. And he told him, he could hear running water nearby. And I was like, where? Where are you hearing running water? What the fuck is going on right now? And he also tells his dad he had come across, like, he's like, oh, my God, I just hit another fence line.

And I have to hop that fence, like a field fence. Okay. And he was frustrated having to cross them. And I'm looking and I'm like, no, you didn't. Like, no, you didn't. If you are where you think you are. So as this is all happening, like many, many minutes passed with his father talking to him on the phone. Brandon just told him where he was walking and what he was seeing or hearing.

And then all of a sudden, Brandon just yells, oh, shit. and the call goes still. And that's the other thing. In a lot of sources, it says the call goes dead. That's not what happened. His mom confirmed later that the call did not go dead. He just stopped talking. He said, oh, shit, the call was still going.

And they were yelling for Brian on the phone, like trying to get his attention. For Brandon. Oh, excuse me. Yeah. Brian is his father. Yeah, I know it's confusing. Brian and Annette were yelling on the phone for Brandon trying to get his attention, but they couldn't hear anything.

And they said they thought they heard him fall maybe. Okay. But then they were like, what do we do? So they said they hung up the phone. They got the call dead because then they called back. Okay. Because they said they thought maybe the vibration or the sound of the phone and the light from the phone would either wake him up if he hit something or if he had just dropped the phone.

It couldn't see where it was. But they kept calling and it kept ringing. ringing, ringing, ringing, then going to voicemail. So the phone was not dead. Oh, shit. Oh, God. And does also know, because I was like, it doesn't say he yelled, oh shit. It doesn't say like exactly how he said, oh shit.

And I know it seems like a small thing to think about, but it's really not. But I'm like, has anyone asked them like, did he go like, oh shit? Or did he say like, oh, shit? Or like, oh, shit. You know, like it was it? There's many different ways in which you would. say that. And it's different ways, different situations that would elicit a different, oh, shit. You know, like if somebody is coming up to you, you're going to go, oh, shit. Like, what the

fuck is that? Yeah. But if you just like tripped over something, you're like, oh, shit. Yeah. But if you drop your phone off, shit. Like, you know, it's just, I don't know exactly. So there's little things in here that you're just like, I don't know. So initially, their thoughts were he fell. Something happened and he fell. And the phone went somewhere. So to me, that says he's saying it more like, oh, shit like oh shit yeah that's what i like oh shit like a trip to fall the amount of times we said oh shit i know i feel like it's like missing meaning but frantically brian drove all over that road searching again for but nothing i can't imagine how they were feeling in this moment so he gets annette again they call all of brandon's friends but no one has heard from him and luckily all his

friends joined to them and we're like we'll help look for him yeah of course and so they searched all night, but they found nothing. No Brandon, no car. No trace. Nothing. So 6.30 a.m. Annette and Brian called the police and reported Brandon missing at the Lyon County Sheriff's Department. And they actually went down there. And the police, uh, weren't concerned. Great. They just weren't concerned about this. He ran away, right? Yeah, they basically told them to chill out and Brandon was 19 years old and an adult. And one even said he had the quote, right to go missing. He's 19 years old. You can do what he wants. you're like yeah but the last thing he said to me was oh shit so i'm a little bit concerned and ran his car off the road like well they basically were like well don't all 19 year olds disappear after calling

their parents for help like what i'm like he called for help so time was wasted time was lost here great thanks a lot they ignored these frantic parents and completely didn't listen to the fact that this kid didn't just disappear he was on the phone with his parents after calling his parents for help. Right. Like he wanted to be found. Yeah, like he, this was not like he left one day and like we can't find him. And he just never came back or he just like, you know, parked his car and left and that was it. It's like he literally initiated the phone call to get help from his parents. I also can't imagine the feeling of just being so desperate for help from the people that are literally put in place to help you and have them tell you like, I don't know what to tell you. I can't imagine how frustrated about me.

They're sitting there saying, well, he's an adult. He can do whatever he wants. And it's like, yeah, I don't give a shit what you're saying. This 19 year old is still my child. And it's my child who he literally said, oh shit, and then didn't answer the phone again. But they still didn't care. It took hours for them to convince them. I don't know how they did to finally get them to put him as a missing person and actually put some search into it. Wow. That's sad that they had to, you should not have to convince the police to do their job. No. And of course, time was wasted here again. Precious time. Like the beginning of an investigation is the most important. Have you seen 48 hours. And it's like, Annette and Brian, like, they did everything they were supposed to do.

Exactly. They were failed. I can't imagine how helpless they felt. No. Now, the search and Lind turned up nothing. They found him nowhere around Lind. Or the car. The parents searched again. The friends searched with them. The sheriff did finally get his ass in gear, and they got the cell phone records from his cell phone. Now, the ping showed that he was never near Lynn. Okay. In fact, he was so far away. The Ping showed that he was near Taunton, Minnesota, at the beginning, which was on the same route home from Canby, on that route 68. Okay.

But it was farther away from where, like, where Lind would have been from the other direction. Yeah. Now, the weird part of this is the time frames, like we were talking about before. Taunton was only about 13 miles away from Canby, where he would have started his journey. This would only take about 15 minutes. He left the party in Camby at midnight and didn't make that call about his car until close to 2 a.m. So what was happening in those almost two hours in a 13 mile stretch of road that should have taken about 15 minutes to drive? That's a lot of time unaccounted for it.

So what was going on? Do you know? We don't know. So now they go to the Taunton area to search around noon and like they further find out through the later cell phone records that the phone actually later in that call series had pinged off a tower in Mineota, which was another town off of Route 68 on that long stretch. Mineota, Minnesota. And it's on that long stretch towards Marshall.

Yeah. Likely, that is the town lights that he saw when he thought he was seeing Lind. Miniota. Miniota. Okay. This makes more sense for the fields and fences and running water he was seeing and saying that it would be, it seemed like it would be a quicker way to that town. Because he could cross several fields off the road.

And actually, the yellow medicine river crosses right between them. Okay. So at 12.30 p.m., they searched this new area. And boom, they find his car. Okay. So they found his car. It was indeed in a ditch somewhere in that area between Taunton and Midiota. It was off the major routes.

So it wasn't right on Route 68. It was off. He had gone off that route. and it was down a gravel road called Lion Lincoln Road. I truly wonder where he was going or coming from. It still doesn't make sense because he still got off of Route 68. And there was no reason to know if he was going home. Because again, I also just don't understand where he thought he was, like how he thought he was near Lynn.

Because he's lived in his place his whole life. Yeah. And so they found the car and the. weird area off the beaten path not making sense for coming from cambie to marshal and not anywhere near lynde when they looked inside of it there's no blood no real evidence that any kind of injury would have come from arriving in that ditch and in fact there was no damage to the car itself at all that's great no tracks also to see which way he walked from the car and apparently the reason for this was the roads had been graded that morning before the car was found.

And grading a road is using a big motor machine called a grater to restore the surface of a road. And like the drainage attributes of said road, basically it fucked up any evidence of where he had walked. And inside the car, they did find one interesting thing, though. They found Brandon's glasses. Oh. He always wore them. He was legally blind in one eye. Oh.

Why wasn't he wearing his glasses? What? He would never take them out. What? Yeah. And according to the FBI website, his car was found abandoned in a ditch with the car doors open and keys missing. Interesting. Two doors open.

It just says car doors open. Okay. Does this mean open as in unlocked or open as in wide open? No one is clarifying this. Oh. Because those are two doors open. different scenarios to me. Well, yeah, because it really, if it's saying doors open and they're meaning like a jar,

only one should be open. Exactly. But if they're saying like unlocked, then it makes sense that all of the doors are unlocked. It would make sense that the car, like the car doors are unlocked because you're not necessarily going to think to like lock all your car doors when you're trying to just figure out where you are. But if they're wide fucking open, that's weird. What's that about? And why the fuck are your glasses in there?

Yeah. It's like that's. know his parents and his parents maintained he was not sounding inebriated or incapacitated. Everybody seemed to say that. But why would he leave his glasses? It's dark. You're on a country road. Well, and I'm not even legally blind in one eye.

And if I took my glasses off and left them in the car, I would have no fucking idea where I was going. That's the thing. It's like I, you think of these country roads and I'll make sure to, I'm going to make little, like I'll take pictures of the Google Maps so you guys can just get a better idea. And we'll post the photos with this episode, like, right away so you can look at them while you're, while you're listening just so you can have a better idea. Yeah. But if you look at it, it's like these are very rural roads, like not lights, no way, Jose. And it's like, but I wouldn't even be able to see.

I have pretty good eyesight. And it's like I would be, I would not be able to see in this darkness. And it's like, he's legally blinding one eye and literally wears glasses 24-7. Right. he never took them off it's like why why one why would he take them off and go walking and two was he driving without them well that was my next question and is that why he got so lost exactly it's like is that why but like why would he not drive with them because they're not saying that they're broken they weren't like nothing like that so it's like what what is that about and like

honestly he probably would have is that why he crashed or not excuse me not crashed but is that why he ended up off the road like i don't know to me it seems like he went off the road because he had turned down this gravel road and it's like not a paved road. So your cars are going to be slipping and having trouble gripping anyways, especially like, you know, like a Chevy Lumina, I'm sure it was like, you know, it's not like an ATV vehicle. Yeah, is that a sedan? Yeah. And so I think it's like, in fact, a friend of ours used to have a Lumina growing up and we named

all our cars and we named it Boominah the Lumina. That was my fun little fact. That was my first thought, actually. Boomina the Lumina. But this Lumina, I'm assuming he probably figured out like, okay, I'm going down the wrong road here. Yeah. And he went to do like a three point turn. And it's probably pretty narrow.

I'm assuming what it looks like in the pictures is like the sides of the road kind of dip a little bit. Like, you know, light gravel roads tend to. Yeah. And so when he went to do that three point turn, one part of the car just slipped and couldn't grip the road anymore. So he was just kind of stuck in that weird. position but it's like I was looking at luminous why was he down there like why did he turn off of route 68 that's what doesn't make sense to me I don't know why he would come around the back way no right so keep going because I need to know so so there was a huge search now that they found

the car that like holy shit like he's in this area yeah and where is he so let's go find him so now the search went really like crazy I hate that I know that he's still a missing person because I'm like waiting for you to be like, and they found him here. No, they did not. They used ATVs. They used helicopters, bloodhounds. The bloodhounds actually picked up a scent and followed it for three miles into fields and through an abandoned farm.

Oh, an abandoned farm. No fucking thank you. They went towards the yellow medicine river and indicated that Brandon had it entered the river. This could have meant that he fell in, but it also could have meant that he crossed it or went in accidentally and still survived. Also, those same bloodhounds picked up that scent that went into the river, but then they picked it up again coming out of the river.

So it seems like he did not end up in that river, and that was the end of the scent. Seems like he crossed through. So they searched the river now, though, because obviously they have to. Nobody. They searched the whole thing, and not one piece of evidence that he drowned. Right. And investigators said there was almost no way he was in this river, like ended up in the river, because he would have washed up by now

and they searched it extensively. Right. And again, the dogs picked up another scent coming out of it. Coming out of it. Now, I think in part two, we're going to get a little more into this too because there's a couple of places

that they might have hit that people have like theories about. But the fact that the way that this river goes, he definitely would have washed up. Like, that's for sure. He would have washed up somewhere. They would have found evidence of him going into that river. They found nothing.

And then the fact that the dogs picked up a scent coming out of the river, like, did he fall in the river? And then he got out of the river. And it's 40 and below degrees outside. Yeah. And elements. But if that's the case, where the fuck is he? Yeah, where's his body? He had to have fallen somewhere.

He had to go, but then you're like, did he crawl somewhere and like hide somewhere to like, but that doesn't make sense either. Like, where's his phone? Yeah. We never found the phone. They never found the phone. They never found the phone. It's like, where is all this shit?

And why didn't he have his fucking glasses? That's the main question of why didn't you have your glasses? That to me is like the weirdest indication that's something blind in what I am. Legally blind. Again, like I can't go anywhere without contacts or glasses in and I'm not legally blind. I think I have like negative three, negative four. That's the thing. So they did use cadaver dogs who indicated that human remains were near Mud Creek, but

they never found anything. Okay. And then they officially searched for about a week. This was like a hardcore search, like the ATVs, the helicopters, the bloodhound, the cadaver dogs. Then they had to stop the official search. And family and friends continued though. And they continued for a long time. They found nothing, nothing indicating he was anywhere. And the official search started again in the fall because they were kind of, I don't know why they were waiting, but cadaver dogs, were brought in again and they got a scent into northwest of Porter like his scent and then they lost it.

What? So it's like what? So they suspended it again in the winter because it's going to be hard to search in the winter especially in Minnesota. Yeah. Which also sucks because it's like evidence is just getting fucking washed away at this point. Exactly. And they ended up searching about 122 square miles between everything. Nothing. Not a shred of evidence.

There were 500 volunteers. I mean, there were like dogs from several states coming in to do this work. I mean, everybody was going ham on this, and that family did not rest. His friends did not rest. Nothing. And in 2010, two years later, it was handed over to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and they became the leads on the case from there on out. they still they they kind of tried to focus on certain areas more like what you know like those river areas

they abandoned farm all that place nothing they were getting sense and then it would just die out it's like was he moving around what was going on like where is he and the fact that they searched immediately after this happened right it's not like this is like he went missing two years ago and now we're going to try to find him it's like within a matter of hours he wasn't decomposed like he was there somewhere if something happened and he had passed away that night his body is there somewhere which is which leads me to believe that he did not pass away that night that's what i'm like what is happening i can't wrap my brain around it and that i think we're going to leave the actual case there and we're going to pick everything back up in part two so we can really get into these theories because

i want to take our time and like really you're going to leave me hanging with all of that but i think so the things that have you know there's been things that have you know there's been things that come out about this case that like you know there was questions about whether a net was dropped off at home like between all this and all that because in one interview she said like no I was like on the phone when that happened yeah and I tend to believe her more than reports that probably got it wrong yeah and I think that's what's happening in a lot of these in these cases that tends to happen a lot as rumors or hearsay get put into official reports or people take them as that's really what happened from Annette's mouth, and I don't know if she's misremembering or that's what it is,

she said she was on the phone when the, oh, shit happened. So maybe they were just like on the way to drop her off and then that happened. And that's the thing. What I think is like that was a very frantic night, I'm sure, a very stressful night. A lot of pieces get lost. A lot of shit happened and maybe just timelines got through off a little bit. But I just wanted to mention that because a lot of things like, you know, how she said, And she said it.

She was like, the line didn't go dead after he said, oh, shit. And that's reported widely. Which is annoying. I mean, I think even if you look at like the official like the Wikipedia page for this, which I'm like, can someone edit that? Yeah, right? We need to edit that. But if you look at anything for this case, they say like, he said, oh shit.

And then the line went dead. And then the line went dead. But that's not what happened. And then some of them say that, you know, the father called, they called back and over and over and over. And it just went straight to voicemail. Like the phone was dead. That's not true either. They said, both the parents said, nope, the phone when we called back, the phone rang and rang and rang and rang and then went to voicemail.

Like it was still functioning. Yeah. And it's like we know now that if you call a phone that is dead, like the battery is dead or it goes to voice mail. It goes straight to voicemail. Yeah. But if it's on and working, it rings and rings and rings. Right. Which to me has says something at least about like, because if the phone just went dead, you're like, okay, did the phone die?

and was he saying, oh shit, because he realized the battery was dying? But that doesn't seem to be the case. But that doesn't seem to be the case because it's like, did he fall and the phone fell? And like that would make more sense, I guess. But they were calling. So like they had the right idea. Like let's call. So like the vibration wakes him up or the lights or whatever.

Yeah. So it's like eventually he would see the lights if he wasn't unconscious. Like you would see because they said they called like five or six times over and over again in like quick succession to. God, I cannot imagine. The panic. I can't, I can't fathom that. That must have been the worst. That's a nightmare.

I really, like, as for anybody. Horrific nightmare. And then also, if he fell into the river and the phone went with him, you would have heard that on the phone. Yep, definitely. Like, the phone would have been like, like, like if it was underwater, like, that's exactly what it would have been exactly like our first episodes. Exactly.

It would have been exactly like our first episodes where everybody's underwater. But they didn't hear that. No. They said they, I think they said they could like, like it was a normal line. Like there was no chaos ensuing. They didn't hear a struggle. And had he dropped the phone and like never, never picked it up again, they would have found the phone in that area.

Exactly. Why didn't they find the phone? Because it doesn't sound like the phone went into the water because I feel like Brian and Annette would have been like, yeah, I heard some like staticy, like watery kind of, you would hear it. Yeah. Or you would hear like, plop. You know, like you would hear that sound.

Like something would have indicated that it was muffled or under something, but it seems like it was out in the open. And it seems like he got out of the water. Yeah. So where's the fucking phone, too? How deep is the water? I don't know how deep that water. You know what? I'm going to look it up right now.

Okay, cool. So according to Minnesota's Unsolved Missing Persons, it's a really good website for this. I'll link it because they're awesome. Let's see. The Yellow Medicine River is knee-deep in some areas and up to 15 feet deep in others. Okay. So it would make sense that he could have waded through it. He definitely could have waded through it in some places.

Because that was my question of like, would you have to like full-blown swim or could he wade? Yeah. And then I guess in other areas he would have had to swim. Yeah. Okay. So it's all a matter of where he entered. It really is. And that's the thing.

We have no fucking clue. What the fuck. All we have, and it's, what's weird too is all we have in this. case is what he has told us. And what he told us like he's confused. His parents. Because he doesn't, he didn't even actually know where he was. He didn't even have his glasses on.

Which also why. I will harp on that forever. Why didn't he know where he was? That's the thing. Why did he think? And it's not like he was a little off. Like he was so off. Miles and miles and miles and miles.

He was so off. And then I'm like, what happened in those two hours? Right. Because it's like, did you think you were driving that far? Because you were just tootting around all these bags. back roads and you just like, but like what were you doing? And how did you get that turned around? And you knew that like you, you would have been lost because yeah, you drive this road all the time. I'm so confused right now. It's very confusing. Do people have theories for like the lost time?

Uh, people do like, like kind of. Yeah. There are theories for the last time. But it's really a mystery. It truly is. Because yeah, we can sit here and we will posturize like, you know, what what could have happened in the next episode but like we don't know so spooky and the fact that there's he has never been found is and this isn't like you know because i think of like brys lost pizza yep such a different crazy one but that one almost has like so many more possibilities to it and this one it's like it's one area right and we can't find him right his car was left like where did he go yeah like it was 40 degrees that night. Where was he going? He didn't have a jacket on. It's just, I don't, where do you go? I just need to know where he went. It's just so bizarre. And his poor family,

just have no clue. And for them still to not have closure on it. It's like, I am done. Now I'm like, I want to go to Minnesota. I want to search this area. Like, I want to find him just to give them some kind of, it's so crazy. And the fact that they were on the phone with him just makes it so much worse. Yeah. I can't imagine having that. sitting in your brain for the rest of your life. Like, that's tough. But they did everything they could. They were, they were good parents. They were coming to his rescue in the middle of the night. They did everything they could. But wow.

But yeah, so we're going to talk about the theories next episode. If you have any theories yourself that you, if you've like looked into this case and you've like read anything or have your own theory, like feel free to shoot them our way. Yeah. You can send it to morbidpodcast.com. And just morbidpodcast.com. Wow. I was like, you can't. Honey's, I'm on cough medicine. Morbid podcast at gmail.com.

Big, big part of that. Big part of that missing. Morbid podcast at gmail.com says the old. And just make sure you put in the subject line like, you know, Brandon Swanson disappearance. Boom. There you go. If you have any.

information on Brandon Swanson, his disappearance, or where he might be, literally any information, you can contact the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office in Minnesota at 1.507-694-1664. You can also contact Agent Derek Woodford of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. That's at 651-793-7-000-0-0. Or you can contact the F-V-I-V-I-C-R-E-H-V-E-C-A-C-A-P at leo-L-E-O-O-D-G-G-O-G. All right, well, we hope that you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But that's weird that you end up in the middle of nowhere and you think that you're one place and you're really not in that place and not so weird that nobody can ever find you again because

I really want to find you. And you too. Bye. Thank you.