Brian Shaffer /// 20 Years Missing /// CCTV Footage /// Part 4

Summary

True Crime Garage – Brian Shaffer /// 20 Years Missing /// CCTV Footage /// Part 4
Published: February 11, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this fourth installment exploring the disappearance of Brian Shaffer, hosts Nic and the Captain—joined by guest Kelly from the “Brian Shaffer: Dead or Alive” project—delve deep into the newly acquired and released CCTV footage from the night Brian vanished inside Columbus, Ohio’s Ugly Tuna Saloona. The discussion centers on the painstaking analysis of the surveillance clips, previously unknown movements and interactions among key individuals, and the persistent mysteries still confounding the case 20 years later. The hosts issue a call to action to fellow web sleuths: examine the raw footage for missed clues, as the story’s accepted narrative may not reflect what truly happened.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Acquiring and Analyzing the Surveillance Footage

• Kelly shares the acquisition via public records request to Columbus PD, noting only one camera (outside the bar) was released. She describes the “painstaking” process of creating a timeline from hours of footage.
  • Kelly: “It was several hours long and I have spent hours upon hours combing through it along with many other members of my group.” (01:13)
• They discuss making both the timeline and unedited blocks of surveillance footage available to the public for further analysis.
  • Brian: “This is a call to action... hoping that web sleuthers and armchair detectives... dissect this and find things that I haven’t.” (01:47)
• Critical note: The timestamp on the footage is consistently four hours off, and even the minutes may be unreliable.
  • Nicholas: “Nothing angers me more than to see the time and date stamps being incorrect... Why they don’t change them, I don’t know.” (03:29)

2. Breakdown of Night’s Timeline from Footage

• Key Arrivals & Departures:
  • 9:51 pm – Brian and Clint arrive (with timestamp caveats).
  • 10:26 pm – Amber and an unidentified “mystery woman” arrive.
  • 10:40 pm – Brian and Clint leave.
  • 11:23 pm – Brighton arrives.
  • 12:48 am – “Mystery woman” is seen again.
  • 1:15 am – Brian, Clint, and Meredith arrive.
  • 1:55 am – Last confirmed sighting of Brian, outside talking with Amber and Brighton.
    • Kelly: “At 1:55am we see Brian for the last time... standing outside... talking to Amber and Brighton.” (11:22)
  • 1:59 am – Amber, Brighton, and "mystery woman" leave together.
  • 2:09 am – Clint and Meredith leave.

Important Observations:

• The “mystery woman” entered and left with Amber and Brighton; her identity was not initially known to Amber or Brighton.
  • Kelly: “Now we know it was Amber’s roommate.” (17:17)
  • Brian: "It's odd that Amber and Brighton don't know the identity of this girl... Police can't even tell us who the third girl is." (16:05)
• Brian’s last known activity: Appears to return inside the bar after saying goodbye to the group.
  • Nicholas: “It appears that Brian then leaves the group... I have to guess that he's going back into the Ugly Tuna Saloona.” (13:21)

3. Key Individuals and Their Roles

• Clint (Brian’s friend):
  • Repeatedly suspected and "thrown under the bus," mostly due to pressure from Brian’s father, Randy Shaffer.
  • Firm alibi: Seen with Meredith, house-sitting, and cooperated fully with police.
  • Kelly: "It was more he thought that Clint could know something, not that he harmed Brian." (33:22)
• The “Brian Schaefer doppelganger”:
  • Multiple individuals dressed similarly appear on footage, potentially fueling conspiracy that Brian left and was missed by reviewers.
  • Kelly: “I was able to prove that that was not Brian leaving the bar.” (37:40)
• Amber & Brighton:
  • Central to the last sighting and apparently in the dark about the full dynamics of their group’s interaction with Brian.

4. New Findings & Misconceptions Corrected by Footage

• Group dynamics were more complex—Brian’s “group” fluctuated between 3 to 10+ people, with fluid interactions.
  • Nicholas: “Now we have a group of three, that becomes a group of five, that becomes a group of six...” (27:21)
• Misreporting: The long-held theory that Brian never left the bar is disproven by footage showing him outside.
  • Kelly: “The last footage we see of him, he was already outside of the bar.” (23:34)
• Significance of the “Other Four Guys”:
  • Several other friends—Jason Fistic, Brandon Schatuni, Jeremy Rogers, Graham Davis—were part of Brian’s social itinerary that night, possibly with their own entourages.
  • Brian: “There’s four other individuals that we know Brian was in communication with that night and going from bar to bar... Why was he trying to find them? ...Why weren’t these individuals questioned more?” (39:25)

5. Calls for Public and Police Action

• More footage exists: Only one camera view has been released; other angles are needed to piece together the full story (no views showing bar exits).
  • Brian: “I think that CPD has other angles and why aren’t they releasing those to us?” (39:25)
• Lack of police follow-up: Many critical interviews and polygraphs—especially with key women—were never conducted, or records have gaps.
• The hosts urge listeners to examine the released footage on the True Crime Garage website and reach out if anything is spotted.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the CCTV timestamp error:
  “Nothing angers me more than to see the time and date stamps being incorrect in any man... the discrepancy is consistent... we shouldn’t dismiss the idea that the minutes are off as well.” — Nicholas (03:29)
• On group dynamics vs. the narrative:
  “It just seems like he was a little all over the place and not really spending time with one particular person. I’m kind of confused why we always heard he was out with Clint that night when he was out with a lot of people...” — Kelly (23:34)
• On last sighting confusion:
  “This narrative of Brian went into a bar and he never left the bar, we know is not true.” — Brian (39:25)
• On doppelganger theory:
  “There’s at least one guy... that had a dark colored T shirt with a light colored long sleeve shirt underneath. Similar haircut, white dude wearing jeans, very similarly dressed.” — Nicholas (36:09)
• On law enforcement shortcomings:
  “Why don’t law enforcement... take missing person cases more serious from the get go? Like we’ve heard over and over, investigate the case as if it’s a homicide until you prove it’s not.” — Brian (39:25)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:32–03:29: Surveillance footage acquisition and timestamp caveats
• 05:37–14:49: Night’s key arrivals/departures; breakdown of notable surveillance moments
• 16:05–18:26: Discussion of the “mystery woman” and implications for the investigation
• 18:26–21:15: Clint and Meredith’s relationship, alibi confirmations, and police polygraphs
• 22:00–22:34: The “Orange Sweater Man” and persistent red herrings
• 23:34–29:57: Debunking case myths, group dynamics, newly identified individuals
• 31:22–35:27: The “Clint under the bus” narrative; family suspicion and its effects on the case
• 36:02–38:55: Doppelganger analysis and final appeal for open-source investigation
• 39:25–End: Frustrations with law enforcement’s reluctance to release more footage

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Final Thoughts & Call-to-Action

The episode ends with an open invitation to the true crime community: the full timeline and raw surveillance footage is now available at truecrimegarage.com. Listeners are urged to review, analyze, and share any potentially overlooked clues with the hosts or authorities.

Brian: “We have information, we don’t have answers. And we’re hoping that these individuals will contact us or contact the police... Surveillance footage will be on truecrimegarage.com—please look at it and see if you could see something that we aren’t.” (39:25)

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For armchair detectives and seasoned sleuths alike, this deep-dive is both a summary of what’s known and a challenge to help rewrite the final chapter in Brian Shaffer’s mystery.

Transcript

[Nicholas]

Welcome to off the Record. I'm your host, Nicholas.

[Brian]

It's good to be seen and it's.

[Nicholas]

Good to see you off the Record.

[Brian]

Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.

[Nicholas]

True crime Podcast Podcast Be good, be kind and don't little Gather round, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime.

[Brian]

So me and Kelly from Brian Schaefer, Dead or Alive, we've been talking for a long time. And one of the things, because we were talking earlier about how there was this website that was set up that had a longer version of the surveillance footage. Again, one of the great things about what you're doing here is you're not just taking in information. You are than tracking down as far as you. You're going down whatever rabbit hole is sent your way. But one of the things that you were able to do is to get surveillance footage from the Columbus pd. Can you talk about that a little bit?

[Kelly]

Yeah. Through a Publix records request, we were able to get the surveillance footage from Ugly Tuna Saluna. And we only received the one camera, which is the image that we see a lot of Brian outside of the bar. It was several hours long and I have spent hours upon hours combing through it along with many other members of my group. And I put it all together and did a timeline to make it a little easier to follow what Brian was doing that night while he was at the Ugly Tuna.

[Brian]

So again, we will be posting this video on Facebook page. Brian Schaer, Dead or Alive, will also be posting this video on our Website, true crime garage.com this is a call to action. This will not be the only footage because we're going to post the timeline of the surveillance tape and we're also going to post a unedited block of their surveillance. And we're hoping that there'll be web sleuthers and armchair detectives out there that dissect this and find things that I haven't been able to find or Kelly hasn't been able to find.

[Nicholas]

And yes, garage listeners, brace yourselves as we review and comment on hours and hours of surveillance footage.

[Kelly]

At 9:51pm Brian and Clint arrive at Ugly Tuna Saloona.

[Nicholas]

Okay, so first thing we got to point out here, and anybody that's if you've been in the garage before, you know right where I'm going to go with this. There is a four hour discrepancy in the timestamp of this surveillance footage. No disagreements with me on that, Kelly.

[Kelly]

No, you're absolutely right. And actually the date is wrong on it as well.

[Nicholas]

Yeah. So with, with that in mind, the great part about this is that the discrepancy is consistent. Okay? So at the start of the footage, it's four hours off, the date is off, and at the end of the footage, it's still four hours off. So everything lines up to the marker, to the time marker that is indicated on the screen. I want to be very clear about this, and I'm not, I'm not trying to. On this information or the footage or any of that.

[Brian]

I just dump.

[Nicholas]

I just want to be very clear here. When we say that there's a four hour discrepancy in the time marker, that is an indicator to me that we shouldn't dismiss the idea that the minutes are off as well. And what I mean by that is when we say 9:51, Brian and Clint arrive at the Ugly Tuna Saluna. For all we know, it could be 958, it could be 9:44. It. You know, I'm not, I'm not questioning that there's a big error in the minutes that we're talking about, but because the, the hour is off to such a great degree, I wouldn't put it out of the realm of possibility. And as somebody who ran security for a very large building in a very, in a very big property, nothing angers me more than to see the time and date stamps being incorrect in, in any man. I mean, it doesn't take long to change these things. Why they don't change them, I don't know. But on that marker. So to add some color here to that time stamp of 9:51, Brian and Clint arriving at the Ugly Tuna. Okay, so what we see here on this footage is these two are very clearly together, Brian and Clint. We have Clint who is standing just in front of him on the elevator. There are two individuals that are on the escalator. Excuse me, There are two individuals that are on the escalator directly behind them, but you can clearly see that they are not with Brian and Clint. And it is the two of them that enter the Ugly Tuna Saluna as soon as they exit, as soon as they get off of this escalator. So if you're, when you're, looking at this footage, if you go up that escalator, immediately to your right is the entrance to the bar.

[Kelly]

At 10:26pm Amber and a mystery woman are seen arriving.

[Nicholas]

Yes. So at this 1026 marker, what we are seeing here is Amber in the Mystery Woman. And again, they are very clearly together. You can see them interacting with one another. It's not that these are two random people that happen to get on the escalator at the same time. So they are chatting with one another as they are going up the escalator and then again immediately going into the bar. In this situation, we do have two males that are behind them. The first couple of times I watched this, Kelly, I thought there was a chance maybe those males were with them. I wouldn't totally dismiss that idea. But having watched it several times, it appears that they are not with them, that they just happen to be on that escalator at the same time.

[Kelly]

Yeah, I agree with that. I thought they were together at first too. At 10:40pm Brian and Clint leave the Ugly Tuna Saluna.

[Nicholas]

Yes. In the, while the video, I mean the video is very clear for 2006. I, I will give the Gateway team that. It's, it's very clear and the movements are very clear as well. And one thing that I do like about this, while the, the camera angle is not such that you can really pick out faces in the crowd, you can clearly see what individuals are wearing. And Brian is wearing a T shirt over top of a longer long sleeve shirt, light colored long sleeve shirt with a dark colored T shirt on top. And that's going to help distinguish him from other individuals. In later parts of this footage, we see him and his friend Clint going down the escalator, leaving. There is an individual behind them who it looks like Brian turns back and looks at him. But this person behind them, he leans up, puts his butt on the side of the escalator, doesn't seem to be trying to catch up with them as they are slightly in front of them. And then of course, Brian does make that, makes that motion almost like he's sliding down the banister of, of a set of stairs.

[Kelly]

At 11:23pm Brighton arrives at Ugly Tuna Saluna.

[Nicholas]

Okay, we see a what I would describe as a woman who is visibly intoxicated leaving the Ugly Tuna at the same time that Brighton is completely solo and by herself. Arriving, coming up the escalator and then going into the bar.

[Kelly]

At 12:48am the mystery woman leaves the Ugly Tuna Saluna.

[Nicholas]

And she is by herself. I cannot tell her level of intoxication. She does grab both with both hands each side of the, for lack of a better term, railing of the escalator. There are some individuals coming up the escalator at the same time and I think we're. Oh, I'm sorry, you're talking about the mystery woman arriving, right? Yes, okay, sorry, I messed up there. So, Captain, if you could jump back. 12:48, Mystery woman arrives at the Ugly Tuna Saloona. She's riding up the escalator. There's a gentleman behind her with his arms folded, and I'm going to call him the collar sweater guy. I. This guy's clearly with her. Would you argue that against that?

[Brian]

I personally will always find it fascinating that when they did the episode of the Psychic Kids, that one of the kids picks up on the fact that Brian and Clint went to the Ugly Tuna earlier in the evening. But this also shows that Brian and Clint could have had some contact or interaction with Amber earlier in the evening. But also that Amber and Bryden, the two girls last seen talking to Brian on surveillance camera footage, that they would have been in the bar longer for a longer period. And then obviously they make contact with Brian when Brian and Clint show back.

[Kelly]

Up later in the evening at 1:15am Brian, Clint and Meredith arrive at Ugly Tuna Saloona.

[Brian]

And this is the video footage that basically, if you've heard of this case or seen this case online, this is the footage you've seen.

[Nicholas]

Yes. So Brian is leaning up against the the side of the escalator as he's going up. And then you have Meredith and Clint behind him. There is a man here that you see who walks out of the bar. You almost think he's following the person in front of him who, who is very clearly leaving and then does exit the building. This, that, that walks out of the Ugly Tuna as Brian Clinton, Meredith are coming up. He walks out and he kind of puts his hands out in like an, I don't know, manner. And he's looks like he's communicating with somebody who's still in the bar or on their way out. I made note of him only because we do see him again. And I made note of him because he's dressed very similarly to Brian Schaefer. It very likely has nothing to do with anything, but it was something that didn't go unnoticed by me and I did make make note of this to the point of referring to him as Brian Schaefer doppelganger and would like to know A, who, who is he? And B, when does he leave?

[Kelly]

At 1:55am we see Brian for the last time on surveillance footage and he is standing outside of the Ugly Tuna Saloona talking to Amber and Brighton.

[Nicholas]

So actually in the next, next clip I have is this clip shows Amber on her phone and pointing at the mystery woman. Same.

[Kelly]

Yeah, that's all the same clip yeah.

[Nicholas]

Okay, so also in this clip, we have Amber on her phone and pointing at the mystery woman, who is coming back up the escalator as she guides Brighton to the restroom. Bright, bear with me here, guys, because there's a lot going on in this clip. At this time, we have two CPD officers in this general location. We have the Brian Schaefer doppelganger. He's standing out there at the top of the stairs as well. He's talking with a group of people. So this appears to be two other men and a female. They. They seem excited. They're. They're excited about whatever they're talking about. I have no idea what they're talking about, but they're very expressive with their hand motions. Very clearly engaged in this conversation. Also at this time, we have individuals coming up the escalator. So a lot of activity in this space at the time. And this is where we see. Yep, there's the cell phone and somebody. And she points. They're pointing again, we see a single.

[Brian]

Yeah, you can see the mystery girl as she's coming up the escalator. She then joins the group. Now, you don't see her on that. You see her walk towards the group, but you can see the other individuals next to Brian and Amber and Brighton kind of acknowledge that that mystery girl joined the conversation with Brian, Brian, Amber, and Brighton.

[Nicholas]

Because we can't see the mystery woman's movements. I hesitate to say she joins the group. It looks to me like she walks past the group and. But you're right. The several of the individuals standing next to Brian clearly recogn. You know, they. She doesn't go unnoticed by this group. The. And given the time of night, and, you know, you're out, probably single, you're young, you've had some drinks. It wouldn't be crazy for a young, young fella to be looking to hook up. They're checking out some chick as she's walking by. That. That's what it looks like to me. Like, these three guys all kind of look at her as she. She walks by. And it appears that Brian then leaves the group. And judging by the direction that he is moving off of camera, I have to guess that he's going back into the ugly tuna saluna.

[Brian]

Right. And at some point, Brighton puts her number in Brian's phone. Is that correct?

[Kelly]

So the other thing that a lot of people have noticed and pointed out in this clip in particular is that it appears that Brian puts his hand in Amber's purse. And I have slowed it down many of times. I have watched it numerous times, and it. It does appear that way. Now, I can't tell what he does, but it does appear that his hand goes into her purse.

[Nicholas]

Are all these three women leaving together?

[Kelly]

They do.

[Nicholas]

Yeah. I see. I see that, too.

[Brian]

So that's the next clip, right?

[Kelly]

At 1:58am Brighton returns from the restroom. And at 1:59am Amber, Brighton and the mystery woman are seen leaving the Ugly Tuna Saloona.

[Brian]

And this was something that jumped out to me because we've been telling this story and been looking into his case for over 10 years. And it was always, Brian is at the bar talking with Amber, talking with Brighton. Brighton puts her number into Brian's phone. I think you could make some assumptions of whether Brian was flirty with Bryden or if he is flirty with Amber or he's flirty with both of them. You can make some assumptions that this mystery girl's with them or not with them. But what we can prove from the surveillance is the mystery girl shows up earlier at the bar with Amber, and then she leaves with Amber and Brighton. And it's not like Amber and Bryden go on the escalator and the mystery girl follows them. The mystery girl is, like, sandwiched in between the two.

[Nicholas]

And.

[Brian]

I don't want to speak for Kelly, but I think we both find it odd that Amber and Brighton don't know the identity of this girl. And also, if you're law enforcement and you have this surveillance footage, then you're like, well, you okay, we want to talk to these two girls that he was last seen on camera talking to. And it seems like the police have never understood it was not just two girls, but it was actually three. And so the police can't even tell us who the third girl is, and they can't even tell you that there was a third girl there. And I think that's concerning.

[Kelly]

It is very concerning. And, you know, I mentioned all the people that Nick and I interviewed in the early days of Comeback, and Amber and Brighton were two of the people that we interviewed. And I have always thought that this mystery woman joined their group. And I have recordings from both of them in 2018 telling me that there was no other woman, that they don't know who that woman is.

[Brian]

Yeah, Now.

[Kelly]

Now we know it's. It was Amber's roommate.

[Nicholas]

Okay, the cat is out of the bag there, right? Because I. I had a whole different line of questioning, but.

[Brian]

Yeah, but is that. Is that confirmed, or is that just speculation?

[Kelly]

Brighton confirmed it for me last week but Amber still doesn't know her name.

[Brian]

Yeah and we should also point out that when people have talked to Amber she claims well I had a long term boyfriend at the time which she never stated that individual's name either. And look, I understand like if, if you're not being questioned by law enforcement you don't have to give anybody information. But again it's another situation where it's like, you know, because I think their claim was we went to the bar, we talked to Brian, we're going to leave. They even have said Brian was going to walk us out to the car and he didn't. And then people go well where did you guys go afterwards? Well I went to, we went to a party at Amber's boyfriend's house. Okay, well what was his name? Can't remember.

[Kelly]

I don't remember.

[Brian]

And then hey, we have look and I've spoke with Bryden many times and she's a very lovely person and she wants to help. She will remind you often she was intoxicated at this time period that she was hanging out with Brian and that she left. And I don't think she's ever lying to me. I think there's just certain things that she doesn't know. The first couple times I talked to her about who is Amber's boyfriend at the time she couldn't remember. She eventually did. And then with the roommate she goes well I think it's the, it's Amber's old roommate. Well that would make sense that Amber doesn't remember her name but there's not a single person I've lived with that I can't remember their name.

[Kelly]

Right. It's not a big deal that Brighton didn't know the girl because I mean there was very little time that Brighton and the girl were in the bar at the same time. So it seems that they're paths didn't cross very often. At 2:09am Clinton Meredith are seen leaving.

[Nicholas]

The Ugly Tuna saloona this clip is interesting to me. There is a gentleman that exits shortly after they do within you know, steps of them leaving the Ugly Tuna. I wouldn't describe that gentleman as being a third in this group. It appears to me that Clint and Meredith are very clearly together and he just happens to be behind them. But something you had said earlier in our conversation and Kelly, where their relationship, Clinton Meredith was moving along at a certain pace and there's you. I didn't know the nature of their relationship and I'm not going to claim to still have a clear understanding of that. But she does grip his arm in a manner that he's, you know, escorting her or leading the way as they leave the bar. Like, if I saw those two together, if I were passing them coming up the other way, I would assume that I'm looking at boyfriend and girlfriend.

[Kelly]

Yeah. And they, they actually, like I said, that was the first night that they were going to spend together. And they actually dated for six to eight months after Brian's disappearance. So they actually were in a relationship.

[Brian]

And you've been able to talk to Meredith?

[Kelly]

I have not.

[Brian]

But I do want to remind people that Meredith was cooperative with police and gave a polygraph test.

[Kelly]

Yeah. Everything that I have heard from any investigator is that they believe Meredith is 100% being truthful.

[Nicholas]

The Columbus police officers are not visible in this scene with Clint and Meredith leaving. They could still be on that platform up there somewhere, but they are not standing near the stairs in this footage or near the escalator.

[Kelly]

Yeah, there was actually a scuffle outside at that time and the police officers had to go down and make sure that everything was okay and it didn't escalate.

[Nicholas]

Yeah. 2am After a Friday night of drinking at the bars. It would. In campus. On campus, it would be weird if there wasn't a scuffle.

[Brian]

Well, again, isn't that the weekend that's leading into spring break?

[Kelly]

Yes. So, Nick, you actually brought up something interesting that I found in the surveillance too. And it is the guy leaving with. Well, not with, behind Clint and Meredith. That guy was actually known as the Orange Sweater Man.

[Nicholas]

Yeah, we talked about him. I. I think I misspoke earlier when we said, when we first covered this in 2015, we first covered it in 2016, leading up to the 10 year marker of Brian's disappearance. And the Orange Sweater man was somebody that we had talked about during that coverage.

[Brian]

And I just think it's. I feel like it's so ridiculous and that's. And I, I want to thank Kelly again for taking the time to share this information because it feels like for the last 10 years, now, 20 years of him missing, that there hasn't been like a lot of these cases. There's developments and it seems like there's been nothing in the Shaffer case. Okay, so. So once you had this surveillance tape, because you had to get this from cpd, Right. What's your big takeaways from what you learned from this?

[Kelly]

Well, my big takeaway, I think, is how little was reported accurately. You know, it was such a big deal made about Brian potentially being killed in the bar. But the last footage we see of him, he was already outside of the bar. I think a lot of people have a difficult time understanding that the Ugly Tuna and the Gateway are two totally different entities inside one building. But it was after years of being told by Amber and Brighton that they arrived together, that they didn't. And now this mystery woman that I had suspicions on for years actually arrived with Amber and left with both of them. I was told they went back to Amber's boyfriend's house and they went to sleep. Now I know there was an after party. Then we have the four other guys that were out with Brian that night. Like, Brian was in the bar that we know of for 45 minutes based on surveillance. And in those 45 minutes, he flirted with Amber and Brighton. He was kissing on Brighton's neck. He's hanging out with Clinton, Meredith. He's hanging out with the other four guys. It. It just seems like he was a little all over the place and not really spending time with one particular person. So I'm kind of confused why. We always heard he was out with Clint that night when he was out with a lot of people that night.

[Nicholas]

In this room, though, in this room, I mean, he's clearly out with Clint in the. In the sense that they are moving together from location to location. They start together the evening. If the way the narrative is, we are to believe that they intended to end the evening together. So I think it's absolutely 100% fair and accurate to describe them as out together that night. They're just not in this space. I mean, we got to keep in mind, too, the captain said it perfectly earlier in our conversation. You kind of got to look at this campus. OSU campus is bigger than most campuses and it's almost like its own city. And in a way, within that community, you're going to have people when you go from bar to bar that you're going to know, right? You're going to see someone across the way. You're going to see somebody standing up at the bar. You're going to bump into somebody in the restroom that you know from class or you know from a previous year at school, or somebody that you may have met on a. On another night out. So there's going to be people, you know. And we also have to keep in mind, too, Brian Schaefer is what I would refer to as a super senior. Those types are typically the ones that are very social when they go out to these different places because they have little apprehension about them They've been to these places before. These are places that they, They've. They frequented. They, again, they're going to know some folks, and you just feel it's. It's like a natural pecking order or natural spot on the food chain where as a super senior, being his age, given some of the younger college folks, he's going to kind of feel like the big man on campus a little bit. Like, this is. This is my stomping ground. This is where I feel comfortable just going up and kind of kind of showing myself a little bit. Right. Like, oh, you know, night out. You guys are being boring. I'll go over here and I'll talk to the band or I'll go talk to these people over here. I'm kind of the big man on campus. And we all know somebody in our social circles that also has nothing to do with college or being the big man on campus, but also may have that kind of personality as well.

[Brian]

Yeah, but some of my problem is the narrative of the story. Brian goes to Ugly Tuna with his friend Clint and Meredith, and then he talks to these two random girls, Amber and Bryden. And then you go, they're not really random girls because Amber knows Clint because he's the teacher's assistant in one of her classes. So that now combines the whole group. And I think there's even maybe some evidence that Meredith knew of Amber and Brighton. And then you have this third girl, this mystery girl we have no name for, so now she's part of the group. So now we have a group of three, that becomes a group of five, that becomes a group of six, and you can't say that. Okay, well, if Brian's out with Clint that night, I think I agree with you. You can 100% say that. But when you have phone records of him and Clint trying to join this other party, this party of four, and we know that they're at the bar, and we know that they've had several communications that night. Then they need to become part of the story, too, because now we have a group of three that becomes a group of at least 10. And how many other people in that group knew of other individuals? And I think his case becomes complicated because he starts the night at the Ugly Tuna, and then he goes to several other clubs, and then he ends up there. And so was there other individuals there besides these four guys that nobody's brought up for the last 10 years or actually for the last 20 years?

[Kelly]

So I actually think yes, and because, you know, it's very Tedious to go through the surveillance footage in general, but it's very difficult to go through the surveillance footage and pick out people that you don't know. And the four guys is someone that I have not positively ID'd on the surveillance footage, but I'm pretty sure, I would say I'm about 99% sure that I've identified one of them. And if that's the case and it is who I think it is, which is Brandon, then Brandon arrives with two separate people. That's not part of the original pack of people that we've been talking about. So that'll throw in two more people that were out that night.

[Nicholas]

And we've talked about a lot of names, a lot of people, a lot of different places. Who is Brandon again?

[Kelly]

Brandon was the fellow college co ed that was in medical school as well.

[Brian]

Yeah. And so the four guys that we believe that he was trying to meet that night were Jason Fistic, Brandon Schatuni, and what are the other two guys names?

[Kelly]

Jeremy Rogers and Graham Davis.

[Brian]

And again, this is not to throw anybody under the bus, but what I feel is sad in this story is Clint has been thrown under the bus. He was thrown under the bus by Randy Schaefer. He was Don Corbett, which is the private investigator that helped Randy Schaefer was told by Randy, hey, you need to look into Clint. Clint then lawyered up. And because of people like us telling this story on the interwebs and people like Kelly doing a long form podcast on this case, Clint then gets thrown under the bus just like the band gets thrown under the bus. And so I'm not trying to throw these guys under the bus, but I hope that some of these individuals come out and share their story or share any information that they think of is of importance that hasn't been out there.

[Kelly]

Yes, I hope so too. And you know, I want to touch on this since you just said it, Clint was absolutely thrown under the bus. Actually, I can't reveal my source, but Clint was told by Randy Shaffer not to show up to any more searches. When Clint listened to Randy's wishes, Randy then went and started telling everyone that Clint had something to hide, that that's why he wasn't showing up. And he went to Columbus Police Department and told them that Clint had something to hide. He was the last person out with. And Randy really threw Clint under the bus pretty hard.

[Brian]

Well, and when I talked to Don Corbett, which, look, Don is a character, but it's a character that you'd love to talk to, but he said look, we know that Clint and Meredith leave the bar. We know that Clint was house sitting. We have, you know, he arrives at the house that he was house sitting within the time period he should have leaving the Ugly Tuna. We have him with Meredith the whole time. We have them leaving that house the next day in the morning together. And then he is responding to going to Brian's apartment. He is showing a level of concern. When Don Corbett tells Randy Shaffer, hey, this guy has an alibi. Basically, Randy Schaefer was like, yeah, who cares? Keep looking into him. He had something to do with it. And I don't know if that was Randy thinking that he had something to do with murdering his son or if he just felt like he had more knowledge of what happened or. Or maybe even Randy thought there was a possibility that Brian decided to start a new life somewhere and that maybe Clint knew about it.

[Kelly]

So I actually have some letters and some emails back and forth between Randy and Clint. And I would say, based on Randy's words, it was more he thought that Clint could know something, not that he harmed Brian.

[Brian]

Right.

[Nicholas]

Yeah. And look, to. To be fair, okay, while it may not. While we may not all agree that it was fair that Randy is saying no, keep pressing him. Keep pressing him. He had an alibi. I don't care. Keep pressing him. He knows something. He knows something. I've spoke to a lot of family members of victims, some homicides, some missing persons and what have you, and some of them, not all of them, but some of them, are very, very suspicious. And some of them are very, very suspicious of not just one individual, but of a lot of individuals. I might have to throw Randy into that category of just. It's. It can be very difficult sometimes for someone to reconcile with the idea that the last person you thought your loved one was with has no answers as to where your. That person is. Or let's keep in mind, too, sometimes we have information that we don't know that is important to a situation. We don't know how it lines up with other bits of information. And so sometimes you keep going to that well and you keep going to that well, and you keep going to that well hoping to pull water from it. It's difficult for me to fault Randy for having these suspicions or for pushing individuals to continue to lean on Clinton because we can sit here and have the. The privilege of looking at it with a clearer head and trying to be logical with everything that we're analyzing. Where if I were Randy, guided by emotion and blinded by emotions, I wouldn't be able to do that.

[Brian]

Well, and I do want to talk about something before we wrap up this part. So with this surveillance footage and people being able to dissect it more, you are a part of. It was like a documentary about Brian Schaefer. And I could be getting this completely wrong. But. But during this footage that they played, because they played some extended surveillance footage that there are some people that believe that they saw Brian leaving on surveillance.

[Kelly]

The look alike guy.

[Brian]

Yeah, yeah.

[Nicholas]

The doppelganger guy that I pointed out.

[Kelly]

Yeah, it's a different doppelganger. Dressed exactly the same.

[Nicholas]

Yeah. There's at least one guy that I spotted that had a dark colored T shirt with a light colored long sleeve shirt underneath. Similar haircut, white dude wearing jeans, very similarly dressed.

[Brian]

Like basically the same outfit as Schaefer. But.

[Nicholas]

And it's almost comical because it's weird like when Schaefer's coming up the. The escalator and of course maybe that guy's the only guy at the top. And so how could he not go. How could he go unnoticed? But he. They. They kind of look at each other almost to like, you know how it is like when you're out somewhere and somebody's dressed almost like you and you see them and you kind of like give each other a quick look like.

[Brian]

Oh, hey guys, thanks for stealing my style.

[Nicholas]

Yeah, we. We could be friends.

[Kelly]

Well, you know, it's the same way Amber, Brighton and Meredith all have on the same outfit.

[Brian]

Yeah.

[Nicholas]

Just. Just different colors.

[Kelly]

Yeah, well, they all have on the white coat or like denim jacket looking thing and jeans, like, but a different undershirt and different purse. But it was very difficult to go through.

[Nicholas]

You could definitely tell that the. That there was a style. Right. A modern day style going on in 2006. Because it's. You see it replicated multiple times in the surveillance footage.

[Brian]

Well, in the clip that I saw, I mean, the first time you see the clip of the. It. It's an individual that's dressed like Brian, has a similar build, but he looks maybe a little thinner. But he's not going down the escalator. He's going down the steps.

[Kelly]

Yeah. And it did look a lot like Brian. And I think I probably would have continued to think it was Brian had it not been for receiving all of the surveillance footage that I did. I was actually able to find the Brian lookalike in another portion of the surveillance footage. And it just so happens that him and Brian were in the same scene together. So I was able to prove that that was not Brian leaving the bar.

[Brian]

So we are going to put this surveillance timeline on true crime garage.com and also put a extended version of some of the surveillance footage that's unedited. So any web sleuthers or armchair detectives that want to take a look at we're. It's a call to action to have people look at this. I have looked at it for hours, maybe days. I know Kelly has done the same. So at this point, every time I watch it, I'm hoping to see something new, but I don't know if I will at this point. So it's a call to action for anybody that's interested in this case, take a look at this footage and if you think you see anything, please email true crime garage captainruecrimegarage.com so I would.

[Kelly]

Like to add on that I am going to release the last hour of surveillance footage that Brian was inside the Ugly Tuna Saluna. The footage has not been edited at all. However, when it was sent to me on a disk, it was sent in three separate files. Well, that one hour of Brian's time there falls in between two separate files. So there will be a short delay where it goes over to the next file, but there will be no editing.

[Brian]

But I really do want to applaud Kelly for going the extra steps to get this CCTV surveillance footage. But I think it's just one angle. I think that CPD has other angles and why aren't they releasing those to us? Because we have learned stuff from the footage that it took a long time to get, but once we get it. And again, they just give you hours of the footage so you can sift through it. Well, we sift through it and we figured some stuff out. And when you go back and talk to these investigators and you say, why wasn't the girl's last scene with Brian talked to more? Why weren't they questioned more? Why didn't you give them polygraph tests? Why didn't you ask them more questions? Because they don't have answers for certain things. And why didn't you know that they were there with another female? It wasn't just two girls, it was three. Maybe the third girl, the mystery girl, didn't have much contact or involvement with Brian Schaefer that night. But it seems like there's some secret stuff going on. Secret time. It just raises questions. It's hard to also ask questions of amber or Brighton 20 years later. Of course they're not going to remember some stuff. Now it's 20 years later. But why wasn't this done in the beginning? Why don't we take. Why doesn't law enforcement. Why doesn't detectives take missing person cases, more serious from the get go? Like we've heard over and over, investigate the case as if it's a homicide until you prove it's not. And then also these four guys. Look, what the surveillance footage proves to me is there has to be other angles because who do we not see on this surveillance footage? We don't see the band. We know for a fact the band was there. There's at least three members in the band. And then how many of their friends were watching them? Again, from the people I Talked to, over 10 people. Where are these individuals? Some of these people I know I can't pick them out on the cctv. So there has to be other angles. Why won't you share those with us so we can then dissect them? Why wouldn't you share them with the public? It's 20 years and it seems like you're not anywhere closer. Yeah. A couple years ago, Congratulations, you released Age Progress photo of Brian Shaver. Congratulations. We can do that within 30 seconds now on Chat GPT. And what about these four other individuals? Like we've said multiple times, Clint gets thrown under the bus, Meredith gets thrown under the bus. All these individuals get thrown under the bus. But there's four other individuals that we know Brian was in communication with that night and going from bar to bar to bar to bar to bar to try to find them. Why was he trying to find them? What was the purpose? What was the intent? Why weren't these individuals questioned more? When you did question these individuals and they said things that didn't make a lot of sense, why didn't you follow up on that? It just seems like there's so many unanswered questions. But this notion, this again, whether the narrative is coming from Randy Schaefer or where the narrative is just coming from law enforcement, this narrative of Brian went into a bar and he never left the bar. We know is not true. And again, what about the other angles? If you showed me another angle that showed the entrance of Ugly Tuna, I can show Brian Schaefer leaving that area. I know I could. Because there's exits in the CCTV footage. There's a lot you don't see. You see the escalators, you see the stairs, you don't see the exits. That would just be right to the right of leaving the ugly tuna. It's 20 years. I wish these people would come forward. I wish these people would tell their story. Even if you don't think you have a lot to offer, maybe it moves the needle and it's been 20 years and it just doesn't seem like the needle is moving. And that is why we are putting out this information. We have information. We don't have answers. And we're hoping that these individuals will contact us or contact the police, but the police are unresponsive to us. We're putting on an event. We want you to be at the event. Tickets are on sale now. We're not lining our pockets. We're going to give that money to another organization, the Porchlight Project, to do more work for law enforcement, to do DNA testing, to help out with missing person cases. We're putting in time and effort to try to make a difference again. That surveillance footage will be on true crimegarage.com please look at it and see if you could see something that we aren't until the next episode. Be good, be kind and don't litter.