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

[neesaki]

So many cold cases. How can so many people vanish without a trace, it just doesn't seem possible, yet look how many we have just here on this forum.

Anyway, I didn't see this posted here, it's from May 17th of this year. At least they're still searching, that's quite amazing actually. Really great people involved, IMO. I mean, who's searching for Brian Shaffer ? Anyone?
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[/FONT]http://www.marshallindependent.com/news/local-news/2017/05/searching-for-the-truth/[FONT=&amp]
Searching for the truth: Nine years later family still hopes to find Brandon Swanson
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“We’ve covered, in rough numbers, over 120 square miles of the watershed,” Anderson said. “There is still watershed to search to the northwest, approximately midway between Porter and Canby.”
The overwhelming belief is that Swanson, walking in the dark of night, slipped and fell into the Yellow Medicine River, which was quite swollen at the time. Canines indicated his presence at the edge of the river bank, but then seemingly followed his scent for a good distance farther on land, making searchers suspect that Swanson was able to get back out of the river and continue walking, possibly until he was overcome with hypothermia.

And a second article a day later on the 18th .

http://www.marshallindependent.com/news/local-news/2017/05/following-the-scent/
Following the scent, search managers in Swanson's case deal with complicated science

Hasse said the search for Swanson has been the most well-documented and detailed search ever conducted, in part because they’ve kept meticulous records, which includes tracking the canines and handlers through GPS technology.

Early searches for Swanson used a lot of manpower. But in the past few years, the searches have centered around a few select certified human remains detection dogs. More than 40 dogs have been used over the course of nine years.

 

[doris5]

Any updates?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[marshall]

No. On my way to the school today I saw Brandon's mom out walking. I was one of many people that did ground searches and I still think of their family often...I hope someday they/we find Brandon.

 

[thenotebook]

The Trail Went Cold podcast has done an episode on Brandon's case! I love this podcast, the host is great.
http://trailwentcold.com/

The only weird thing is the guy from Thinking Sideways comes on at the end and presents a serial killer theory that makes no sense. He insinuates that Brandon could have had a serial killer with a knife in the background the whole time he was on the phone with his parents. ??? Extremely unlikely that his father would never have heard this person mutter a word in 45 minutes or thought Brandon sounded off.

 

[thenotebook]

On the podcast Robin mentions one theory that Brandon's body could have been run over by a piece of farm equipment, and the farmer covered up the accident.
The pieces of farm machinery can be huge - is it possible that a farmer could have run his body over and not have even known it?

 

[Vail]

On the podcast Robin mentions one theory that Brandon's body could have been run over by a piece of farm equipment, and the farmer covered up the accident.
The pieces of farm machinery can be huge - is it possible that a farmer could have run his body over and not have even known it?

I'd think so, specially a really large vehicle with wide treads or something like a combine, but in either case the remains would be shallowly buried and still detectable by cadaver dogs. I really think the searchers know about where he is based on the dog hits they already have, they just don't have the means or permission to dig.

 

[John.121]

Why do so many people seem to think he got lost in 'the woods' and succumbed to the elements? I have looked at the area he went missing from and it's all flat land and fields. There really is no deep woods or forests in the area for him to get lost in, from what I can tell.

 

[ekardh]

On the podcast Robin mentions one theory that Brandon's body could have been run over by a piece of farm equipment, and the farmer covered up the accident.
The pieces of farm machinery can be huge - is it possible that a farmer could have run his body over and not have even known it?

And Brandon didn't see nor hear this 5 ton plow barrelling towards him?

People have vivid imaginations.

 

[megmac22]

And Brandon didn't see nor hear this 5 ton plow barrelling towards him?

People have vivid imaginations.

I believe Robin was theorizing that Brandon was run over after he was already deceased (presumably after succumbing to the elements), and that whoever ran him over panicked not wanting to be involved even though Brandon was deceased already.

 

[Vail]

The succumbing to the elements theory goes something like he was inebriated and unsure of where he actually was, was walking through the pitch dark, and fell into a creekbed (the oh ****) and either the fall was fatal, or the resulting hypothermia killed him. His remains could be extremely hard to detect without a combine running over him to be fair - how many dead animal skeletons do you ever see walking through a field compared to how many animals you know have lived and died there?

I think it is more plausible than any other theory for which there is less supporting evidence, definitely more than my own cheeky idea that someone's pet tiger ate him.

 

[thenotebook]

And Brandon didn't see nor hear this 5 ton plow barrelling towards him?

People have vivid imaginations.

Not while he was alive, silly! The theory is that Brandon's remains were run over by a combine or some other type of farm equipment and maybe the farmer didn't even realize he hit something. The machines are very large and very loud.

 

[McJenn]

The sheriff's lack of motivation in the beginning - has a lot to do with why this case wasn't solved immediately, imo. They should have done whatever it took to search farmer's fields with or without crops and waterways, etc...

 

[neesaki]

The sheriff's lack of motivation in the beginning - has a lot to do with why this case wasn't solved immediately, imo. They should have done whatever it took to search farmer's fields with or without crops and waterways, etc...

Welcome to the thread, McJenn! :welcome: I have often wondered about the searches, as I have read where the searchers had to get the landowners permission to search, and obviously it at times wasn't easy to do, they had to wait, etc. I wonder if some land owners refused to allow them to search? I can't even imagine that, but who knows.

If you don't mind me asking, are you in the area? I'm just asking because if you have any insight into the searches, the case, anything.... it would be greatly appreciated. At one time we had one of the searchers that posted here, but it's been a while ago. It's so sad to see Brandon's case go unsolved. I had a pm a while back from a poster that was quite interesting, but as it's not in MSM or from LE it's not allowed to be posted here.

 

[apriori]

For what it's worth, I think when Brandon turned down the private drive off of 270th st (if you believe the dog's nose) and eventually saw an abandoned barn, he realized his mistake - that he wasn't on a county road - and instead of admitting that to his father, he gave the typical male response, "I'm going to take a shortcut." It would have been a 1/4 mile walk back to the road, so he simply cut across the field to get to County Road 16. Not that that helps, but it would better explain why he cut across the field at that particular point.

Brandon made almost every conceivable bad decision he could have made. Undoing any one of those would probably have seen Brandon safe at home by the end of the night.

 

[Ozoner]

I've spent some time reading through this thread (not every last post) and just thought I'd bring some fresh eyes to the case.
I don't believe that anyone was with Brandon or following Brandon; there's no evidence for that.
Brandon's "O- s-" comment sounds more like an accident than an encounter with a person. It's also unlikely that anyone, even a property owner, would have been out and about.
The type of person who might be out and about would be a poacher; it occurred to me that someone, from a distance, might have mistaken Brandon for a deer and shot him with a bow and arrow. Poaching is very common and is usually done in the middle of the night. A poacher could have even had a deadfall or neck-level snare set up. (I don't think it's a likely scenario.)
People have mentioned that Brandon might have fallen into the river. I think that is the most likely scenario, but a river isn't the only thing he could have fallen into. Some folks may not realize how dark it can be at night in the country. I once rode a bicycle (VERY slowly) smack into a boat trailer that someone had parked sticking five or six feet into a country lane. I literally could not see it, even though I could see the road itself in the moonlight. The point is, Brandon could have collided with a solid object like a tractor or combine, or into a pit from an old ice house or the like and injured himself. If he died of a head wound on someone's property, I could see some landowner's concealing the death in order to avoid liability.
I don't know whether manure pits are used in that area, but many people have fallen into manure pits and died from the fumes.
People have doubted that he could have been killed by a wild animal, but what if he ran from one? Just hearing a large animal that I couldn't see might make me take off.

 

[Jim1981_GR]

My guess in this case is that Brandon fell somewhere abruptly and probably died there shortly after the fall or later in someone's property. The sudden and unexpected fall in a hole, pit, well or river etc during the dark of night is consistent with the known facts related to the case. His sudden exclaim on the phone, his visual impairment in one eye, the loss of signal or destruction of his cell phone, his feelings of anxiety and nervousness after the car crash and the difficulty to find his orientation with his father (whose voice on the phone might have been a sort of distraction for Brandon making him pay little attention to possible environmental hazards)...all the above are factors that can lead someone to a terrible mishap.

So what needs explanation is the exact circumstances of the tragic accident and why no body has been found yet. The reason for my insistence on these questions is the possibility of someone holding responsibility for his death to an extent and his disappearance after that. For instance, if Brandon fell in an area that should have been fenced and secured according to the law but it hadn't, then somebody has to be brought to court for negligence. If someone saw Brandon staggering towards his property to get help after being injured by his fall in a hole or in the river and shot him thinking he was a burglar or a dangerous drunk intruder (which is one of my theories), then this guy should be brought to justice as well (and of course whoever hid the body).

In my opinion his body was not accidentally hidden by the forces of nature. The difficulty to find it suggests that someone deliberately made it "disappear".

 

[Ozoner]

The sheriff's lack of motivation in the beginning - has a lot to do with why this case wasn't solved immediately, imo. They should have done whatever it took to search farmer's fields with or without crops and waterways, etc...

I think the sheriff may have had the (somewhat callous) attitude that Brian was wandering around drunk after wrecking his car, so whatever happened to him, he brought on himself and wasn't particularly deserving of the Sheriff's Department resources. Maybe the sheriff initially figured Brandon was somewhere sleeping off a hangover and hiding from his parents because he had wrecked his car.

 

[neesaki]

I've spent some time reading through this thread (not every last post) and just thought I'd bring some fresh eyes to the case.
I don't believe that anyone was with Brandon or following Brandon; there's no evidence for that.
Brandon's "O- s-" comment sounds more like an accident than an encounter with a person. It's also unlikely that anyone, even a property owner, would have been out and about.
The type of person who might be out and about would be a poacher; it occurred to me that someone, from a distance, might have mistaken Brandon for a deer and shot him with a bow and arrow. Poaching is very common and is usually done in the middle of the night. A poacher could have even had a deadfall or neck-level snare set up. (I don't think it's a likely scenario.)
People have mentioned that Brandon might have fallen into the river. I think that is the most likely scenario, but a river isn't the only thing he could have fallen into. Some folks may not realize how dark it can be at night in the country. I once rode a bicycle (VERY slowly) smack into a boat trailer that someone had parked sticking five or six feet into a country lane. I literally could not see it, even though I could see the road itself in the moonlight. The point is, Brandon could have collided with a solid object like a tractor or combine, or into a pit from an old ice house or the like and injured himself. If he died of a head wound on someone's property, I could see some landowner's concealing the death in order to avoid liability.
I don't know whether manure pits are used in that area, but many people have fallen into manure pits and died from the fumes.
People have doubted that he could have been killed by a wild animal, but what if he ran from one? Just hearing a large animal that I couldn't see might make me take off.

He very likely did slip into the river as the dogs tracked his scent to that point , but they then jumped out and continued following his scent quite a ways almost to the road. I don’t recall the exact specifics but the links are here somewhere. I agree that the wild animal theory is a possibility.

 

[neesaki]

Reposting the link to Jeff Hasse’s Missing Person Case Study, an excellent in depth discussion of Brandon’s case and the search efforts .
https://en.m.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:Jeff_Hasse/Missing_Person_Case_Study_--_Brandon_Swanson

5 HRD dogs gave full trained final responses to a field cultivator.
https://en.m.wikiversity.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/525778

Also some questions here answered by Jeff, re: the river, cell phone, etc.
https://en.m.wikiversity.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/525213

 

[folieadeuxnola]

Swanson case still unsolved

http://www.marshallindependent.com/news/local-news/2018/05/swanson-case-still-unsolved/

Ten years have gone by and Brandon Swanson is still missing.

In reality, one solid lead could solve the mystery.

“It’s been 10 years and we’re continuing to follow up on leads that come in,” said Derek Woodford, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension special agent. “The case is open and just last week, I got another lead or two. Sometimes you need a break in the case. All it takes sometimes is one thing, so we’re not going to give up.”