Okay, I reviewed Brian's first thread on Websleuths. I was surprised that no one had made a timeline at the time, as that seems to be standard on this forum these days when someone goes missing. It's trickier trying to make a timeline 10 years later, but I've scraped up what I found so far and welcome all of you to copy and paste this "draft" of a timeline to your posts to add more events or details.
Please note, some of the original articles from 8-10 years ago are no longer on the web, so secondary sources that referenced those or, in some cases, web archives had to be used.
Bio: Brian was born February 25, 1979. He graduated in 1997 from Pickerington High, went to Ohio State for his undergrad in microbiology, and then to OSU's med school. His mother, Renee--who he admired deeply, by all accounts--passed away from cancer in March of 2006.
March 28, 2016: Alexis reported Brian jokingly suggested they should skip class the next day and runaway together. She also, however, acknowledged that he had also once suggested recently that Alexis should move on from him due to his grief.
April 1 : Brian goes out to dinner with his dad, Randy. His dad says Brian was tired and it seemed like poor timing for Brian to engage a night out with friends. But Brian wanted to celebrate the beginning of Spring Break with the guys. Brian invited his brother, Derek--whom by all accounts, he had gotten closer to during the last days of their mother's life--to come along with him. However, his brother had plans to see a comedy show with his girlfriend.
6:21 p.m.: Brian left a message on Alexis' MySpace page saying he was looking forward to their trip to Miami.
9:30 p.m.: Brian and some male friends headed to Ugly Toona Saloona, a bar located near the OSU campus.
9:56: Brian and Alexis talked on the phone, he told her he was out with "the guys" and this was his chance to talk about her. He also told her he loved her. The person he seemed to be hanging out with throughout the night was his former roommate, Clint.
After the call to Alexis, Brian and his friends walked to the Arena District in Columbus and visited two bars called North Shore Tavern and Brother's. They were said to meet up with other friends at Brother's. They met up with another known girl, Meredith, there and she gave them a ride back to Ugly Tuna.
1:15 a.m.:Security footage shows Brian, Clint, and Meredith riding the escalator up the Ugly Tuna building.
1:55 a.m.: Brian was seen on security footage talking to two women, outside the bar but still in the building. He does not appear excessively drunk in any of the footage. I.e. He is not faltering, wobbling etc. He then walks off camera, seemingly toward the entrance of the Ugly Tuna.
2:00 a.m.: Clint and Meredith said Brian walked away from them at some point, to talk to other people--which was not unusual for him, but they could not locate him at 2:00 a.m. when the bar closed. Some said he went to talk to the band. Since he was a big Pearl Jam fan, and had a Pearl Jam album cover inspired tattoo, this seems plausible. They called Brian, but could not locate him and eventually assumed he left for home on his own. By 2:00 a.m. Brian's phone was said to be going straight to voicemail.
Randy, Alexis, and police all pored over surveillance footage. The police said they were able to determine that every person that came in also left, EXCEPT for Brian.
The following theories have been offered for why Brian's exit didn't appear on camera:
1. He may have gone into a movie theater that used the same building and sometimes showed midnight movies. It has not been confirmed there was a movie showing that night that I am aware of.If this was the case, he would've still used the same escalator/exit that was monitored by cameras.
2. Apparently the movie theater had an emergency exit which triggered a camera when used.
3. Ugly Tuna had a staff exit in the back that, at the time, went out to a construction area. The detective on the case didn't think using this exit was likely. The door was chained. It would've been hard to squeeze through and hard to maneuver. Cadaver dogs were later brought to this area and they did not find any scent of Brian. No articles at the time suggested there were areas where Brian could've fallen undetected or which were later sealed by cement, although this has been speculated.
4. Brian was said to have gone and talked to the band. Some have speculated he left with the band or a worker out the back entrance.
5. It has also been said that at least one of the security cameras was the type that panned the room and could be adjusted by security guards watching. It is, then, possible that the panning camera simply missed Brian's exit.
6. The police did find footage on Saturday morning of a tall white man leaving Ugly Tuna, followed by two black men. When they froze the frame and blew up the photo, however, Brian's friends and family did not think the image was of Brian.
7. He purposefully changed his appearance and escaped detection. However, police have said they examined the video for this and couldn't find any other person who exited who could've been Brian.
8. The girls Brian was last seen talking to on camera and a man seen repeatedly riding on the escalator (apparently trying to re-connect with his own ride) were both questioned and cleared.
Note: Brian lived on King Ave. less than a mile from the bar. But Brian's car was at his apartment and all his belongings were undisturbed. He didn't use his phone or credit cards after disappearing and his phone, wallet, and keys were never found.
At one point, it was rumored that a homeless person reported seeing Brian 4 days later. I couldn't confirm this source as the original article was no longer there.
The friends Brian hung out with that night took lie detectors, except for Clint who refused and hired a lawyer. Meredith also hired a lawyer, but later said she had taken and passed a lie detector test. This was difficult to verify. By all accounts, Clint refused to take the lie detector test. It was also said on the WS forum that he asked for immunity if he did so and was denied.
April 3/4: Police with cadaver dogs, as well as Brian's dad and Alexis, searched the area. It was searched multiple times since then.
May 11, 2006: Someone kicked in Brian's apartment door and stole some electronics. The police had Alexis help determine what was missing. A TV and DVD player were reported missing. It is of course possible that other things were missing, but went unnoticed.
September, 2006: Alexis said she paid Brian's cell phone and called it every night. His brother and father also reported calling it regularly. It always went to voicemail. One night in September, 2006, however, it rang out of nowhere, but no one answered. Alexis notified Brian's father and the police. When called again, it rang for several hours. Cingular, the company, said it could be the phone was charged or it was glitching and the actual device never rang. The phone was said to have pinged in Hilliard, which according to one posted, is a small city/community west of Columbus about 15-20 minutes away from Campus where he disappeared from.
March 28, 2007: A vigil was held. Brian's father had 1,000 green balloons released to represent hope for his son.
June 23, 2007: A sick commenter left an offensive message on findbrianshaffer.com's message board, which seemed blatantly like cruelty, suggesting Brian was attacked and harmed/burned. It was so outrageous and purposefully offensive, it was deemed a hoax.
August, 2007: Texase Eqqsearch searched the area and did not find anything. They had intended to come back in December, but canceled due to the illness of a member of their team.
September 15, 2008: Brian's father, Randy, was tragically killed by a falling tree branch during a severe storm. He had gone out to retrieve supplies from the shed. He was discovered by neighbors the next day.
October 2, 2008: Someone claiming to be Brian, and claiming to be in the Virgin Islands, left a message on the obituary/funeral page for Brian's father. It was a short message that said he loved him. It was later determined the message was sent from a public computer in Franklin County, Ohio, but the exact sender was never determined.
April 2009: The Lantern, OSU's student newspaper, quoted Clint's lawyer Rosenberg.
"...'It is Brian, and not Clint who is causing his family pain and hardship," Rosenberg wrote. "Brian should come forward and end this.' Florence, he said, did not have anything to hide, he had merely told everything he knew from the beginning and did not see the value of doing so again...."
2011: Extended family members were still leaving Brian family updates on his MySpace page, but mentioned they didn't know if he was alive to see them, but were leaving them just in case. They asked him to contact family members if he was still alive.
2014: Crime Stoppers said they were receiving around 2 tips a month about Brian's case still.
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Again, please feel free to copy and paste and add more details to this in your posts here on WS.
Most Probable Scenario?:Also, some of the commenters here have discussed this and suggested the most likely scenario is he somehow left the bar, but met with an accident or attacker...possibly in part due to being under the influence and alone at night in a neighborhood where crimes were commonplace.
Scenario Mentioned By Those Closest To The Case: Brian's father, brother, Alexis, Clint (via his lawyer), and the main detective all--at least at one point--though it plausible that Brian could have fled out of grief/breakdown. People have speculated because of things he wrote on his MySpace or said that he always idealized living on an island and being in a band. He said on his MySpace profile description: "Um...I really love music and this whole doctor thing is really just a job (only temporary) until I get my band together and put out a record. I want to own an island someday, or at least a beach so I can listen to Buffett all day and drink margaritas with my senorita."
Other Possible Rumors/Scenarios Thrown Out on WS in the last 10 years Brian left with the band, an employee, went to reunite with an ex in Texas, left to start a new life, was leading a double life, things went bad with Clint, Clint and/or Meredith had come onto/liked Brian in past. It was also examined whether he could be a victim of theorized serial killers, called the Smiley Face Killers, but the FBI and police both discredited this due to lack of graffiti, lack of a body, and the fact that the existence of such a killer hasn't been proven.There were other similar aged male victims who died around bars or around the river in the surrounding years however.
Note: An email password "AlexisLoveMarry" was found on an index card in Brian's apartment. By all accounts, he loved and intended to marry Alexis.
Questions I still have:
1. Did security cameras run all night? After hours? 24 hours a day? And was it verified that the video's timestamp was accurate?
2. What other friends interacted with Brian that night?
3. Were Clint and Meredith's cars, phone records, and credit card records searched?
4. What band played that night? Was there gear or vehicle searched? What about the vehicles of workers at the bar?
5. What about Brian's credit cards? Did he use cash (his dad said he usually carried it) at the bars earlier that night?
Hope it helps!