OH OH - Brian Shaffer, 27, Columbus, 1 April 2006 - #3

[neesaki]

should we be looking in 55 gallon drums??

LOL, seriously though, I keep reading about people being buried in 55 gallon drums. Who was this, or who did this ? I actually don't know. I think I might be a little naive.

 

[neesaki]

LOL, seriously though, I keep reading about people being buried in 55 gallon drums. Who was this, or who did this ? I actually don't know. I think I might be a little naive.

I did recall something about this, but can’t remember what case , there was a specific case here on WS I thought. So just googled it and I see that this manner of concealing a body seems historically to be a not so uncommon practice .

 

[Deleted member 155000]

I think the drums might have come up in the case of that Cosmo guy in PA? He shot and killed multiple others and buried them in the yard. Ran 1 of them over with a backhoe or something?

I did recall something about this, but can’t remember what case , there was a specific case here on WS I thought. So just googled it and I see that this manner of concealing a body seems historically to be a not so uncommon practice .

nk it

 

[CARIIS]

I think the drums might have come up in the case of that Cosmo guy in PA? He shot and killed multiple others and buried them in the yard. Ran 1 of them over with a backhoe or something?


nk it

decades the mob loved putting people they murdered in 55 gal drums!

The expression " dont wanna end up in a 55 drum"

 

[dotr]

LOL, seriously though, I keep reading about people being buried in 55 gallon drums. Who was this, or who did this ? I actually don't know. I think I might be a little naive.

Many seem to be found in steel drums, fairly recent thread concerning missing chef found in a drum.
Found Deceased - MI - Douglas Calhoun, 39, Detroit, 1 June 2017 *Arrest*

Plus google has a gaggle of them listed! A few..
https://www.google.com/search?q=buried+in+55+gallon+drums&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b
Mobster claims Jimmy Hoffa was buried in a New Jersey toxic waste ...
www.dailymail.co.uk/.../Mobster-claims-Jimmy-Hoffa-shot-dead-stuffed-55-gallon-dr...
Jul 30, 2015 - Mobster claims Jimmy Hoffa was shot dead, stuffed in a 55-gallon drum and buried in a New Jersey toxic waste dump. Teamsters boss last ...
Body found in buried concrete-sealed barrel; northeast Alabama man ...
Body found in buried concrete-sealed barrel; northeast Alabama man charged with murder
Jul 2, 2018 - A northeast Alabama man has been charged with murder after a body was found this past weekend in 55-gallon drum that was sealed with ...
Body of woman found stuffed inside 55-gallon drum buried in Texas ...
https://klewtv.com/.../body-of-woman-found-stuffed-inside-55-gallon-drum-buried-in...
May 25, 2017 - Police say the body of a woman was found inside a 55-gallon drum and buried in the yard of a house on West Craig Place

 

[dotr]

decades the mob loved putting people they murdered in 55 gal drums!

The expression " dont wanna end up in a 55 drum"

This one in Toronto was intriguing because of the reason he was put in a drum.
Police identify body in the barrel | The Star
rbbm.
"Lu, 47 — his nicknames included “The Black Ghost” and “The Bad Luck Guy” — was found encased in concrete in a barrel by police divers on Sunday in the waters of Lake Ontario off Queens Quay E. near the foot of Jarvis St."
Superstitious mobsters, of whom there are many, sometimes like their victims’ bodies to be sealed in concrete and barrels because they believe their spirits can’t get out and avenge them.

After the body is placed in a barrel, concrete powder is inserted. The powder mixes with water and hardens as the body is dropped into water, sealing the body in the barrel and anchoring it under the waves.

Det. Hank Idsinga of York Regional Police said he didn’t know how Lu came by the nickname of “The Black Ghost.”

 

[Looking4Brian]

Hey guys I have some exciting news. Comeback was just contacted by a production company that is doing a show for the Travel Channel and will feature Brian. We have agreed to do the show and will be speaking to them Friday for more information. They will be flying us to Canada in a few weeks for filming. Very excited for this opportunity and to keep Brian’s name out there.

 

[Looking4Brian]

I distinctly remember a post , wasn’t it from Looking4Brian?.... that stated the construction area was actually not that bad, that in fact the staff was entering and exiting through that area. I have looked back a bit and can’t find it. Am I crazy? Does anyone else remember this?
TIA

Hello Neesaki! Yes I did state this. Even though Sergeant Hurst did say all dug up in our interview we were led to believe the area was not that bad. We have been told by LE, employees of the bar, employees of other business’ at Gateway, and the band that they were all still using the area daily. It was specifically told to us that the area was restricted to patrons, but not Gateway employees.

 

[dotr]

Hey guys I have some exciting news. Comeback was just contacted by a production company that is doing a show for the Travel Channel and will feature Brian. We have agreed to do the show and will be speaking to them Friday for more information. They will be flying us to Canada in a few weeks for filming. Very excited for this opportunity and to keep Brian’s name out there.

Very exciting!
May i ask where in Canada you will be heading to for filming?

 

[neesaki]

Hey guys I have some exciting news. Comeback was just contacted by a production company that is doing a show for the Travel Channel and will feature Brian. We have agreed to do the show and will be speaking to them Friday for more information. They will be flying us to Canada in a few weeks for filming. Very excited for this opportunity and to keep Brian’s name out there.

This sounds awesome, should be interesting.

 

[windrower]

And especially if the band and the staff were entering and exiting through that area. Yeah, it always sounded a bit off to me as well, actually a bit over dramatized and more fantasy like. Like, yeah, we have huge piles of dirt, and huge holes down with these metal spikes coming out of the earth, it's an absolute disaster area! So basically a trap for employees to injure themselves or commit suicide, yeah, right. Makes no sense to me.

in addition people are looking up when they are returning sand into a hole or cementing ! Its not a mountain range where crevices can be 212 feet down!

The notion that it might have been covered up (pardon pun!) to avoid liability exactly how do you get a construction crew to become an accessory to murder -- ask them to ignore seeing a dead person in the area.

rsbm. Um, wow. Would you like a little glitter to go with your embellishments?

Yeah, the whole getting the construction crew to go along with covering up a dead body, concealing a murder, is not feasible under normal circumstances. Are we dealing with the Mafia here?! I don't think so!

Yeppers, overly dramatized and fantastical.

should we be looking in 55 gallon drums??

Yes, please do. Let us know what you find. Because the 55 gallon drums are probably next to the metal spikes coming up out of the earth from a 212 foot crevice!! Lions and tigers and bears--oh my!!! (Talk about drama and fantasy--quite the rewrite of what's actually been posted. I'm disappointed, neesaki, you are not usually snarky to other members.)

Hello Neesaki! Yes I did state this. Even though Sergeant Hurst did say all dug up in our interview we were led to believe the area was not that bad. We have been told by LE, employees of the bar, employees of other business’ at Gateway, and the band that they were all still using the area daily. It was specifically told to us that the area was restricted to patrons, but not Gateway employees.

And . . . people don't die in areas that other people use daily? All righty then.

Brian never making it out of the building is just a theory, folks, just a theory. No need to go into attack mode.

 

[neesaki]

rsbm. Um, wow. Would you like a little glitter to go with your embellishments?



Yeppers, overly dramatized and fantastical.



Yes, please do. Let us know what you find. Because the 55 gallon drums are probably next to the metal spikes coming up out of the earth from a 212 foot crevice!! Lions and tigers and bears--oh my!!! (Talk about drama and fantasy--quite the rewrite of what's actually been posted. I'm disappointed, neesaki, you are not usually snarky to other members.)



And . . . people don't die in areas that other people use daily? All righty then.

Brian never making it out of the building is just a theory, folks, just a theory. No need to go into attack mode.

My sincere apologies as my intent was not to be snarky. I was just trying to make a point in defense of those who have come under fire and criticized when they don’t place that particular theory at the top of the list.
BTW, I don’t think anything is impossible at this point, especially the possibility of something happening there then him being removed from the area.

I still wonder what evidence LE does have, isn’t there almost always something they don’t / won’t release in an open investigation? Perhaps not in this case but I do wonder.

 

[brianskemper]

Remember, the night that all of this happened was during the weekend of daylight savings time and that most electronic equipment like computers, phones, surveillance cameras (?) should have all changed from 11:59 pm. to 1:00 am. in a minute. I don't know how the video surveillance camera's video footage shows this other than the digital time shown on it would jump ahead as well (I assume).

When the police were coming up with their timeline for the events of that evening, nothing seemed to be mentioned that an hour was lost and that bars, for the most part, follow the "new" time and would have closed at what would have actually been 1:00 am. I don't have any idea if this is important or not but the video equipment may have left something out or resets itself or something?
Just wanted to try and help.

 

[itsrak]

Remember, the night that all of this happened was during the weekend of daylight savings time and that most electronic equipment like computers, phones, surveillance cameras (?) should have all changed from 11:59 pm. to 1:00 am. in a minute. I don't know how the video surveillance camera's video footage shows this other than the digital time shown on it would jump ahead as well (I assume).

When the police were coming up with their timeline for the events of that evening, nothing seemed to be mentioned that an hour was lost and that bars, for the most part, follow the "new" time and would have closed at what would have actually been 1:00 am. I don't have any idea if this is important or not but the video equipment may have left something out or resets itself or something?
Just wanted to try and help.

Brian was out bar hopping on Friday night, went missing early the morn of Sat., April 1, 2006. Daylight savings time change doesn't occur on a Saturday morn, does it?

 

[brianskemper]

you are absolutely right. My oversight.

 

[neesaki]

you are absolutely right. My oversight.

Thank you for being here, Brianskemper, What’s most important is that you cared enough to come to Brian’s thread and that you’re thinking about his case and offering input.
So are you from that area? Just curious, And Welcome to Websleuths!

 

[Deleted member 155000]

Just a few suggestions for anyone who does want to brush up.

Some time when you have the chance you could go to the Columbus Public Library and check the microfiche archives of the Columbus Dispatch and other Columbus-based publications to read the original coverage. You can also find some of it online through Google searching and then looking for cached versions of old webpages that have been taken down or articles copied and pasted into discussion forums.

I looked up a few of the details to help you search out the original articles. The names of the officers originally assigned to the case, for instance, were Andre Edwards, John Hurst, and Antone Lanata. The private investigator who worked with the family was Don Corbett.

The police conducted cadaver searches of the Ugly Tuna building on several occasions. They checked the construction area which was dug up and the cadaver dogs did not hit on it. Outside the building, the dogs hit on a scent that led toward Wendy's, but despite checking cameras along the trail the dogs tracked, they were not able to find video evidence to confirm Brian leaving that direction. Officers checked footage from multiple cameras inside or on the building, however, and were able to view the band leaving (without any sight of Brian). And although no staff reported seeing anyone use the back fire exit, the camera on that exit--near the trash area, had been on an override setting so if anyone exited there, it would not have been recorded.

Officers took several months selecting people who appeared on the video footage from the building, and tracking their movements to verify each person exited. The only person they could not confirm how he exited was Brian, but they acknowledged a panning camera could have created a blind spot. They interviewed over 100 people and had over 50 officers involved in searching the area. At one point, a homeless man claimed he saw Brian and months later, Brian's phone rang and the phone pinged in Hilliard, but it was thought that this could just be a glitch caused by the network being busy (rather than his phone being active again).

The officers interviewed Clint (real name William) Florence, Meredith Reed, Brightan Zatko and Amber Ruic who were at the bar that evening. Meredith took a polygraph, Clint refused one, and Brightan and Amber were not asked to take one as the investigation eliminated the possibility of their further involvement. The phone activity of those involved seemed to confirm their stories. I believe they even checked Meredith's credit card bills from that evening.

Police also interviewed Randy Shaffer (father) and polygraphed him. They interviewed Derek Shaffer (brother) and verified Derek's presence with a group of people at another venue in the city late that night. And they interviewed Alexis Waggoner (girlfriend at the time) who was easily confirmed to be a couple hours away with family for the weekend.

Hope this helps!

Hey all—thanks for keeping Brian’s case alive.

I wanted to encourage everyone to keep sharing theories. I know some of you think Brian is entombed in the building, and I acknowledge it is possible...although based on what I read after the disappearance many years ago, it strikes me as highly unlikely.

Anyways, I shared this above post bc I realize the more time that passes, the more firsthand info will be lost. Articles are taken down and so on.

For example, a few years from now, after the Ugly Tuna building is taken down as planned, we may come on here and someone may theorize that Brian never went to Ugly Tuna in the first place and that Clint and Meredith were lying. That would be a reasonable thing for a newcomer who hadn’t read all the previous articles to wonder about, even though those who have long followed the case would know Brian was seen around closing time on camera inside the Ugly Tuna.

My post (quoted above) then wasn’t to criticize people who theorize he is buried in the Tuna then. It was just intended to say, as someone who has followed the case in the news since it happened, that early interviews and news coverage researched and nearly eliminated this possibility in my mind.

Again, anything is possible, but certain findings that have been put out there along the way aren’t always readily available 12 years later.

If we take the time to read the case info from over the years, I think we can fairly conclude this was thorough detective work and it may make sense to trust the conclusions of Randy and LE who did exhaustive work at the time, and put our time and energy into other theories they were unable to rule out.

I get some of you may still insist that LE is sometimes sloppy or lazy or late to the game, and that maybe you also think Brian’s Dad and girlfriend and Texas search teams and dogs were somehow mistaken, and you still think he could be accidentally buried. And I can’t guarantee you’re not right. I’m just trying to preserve the findings of previous investigations that are getting lost along the way.

And, FYI, I would love it if—when they tear the Tuna down—if they dug up the place to close the book on this once and for all. And if they find Brian’s remains there, I’ll be the first to say you were right and I was wrong.

 

[thesaint]

if someone were placed into a refrigerated environment within a few minutes of passing, would cadaver dogs still be able to hit on a cadaver scent.

 

[itsrak]

Hey all—thanks for keeping Brian’s case alive.

I wanted to encourage everyone to keep sharing theories. I know some of you think Brian is entombed in the building, and I acknowledge it is possible...although based on what I read after the disappearance many years ago, it strikes me as highly unlikely.

Anyways, I shared this above post bc I realize the more time that passes, the more firsthand info will be lost. Articles are taken down and so on.

For example, a few years from now, after the Ugly Tuna building is taken down as planned, we may come on here and someone may theorize that Brian never went to Ugly Tuna in the first place and that Clint and Meredith were lying. That would be a reasonable thing for a newcomer who hadn’t read all the previous articles to wonder about, even though those who have long followed the case would know Brian was seen around closing time on camera inside the Ugly Tuna.

My post (quoted above) then wasn’t to criticize people who theorize he is buried in the Tuna then. It was just intended to say, as someone who has followed the case in the news since it happened, that early interviews and news coverage researched and nearly eliminated this possibility in my mind.

Again, anything is possible, but certain findings that have been put out there along the way aren’t always readily available 12 years later.

If we take the time to read the case info from over the years, I think we can fairly conclude this was thorough detective work and it may make sense to trust the conclusions of Randy and LE who did exhaustive work at the time, and put our time and energy into other theories they were unable to rule out.

I get some of you may still insist that LE is sometimes sloppy or lazy or late to the game, and that maybe you also think Brian’s Dad and girlfriend and Texas search teams and dogs were somehow mistaken, and you still think he could be accidentally buried. And I can’t guarantee you’re not right. I’m just trying to preserve the findings of previous investigations that are getting lost along the way.

And, FYI, I would love it if—when they tear the Tuna down—if they dug up the place to close the book on this once and for all. And if they find Brian’s remains there, I’ll be the first to say you were right and I was wrong.

Remember, in the immediate aftermath of Brian's disappearance, it was far from obvious that he was dead. Peoples' conclusions, including reporters, at the time naturally reflected that. Today, with Brian having been radio silent from 2am 4/1/06, i.e. for over 12 years, it is a pretty solid bet he died that morn, IMO. And if he died that morn, it may well be that he died in the building, especially since video seems to show that he mysteriously didn't leave the building like everyone else that day.

To put it another way, the passage of time can provide further evidence and alter probabilities. In this case, IMO, the passage of 12 years w/o a hint of life lessens and/or eliminates some potential outcomes (such as Ran To Margaritaville) and thus strengthens probability of remaining potential outcomes. Every additional day Brian's remains are not found outside the building increases the probability that they rest under the building. IMO.

 

[Deleted member 155000]

if someone were placed into a refrigerated environment within a few minutes of passing, would cadaver dogs still be able to hit on a cadaver scent.

I am not sure. But it does strike me as unlikely that someone killed him and then refrigerated him quickly.

Remember, in the immediate aftermath of Brian's disappearance, it was far from obvious that he was dead. Peoples' conclusions, including reporters, at the time naturally reflected that. Today, with Brian having been radio silent from 2am 4/1/06, i.e. for over 12 years, it is a pretty solid bet he died that morn, IMO. And if he died that morn, it may well be that he died in the building, especially since video seems to show that he mysteriously didn't leave the building like everyone else that day.

To put it another way, the passage of time can provide further evidence and alter probabilities. In this case, IMO, the passage of 12 years w/o a hint of life lessens and/or eliminates some potential outcomes (such as Ran To Margaritaville) and thus strengthens probability of remaining potential outcomes. Every additional day Brian's remains are not found outside the building increases the probability that they rest under the building. IMO.

Right, I hear your point. I do. And you’re totally entitled to a different opinion.

But based on what I read, they checked the building and surroundings for an alive or possibly injured Brian pretty quickly.

And they also said employees and others at the time walked the construction area, that the conditions weren’t such that they suspected a person could have been concealed at the time or directly after. So my logic is that it’s better to trust the opinion of LE and Brian’s Dad and girlfriend who had strong incentive to find Brian, and had access to the building way back then, over the opinions we can develop 12 years later.

But I do concede your point that the longer time goes by, the more likely it is that he is dead. And could he be dead in the building? He could.