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

[neesaki]

It would make sense to go the road less traveled, or dirt path in this case if he was trying to avoid Clint and Meredith. They'd presumably leave in the car and be on the road, looking for him. It seems he was trying to avoid them. But why...he had a hook up planned he didn't want them to know about, he was going to get or do drugs, or go to an after party? Somewhere there was mention of leaving (or meeting up with) the band. Or maybe he simply was pissed at one or both of his friends and wanted to go home and throw up. In any case maybe he met someone at Wendy's and went back to his apartment to clean up, then on to the other housing. If he was that stressed out maybe he intended to get totally wrecked and lost the plot.

If he's trashed enough to be sick, maybe he OD'd or passed out and choked on vomit after that. If he was with C and M, they could clam up - why tarnish his memory for his father if he's dead anyway. At the time maybe it seemed better to give hope that he ran off. Once you put that out there, you're looking at obstruction etc., if you backpeddle and tell the truth. And potential disposing of corpse and snowballing other charges. Or they don't know, but someone does.

A random break-in would be one hell of a coincidence. If it wasn't, then either someone or Brian himself left something the apartment and needed it out of there, or went back to get his phone which he may have left there before heading out again. Of note, in terms of crime in general in the area, if you have someone/s ballsy enough to break into apartments in a fairly busy community, maybe you have someone/s who wouldn't think twice to jump a drink kid stumbling home from UTS.

Best post in a while. And I agree wholeheartedly . Thank you very much for weighing in!

 

[Ciriii57]

But why...he had a hook up planned he didn't want them to know about, he was going to get or do drugs, or go to an after party? Somewhere there was mention of leaving (or meeting up with) the band. Or maybe he simply was pissed at one or both of his friends and wanted to go home and throw up.

I guess it could have been just as simple as he was exhausted, felt a bit rough and didn't really like Clint & Meredith anyway.
I know I have made a get-away from people I've not been keen on when on a drunken night out. But unless Clint opens up in detail about their conversations that night I doubt we'll find out.

A random break-in would be one hell of a coincidence.

Right!! That's what I thought. Presumably this place had been crawling with cops at some point recently and yet of all the properties on this pretty long avenue they chose this apartment! The odds must be pretty high for that coincidence!
And add into that they stole a TV and DVDs ....who the hell is risking their neck to steal DVDs?
I know LE dismissed it but it just seems so...coincidental. hinky.

 

[Martinie]

Deep diving into the scent trace the dog's followed to the Wendy's and the warehouse. Found aerial photos from 2007 to see what the area looked like. I cannot post them directly as they are copyrighted but please follow the below link to see the area.

NETRonline: Historic Aerials - Viewer

www.historicaerials.com

I cross referenced the images from 2004 and 2007 and the warehouse building remained the same so it is definitely the same one. I have indicated where the scent dogs tracked Brian's scent on the below modern map on which I have pasted the images of the buildings how they would have been to Brian (area has been totally redeveloped since), please note the route and proximity to Brian's apartment):
View attachment 470642
There are 2 potential routes Brian could havr taken; Red shows the route down High Street and Blue the route down Pearl Street. Green indicates the further route to Brian's apartment (the sniffer dogs didn't trace him this far though). As can be seen, both the Wendy's and the warehouse would be on Brian's route home so in this sense it makes total sense that he indeed left the complex (by whatever exit) and made his way towards home.

WENDYS
The earliest images I could find were from August 2007 but I'm guessing it hadn't changed too much. I have no idea where exactly Brian's urine/vomit was located, but as can be seen in the below images, the parking lots surrunded the actual store. The first image is towards Wendys from the complex, the second image you can see the complex where UTS was just across the street.
View attachment 470648
View attachment 470649
Now it has been suggested that Brian decided to walk down Pearl Street rather than High Street. Interestingly you can see in the below photo that this route was basically a dirt track behind Wendys (marked with a red W). But most iterestingly there was a fence seperating the track from the Wendys lot. That means Brian would have had to go into the car park and then back out again, he couldn't just cut through. Although not definitive at all it makes me lean more towards him walking down High Street.
View attachment 470650

Warehouse
The earliest image I could find of the location where the scent dogs indicated at a "warehouse" was October 2007. At that time it was a "Dollar Tree" and a car wash with a large car park. Below views from High Street at the back of the building as you approach from the direction of the UTS:
View attachment 470651
View attachment 470652
Unfortunately I have been completely unable to find out if this was a Dollar Tree in April 2006 or if indeed it was abandoned. Either way I suppose it doesn't matter as there is no suggestion he entered the building itself. The car park looks like it was probably pretty dark and dodgy though!
Below is an image from 2007 taken from High Street just outside Dollar Tree. I have noted where the Dollar Tree car park was located to the left and the red arrow indicates Brian's street. His apartment was 0.3 miles away, about a 7 min walk so not far at all.
View attachment 470661

From the UTS to the Dollar Tree (or whatever it was) is about a 3 minute walk, perhaps longer if you are drunk.

If we theorise that Brian turned off his cellphone at about 2am because he wanted to avoid Meredith and Clint and that he decided to walk home, am I correct in saying it was turned on again at 2.11am? Maybe he turned it on again when he reached the Dollar Tree car park for some reason? Maybe he eas meeting someone?
I also wondered if Meredith and Clint would be driving by this way after they left the UTS? If so, maybe they saw Brian walking home and picked him up?

Finally, in the days following his disappearance Brian's cellphone pinged at Lane Avenue and Kenny Road. This is just 2.5 miles from his last known location and is an hours walk or 7 minute drive.
View attachment 470671
Now the closest thing of any relevance to this location is "Buckeye Village" which used to be housing for OSU students. A lot of med students have lived there over the decades! This little fact makes it likely that this was where Brian (or his phone) was and it pinged off the closest tower at Lane/Kenny. Does that mean that Brian was here with another Medical student he knew...or was Brian's phone here with someone he knew? Either way, it does rather increase the chances that Brian either knew the person who hurt him, or someone knew where he was that night and has never come forward.

Regarding the later pings in Hilliard...well Hilliard is a 20 minute drive away from this location.
It would be interesting to note which other students were at the UTS, lived at Buckeye village and had a connection to Hilliard. That's where I'd start!


OK. I hope that may have been of some help to people. It was to me. If I have made some huge error then I hope that someone with local knowledge will point it out to me.
And if anyone can find out if the Dollar Tree was that in 2006, and whether it had any criminal activity associated with it's location, please do. I think the address was 1400 N High street (or close).

I am now convinced that Brian did indeed exit the UTS and began to make his way back home. Whether he made it or not, I do not know.

The route in and then out of the warehouse makes me think what he could have been doing there... Unless he just had a pee on the perimeter and didn't actually go in past the fence line.

 

[Ciriii57]

The route in and then out of the warehouse makes me think what he could have been doing there... Unless he just had a pee on the perimeter and didn't actually go in past the fence line.

Very possible-although not if he just had a pee in the Wendy's lot lol
If he was walking down Pearl Street then I think it could be easily explained as him taking a shortcut across the parking lot to get to the intersection he needed to cross for his street.
The fact that his scent wasn't picked up across the street might suggest he entered someone's car in this Dollar Tree lot.

 

[iusedtofloat]

always found this interesting from his brother saying "i dont know who would possibly beat brian like that" or something similar (i cannot rewatch rn to quote exactly i apologize) Brian Shaffer Case Enters Year No. 4

 

[iusedtofloat]

The route in and then out of the warehouse makes me think what he could have been doing there... Unless he just had a pee on the perimeter and didn't actually go in past the fence line.

Some googling and a different forum give a good idea about the warehouse. Who it was owned by/who worked there/where they were that night

 

[Knitty]

This thread is closed. Please continue at Thread #6