Murder With My Husband - 10. Brandon Swanson - Where Did You Go

Episode Date: May 18, 2020

Payton and Garrett are out of isolation and back home. In this episode, they share with you the disappearance of Brandon Swanson. He seemingly vanished while on the phone with his dad! LIVE ONLINE SHOW TICKETS HERE! https://www.moment.co/murderwithmyhusband Sources: True Crime Garage https://thetruecrimefiles.com/brandon-swanson-disappearance/ https://www.marshallindependent.com/news/local-news/2018/05/swanson-case-still-unsolved/ http://thesearchforbrandon.blogspot.com https://footprintsattheriversedge.blogspot.com/search?q=Brandon+swanson https://fhsvoice.org/4991/columns/the-strange-and-abnormal-the-unfortunate-disappearance-of-brandon-swanson/ Follow us on our media platforms at: https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband  If you have any information regarding Brandon's disappearance please call: Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension at [phone] or The Lincoln County Sheriffs Office at [phone]. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder with my husband. I'm Peyton Moryland. And I'm Garrett Moryland. And he's the husband. I'm the husband. If we sound a little bit different, it's because we are finally home and we are in a different room. So we've realized that since being home, besides this podcast, I actually have another real job and Garrett does multiple things. And so once we left isolation or quarantine,

we found it was actually going to be a lot harder than we originally thought to get to podcasts out a week. That being said, we are going to continue to produce a podcast a week for you guys, but without a Patreon or ad revenue, too, just seems a little unattainable at the moment. Of course, if we got ads or had a Patreon, we could produce as many as you want. Weak, weak. That's funny. That's true though. But we're still going to do one a week every single week. We're not going to miss one. We're super committed to this. Real life just kinda hit us in the face.

Yeah, there's just a kind of a lot going on. So, two is a lot though. Yeah. Like I mentioned in some of the other podcasts, I mean, paint is a lot of research for this. So, between doing this, her job and some other stuff, sometimes it gets a little overwhelming. But she loves doing this, so this is definitely a priority.

So, if you're just dying to hear more let us know right asin maybe Sometime soon, hopefully eventually we could make more than one a week and other options available for you guys. Yeah But that being said you want to just jump right into it. Yeah, let's just jump into it Okay, so we are doing the disappearance of Brandon Victor Swanson and He actually vanished while he was on the phone talking to his dad. No way, which is what makes this He's super interesting So my sources true crime garage podcast, which is another true crime podcast

Did an extensive cover on this story that was awesome, and I got a lot of information from them that I actually couldn't find on any other sources. So good job, True Crime Garage. They really did a lot of research, and put a lot of time into their cover on the story. It's a lot more extensive than what we're gonna be doing. I think they did like three episodes on this story. We're just gonna go into one.

So if you are really interested in this story, I would highly suggest you go listen to their episodes. on this story we're just gonna go into one. So if you are really interested in this story, I would highly suggest you go listen to their episodes. I also got information from the truecrimefiles.com, from martialindependent.com, from the search for brandon.blogspot.com, and footprints at the riversedge.blogspot.com, as well as FHSvoice.org.

Wow, sounds busy. So let's go. Brandon Swanson was born in Marshall, Minnesota on January 30th, 1989. Brandon's parents Brian and a net describe Brandon as being very close with the family. He loved debate, reading, and worked at a local grocery store for four years. He liked politics, history, and worked at a local grocery store for four years. He liked politics, history, and music, and he was a fan of the Minnesota twins. But I don't actually know what that is. Is it a baseball team? That's why I'm here. But I didn't know right here. Yeah, you're good. So Brandon wore glasses, and he was legally blind in his left eye. Okay. He seems pretty swaggy in the pictures.

I saw of him. His ears were pierced and he would wear like a chain. Yeah. And then he would always wear his hat sideways, which if you know Garrett, Garrett always mad chills with his hat crooked like all the time and all of our friends make fun of him and stuff. So that you can relate to that. That's funny.

Brandon went to college at Minnesota West Community and Technical College to study wind turbines after high school. Wow. So he was actually like really into science and all of this stuff. So he went there and he like studied, basically just wind, but like went hard on wind turbines. It was actually pretty cool. It seems really smart.

So he had plans to continue his education after his semesters at that college. He was going to go on and keep going. So on the night of May 13th 2008, which is actually what is it day, May 17th? So that's actually not, we're in that week right now. But 2008 classes had just ended the day before at his college. And so Brandon and his friends were going to celebrate the end of the semester before heading off to their summer plans. And he was going to start the night off by hitting up a party that was actually near his hometown with some of his high school friends.

So he had only been graduated for a year. So he was probably still in touch with some of his high school friends. And he was in a college town that some of high school friends. Yeah. And he was in a college town that was close to his home, so I'm sure they all kept in contact. So he was going to go to that party first with his high school friends and kind of celebrate the end of semester. So was he pretty popular in high school and everything? I mean, he had a lot of friends and things like so.

So I'm going to guess. And then he was going to finish the night off at a different party that was in his college town. And he was just going to go was in his college town and he was just going to go celebrate with his college buddies and say goodbye to all of them before heading home. Okay. So Brandon leaves his parents house which he lives that. So he goes his college town is not very far away. So he just lives at home with his parents still and drives to college every day. Brandon left his parents house around 6 p.m. to head to the high school party in Lind, Minnesota, which was only an 11-minute drive away from Marshall. So it's just a neighboring town of Marshall.

I'm sure it was just like both of those towns went to the same high school and so they were gonna all go celebrate. It's only 11 minutes away from his home. Yeah. Once Brandon arrived at that party, he was seen drinking and Brandon arrived at that party. He was seen drinking and celebrating almost everyone at the party claim that Brandon had drink, but they weren't sure how much. So it wasn't a question of whether or not he was drinking. It was we like weren't keeping track of how much he was drinking. And he's underage as well, correct? Mm-hmm.

I think he's like 19. Yep. So once 1030 to 11 p., we're not sure rolls around. Brandon leaves that party and heads to Canby, Minnesota to say goodbye to his college friends. And Canby is the city that his college was in. Okay. Canby's about 30 miles away from his hometown where he lives in Marshall and it's probably just a short 30 minute drive So it was only like a 30 minute

What's that word? Yeah, it was only a 30 minute commute for him Okay, and you basically only take one road route 68 to get from the party to where they were having their party And where his college was back to his house. So you just drive from the town, hop on this highway, and then they said it's just like a basically a straight shot diagonal line, you get off an exit and then his house is right there.

Yeah, so not very far. Not very far, not very complicated. So at this party, the college party, people saw him take one shot of whiskey, but no one was really paying attention, like, oh, he's on his third shot of whiskey. Now, he's on his fourth. His friends do recall later that he wasn't acting severely intoxicated, like he didn't act like he had drank a lot.

He leaves that party around midnight, maybe. No one actually was keeping track of him. And so a lot of different sources and a lot of different people that party say different times. All the way to like 130. It's not funny how when there's a big group of people, everyone just goes, oh no, but I saw him at this time.

No, no, he left it this time. So some people say midnight and then some people say, oh no, it was his late is 130. And this is like vital to the case because then it messes up our timeline of what happened when, you know, but they could never pin it down when he exactly left. Because I mean, the police all the time is humans. We kind of start making things up. Oh, no, but I'm pretty sure he left.

Yeah. It's interesting. So keep in mind that Brandon has driven from his parents house in Marshall where he lives to his college and can be every single day for the past two semesters and back home. So he knows this route like the back of his hand. Yeah. So but for some odd reason that night after leaving the party around between 12 and 1 30 a.m. it appears that when Brandon left he did not take the straight shot single highway easiest route

home it seems like he took back roads. But where the back road just like dirt roads then. I mean it's a small it's roads but it's like it would be like just skipping from taking a highway and driving through towns to get home. Okay, okay. Maybe he was drunk. He's underage. And if this town is known for having cops on the that specific highway, because it's the only main highway in between, you know, these towns or whatever, I mean, he's underage. And there was rumors that he already had a DUI. Okay. So maybe he was like, I'm just not going to risk it. I'll just take the back roads home. Yeah and he's only 19 so he would have been in severe trouble. During the time of him leaving the party and getting home, Brandon tried to call a couple friends on his cell phone but neither of them answered. And then at

1.54 a.m. So keep in mind his home is only 30 minutes away from this party. Yeah, and if he left it midnight It's now 1.54 a.m Almost two hours later and he's still on his way home That's so hard because then like you said other people were saying oh, but he left at 1.30 So 1.54 might make sense right only 25 minutes. Yeah, so Brandon calls his parents at 14 AM. He says that he's crashed his green Chevrolet Lumina car into a ditch and that he was stuck. He mentioned that he wasn't hurt,

but he was just off highway 23. That's so scary in the middle of the night. Yeah. So a different highway. Yeah. Like the Route 68 was a main one, and now he's on like a, I don't know, like I have them in my state. Like there's just little country roads that they call highways.

So he's, and then he says, I'm just off Highway 23 and I've crashed my car. Highway 23 is the road that is between Linde and Marshall, the place that he attended the first party that night. Got it. So he's in between the two parties basically. No, in between the first party in his hometown, an 11-minute stretch is where that road is in between. But keep in mind, Linde is out of the way. So it's like, here's Marshall up at the top, okay? And then a straight shot to the diagonal is can be his college town. Okay, then if you go straight shot diagonal

the other way is Linde. So it's like a triangle. Yep. So instead of just going straight home he's now on the road that was from Linde. He's taking the triangle back. Yes, like as if he was going back to Linde and now he's on a road that you would only take front Linde, but he was going home. Okay, that makes sense. That wouldn't make that much sense because he wasn't coming from Linde and it was completely out of the way of his original route from Canby to Marshall. Brandon might have been confused about where he was given his drinking, but we don't know if he's drunk. He's blind in one eye and where he's at in

Minnesota is run like a grid system similar to hearing Utah. So for those of you that don't know what a grid system is, it's every street is numbers, not names. And there could technically be a number, like an address that's, there's four of them because there's one that's east, there's one that's west, and so there's like a center point, and then it just spreads out after that, and it just goes in grids. And so it can kind of get confusing because you could be heading to 53 North, 123 West,

but there's also a 53 South, 123 West. Oh, I hate it. And so it can be kind of confusing. So he I guess he could have I mean This is his hometown, but I guess he could have gotten confused with the grid system I don't really I hate the grid system Everyone who grew up using the grid system actually loves it Which makes me believe that maybe he wasn't confused because like ever all of our friends who grew up with the graces So no, yeah, they know it like the back of their hand.

But we on the other hand are a little bad at it. We get confused. Yeah. Brandon's parents get in their pickup truck and they head off to try and find him to try to rescue him out of this ditch. They stay on the phone with him while they're driving because they're going to try to find him because he just says, I'm off the highway,

I'm on the left side and I'm in a ditch he just says, I'm off the highway, I'm on the left side and I'm in a ditch. Okay, so I'm trying to pitch this again. So what year are we in again? 2008. So it's 2008. Okay, so he's got a, he's on his cell phone. Yeah, it's like a, it says,

I'm gonna say we'd have a phone address. Yeah, it does. Just curious. Cause I tried to like the, I kinda like to try to picture what it's going on. It was a black Motorola SL VR cell phone Hmm, I'm gonna look that up. Oh, okay, so it's It's like a I mean, it's a regular phone or an it's on a flip phone, but it's like a brick

Oh, okay, I would've thought it was a flip phone. No, see how see how it's like a really old phone Yeah, it's just like a brick. Yeah, like a really old phone. Yeah, it's just like a brick, yeah. Like a really old phone. No, I mean, it's not one of those like huge ones that our parents used to use. It's just before the flip phones. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kind of like, yeah.

But these things would not break. These things were indestructible. Yeah, I swear. That's funny. You say that we'll get to that later. Oh, okay. Okay, you guys, we are getting into an ad. I know you guys have both heard the story

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Claiming to be on the left side of the road just off highway 23 Brandon's parents say that he was acting Absolutely confident that he knew where he was crashed at. Like on the phone there was no question. He's like, I'm off Highway 23. I'm on the left side. I'm in a ditch. Like just come find me. I know I'm off 23. And so they're like he was like he called us and didn't ever change his story about where he was like. Didn't seem like he was drunk or under the influence. Yeah. So they drive to the area to the road,

where he has told them that he thinks he is. It being only about a 10 minute drive from their house, and they slow down waiting to come up on him somewhere, crush in a ditch, but they never do. And so they start arguing with him. They're arguing back and forth on the phone. Like, dude, we're here, we're on the road, and you're not here.

Like we are on highway, We've driven all the way up Yeah, and down highway 23 and you are not in the ditch anywhere on the left side. Yes, mom dad Yes, I am like it's it's now almost 2 a.m. That would be so scary as a parent. Yeah, well, I mean they're just frustrated They're like dude. You're an idiot. I mean it's two o'clock in the morning. Yeah, like imagine how frustrating this It's late your son calls He's crashed into a ditch. He's crashed into a ditch He's crashed his car into a ditch, which is already annoying on its own Mm-hmm, and he might be buzzed. He might not and so you pull yourself out of bed to go find him

But as you're driving up to where he should be he's not there But he keeps insisting that's where he is and that they're just not like back up We're do it again do it again back up just drive the whole road mom and they they they're just fighting on the yeah I can imagine yeah so they keep arguing and Brandon ends up hanging up on them because they're fighting yeah but then his mom calls him back at 2.17 a.m. because she's like k-wold dude we got to find you and, they decide that, let's start flashing our lights. So both of them start flashing their lights on and off,

hoping that if they're driving down the road, it may be he's crashed into it that they couldn't see his car. So if he's flashing his lights, they might, it's a super dark night. They said like the moon was barely even out. And so if the lights were going, they would probably see it. Why don't, why don't he just call the police, would he scare to get in trouble because he was drinking?

Do you know? Okay, so I thought of this, but think of this logically. Like put yourself back in your only, your in your freshman year of college. You only 10 minutes away from your house. Yeah. That you live at with your parents still. So basically you're still in high school.

Mm-hmm. And you've crashed your car into it. Okay, I need to clarify. They call it in all the sources crashing his car. But then when I dug deeper into the police files and stuff, he didn't actually crash his car. It almost is like he just drove his car and then he accidentally went into the ditch

and so his tires came up. So he wasn't like his car was completely fine. That's why he just couldn't get his car's traction, the tire traction, like pull back out of the ditch. So nothing really scary is happening besides the fact that like he's just stuck. And so would you have called the cops? No, you would have called him here

and said come get me. I can't. I'm not. I haven't crashed, but my wheels won't get traction. And I'm stuck. If I got stuck somewhere, I wouldn't call anyone. I'd call you and say come find me. Yeah, I'd probably just come at parents.

Yeah. Okay. So Brandon says he's flashing his lights and according to true crime garage, a net can actually hear the switch being flipped on and off in the background of the phone call. So she's like, he actually is flashing his lights because I can hear him. I can hear the switch going on and off. Everyone is frustrated beyond belief at this point. Brandon feels as if he couldn't have been any clearer to his parents about where he is. been any clearer to his parents about where he is. And he has given them all the information and instructions they needed to find him.

And they're like, we're here and he's like, no, you aren't. So Brandon also probably doesn't wanna call the cops if he's intoxicated. So keep that in mind. Brandon decides that he will get out of his car and walk towards the town, Lind. He thinks he can see the lights of the town in the distance. So he tells his parents, OK, listen, this is not working.

I'm going to get out of my car. I'm going to start walking towards the lights, the town of Lindt. And you guys come pick me up in this designated parking lot that will both meet up. So it's going to take him a while to walk there. And so Brandon's dad decides to drop his mom a net off. And I mean, she's honestly probably tired and fed up at this point. And then Brandon's dad decides to drop his mom a net off and I mean she's honestly

probably tired and fed up at this point and then Brandon's dad is gonna drive back to the parking lot to pick him up where they decide to meet and then they'll just find the car in the morning. Man, find my friends in my location where it's all so many issues back then. I know. When I was talking to my mom about this story because she has heard this one before. She was like, I don't remember why didn't they just use find my friends. I was like, mom, it was 2008. Find my friends was anything like, we're just so reliant on it now.

Because all he'd have to do is drop his location and you would have been found in two seconds. Yeah, thank goodness for modern technology. Seriously. So, Brian, Brandon's dad calls Brandon back at 2.23am. So keep in mind, this all started at 1.54. So it's not almost been 30 minutes, that they've been looking.

And he tells, oh, and Brandon tells him that he's just gonna cut through a field that he is coming up on because it'll get him to the city lights quicker. So he could just keep following the road, but he was like, the road's gonna have to curve around. And if I just cut straight through this field, I'm gonna get there faster.

And they're on the phone. And so he's like, I'm gonna do that. Yeah. So Brandon's dad, why would you go through a field in two o'clock in the morning? It's just, well, I mean, I think they were just so frustrated at that point that it was like, you know when you're mad at someone and so it's like nothingclock in the morning. No. Well, I mean, I think they were just so frustrated at that point that it was like, you know when you're mad at someone

and so it's like nothing's in the moment. And so you're just like nothing's scary. Like you could do anything. I think that's kind of what was going on. Yeah. So on the phone with his dad, he tells him that he's come along. He's come up on two fence lines and that he could hear water running nearby. Like he's like, you know, I'm sure they're still saying,

like where are you, do you have a clue where you are now? And he's like, oh, I've come up on two fence lines. And I think I can hear water running. And so right after he tells his dad that, he says into the phone, oh, shiz, but he says the real word. And then Brandon's dad hears something like crash or something slip or something. He doesn't know what it is. And then the phone line goes dead. No way. And it's 3 10 a.m. And they started this at 1.54 a.m. That's so scary. So it's been 47 minutes. Is that's how it freaking out? So Brandon's dad tries to call him back, thinking he fell

or accidentally hung up the phone or whatever, but no one ever picks up the phone ever again. So Brandon's dad goes to the meeting spot, Brandon never shows up. And so after a while, he ends up calling some of Brandon's friends and says, hey, can you guys come out here and help me look for Brandon? Yeah.

Like, I think he might be lost. Uh-huh. And I'm in Linde at this spot. We said we were going to meet and he still hasn't shown up. And so his friends come out and they all drive around route 23, the highway that he was on, looking for Brandon, and they can't find him or his car. So at 6.30 AM., Brandon's mom calls the cops

and reports Brandon missing. Unfortunately, the police do not take it very serious. He's an adult, he doesn't have to come home if he doesn't want to, et cetera, the kind of typical thing we see. The thing about this though, is that he didn't just not come home. Like, he was trying to get home Like he was trying to get home.

He was trying to get home. He was calling people asking for help, asking them to come get him, like staying on the phone with his parents to come find me. Like I, like it wasn't like he just ran away. Like there was obvious proof that something weird had happened. Yeah. Okay. I'm curious to see where his car is now.

So the parents convinced luckily the sheriff's office though to come out and join the search that next morning. And the sheriff's office is like, yeah, great, he's missing sure. Let's just go get his cell phone records real quick. Because we can just ping his phone. Yeah, we'll find him. So they go get

the phone records. And the records earth shatteringly show that Brandon's phone was pinging at the time that he was on the phone with his parents nowhere near where he said he had crashed and needed. Oh man. He was so far off that his phone was pinging in a completely different town 20 miles away from where he told his parents he had crashed. Oh man. So obviously him being under the influence confused that we don't even know if he was under the influence. Sure. But I don't I feel like if you live in your town, you live there,

go out there for 19 years, you'd probably know if you weren't under the influence. Maybe. So his parents have come out and said that he didn't sound drunk on the phone, that he didn't sound incapacitated at all. How can you get so confused? 20 miles off. 20 miles off. That's not even... Okay, and get this.

It was 20 miles away from his home. That's not even the same town. Like 20 miles outside of my hometown in California is a completely different city. And the weird part is, is he thought he was on a road only 10 minutes away from his, he was driving down that road going, oh, mom, I'm on highway 23. I can see Linden the distance and he wasn't.

So strange. So obviously everyone is confused this crap and they head over to the new town, earnestly, to search around the area because they're like he wasn't even where we've been looking. He was in a completely different town. They all head over there, and at 12.40pm, the next day, so May 14, during the search of the new town, the sheriff's office find Brandon's car, crashed into a ditch off of a road. The strange part is the location that they found the car is only several miles away from

Canby where Brandon had originally left that party at midnight or 1.30. He was only a couple miles away from where he left that party. But he was just going the opposite direction? No, he was heading home too, I mean, he was heading home to Marshall, but he had been gone for, depending on who you talk to, at least 30 minutes at most two hours, and he was only a couple miles away from the party. Okay, got us. What was he doing the whole time?

Okay, okay, I see. And where his car was was actually adonting 25 miles away from Lind, where he said he was. Yeah. So where he crashed was 25 miles over. That's far. That'd be like us being in Salt Lake City.

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So the car was crashed off of a road that was barely driven on. It was a gravel road. It was like, okay, and a gravel road. He thought he was on Highway 23. That's what I'm saying. I feel like he had to have been under the influence. You know what I'm saying? I mean, I understand his parents.

He said he wasn't, but... And even his friends at the party before he left said that he wasn't severely intoxicated. Oh, it's so crazy. So literally, how did he get so off on his location? 25 miles, not even. He was roughly 25 minutes away from where he claimed to have crashed. On a low maintenance road that nobody even barely drove and it definitely wasn't a highway. He would have felt the difference between a gravel road and a highway.

Like how was he so confused? Weird, okay. Could he have really drove around, lost in his hometown for two hours? Could he have been that confused, that drunk, that tired? I mean, he's blind in one eye. It seems like a bad dream where you can't get to where you need to go. You know you need to go somewhere, but you just can't seem to get there. I have dreams where I'm trying to dial the phone and every time I go to click the number

it slips off to the other number? That's what it feels like. To me, how much confusion does there have to be before it might not just have been an accident? That he was that lost and that off and got out and didn't know where he was going and actually walked somewhere and then went missing. Yeah. Did the parties have drugs?

Was he on drugs? Was he on drugs? Was he on acid? Was he on badmeth? And none of the kids messed up because they were all under age. And if so, why did Brown and Sound completely normal to his parents and to his friends? He was completely lucid. When the sheriff's investigated the car at the scene of the accident, they came to the conclusion that it completely worked fine. It had just literally gotten hung up, meaning that the wheels weren't touching the ground and that he didn't crash into the ditch.

He most likely pulled into the ditch on accident. So what they think happened was that he was driving was like, oh, I think I'm lost and went to turn around not realizing there's a ditch and just throw it into it. They also can't figure out which way Brandon walked after getting out of the car because the gravel road that he was crashed on had been graded that morning before they found the vehicle. No, erasing any footprints. But didn't he go through a field? Yes. Okay. But I mean, this road that they're on is just farmland after farmland So they had no idea they couldn't find your out which field he was in no it was all farmland with private property farms landowners dang, okay So

Investigators started searching for Brandon hoping he was nearby They're like we'll just search the the length of the road start going in field and hope that we can find him They brought in search dogs and they searched the nearby yellow medicine river because remember how he said he could hear water. So they searched them, they searched around the river and this river could actually get up to 15 feet deep. So maybe it was possible that he fell in. But the part that was near the accident, like he would have had to walk really far, it wasn't that deep,

but it could have had a strong current that night. So they were like, but they didn't find his phone or anything over there. No body, no phone, no clothes, nothing. So, but did they, so for pinging, I guess back then, you couldn't ping like an exact location or some log. Yeah, that makes sense just off the tower.

Yep, that makes sense. A nearby tower. And the phone never pinged again after he hung up on his dad. It was no activity after that. Like who, oh, okay. So they didn't have any pings other than one of these. Even if it's off, they can't. Well, they don't know if the phone's off.

I mean, even it's on, they can't ping it or anything. Not, I don't think back in those days. Even now, like, when you're trying to find a location, They can't ping it or anything. Not I don't think back in those days even now like When you're trying to find a location you trace a call Yeah, yeah, okay. I see you say oh So they actually searched this river for six hours and they did that every day for 30 days afterwards So this okay, so wow, I'm just gonna say The search is a really big part of this story and this is probably the best most extensive thorough searching I've ever seen for a missing person's case.

These guys went so hard and are still going so hard to try to find Brandon. So the dogs made it seem like Brandon had got in the water like the dogs, the search dogs, but then that he got out and kept walking. So they don't feel like Brandon fell in the water and drowned, because it seems as if the dogs jumped in the water and then jumped out and kept following the scent. So the scent, yeah, because the scent would have been lost

if he went downstream in the river, and there would have been no more scent. But they kept following the scent afterwards. Okay. So then they're like, okay, we don't think down stream in the river, there would have been no more sense. But they kept following the scent afterwards. OK. So then they're like, OK, we don't think he fell in the water. They searched the river and they searched the dried up river later that year and nothing, not even a clue, not a cell phone, not.

Where did the dogs go after they jumped out of the river? Did they just keep walking farther up? Oh, OK. And then they eventually lost the river. They just kept walking farther up. The fifth. Oh, okay. And then they eventually lost the scent. Got it. So the search for Brandon was extensive in thorough according to footprints at the rivers edge.blogspot.com.

They used ground, ATV, horseback, airplane, and helicopter to look for Brandon. Wow. Nowadays though, you could just, I mean, think about how hard and expensive that was to get a helicopter. Yeah. Now you have drones.

Oh yeah, that's true. So it would actually be a lot easier. But friends, family, and volunteers all searched the area where Brandon had been walking, where he had gone missing, looking for anything that would point them to where he might be. The search for Brandon.blogspot.com has real journal entries from each of the searches that they have done for Brandon. And if you are interested in reading about those go do it, I read some of the journal entries.

They go details into the plan of the search all the way to what happened, what was found, the execution. It's a really good representation to me that Brandon has not been forgotten and that people still care. And that there's a lot of people that still care. That's crazy that they do that much searching and they still... Still, to this day you can go on and there's recent, we went to this part of this and search on foot for this many hours.

It was this many people like they document every search so they don't end up researching the same areas. Okay. So, there's just so much land. Does it keep... do you have more? Is that basically just- Oh, no, I got more. Oh, okay.

So Jeff Hasse was the, was this, with the search rescue and recovery resources of Minnesota who took over the search fairly shortly after the cops had kind of given up on the case. He claims that the area that Brandon went missing is hard because it's kind of like a cesspool and so the wind blows in every single direction in that area. Okay. And so any scent that the dogs can catch, they don't know where it originally came from because the scent carries with all the wind. They can't go, oh, this was probably blown downstream because it blows every which way.

So they also can't, okay, this part kind of bugs me. They also don't search private property unless they have evidence to, which they don't because there's no like, oh, we found a shoe on your property. Can we come search your land? But couldn't the owners just give permission to search private property? But it's they, I mean, I, there's direct quotes from the,

from Jeff Hasse, the director of the whole search team, saying that they haven't searched the landowners land that are nearby. Did they ask for permission? I don't know. They said, I think the quote was kind of like, we try to protect the rights of private landowners. Got it. Okay, that seemed a little, I guess, strange to me.

Because I grew up in a country, and if someone went missing near my property, I would 10,000% let the police search my property. I would go to them and say, come search my property. What if he wandered on my acres of land? Yeah, unless I was guilty, right? Yes. So, because of that, they haven't searched any of the private property.

I mean, I'm not sure they've searched some, but they've definitely made it seem like there has been some property or land that has privately owned near where he disappeared that they have yet to search because of rights. Got it. So this new search team though is kind of cool because they use victim profiling known facts and evidence about the incident and mathematical equations to try and find the missing person. So a lot of the time we hear about suspect profiling right like I think the suspect is

this tall this. These guys go, okay, so based on Brandon, and they gather all the information from the friends and family that they know. Okay, how fast, according to his height and his weight, could he have walked in the amount of time before he said, oh, shizz and dropped and cut off the phone call? How fast could he have walked based on his body,

and then after, if something bad had happened, based on his personality, where would he have done? So it's kind of cool because they use that for their searching. Gosh, it just seemed so strange to me still that he would just walk into the river, like just, or fall. Or fall into the river.

Yeah. So the cadaver dogs used in the search consistently hit on an area called mud creek. Even as recently as 2015, they consistently hit on an area called mud creek. Even as recently as 2015, they have hit on human remains in mud creek. Can't find the remains just the scent of human remains. And because the wind blows all over, the dogs just go crazy in the area because they can smell it, but they can't track down where it's coming from. Is mud creek like a big creek?

Or? Yes, so it has like a whole bunch of those Things that come out of the water What are those called like the like the big things that have like the big Lillipads no, they like stand up out of water like in outer banks Oh, they like stand up so you'd have to wave through it in their tall oh like a marsh land on a marsh It's a marsh that's what I'm trying to say. Okay, got it, got it. So it's like they have to cut down the marsh to search the area.

And it's better when like the water isn't very high, so they have to wait till a certain time of the year. And then when they finally hit that year, they have to go through and cut down and it's physically like brutal on them to try to cut that down and search through all of it. So, they still are searching that area even up to today. Well, it must be big then, right? Yeah, I would think so. So Brandon has never been found.

That's so crazy. The searches have gone on, but they have had zero leads since that night. So, let's go through some theories. Yeah, I have a couple. Well, no, tell me yours. Tell me. Before yours? Yeah.

Okay, I think, I don't think this is a theory though, because I don't want to be disrespectful. Okay, no. It's obviously, because I mean, the search is still going on, and everyone's still trying to find them. But, I mean, I'm sure one of this theories are that maybe he ran away.

I'm sure that's a thing. I don't think that's very likely. So I'd probably take that out of my theory because I just doubt that he ran away. I guess another theory would be right. He got kidnapped, right? That kidnap was taken. I doubt that as well.

I actually think there's probably a good chance that he drowned. I think that's what I think. You're feeling that he drowned. I think that he probably drown. I think I think that's the most logical explanation. I think if he was really 25 miles off had no idea where he was. I mean, I know everyone says he wasn't on drugs, but I just I guess you don't ever know you don't ever know Right. I think that's probably the most likely scenario, but I could be totally wrong. He had been partying. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that's what you think happened.

I think that's a very logical theory. Okay. Let's hear your theories. Okay. These have also come from Reddit. They've come from a lot of different sources. Yeah. I mean, the theories run rampant on this one.

If you get on Reddit, there are threads and threads and threads on this. And man, I hope that he is found if he's alive. I know. I really do. Okay. So the first pretty popular theory is that he was abducted by aliens. And then when he said, oh shit, he saw something and then was cut short. Because I mean, if it was a person, they couldn't have snatched the phone that fast and hung

it up in time. And I don't think he would have hung up if he was in trouble, but I mean, if it's an alien thing, they can do whatever they want. That's why I think if he fell into the river, it would have just cut off right away. Yeah. But like you said, those funds are indestructible. Sort of, not on water though. But anyways, an alien abduction is a really popular theory.

My only problem with this is there were no crop circles and there was a lot of things. Oh, crop circles, that's funny. But I kind of like the alien theory. Okay. I'm like, okay, it's kind of like, when you hear about people who were abducted by aliens, a suddenly go missing, he's in the middle of all these farm fields, the middle of the night.

That's crazy. Okay, what about another one? Okay, so the next one is that Brandon had a bad reaction to drugs that he was on a trip and just fell into the river. He did something. He somehow hurt himself somewhere and his body hasn't been found. Okay. He fell, he laid down, it was really cold that night, it was like 30 degrees. So if he had fell in the river and got back out like the dog hinted on, he could have died of hypothermia.

Yeah. My problem with this though is where is his body if this is the case because could he have really gone far enough away that his body wouldn't have been found because in my case if he if he's tripping then yes maybe he just wander into the middle of nowhere and died. Maybe he just wander into the middle of nowhere and die. But I feel like he was smart. I feel like he was lucid enough to call his parents when he crashed to ask for help to stay on the phone with them. I feel like if you're having a trip, you wouldn't be lucid enough to stay on the phone

with your parents for 47 minutes. Yeah, I agree. Like you just couldn't. There are actually rumors kind of on some of the sources and on reddit that there was a pipe found in his car But they don't really verify what pipe it was and this like originally came from like one of the News sources and then they think people just took it from that as a source and ran with it So we don't know if it's like a lead pipe, we don't know if it's like a meth pipe,

we don't know what type pipe was found in his car. Yeah, you can't really use that as evidence for anything. Police have also though come out and said that they don't think that he was impaired. And they don't give any reason why, but they've come out and said he wasn't impaired. So that hurts your theory. Yeah, it makes your alien theory a little better.

Yeah. So the next theory is that Brandon could have got hit by a car and then the person who hit him picked up the body afterwards because they didn't wanna go to jail for manslaughter. But he was in the middle of a field. Exactly. So, but people are like, dude, this kid was so lost,

he could have been blocking the side of the road at this point And then got hit and that was the lights that he was claiming to see in the distance But I mean it the lights that he was claiming to see in the distance were It wouldn't take a car 20 minutes to get to you and hit you. You could see their lights is what I'm trying to say so Another very popular theory is that foul play was involved and that he was killed by someone random or someone he knew that had followed him and saw him crash and then waited for him to get out and they

had killed him or that super unlikely but someone came up on him that just wasn't a good person, and he was a very opportunistic victim. Yeah, oh, that's sad. I don't like to think of these theories because I wish he was alive and found. It's sad. One of the really popular branches of this theory is that he went onto private land and got shot and killed.

And at first, if you told me this, I would have been like, no, they wouldn't kill. They'd maybe cock a gun or something like, but they wouldn't actually shoot someone. But I actually recently just talked to someone who told me that there is an area in Utah, the state of Utah, that if that private landowners have shot multiple people in this little city and they don't get in trouble because they were trespassing. I don't think it's that because one, you would have heard a gun shot and the phone wanted to just hung up right away. So I doubt it's that, especially if it was in the middle of a field, if that phone fell

and hit the dirt, it wouldn't have just hung up. It would have been on the phone still. So, yes, but this does happen. You guys don't trust pass because I literally just heard all these horror stories of these people and they don't get in trouble because you're trespassing on private property. That's crazy.

So, don't do it. So, which one do you think it is? Oh, there's more. Oh. If it was someone he knew, deep on the web in hometown stories, there are people who Oh, if it was someone he knew Deep on the web in hometown stories there are people who rumored that he was actually in trouble and that he owed money to people Mm-hmm, and so Brandon's this and so people are like was there any record to that though? No, but hometown people say that he was in trouble with some people But I'm like what the chances that he got lost and then they followed him?

Oh, hey, we found you. Yeah, let's kill you. You know what I'm saying? Also, the FBI has listed Brandon's disappearance under ViCap, which means that he is listed under violent crimes, not disappearance. There are very, very, very few disappearances listed in ViCap and Brandon is one of them. Why did they do that?

They don't. Why would the FBI think that? What? Also, two doors on his car were left open. So when the police found his car, it wasn't just the driver's side that was open. And also, why wouldn't he shut his door? Who gets out of their car and doesn't close their door? So do you think the FBI maybe did an investigation after and found something that we don't know? Yeah, we don't know. open and also why wouldn't he shut his door? Who gets out of their car and doesn't close their door? So do you think the FBI maybe did an investigation after and found something that we don't

know? Yeah, we don't know. Weird. Um, okay. It's almost as if two people had gotten out of his car or someone had come and searched his car after. Maybe he was like super smart so we found something crazy with the government or something. I don't know. Oh, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I feel you. So we found something crazy with the government or something. I don't know.

Hold on, I'm saying. Yeah, I feel you. Like they found something. So the FBI did it. And they're covering it up. Oh, violent crime. Yeah. Wow.

The next story you already guessed is that he purposely disappeared. The next theory that's the most plausible theories that he fell into the water and then either drowned or that he climbed out and got hypothermia. And then the next theory is that he was attacked by an animal in the middle of the field, but there would be blood, like sorry,

animals don't clean up their crime scene after they attack somebody. The thing is, the only thing that's logical with the phone is that. He fell in the water. He fell in the water. That's how I feel, too. Because anything else, it would have just

kind of fallen. Oh, people do say just kind of fallen. Oh, people do say maybe his phone died. It, he went, oh, shizz, because it lit up saying, boom, empty battery, and then shut off, and that's how the call got disconnected, and then he kept walking because he was lost, and then died.

Okay, that makes things a little tougher. But we don't know that for sure. Yeah. And then last theory is the popular Reddit theory. This is probably the most popular theory that's on Reddit. And it's that he fell into a hole or a trap somewhere that was placed on someone's farmland for like an animal or something, and he ended up dying in the hole.

And whoever the farmland or farmowner was just was like, yep, well, I'm not gonna get in trouble for that. That's scary. That's like the most popular theory, which makes me feel like, maybe, I mean. But see then, if it was that, none of it still explains the phone to me at least. Yeah, I guess they're saying like he fell. And the phone died. Or something.

But I mean, I think people are truly forgetting how indestructible those phones were. You couldn't break a Nokia if you tried. I would throw it against the wall and I would break. Yeah. Oh yeah. So the only, I mean, not the only, but I want to say the only good thing that has come out of this is that they've passed a law called Brandon's Law,

which we see a lot with these cases. And according to the true crime files.com, Brandon's Law is that the law will require law enforcement to take a missing person's report without delay after notification of someone missing under dangerous circumstances. No matter the missing person's age, immediately conduct a preliminary investigation to determine if the person is missing and whether the person is endangered and promptly notify all other law enforcement agencies of the situation. It clarifies that the agency taking the report be the lead agency in an investigation.

That's good. So we actually see this happen a lot with missing persons where they end up passing a law after saying, hey, no matter the missing person, you have to take it seriously. So now, luckily, I don't feel like this is happening as much because every missing person has taken more seriously now, but back then, it wasn't that way. Yeah, that makes sense. So yeah, that's the story of Brandon Swanson. I'm just gonna repeat because this case he's still missing. So this was on May 14th, 2008.

because this case he is still missing. So this was on May 14th, 2008. And according to True Crime Garage, he was 19 years old, he was Caucasian, he was around five foot, five foot six, he was 120 to 130 pounds. He had brown hair, blue eyes, he was wearing baggy blue jeans, a blue stripe polo, a black zip front sweatshirt that had an emblem on the back and a white Minnesota twins baseball

cap. Oh, baseball duh. He was wearing his glasses. He had a sterling silver chain on and he was carrying his black Motorola SLVR cell phone, his wallet and his keys. If you know anything about the disappearance of Brandon Swanson or have any details about this case, please call the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension at 651-793-7000 or Lincoln County Sheriff's Office 507-694-1664. Good job, babe. So yeah, that's the case of Brandon Victor Swanson. That's crazy. I hate the ones that aren't found, but I also hate the ones where people die.

You like the survivors. I don't even know if I like the survivors because I feel so bad for them. Okay, so you're telling me you still hate this? Yeah, I'm telling you I still hate this. Well, I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye. Thank you.

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