TX TX - Brandon Lawson, 26, San Angelo, 8 Aug 2013 - #1

[techpuppy]

Excellent points. I have to say I am somewhat curious about the text messages that were supposed to have taken place. Sending a text seems much more involved than just making a call, especially if you are hurt. The other thing is that a text message can be identified as coming from a particular phone, but not who was using that particular phone at that moment. If someone caught up with Brandon and took his phone the texts could have been faked easily either to stall for time or to throw off the search for him. Again, just my opinion. From my perspective the last confirmable communication from Brandon was the 911 call based on the information publicly available.

 

[Psychic Sleuth]

Excellent points. I have to say I am somewhat curious about the text messages that were supposed to have taken place. Sending a text seems much more involved than just making a call, especially if you are hurt. The other thing is that a text message can be identified as coming from a particular phone, but not who was using that particular phone at that moment. If someone caught up with Brandon and took his phone the texts could have been faked easily either to stall for time or to throw off the search for him. Again, just my opinion. From my perspective the last confirmable communication from Brandon was the 911 call based on the information publicly available.

If I'm not mistaken (and it's not entirely clear) Kyle was talking to Brandon on the phone when the deputy was there. Again, best I can tell the 1:19 communication to Audrey saying he was bleeding was a text.

Sometimes a text will go through when a phone call won't. If I'm not mistaken they go off of different types of towers. That could be the reason for a text instead of a call.

I'm just sure he's saying "detectives got the first guy" and I think in the dark he probably couldn't tell if it was a state trooper or a sheriff deputy. I don't know which, but I do feel like it was a cop of some sort out there and Brandon ran into a bad guy.

Why would it sound like "a siper" and why would he call them detectives? IMO Brandon was clearly not sober. I can't say what he was under the influence of, but something IMO. And IMO that could explain it. Yes he was panicked and talking fast but IMO he also had slurred speech.

 

[techpuppy]

Why would it sound like "a siper" and why would he call them detectives? IMO Brandon was clearly not sober. I can't say what he was under the influence of, but something IMO. And IMO that could explain it. Yes he was panicked and talking fast but IMO he also had slurred speech.

My guess is that the cell phone was digital. Most likely using CDMA technology. CDMA is "Code Division Multiple Access" meaning that many users can share the same channel on a particular tower. The spoken word is broken up into digital "packets" each with their own code so they can be reassembled at the tower site into coherent audio. In a weak signal area there is the possibility that a packet or a few might get lost. The system might patch the resulting gap and so a word might get truncated. So imagine the two words "State Trooper" losing some packets. You might get:

STAtetrooPER


So the end result in the audio is STAPER rather than State Trooper. Usually when packets are lost you just get silence, but sometimes on weak calls I have heard non-consecutive packets get stuck together. From the recording we can already tell some packets were lost in a few places so the signal was weak in the area for whatever reason.

 

[Psychic Sleuth]

My guess is that the cell phone was digital. Most likely using CDMA technology. CDMA is "Code Division Multiple Access" meaning that many users can share the same channel on a particular tower. The spoken word is broken up into digital "packets" each with their own code so they can be reassembled at the tower site into coherent audio. In a weak signal area there is the possibility that a packet or a few might get lost. The system might patch the resulting gap and so a word might get truncated. So imagine the two words "State Trooper" losing some packets. You might get:

STAtetrooPER


So the end result in the audio is STAPER rather than State Trooper. Usually when packets are lost you just get silence, but sometimes on weak calls I have heard non-consecutive packets get stuck together. From the recording we can already tell some packets were lost in a few places so the signal was weak in the area for whatever reason.

Thanks for explaining that! You don't think there's any way that part was tampered with do you?

 

[Psychic Sleuth]

From Blogtalk transcripts page 2 of this thread. It's still not clear how many calls/texts there were between K/A and Brandon.

H: But after the police and K arrived at the truck at 1:10 am, there was another phone call from Brandon to K at 1:19. Can you describe the nature of that phone call?

LL: Yeah, see, K talked to Brandon a couple of times back and forth, but Brandon's call was in and out a little bit because of service, but Brandon stated that he was in a field and that he was bleeding, and then it just cut off. A, my brother-in-law's girlfriend, texted Brandon and said, "Hey, bro, the cops are at your truck" because, yes, my husband does have a warrant out for his arrest.

 

[techpuppy]

Thanks for explaining that! You don't think there's any way that part was tampered with do you?

Tampering is a possibility. We only have a copy of the audio to work with. It would only take a few minutes to alter the file. They could add some background noise to cover any obvious edits.

 

[Psychic Sleuth]

From the Blogtalk transcripts this really stood out to me also. Don't dogs often train with pig cadavers and pig blood? I could be wrong on that but I remember reading that somewhere. Why would the Sheriff's wife mention this?

H: Right. And when they did that search, especially when they had the cadaver dogs out there, I missed it. Did you say they were or were not able to (unintelligible) out there? Because, if he was bleeding, there is some kind of blood trail somewhere.

LL: No, the cadaver dogs didn't pick up anything. But I believe LM, the sheriff's wife, she owns the Observer-Enterprise, and she informed me that they did pick up some hog scent. I guess because the hogs' blood out there is real strong. I'm not sure, but she informed me of that.

 

[Psychic Sleuth]

Now this really stood out to me. Why would the Texas Ranger check to see if there were any State Trooper calls in the area? Is that what he heard on the tape too? IIRC when LL shared the tape on the HFBL fb page and people started saying they thought Brandon was saying a State Trooper pulled some guys over, I believe LL was pretty insistent that was NOT what he was saying. I'll go read again over there just to be sure. So why did the Texas Ranger check to see if there were any State Trooper calls?

LL: Yeah, the Ranger, he told me that he checked every, you know, to see if there was any calls out there or state troopers or anything, and there was no one out there. I don't know if anybody was broken down, but Brandon was really nice. I think what worries me the most is, if Brandon ran out of gas and he asked someone for help, because Brandon was real nice. Brandon didn't know a stranger. He was just an outgoing person, and he would also help anybody. He would give the shirt off his back to anybody but, I mean, he could've asked for help and something could've happened to Brandon. I don't know. Or Brandon could've been scared running and he could've got bit by a snake or he could've hit his head or fell in the brush or something bad like that. I really don't know.

 

[Psychic Sleuth]

From HFBL fb page. Supposedly the 911 tape was sent to an expert to be cleaned up and analyzed. This expert determined there is more than one voice on the tape and the tape was not altered. FWIW

 

[Psychic Sleuth]

On Feb 19 the HFBL fb page posted that they do not believe he is saying "trooper pulled some guys over" but rather he was trying to describe his location. I don't know about that... They also said they believed Brandon was walking towards the direction Kyle was coming from which would be south towards San Angelo. I had assumed UP the road would mean north but it could be any direction.

It seems the original searches were done off of cell phone pings - which in my understanding only give a general location, not exact. It seems the PI was recently able to retrieve gps data from the cell phone provider (as it was described as a ping with a 2 yard accuracy and exact coordinates.) This would be gps which is much more accurate then ping data and from what I read was just outside the area that has been searched already. The Texas Ranger and Sheriff should have been able to get this same data. Why didn't they? I also read the gps location is on private property and this is why LL cannot just go to the location and search herself. Has she tried to get owner permission? Has she tried to contact the Texas Ranger with the new info?

 

[Psychic Sleuth]

Here is a map showing the area that was searched around the vehicle and the rest/picnic area. It also shows more detail of where the truck was in relation to the rest area. It doesn't look like they searched too far north of the truck location and concentrated more south/east/west.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...769.1073741828.507707495977361&type=1&theater

ETA: there isn't much woods out there. The location where his truck was found is just flat land/no trees. To the south in between the truck and the picnic area has some trees and about 10 minutes up the road north closer to the Colorado River has trees on the right side and bare land/field on the left. This new gps data is said to be 3 miles from his truck. That is quite a distance and if you go due north on hwy 277 for 3 miles you are past the river and in the town of Bronte. Due south 3 miles would be around FM 2662. My point is we all heard to the woods or through the woods and in a field. There isn't much woods out there.

 

[Psychic Sleuth]

Did Ladessa get copies of Deputy Neal and Deputy Fox's police reports? If Deputy Neal was coming from Bronte it should have only taken him a couple of minutes to arrive onscene at Brandon's truck. What are the call times? A police report will show the times the call came in, dispatched to deputy, deputy went enroute to call and the time he arrived onscene at the call and what time he cleared the call. Those times will tell you if he was responding to Brandon's call or not. That will also tell you how much time there was between enroute and onscene. Enroute and onscene at the truck should have been no more than 5 minutes. Is it possible that Neal saw a car on the side of the road while enroute to Brandon's truck and pulled over because he thought it was the stranded motorist? He finds out it's not, checks the driver and sends him on his way. Perhaps he didn't see the other occupant(s) in the car flee into the woods. There is more to this story and if there were no State Troopers in the area at that time then I think what Brandon saw was likely Deputy Neal or Deputy Fox. I'm not sure how/why Deputy Fox got involved, but again police reports and call logs will tell the story. Ladessa should be able to go to the Sheriff dept and get copies.

 

[ChuckieD]

Surely if Brandon was being chased as per a couple of rumours and his 911 he'd of told his brother that in his numerous calls/texts with him that night? I'm sure most people wouldn't allow their sibling to walk into a dangerous situation (by bringing Brandon gas) without warning? I know I wouldn't. In fact, my first priority would be keeping my sibling safe so the first thing I tell them is that danger was afoot.

Is it possible, given that Brandon and Kyle are/were both users that Kyle is fully aware of who was chasing Brandon and doesn't want to suffer the same fate hence playing his cards so close to his chest and not really saying much?

Just my thoughts, I just don't understand how Kyle could not have known about this apparent chase, especially if there is substance in the Walmart story.

 

[ChuckieD]

Brandon's 911 really reminds me of the two kids on meth that went missing during a snowstorm, I forget their names, I'll have to Google. I'm so glad that awful drug is not a big thing in the UK.

 

[Psychic Sleuth]

Surely if Brandon was being chased as per a couple of rumours and his 911 he'd of told his brother that in his numerous calls/texts with him that night? I'm sure most people wouldn't allow their sibling to walk into a dangerous situation (by bringing Brandon gas) without warning? I know I wouldn't. In fact, my first priority would be keeping my sibling safe so the first thing I tell them is that danger was afoot.

Is it possible, given that Brandon and Kyle are/were both users that Kyle is fully aware of who was chasing Brandon and doesn't want to suffer the same fate hence playing his cards so close to his chest and not really saying much?

Just my thoughts, I just don't understand how Kyle could not have known about this apparent chase, especially if there is substance in the Walmart story.

From what I read there were calls but they kept dropping so I don't think Kyle was able to get much info from them. Brandon was obviously in a poor phone service area.

IMO the whole Walmart thing is just rumor and I have not seen one thing to back it up, so until than I am going to disregard it. MOO

If not for the 911 tape my mind would be going 100 different directions. But we do have the 911 tape and IMO Brandon was obviously scared for his life. Knowing he had a warrant, there is no way he'd call 911 asking for the cops had his life not been in danger IMO.

I think LL has been less than truthful on some of the facts but my gut is saying her and Kyle are totally innocent and truly don't know what happened out there or where Brandon is. I have gone round and round with different scenario's but I keep coming back to the 911 tape.

I think it's likely that until they found out about the 911 call they truly believed Brandon was in hiding due to the warrant and perhaps were even trying to cover for him. Brandon's a young guy with a past and a warrant. Nothing shocking there. It happens all the time and IMO that doesn't make him a bad guy. LL mentioned them trying to save money to take care of it so IMO it's likely just some unpaid fines. I think she is scared to paint him in any kind of negative way for fear people won't help look for him. I don't think that's the case. I think the truth is always best and when people start seeing stories change is when they won't help. People are human and nobody's perfect and people appreciate a human story. Even if he was not sober that night when he left the house, at this point does it really matter? The story of the phone charging in the van and missing Brandon's calls has bothered me but I'm wondering if it's as simple as she saw Brandon tried to call but was ticked at him from the fight they had earlier and didn't feel like talking to him and didn't answer? That seems totally realistic to me. If it were me and I was really mad I wouldn't answer his calls!! Again just MOO but it's best just to be honest. Dishonesty always catches up to you. As a wise man (Dr Phil) once said, if you have nothing to hide you hide nothing.

There is talk of a search of the new ping/gps area coming up. I hope it happens soon.

The fact is we still have the 911 call. I keep going back to that call. Brandon ran into someone out there that night and I think his body is out there sadly.

 

[jenstar]

Hey guys, new to this thread. (a pair of fresh eyes)
I didn't realize there was a 911 call connected till just recently. I've never had Dispatch as a profession, but I've been in call centers for the last 13 years and have listened to all types of mannerisms/accents from different regions of the country. Hopefully I'm not too far off on what he says, because I've done my own transcription. The 911 call I had, I pulled from youtube and it was 57 seconds or so long. I'm hoping it's not edited or cut in any way. If you would please follow the transcription and the 911 call and give me feedback it would be greatly appreciated. And if theres a new version you'd like me to listen too, I'd be happy too (keep in mind this is MOO on the transcription)
youtube link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtii-KvxCU8
Disp:911 Emergency..
BL:Yes, I'm in the middle of the field, (this tanker?) or(I think I..) just pushed some guys over. Right here going towards Abilene on both sides. My truck ran out of gas,there's one car here (breath) got pushed into the woods. Please hurry.
Disp: Ok now, run that by me one mo--
BL: one guy-caught on the shoulder..(pause)Aw, I gotta tell you, I ran into 'em.
Disp: Ahh OK you ran into Him..?
BL: I got the first guy--
Disp: Do you need an ambulance?
slight background noise: sounds like someone said "yes"
BL: No, I need the cops.
Disp: Ok.
(Pause)
Disp: Is anybody hurt?
(4 second pause, heavy breathing)
Disp: Hello?
(2 second pause)
Disp: Hello??
(another 2 second pause)
Disp: Hello?
(no answer..end call)

 

[ChuckieD]

I agree that Brandon doesn't seem to be the kind of guy to call 911 willy nilly and he sounds frightened, I'm not quite convinced that he had genuine reason to be though.
I also agree with you that I don't believe LL is involved in his disappearance but there have been a lot of mistruths, imo and that's just not going to help. On the other hand, I completely understand her not wanting to 'bad mouth' her husband, I'm exactly the same with my hubby.
I think he's out there too and I'm glad there's talk of new pings. I hope they can bring him home very soon, for his kids sakes more than anything else.

 

[Vedder]

ETA: there isn't much woods out there. The location where his truck was found is just flat land/no trees. To the south in between the truck and the picnic area has some trees and about 10 minutes up the road north closer to the Colorado River has trees on the right side and bare land/field on the left. This new gps data is said to be 3 miles from his truck. That is quite a distance and if you go due north on hwy 277 for 3 miles you are past the river and in the town of Bronte. Due south 3 miles would be around FM 2662. My point is we all heard to the woods or through the woods and in a field. There isn't much woods out there.

Snipped for space/BBM - My thinking on the woods comment - someone here (I apologize in advance; I don't recall who it was) said that a common phrase for running or getting the heck out of dodge is "taken to the woods". Since there aren't "woods" in that area, I'm thinking he meant the other guy was running or getting out of there.

 

[Lady gee]

Disp:911 Emergency..
BL:Yes, I'm in the middle of the field, (this tanker?) or(I think I..) just pushed some guys over. Right here going towards Abilene on both sides


I just listened to the 911 call, right after he says that his truck ran out of gas, I think he says that a car was there and the guy chased him into the woods.

 

[Psychic Sleuth]

Snipped for space/BBM - My thinking on the woods comment - someone here (I apologize in advance; I don't recall who it was) said that a common phrase for running or getting the heck out of dodge is "taken to the woods". Since there aren't "woods" in that area, I'm thinking he meant the other guy was running or getting out of there.

There are some wooded/treed area's a few minutes north and a little south of where the truck was. Where the truck was found appears to be all fields/no woods from what I can tell.