Brandon Swanson /// Missing /// Part 1

Summary

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True Crime Garage: Brandon Swanson /// Missing /// Part 1

Podcast Date: February 5, 2026
Hosts: Nic & Captain
Case: The Disappearance of Brandon Swanson

Overview

This episode is the first part of Nic and Captain’s deep dive into the mysterious disappearance of Brandon Swanson, who vanished on May 14, 2008, near Canby, Minnesota. The hosts methodically explore Brandon's background, the events leading up to his disappearance, his last known movements, and the perplexing evidence that has left investigators baffled for more than a decade. As always, Nic and Captain bring their immersive, conversational style, thoroughly examining each detail of the case while reflecting on the confusion and tragedy of Brandon’s fate.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Brandon Swanson: Background and Personality

• Brandon Swanson: 19 years old, from Marshall, Minnesota; close to his family (parents Brian & Annette, younger sister).
• Described as “a sweet, good kid who loved reading and debating... very intelligent and he liked to read and ponder complicated topics like string theory.” (Nick, 07:25)
• Studied wind energy at Minnesota West Community and Technical College, planning to transfer for a science degree.
• Legally blind in his left eye.
• Worked part-time at a grocery store bakery (“reliable young man”).
• Loved politics, history, music, the Minnesota Twins.

2. Timeline of Brandon's Last Night (May 13-14, 2008)

• 6:00 pm: Leaves home for a small graduation party in Lynd (five people, high school friends).

  • Brandon consumed some alcohol, but reports are unclear on how much. Witnesses did not report him as excessively intoxicated.
  • “He was not overly intoxicated according to the people who were at this party.” (Nick, 10:20)

• 10:30/11:00 pm: Leaves Lynd party for another gathering in Canby (college friends).

  • Attended to say goodbye to a friend.
  • Noted to have had one shot of whiskey; reported to have left alone between midnight and 1:30 am.
  • The timing of departure is ambiguous: “Some reports that state that he left as early as midnight and some reports that left as late as 1:30 in the morning.” (Nick, 13:35)

3. Driving Route: Geography & Theories

• The most direct route from Canby to Marshall is Route 68 — 30 miles, 30-35 minutes.
• For unknown reasons, Brandon did not take this direct route, instead likely using rural backroads.
  • Possibly to avoid DUI checkpoints or police, as he was underage and had a prior DUI.
  • “He wants to fly under the radar, so to speak. He wants to take a less direct, less populated route to get home.” (Nick, 16:17)
• The area is rural, flat, grid-like with little to distinguish one road or field from another, making navigation at night especially confusing.

4. Final Phone Activity and Disappearance

• 1:54 am (May 14): Brandon calls his parents for help, claiming his green Chevy Lumina is stuck in a ditch off a gravel road near Highway 23 (he believes he’s near Lynd).
  • He attempts to give detailed directions and instructs his parents to look for him.
  • Parents drive to the area he describes but cannot find him.
• Multiple calls take place between Brandon and his parents.
  • Attempted coordination by flashing headlights: “She could hear... the switch being flipped on and flipped off through the phone.” (Nick, 23:09)
  • Neither party can see the other; mounting frustration.
  • Brandon is certain of his location—“Brandon... was absolutely positive he knew where he was.” (Nick quoting Brian Swanson, 21:13)
• Eventually, Brandon leaves his car, believing he sees the lights of Lynd and deciding to walk toward them, instructing his dad to meet at the Lyndwood Tavern.

5. The Critical Last Call

• 2:23 am: Phone call with his dad resumes as Brandon walks on a gravel road, later deciding to cut across fields.
  • He describes crossing two fence lines and hearing running water.
  • Suddenly, Brandon exclaims, “Oh, shit,” (Nick, 33:00) followed by a noise as if something slipped, and the call disconnects at 3:10 am.
  • His father repeatedly calls back; the phone rings but no answer—debate over whether this means the phone had battery/service or not.

6. Search Efforts and Law Enforcement Response

• Parents and friends search throughout the night with no sign of Brandon or his car.
• 6:30 am: Brandon officially reported missing to Lyon County Sheriff. Initially, police slow to respond (“not unusual for a 19-year-old to not come home”), to the hosts' frustration.
  • “It is certainly police protocol... when we are talking about a missing adult. But I like... when someone jumps into action immediately.” (Nick, 36:58)
• After pressure from Brandon’s parents, the sheriff’s office joins the search and quickly requests cell phone records.
• Key breakthrough: Phone records show the last ping was not near Lynd, but 20 miles away in Minneota—shifting the search area entirely.

7. Discovery of the Car and Theories

• At 12:30 pm, May 14: Brandon’s car is found “in a ditch off a gravel road... along a minimum maintenance road off Lyon Lincoln County Road,” west of Taunton and east of Porter—about 20–25 miles away from where Brandon claimed to be.

• The car is undamaged but “hung up” so that the wheels are off the ground.

  • “Nothing unusual was found in, near or on the vehicle. One source says the car doors were found open. If that is true... that would be incredibly strange.” (Nick, 48:55)
  • No evidence of injury or foul play.
  • No tracks due to road grading earlier that morning.

• Substance Use: Rumors of a “pipe” found in the car—unclear if tobacco, marijuana, or just an unrelated object. The hosts are skeptical of these reports, leaning toward misinformation.

  • Police state they do not believe Brandon was impaired, and no friends said he was drunk or high.
  • Captain argues signs of confusion, backroads, and questionable decisions point toward some impairment (alcohol, exhaustion, or otherwise).

8. Unanswered Questions and Remaining Mysteries

• Why was Brandon so adamant about his mistaken location?
• How did he become so disoriented in an area he was claimed to know well?
  • “I think it would have been incredibly easy to make a wrong turn... Everything kind of looks the same.” (Nick, 43:49)
• Why did the call end so suddenly after Brandon’s exclamation?
• No clues from phone logs or text messages.
• The case is compared to the Brandon Lawson disappearance—another “Brandon” who vanished after a mysterious call.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On rural confusion:
  “If you look at Lyon County, Minnesota on Google Maps... it’s incredibly rural... the roads are almost laid out in a grid... everything looks the same.” (Nick, 19:57)
• On police skepticism of urgency:
  “The police pointed out... it’s not unusual for a 19-year-old to not come home... but did they call in the middle of the night asking for help?” (Nick & Captain, 37:11)
• On the emotional stakes:
  “It’s unfortunate for a number of reasons... At the very least, play along, play the game. Send an officer out in a car...” (Nick, 37:58)
• On evidence of impairment:
  “The fact that he doesn’t know where he’s at—sign of impairment. The fact that then he claims where he’s going to start walking towards—again, another sign of impairment.” (Captain, 52:40)
• On the final call:
  Brandon: “Oh, shit.” (Nick, 33:00)

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Important Timestamps

• [07:25] – Brandon’s background and personal details
• [10:04] – First party, alcohol use, social context
• [13:35] – Uncertainty about timeline, leaving second party
• [15:11] – Theories on taking backroads and prior DUI
• [16:17] – Brandon’s intent to avoid detection
• [19:57] – Rural geography, why Brandon could be confused
• [21:13] – Brandon’s sense of certainty about his location
• [23:09] – Headlight-flashing attempt and frustration
• [33:00] – The final call, “Oh, shit,” and sudden disconnect
• [36:58] – Law enforcement’s initial response
• [39:20] – Cell phone tower breakthrough, shifting search zone
• [41:27] – Location mismatch: where Brandon was vs. where he thought he was
• [48:55] – Car found, physical evidence and rumors (the “pipe”)
• [52:40] – Debate about whether Brandon was impaired or not
• [59:47] – Comparison to other missing persons cases (e.g., Brandon Lawson)
• [61:09] – What’s coming in Part 2: the search and theories

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Tone and Style

True Crime Garage delivers a conversational, analytical approach—balancing seriousness about the tragedy at hand with the easygoing rapport of two seasoned, beer-loving hosts. Nic and Captain speculate, question, and openly express frustration at both the investigatory process and the baffling circumstances of the case, inviting listeners to think critically and empathize with the family’s ordeal.

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Episode Takeaways

• Brandon Swanson’s disappearance remains deeply perplexing because of the mismatch between his reported and real location, the lack of physical evidence, and the abrupt cessation of all contact.
• The hosts highlight the challenge of navigating rural America at night—compounded by exhaustion, possible intoxication, and overconfidence in one’s sense of direction.
• The episode ends with a promise to cover the search efforts, theories, and additional details in Part 2.

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To share your own theories about the disappearance of Brandon Swanson, visit truecrimegarage.com.

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Transcript

[Nick]

Picture this. It's the end of a long week.

[Ben]

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[Nick]

Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing. Thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick and with me as always from behind the glass. He's a modern day warrior with a mean, mean stride. He is the cap.

[Captain]

All right. Slap in the bass. Play the bass.

[Nick]

Big time.

[Captain]

Big time. Man, it's good to be seen and it's good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.

[Nick]

Today we are drinking Hazy Jane by, well, I was going to say our friends, but the truth of the matter is we are in love with them. And Hazy Jane is by the king of craft beers. And that of course is brewdog in Scotland and of course from right here in Ohio as Well, garage grade 4 out of 5 bottle caps. Hazy Jane is a juicy Vermont style IPA that features pineapple, stone fruit, mango and hints of lime peel. And just like the both of us here in the garage, it's full bodied, baby. And today's beer was brought to us and to you by these great garage.

[Ben]

Guys and gals right here.

[Nick]

First up, super cheers to our boy Doc Holliday. That's right, the outlaw Doc Holliday up in Powell, Ohio.

[Captain]

And a big shout out to Mindy in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

[Nick]

And here's some more of our friends. We have Kirsten and her good friend Taylor D in St. John, Canada.

[Captain]

Now, big we like your trip to Ferguson in Toronto.

[Nick]

Let's give a cheers to Brian in Bloomington, Illinois. And last but certainly not least, we have Armchair Detective Kathy all the way over in Melbourne, Australia. Everybody we just mentioned went to our website, truecrimegarage.com and they contributed to this week's Beer fund. And for that we thank you and you are super, super awesome.

[Captain]

Well, it's pronounced Melbourne. The born is silent. As you're [e-mail] make sure you check out the store page, make sure you check out the blog. And that is enough of the business.

[Nick]

All right everybody gather round, grab a chair, grab a beer. Lets talk some true crime. According to FBI.gov ViCAP stands for the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. This database maintains the largest investigative repository of major violent crime cases in the US it is designed to collect and analyze information about homicides, sexual assaults, missing persons and other violent crimes involving unidentified human remains. This week we are reviewing a missing persons case listed on the VICAP page. Brandon Victor Swanson was last seen on May 14, 2008 in Canby, Minnesota. His car, a green Chevy Lumina, was found abandoned near Taunton, Minnesota. According to the FBI's website, the vehicle was in a ditch with the doors open and the keys missing. At the time of his disappearance, Brandon was just 19 years old. He is Caucasian, 5 foot 5 inches to 5 foot 6 inches tall and approximately 120 to 130 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing baggy blue jeans, a blue striped polo shirt, a black hooded zip front sweatshirt with emblem on back, a white Minnesota Twins baseball cap, glasses and his sterling silver chain. He was carrying a black Motorola SLVR cell phone, his wallet with identification and his keys. If you have any information regarding Brandon Swanson's whereabouts or the circumstances of his disappearance, please call the Minnesota Bureau of criminal apprehension at 651-793-7000 or call the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office at 507-694-1664. This is true Crime Garage. May 13, 2008 Brandon Victor Swanson, age 19. He just finished his last class of his one year program of study at Minnesota West Community and Technical College in Canby, Minnesota. Brandon was studying wind energy and he was already enrolled in a second technical school in Iowa. This was going to start in August of 2008. After that he planned to transfer to a four year college to get his degree in science. So after a year of hard work, it's mid May, school's out for the summer. It's time to go out, meet up with some friends and have a lot of Fun. And that's just what the plan was for Brandon on the night of May 13th. Now before we get into the details of that night, let's review a little background information about Brandon. Brandon was born January 30, 1989. He lived with his parents, Brian and Annette and his younger sister. They lived in Marshall, Minnesota, a town in Lyon County. The population at the time was about 13,500. Brandon was close with his family. They describe him as a sweet, good kid who loved reading and debating. He was very intelligent and he liked to read and ponder complicated topics like string theory. Brandon worked at a local grocery store for four years, the last two years working in the bakery. So not just a smart kid, but seems like quite a reliable young man as well.

[Captain]

Yeah. And Brandon was similar to you because.

[Nick]

He'S dedicated to the environment, particularly renewable resources. And he loved politics, history and music. He also loved the Minnesota Twins. Brandon was not a big dude. He was just about 5 foot 5, 5 foot 6 inches tall and only about 125 pounds. One thing that may be quite important as we move through this, Brandon wore glasses and he was legally blind in his left eye. On the night he went out and didn't come home, he was wearing baggy blue jeans, a blue striped polo sweatshirt over a white T shirt, a black zip front jacket, a white Minnesota Twins baseball hat. He tended to wear this hat sideways and he wore his white sneakers as well. Now I point that out again Captain, because even though it's going to get quite chilly that night he was wearing fairly warm clothing.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

He had a one stud earring in each ear and his wire rimmed glasses on. Now with him he had his black Motorola SL VR cell phone. As always, he drove his green Chevy Lumina. That evening he left his parents place. Around 6pm Brandon went to a graduation party in Lind. Lynd is a small town near Marshall, so not far from where Brandon lives. In fact, Lynn is just about an 11 minute drive southwest down Route 23 from Marshall. This graduation party was really just a small gathering of only five or so people.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

These are all people that Brandon was friends with from school. And to be clear, it sounds to me like these were all high school buddies. Remember Brandon's only 19. So just having graduated from Marshall High School just the year earlier at the small party Brandon was drinking. This is not in question, what is the question is how much as the general report from all was leaves us with this broad statement that he was said to have consumed an unknown amount of alcohol. But he was not overly intoxicated according to the people who were at this party.

[Captain]

Well, think about how many parties you've been to. If I ask you how many beers your buddy was on, would you know how many beers he drank?

[Nick]

No, only if I had like some extreme indicator, right? Like if somebody shows up with a six pack and then there's none of that beer left, right? Then you're like, well, he probably had six. When you're hanging out and you're, you're really, you're catching up with your buddies, there's a lot of talking going on. There's multiple people there. You're not really counting anybody's drinks. 1. And then on top of that too. Everybody knows this. You're not really checking the time either, you know, so there's, there's a lot that you're not really keeping up on because of the conversations and stuff like that. However, if these people knew him for a fair amount of time, I think that they would reasonably be able to judge if he was drunk or not.

[Ben]

Right.

[Nick]

Right. Now, of course there's varying degrees of being buzzed, but Brandon left this gathering alone around 10:30 or 11:00pm from there he drove to another friend's party. This was like a house party. This for the purpose of saying goodbye to one of his former classmates. Now I do not know exactly who this person is, but the party was in Canby, where Minnesota West Community and Technical College is located. So Brandon is quite familiar with this area. The party was attended by other college kids who were friends with Brandon here. Brandon was noted to have one shot of whiskey. He left this party alone and was going to head home back to his parents place in Marshall sometime between midnight and 1:30. Now this seems like a huge window of time. Reports vary wildly. I want to bring this up because I don't know how important this is later so much so because we have some time accounted for, Brandon's whereabouts later.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

I think the thing in question here is depending on what time he left means there could be some unaccounted time. The reason why these reports vary is as we just mentioned, you're not really counting people's drinks. You're not really counting the time, looking at your clock, looking at your watch. They said that he had one shot of whiskey. I don't know if he consumed any other alcohol at the time, but that is what the general report is.

[Captain]

See, I don't remember what they said about the first party, if he was just drinking beer or if possibly he was drinking a mixed drink because I did hear on several accounts that he was drinking like, like a rum and coke or, you know, whiskey and coke. So you just go, was he doing that at the first party or the second party? Sounds more likely they would do it at the second party if they said, well, we know he had a shot of whiskey.

[Nick]

And me and some others, we found reports that state that he left as early as midnight and some reports that left as late as 1:30 in the morning. Yeah, again, normally we would take umbrage with that statement. It wouldn't fly here in the garage. But this time we're going to let it fly because we have a lot to get to. And because of the details that we have not got to yet, it will be clear that the exact time that Brandon left the party, while in dispute, may not be so important. All right, let's get into the geography of this whole situation. This is super important to this case. The last party Brandon attends the night in question is in Canby. This is about 30 miles from his hometown of Marshall. It's a 30 to 35 minute drive. That is a straight diagonal shot along a two lane road which is Route 68. Route 68 is a highway that runs between Canby and Marshall. In Camby. You hop on Route 68 heading southeast and you will go straight to Marshall. This drive should have taken him no more than 30 to 35 minutes, assuming he took the most direct route, Highway 68, which connects the two towns. Brandon drove this route daily for the entire school year and again would have been very familiar with this. But for some reason that we can only speculate, Brandon does not appear to have taken the highway to get home. He took a different route.

[Captain]

Yeah, I believe he took the back roads because he had been drinking at least a little bit.

[Nick]

So I found some reports that state that Brandon had a DUI in the past and that he had successfully completed a year's probation because of the charge. So what we do know is Brandon was under the legal drinking age on this night. He's only 19 years old.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

And we do know, again, it's not in question if he had been drinking or not. The question was how much had he been drinking.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

Regardless of how much, all reports say that he did consume some alcohol that night. So if he were concerned about maybe a DUI checkpoint on something like Highway 68 or getting on or off of Highway 68.

[Captain]

Well, again, this. Take Highway 68. We have different roads, different highways, different interstates that you don't want to travel on because they're Notorious for just pulling people over in general. So maybe that's the case here.

[Nick]

Yeah, he wants to fly under the radar, so to speak. He wants to take a less direct, less populated route to get home. That's all we can assume by what we know that was going on that night. We can't say exactly what occurred between the time that Brandon left the party in Camby and the next known contact with him. Reports are that during this time frame, Brandon tried to contact two or three of his friends by phone, but he couldn't reach them. So at 1:54am so this is technically now May 14, Brandon called his parents. He told them he got his car stuck in a ditch. He was okay, though. This ditch was, as he said, on a gravel road just off of Highway 23. This is the road that runs between Lind, the town where he went to the first party, and Marshall, where he lived. According to Brandon, he was somewhere between Marshall and Lind, just off the highway. Now, as we said, it wouldn't make much sense for Brandon to be between Marshall and Lynd if he were coming from a party in Canby. Camby is a straight shot to Marshall down Route 68. Lind is out of the way and not along Route 68 at all. But we believe that Brandon was intending to take back roads, as the captain said, avoiding the highway. And it's possible he could have been deliberately off of Route 68.

[Captain]

Now, you said that he tried to call some of his friends. Do we know the sex of those friends? Were they just all male friends? Do we have any contact of female friends?

[Nick]

No. And here's, here's my actual belief here, as far as gender goes, I believe that it's possible that those phone calls were not made while he was traveling or before he chose his destination as home. Part of me wonders if he got his vehicle stuck in that ditch.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

Called his, tried to call friends before calling mom and dad and admitting, hey, I got the car stuck.

[Captain]

You've been drinking a little bit. So there's that fear that they come to help you and at least smell something on your breath. And then after having the dui, then the repercussions of that.

[Nick]

Right, right. And yeah, it could just be a whole bad situation for him if he's able to get a hold of somebody else instead. He's an adult. Maybe he could find somewhere, somebody to pick him up at least.

[Captain]

Well, the location just seems funny to me. That's why I wondered if there was any contact that he had with a female that he was going to like meet up after the party.

[Nick]

Yeah. I don't know what the, what the nature of that call. Those, the intent of those calls were.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

Because he never connected with them.

[Captain]

But I agree with you. It's kind of fair to say. Chances are he, he got stuck in this ditch, called his friends for help before he called his parents especially.

[Nick]

And I don't want to hang on this too long, Captain, but, but keep in mind where he says that he is with the car stuck in the ditch, he says he's, he's near the town of Lynd. Well, he was at a party just earlier that night with high school buddies. So maybe he thought it'd be very easy, very convenient for somebody near him to come and offer some type of assistance.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

The major, major problem here is it's not where he was. Wherever he believed that he was is not really even close to his actual location.

[Captain]

Right. And this is where it gets confusing for me in this case because the claim is that Brandon knew his whereabouts and knew these roads.

[Nick]

Well, yeah. Yes, he did. He may have had some things working against him though. If you look at a, if you look at Lyon County, Minnesota on Google Maps first, you'll see that it's incredibly rural, flat and the roads are almost laid out in a grid like pattern. So basically the farmland is broken up into squares by country roads named things like 150th Avenue, 300th street, for example. Basically everything looks the same.

[Captain]

The really clever names.

[Nick]

Yeah. The crops are high. There is virtually nothing delineating one area from the next. And the street and avenue names are all confusing because they're, they're just numbers.

[Ben]

Right.

[Nick]

The landscape is dotted with streams, ponds and lots of drainage ditches serving the agricultural fields. Now, on the night of the 13th, 14th, it was dark, the moon was only half full. We also have the situation of Brandon had been drinking and was possibly even fatigued at this late hour. And he's blind in one eye.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

All this simply is to say that, that Brandon might have been confused about where he was. He left a party and then he called his parents at 1:54am let's just.

[Captain]

Bring into the question that this could be evidence of how intoxicated he might have been.

[Nick]

Well, and the thing too is having called his parents at 1:54am in the interim, even though we don't know what time he left, we know that Brandon had not actually traveled nearly as far as he thought. Or at least he didn't end up as far along in his Journey as he thought. So after this initial phone call at 1:54am Both his parents, Brian and Annette, they got in their pickup truck and they set out to find him. Brandon said he's going to wait in his car. He's talking to them on the phone periodically to give them directions to where he believes he is. He told them he was on the left side of the road just off of Highway 23. His father, Brian told CNN that Brandon, quote, was absolutely positive he knew where he was, end quote. It was only about 10 minutes from the Swanson home. His parents drove to this area that he was describing, but they couldn't see him or his car. After several interim phone calls in which everyone was getting frustrated and Brandon even hung up on them at some point, his mother called him back. This is at 2:17am saying that they were sorry, but they just, they just couldn't find him. They couldn't see him.

[Captain]

Could be wrong about this. But I heard at one point that they were flashing their lights at him.

[Nick]

Yes, this is, this takes place from this phone call at 2:17.

[Captain]

Okay.

[Nick]

So when they couldn't find each other, his mother came up with the idea of let's flash our headlights. You know, let's. This is a flat area and there's not a lot of lights out there. So this might be something that your eye will pick up on fairly quickly if it's taking place in this general area.

[Ben]

Right, right.

[Nick]

So Brandon's parents, they're flashing their headlights over and over again, turning them on and off, on and off. Brandon's mother says that not only does he say that he's doing the same thing, but she says that she could hear the actual, the switch being flipped on and flipped off through the phone. Through the phone. Because you know how some of them will make a little click noise.

[Captain]

Yeah.

[Nick]

The problem with this is this is a great idea, but Brandon's, he's in his car on the phone flipping the lights and saying, don't you see me? And they couldn't see him.

[Captain]

Well, again, how far away is he from where he's claiming he is?

[Nick]

He's, he's actually quite far. And we'll go through the, the very detailed description of where they end up.

[Captain]

Finding his car, Correct?

[Nick]

Yeah. So again, Brandon is getting frustrated and I'd be pissed. Well, I mean, I mean, I'm flashing my lights.

[Captain]

Don't you see me? No, I don't see anything. It's dark out here.

[Nick]

Well, I think, I think the whole reason why he's probably pissed is that he's giving them fairly detailed instructions on where he believes he is, right. They go to where he's telling them to go and they're like, look, we're right here. And he's probably, you know how it is when you're 19, you're probably on the phone going, my parents are idiots. I told him where to find me, right? That I just want to get home, it's late and they can't figure out how to find me. But as it turns out, he's nowhere near. He's telling them to find him.

[Captain]

Well, and you also wonder, hey, as you're flashing these lights, if they don't come find me first, does a police officer find me? So that's one. You have that fear because you have that DUI in the past. But this is weird because to me it points to two things. One, it points to evidence that he's intoxicated because he's giving somebody directions to a place that he's not at. But then the parents would know if he sounded intoxicated or not. And they don't make any claims that say that he sounded hammered or anything.

[Nick]

Right. And so while you're trying these different tactics to locate one another first, which is giving simple directions, now we're both sitting, parked, flashing lights on and off, trying to see each other in the distance. And now that's not working. So now your next strategy is going to be, well, maybe we could meet up at some type of landmark that we both believe that we can easily get to. So now Brandon's very frustrated with his parents. He comes up with the idea that he's going to get out of the car and he's going to walk to Lind. Now remember, Lind is the town that he was at at one point in the evening. And he says he could see lights from a town in the distance and he's going to walk in that direction. He believes that he's seeing lights from the town of Lind. He says, hey, let's go and let's meet in a parking lot of the Lynnwood Tavern. This is a bar in Lynd. Meanwhile, his dad drove Brandon's mother home. After dropping her off, he set back out to meet Brandon at the spot that Brandon suggest.

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[Ben]

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[Nick]

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[Ben]

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[Nick]

I've told you before, one of my.

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[Captain]

All right, we're back. Cheers, mates.

[Nick]

Cheers. Cheers. Cheers, Captain.

[Captain]

It's just gonna get more interesting from this point on.

[Nick]

Okay? Well, you're absolutely right about that. And the thing is here, Captain, now where we left off, we have Annette, Brandon's mother, Brian, his father drove her back home. The the whole trying to find Brandon thing is not really working out. People are getting frustrated. And we also have Brandon who says, look, I see lights in the distance and I believe that's the town of Lind. Meet me in the Lynn Wood Tavern parking lot.

[Captain]

So his dad's driving to find him. He's going to call his son and get back on the phone with Brandon.

[Nick]

This call started at 2:23am Brandon said he's walking along a gravel road away from Marshall in the direction of Lynd. After a bit, Brandon tells his dad that he was leaving the gravel road to cut across the land because he said it will be quicker than following the road, Brandon then told his dad that he had encountered two fence lines and he could hear running water nearby. Shortly after that, Brandon said, oh, shit. And Brandon's dad says he heard a. A sound like something slipping. Then at 3:10am the line went dead. On Brandon's end, Brandon's dad attempted to call his son back, repeatedly calling five or six times. But while the phone rang before going to voicemail, no one ever picked up.

[Captain]

Yeah. Now this is another little sticky situation. Normally we have situations where you call phone, it rings, rings, rings. And that means that there's still battery life left on the phone. It doesn't go straight to voicemail. So that's something that you might want to assume here. But with this model of phone, with this early technology, and it varies, so it's not as simple as, well, it was ringing, so we believe his phone was still working. It could have been dead at this point or submerged in water or whatever.

[Nick]

Yeah. And I think that's a general misconception regarding these phones, is that if it is ringing, that it means that the phone is still live, still active, and then going to voicemail, and that once the phone goes to voicemail, immediately that the phone is dead. That may be. That may be the situation for certain phones, for certain models. Right, but.

[Captain]

Or maybe even a higher percentage of phones do that. But I've had plenty of times where people try to call me and I'll get a joke text like, oh, you sent me straight to voicemail. And I go send it straight to voicemail. The phone didn't even ring, you know.

[Nick]

Right. Or, you know, in this situation, we have expert opinion experts who have weighed in on this exact situation.

[Captain]

So kind of you to call me.

[Nick]

An expert and say that. Look, when you hear that ring, that's not indicative of activity on that actual phone. Yeah, it's just a noise that you hear when you're calling.

[Captain]

Well, it's proven that you have activity on your end.

[Nick]

Correct?

[Captain]

It doesn't prove that they have activity on their end.

[Nick]

Well said, my friend. So he calls Brandon's dad, unable to find his son, calls friends of Brandon's for help. They come out, they agree to drive along these country roads all around Route 23 between Lind and Marshall, looking for Brandon frantically. There is no sign of Brandon, and there's also no sign of his car. At 6:30am Annette called the Lyon County Sheriff's office and reported Brandon missing. All right, this is a bit of an uncomfortable part here for me, Captain, but look, it is certainly police protocol in regards to taking a missing person's report when we are talking about a missing adult. But I like the cases and the stories we tell here in the garage where someone jumps into action immediately, you know, hey, these people are concerned. We're going to see if we can help. Unfortunately, that was not the case in this, in this story. Yeah, Seems like there was a little pushback from police. The police pointed out that, look, and I agree with this statement, it's not unusual for a 19 year old to not come home. Right. And, but one, okay, one officer even points out that it is the young man's right to be out, that if he doesn't want to come home. Yeah, but.

[Captain]

The argument is pretty simple. This young man was on the phone with his parents asking for help.

[Nick]

Right. And therefore that makes this situation immediately different than all those other possible situations.

[Captain]

Right. This idea of, well, you know, there's many teenagers that just don't come home. Yeah, but did they call in the middle of the night asking for help.

[Nick]

Saying, I'm walking around in the dark?

[Captain]

Yeah, I mean, this is ridiculous. And they should be able to find his car pretty quickly. And there's evidence that we have a situation.

[Nick]

See, this is, I mean, it's just unfortunate. That's really, it's unfortunate for a number of reasons. But here's. At the very least, play along, play the game.

[Ben]

Right?

[Nick]

You could send an officer out in a car to just do a little driving around and you chalk it up to patrolling the area anyway, which you're serve and protect, which you're supposed to be doing anyway. Why not just send a car to this general area where this concerned mother and father are saying their young man, son, 19 years old, is wandering around in the dark.

[Captain]

Well, it's absolutely pathetic because like I said, you serve and protect. And these, these are taxpayers, these are good people in your community and they're just asking you to look into their missing son. And like you said, just send out a cruiser.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Captain]

Just say, hey, look, we're sending out a cruiser. Well, let's see what we can do.

[Nick]

And here's the thing. If you end up finding the kid, you're the hero of the day, man. You're the hero of the day. So what ends up happening though, Captain, is the Swansons, they are obviously convinced that something bad has happened to their son. I'm not really certain how, but it seems that they were able to push the sheriff enough to actually get them involved. So the sheriff's deputies join in on the search and a county wide Request was made to expand the search area for this young man. Now, in a brilliant move, this is where I do give some credit. The sheriff quickly obtained the cell phone records for Brandon's phone.

[Sponsor Voice]

Good.

[Nick]

And what those records showed changed everything. Brandon's phone. The last activity on his phone caused the phone to ping on a cell phone tower that was nowhere near where he told his father that he was. So Brandon thought he was near Lind, saying he would meet him in the parking lot of the Lynwood Tavern. So instead of Lind, his phone hit off of a tower 20 miles away in the town of Mineota. So now they need to go search this area, the area that was covered by that cell tower. Sure enough, it is during this search at 12.30pm on 14 May, that officers found Brandon's Chevy Lumina in a ditch off a gravel road, as he described it to his parents. This is several miles from Canby where Brandon started off and 25 miles from Lind. The car was in a ditch alongside a minimum maintenance road off of Lyon Lincoln County Road, which runs north to south and separates the two counties just west of Taunton and east of Porter. If you're looking for this location on a map, it's about a mile and a half north of the intersection of Lyon Lincoln county road and Highway 68.

[Captain]

So, so you're saying Brandon's about 25 minutes away from where he claimed to be.

[Nick]

Correct.

[Captain]

And this is where the case gets me because again.

[Nick]

Well, this is where it makes absolutely no sense.

[Captain]

Well, you're right because the claim is that this kid knows his way around these roads, that he knows the directions around there. And that's not always a claim that fathers would make about their sons when it comes to driving. Right, right. And they're making these claims that he knows these roads, he, he knows his whereabouts and he's 25 minutes away from where he said he was. That's, that's bizarre.

[Nick]

So there, I mean there's so many things bizarre about where he, he ended up. I mean I, I was sitting there the other night and I thought that to, to put together the, the description of where everything is and where, where he ends up where he thinks he is. I mean you're left there sitting looking at a map going this just doesn't make any sense.

[Captain]

And he's not that far away from the party.

[Nick]

He's much closer to the party than where he was supposed to end up at his parents house. So I mean basically if you take, if you take Camby and draw a Diagonal line on a piece of paper, southeast to Marshall. It'd be a straight shot. Right, right south of that, south of Marshall where he lived, where he's trying to get to is Lind. So he goes way. He believes that he is near Marshall, near Lind, which is technically out of the way, but where he ends up is somewhere along that diagonal line. Basically he's. He's north of Lind in Mineota, which is much closer to can be and very in 20, 25 minutes away from Marshall and Lind.

[Captain]

Well, it seems like, you know, somehow he gets confused and gets on, on a road that he thinks is familiar but is not. Correct.

[Nick]

Well, and that's where I think the trouble lies with this case is I think you could be pretty sober and get turned around even if you do know the area fairly well because again, everything kind of looks the same. The roads are all just basically numbers.

[Captain]

When I also question, are any of these phone calls that he's making to his friends? Look, we can assume that he's not calling anybody until the car, he veers off and goes in the ditch. Right? But I'm telling you, it was a bad habit. I would get on the road when I'm playing gigs and every time I was on the damn phone, I'd miss an exit and it was always an exit that I, that I knew from, I was familiar with and I'd be going, oh, again, you know, so that's why I also wonder, was he talking to somebody on the phone where just by being on that phone he gets on the wrong road and then he, you know, travels.

[Nick]

I think it would have been incredibly easy to make a wrong turn.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

And, but, but what, that's not so hard to believe. What's really hard to believe is that he, he clearly hasn't traveled much of a distance and he hasn't traveled as far as he believes that he has traveled. So then you start to wonder necessarily.

[Captain]

And the reason why is because he could have been heading one direction and then once he makes the wrong turn or, or gets confused, he could actually been heading back the other direction.

[Nick]

No, and that's what I mean. We don't know. He could have been driving for as long as he anticipated. Right, Right. And that's where I think the problem lies. And I think that that might be where. I think that might be why he thinks he was. Was where he thought he was. Which is a weird statement to say, but he knows generally how long of a drive it would be from can be to Marshall or can be to lend. And I think he probably drove around about that amount of time and says, well, that's where I must be is Lynn, where, as you pointed out, and I think what's probably correct here is that he's made several wrong turns, turned around a couple times, tried to correct himself, and ultimately he's just getting more and more lost, more and more confused about where he, where he is actually located.

[Captain]

Right. And again, this becomes an issue because we don't know how intoxicated he is or like you said, just, you know, being exhausted, you know.

[Sponsor Voice]

Right.

[Captain]

We don't know.

[Nick]

So Lincoln County Sheriff Jack Vasecki offered a description of Brandon's car. He said the car was found on the Lincoln county side of the county line. Quote, it was off the side of a field approach and the vehicle was hung up. It's sort of a sharp incline, nothing major, but. But enough that the car would get hung up. So the wheels are too high off the ground to get any traction, end quote. Brandon's car, while immobilized, was technically fine. You know, it was operating just fine. There was no real damage to it. And this is further backed up by Brandon's mother, Annette.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

There's no evidence that he had been hurt in this incident. And furthermore, he tells his parents he's fine from the incident and there was no evidence that anyone else was involved in the accident as well.

[Captain]

Right. So basically saying that we don't think he hit his head or anything and that he was conscious of what was happening.

[Nick]

From my understanding, Brandon told his parents this accident happened as he was trying to turn off of an unpaved road. If you, if you want to try to picture this scenario, basically it's like he, he's trying to turn around in the middle of the road and maybe go the opposite direction.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

And because these are country roads that, that typically are not wide lanes, he got hung up in, in the ditch. And when they say hung up, they just mean that the, the tires are not touching the ground, therefore you cannot move the car. It was. We've had another case that was very similar to this vehicle type situation. I think it was Brianna Maitland.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

Where the car was. It worked just fine. And that's what confused people so much. But, but if, if those, if the tires that move when you hit the accelerator do not touch the ground, your car doesn't move.

[Captain]

No traction.

[Nick]

That's right. Furthermore, many reports say that nothing else unusual was found at the actual site. However, one very important source that we will get into later and we've Already touched upon, says the car doors were found open. If that is true to me, Captain, that would be incredibly strange. In any event, Sheriff Vasecki said that officers could not determine which direction Brandon was heading after he left the vehicle, which direction he was heading on foot. He says, quote, there's grass in the ditch and gravel on the road, so it is possible to leave that vehicle and not leave any tracks. One thing the sheriff failed to mention was an unfortunate coincidence. The roads were graded on the morning of May 14th before the vehicle was actually found and located by deputies. This destroying any possible footprint or other evidence that they may have found on the gravel roads. Let's discuss the scene where the car was found. We know there were no prints of use and that one source indicates that the doors were open and keys were gone. There was nothing unusual found in, near or on the vehicle. We have seen a few reports that a pipe was found in the car. To be perfectly clear, there's no indication of what kind of pipe.

[Mint Mobile Advertiser]

Right.

[Captain]

Could be a tobacco pipe, it could be a marijuana pipe, crack pipe, could.

[Nick]

Be a lead pipe. I have no idea. But I think the general idea here is if in fact the pipe was found in the vehicle, then it's possible Brandon could have been high before he set off on foot that night.

[Mint Mobile Advertiser]

Right.

[Nick]

I don't know, Captain. In. In my opinion, I want to throw this out there. I feel like the. The pipe being found in the car might just be some bad information.

[Ben]

Yes.

[Nick]

And I. And I say that because there is one newspaper article that references this pipe, but they give no indication of what it was used for, what kind of pipe it was. And then where I see other reports that contain. They say that there was a pipe in the car. They appear to me to be reports and articles that were written using that first article.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

You know. You know what I mean?

[Captain]

Like bad information that people are passing on as a rumor.

[Nick]

That's what my gut tells me.

[Captain]

Also could be a small little pipe. You know, I worked at a hardware store. I could see somebody carrying around a little piece of lead pipe, you know, as protection. So that's something, too. The thing that I keep going, now that we're on this smoke in the pipe, right? And the whole intoxicated level. One of the things that has really got me about this case is, yes, we know that he was at these two parties hanging out with his friends. And yes, they say, well, yeah, we think he was drinking at the first one, and he might have been drinking on the second one. We don't know how Much we know that he had a shot of Jack Daniels. What I wonder was, was there any smoking of the. Of weed? Was there any usage of, like, mushrooms?

[Nick]

You almost sounded like a really old person there. First smoking of the weed.

[Captain]

I almost said smoking the weed.

[Nick]

Boy, you high on the weed.

[Captain]

He was out there smoking the weed. So. Because I'm just trying to think of my friends, early days of college. If something happened to one of our buddies, we'd probably start off with, yes, we were drinking. If it was one of the days that we were experimenting with shrooms, I don't think we would have told the parents that we were experimenting with shrooms.

[Nick]

Right. But I think I get where you're going with this.

[Captain]

Yeah.

[Nick]

I think what you're trying to say is as time passes and as the concern for your friend who is lost and continues to be lost, are you saying that at some point you just go into more. Maybe. Maybe be a little more upfront about some things?

[Captain]

I think you would. So.

[Nick]

I think so.

[Captain]

I think we would hear rumors about that, and I would just don't hear rumors about that.

[Nick]

Right. And of course, marijuana drinking, all of that is totally believable because that's very common at the age of 19, you know, early college, just out of high school, very common. So it's totally believable. But to me, it feels like if the suspicion was strong enough for that, that the suspicion would have stood the test of time. And it really has not. Because what you have here in this case is you have Brian Swanson, Brandon's father, Right. Who has said for 11 years now that he does not believe that his son was in any way incapacitated that evening, saying that Brandon sounded totally normal, lucid and coherent on the phone.

[Captain]

Right. But there's just so much evidence against that. I mean, one, the, you know, he has to call for help because of his car, like you said, turning around on a country road. I think that's evidence that there's an impairment there. The fact that, you know, if it's true that they found two doors open, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. That shows a sign of impairment. The fact that he doesn't know where he's at, sign of impairment, the fact that then he claims where he's going to start walking towards again, another sign of impairment. So, you know, I'm glad that it's, you know, you know, I don't. I'm not saying that his father's a liar. I'm just saying that there's a Lot of evidence against the fact that, you know, that he was completely coherent.

[Nick]

Well, I mean, he, he wouldn't be a lie liar if he believed what he's saying. And meaning, you know, Brian Swanson does not believe that his son could. Basically he's saying, look, I was on the phone with him for 47 minutes. It wasn't a two minute phone call, it wasn't a five minute phone call.

[Captain]

Right, right.

[Nick]

He's saying, I don't think my son could fake it through a very lengthy phone call.

[Captain]

No, no, I agree with that.

[Nick]

And, and Brandon's friends have not said that he was drunk or high. Although if they were, like you said, underage or they were doing illegal activities, they might not admit to this, especially right away. We know that there have been, there was quite of a bit of time unaccounted for. It seems to be that way depending on which timeline you follow for that evening.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

But one thing that I find that's, that's super interesting is the police investigators have also said repeatedly that they do not believe Brandon was impaired that evening. Now, of course, it's totally unclear on how they would know this or how they were able to come to this conclusion.

[Captain]

Right. And the impairment doesn't have to be drugs. It could again be exhaustion, you know. Exhaustion.

[Nick]

Right. And the police coming to this conclusion may just be because all of his friends and his dad says that he wasn't, you know, intoxicated, basically in all reports are telling us he was, he was sober kind of thing.

[Captain]

Yeah.

[Nick]

But what does seem clear to me more so than if he was impaired or intoxicated in any way, it's 100% that Brandon was very, very confused about where he was that evening.

[Captain]

Well, the other evidence that he possibly was imperative is that he's taking these back roads and instead of taking the more traveled, well lit roads, you're taking back roads. That's another sign to me. And I'm not saying that he's like drunk to the point where he can't walk. I'm just saying that maybe he's buzzed enough where, can't get his car unstuck, leaves the door open, doesn't know exactly where he's at, has to take the back roads.

[Nick]

Right. But I think a big problem with this case is, and there's some debate and I don't know having, you know, I don't live in this area or never visited this area, there is some debate online about how well the roads he would have been traveling were actually marked if they were even marked at the time in 2008.

[Captain]

Yeah.

[Nick]

Again, if, if the farms look the same, the farmland looks the same, the streets and roads look the same. You know, I don't know that it, it. We gain much value out of debating if he was impaired or not. But I can see a situation where somebody would be maybe even sober as a judge and perfectly fine and still get turned around in this situation. Yeah, he's, he's. In the end, what we do know is he's 20 miles from where he thought he was. And the lights that he could see, remember, he thinks that they're coming from the town of Lindsay. They are not. We, we know that from where his vehicle is found.

[Captain]

Now you said that they had his phone records. They got the phone records pretty quickly. But do we know. I mean it was 2008, so did they have any text mess, any text messages, any records of that?

[Nick]

I looked up his phone and I actually thought that it was another phone. Before I looked it up. I thought it was like the, the razor, remember the Motorola had like a silver razor flip type phone? Yeah, that's the phone that I thought it was. And when I, when I looked up the phone online, it showed me clearly a different model. But what I can say from what I can view regarding that phone is it did have texting, I believe it to have texting capabilities.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

His. Regarding what kind of service he had might play into that somehow. Remember.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

Remember back in the day it wasn't like, like today you sign up. Yeah. Today you sign up for a plan and they're like, well, you get everything. You know back then it was quite different. So. And I can't remember exactly when the change happened.

[Captain]

The days when you'd have to like.

[Nick]

Monitor how much you text.

[Captain]

Well, yeah, that, but also like you'd also text by like you'd have to hit know3 a couple times for C.

[Nick]

You know, in judging by the, the, the picture, the image I saw of the phones that, that were brought up in my Google search, he, he very likely would have been if he was texting. It would have been that deal where you're like tap the number one three times for the letter C. Right. Type of thing.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

And again, it might have been a new enough time 2008, where, where the, the texting was. Fine. I don't have any detailed reports regarding his, his phone logs for that night. But what I, what I believe to be a fair statement to say about his phone log would be that nothing. There doesn't seem to be anything that that is outstanding as weird or unusual because we would have that information, you know, we would. That would be included in the narrative of this story that. That there. Not only does. Was there this strange situation of he's on the actual phone. I mean, and. And that's the way that this story plays out in the way that it's told on the Internet and told from person to person is Brandon is on the phone at the time that he vanishes, which is so incredibly weird. We've had so many other cases that we've covered that there are. There's a strange phone call involved in a missing person's case, but to be actually on the phone with one's father when. When it's believed that he went missing.

[Captain]

Yeah, I mean, this is. And it's weird too, because you got Brandon Swanson and then you have the Brandon Lawson case, which is kind of similar.

[Nick]

Yeah. Both involve phone calls. Strange phone calls.

[Captain]

Yeah. Two family members.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Captain]

Both Brandon's.

[Nick]

Yeah. So it's. It's one of those situations where I see what you're getting at and I wish we knew that information. I think that the reason why it's not reported is that it may just have no real bearing on the case. It may be, in fact, exactly as we just said, that from the call records. We know that he tried. He attempted to call a couple of friends. We know that he called his parents when his parents say that he's on the phone with them. And we know that his father tried to call his phone several times after. After the call goes dead on Brandon's end. There's so much more to get to in this incredibly fast, fascinating case of missing person. Brandon Swanson still left. Captain, we have the search for Brandon. We have the theories about what could have happened to him, plus our thoughts and the conclusion.

[Captain]

Only one episode this week due to the holiday. If you need more garage, download the Stitcher app and check out all of our old shows. And also we have a weekly bonus show on Stitcher Premium called Off the Record. There is now over 70 episodes available, so check that out and make sure you go to truecrimegarage.com and leave us your theories and thoughts on the Brandon Swanson case.

[Nick]

And until next week, everybody be good, be kind, and don't live.

[Captain]

Sa.