MN MN - Brandon Swanson, 19, Marshall, 14 May 2008

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wadahoot said:
Wow, Jeff! I feel like I just took Search Techniques 101 and passed with flying colors! Thanks so very much for your time and information.

To any Mods out there ... these post are so valuable and pertain to pretty much everything we look at at WS. is there somewhere, somehow that the posts can be combined and made into a sticky or put in a 'reference manual'??
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I agree. There are so many cases in which posters carry on about how families, etc. should be out "searching," when months have passed and the families have no training in how to search for a body. Last night on the ID show Disappeared a woman's body was found buried when an area was searched by a person who recognized that the ground felt different under his feet from one step to another. Then he noticed signs that the ground had been disturbed. A less observant individual would have walked right on, looking for a body above ground. I think a "manual" for posters to refer to would be great. Jeff, you've done us all a great service by educating us about the complexity of searches and the expertise of those who do it well.
 
do I take it with the winter, not much is going on with new searches?
 
You are correct. While we can and do work with dogs in the winter for live subjects and intact remains, it is quite difficult to find disarticulated and scattered remains with frozen ground and a lot of snow. They have had an unusual amount of snow in the area this winter. We will be back when most of the snow has melted away. If weather cooperates, this may be as early as the middle of March.

Jeff
 
MTRTA Search Manager said:
You are correct. While we can and do work with dogs in the winter for live subjects and intact remains, it is quite difficult to find disarticulated and scattered remains with frozen ground and a lot of snow. They have had an unusual amount of snow in the area this winter. We will be back when most of the snow has melted away. If weather cooperates, this may be as early as the middle of March.

Jeff
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Jeff, our snow in Wisconsin is almost gone, is yours also? Are you planning new searches?
 
God Bless You in your search. May you all stay safe and find the resolution you are seeking. Please keep us updated!
 
BRANDON+CANBY+MAY+2008-1.jpg
BRANDON+MAY+2008.JPG
Brandon+07.jpg


We are confident that we will eventually find Brandon’s remains. We cannot predict when this will be, as searches seem to evolve on their own time schedule. However, with each search we narrow the search area some. Eventually we will be able to bring Brandon home.
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We will be back as soon as the majority of snow is out of the fields, hopefully in March of 2010.
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http://thesearchforbrandon.blogspot.com/
 
Jeff- will you be recruiting the publics help in the search? I helped in the search for about 4 months shortly after Brandon dissapeared and would be more than happy to help out again.
 
RubyRed said:
http://thesearchforbrandon.blogspot.com/
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I hadn't heard of this case before .... and I'm SURE you've all seen the similarities between Brandon's case and that of Michael Wamsley and Janelle Hornickel case a few years ago, in Nebraska.

Just in case you don't remember Wamsley-Hornickel:
Wamsley-Hornickel (especially the 911 Calls and people who don't speak English)
Brandon Swanson

After reading about what Brandon told his parents in the cellphone calls, it's SO MUCH like what Michael and Janelle were telling the 911 dispatchers. (I'd really like to know the full content of what Brandon was telling his parents ... especially the part about him walking to that music club.)
 
laytonian said:
I hadn't heard of this case before .... and I'm SURE you've all seen the similarities between Brandon's case and that of Michael Wamsley and Janelle Hornickel case a few years ago, in Nebraska.

Just in case you don't remember Wamsley-Hornickel:
Wamsley-Hornickel (especially the 911 Calls and people who don't speak English)
Brandon Swanson

After reading about what Brandon told his parents in the cellphone calls, it's SO MUCH like what Michael and Janelle were telling the 911 dispatchers. (I'd really like to know the full content of what Brandon was telling his parents ... especially the part about him walking to that music club.)
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I had not heard of their case before. Heartbreaking.
 
RubyRed said:
I had not heard of their case before. Heartbreaking.
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It is. Imagine them surrounded by the cows, trying to talk to them -- and thinking they were speaking a foreign language, taking cars apart, wearing costumes.

...and it sounds so similar to what Brandon was telling his parents. Something had him "off" and a first-time (or early) meth user would exhibit those same symptoms.

He may be further away than people think. If he was turned around and 25 miles away, which way would he go to get to the club?
 
webrocket said:
laytonian said:
Something had him "off" and a first-time (or early) meth user would exhibit those same symptoms.
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I don't recall any reference to meth in the stories. Been a while since I read them though.
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There wouldn't be, because unless the remains were found soon after he disappeared, there's no chance of toxicology. If not meth, something else.

Something caused him to be so lost, yet not realize it. He was convinced he was elsewhere, but was 25 miles away. If you read the full account of the Nebraska couple, you can see similarities in the responses.
 
I've also read what's been released re: Brandon's conversation, and it doesn't seem to point to him having hallucinations or being incapacitated. As has been mentioned upthread, that particular part of the country doesn't have a lot of identifying landmarks especially off the major roads AND at night, so it would be fairly easy for Brandon to have been convinced he was in one place (near Lynd), and then getting quickly frustrated as teens can do after he couldn't be spotted even after turning his lights on and off as a signal. It sounds like that at that point he decided "**** it, if they can't see me I'll just go to them," then finally deciding to cut across country off the road he was on.

So, I'm not sure the meth speculation passes Occam's razor without more proof (ditto the "mysterious-stranger-appeared-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-and-nabbed-him" speculations), and in any case I'm not sure it helps to guess at that in terms of narrowing down where he may have ended up.
 
tagryn said:
I've also read what's been released re: Brandon's conversation, and it doesn't seem to point to him having hallucinations or being incapacitated. As has been mentioned upthread, that particular part of the country doesn't have a lot of identifying landmarks especially off the major roads AND at night, so it would be fairly easy for Brandon to have been convinced he was in one place (near Lynd), and then getting quickly frustrated as teens can do after he couldn't be spotted even after turning his lights on and off as a signal. It sounds like that at that point he decided "**** it, if they can't see me I'll just go to them," then finally deciding to cut across country off the road he was on.

So, I'm not sure the meth speculation passes Occam's razor without more proof (ditto the "mysterious-stranger-appeared-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-and-nabbed-him" speculations), and in any case I'm not sure it helps to guess at that in terms of narrowing down where he may have ended up.
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I do believe he was incapacitated in some way. He was lost. The thing is, I just can't believe he made it too far. I'm just stunned he hasn't been found by now.
 
http://www.ksfy.com/news/local/91902524.html

By KSFY Staff
Story Created: Apr 23, 2010 at 8:04 AM CDT
Story Updated: Apr 23, 2010 at 9:33 AM CDT

Searching resumes today for missing Taunton teen Brandon Swanson who has been missing for almost two years.

Multimedia Watch The Video
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension will bring in dogs to search the Yellow Medicine river starting at Porter and running all the way to Granite Falls.
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Fairy1 said:
I do believe he was incapacitated in some way. He was lost. The thing is, I just can't believe he made it too far. I'm just stunned he hasn't been found by now.
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incapacitated might be too strong a word. It was late at night and dark. That alone could cause tremendous frustration and with the cold he may have become disoriented quickly without any intoxicating substances.
 
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