OH OH - Brian Shaffer, 27, Columbus, 1 Apr 2006 #5

[Old Mozez]

That building has been completely remodeled taken down to the studs. It is now OSU offices.

I've seen how the first floor looks nowadays. But if you weren't ironic with your reply I'd take in teams with IR detectors to scan the perimeter walls and pavements, starting from where Brian left behind the office spaces behind by the service elevator and down to the map out the entire ground floor on street level, to look for human signature. Those gadgets can be hired even nowadays if not purchased. They draw waves on a screen and shades depending on the material behind in both dense material and void spaces up to a certain range behind the sensor. I'd then move to request blue prints for the foundation of the building and check with expertise the layout of pipes and sewage system, and possible void- and crawl spaces thereof.
I'd tried to get beneath the building if possible through sewers and technical entrances and sweep those area, and then again with the same detectors. And Investigate the historic tunnel system thats was uncovered at one point.
I'd of course try to contact the former project manager for the complex to try to interview whomever was responsible for ongoing operation in construction.
I'd also re-check whatever was brought in and out of that building at the time and make inquiries in this regard.

There probably tons of stuff in those case files that can be re-investigated concerning the Gateway building at the time Brian went missing. If there's a will, there's a way.

 

[Stella]

Just got thru listening to Kelly's podcast with Det. Hurst. Although he seemed to weave and bob on answering some questions, I find that I can be persuaded that maybe Brian got out through that opened exit door; that he may be alive and living a new life, who knows where. But not completely persuaded. There are those of us who are not convinced he isn't still in the building, perhaps under it now. It's past time to go full hearted on looking not just in the building but under it to the point where it can be said once and for all that he is NOT THERE. I'm not finding much on these underground tunnels; does anyone know first hand about them and if they've been searched?

 

[velvta]

Of course I didn’t speak to Randy, but I have communicated with Derek and His wife, as well as Don Corbett who spent a lot of time with Randy. By all accounts, Randy was determined to find answers so he had his own investigation going. Randy believed as others did, that Brian was not in the building. He did not believe that Brian walked away from his life though. Randy definitely thought foul play was involved. Just not at UTS.

I liked your interview on Unfound.

 

[MerryB]

I liked your interview on Unfound.

I just listened, too. @Looking4Brian always does a great job.
I thought it was interesting what Ed said at the end about there being no way Detective Edwards could project life-size people on a wall & be able to tell if they were Brian leaving or not due to video quality.

 

[Kittybunny]

Count me in in the "Brian made it out of the building" camp. The things that lead me to believe that are the dogs scenting him to Wendy's and beyond, the fact that his phone started pinging again on Monday. However, sadly, I don't think he's off living his best life on a beach somewhere. I would hope he is and it's always a possibility because I've seen cases of missing people found years later that did just up and leave, but I think he died as a result of misadventure or foul play. I strongly believe that the pings were a result of a random person finding his phone. Perhaps they were a transient or just someone who didn't pay attention to the news. Found a phone, but it was dead. On Sunday or Monday goes somewhere to buy a charger and boom it's back in business. Did they call it or just ping it? Would a ping register as belonging to Brian's phone even if they changed the number so any calls would not get through? Sorry if these questions had already been asked, I don't follow this case as closely as some of you.

However, the fact a body hasn't been found is a mystery. But if he made it out, there's literally thousands of possibilities of where he could have ended up and how. My question is, how extensive were the searches outside the building? What bodies of water were searched? How often do bodies not turn up in those? It's odd! I don't know the location so it's hard to speculate. And now that I've typed this all out, I've become skeptical of my own theory and think it's possible he did walk away, lol. But if he did that, he left his phone behind - of that I'm pretty sure.

 

[jr1]

I think a mugger would've just run away afterward like in the Donnie Farrell murder in New Jersey instead of hiding the body. I think the only people that would hide the body are relatives/ friends who want to keep an "eagle scout" persona with the public. If Brian walked away it would be hard to board a plane with a fake ID he bought from somebody at school or Myspace since a lot of the 9/11 extra security measures were in effect at the airports

 

[Looking4Brian]

I liked your interview on Unfound.

Thank you!

 

[velvta]

I just listened, too. @Looking4Brian always does a great job.
I thought it was interesting what Ed said at the end about there being no way Detective Edwards could project life-size people on a wall & be able to tell if they were Brian leaving or not due to video quality.

Ed made a great point. I mean, how would this be done exactly? I'm not technically adept to know. The policeman said he projected video onto his wall, to life-size. How do you get video to work on a projector? What kind of projector would be able to do that? Who still has projectors at their house? lol.

 

[MerryB]

Ed made a great point. I mean, how would this be done exactly? I'm not technically adept to know. The policeman said he projected video onto his wall, to life-size. How do you get video to work on a projector? What kind of projector would be able to do that? Who still has projectors at their house? lol.

Right. Even if he had the equipment, when you enlarge an image, it pixelates and distorts the image. If he took grainy CCTV footage and enlarged it to life-size, recognizing facial features enough to identify specific individuals and/or equivocally rule out specific individuals does not seem likely. I’d never really thought of it like that before, but it makes sense.

 

[velvta]

Drunk men disappearing in bodies of water is a thing. Anyone who is into mysteries and disappearances enough to sign up for a Websleuths account knows how common it is for young men who have been drinking a lot to find their way into rivers or ponds, and then drown. But Brian's disappearance is an exception, in my opinion. I see conjecture about this on Reddit threads now and again, and I just have to vent about it. The one body of water significant enough for anyone to drown in where his disappearance took place is the Olentangy River. The river was thoroughly searched by family and authorities. He never went in it. The river in this section of Columbus is deep enough to drown in, yes, but not deep enough to lose a body in. It's shallow. It's slow. Low head dams up and down the river impede the flow of water and objects. It's really hardly natural at all in the neighborhood it flows through nearby where Brian lived. And it's also important to remember that Brian's apartment was in between the Ugly Tuna Saloona and the Olentangy River. For him to have gone into the river would mean that he had to overshoot where he lived for several blocks. This just doesn't make sense.

I'm not posting this to argue that I know what happened to him, because I don't'. But I do know what didn't happen to him, and drowning in the Olentangy is not among the explanations.

 

[?unknown?]

Has the Wendy’s scent been confirmed as definite? My understanding was that it was inconclusive and they couldn’t tell either way whether it was Brian’s

 

[Stella]

Certainly he had every reason to run off and start over. First he loses his mom and then everything goes downhill from there. He had about $25,000.00 dollars in credit card debt, there was a disagreement with his dad that night over how much of his mom's life insurance he would get and then to top it all off, dad tells him he won't pay for the rest of his medical schooling. Seven, eight years of college and hard work down the drain. If he did take off, I believe it was pre-planned and Clint helped him with the arrangements. Maybe that was what they argued about that night; Clint tried to talk him out of disappearing himself. This got me to wondering, whatever became of that tip that there was a Brian Shaffer at an Italian medical school awhile back?

 

[Mitzi Grace]

I wonder why Clint trying to talk Brian out of disappearing would be an argument? Wouldn't he try to talk to him calmly with reason? I also wondered if Clint gave him money to finance the disappearance? Was he or his family well off?

I know the FBI determined the homeless American in Tijuana was not Brian (using facial recognition software). However, he looks alot like him to me. It would be easier to rule him out if he was facing the camera with his eyes open. What does everyone think?

 

[Stella]

They were drunk and both hot-headed. Sober, it might've been a calm discussion, drunk, forget it. It might not have been a fight about leaving; Clint might've chewed on him for kissing that girl on the neck because he considered it cheating on Alexis. As for the guy in Tijuana, I don't see the resemblance myself.

 

[Kaie]

Has the Wendy’s scent been confirmed as definite? My understanding was that it was inconclusive and they couldn’t tell either way whether it was Brian’s

It won't be confirmed as definite... search dog evidence is never conclusive.

 

[Old Mozez]

This got me to wondering, whatever became of that tip that there was a Brian Shaffer at an Italian medical school awhile back?

I looked it up again myself a month ago but it’s somewhere oct-nov 2019 (?) thread 4. Kelly can explain it better herself , but that intrusion to his account was deemed to be coming from a proxy server. So this is not really my area of expertise but everyone I’ve mentioned it to sais that a server like that spits different locations out ramdomly, could have just as easily have been a strawberry farm in Georgia instead as I understood it, for example. Correct me if I’m wrong.

 

[Looking4Brian]

Certainly he had every reason to run off and start over. First he loses his mom and then everything goes downhill from there. He had about $25,000.00 dollars in credit card debt, there was a disagreement with his dad that night over how much of his mom's life insurance he would get and then to top it all off, dad tells him he won't pay for the rest of his medical schooling. Seven, eight years of college and hard work down the drain. If he did take off, I believe it was pre-planned and Clint helped him with the arrangements. Maybe that was what they argued about that night; Clint tried to talk him out of disappearing himself. This got me to wondering, whatever became of that tip that there was a Brian Shaffer at an Italian medical school awhile back?

Brian had hardly any debt. He had one very small credit card. His Mom paid for his entire livelihood.

 

[Looking4Brian]

I looked it up again myself a month ago but it’s somewhere oct-nov 2019 (?) thread 4. Kelly can explain it better herself , but that intrusion to his account was deemed to be coming from a proxy server. So this is not really my area of expertise but everyone I’ve mentioned it to sais that a server like that spits different locations out ramdomly, could have just as easily have been a strawberry farm in Georgia instead as I understood it, for example. Correct me if I’m wrong.

You are correct. I believe this was someone trying to hack Brian’s account. A proxy was definitely used and bounced multiple locations. There is no way for me to determine the original location the message was sent from.

 

[velvta]

Brian had hardly any debt. He had one very small credit card. His Mom paid for his entire livelihood.

I have a question about that photo of the four men in what looks like womens' sunglasses. Where was that taken? That beer brand is a Texas brand. Is that where the photo was taken?

If I remember correctly, that style of huge sunglasses was popular among women in the late 2010s, so that tells me that wherever that was taken, there was women there with them. One of them probably took that photo. It looks like they were wearing the sunglasses to be silly for a photo . What do you know about the photo? It really does look like Brian to me.

 

[Stella]

Brian had hardly any debt. He had one very small credit card. His Mom paid for his entire livelihood.

According to at least one of the top crime podcasts, Brian did have that amount in credit card debt and all his earnings from J.C. Penney went toward trying to pay it down, without much success. I listen to so many of them, I wish I could tell you which one(s) made this claim. I also remember from one of the podcasts that Brian and his brother hadn't been getting along but I don't know how long this had been a thing. Not a reason to leave but not a reason to stay either; it could've been as simple as Brian was his mother's son while his brother was dad's boy.