Ohio brims with tales of young men who go missing, and Brian was just another case number:
MP#1709. He was an everyman, any man; average weight, average haircut, regular clothes.
Two identifiers distinguished him from the other FBI profiles: in his left iris, a small black speckle no bigger than a centimeter; on his right bicep, a tattoo of the stickman pictured on the CD-case for Pearl Jam’s debut single “Alive.” Brian, a devoted fan, planned to see them in Cincinnati. He never made it.
On May 6, 2010, four years after he went missing, the group performed “Come Back” at Columbus’ Nationwide Arena, two miles from the Ugly Tuna. Eddie Vedder
dedicated the track to Brian: “Wherever you are, we’re still thinking about you,” he said. The song’s lyrics — “There must be an open door for you to come back” — paralleled the “runaway” narrative: Brian was out there, somewhere, breathing, living.