SERIALously - 73: A Bone-Chilling College Mystery

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

Welcome back to another bonus episode! In today’s episode, we’re talking about a case that perplexes many true crime sleuths to this day: the suspicious disappearance of Brian Shaffer. On April 1, 2006, Brian was with friends at the Ugly Tuna Saloon in Columbus, Ohio. Brian was seen on cameras inside the bar shortly before 2 a.m. talking to two women, but then walked away. After the bar closed, his friends couldn’t find him. He wasn’t answering his phone, and they didn’t know what to do. In a chilling twist, Brian was never seen on camera footage leaving the bar… or seen ever again. This case was previously covered on my YouTube Channel, 10 to Life.   Follow the podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/serialouslypod/  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/annieelise All Social Media Links: https://www.flowcode.com/page/annieelise_ SERIALously FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/SERIALouslyAnnieElise/ About Me: https://annieelise.com/ For Business Inquiries: [e-mail]

Hey true crime besties, welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly. Hey everybody, welcome back to an all-new bonus episode of Serialistly. It's me, Annie, your true crime bestie, here to talk all things true crime with you. Now, the reason why I had to jump on here and drop this bonus episode outside of the normal release schedule is because I need to talk to you about this case. It is so wild. There is so much to talk about, so we got to get right into it. Before we do, please take a quick second, just make sure that you are following along on the podcast so that you don't miss any future episodes and bonus episodes like these that drop, and also follow along on the Serialistly Facebook page where we drop all information regarding giveaways, behind-the-scenes information,

guest episodes, Q&As, all sorts of good stuff. All right, now let's get into today's case. 27-year-old Brian Schaefer was born in Pickerington, Ohio, to Randy and Renee Schaefer in 1979. He was the oldest of two sons, and Brian was extremely smart. Brian knew that once he graduated high school, he wanted to attend Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, and so he did. He received an undergraduate degree in microbiology, and in 2004, he began studying at the Ohio State University College of Medicine. The year was 2006, and he was just 27 years old and in his second year of med school. Despite being in med school, Brian's friends always joked about how Brian's true passion,

hopes, and dreams were to be in a band. He loved the lifestyle and the music of Jimmy Buffett and Pearl Jam. He just wanted to be, you know, one of the guys hanging out, rocking out, and he actually loved Pearl Jam so much that he even got the band logo tattooed on his arm, which, let me just say, word to the wise, because I have a lot of tattoos and I regret them, I would advise against getting a tattoo of a band you love or a musician. If we all went that route, I would not only have Spice Girls tattooed on me but I would probably have like BB Mac 98 degrees you're gonna outgrow it you are going to most likely outgrow it but I digress so being in a band seemed like one of those dreams that I guess we all have at some point you know deep down that it'll never happen because first of all you have to have like ultra crazy talent but also it's like the rarity of actually being in a successful band is pretty slim.

And we usually just kind of push all that deep down and go the safer route, which is what Brian did. And that's why he went to med school. That same year as he was in his second year of med school, Brian met Alexis Wagner, who was also a second year med school student. The couple immediately hit it off and it seemed like the two of them were destined to be together. Now, 2006 had been a bit of a rough year for Brian already, but nevertheless, he was persisting. Like I said, it was his second year of med school now, which was rough enough on its own, but also at the beginning of the year, his mom passed away from a very rare form of bone cancer that took her life very quickly, so Brian was put in a position of having to grieve while still being on top of his game with his studying. And that was really hard,

but he figured out a way to manage. He actually more than managed. His friends and family say for he and his mom to have been as close as they were, he was handling all of this extremely well. Brian and Alexis were planning a spring break trip in Miami so that both of them could just unplug, relax, and not have to worry about having any responsibilities, any deadlines, any sort of looming thing that would kind of get down on your partying, and just a moment to decompress. Brian's close friends were even beginning to suspect if Brian was going to propose to Alexis on this trip, and all of them were more than happy at that idea. The two of them really seemed to be the perfect match, the perfect couple, and they both shared goals that aligned with each other and had the same outlook on life. But before cutting out and getting the heck out of Dodge and going to Miami for the sun and partying, it was time to finish

up with some midterms. Midterms week was finally coming to an end, and the couple decided to go their separate ways before reuniting on Monday to fly to Miami together. Alexis had decided to pay a visit to her parents in Toledo, Ohio for the weekend, and Brian decided to stay in Columbus to spend some time with his friends and a roommate. He wanted Friday night to be a fun night out, and had initially asked his brother and his brother's partner to go out, but they decided last minute that they weren't really feeling up for it, so they canceled. Since his brother canceled, Brian and his roommate Clint decided that they wanted to go out. They wanted to hit some bars and celebrate the start of spring break, like all college kids do. Anyone that knows the Columbus or Ohio State area also knows that on

game days, or before the end of a break basically, every college student is hitting the bars, and that was no different for Brian and Clint. At 9 56 p.m. on the night of a break, basically, every college student is hitting the bars. And that was no different for Brian and Clint. At 9 56 p.m. on the night of March 31st, Brian called Alexis to let her know his plans. He told her good night and he said that he loved her. Then he headed out with Clint for the first bar of the night called Ugly Tuna Saloon in the University District. The two of them had a few beers and shots, were hanging out, and then decided it was time to move on to another bar. Did he sound at all concerned when you talked with him Friday night? Nope.

He wasn't worried on the phone? Nope. Did he sound down, depressed in any way? He sounded fine. They were going to be bar hopping that entire evening, so they wanted to see, okay, this bar's great, but what is the next destination going to bring us? They decided to head down toward the short north and Arena District, which isn't too far from the university, but has more options for that nightlife vibe that they were looking for. Once they got to Short

North, they met up with Clint's friend Meredith Reed, and decided that Meredith was going to drive all three of them back to the Ugly Tuna Bar that they had started at earlier in the night so that they could watch a live band that was playing that night at the bar. So all three of the friends hopped into the car and headed back to the Ugly Tuna. Once they got there, the bar was pretty packed, so they decided to ride up the escalator to the bar's second story entrance. Once they got to the bar, they saw more people that they were friends with and ended up in a very large group of people, a lot of their friends, hanging out, but at some point in the night, they all got separated in the crowd, which is normal when you're in a really close-knit bar shoulder to shoulder. It's packed, it's right

before spring break. No matter how big your group of friends might be, it's easy to splinter off. So when the bar was closing, Clint and Meredith found each other and tried calling Brian to see if he was still at the Ugly Tuna or if he decided to walk down somewhere else to another bar. But all of their calls to Brian went unanswered. As they kept trying to reach Brian, he wasn't answering. It just kept going to voicemail and they couldn't get in touch with him. But this wasn't too crazy. It was a night out. Everybody was partying. So they figured that his phone was either dead or that maybe he wasn't hearing it over the music in whatever bar he was. He was a grown man. It wasn't anything to really raise concern about. They decided to

check the men's restroom and kept calling him, but he still wasn't answering. So after a while, they decided to go home, figuring he's a pretty responsible grown man, and he was probably either already home or had met maybe another friend that he was out with now. But on Monday morning, when Brian was supposed to leave with his girlfriend Alexis for that Miami trip for spring break, he never showed up for his flight. And as it turns out, he never came home the night of the 31st. He never called Alexis again, and he never called his dad or brother all weekend, which was very unusual for him.

He had been missing for two whole days at this point. It was Monday morning when everybody began to realize that Brian had just completely ghosted them, all out of the blue, and it was concerning. This was unlike him so he was officially reported as a missing person. Brian's father had been calling him non-stop with no response so he called his other son Derek to go over and check on Brian in his apartment. Brian's car was found still parked near his apartment just as it had been left that Friday night before they all went out, and Derek noticed that the lights were on, hoping that that meant good news. But when he got inside, it was only Alexis who was there, and she was also there looking for Brian. Alexis, too, had been calling him non-stop over the weekend with no responses and even decided to still show

up for their flight, hoping that he would be there. But he wasn't. Derek told a local news outlet, The lights were on, so I thought, oh good, he's back home. But Alexis was there, not Brian. That's when we knew that something was up. No one had talked to him or seen him since Friday night. Brian's father told police that he had met with Brian earlier in the day on Friday for dinner, and said that he tried to get Brian to not go out that night. Not because he was acting strangely, but simply because Brian looked really tired,

and he knew that Brian had pulled some all-nighters the past week for midterms and studying, and he just wanted him to rest. Brian had laughed off his father's suggestion to not go out because he was dead set on going out and partying to celebrate that midterms were over, and that was the last conversation that he had with his dad. Brian had just been out with some friends at a bar, something so common, and in a place that was relatively safe and in a relatively safe area. So what could have possibly gone wrong? How could he have gotten into trouble at such a packed establishment that both of his friends and countless other people were at as well? Investigators immediately began trying to establish a better timeline and determine who had seen him last.

We know that the last place that he was seen was the Ugly Tuna Bar. And the layout of this bar is a bit confusing without some context. It was on the second story of a building, so you had to take an escalator up to the entrance. Police were able to verify that he had been there due to some of the security footage at the bar. due to some of the security footage at the bar. At 1 15 a.m, Brian, Clint, and Meredith are all seen riding up that escalator to the second story that leads them directly into the bar entrance. By now it's well known that nobody from that night ever saw Brian leave the building. At around 2 a.m, Brian is seen outside of the Ugly Tuna, but not outside of the building itself, just the bar. And he wasn't with Clint or Meredith, but with two other women who appeared to be in their 20s.

Throughout all the footage, police were able to account for every single patron that entered the building and every single one of them left except for Brian. They were all three standing outside of the bar talking casually. And then Brian is seen leaving the two women and walking back towards the bar entrance. However, this was the last time that he was ever seen. He walked back inside of the bar and never came back out again. This meant that his two friends and the two unknown girls were the last people to have seen and spoken to Brian. Police asked all of Brian's close friends and family to take a lie detector test, which they did, and they all passed, except for Clint,

who was not only his best friend and roommate, but also was one of the last people to have seen Brian alive, and for some odd reason, he had refused to take a test. Meredith even willingly took a lie detector test and passed with flying colors. The two women outside the bar were identified, though not to the public, and oddly enough, they weren't asked to take a test, which seems very bizarre if they were the last two people to see somebody who is now missing alive. The security footage in the bar was all that the

police had to work with at this point. There were two cameras in the bar, one that was manually operated and the other which continuously panned around the bar. There were only two entrances and exits in the entire bar, the first being the main exit that is on camera, and the second being a back exit. But this back exit at the time was blocked off because it led directly into a very chaotic construction site, which led investigators back to the main door. The construction site was described as being something that you couldn't even get through, even sober. And besides, that door had not even been available for people to use, since there was such a safety hazard directly outside of it. So how had Brian managed to enter back into the bar, through the only working entrance and that main entrance, but then never was seen leaving the bar? It was like he went back inside of the bar and then vanished into thin air. Police were

immediately stumped and very quickly began to wonder if Brian had disappeared not by foul play or accident, but on purpose. Every single day after Brian had gone missing, Alexis called his phone before she went to bed. She did this for six months straight, hoping and praying for a change, but it always went to voicemail. Until one night in September of 2006, when it didn't go to voicemail at all. It actually rang three times. Alexis immediately told investigators, who contacted Brian's cell phone provider for more information on the call. They told police that it could have been, and more than likely had been, a computer glitch. They also told police that the GPS on the cell phone wasn't enabled, so an exact location couldn't be determined. However, they could see that

a ping from the phone was at a cell tower 14 miles northwest of Columbus. His family and friends told police over and over again that Brian wouldn't just disappear like that and leave everybody worried. He was on track to becoming very successful in his career. He was happy in his relationship and had even scheduled a trip for two days after he disappeared. If somebody was going to willingly go and disappear, why make a bar be the last place that you're seen? Why get drunk before you need to be extremely cautious on what evidence you're leaving behind for yourself? Logically, none of it makes sense, at least to me personally. Nothing would point to Brian willingly leaving everything behind, not to mention the fact that

none of his credit cards, bank accounts, or cell phones, besides that one possible glitch, had been used at all since he disappeared. Absolutely nothing, no digital footprint, no banking, no cell phone activity. It was like he vanished. Brian could have changed outfits inside the bar and then left, I suppose, making it not noticeable in camera footage that he had left, but I would believe this a little bit more if he had a backpack or something with him, but he didn't. So once again, it just makes no logical sense where those alleged clothes would have come from, or any sort of disguise that he may have put on to evade friends and evade the cameras and all, you know, it's just too, too mysterious. And even if he had changed,

he still would have been seen on that camera footage, but he wasn't. Brian's family and Alexis thought from the very beginning that Clint looked awfully suspicious. Not only had he refused to take that lie detector test when everybody else was more than willing, but in the days following Brian's disappearance, he allegedly was talking very badly about Brian to some of their other friends, which seemed to be a really odd thing when someone you consider to be your friend or your best friend is missing. Clint was also his roommate, so his family and friends wondered why Clint hadn't been one of the first people to be alerted that something was wrong when Brian failed to come home two days in a row. And on top of that, he didn't contact anybody. He didn't tell anybody that Brian was missing for two days as his roommate. Police

took the family's advice and they started to question Clint, but nothing helpful came from it. And it still isn't known why Clint refused to take that lie detector test. Brian's father, Randy, was desperate for answers about where his son was, so he set up a website that was open to the public and asked that anybody with any possible tips leave it anonymously on the website. This website turned out to be incredibly heartbreaking for the family because so many tips came in, causing them to continuously get their hopes up, but each one turned up as empty as the next. One came in from a man who called himself Jesus, claiming he knew what happened to Brian. He claimed that he was

knocked unconscious by two men after getting into an argument with them at the bar. He further claimed that the two men shot him in the head, burned his body, and had sex with the ashes. Police, of course, looked into this claim, like they do with all tips, but it still made no sense because he wasn't seen leaving with two men or at all. How would those men have gotten him out of the bar unseen or even do those horrible acts? More tips began coming in from people that swore they saw him in different areas of the world, one claiming he was seen in Georgia and another saying Sweden. Two years had gone by, and in 2008, Brian's dad Randy was in a freak accident and was actually killed by a tree falling on him during a

storm. For two years straight, he had done everything in his power to keep Brian's name and face out there. Now, all that was left was Brian's brother Derek. Derek told the media over and over again that he believed Clint had some kind of involvement in Brian's disappearance. He knew in his heart that Brian wouldn't leave him to face the challenges of the world all alone, especially so soon after they lost their mother. So where did that leave investigators with the case? What are the possibilities that he was able to elude these cameras? After Brian was reported missing, police did an initial search of the surrounding Olentangy River and used scent dogs, but neither found anything helpful to the case.

Although police did have suspicions that Brian left on his own, they never ruled out foul play. Investigators told the media that there's honestly endless options, though in all of the possible scenarios that they could think of, a body is usually found and it becomes more of a recovery effort. 14 years later, after Brian vanished, in 2020 Brian's case went viral when a picture of a homeless man in Tijuana began circulating the internet. The man had extremely similar features to Brian, especially compared to the age progression photos of Brian. So it was a shred of hope. The photo of the homeless man was sent to the FBI progression photos of Brian. So it was a shred of hope. The photo of the homeless man was sent to the FBI for facial recognition,

and after four weeks of testing, the results came back determining that the man was not Brian Schaefer. Investigators had told the media that even though it had been 14 years since Brian went missing, they were still exhausting every possibility and every possible clue as to what may have happened to him. Because of the increased popularity in the case, the internet was filled with conspiracies and theories in this case. One of the main theories in the case is that Brian went back inside the bar, like we saw, but that due to the lack of sleep from all of the all-nighters, coupled with the alcohol,

he accidentally went out that back door where the construction site was and fell to his death, then later was covered up by cement. This theory at first sounds like it could be a huge possibility, but when you look into it further, it doesn't seem as likely. First, to get to the back door, he would have had to go back downstairs, which would have been on the bar's camera as well as the local business cameras. Assuming he was able to somehow avoid cameras, and did indeed fall and pass away in the construction site, it doesn't make much sense to me that while the construction workers were cementing the area, they wouldn't have seen the body.

Internet conspiracy theorists combat that response by saying that it was done purposefully, to cover up the fact that the back exit was not properly closed off to patrons, and would have resulted in a huge lawsuit had that been the case. Which I guess we can't rule out that it is impossible because anything could happen, but I feel like police would have hopefully investigated to see if the bar had cemented over the construction site suspiciously fast or not. Not to mention the fact that the police dogs more than likely would have picked up his scent in the initial search of the bar and the surrounding areas. And it also still doesn't explain why Clint didn't take the lie detector tests or why he was talking badly about him after he went missing and why he didn't report him as missing being his roommate and Brian not showing up for two days. The next theory is a bit more out there, but still many people feel it's

necessary enough to bring it up in this case. In Ohio, around the same time as Brian's disappearance, a string of deaths were occurring that had insane similarities and were believed to have been the work of the smiley face killers. The deaths consisted of more than 40 college-aged men, and 93% of them were white like Brian. They were drowned and their bodies were dumped. The most eerie commonality was that a smiley face was always found spray painted near where the body was found, hence the smiley face killer nickname. The smiley face usually varied in color and style, but nevertheless was always close by. When there's 40 bodies found with smiley faces near them, that seems to be much more than a coincidence. So it was theorized that the killer, or killers, would drug these unsuspecting victims at bars, get them to leave, and then kill them.

It could be possible that Brian was somehow not seen on the cameras leaving the bar, but one thing about this case that absolutely does not fit the smiley face killer's trademark killing and display is Brian's body was never found. All of the other bodies had been found and marked with that eerie smiley face to claim the kill. So why would Brian have been any different if he was a victim? The next theory isn't too complex, but it is that Brian did in fact leave the bar going down that escalator and decided to walk home, but then was met with foul play. Police looked through the camera footage, clip by clip, looking for Brian, but still never saw him.

It is possible that due to the large number of people all leaving at last call, he could have blended in with someone else and maybe he wasn't seen on the camera. There are many cases of viral videos on YouTube and TikTok where it looks like someone is standing behind someone, then walks with them at the same time, making it look like they disappear into thin air. Lastly, there is a theory that matches the police's theory, and that is that Brian made himself disappear. Out of all of the possibilities, it seems a little more likely than the others, but still leaves us with never-ending questions. In most cases of somebody leaving town, there is at least some sign of taking money out of a bank account,

perhaps a missing car, some clothing that was packed, but none of that was the case with Brian. If he had left, he truly left everything behind and used absolutely no money to get anywhere. It isn't likely that he would have been able to get very far. Not to mention, Ohio, even in March and April, can be chilly weather, and all he was wearing when he disappeared was jeans and a t-shirt. Many people believe Brian is no longer with us. Many people believe that he is off in a tropical location, living his dream life that he felt was so unachievable for an Ohio med school student.

Alexis, though, never gave up hope. She called him daily, and she hung up missing person posters for a year straight. Are you convinced he's the guy? Yeah, yeah. I mean, pretty much since day one, I really thought of him as kind of the love of my life. Although she never gave up, she did let her heart move on. She is now happily married with two children and still living in the Ohio area. You know, you can't put away the other parts of your life when something bad happens. As easy as it would have been, because it would have been very easy to crawl into bed and the days that I, when there was no other, you know, things to pass out, when there were

no other people to talk to, I think initially it would have been really easy to have done that. I feel like I'm so distant from it anymore that I don't have, you know, I used to have done that. I feel like I'm so distant from it anymore that I don't have, you know, I used to have this feeling like he, you know, when it first happened, like how could somebody leave and how could he do that to me? And obviously that's impossible. And so something horrible must have happened. But now with a lot of distance and a lot of time and now I, I mean, I think I probably have less of, it feels like it happened to somebody else now I mean since that point you know I got I got married in 2009 and I've had two two little boys since then

who are wonderful and I live in Toledo now and and I have a wonderful practice that I work with, and just busy as an OBGYN here in Toledo. So just a very busy, full, happy life now. I guess that was one thing that I had, that even though I was part of all of that, then I've had the chance to step away and not have that as a focus forever. At the time of Brian's disappearance, he was 27 years old. He was 6'2 and around 160 to 165 pounds. He had brown hair and hazel eyes. He has that Pearl Jam tattoo on his upper right arm and a dot on his left iris. He was last seen wearing jeans and a green t-shirt.

This is what an age progression photo of him looks like. Brian's brother, Derek, still doesn't know what happened to his brother. There is no closure, there are no answers, there is just worry, hope, false leads, and wondering what happened to him and where he could be, or if this all happened at the hands of Brian's best friend Clint, which the family felt and still feels in their gut he is responsible for. No tips have come in to indicate that Clint is responsible in any way. There has been no evidence that has tied him to the disappearance either except for the gut feeling and the intuition that Brian's family has. It's now been 17 years since Brian disappeared. Can you imagine, Derek, can you imagine Alexis and can you imagine all of Brian's family and friends

who have been wondering for 17 years what happened to him? Somebody's got to know something. Whether they saw him, whether somebody was involved, whether somebody thought they got away with it so they have been bragging or they have made little snide comments here and there somebody has got to know something and this case did go viral in 2020 for a hot minute but it still is so important to share this video and to keep Brian's case at the forefront because like I said if that much time passes and this was foul play people tend to get a little confident and cocky that they got away with it. So it might be a little comment here or a little drip of something there. So the more people that see this and that are made aware, the more tips it may generate,

the more leads that may come of it, so that hopefully answers can come and answers can surface so that Derek, Alexis, and everybody can have some peace in knowing what happened to Brian, and if it was in fact foul play, whether the hands of Clint or somebody else, hopefully there will be justice in that as well. So please share this video, and if you know of anything or have any tips, please contact the Columbus Police Department anonymously. Have you guys heard about this case, and is there any other information that you have heard or any other details or theories that I have left out on in this video if so please let me know below I'm interested for those of you who have been following this case and who have heard about it so if I left something out let me know

what it is below all right guys thanks so much for tuning in with me today I hope you appreciated the case coverage let's hope that some answers begin to surface it's never too late and we'll just keep praying for Brian's hopefully safe return. All right, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in to another bonus episode with me. Like I said at the top of this episode, make sure you're following the podcast so that you don't miss any more bonus episodes in the future.

And if you would be so kind as to just quickly rate this podcast, review it. It takes 30 seconds max to leave a review. And it really does help the algorithm and help push this podcast out it it takes 30 seconds max to leave a review and it really does help the algorithm and help push this podcast out to more people so that these victims stories get heard which we know is the goal so thank you guys so much for tuning in to another bonus episode and i will be talking to you again very very soon all right it's me annie signing off. Thank you.