This week: Where is Brandon Swanson? Edited by: Arakun the Twisted Raccoon  
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"I disappear from the public eye and get rediscovered quite often."
Burgess Meredith |
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Sometimes, real life mysteries are stranger than any story an author could write. One such case is the mysterious disappearance of Brandon Swanson on May 14, 2008.
Brandon was a 19 year old college student from Marshall Minnesota. He had just finished the spring semester of his freshman year at Minnesota West Community and Technical College and was out celebrating with friends near Canby, Minnesota.
Shortly after midnight on May 14, Brandon called his parents on his cell phone, and told them that his car had gone off the road. He said that he was not injured, but that his car was stuck and asked them to come and pick him up. He wasn't exactly sure where he was, but thought he was near the small town of Lynd.
His parents drove out to the area where he had told them he was, staying on the cell phone with him the entire time. When they got to the area where he should have been, they were unable to find him. They asked him to flash his lights, which he said he did, but they still could not see him. When they flashed their own lights, he said he could not see them either.
Brandon then told them that he thought he could see the lights of Lynd and was going to walk there across country. His father told him that they would drive to Lynd and meet him in the parking lot of a local bar. They began driving toward Lynd, still on the phone with Brandon.
Shortly after 2:30 AM, Brandon suddenly uttered an expletive and then went silent. He did not say anything for the rest of the call although the call was not disconnected. They finally ended the call and tried again but were not able to reach him. Brandon has not been seen or heard from since.
The next morning, Brandon's parents reported him missing to the Lynd police. The police did not act on the report initially, because Brandon was an adult. In spite of the fact that his parents had been on the phone with him when he went missing, the police said that he was probably just partying and would turn up in the morning. One of them even told his mother that he had "a right to be missing."
When they finally did begin a search, there was no sign of Brandon in or around the town of Lynd. The county sheriff's office was called to assist with the search. They obtained Brandon's cell phone records and found that he had actually called his parents from near Taunton, a town approximately 25 miles from Lynd.
His car was eventually found abandoned a few miles north of Taunton. There was nothing wrong with the car, but it was stuck just as Brandon said. It was determined that the call he made to his parents probably originated within 5 miles of a nearby cell tower, so searches were concentrated in that area. It was surmised that Brandon had seen lights on top of the Taunton grain elevator and assumed he was seeing the lights of Lynd. The reason why he was taking a roundabout way home involving back roads is unknown. Since he had probably been drinking, he might have been trying to avoid patrolling police officers on the main road.
Ground and aerial searches turned up nothing. Eventually a team of bloodhounds was brought in, and the nearby Yellow Medicine River was searched, but no trace of Brandon was ever found.
His parents do not believe that he intentionally disappeared. If he had intended to disappear, why call his parents at all? The police could not rule out foul play, although there was no evidence of it. He disappeared in a rural area where the possibility of an assailant lying in wait in the dark for an unsuspecting victim was remote.
Some people believe he might have passed out in a farm field and gotten run over by agricultural equipment, but this is unlikely for several reasons. Although Brandon had been at a party where liquor was served and had probably consumed some alcohol, his parents are adamant that he did not sound drunk on the phone. Although there have been cases of a person falling asleep in a corn field and getting run over by a combine harvester, there would not have been any mature corn or other tall crops growing in the area at the time Brandon disappeared. Also, a farmer would realize he had hit something as large as a human, so this theory would depend on the person who hit him concealing his body.
Another theory is that he might have been attacked by a wild animal. This is possible since bears and wolves do exist in the area, but some remains would have still been found.
Probably the most likely theory is that he fell into a sinkhole. Sinkholes are common in the area, and there might not be any signs on the surface if a person fell in.
This case illustrates many of the problems with missing person cases, especially when the person is an adult. It isn't always easy to tell if the person wanted to disappear, although that didn't really seem to be the case with Brandon, in spite of the police officer's initial reaction. The problems Brandon's parents encountered when trying to report their son missing led to the introduction of Brandon's Law which requires that the police begin investigations of missing adults immediately.
Here are some links to more information about Brandon Swanson's disappearance:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Brandon_Swanson#:~:text=On%20the%...
https://www.grunge.com/640372/the-biggest-brandon-swanson-theories-what-really-h...
https://www.trace-evidence.com/brandon-swanson
Something to try: Write a mystery story where someone disappears in an unusual way. |
| | The riddle (E)
Mystery concerning a will, a beneficiary and a riddle
#2177935 by Sumojo  |
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Mystery: June 29, 2022 Issue [#11436]
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