OH OH - Brian Shaffer, 27, Columbus, 1 April 2006 - #2

[Brainy]

I believe this as well. When I used to frequent bars, it was common for patrons to use employee or kitchen exits when smoking or talking with friends who smoke. Over time, I learned that using these off the beaten path exits provided easier/quicker access to exiting the bar. If true, i am curious where Brian may have been heading...


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Yeah, and it is so, so frustrating, just another dead end. Even if Brian left the bar that night, there is no way of knowing where he went (God! He could have gone literally anywhere!), but if he left with someone, the odds of finding out what happened increase exponentially.


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[dotr]

This case baffles everyone!
http://www.10tv.com/article/search-brian-shaffer-enters-10th-year

What happened to 27-year-old OSU med student Brian Shaffer? We spoke with the detective who's been working this case from day one.

Shaffer represents the largest case file in the Columbus police detective bureau.
The only piece of video of Shaffer the night he disappeared 10 years ago: On an escalator at the Gateway theater complex off campus on his way to a bar.
“We interviewed 100's of people, thousands of hours of video,” Police Sgt. John Hurst said.
Sgt. Hurst said since Shaffer’s disappearance, just about every conceivable search has been made for him: on water ways, in wooded areas, bike paths along the Olentangy River; any type of tip or lead that came in got followed up on.
“We got a lot of answers and were able to rule out several things, but it still didn't help us solve the case,” he said.

​

Volunteer search operations from other states got involved. In the summer of 2007, Equusearch from Texas - added mounted patrols and sophisticated sonar equipment to the central Ohio effort.

 

[neesaki]

This case baffles everyone!
http://www.10tv.com/article/search-brian-shaffer-enters-10th-year

I know it has kept me awake nights, more than once !

 

[HelpingHeart]

I just feel that he left in a normal way from the bar. Even if he wanted to disappear, why would he think to do it from the bar? He knows there are cameras. I think he was just missed somehow on camera. I bet there are angles somehow that don't show him or something.


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[neesaki]

Does anyone have connections with a good investigative journalist who would be interested in doing some digging , and reporting ?

 

[Brainy]

Does anyone have connections with a good investigative journalist who would be interested in doing some digging , and reporting ?

I wish I did. That would be awesome!

 

[neesaki]

I know that a lot of the old original links concerning Brian's case are no longer working. I did find a couple on the wayback machine so thought I'd post them. The second one linked talks about the video of the man seen on video they thought could be Brian.

Something else interesting in the first article linked , over in the right top corner of the page underneath the caption, in the little box, it says : "Police: Students Suspected in Organized Crime Ring".
I really would like to read it but unfortunately couldn't find that page archived. Oh well, it was probably nothing. :sigh:

https://web.archive.org/web/20060409083056/http://www.nbc4i.com:80/news/8445413/detail.html

Reward Offered In Disappearance Of Ohio State Student

Shaffer Last Seen At Campus-Area Bar

POSTED: 6:22 pm EDT April 3, 2006
UPDATED: 4:03 pm EDT April 4, 2006

​Shaffer lives near the bar, and his car was still parked at his apartment.

https://web.archive.org/web/20060409081737/http://www.nbc4i.com/news/8474636/detail.html

Psychics Search Apartment Of Missing OSU Student

Surveillance Video Clue Leads To Dead End

UPDATED: 9:48 am EDT April 5, 2006
Columbus police thought they might have had a break in the case with a surveillance video taken early Saturday morning outside of the Ugly Tuna Saloona, where Brian Shaffer was last seen. They thought a man seen on the video getting onto an escalator outside of the bar, followed by two men in black shirts, was Brian Shaffer.Late Tuesday, however, police determined that the man was not Brian Shaffer after blowing up the video and showing it to family and friends.

 

[Brainy]

Another article from 2006 w/ a 7 minute dateline video:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/12689476/ns/dateline_nbc/t/thin-air/#.WTh0eWgrLIU

also, look at the video. There are a few seconds showing Clint. Strange, very strange... I had never seen a video of him or heard of talk before.

 

[Satch]

Another article from 2006 w/ a 7 minute dateline video:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/12689476/ns/dateline_nbc/t/thin-air/#.WTh0eWgrLIU

also, look at the video. There are a few seconds showing Clint. Strange, very strange... I had never seen a video of him or heard of talk before.

WOW!

This is the first time I had seen the moving video of Brian. Very powerful. What a difference in emotion and care between Randy and Alexis who you can hear her voice in tears. And Clint's like "Yea, whatever. Brian was doing his usual thing." How cold and unfeeling of him! I am now convinced that when Clint went back to the apartment that first night for six hours. (IF you believe him,) It sure wasn't to grieve,

Normally, I would not place judgement on a video snippet like this. But now more than ever, the total evidence, circumstantial though it may be, I have bad vibes about Clint. A picture is worth a thousand words. Add another thousand to a moving video, the actual voices, and communications of the people. This is a sad, but wonderful video of the case.

Satch

 

[Brainy]

WOW!

This is the first time I had seen the moving video of Brian. Very powerful. What a difference in emotion and care between Randy and Alexis who you can hear her voice in tears. And Clint's like "Yea, whatever. Brian was doing his usual thing." How cold and unfeeling of him! I am now convinced that when Clint went back to the apartment that first night for six hours. (IF you believe him,) It sure wasn't to grieve,

Normally, I would not place judgement on a video snippet like this. But now more than ever, the total evidence, circumstantial though it may be, I have bad vibes about Clint. A picture is worth a thousand words. Add another thousand to a moving video, the actual voices, and communications of the people. This is a sad, but wonderful video of the case.

Satch

You really are right about Clint. He just sounds calm and very matter of fact. Almost like he knows what to deliver when he says, "He was doing his usual thing", "he was nowhere to be seen".

 

[MatthewTyler]

The only thing I can't really figure is just exactly HOW Clint fits into all this. I agree that something is suspicious about him, like he knows something for sure, but I can't figure what. I don't believe he killed Brian himself simply because of the venue. I do however think that he knows who did, or at least has an idea. Going to his apartment afterwards leads me to believe he was wiping evidence of some sort.

 

[Brainy]

The only thing I can't really figure is just exactly HOW Clint fits into all this. I agree that something is suspicious about him, like he knows something for sure, but I can't figure what. I don't believe he killed Brian himself simply because of the venue. I do however think that he knows who did, or at least has an idea. Going to his apartment afterwards leads me to believe he was wiping evidence of some sort.

Could he have hired someone/ have an accomplice?

We don't know how Clint felt about Brian or had anything against him. We don't really know the true nature and the extent of their relationship and what could potentially be a motive.

 

[Brainy]

What if…

Brian left the bar (undetected). Clint knew he was going home or might have told him to go home (he was seen shortly, talking to Brian). After Clint and Meredith leave the bar, Clint goes to Brian’s apartment, confronts him somehow, there is a struggle, Brian is dead. He takes Brian to a different location and gets rid of the body. Then, in the morning, he returns to the apartment, stays there for a few hours (to clean up and make things look as normal as it can be). To the question why he was in the apartment, he could have simply answered that he waited there for Brian.

Note:

-we don’t know how Clint got keys to Brian’s apartment
-we don’t know if Clint had an alibi

 

[Brainy]

Perhaps he held resentment for him for whatever reason.

Brian could have approached/ talked to a girl that Clint liked, or he could have said something to Clint when he was drunk which could piss him off becoming a possible motive. I don’t know, just a speculation and something to think about.

 

[Satch]

Guys,

I think a big clue could be those girls with whom Brian was talking on the video. They were "acquaintances" of Clint. Note that I could not make out these woman in the above video, but that is what other reports say. Could drunken Brian and drunken Clint have gotten into a physical altercation where Clint was pissed over something that Brian said to the girls and this escalated into rage?

Do we really know that Brian, Clint, and Meredith were watching the band perform? Or is that story a complete fabrication? I mean, the band played. They were at the Ugly Tuna. But maybe Brian and Clint were not exactly focused on the music? We don't know the positions and movements of the trio, other than what has been said. Where were Clint and Meredith when Brian was talking to Clint's "acquaintances?" This was the video feedback from the camera. If we can find out evidence that explains this time gap, we might get a huge clue about what happened to Brian.

Clint says "Brian left to talk to the band." Well, based on what we know about Clint's credibility, I don't believe him. I think Brian went outside the bar to talk to those girls. Somehow he got out of the bar undetected. Something about his drunkenness and Clint's suspicious behavior likely lead to Brian's death. However, if Brian was drunk and hit by a car and the driver hid the body in a panic, how does Clint fit into this? Unless some accomplice of Clint's saw an alleged argument between Brian and Clint, and the accomplice hit Brian with his car and hid the body, or assaulted Brian on the way home and hid the body, and Clint knows what happend. That does seem a little too far-fetched.

However, I do believe Brian was involved in a fight or some altercation that night in the bar or leaving the bar, and his drunken state escalated into a violent situation. I don't think that Brian, Clint, and Meredith just watched a band perform for one to two hours. Something bad led up to Brian's disappearance, and in my view, presumed death.

Satch

 

[Brainy]

Yes,
I think the big part of it all is credibility… credibility… credibility… Clint doesn’t have any credibility at this point, therefore, I cannot believe his account of what happened that night. It’s not just what he says, like I have mentioned numerous times in this thread, Clint’s behavior has only substantiated concerns of his involvement.

I truly don’t understand why the LE didn’t push for answers, especially that he distanced himself abruptly and refused to answer any questions altogether. No matter what they had on him about his involvement, he was of the last people to see Brian. I wonder if Brian’s car and apartment were investigated and if Clint was ever questioned about being in Brian’s apartment. Was Clint’s vehicle ever investigated? Did they ever consider him a suspect at any point? Why did LE seem to believe Clint’s side of the story especially that they did not have anyone else to verify it?

 

[Brainy]

However, if Brian was drunk and hit by a car and the driver hid the body in a panic, how does Clint fit into this? Unless some accomplice of Clint's saw an alleged argument between Brian and Clint, and the accomplice hit Brian with his car and hid the body, or assaulted Brian on the way home and hid the body, and Clint knows what happened.

Satch

Maybe. If there was an accomplice, Clint could have told the driver about Brian exiting the bar. In this scenario, it's more likely that the accomplice offered to give Brian a ride and then drove him somewhere else to kill.

 

[Satch]

Sorry if this has been posted before,

It's a local Ohio forum about Brian that appears to have been archived several years back. Many pages:

http://community.pearljam.com/discussion/6392/columbus-area-pearl-jam-fan-gone-missing

Satch

 

[neesaki]

This is what the poster that had worked at Ugly Tuna Saloona , bighairdontcare, sent me in a pm earlier. Concerning the entrances / exits of the bar. She stated employees only entered through the main entrance and took the elevator to the bar. The same for deliveries, as far as she knows. She remembers no other exits. Just wanted to share this.

We really appreciate your input, bighairdontcare. Thank you, from all of us here. Anything we can get means a lot.

 

[Brainy]

This is what the poster that had worked at Ugly Tuna Saloona , bighairdontcare, sent me in a pm earlier. Concerning the entrances / exits of the bar. She stated employees only entered through the main entrance and took the elevator to the bar. The same for deliveries, as far as she knows. She remembers no other exits. Just wanted to share this.

We really appreciate your input, bighairdontcare. Thank you, from all of us here. Anything we can get means a lot.

yes, there was actually another woman that posted the exact same info under a youtube video about Brian's disappearance. Wasn't sure if she was credible, but after seeing this message it's just a confirmation.