OH OH - Brian Shaffer, 27, Columbus, 1 Apr 2006 #6

It doesn't seem like the simplest solution to suggest that he died in a busy bar with possibly hundreds of people around and no one noticed. To me, Occam's razor leads one to conclude that he left through the exit that had a camera but whose footage had been overwritten by the time the police requested it (as security claimed). It was either that exit or the construction exit without a camera.

I remember reading that the same thing happened at a lot of places around High Street when police requested their camera footage--it had either been overwritten or the police were told that the camera wasn't working.

The lack of surveillance footage is a factor of the timing of the investigation relative to Brian's disappearance. Some businesses with cameras also don't want to be bothered with helping a police investigation for various reasons, e.g. a lack of time, they don't know how to access the footage, or they're afraid of providing self-incriminating footage on unrelated issues (even as simple as city ordinance violations).
My apologies if I misspoke. I do not necessarily believe he died in a bar full of people. The bar was closing and people were leaving. In Columbus, closing time is 2:30 am and usually at 2 am they start clearing out pretty quickly since 2-2:15 am is last call. The police saw Brian go back in the bar with surveillance, so we know he didn't come back out the front, right? Brian could not have been the only person that knew or used that back exit during this time. At least a few people could have used the same path and noticed Brian, and with the media coverage in the area of this case, someone would have came forward. But no one has or at least we have not been told this fact. I used to live near the Ugly Tuna when this happened and now only live about 10ish minutes away, so I have following the case since and wish we had some answers.
 
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Reading back through the thread- I'd kind of like to know where Hurst got his information about Brian and Clint possibly being more than friends, because this is the first I've heard about that possibility, and I've followed the case since jump. I am, however, feeling a bit silly that I didn't think of the confidential informant possibility sooner, bc IMO that would account for many of the strange details of the case.
 
I’d love to hear the police interviews around the time before news Brian was not seen leaving on CCTV. Did the PD not push any theories on anyone? I feel like a few stories don’t match from then and now.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they have evidence he left the bar, but have made it seem like he didn’t hoping someone spills some info…even though I think most agree he definitely left.
 
I too am perplexed by this story, as well as other missing people stories. How does someone vanish? I agree if he was last seen outside the bar right before closing and headed back in, where did he go? I read somewhere that he headed upstairs to see a band, but I'm not sure if that was earlier in the night. Rational would say he went back in to use the bathroom before leaving, or to find his friends, his friends didn't see him in those 5 min? Bathroom could explain how they didn't see him. Did he get sick? Pass-out? Get locked in after closing? Get confused and somehow get on the roof? I googlemapped the building roof, there are what looks like ventilation that's ac units etc. Could he have tried to get out through an obscure way? If it was suicide how do you hide your own body? Foul play you could possibly hide the body, accident his body could still be found, deliberate disappearance seems possible. Mom passed away, seemed he wanted a different life from what I heard from videos. Also seems like he was seeing everyone he could that night, maybe to say goodbye? Could he have removed the top shirt so he looked different as he was leaving?

I read and saw a story on discovery ID about a father and husband from CT, Robert Hoagland, who disappeared. He was supposed to pick his wife up at the airport and never showed or was heard from again. He was found after he passed away living in upstate NY under a different name. He never contacted his family after his disappearance and his roommate found out the secret and notified police after he died, so it is possible to start a new life.

 
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The more I think about it, it's very possible he abandoned his life and started a new. He was very smart, had the ability to save money no one knew of, and if he was interested in playing a guitar on a beach and chilling I'd look for resort towns, Mexico, California or Florida beaches, street performers, local bands, surfers, cruise ships, tennis instructors. Money didn't seem to be a huge motivator for him. It seems hard to believe someone would leave a very successful life behind, but it's possible. Did anyone check his PC for searches he was doing?
 
The more I think about it, it's very possible he abandoned his life and started a new. He was very smart, had the ability to save money no one knew of, and if he was interested in playing a guitar on a beach and chilling I'd look for resort towns, Mexico, California or Florida beaches, street performers, local bands, surfers, cruise ships, tennis instructors. Money didn't seem to be a huge motivator for him. It seems hard to believe someone would leave a very successful life behind, but it's possible. Did anyone check his PC for searches he was doing?
It's possible, but highly unlikely given the circumstances. He was drunk and also making plans with others for the next day. He is listed in ViCAP, which means law enforcement have information that leads them to believe he was killed. His phone was also pinging after he disappeared in a nearby town, but they never found it. There have been links to other people he associated with, whom were there that night and lived in the area where his phone was pinging. Odd we don't know their names yet for some reason we know all about Clint and Meredith, whom we know left that night because they were tracked on camera driving away.

My guess is the other people he was with that night know something. Not necessarily involved with his disappearance, but I would bet they can provide helpful information if they already haven't.
 
It's possible, but highly unlikely given the circumstances. He was drunk and also making plans with others for the next day. He is listed in ViCAP, which means law enforcement have information that leads them to believe he was killed. His phone was also pinging after he disappeared in a nearby town, but they never found it. There have been links to other people he associated with, whom were there that night and lived in the area where his phone was pinging. Odd we don't know their names yet for some reason we know all about Clint and Meredith, whom we know left that night because they were tracked on camera driving away.

My guess is the other people he was with that night know something. Not necessarily involved with his disappearance, but I would bet they can provide helpful information if they already haven't.
He was in a vulnerable state - maybe his judgement wasn’t the best that night and someone noticed.

He had likely been pushing back his emotions while cramming for the exams - and then the flood gates opened.

IMO
 
It's possible, but highly unlikely given the circumstances. He was drunk and also making plans with others for the next day. He is listed in ViCAP, which means law enforcement have information that leads them to believe he was killed. His phone was also pinging after he disappeared in a nearby town, but they never found it. There have been links to other people he associated with, whom were there that night and lived in the area where his phone was pinging. Odd we don't know their names yet for some reason we know all about Clint and Meredith, whom we know left that night because they were tracked on camera driving away.

My guess is the other people he was with that night know something. Not necessarily involved with his disappearance, but I would bet they can provide helpful information if they already haven't.
What is the motive? Accident? Jealousy? He seemed like a well liked, fairly responsible guy.
 
He was in a vulnerable state - maybe his judgement wasn’t the best that night and someone noticed.

He had likely been pushing back his emotions while cramming for the exams - and then the flood gates opened.

IMO
Agreed. The question remains how did they get a huge guy out of the bar without being seen? Did they go out that service door that was kind of dangerous? It would take more than one person to lift or carry a guy that big out without being seen. If the theory is it was someone who worked at the bar they could've hidden the body till after closing and somehow lugged it out in a garbage or something I guess. So puzzling for sure.
 
I have had the thought that maybe when he's with the girls on the cctv that when he pulls his phone out, he got a text from someone that was maybe meeting him outside and he just took a quick exit out the construction area to meet then and whatever happened after could have happened anywhere... It's so frustrating that after so many years, there's no answers.
 
The real enticing mysterious intrigue that separates this case from all others is how it starts, the simple logistics of a fully grown adult man simply vanishing after being around hundreds of other people. If you search through Google Maps, you can use the timeline function to go back to around the time that this happened and see how the area has transformed. (side note: It's interesting to see how rural and run-down some of the neighborhoods were if you walked directly away a few blocks from the main streets of what used to be the building the ugly tuna saloona was in back around when this took place.) I find myself quite overly competent when armchair sleuthing with my natural detective logical mindset from years of researching online all my life, every day, everything I can, as I am a laptop PC collector. If I'm torn away from my laptop, it's only because I am trying to survive the mutilation depravity of the mighty arbitrary system of currency on our little speck of dust planet in the infinite galactic Sahara. I did have some visions tonight; I am connected to the multiverse of infinity and saw Clint having sex with Brian, but Clint was the devil. I also saw a hand wrapped around metal, like a fence almost, more like a glove, which could indicate pushing, maybe through chained doors inside the building? I also felt and saw someone lying in pitch dark, felt like it was outside without any houses or lights around, like the country, but a hand could be seen that was dirty with what looked like dry, dusty dirt, which could indicate death to me.

Personally looking from a logical viewpoint, his phone pinged, which, contrary to the poster with updated info a few years ago seems to think that even though he recognized it as a possibility with his wording that Brian's phone pinged in a few different locations on morning of his disappearance, which does not mean he left the building in the first place because anyone could have had his phone, but most likely, logically thinking it was him with his phone still means he did in fact leave that building somehow. My logical detective mind says that it was not a new life he was seeking by making himself disappear, as his laptops were thoroughly investigated without any searches for anything to do with how one would just make themselves disappear. Not only that, he did not take any money out of his accounts, clothing, or anything at all to indicate he was attempting to do that; to me, that hypothesis is negative. Then the theories of foul play come, but there is no evidence we have to suggest that ever occurred either. The problem with foul play is it's just so far of a stretch to think one could disappear after being around hundreds of people, and not just that, get murdered without a trace. To me that is too much of a coincidence to all of a sudden happen to a famous medical student. There would be some evidence, or someone would know something, but there is nothing, for either.

Which then brings me to what I have always concluded is that he died naturally somehow, with the help of suicidal ideation, or, for lack of a better term, just not giving a crap what happened to himself right then and there, and his body was never found. He had lost his mother from a crippling, full-blown disease, and he couldn't do anything about it. Being a medical student might have been his subconscious way in life to deal with it, but when it happened, he was helpless, and his grades were failing. It was speculated, and probably true, that when Brian had his recent visit with his father, his father told Brian he was no longer supporting his failing attempt at school and that he would no longer be giving Brian money to pay for it. He was lost and wanted a way out; he even wanted to break up with his soon-to-be wife. What does that tell you? It tells me it's a man going through many horrible things. This case is baffling, like Andrew Gosden's case and DeOrr Kunz Jr.'s and many others.Odd supernatural occurrences can happen in life, like in Final Destination, things that you could never think possible, sets of circumstances one could never make up in their own minds in an eternity, and Brian's death could in fact be one of these, but it could also just be a natural death brought on by not caring what happened to himself because of all the horrible things he was going through at the time. Life can prey on those that are vulnerable, and Brian seemed to be just that at the time of his death. I never imagined anything to do with drowning in this case, but a lot of unsolved disappearance cases do have that aspect in them, and there is a large river near the area. I think Brian was off his guard, letting life that night lure him to his death somehow, either through suicidal ideation and just not giving a crap what happened to himself or outright doing it somehow. I also want to point out to the lead investigator his thinking that people that commit suicide want to be found, to me thats not at all true and I wonder why he would ever say that in the first place in this case. Have you ever heard of Aokigahara Forest, its a suicide forest people in japan go to to commit suicide. Its a secluded area where they wont be seen and many times lost forever without anyone knowing. People don't want other people to know they commit suicide because they want to be known by the people they new in life as strong individuals that did there best at life, not as weak people who gave up. Brian would be the same way, he was a strong man and intelligent man trying his hardest to save his parent. He was going through one of the toughest degrees a human being can achieve. Someone that is strong enough and intelligent enough to be successful like he was at medical school would not want to be know to the world as that guy that gave up, medical students are star scholars who are strong minded and want to be seen by the world as people who can overcome anything life has to offer.
 
I think an impulsive suicide makes sense, especially to someone highly inebriated, compounded by mental distress. As a med student (or just common sense) he would know hypothermia was possible. He may have gone somewhere 'concealed' to pass out knowing he'd never wake up. Or, he didn't intend to die but not thinking did this anyway.

If he wanted to be as certain of death as possible with no weapon (and fuzzy thought patterns), jumping into the river might make sense in his mind. He may have not wanted to be found, or if so, not with the imagery jumping off a building would leave. Yet, if he was in a psychological break, none of these things may have occurred to him or mattered. Meanwhile, a half hour walk to the Olentangy would be nothing to a functional alcoholic, let alone someone in a blackout. We also don't know what other drugs he'd taken. I've seen otherwise "straight-laced" people wade into water and dunk themselves to be symbolically "reborn" while high just on marijuana (and other sober shenanigans just for the hell of it). Deeper water and the cold shock of April in Ohio, you have an exponentially more dangerous situation. He likely would have sunk and been carried who knows how far at depth, only to be lodged in debris and not yet found.
 
I lean more toward that this exceptionally attractive and extremely emotionally exhausted person made a bad decision - and trusted - or just talked to - the wrong person.

We see this time and again with attractive females. They’re more portable, of course, but it seems Brian wanted distraction and that made him a perfect mark.
 
I lean more toward that this exceptionally attractive and extremely emotionally exhausted person made a bad decision - and trusted - or just talked to - the wrong person.

We see this time and again with attractive females. They’re more portable, of course, but it seems Brian wanted distraction and that made him a perfect mark.
My first take has always been someone was less than ok with him talking to one/both girls at the bar (or another we don't know about). Maybe not a planned luring, but it would explain the phone pinging at a distance and no body. Barring accidental or intentional harm to him at the hands of another, I'd believe a suicide.

Two things I've ruled out are 1) him being in, under, or close to the UTS for longer than a handful of hours and 2) him taking off for a new life. If he was jumped and killed, possibly he was placed in a dumpster and gone before intense searches in the vicinity. But I still think there was an intentional act committed here, either by another/s or himself.
 
My first take has always been someone was less than ok with him talking to one/both girls at the bar (or another we don't know about). Maybe not a planned luring, but it would explain the phone pinging at a distance and no body. Barring accidental or intentional harm to him at the hands of another, I'd believe a suicide.

Two things I've ruled out are 1) him being in, under, or close to the UTS for longer than a handful of hours and 2) him taking off for a new life. If he was jumped and killed, possibly he was placed in a dumpster and gone before intense searches in the vicinity. But I still think there was an intentional act committed here, either by another/s or himself.
With accidents and suicides the body often turns up. I agree with the idea of impulsivity playing a role here. He had so many things happening in his life, it’s natural to let loose after what he had been through (both heaven as in love and success and hell as in grief).

I unfortunately don’t think he is alive and well. I really don’t. The fact that he hasn’t been found makes it 90% murder/manslaughter according to my assessment.
 
Agree so many angels in this case. Such a shame that any human loses their life to either foul play or mental illness. There was a 18/19 year old in my area who disappeared from the community College, he dropped his ID etc. and they searched the area but didn't find him until months later, he had hung himself in the woods across from the college. Not sure how his body wasn't found when they first searched the area, dogs didnt pick up his scent even. We never got the whole story, but rumors were his father didn't support his lifestyle and there were fights going on about college etc. He went to a prominent private high school in the area where another boy in his grade from his school committed suicide. Point being families won't air their dirty laundry even when searching for a missing loved one, so I can see where we will never get the full story if he was depressed, failing, or living a lifestyle not approved of. Is it possible he disappeared to live a new life, sure, but it's also possible he made an impulsive choice like this guy in my area did, and he just hasn't been found. Just so sad, and hoping whatever his choice or by accident he is at peace.
 
With accidents and suicides the body often turns up. I agree with the idea of impulsivity playing a role here. He had so many things happening in his life, it’s natural to let loose after what he had been through (both heaven as in love and success and hell as in grief).

I unfortunately don’t think he is alive and well. I really don’t. The fact that he hasn’t been found makes it 90% murder/manslaughter according to my assessment.
It may be something as simple as he was sold marijuana laced with fentanyl. It killed him and the people with him covered it up. I'm not arguing for that as a solution to the mystery but the idea that he crawled in a dumpster is ludicrous and if he committed suicide, the body would have been found. So either he died as a result of an accident that was covered up or someone killed him.
 
It may be something as simple as he was sold marijuana laced with fentanyl. It killed him and the people with him covered it up. I'm not arguing for that as a solution to the mystery but the idea that he crawled in a dumpster is ludicrous and if he committed suicide, the body would have been found. So either he died as a result of an accident that was covered up or someone killed him.
Crawled in a dumpster and discarded in a dumpster are two very different things. I'm thinking of the case John Fiocco, which only proves unusual things happen. But I've never seen an answer to the question of the dumpster pick-up time the following morning, and I don't put that scenario as high on the list of possibilities. As for a suicide (or accidental drowning through his own action) involving the river, it's possible a body wouldn't be found.

I think Clint had an idea of where Brian may have been headed or was planning to do, but Brian evaded both Clint and Meredith. I'm guessing it wasn't the first time Brian had separated from Clint at the end of the night, the details of those nights just haven't been released.
 
November 25, 2024
''There are people like Good nationwide who comb through police reports, scour national missing persons databases such as the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) and The Charley Project, and share their clues on internet forums in the hopes of solving cases that law enforcement hasn't, said Michelle Jeanis, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette who researches missing person cases.
"They're going through everything ... submitting them to law enforcement, and they're solving cases," Jeanis said.''

''After searching the internet for more information, she discovered that his family needed help with a website they had created to raise awareness about his disappearance. Coincidentally, Davis was a web designer.
She became close with Brian's grief-stricken father, Randy, and promised him before his death by a falling tree branch in a windstorm in 2008 that she wouldn't stop looking until his son was found.

While Brian remains missing, Davis continues supporting the family as a media spokeswoman and has gone on to help the families of many other missing people in central Ohio.''
An amateur internet sleuth, Lori Davis, 52, of Nashport in Muskingum County, has worked with the families of missing Ohio State University medical student Brian Shaffer, who vanished on April 1, 2006, and  29-year-old Tyler Davis, who disappeared after celebrating his wife Brittany's 23rd birthday at Easton Town Center in February 2019.

An amateur internet sleuth, Lori Davis, 52, of Nashport in Muskingum County, has worked with the families of missing Ohio State University medical student Brian Shaffer, who vanished on April 1, 2006, and 29-year-old Tyler Davis, who disappeared after celebrating his wife Brittany's 23rd birthday at Easton Town Center in February 2019.
 

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