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Criminally Obsessed
Former Detective Believes “People of Interest” in Brian Shaffer Disappearance Knew Him
00:39:27
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- [00:00]
A
Hey everybody. Welcome to Criminally Obsessed. I'm Ann Emerson. How does a bright young medical student just vanish? That's what happened 20 years ago to Brian Schaefer. And when I say disappeared, I mean poof, he's gone. This 27 year old student went into a bar with his friends and he was never seen again. This left his family and his girlfriend devastated. And asking the same questions over and over again with where is he? What happened? Who? I spoke to the now retired investigator who is still actively working on this case. He says he's got more people to talk to.
- [00:39]
B
Asa, there's no doubt in my mind. Somebody knows something or seen something.
- [00:43]
A
So how close is he to figuring this out? I'm an investigative reporter, but I'm also the mom of a med student myself, so I know how single minded these kids are. My radar is already up. But wait till you hear why former detective John Hurst believes Brian left through the back door of that bar. John Hurst, a former detective. You worked tirelessly on the Brian Schaefer case. And I'm so glad you could join us. I gotta start off and just ask. It's a 20 year anniversary of his disappearance, April 1, 2006. Right off the bat, just what do you think happened to Brian Schaefer?
- [01:29]
B
Well, I mean, there's a lot of theories out there and I know he got out of the building. We're not sure how he got out of the building. I believe he exited through. There was a construction site on the lower level, the ground floor below the ugly tuna saloona. And the doors at that time were just plywood and had chains and a lock going through them where you could push them open and somebody could get in or out of the facility that way. I think he got out. What is hard for us is at that time there wasn't a lot of video cameras throughout the community like there is today with, with you know, the different types of rings and things and. But he got out and it's 20 years later. I'm pretty sure. I believe that, you know, once he was out, he succumbed to some type of foul play. We just haven't been able to put our finger on it.
- [02:33]
A
Something happened. Bad, right?
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B
Yeah.
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A
Well, let's get into it. I wanted to ask, you know, we are, we are 20 years on. It's been 20 years. Does it feel like 20 years since you started looking into this?
- [02:50]
B
Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. I mean, it's. It's not a case that when I retired I just left it on the shelf and in the hands of somebody else. I mean, I think about it pretty much every day. I have a thought, you know, about, well, you know, did we miss something? Was there something else we could have? Those kind of things. It's heart wrenching, number one, not, not just for the family, but for the officers who were involved in it. Unfortunately, this is the case that when I retired, still active and open and to this day hasn't been solved.
- [03:25]
A
So you, you carry this case with you?
- [03:29]
B
Oh, absolutely. I mean it's, it's a case that you, you know, you, you put so much time and, and sweat and blood and tears in it. I got to know Randy real well.
- [03:41]
A
That was Brian's father?
- [03:43]
B
Yes, Brian's dad. Randy, when you get to know people on a personal level like that, it's just not something you can walk away from.
- [03:51]
A
No. John, tell me about when you first heard about Brian Schaefer's disappearance. What do you, what did you hear?
- [03:59]
B
First thing that happened is one of the detectives came in from the missing unit and he had went through whatever missing reports had come in that day and he was getting ready into shift and he says, hey, I got this one here. Seems kind of odd. He checked the hospitals, homeless shelters, you know, those types of areas and you know, pretty much that was standard procedure for a missing person case at that time. And we weren't sure what we had, but that's, that's when I first heard about it.
- [04:30]
A
So you were, you were on it like pretty much right away?
- [04:34]
B
Yeah, yeah, we were on it right away. And then I believe it was the next afternoon evening. We met with Randy, Derek and Alexa. Randy the father, Derek the brother, and Alexa the girlfriend.
- [04:47]
A
Well, tell me, what was he doing that night? I mean, we know he's 27 years old. He's a handsome guy. He's out, out on the town. Right. So can you just kind of set the scene for me of what was going on that night on, on April 1st when he disappeared?
- [05:05]
B
Yeah, he had him and one of his friends, Clint had one out and they basically were doing some bar hopping. They went to a couple different bars and they started at the Ugly Tuna Saloon and then they ended up back at the Ugly Tuna Saloona when another friend Meredith had picked them up and they all went back to the Ugly Tuna Saloon. So basically just, you know, being typical college students hanging out, having a good time. And unfortunately, when Clinton Meredith left, we don't know where Brian went to.
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A
And when Clinton Meredith said they left, what time was that?
- [05:45]
B
I was right around 2:10 to 11, I believe it was. It was shortly after closing time. And they said they looked around, they didn't see Brian, so they just went ahead and went to the parking garage and left.
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A
Oh, interesting. So the bars shut at 2:00'? Clock?
- [06:04]
B
Yeah, actually the, the bars in Ohio at that time, they had what they call bar time and they closed 15 minutes earlier.
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A
Okay, so like 1:45.
- [06:16]
B
No, it was, it was about 2:15 when they actually do the closing. But they were getting ready to close and that's when we seen Brian on the camera talking to a couple of girls shortly, right before they closed.
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A
So he's talking to a couple of girls. Do you know how, by any chance can. Did you ever get any statements about how intoxicated he was? Because you said this is a little bit of a bar crawl. So I, I'm under the impression he'd been out for a bit.
- [06:46]
B
Yeah, they'd been out for a couple hours. I don't think he was so intoxicated. He didn't know what he was doing. But again, the variance at that time, can't really put our finger on it, but he had been drinking and, and probably wasn't feeling any pain.
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A
Right, right. And he had been out. This is the start of spring break for him at medical school.
- [07:10]
B
Yeah, yeah, it was spring break. He was getting ready to. Actually, on Monday they were supposed to fly to Florida, Alexis and Brian. And when he didn't show up at the airport that morning, that just heightened the, the attention and more red flags as to, hey, something's going on here.
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A
Well, and then. So what you see is you see him go into that bar. There was bar surveillance of him going into this bar.
- [07:41]
B
Yeah, we've seen him go in and we don't see him coming back out. The unfortunate thing is camera systems back then were good, but they're not as good as they are today. And we believe if he went out through the construction area like we did, the two cameras on the corners of the building there actually would pan back and forth. So there's a belief that he probably was able to get out and the camera's not picking him up.
- [08:07]
A
Why would he do that?
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B
I, maybe he went down there, got turned around. Instead of going. There was an elevator and a set of stairs. You could go down to that area that they've. Since it's walked off, you can't use those two exits. But maybe he got down there and he looked around, he thought, well, I'm just going to try to go out this way and out the Door he went. I mean, there's, there's no rhyme or reason why he did it. It's, it's just getting out while being seen on camera that's the most likely.
- [08:38]
A
Yeah, because, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's a story that's like, really, it's extraordinary really, because you get, you have this bar surveillance video which we'll show to our viewers. So. And see what we're talking about for listeners. We'll make sure that we've got a link to it. Because you, you see this young man on this escalator, right? He's kind of going up an escalator.
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B
We seen him coming in. The last time we seen him was right before the bar was clearing and getting ready to shut down for the night on the upper level right there at the top of the escalators. Speaking with two young women at that time.
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A
Did you talk to the two young women that he was talking to?
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B
Yes, they, they both were interviewed and statements were given by both of them. They didn't see him after the, you know, that moment there at the top the escalators. And you know, we actually had quite a bit of video footage. And Detective Andre Edwards at the time, he went through every disc that we had. I took it home. He had a projector or put it on the, the screen of his basement, the basement wall. So he had a life size look at what was going on. And he was able to actually. And it was time consumed, time consuming, but he was able to get everybody coming in and everybody going out except Brian. We got him coming in, but he was never able to find him going out.
- [10:06]
A
Well, John, when did, when did I know? We went through this a little bit. But like, who alerted police that Brian was not where he was supposed to be?
- [10:16]
B
His dad made a report when they couldn't get a hold of him. You know, his girlfriend Alexa was up in around the Toledo area visiting family. Her dog had been sick, so she was up there. Brian was here by himself. So he was going out with a couple of guys. But his father was the one that alerted us to, you know, something was going on here.
- [10:40]
A
And this was like how many hours after his disappearance?
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B
Well, he disappeared on, I believe it was, I think it was on a Saturday morning. He actually disappeared and it was Sunday when the police report was filed by Randy.
- [11:01]
A
Okay. And so, and so dad is just like, this is not like Brian. Right. This is out of behavior for him. I mean, he, I, I'm gonna be honest with you full Transparency. I have a medical student son.
- [11:14]
B
Yeah.
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A
And what, what year was Brian?
- [11:16]
B
I believe Scott is white coat.
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A
So he just started medical school. Really? He must have just kind of gotten into it.
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B
Right, right.
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A
Yeah. These kids are wicked bright and they are so single minded. It's insane. Like, especially if he just got his white coat. These kids don't mess around. I mean, they just don't like it's a different breed.
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B
Yeah, it is. I mean they, they take it very seriously. You know, we, we were able to get his computers and we went through all, all of his computers, just check and see if maybe he had looked up how to disappear without a trace, that kind of thing.
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A
Sure.
- [12:00]
B
Nothing. There was nothing in there to indicate that he was looking up, trying to commit suicide, any of that. But yeah, I mean it was very serious for him to do what? And the location at the time he was in his studies, you know, they just finished up their exams for that quarter and was getting ready to go have some fun in Florida.
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A
Yeah. And they don't have fun unless they get to get away for a little bit. From what I can tell, they work all the time. So I mean that set off huge red flags to me as far as any other theories out there. And I want to get into the different theories with you. I want to, I want to get there because I think that's a really, you know, whenever something like this happens, I know you got to go down a lot of different paths. But when you talk to the dad, Randy, what was he telling you about this right off the bat?
- [12:52]
B
Well, Randy and I ended up getting pretty close. He would call me all hours of the day or night. A lot of times we just talk about family and, and you know, situations where family get into and getting to know Randy pretty well and, and speaking with him. You know, this was kind of out of sorts for, for Brian to just disappear and not get a hold of anybody. It just out of his character.
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A
Well, yeah, and. But there were some bad things going on with the family, weren't there at this time, some real tragedy?
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B
Well, yeah, the, the mother had passed away three weeks prior to that. So they had that going on. And that's, that's where the theory. A lot of people come in. Well, maybe he just decided to leave and not tell anybody, presume a new identity. But again, there is nothing to indicate that that's the route he took.
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A
As far as any leads you had besides this surveillance video of him leaving, what leads did you have as far as where he was?
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B
Oh, we had all Kinds of things coming in. We had leads coming in that, you know, he was being held captive somewhere in Columbus by drug dealers, and they were making him, you know, do different things to help them get, you know, oxycontin, some type of drugs and stuff. But that ended up being. Not. Not. We weren't able to prove any of that going on.
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A
Yeah.
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B
You know, and then there were leads. He. We had leads. He was in Michigan, he was in Colorado, he was in Texas. We even had one come in that he was in Sweden. And, you know, we had all those leads checked. And, you know, a lot of times we would have to contact other law enforcement agencies to do the checking for us, and then they would get back to us and either couldn't prove or disprove one way or the other whether that was him that has been spotted in those locations or not.
- [14:55]
A
Well, John, I have. I've got a couple of clips that I want to play. I mean, you hear the dad talk, and it literally breaks your heart when he says. I mean, it's so gut wrenching how he talks about his son and how much he. He just couldn't live without him.
- [15:13]
B
Here's a picture of him. He's very important to me. He's so bright. I hope that find him as far as coming back. I mean, he's out there someplace, and we're going to find him somehow. Right. And there's people out there who have the theory that Randy had something to do with it. And, you know, getting to know Randy. And he took a polygraph. He cooperated 100%. We, you know, check the property. And there's just. There was nothing to even lead any credence to that.
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A
No. But the. And the girlfriend, too. I listened to some. We had some interviews from the local station WSYX that covered this at the time and in subsequent years. But Alexis was just devastated. She was supposed to. It sounded like they were very serious.
- [16:08]
B
Yeah. There was an indication that possibly they were going to get engaged over spring break. And obviously she cared very deeply and was in love with him. I mean, that was very apparent to us from the beginning that, you know, and there seemed to be no problems in the relationship between the two, which was another odd characteristic of, you know, why would he take off when he's got medical school going for him, he's got a girlfriend, they're talking about getting engaged. Just none of that makes sense.
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A
No. And you couldn't file a credit card, could you?
- [16:42]
B
No, unfortunately, Randy, without contacting us, it. Brian had a debit card and he had contacted the bank and, and had it turned off and wasn't reported lost or stolen or anything. You know, even if we'd have been able to get it reported lost or stolen in the beginning, maybe we could have picked up some possible usage. But you know, in his defense, he didn't know he was trying to protect, you know, his son's bank account and. But yeah, there was just nothing there. And Brian had very little money on him that night, cash wise because it was just unusual for him to carry cash.
- [17:23]
A
Yeah, students don't have a lot of money. They've got a lot of debt, a lot of loans, but they don't carry a lot of cash usually. One thing I think about, and this story just breaks my heart, but I think it really affected everybody from what I could tell. The stories that I've seen, interest that it generated is just massive. Why, why do you think this touched so many people?
- [17:50]
B
Well, I go back to Randy, give him a lot of credit because he was very active in keeping this in the media at the time. And even, you know, months and years later, you know, he would do everything he can to keep it out there. And then you've got not. It's not a typical situation where you have a college student, let alone a medical student that just disappears overnight. And I think a lot of people, you know, that's piqued their interest and then with the media, you know, putting it out there as much as they did. You know, the unfortunate thing is he's not the only person in the Columbus area that's going missing, has never been seen or heard from again. But again, I go back to. I think Randy did a very good. I would have probably done the same thing. I would have kept it in the media as long as I could.
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A
Well, and we have to do that for him now because he passed away, didn't he?
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B
Yeah, yeah, he had a. It was a freak accident. There was a storm that came up from the Gulf and hurricane, forest winds and he went out to get his lawn furniture to put it up and a tree fell on him. He succumbed to the injuries from that.
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A
It was just a couple years after his son disappeared.
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B
Yeah, I think it was maybe a little over two years when that happened.
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A
Oh my God. Well, so let's talk about these theories.
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B
Well, I can give you a few of them. You know, then there's a lot of theories out there that over the years have transformed from people in the, you know, the vicinity or they have their own little podcast or something going on there's.
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A
A lot of people still trying to solve it, a lot of armed.
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B
And I think that kind of muddies the water sometimes because somebody will put something out there, then somebody adds to it and you know, you just get to the point to where, okay, what's fact or fiction that you're reading online? But we, we've had, we have reports that he was working down in the u. S. Virgin Islands at a little restaurant or something down there, Contacted the FBI, they sent one of their agents who was in that area down there to check on that. And he wasn't able to verify that information. You know, there's a theory that, well, maybe he committed suicide. We investigated that. We kind of discarded that, put it on the shelf. You know, when you, most people commit suicide, they do it in a location where they're, they're going to be found, right? There's nothing, you know, I mean, nothing that ever come in. We had some tips that come in and he was deceased in a building somewhere in Columbus, a brick building. And that was coming from a psychic. And you know, just survey, we don't discard when somebody calls in and says they're psychic. If it's something we can chase down, we will. You know, unfortunately, some of those tips that come in were so vague. You know, how many brick buildings do we have in the Columbus area? And we did check vacant buildings. We did a very good canvas of the area around the ugly tuna saloon and around where he. Brian lived. And we checked all the vacant buildings in that area and you know, there was nothing. We didn't find anything. We didn't find anything where there might have been some foul play, you know, and then they left, took the body and left, something like that. But you know, there's just all kinds of different things that come in. A lot of people don't realize that we did check this out.
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A
Well, he was, he wasn't a little guy. I mean, he was a, he was a decent, I mean, he was, he was a big guy, wasn't he?
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B
Yeah, he was. He was a good sized guy. Want to say 6, 1, maybe 200, 190 pounds. I mean, good shape. He was in great shape. But you know, it's just one of them things that without having a, you know, everybody says, well, what about DNA and, and this type of testing? And you know, the unfortunate thing is we were never able to find a location other than when he got out of the bar where something might have happened.
- [22:12]
A
The theory that, that we were talking about the beginning of this is that he Went through a back door. Maybe he got turned around. Maybe something happened, goes through this back door, which I understand had some. They were trying to keep away people out of the back door because there was a construction site on the other side of that.
- [22:32]
B
Right, right. Well, the, the, if you get down to the bottom of the elevator or the stairs, that whole area was wide open. Now what they did on the exterior was where they had it locked so nobody could get in. But we did have cadaver dogs come in and go through the area. It was actually a dirt floor at that time. But they, they came in, didn't hit on anything.
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A
It didn't hit on anything on that back area that you're talking about, like wherever that, that back area is.
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B
Well, as far as, you know, a, a cadaver dogs hit on a deceased person. And we don't think that anything occurred there where he might have been killed and then drug out from that location.
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A
Okay.
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B
And then there was dogs that at the time we thought maybe picked up a track of, of Brian. And we followed that down, you know, till the point where we couldn't. That they lost it or it was gone or you know, whatever the case may be with them. So, you know. Yeah, a lot of that stuff was done, never made public. You know, I mean, it was just. There's so many things that happened and occurred. If you look at the files, there's like four boxes of files on this case of things that were, you know, accomplished and well over 100 people interviewed. It was just a massive case.
- [23:58]
A
Massive. And the, the area that he was that you think that he might have gotten sort of gotten out of to leave the bar. Was that a dangerous construction site? Was it something that he could have fallen into?
- [24:15]
B
Now even they were even putting in an elevator shaft and there was only like a two foot drop at that, at that location. So there, there was nothing really in there at that time that would cause, you know, even if he'd have fell down, it bit dirty and dust itself off and get up and go out.
- [24:34]
A
Yeah, because I mean, but you know, when you think of a construction site, when I first heard about this case, I was thinking, well, there could be rebar. There could be like depending on what part of the construction they were they were doing.
- [24:46]
B
They hadn't gotten to that point where they were getting ready to put rebarb in at that site. I mean it was, the whole floor was nothing but dirt. They even had a big dirt pile in there that was checked to see, you know, if possibly there was a quick, you know, cover up there, and there was nothing.
- [25:04]
A
So your, your working theory, if I can call it that would be that he somehow managed to get out this wrong way because his friends have left, he doesn't know where he is. Um, it's dark, it's late, he's been drinking, he goes out this door, and then he, he. And then what happens? Like if he doesn't fall down and get hurt in a construction site and he's managed to get out of this bar, what do you think that's when something nefarious happened to, To Brian?
- [25:34]
B
Something happened.
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A
He got jumped or something.
- [25:37]
B
Yeah, something along that line. Or somebody pulled up, put him in a car. You know, there's, there's a lot of speculation as what happened, but that's all it is at this point because we, we canvass the area and we, we attempted to find any other video off different buildings. And you know, unfortunately, back then, again, it's. It's not like nowadays where, you know, people have ring cameras and all kinds of different video cameras located outside. And even with businesses now, you know, most businesses are. Have a lot of cameras out there. The Wendy's camera wasn't working, and if it was, it would have been only on the drive through. There was a, A quick stop across the street. The only cameras they had were on the register. So we had a hard time once he got out of the building, you know, really determining which way he went, which is why we, when we started doing our canvassing, we made it a widespread in every direction.
- [26:36]
A
Do you feel like the people that were with him that night have been cleared from any wrongdoing?
- [26:41]
B
For the most part, I'd say, yeah, there's a couple people, a couple persons of interest. And, you know, I know that the cold case squad is actively looking into everything.
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A
Okay.
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B
You know, I don't want to do something.
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A
Names.
- [26:57]
B
Yeah, that might mess up their investigation, but yeah, there were. There are several persons of interest that we were interested in, you know, and then there's a lot of speculation out there as to who they are. And, you know, some of it may be valuable, some of it may not.
- [27:14]
A
Are these people. Are you allowed to tell me if these are people that he knew or these just random people that could have been in the area that night causing mischief or something?
- [27:24]
B
Well, I think the people interest would be somebody that had knowledge of Brian, you know, absolutely. You know, as far as motive, there's a couple different motives floating around as to why, but again, I don't, I'm. I can't get into the divulge a whole lot because it's investigation.
- [27:45]
A
It kind of gives me hope, honestly, John, because you're talking like this is actually a pretty active cold case investigation. Do you think they're getting any closer to figuring this out?
- [27:55]
B
I don't know. Unfortunately, the policy, since I'm retired, they, I, I don't get a lot of any information at all, to be honest with you, as to what they're doing, where they're at. I would love to sit down with them and, you know, go over things, you know, and just kind of maybe give them a little tidbit here and there. But I haven't been approached in that manner because of, I believe, the policy of the division of police. But, you know, I, I've had a couple detectives over the years reach out and say, you know, hey, I reviewed this case and, you know, wow, it's just a massive amount of information. And I'm hoping that maybe there's something in that massive amount of information that somebody, you know, with a second set of eyes maybe picks up on that we missed.
- [28:44]
A
Well, I, I'm not connecting any dots here at all. I just don't want to miss this part of, of the persons of interest because I'm. You, you mentioned the dad, that the dad had gone under lie detector tests. Did the, the girlfriend do a lie detector test as well? I know she was in Toledo, though, so that would have.
- [29:04]
B
Yeah, we verified that she was in Toledo when Brian went missing. She was with her family at that time. Her dog had been ill, and that was one of the reasons she had went back up for the weekend before she took off. She wanted to go up, spend some time with her family and check on her dog at that point.
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A
What about the friends that he was with that night?
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B
Well, I can't really get into a whole lot about the friends that he was with that night. Again, there's still a lot of speculation as to who did what, where, when, where, you know, individuals went.
- [29:42]
A
Yeah, because I was, I was curious because I, I read that in our reporting that we did in our, with our station that, that one of them did not submit to a lie detector test. I think his name was Clint. He chose not to. So I think that's where I was going with it, was trying to understand if that had been cleared up or if that just the way it is. I mean, he has a right. Right. He has a right to, to not do that.
- [30:07]
B
That's still the way it is. He. He refused to, to take it on the advice of his attorney. And again, most attorneys, probably close to a hundred percent, are going to advise their clients not to take it. It's not a scientific thing that we can even take it into court as evidence. It just. We kind of use it as a compass. Should we go in this direction or that direction? If somebody passes it and there's a good chance we don't need to go that direction anymore, Somebody fails it, then we'll. We'll start looking that way a little bit deeper. And unfortunately, Clint did not take a polygraph test.
- [30:47]
A
What about Meredith?
- [30:50]
B
Meredith took a polygraph test and passed it. So, you know, there's nothing there. And she even allowed us to go through her vehicle crime scene to see if maybe there's any. Any fluids or any, you know, blood matter that we could locate in there. And, you know, there are vehicles.
- [31:11]
A
Are there people you'd still like to talk to in this case?
- [31:15]
B
Oh, yeah, there's. There's quite a few people that I'd like to talk to, and I'm actually writing a book on this just to try to clear up some of the misconceptions that are out there. And I'm hoping that, you know, I'm reaching out to different people that I've spoke with over, you know, when it occurred and see if possibly I can get another interview with them and see if maybe they'll open up, you know, since I'm retired now.
- [31:46]
A
You're still trying to solve this case?
- [31:48]
B
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it's. Nothing would. Would make me happier, you know, as far as my career than whether it's me or. Or, you know, the cold case squad to. To solve this case, you know, and bring closer to, you know, Derek and. And the rest of the family, and. And then it'll bring closure, you know, for all the detectives that were involved in this from the beginning.
- [32:12]
A
Yeah. I mean, he still has a brother out there looking for him.
- [32:16]
B
Yeah.
- [32:16]
A
I have to ask, and this is a sad way to end our time together, but do you think that Brian is alive?
- [32:24]
B
Well, I think after 20 years, the scale has dropped to where that's probably not likely. And that, yeah, he is deceased. And I believe that at some point he circum. The foul play. But again, that's my theory. And until we can, you know, prove that theory, there's not a whole lot we can go on with that right now.
- [32:49]
A
Oh, I really hope you get some new information. I hope we get to talk to you about it again. You know, we've been following the Nancy Guthrie disappearance And when people vanish like this, I mean, there are some more horrible clues in that case not to, not to make parallels necessarily where they might not be, but, but when somebody vanishes like this, that's, that's got, you know, that there's no rhyme or reason. It's just so hard for us to wrap our heads around.
- [33:19]
B
Yeah, I, Absolutely, that's true. And the thing of it is, when you have these high profile cases that are out there, it is just the tip of the iceberg because there is thousands of people in the United States that go missing every year that are never heard or seen from again. And when you really go down that path and you see, I don't want to say it's very common, but it's more common than, than what most people believe it to be. You know, you hear about the Nancy Guthrie's, the Brian Schaefers, and you know, six months later there was another young man that went missing in Columbus. But we don't hear a lot about that because it didn't make big media. But yeah, there's thousands of people every year that just disappear off the face of the earth. Nobody knows where they went.
- [34:10]
A
It's incredible, it's amazing. But I hope, I have hope that you still are going to keep on pulling those threads and that something's going to happen. I'm just so thrilled that you could talk to us today about it. It's such an important day. And maybe hearing these details that you mentioned today, somebody out there knows something, right?
- [34:32]
B
Oh, absolutely. There's no doubt in my mind. Somebody knows something or seen something. And I always say when I do an interview, you know, it could be something so minute that the person has seen it, doesn't realize it could be that one piece of the puzzle that we need. You know, so no matter what you think it might be or might not be, you know, call it in. And not just on this case, but on any case, it could be the one piece that breaks it.
- [34:59]
A
Yeah, it takes, it takes everybody. It takes absolutely everybody.
- [35:03]
B
Well, Crime Stoppers put up a $25,000 reward. And then there is a philanthropist that put up a hundred thousand or added to it to make it a hundred thousand. And the crazy thing about it, we had a couple tips. I mean, I could probably count them on one hand. We looked into them and followed them and ended up being. It was people just trying to make some money and guessing to see if maybe they had something. But we didn't get any, you know, $100,000 back then. It's Still a lot of money, but back then, it was even, you know, more. I was very surprised that we didn't get somebody come forward that would go out there and put their buddy or their friend or whoever, you know, on the line and. And give the information up.
- [35:49]
A
What does that tell you? And when. When that much money is at stake and nobody comes forward, what is. Does that. Does that tell you anything just by them not coming forward?
- [36:00]
B
Well, it tells me a couple of things. One, either if somebody knows something or too scared to come in and take some, you know, claim $100,000, they may be in fear of their lives themselves, or the perfect murder is if one person is involved, nobody else knows about it, and that, you know, people are gonna go, oh, are you saying he was murdered? I'm. I don't know. I. You know, I think at this point, something more serious happened. No matter what you think it might be or might not be, you know, call it in. I would call into the Columbus, Ohio, Police Department, and they can, you know, tell them that the. They have a tip on the Brian Schaefer case, that they'll put them in contact with the right person.
- [36:45]
A
I bet they will. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate your time today. Drop a comment below and tell me what you think happened to Brian Shaffer that night. You know, just the smallest detail could crack this case. So if you were in the Columbus, Ohio, area 20 years ago when all of this was going down, maybe you remember some little detail. And if you do, I want you to contact the Columbus, Ohio, Police Department. I'll have a link to their number below. Before we go, we're excited to announce that we've been nominated for a Shorty Award for Best True Crime and Documentary Podcast, but we need your help to win. Public voting is open until April 8, and we have pinned a link into the comments so you can find out where to vote. Every vote counts. So if you love what we're doing here at Criminally Obsessed, you can vote once a day until April 8th. Thanks.