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

[velvta]

Hey everyone! It’s been a while since I have posted here. I love how many conversations have happened since I’ve been gone. I see there are still a lot of questions about the phone pinging. I am working on answers for everyone and will have an episode of the podcast coming out within the next month explaining this from someone more qualified than myself. Friday there will be an episode about Brian on Unfound Podcast. It’s an interview I did with my friend Ed, who is the host. Lol. It’s a very long interview. In September the CNN show, Real Life Nightmares will feature an hour long segment on Brian’s disappearance as well. I’m still working behind the scenes with a great team that I have put together. The pings are our primary focus with some new small details that have come to light. I’m crossing my fingers that this will lead to something!!

I'm looking forward to this episode. That phone ping in Hilliard always puzzled me. A couple years ago I posted on here about how there is a mobile phone recycling company in Hilliard that opened a year or so before Brian's disappearance. I always wondered if the phone found its way into this company, and the activity on the phone in September of 2006 was because the phone was turned on during the recycling process. It may be a stupid, nonsensical theory of mine, because I know NOTHING about mobile phone technology, but I also always thought there was more to the activity than a mere "glitch". "Glitch" is a euphemism for "We don't know and don't care to look further into it." Anyway, thanks for your work on this case!

 

[MerryB]

Do you think Clint knows?

I agree with Derek, Brian’s brother.
“If anyone knows whether he is still alive, or if something happened to him, it’s Clint.”

MOO
Unsolved mystery: 10 years later, Brian Shaffer still missing

 

[MerryB]

I'm looking forward to this episode. That phone ping in Hilliard always puzzled me.

I’m inclined to think the phone was turned on inside this premise when it pinged in sept 2006.

Respectfully SBM.

I think it’s a widely held misconception that Brian’s phone pinged in September 2006 when Alexis called and it rang instead of going straight to voicemail as it had been doing.

I often see this restated in blogs and by posters who have confused the phone *pings* with the phone *ringing*.

The phone pings took place in the days/weeks after Brian’s disappearance. Detective Hurst has been very vague about the details of these pings, but we do know he’s verified pings at Kenny Rd/Lane Ave and triangulation (many pings) at Scioto Darby Creek (Hilliard/West side).

Often you will read “Brian’s phone pinged a tower in Hilliard, a suburb 14 miles northwest of central Columbus.” That is true, but it is my understanding that the pings in April were separate from the ringing in September.

Kelly please correct me if I’m wrong. I’m looking forward to the upcoming podcast which delves into the phone ping data and what that might tell us.

 

[justinkjones1993]

I think there's a pretty decent chance that somebody else had his phone during all those pings and maybe even as late as September when it rang.

Which to me indicates that Brian either lost/ditched the phone somewhere, or he was separated from it during some kind of foul play.

This is certainly a baffling case, but my gut tells me somebody harmed Brian that morning while he was stumbling around in Columbus, and whatever is left of him has simply been very well hidden all these years.

 

[Kittybunny]

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.

thank you so much for providing this information, it's very helpful for me, not being a local. It is a theory that I did wonder about, being from Pittsburgh which has its higher than normal share of young men drowning in rivers, probably because we have three of them near the downtown area. I agree with you that based on what you say and the geography and nature of the river that it is unlikely that he would've drowned, and a body not been found.

Also, I really appreciate the discussion about whether Brian could have made it back to his apartment after all and I'm definitely starting to think that it's a strong possibility, which makes me consider walkaway as a much higher probability option. How strongly was him going back to his apartment investigated? If I went missing after a night out at a bar and there was no definitive evidence, I don't think anyone, even my mother would be able to tell if I had come back to spend the night at my house or not, because I'm pretty much a slob, LOL I don't make my bed every day etc. there are clothes all over the floor, no real indicators. I assume that his wardrobe was searched for the clothes that he was wearing that night but he could have just decided to leave in whatever he was wearing.

 

[MysteryMaven]

I just can’t rule any scenario out including a walk away situation.

https://www.thelantern.com/2009/04/is-brian-shaffer-alive/

An attorney believes that an Ohio State medical student who has been missing for more than three years is alive, he told a private investigator in an e-mail....

Attorney Neil Rosenberg represents [Clint] Florence, who has refused at least two requests to take polygraph tests during the investigation of Shaffer’s disappearance. Florence is the only person who has refused to take a polygraph, said Kevin Miles, director of the Central Ohio Crime Stoppers.

In the e-mail he sent to [Don] Corbett on Sept. 22, 2008, Rosenberg said: “If Brian is alive, which is what I’m led to believe after speaking with the detective involved, then it is Brian, and not Clint who is causing his family pain and hardship. Brian should come forward and end this.”

Corbett said he doesn’t know which detective Rosenberg was referring to in the e-mail. However, he believes it is one of three men at Columbus Police: detective Andre Edwards of the Physical Child Abuse Section, Sgt. John Hurst of the Physical Abuse Section and Deputy Chief Antone Lanata of the Investigative Subdivision.

All three did not respond to repeated requests last week for an interview about whether they told Rosenberg they believe Shaffer is still alive.

 

[MerryB]

I believe Brian could’ve walked away. I also believe someone could’ve harmed him. There’s no evidence of either that I’m aware of.

What I am sure of, based on the facts of this case, is that he made it out of the bar that night.

I tend to believe he even may have made it home, and whatever happened occurred later. MOO

 

[justinkjones1993]

There's not really any good evidence that Brian is alive, and it takes a certain type of person to plan and successfully execute a voluntary disappearance like this. Think about it for a minute, if Brian walked away from his life in 2006, he's lived essentially off the grid for over 15 years. Given what we know about Brian's personal relationships with his family and his girlfriend, and also given what we know about Brian's condition on 4-1-06 (by all indications he was extremely intoxicated), it seems super unlikely to me that he would've chosen this particular time to stage a masterful disappearance.

Could he have been living a double life and planned something like this without anyone knowing? Possibly. Could he have only told Clint? Perhaps. But then you have to start asking why Clint has such a vested interest in keeping this secret and not giving Brian's family the closure they need. Would it be because he's still secretly communicating with Brian?

There's just too many holes and logical leaps of faith for me to think Brian is still out there all these years later. I don't think we can *completely* rule it out, but I do think the reasonable assumption is that Brian is deceased and whatever happened to him probably happened within about an hour of that last time he was captured on CCTV, and it probably happened between the bar and his apartment.

 

[justinkjones1993]

Now, to expand on the possible foul play scenario, the fact that so many of these detectives and family members are hinting at Clint knowing something, I do think he's a possible person of interest and is either currently or was on the police's radar at one time.

We don't really know what their relationship was like outside of hearsay stuff from people who knew them, but there's certainly a possibility that Brian and Clint were involved in some kind of dispute or altercation after their night out and something terrible happened.

For the record, I don't believe this is actually what happened, I think it's more likely that Brian was drunk, stumbling around in the early morning hours in a bad part of town, somebody thought he was an easy target because of his condition and decided to rob him, something got out of hand, and he was killed. His body could be anywhere near the area, or it could have been loaded into a vehicle and driven to another state for all we know.

 

[itsrak]

Now, to expand on the possible foul play scenario, the fact that so many of these detectives and family members are hinting at Clint knowing something, I do think he's a possible person of interest and is either currently or was on the police's radar at one time.

We don't really know what their relationship was like outside of hearsay stuff from people who knew them, but there's certainly a possibility that Brian and Clint were involved in some kind of dispute or altercation after their night out and something terrible happened.

For the record, I don't believe this is actually what happened, I think it's more likely that Brian was drunk, stumbling around in the early morning hours in a bad part of town, somebody thought he was an easy target because of his condition and decided to rob him, something got out of hand, and he was killed. His body could be anywhere near the area, or it could have been loaded into a vehicle and driven to another state for all we know.

Keep it even simpler than that. Not stumbling around a bad part of town. Stumbling around a bad part of the complex - the 'completely dug up' 'difficult to navigate even sober' (not my assessment - the assessment of the lead investigator at the time) construction area just feet from where he was last seen. No need to conjure up a bad guy, to explain seeming failure to exit the complex, to try to explain avoidance of surveillance cams, untouched funds, etc. Just a stupid, drunken accident within a few minutes of having last appeared on vid. A botched, failed investigation. An unwillingness to dig. Poof! Occam's Razor - This philosophical razor advocates that when presented with competing hypotheses about the same prediction, one should select the solution with the fewest assumptions.

 

[MerryB]

Putting aside the phone pings, dogs picking up his scent on an alternate route home, the grainy CCTV footage and multiple alternate exits, let me ask you this:

Does Brian seem inebriated on CCTV footage? Watch him ride up the escalator. Watch him talk with the girls. Is he stumbling? Swaying? Unaware of his surroundings?

 

[King91]

I found it interesting to learn that the cheque for the next semester that Brian was given had not been turned in.

I didn’t know that. Interesting.

The thing I find weird though, about the whole “taking off” theory is why would you exhaust yourself all week long, pulling all nighters preparing for exams if you’re not even planning on following through with it? Brian is out with his friends, drinking, allegedly making plans for an after party at his apartment, flirting and getting a girls number just to be like nah, I’m taking off instead, a few minutes later.

With little details, for 15 years and counting. Just like that.

The phone pings are interesting. But I’m not really sure they can be used to point to the taking off theory. If he took off, he left behind his father, brother, a beautiful girlfriend, his stuff at his apartment, his car.

Why would he care about taking an old, flip phone cell phone he most likely didn’t even have the charger to? This isn’t like a newer iPhone where you can basically store your whole life onto it. We’re talking about a cell phone that required pressing the same button multiple times to get a specific letter.

Again, maddening case. And sad.

 

[Mitzi Grace]

Any guess as to why Clint would seek immunity?

 

[itsrak]

Any guess as to why Clint would seek immunity?

No idea why he would ever have done such a thing, as there is no evidence whatsoever of any wrong doing. In fact, lots of folks believe Brian is alive to this day!

 

[King91]

Any guess as to why Clint would seek immunity?

I believe Hurst said this never happened.

 

[MerryB]

I believe Hurst said this never happened.

Correct.

 

[King91]

Correct.

Thank you. I thought I had heard him say that. By the way, I’ve also heard him say the CPD has three theories but wouldn’t publicly state what they are. Have you heard anything? I’ve tried looking but haven’t seen anything since that article.

 

[MerryB]

Thank you. I thought I had heard him say that. By the way, I’ve also heard him say the CPD has three theories but wouldn’t publicly state what they are. Have you heard anything? I’ve tried looking but haven’t seen anything since that article.

You’re welcome. I believe the 3 theories are: 1) runaway 2) suicide 3) murder. He says this in the podcast interview.

 

[itsrak]

I believe the 3 theories are: 1) runaway 2) suicide 3) murder.

Which would be exactly why CPD never found Brian's remains and solved the case.

 

[MerryB]

You’re welcome. I believe the 3 theories are: 1) runaway 2) suicide 3) murder. He says this in the podcast interview.

I wanted to correct myself, as I had a chance to re-listen to the podcast. At 49:54 Detective Hurst briefly outlines CPD’s 3 theories. They are:
1) suicide (“I think most people want to be found”),
2) abduction (he doesn’t use the word murder) (“Everything we’ve looked at so far doesn’t give us an indication he was abducted”),
and 3) runaway (“Could he have left on his own? Absolutely. He had a lot going on…the death of his mother, the pressure of the possibility of getting engaged, college exams, all kinds of things”).
He ends with this: “Do I think he’s dead or alive? I think from the investigation and what we’ve learned over the years is there’s a strong possibility he could be alive.”

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chapter-three-the-inside-track/id1505624377?i=1000470452913