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

[Spartygirl]

Just from following this case and because I have a friend actively pursuing this case, I think Brian is still alive and living elsewhere
JMO

 

[MerryB]

I'm glad that you cleared that up, because you're previous posts seemed to imply that Clint was a target of the grand jury investigation as opposed to simply a witness.

With all due respect, I encourage you to go back and re-read my posts as well as give the entire 53 min podcast another listen.

 

[Ozoner]

With all due respect, I encourage you to go back and re-read my posts as well as give the entire 53 min podcast another listen.

I'm listening to the podcast now. The interview with Hurst starts at 6:00; there's nothing before that but a recap of the case. Hurst and the podcaster begin discussing Clint at 33:45; the grand jury is first mentioned about a minute later.
At no time does Hurst suggest that Clint was anything more than one witness among many who was subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury.

 

[Old Mozez]

The grand jury part was actively discussed on this forum prior, was looking4brian who made statements about Clint and the grand Jury as far as I remember. The podcast wasnt’t that reveiling. She mentioned sorta ”he got dragged there because of the non-compliance to do a polygraph”. So 5 questions were setup with a yes / no answer similar to a polygraph.
Which few others were subjected to as far as we know. (2 done in total)

I recall she went on to mention Rosenberg got Clint out of there without any of the questions having to be answered. (Or basically he answered no to all of them)
And she was right about a couple of them when checking off the record with Hurst.

 

[Brainy]

Thinking of Brian today after listening to a two hour long podcast! Brian’s disappearance has always saddened me, and I hope at some point we find out what happened to him to bring some peace to his brother, friends, loved ones or just caring strangers who have learned about his disappearance over the years.

 

[Brainy]

I have contributed to this thread in the past. Now my most plausible theory is that he somehow got out undetected and ended up in the river somehow (possibly by the help/force of someone) and his body has never been found.
This could have been as a result of a robbery gone wrong. Or Brian being mugged and then fighting his attacker and ending up in the river and drowning. His body following the current or being stuck somewhere in the river thus never been recovered.

 

[Ozoner]

I have contributed to this thread in the past. Now my most plausible theory is that he somehow got out undetected and ended up in the river somehow (possibly by the help/force of someone) and his body has never been found.
This could have been as a result of a robbery gone wrong. Or Brian being mugged and then fighting his attacker and ending up in the river and drowning. His body following the current or being stuck somewhere in the river this never been recovered.

Entirely plausible. I don't think his phone would have pinged underwater in the days after his disappearance though, so if he ended up in the river, then I think someone else had his phone, which means that foul play was very likely.

 

[Brainy]

Entirely plausible. I don't think his phone would have pinged underwater in the days after his disappearance though, so if he ended up in the river, then I think someone else had his phone, which means that foul play was very likely.

Right.

He left undetected somehow. I also wonder if his phone was dead by the end of the right. Maybe he had forgotten to get it charged earlier in the day, hence the call (when Meredith called) went straight to voicemail.

He could have just decided to go home by himself. Someone spotted a young guy after 2 o’clock in the morning all by himself and considered him a good target.

Someone put Brian in the river after robbing him. This might have happened as Brian could have resisted the attack or fought back or almost overpowered the attacker. The attacker hit Brian, killed him or Brian was severely injuried and unconscious.

His phone pinging months later (When Alexis called) might be a proof that whoever got his phone got to charging it and turning it on at some point and then realized it’s too much of a liability and disposed of it afterwards.

I’ve also thought that this could have been a hit and run accident. Brian leaving the bar undetected. Someone almost hits him.
And decides to give him a ride. He is initially ok but becomes unconscious due to a head injury or internal blood loss and the driver disposes of his body in the river....

 

[Brainy]

It is so sad that both his parents are gone.... so it’s just Derek, and I hope Derek found peace and happiness. I know it’s been 15 years, and the pain of Brian’s loss must still be sharp and palpable.

 

[Ozoner]

Right.

He left undetected somehow. I also wonder if his phone was dead by the end of the right. Maybe he had forgotten to get it charged earlier in the day, hence the call (when Meredith called) went straight to voicemail.

He could have just decided to go home by himself. Someone spotted a young guy after 2 o’clock in the morning all by himself and considered him a good target.

Someone put Brian in the river after robbing him. This might have happened as Brian could have resisted the attack or fought back or almost overpowered the attacker. The attacker hit Brian, killed him or Brian was severely injuried and unconscious.

His phone pinging months later (When Alexis called) might be a proof that whoever got his phone got to charging it and turning it on at some point and then realized it’s too much of a liability and disposed of it afterwards.

I’ve also thought that this could have been a hit and run accident. Brian leaving the bar undetected. Someone almost hits him.
And decides to give him a ride. He is initially ok but becomes unconscious due to a head injury or internal blood loss and the driver disposes of his body in the river....

If foul play was involved, then the phone was probably tossed.

I do think that the apparent ringing of the phone months later can be explained by a busy tower bumping the call to a different tower. That happened right after the beginning of the semester, and towers near the campus would have been very, very busy indeed.

I still consider an accidental death and concealment in the construction area the leading theory, but a death or body dump in the river is the runner up. Many drowning victims are never found. If a drowning victim has a low percentage of body fat, as Brian appeared to, then it is more likely that the body will not rise to the surface.

 

[Brainy]

If foul play was involved, then the phone was probably tossed.

I do think that the apparent ringing of the phone months later can be explained by a busy tower bumping the call to a different tower. That happened right after the beginning of the semester, and towers near the campus would have been very, very busy indeed.

I still consider an accidental death and concealment in the construction area the leading theory, but a death or body dump in the river is the runner up. Many drowning victims are never found. If a drowning victim has a low percentage of body fat, as Brian appeared to, then it is more likely that the body will not rise to the surface.

I have often heard people make statements such as “if he was in the river his body would have turned up by now”, “he was nowhere near the river”, “he is never seen leaving the bar”...

The fact is, many people who have died in a body of water have never turned up and their bodies have not been recovered. There isn’t very much mystery about that. Water has currents, and any body of water can be dangerous and unpredictable no matter how shallow. Also, I’m not sure to what extent Olentangy River was searched. It’s not like the search began immediately. The river could have taken his body away by the time the search was even started! And Olentangy merges with Scioto River at Columbus. Scioto is much larger, and who knows, maybe Brian’s body ended up there... to me, it’s absurd that so many people just dismiss the fact he could have ended up in the river. To me, the chance of this is so much higher than any other theory since there is so little evidence and that Brian’s body hasn’t been found. And you are right, based on body composition, his body could have not been risen to the surface, although decomposition gases are also a factor that play a role in this... either way, his body could have been lost and carried away easily.

I would have considered death in the construction zone although this isn’t a theory I embrace readily, since there are so many factors involved that I’m not really aware of. How close and accessible was the construction area entrance to the bar attendees? What was the extent of the construction? My mind just can’t wrap itself around the fact that there would be a dead young man in the area and nobody would notice or smell anything? I know crazier things have happened and we cannot exclude this, but one would think Brian could have been located had he been trapped somewhere in the construction area...

 

[Brainy]

If foul play was involved, then the phone was probably tossed.

I do think that the apparent ringing of the phone months later can be explained by a busy tower bumping the call to a different tower. That happened right after the beginning of the semester, and towers near the campus would have been very, very busy indeed.

I still consider an accidental death and concealment in the construction area the leading theory, but a death or body dump in the river is the runner up. Many drowning victims are never found. If a drowning victim has a low percentage of body fat, as Brian appeared to, then it is more likely that the body will not rise to the surface.

I still don’t understand how the busy tower could make Brian’s phone ring? It doesn’t make sense to me, and I entirely do not understand how that would work at all. I have listened to a few podcasts and I’ve yet to find a thorough explanation why it would ring and actually ping without the call going to his phone.

 

[Ozoner]

I still don’t understand how the busy tower could make Brian’s phone ring? It doesn’t make sense to me, and I entirely do not understand how that would work at all. I have listened to a few podcasts and I’ve yet to find a thorough explanation why it would ring and actually ping without the call going to his phone.

I probably can't explain it too thoroughly, but my understanding is that when a cell phone number is dialed, the cell phone service attempts to connect with the last tower that communicated with that phone. If that tower is busy, then the call will get bumped to a different tower, and during the delay that occurs, the person making the call will hear a ringing sound. The phone would not actually be ringing. Since I don't understand the technology, I am trusting to the cell phone company's engineers, and they say that that is likely what happened with Brian's phone.

 

[MerryB]

The event where the phone rang for Alexis in September was a separate event from when the phone pinged at various towers in the days after Brian’s disappearance. The pings traveled westward from campus with the last being in Hilliard as well. The phone had to be turned on to ping.

 

[itsrak]

The event where the phone rang for Alexis in September was a separate event from when the phone pinged at various towers in the days after Brian’s disappearance. The pings traveled westward from campus with the last being in Hilliard as well. The phone had to be turned on to ping.

The pings didn't 'travel'. There was no directionality or suggestion of movement.

 

[Ozoner]

The pings didn't 'travel'. There was no directionality or suggestion of movement.

Correct. The towers that pinged Brian's phone had ranges that overlapped. The phone may well have been stationary but pinging different, nearby towers.

 

[itsrak]

Correct. The towers that pinged Brian's phone had ranges that overlapped. The phone may well have been stationary but pinging different, nearby towers.

Thanks for keepin' it real, here.

 

[MerryB]

The pings didn't 'travel'. There was no directionality or suggestion of movement.

Sorry, that’s incorrect.

 

[sammyed]

Correct. The towers that pinged Brian's phone had ranges that overlapped. The phone may well have been stationary but pinging different, nearby towers.

What date was the last ping? What date did phone ring for Alexis?

Thanks and sorry if this was already said.

 

[Ozoner]

What date was the last ping? What date did phone ring for Alexis?

Thanks and sorry if this was already said.

Those details are were discussed at some point, but I don't recall the exact dates. I believe the phone pinged for about two days after Brian's disappearance. I want to say that the day the phone seemed to ring was in September of that year. I do want to point out that just because the person making the call heard a ringing sound, that doesn't mean that the phone was actually ringing. (It probably did mean that back in the days of rotary phones, but those days are long gone.)