OH OH - Brian Shaffer, 27, Columbus, 1 April 2006 - #4

[Ozoner]

I still can’t decide what I think most likely happened. But just to add to the discussion how do you think he got into the area? Were the two cops on the landing of the escalators too distracted to notice him? Why would he have gone in there after chatting with the two women? If it was to evade Clint and Meredith what was that reason? In my experience if he wanted to “explore” the construction area he would have recruited Clint. But for the sake of the conversation let’s say he went in. What was the actual condition of the area. The term completely dug up to me means massive trenches and pipes/sewer type things being done. If it was completely dug up like that as Hearst says then how would they have missed his body? Incompetence? Half hearted search thinking it was just some college guy who was off on a bender and couldn’t actually be there? He somehow got buried in fresh poured concrete or a cave in of gravel and nobody bothered to mention those possibilities or if they did Hearst and cpd blew it off as impossible. The more I think about it I think he left in the crowd and the video watching detective missed it. With that grainy video there’s no way you can account for every single person coming and going. What happened after that is impossible to know it would be 100% guessing. All the evidence needs to be released at this point. How could it possibly impede anything. That new cold case detective is just one lady and has a ton of cases probably. The public would probably solve it sooner than she ever will.

BBM
That just isn't so. They were able to match every person seen entering with the video of the same person leaving. People can only go down the escalator alone or at most two abreast, so there was no large "crowd" for Brian to hide in.

 

[MerryB]

I still can’t decide what I think most likely happened. But just to add to the discussion how do you think he got into the area? Were the two cops on the landing of the escalators too distracted to notice him? Why would he have gone in there after chatting with the two women? If it was to evade Clint and Meredith what was that reason? In my experience if he wanted to “explore” the construction area he would have recruited Clint. But for the sake of the conversation let’s say he went in. What was the actual condition of the area. The term completely dug up to me means massive trenches and pipes/sewer type things being done. If it was completely dug up like that as Hearst says then how would they have missed his body? Incompetence? Half hearted search thinking it was just some college guy who was off on a bender and couldn’t actually be there? He somehow got buried in fresh poured concrete or a cave in of gravel and nobody bothered to mention those possibilities or if they did Hearst and cpd blew it off as impossible. The more I think about it I think he left in the crowd and the video watching detective missed it. With that grainy video there’s no way you can account for every single person coming and going. What happened after that is impossible to know it would be 100% guessing. All the evidence needs to be released at this point. How could it possibly impede anything. That new cold case detective is just one lady and has a ton of cases probably. The public would probably solve it sooner than she ever will.

I do think that Brian “not leaving” is most likely a red herring.

 

[itsrak]

All the evidence needs to be released at this point.

I can think of a reason why they wouldn't release case files - might make them look bad.

 

[itsrak]

I do think that Brian “not leaving” is most likely a red herring.

I think that Brian 'not leaving' explains both why he died that morn and why he was never found. In other words, the 'not leaving' and the permanent disappearance are linked - by causality.

I drove through Ohio last night and right past Columbus. When I entered Ohio, the sign said something like "Welcome. Find it here". So sad.

 

[Old Mozez]

I do think that Brian “not leaving” is most likely a red herring.

CPD has said he didn’t leave by the escalators, which is about the only thing I don’t doubt.

The band said that outside the back exit it was so crowded with people they couldn’t turn their car when they were to load their equipment. Those folks had to pass through a hallway to get there , which was also monitored by CCTV , so that they accounted for each person applies even here...

So Brian must have deviated before this camera into the infamous construction area.

Perhaps he got lost In there and hurt himself badly enough, dragged himself to a place to seek refuge and was never found or he got out as some thinks through one of the doors in front of Wendy’s and who knows what. Might be others explanations to this mystery as well of course....

 

[Ozoner]

I still can’t decide what I think most likely happened. But just to add to the discussion how do you think he got into the area? Were the two cops on the landing of the escalators too distracted to notice him? Why would he have gone in there after chatting with the two women? If it was to evade Clint and Meredith what was that reason? In my experience if he wanted to “explore” the construction area he would have recruited Clint. But for the sake of the conversation let’s say he went in. What was the actual condition of the area. The term completely dug up to me means massive trenches and pipes/sewer type things being done. If it was completely dug up like that as Hearst says then how would they have missed his body? Incompetence? Half hearted search thinking it was just some college guy who was off on a bender and couldn’t actually be there? He somehow got buried in fresh poured concrete or a cave in of gravel and nobody bothered to mention those possibilities or if they did Hearst and cpd blew it off as impossible. The more I think about it I think he left in the crowd and the video watching detective missed it. With that grainy video there’s no way you can account for every single person coming and going. What happened after that is impossible to know it would be 100% guessing. All the evidence needs to be released at this point. How could it possibly impede anything. That new cold case detective is just one lady and has a ton of cases probably. The public would probably solve it sooner than she ever will.

I can think of several reasons why Brian might have entered the construction area.
1) Maybe he was trying to catch up with the band and went the wrong way.
2) Maybe he thought he'd be clever and take a shortcut to the parking garage in order to surprise Amber and Brightan.
3) Maybe he was trying to dodge Clint and Meredith.
4) Maybe he spotted someone else he wanted to avoid, say a woman he'd used for sex.
5) Maybe he had to take a leak and didn't want to wait in line for the men's room.
6) Maybe he was hooking up with other guys on the down low, and maybe a gay guy signalled him to meet in the construction area.
7) Maybe he had arranged to meet someone in the construction area in order to score some drugs.
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I think the first there scenarios that I listed are far and away the most likely.

 

[Lamima]

Are there any diagrams/drawings of the area from that night?

In this photo, what part was under construction?

 

[Lamima]

I am not sure if this is the site...it came up on google search. Even if not, this demonstrates how easy it would be to miss a body in there. So many little nooks to get wedged in.

 

[MerryB]

I can think of several reasons why Brian might have entered the construction area.
1) Maybe he was trying to catch up with the band and went the wrong way.
2) Maybe he thought he'd be clever and take a shortcut to the parking garage in order to surprise Amber and Brightan.
3) Maybe he was trying to dodge Clint and Meredith.
4) Maybe he spotted someone else he wanted to avoid, say a woman he'd used for sex.
5) Maybe he had to take a leak and didn't want to wait in line for the men's room.
6) Maybe he was hooking up with other guys on the down low, and maybe a gay guy signalled him to meet in the construction area.
7) Maybe he had arranged to meet someone in the construction area in order to score some drugs.
-
I think the first there scenarios that I listed are far and away the most likely.

Based on what we know about time stamps and Clint & Meredith’s location in relation to Brian’s between 1:58 - 2:01 AM, I would say scenario #3 is most likely. However, we do not know why he didn’t want to run into the friends he came with at closing time. Perhaps one of your other scenarios was his motivation.
I tend to think he dodged them and went out the back of the building, where he knew he wouldn’t encounter them as they walked to the parking garage, because he was meeting someone in the parking lot at Wendy’s. What happened after that, I have no idea.

 

[itsrak]

Based on what we know about time stamps and Clint & Meredith’s location in relation to Brian’s between 1:58 - 2:01 AM, I would say scenario #3 is most likely. However, we do not know why he didn’t want to run into the friends he came with at closing time. Perhaps one of your other scenarios was his motivation.
I tend to think he dodged them and went out the back of the building, where he knew he wouldn’t encounter them as they walked to the parking garage, because he was meeting someone in the parking lot at Wendy’s. What happened after that, I have no idea.

It is said that Brian had an after-party planned at his apt with friends not including Clint and Meredith. Perhaps he avoided C&M to avoid an awkward good-night. I think that whatever happened to Brian at around 2am, resulting in perpetual silence from that point on, is why the after-party didn't happen.

 

[Tman2004]

BBM
That just isn't so. They were able to match every person seen entering with the video of the same person leaving. People can only go down the escalator alone or at most two abreast, so there was no large "crowd" for Brian to hide in.

with that grainy video I just don’t think they could have with that much certainty. Have you ever left a bar/club at closing. People don’t just uniformly walk out in pairs. If they released their proof that they matched every single person then sure I’m wrong. To me it’s more likely that something got missed on some grainy video with some over confident detective saying there’s no way he missed anything than some cover up by the construction people or the police.

 

[Tman2004]

I can think of a reason why they wouldn't release case files - might make them look bad.

possibly but then that kind of goes against the very popular narrative that the police go above and beyond to search for missing good looking rich/middle class folks and blow off the investigations for lack of a better term “less desirable” people like junkies or hookers.

plus with this new investigator she shouldn’t be loyal to some old *advertiser censored* investigators from almost 15 years ago and cover up their incompetence. Also why would Hearst still be interviewing about it if he knew they botched the search and possibly the whole case? Wouldn’t he just decline to comment and say I am retired and no longer with cpd and can’t speak to the nature of their investigations.

 

[Ozoner]

with that grainy video I just don’t think they could have with that much certainty. Have you ever left a bar/club at closing. People don’t just uniformly walk out in pairs. If they released their proof that they matched every single person then sure I’m wrong. To me it’s more likely that something got missed on some grainy video with some over confident detective saying there’s no way he missed anything than some cover up by the construction people or the police.

You're acting like one detective looked at the video one time. That isn't the case. It was viewed many times by multiple people
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People don't leave bars in pairs, but they have to go down the escalator in pairs or alone. The escalator is just a little over three feet wide.

 

[itsrak]

possibly but then that kind of goes against the very popular narrative that the police go above and beyond to search for missing good looking rich/middle class folks and blow off the investigations for lack of a better term “less desirable” people like junkies or hookers.

plus with this new investigator she shouldn’t be loyal to some old *advertiser censored* investigators from almost 15 years ago and cover up their incompetence. Also why would Hearst still be interviewing about it if he knew they botched the search and possibly the whole case? Wouldn’t he just decline to comment and say I am retired and no longer with cpd and can’t speak to the nature of their investigations.

Well, I do wonder if the first interview begot the second interview. In the first interview Sgt. Hurst, the lead detective on the case, characterized the construction area near where Brian was last seen as 'completely dug up' and he speculated that Brian may well have entered the construction area that early morn, but most likely got exited out of there. So then there is a second interview in which Sgt. Hurst is pointedly asked if he thinks Brian might be in there, and now its an emphatic 'absolutely not'. Bit defensive IMO. That said, I say kudos to Hurst for speaking publicly. He's not afraid of a few slings and arrows from internet nobodies, like me. What'd really be great'd be if he, even now retired, called for further investigation with modern tech just to prove his 'absolutely not' stance correct - or bring closure if he wasn't/isn't...

 

[Looking4Brian]

Are there any diagrams/drawings of the area from that night?

In this photo, what part was under construction?

The entire first floor was under construction. The construction began on the second floor. The hallway that we see on camera inside the Ugly Tuna Saloona was blocked with a wall. There was a door there that led to the hallway which was used for deliveries, trash disposal of the upstairs merchants, and the bands. Here is a link that will explain the construction in the area from the beginning. https://casestudies.uli.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/C037009.pdf

 

[Tman2004]

I can think of several reasons why Brian might have entered the construction area.
1) Maybe he was trying to catch up with the band and went the wrong way.
2) Maybe he thought he'd be clever and take a shortcut to the parking garage in order to surprise Amber and Brightan.
3) Maybe he was trying to dodge Clint and Meredith.
4) Maybe he spotted someone else he wanted to avoid, say a woman he'd used for sex.
5) Maybe he had to take a leak and didn't want to wait in line for the men's room.
6) Maybe he was hooking up with other guys on the down low, and maybe a gay guy signalled him to meet in the construction area.
7) Maybe he had arranged to meet someone in the construction area in order to score some drugs.
-
I think the first there scenarios that I listed are far and away the most likely.

If I were to rank those scenarios it would be 2,5,4,3,1 but that’s just me applying my experiences of being a drunk dude at bar

 

[SerialGal]

Any update on the podcast? Last I saw the Oxygen channel, plus some external road blocks, was causing the delay. I sure wish Brian would turn up hale and hearty, happy in a new life; I do, however, highly doubt that will ever happen.

 

[Tman2004]

You're acting like one detective looked at the video one time. That isn't the case. It was viewed many times by multiple people
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People don't leave bars in pairs, but they have to go down the escalator in pairs or alone. The escalator is just a little over three feet wide.

possibly but way way back in these threads it was stated that it was one guy who watched all the tapes.

 

[Ozoner]

possibly but way way back in these threads it was stated that it was one guy who watched all the tapes.

Weren't the tapes shown to Brian's family members? Maybe one guy did the initial screening to look for people who could be Brian. The portion of the tapes following Brian's last confirmed appearance has certainly been viewed many times, and it seems fairly clear that Brian couldn't have gone anywhere but through the beige door.

 

[Looking4Brian]

possibly but way way back in these threads it was stated that it was one guy who watched all the tapes.

Detective Andre Edwards was in charge of the surveillance video. He wasn’t the only one to view it, but he was the only one in charge of seeing who entered and who left the bar. Detective Edwards took the surveillance video home and projected it Onto a wall in his house. This allowed him to make each person life size and track their movements. I have been told that he watched the video so many times that him and his family knew the video by heart.