The whole funny smell in Yelp review seems pretty unlikely to be related. One, the Gateway theater is on the 2nd floor of the building and not really in the vicinity of the construction area/Sunflower Market area. I would disagree - the elevator shaft (Hurst in his recent comments seemed to consider it part of the construction area), which was under construction and was a big hole in the ground when Brian went missing, is directly adjacent to the cinema. One would think that the more proximate businesses like Mad Mex (first floor just north of Sunflower construction area) would be more likely to smell a dead body perhaps patrons there did notice odor, we don't know. Additionally if you think about how many customers of the various businesses in that building, and only a few report a bad smell? Yelp was brand new at the time - most people had never heard of it. Most likely, others smelled same stench but didn't bother to go online and write it up. Tens of thousands have no doubt visited the cinema over the years, only a tiny percentage have left online reviews. Much more likely to be a plumbing issue for example. I’ve frequented those establishments plenty of times before, during, and after his disappearance and no smell was ever evident to me.
the fact Brian’s phone doesn’t respond to pings abruptly at the time the bar is closing, then a couple days later starts responding, doesn’t line up with an accident theory. Not sure you have this right. Brian's phone seemed to be either turned off or perhaps blocked from getting a steady signal, such as if buried or in a low interior spot for example. Cingular began pinging the phone later on Monday 2.5 days after Brian disappeared. At some point over the ensuing contracted 30 day ping period, pings from at least two towers reportedly reached the phone. No reason to think Brian's phone was unable to receive a ping from 2am Saturday till Monday, Cingular was not transmitting pings yet. How does his phone ever come back on if he’s trapped in the building? It probably didn't - if I understand correctly, phone needn't be on to receive system ping, just needs to have a charge (FWIW, I had a pre-smartphone phone thru Cingular till 2004, and it used to hold a charge for a week or so if not used much or at all). To me this points to Brian likely successfully exiting the building. At that point, he could have disappeared purposefully or met with foul play. Perhaps he left the building, but CPD review of video evidence inside seems to suggest he may not have. Plus, he hasn't been seen anywhere outside the building in 13+ years, on vid or in person. Anywhere. I find it likely the reason he was never heard from post 2am is cuz he was dead. Perhaps his presumed death and seeming failure to exit the building with its active and 'completely dug up' construction area are linked...such as by causality...
