Like many here, this case kept me up at night and I've read through everything I reckon. The members who have kept posting on this have been amazing throughout the years and its a real shame some of them seem to have gone inactive. I have some thoughts I wanted to share, but first I attached a very, very rough and ready map of what I interpret as where the car was found (red star), Brandon's path while on his phone to his dad (yellow) where he left to cut across fields but then was tracked up the road until the dog became unable to indicate anymore, blue are the waterways (top is mud creek, the one bordering Brandon's path is the Yellow Medicine).
I have also indicated in the purple circle something that concerns me. This is the Wergeland cemetery. It's smack bang right in the middle of where the cadaver dogs keep hitting on scents. I'm not in any way knowledgeable about SAR dogs so I'm happy to be corrected. When the lead searcher tells us that the scents in mud creek are being washed into the water, suggesting Brandon's remains are somewhere in the fields around...what if the scents are merely being washed down from this cemetery? It's probably a stupid suggestion but it did come into my mind.
Regarding his dad saying he heard what sounded like a foot slipping before Brandon said oh ! I'm extremely doubtful he would be able to distinguish the sound of a foot slipping on a 2008 cellphone being used outside. I would guess that he only identified this as the particular sound after he thought Brandon had fallen in the water. I believe this was subconscious, just his mind making an explanation to fit a plausible scenario.
I do very much believe that he heard a noise on the line right before Brandon swore, but I'm unsure as to what that was? I've been trying to think what might sound like a foot slipping but even I can't really envisage what that sounds like; I think it would depend on the terrain? Now if he heard his foot slipping on a gravel road, that i could understand. But not on a river bank with soft mud and grass. Any ideas guys?
Now the phone itself. I don't believe it was dropped in water. Not only would it cease to function but usually it makes a terrible screaming sound when water enters the microphone before shutting off and that would have been noted! But I can certainly believe Brandon dropped the phone, probably while climbing over a fence. It was probably still on and transmitting his parents calling his name until they hung up. So why didn't he pick it up again? This is important; we have to appreciate how dark it was out there. I mean literally pitch black, no light sources, no moon and vegetation appears very black in the dark. Add to this the fact that Brandon is blind in 1 eye with terrible vision in the other and if he dropped that phone there ain't no way he can find it again. Especially if the phone was black and it fell face down.
It is my theory that he dropped his phone and his said oh as he dropped it, which his father heard.
My 2 problems with this theory: 1) why didn't he shout "dad I dropped the phone" and 2) why the hell hasn't the phone been found?
Glasses- I have read that his glasses were found in the car. However, on a most recent article posted a while back the sheriff listed his glasses along with his thick silver chain and mobile as items that were never found. So which is it?
Either way, I'm convinced they'd have been of much use to him in the darkness.
This does bring me onto the fact that not one thing has ever been found. Nothing, not one shred of clothing or ANYTHING. There have been more searches conducted for Brandon than any other person. Serious professionals, volunteers, farmers checking their land, SAR, dogs, horses, helicopters....it just seems insane to me that he hasn't been found! Not one hit my a metal detector. It seems so likely this was an accident....but it feels so much like his body was hidden!
ViCAP- As soon as read he was in ViCAP my hinky sense was tingling! That is very specific. It's not just the FBI missing person's cases, it is specifically the ViCAP missing person's. There are 35 pages of burecracy a detective must fill in to even begin the process and then there are very specific requirements; ie- it must be suspected that this is the result of a serial offender. Brandon's entry is also very specifically targeted at homicides, sex crimes, violent crime investigators. The whole point of ViCAP is for investigators to look at patterns suggestive of serial offenders. It seems significant that the only thing they noted was that his doors were left open. Suggesting....? I don't know!
I honestly just cannot but help to believe that LE do know more about this case. I think they know he is out there, hence the searches continuing, but perhaps they believe he was in fact a victim of crime. But it is so weird that he was on the phone apparently not inimminent danger. It does make me wonder if he stumbled onto another crime in progress.
I always find the theories of locals interesting as often they have the real story. There seems to be a consensus from the local rumour mill that Brandon had a drug debt which led to his death. Multiple causes and scenarios have been suggested but they all cite the reason as drugs.
I'm not going to speculate on how and why Brandon ended up where he did and didn't realise it, because I think the important fact is that he was there. But I will say it seems highly likely he drive the back roads to avoid police and my god...they look so confusing I have no surprise at all that he got lost! I mean these were essentially just farm tracks with no signage in a flat landscape with no features to get your bearings! And even if there were signs the roads have terrible naming conventions where the numbers make no sense lol
Finally I just wanted to point out a couple of things because I come from a farming background and area with similar agriculture to Minnesota (albeit in England haha)
Cultivator which the dogs hit on- you can only use a Cultivator when the crops are still small, or not grown at all. It is not for harvesting but for tilling the soil. There's absolutely no way that a farmer wouldn't see a dead body AND if he did miss it then he woukd deffo see the hideous mess that soukd result! (Even with a massive combine you'd see all the gore all over your machine and crop!). It is all but impossible that his body was destroyed in this way.
However, if his body was already skeletonised then its possible the bones, clothes etc would be tilled back into the soil and go unnoticed because they'd make no mess, It'd be just like some branches. If this is the case then this field will have been tilled many, many times over the years and by now Brandon's remains would be both scattered widely, disarticulated and buried. To me this would explain the scent found on a Cultivator. I notice the lead SAR had said his body could have skeletonised within a week so it's possible.
If it were me I would forget the dogs and go out with a metal detector and detect in every field. Find the glasses, necklace or phone and you've found him. I think the necklace should be easy to find and probably remained mostly in tact.
Finally a thought on cows. Some people have mentioned wild animals being responsible. I think its more likely cattle. We know there was cattle in the area. Growing up around cows I can remember 4 incidents of cows trampling people to death. If you spook a herd of cows (for instance if you blindly stumble into them in the dead of night) they can charge, gore you and trample you to death. You will die. Cows like to wallow and congregate in the soft mud around rivers and drainage ditches. There is a remote possibility that Brandon was trampled by a herd of cattle and his body was pushed down into soft mud. Over the years the cows and water could have deposit more earth over his body and literally buried him.
Again, my problem with this is that a cadaver dog would find this very easily and just indicate over the place. They haven't.
OK that's just a few observations I made. I have more but this is long enough for now. I hope and pray that this is the year he'll be found.
www.yahoo.com
www.vizaca.com
