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Cops-CAN-T-EXPLAIN-his-911-call · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to tell you the story of one
0:02
Speaker 1: of the most talked about mysteries on the Internet. And
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Speaker 1: I think part of the reason this story is so
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Speaker 1: mysterious and so intriguing is because there's this really unsettling
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Speaker 1: audio recording that sort of confounds the whole mystery and
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Speaker 1: really forces you to take a stance about what you
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Speaker 1: think really happened. And so I'm going to tell you
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Speaker 1: the story, and towards the end, I'm going to play
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Speaker 1: you that recording and you can decide what you think
0:26
Speaker 1: really happened. But before we get into that story, if
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Speaker 1: you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered
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Speaker 1: don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get
1:03
Speaker 1: into today's story. At twelve thirty am on August ninth,
1:23
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, a man named Kyle Lawson was asleep in
1:26
Speaker 1: his bedroom with his wife at their home in San Angelo, Texas,
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Speaker 1: when his cell phone rang and it woke him up.
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Speaker 1: Kyle looked at the caller ID and saw that the
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Speaker 1: call was coming in from his twenty six year old brother, Brandon,
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Speaker 1: And so, you know, Kyle picked it up, but before
1:40
Speaker 1: he could even say hello, his brother said he needed help,
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Speaker 1: and then he launched into this big story that really
1:46
Speaker 1: sounded completely insane. He told Kyle he was currently driving
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Speaker 1: north on Highway two seventy seven, which is this totally
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Speaker 1: desolate two lane country road that runs through West Texas,
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Speaker 1: and that three men were chasing brands. And on top
2:00
Speaker 1: of that, Brandon told his brother that, you know, he's
2:03
Speaker 1: trying to get away from these men, but his truck
2:05
Speaker 1: was about to run out of gas, and so what
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Speaker 1: he wanted Kyle to do was to right now, in
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Speaker 1: the middle of the night, come meet him secretly to
2:12
Speaker 1: hand off a gas tank so Brandon could officially escape
2:17
Speaker 1: these three men. But as Kyle listened to this, he
2:20
Speaker 1: was not really actually concerned at least in terms of
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Speaker 1: Brandon being in any sort of real danger with regards
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Speaker 1: to these three men that were chasing him. In reality,
2:30
Speaker 1: Kyle's reaction to this was just being so annoyed at
2:33
Speaker 1: Brandon because after hearing this story, this frantic story Brandon's
2:38
Speaker 1: telling him in the middle of the night, he was
2:40
Speaker 1: sure that really there were no three men that instead
2:43
Speaker 1: his brother Brandon was just high again and he was hallucinating.
2:47
Speaker 1: He was basically having an episode that was substance induced.
2:51
Speaker 1: So Brandon had a history of methamphetamine use. He'd been
2:55
Speaker 1: cleaned for the last six months or so, and he'd
2:57
Speaker 1: been working on, you know, being a better partner to
2:59
Speaker 1: his fiance Ladessa and also a better father to his
3:02
Speaker 1: four children. But just two days ago, Brandon had also
3:06
Speaker 1: called Kyle, but it had been to ask Kyle if
3:09
Speaker 1: he knew where he could get some drugs. Now, Kyle
3:11
Speaker 1: did not immediately say, oh, here's where you go to
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Speaker 1: get drugs. Instead, he tried to tell Brandon, like, don't
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Speaker 1: do it, like you should not get high. You're clean,
3:19
Speaker 1: like you're doing good. But he was pretty sure Brandon
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Speaker 1: had not listened because ever since that phone call, even
3:25
Speaker 1: though Kyle didn't give him any resources for drugs. Brandon
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Speaker 1: must have gone and gotten drugs anyways, because his behavior
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Speaker 1: had just been completely crazy in general. In fact, right now,
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Speaker 1: Kyle knew from having spoken to his parents earlier that
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Speaker 1: the whole reason Brandon was even driving on Highway to
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Speaker 1: seventy seven right now was because he got into a
3:46
Speaker 1: big fight with his fiance and was supposed to be
3:49
Speaker 1: going to his parents' house to chill out, like he
3:51
Speaker 1: was basically going to time out for bad behavior. That's
3:54
Speaker 1: why he was out right now. Now, Kyle knew Brandon
3:57
Speaker 1: was very likely high, and so this was not going
3:59
Speaker 1: to be a good time to reason with Brandon and
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Speaker 1: tell him to, you know, just come home or just
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Speaker 1: go to your parents' house, because you know, there's no
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Speaker 1: such thing as these three men like you're just high.
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Speaker 1: You know, he's not going to listen to that. So
4:10
Speaker 1: instead Kyle just focused on trying to calm Brandon down,
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Speaker 1: because again Kyle is not thinking Brandon is actually in danger.
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Speaker 1: He's thinking this is just a hallucination. But as Kyle
4:22
Speaker 1: tried to do that, Brandon did not calm down. He
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Speaker 1: got more and more anxious, and he's he's continuing to
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Speaker 1: talk about these these three men that are gaining on him,
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Speaker 1: and finally Kyle just said, dude, Brandon, have you relapsed?
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Speaker 1: Is that what's going on here? But as Kyle expected,
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Speaker 1: Brandon swore up and down that he was not high,
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Speaker 1: and he just kept on begging Kyle to come help
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Speaker 1: him fast before these men caught up to him, like,
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Speaker 1: come give me the gas I need so I can escape.
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Speaker 1: Come on, man. At this point, Kyle felt like there
4:52
Speaker 1: was no point even talking to Brandon, and in some
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Speaker 1: ways he just wanted to hang up and forget about
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Speaker 1: this whole thing, like this was crazy. He has his
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Speaker 1: own life and his own respon onsibilities, like he shouldn't
5:01
Speaker 1: be babysitting his younger brother. But at the same time,
5:05
Speaker 1: Kyle was very close with his brother. Even if you
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Speaker 1: know he resented it, he did love his brother very much.
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Speaker 1: And even though he did feel like there is no
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Speaker 1: imminent danger here other than maybe Brandon to himself, Kyle decided,
5:17
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm just gonna go out on Highway
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Speaker 1: to seventy seven. I'm gonna find Brandon and just get
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Speaker 1: him back home. So he told Brandon he'd be right there,
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Speaker 1: and then he hung up. About forty five minutes later,
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Speaker 1: Kyle drove north on Highway to seventy seven, along with
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Speaker 1: his wife in his passenger seat and their four year
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Speaker 1: old son in the back. Kyle's wife had not wanted
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Speaker 1: him to be out in the middle of the night
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Speaker 1: dealing with his crazy brother all alone, so she'd insisted
5:42
Speaker 1: that she and their son come along, and so as
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Speaker 1: Kyle drove down the road, he kept an eye out
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Speaker 1: for Brandon's truck. Now, to set the scene for you,
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Speaker 1: this really is like a desolate highway. There's no real
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Speaker 1: traffic and really in either direction, it's just kind of
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Speaker 1: open planes and some shrubs and small trees. Like this
5:59
Speaker 1: is a a big, wide open area. It's pretty easy
6:02
Speaker 1: to see way out in front of you. And so
6:04
Speaker 1: he's got a great view even though it's nighttime. But
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Speaker 1: he can't see any vehicles, Like there's no truck, there's
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Speaker 1: nothing like his brother is nowhere to be seen. But
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Speaker 1: Kyle just kept on driving and kept on looking out.
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Speaker 1: He was even just sort of looking out into the
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Speaker 1: fields in case, you know, his brother had veered off
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Speaker 1: the road somewhere, which seemed entirely possible. But eventually, after
6:24
Speaker 1: driving for some time, way up ahead, sort of parked
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Speaker 1: half on the road half off was a truck. Its
6:30
Speaker 1: lights were off, you know, it's just sitting there. It's
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Speaker 1: not even idling. It's clearly turned off. But as Kyle
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Speaker 1: got closer, he realized it was Brandon's truck. So he
6:38
Speaker 1: had found Brandon. And so Kyle he pulls over to
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Speaker 1: the opposite side of the road and he parks his
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Speaker 1: car and he tells his wife and his son to
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Speaker 1: stay in the car, and he's going to go talk
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Speaker 1: to Brandon, who, at this point Kyle is assuming is
6:50
Speaker 1: sitting in his truck, you know, waiting for Kyle. And
6:53
Speaker 1: also keep in mind, at this point, Kyle's thinking, well,
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Speaker 1: there's nobody else out here. There's no three men chasing
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Speaker 1: my brother, probably just sitting here high as can be.
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Speaker 1: And I'm gonna talk to him, and he's just gonna
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Speaker 1: go home and we're gonna move past this. But when
7:08
Speaker 1: Kyle walked over to the vehicle, there was nobody inside
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Speaker 1: of it. Brandon's gone, and he's thinking to himself, this
7:15
Speaker 1: really doesn't make any sense. Because on the ride to
7:18
Speaker 1: the truck, as they were on Highway to seventy seven,
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Speaker 1: Brandon kept repeatedly calling Kyle over and over and over again,
7:26
Speaker 1: being like, come on, you gotta hurry up, you gotta
7:28
Speaker 1: get here. They're gaining on me, like I'm in trouble.
7:31
Speaker 1: Bring that gasoline. You gotta get here. And now that
7:33
Speaker 1: he's here, he's finally reached clearly Brandon's truck. It's right here,
7:39
Speaker 1: and Brandon's gone. He's gone from his truck. He didn't
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Speaker 1: tell him that on the phone, Like where is he?
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Speaker 1: What's going on here? And so Kyle he's like looking
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Speaker 1: under the vehicle. He's he's searching the vehicle now for
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Speaker 1: his brother, which is totally crazy, like what's his brother
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Speaker 1: doing here? But as he's searching the vehicle for his
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Speaker 1: brother and looking around the area for his brother, Kyle's
7:58
Speaker 1: phone rings and it's Brandon. And so Kyle, who at
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Speaker 1: this point is feeling really annoyed, he answers the phone
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Speaker 1: and he's like Brandon, where are you? And Brandon goes, bro,
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Speaker 1: I'm right here, and Kyle's like, no, you're not, Like
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Speaker 1: I don't see you. There's no one here. Your truck
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Speaker 1: is here, You're not here. But just then Kyle looked
8:17
Speaker 1: out and there was a car coming towards him. So
8:19
Speaker 1: he saw the headlights and he realized it was a
8:22
Speaker 1: cop car. And so he's on the phone with Brandon.
8:25
Speaker 1: He's looking out at this cop car that's coming up
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Speaker 1: this road towards him and clearly slowing down, like the
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Speaker 1: police officer is going to stop and talk to Kyle, presumably,
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Speaker 1: And so as this cop car is coming in and
8:35
Speaker 1: slowing down right in front of him, Brandon on the
8:39
Speaker 1: phone says to Kyle, run away from that cop Now,
8:43
Speaker 1: think about this. That meant Brandon had to be somewhere
8:46
Speaker 1: nearby because he can clearly see the cop car approaching Kyle.
8:50
Speaker 1: He's watching the scene. Even though Kyle has not found
8:53
Speaker 1: his brother, Brandon is clearly actually nearby. But Kyle, he's
8:58
Speaker 1: sort of quickly interpreting this and he's thinking, like where
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Speaker 1: is Brandon Because he's looking out and it's just open
9:05
Speaker 1: fields in either direction on either side of this highway.
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Speaker 1: It's like this barren wasteland out in the middle of Texas. Like,
9:12
Speaker 1: where is he hiding? There's nowhere to hide. There's a
9:14
Speaker 1: couple of shrubs and really small trees sort of off
9:18
Speaker 1: in the distance, but like there's really nowhere to hide.
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Speaker 1: So where is Brandon and Kyle He's just feeling furious
9:25
Speaker 1: at this point, confused but furious. It's like, what are
9:29
Speaker 1: you doing Brandon, Like he knew the reason Brandon wanted
9:32
Speaker 1: Kyle to run also is because Brandon had an active
9:36
Speaker 1: warrant out for his arrest that had to do with
9:38
Speaker 1: a drug charge, and so he's just protecting himself, like,
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Speaker 1: don't get involved with the police, like keep me out
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Speaker 1: of it. And it's like, Kyle, he's already out here
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Speaker 1: in the middle of the night doing this crap for
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Speaker 1: his brother who's completely office rocker like he was so annoyed.
9:51
Speaker 1: But again it's like what does he even do? He
9:52
Speaker 1: has no idea where Brandon is. And so Kyle he
9:55
Speaker 1: was about to say something to Brandon to demand, you know,
9:58
Speaker 1: where are you come out here, but Brandon hung up.
10:02
Speaker 1: Now by this point, the police officer had arrived on scene.
10:05
Speaker 1: He had parked his car and he walked over to Kyle,
10:08
Speaker 1: who now is standing right next to his brother's vehicle.
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Speaker 1: You know, he's put his phone back in his pocket,
10:12
Speaker 1: and the officer when he got close enough, he introduced
10:15
Speaker 1: himself as Deputy Neil of the Coke County Sheriff's department,
10:18
Speaker 1: and he told Kyle that he was responding to a
10:20
Speaker 1: nine to one to one call from a trucker about
10:23
Speaker 1: a stranded driver on the road, and so he asked
10:26
Speaker 1: Kyle if maybe that was him, Is this your truck?
10:29
Speaker 1: Are you the stranded driver? You know, pointing to Brandon's truck,
10:32
Speaker 1: But Kyle said no, it was not his. It belonged
10:34
Speaker 1: to his brother. But despite how much he really wished
10:38
Speaker 1: he could say the truth, he wanted to protect his brother,
10:41
Speaker 1: so he couldn't tell the deputy that, well, you know,
10:43
Speaker 1: the reason my brother left his car here is because
10:45
Speaker 1: he's probably high on meth and he's somewhere nearby hiding,
10:48
Speaker 1: and also he has a warrant out for his arrest.
10:51
Speaker 1: So instead Kyle said, well, you know, I think he
10:54
Speaker 1: went off to get some gas because he called me
10:56
Speaker 1: and he said he'd run out of gas, so he
10:57
Speaker 1: parked his car here, so he probably has has walked
11:00
Speaker 1: on and you know, I just got here. Is it
11:03
Speaker 1: okay with you if I get back in the car
11:05
Speaker 1: with my wife and son and just drive up and
11:07
Speaker 1: down the road here to find Brandon, because I'm sure
11:09
Speaker 1: he's fine. But he called me to help get him gas,
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Speaker 1: So do you mind if I do that? And surprisingly
11:15
Speaker 1: the deputy was like, yeah, that's fine, go ahead, And
11:18
Speaker 1: so Kyle he got right back into his car with
11:20
Speaker 1: his wife and his son, and he did fire up
11:22
Speaker 1: his car and he drove farther down the highway, and
11:25
Speaker 1: as he did, he kept looking over his shoulder to
11:26
Speaker 1: see what the cop was going to do, and the
11:28
Speaker 1: cop was just still parked next to Brandon's car, And eventually,
11:32
Speaker 1: when Kyle drove far enough that he knew the cop
11:34
Speaker 1: couldn't see him anymore, he pulled over to the side
11:37
Speaker 1: of the road and he began really angrily calling his
11:40
Speaker 1: brother over and over and over again to get him
11:42
Speaker 1: back on the phone, but Brandon never answered the calls.
11:46
Speaker 1: And so at this point Kyle has no idea what's
11:48
Speaker 1: going on with Brandon. I mean he didn't before, but
11:50
Speaker 1: now especially he's out of contact with his brother. And
11:53
Speaker 1: so Kyle and his family would sit there for a
11:55
Speaker 1: little bit longer, like, continuing to try to get in
11:57
Speaker 1: touch with Brandon, but to no end, and eventually Kyle's
12:01
Speaker 1: four year old son began crying and complaining because it's
12:04
Speaker 1: so late and he's tired, and you know, Kyle's wife
12:06
Speaker 1: is tired. It's two in the morning, and Kyle, he's
12:09
Speaker 1: just so over it. He's like, you know what, Brandon
12:12
Speaker 1: is an adult. I tried to come out here and
12:14
Speaker 1: get him out of this mess. But if he doesn't
12:16
Speaker 1: want to be in touch with me and he wants
12:17
Speaker 1: to hide off the side of the highway, that's on him.
12:21
Speaker 1: I'm taking my family and I'm going home. And so
12:23
Speaker 1: that's what he did. He turned around, he drove right
12:26
Speaker 1: back the way he came, and he actually passed by
12:28
Speaker 1: his brother's truck that was still there. So Brandon clearly
12:31
Speaker 1: is still in hiding and standing next to his brother's
12:34
Speaker 1: truck is still Deputy Neil, he presumably was waiting for
12:38
Speaker 1: Brandon to show back up. He drove right past them.
12:41
Speaker 1: He went back to his home and they went to bed,
12:43
Speaker 1: and he figured, you know what, tomorrow I will likely
12:46
Speaker 1: hear from Brandon and he'll tell me some crazy story
12:49
Speaker 1: explaining what really happened. But you know what, whatever, that's
12:52
Speaker 1: on him. Not long after Kyle had driven past Deputy
12:55
Speaker 1: Neil on his way back home, Neil decided, you know what, like,
12:59
Speaker 1: I'm not just going to sit here all night waiting
13:00
Speaker 1: for Brandon. You know, he had searched Brandon's truck and
13:03
Speaker 1: there was nothing concerning inside of it. There was you know,
13:06
Speaker 1: no phone, no wallet, no keys, things that people would
13:09
Speaker 1: not leave behind if they ran out of gas and
13:11
Speaker 1: decided to go walk to get gas. So it seemed
13:14
Speaker 1: very much like that is what happened. Brandon had pulled
13:16
Speaker 1: his car over, gotten out and begun the walk, and
13:18
Speaker 1: then his brother showed up, and the whole thing was
13:20
Speaker 1: playing out here, and so Neil figured, okay, well I
13:23
Speaker 1: have other calls to go to. It doesn't seem like
13:25
Speaker 1: this is a huge emergency, and so he just reached
13:28
Speaker 1: inside the truck. He turned on the hazard lights, then
13:30
Speaker 1: he locked all the doors and shut them, and then
13:33
Speaker 1: he got in his own vehicle and he took off
13:35
Speaker 1: because again he had other calls to attend to that night.
13:39
Speaker 1: The next morning, around eight am, Deputy Neil was back
13:42
Speaker 1: out on Highway to seventy seven just to make sure
13:45
Speaker 1: Brandon had eventually come back and claimed his truck, but no,
13:49
Speaker 1: the truck was still sitting there hazards on. Now at
13:52
Speaker 1: this point, Deputy Neil was starting to get a bit
13:54
Speaker 1: concerned about Brandon because, you know, he's out on foot
13:57
Speaker 1: walking to get gas for his truck, and even though
13:59
Speaker 1: it's it seemed like the risk was sort of low
14:01
Speaker 1: for him, it is possible something could have happened to him,
14:04
Speaker 1: and that's why he had not come back to his truck.
14:06
Speaker 1: You know, maybe he was hit by a car or
14:09
Speaker 1: you know, got lost or something. Who knows, like anything
14:11
Speaker 1: could have happened, or you know, maybe Brandon decided not
14:14
Speaker 1: to claim his truck yet, maybe he just went home
14:16
Speaker 1: and he's gonna get it later. But regardless, it just
14:18
Speaker 1: seemed like Neil really had to go follow up personally
14:22
Speaker 1: with Brandon just to make sure he was okay. And
14:25
Speaker 1: so Neil drove back to the sheriff's department to see
14:27
Speaker 1: if he could find the contact information for Brandon. But
14:31
Speaker 1: when he walked in the door, he didn't have any
14:32
Speaker 1: time to do any digging because another employee told him
14:35
Speaker 1: that while he was out, the department had gotten a
14:38
Speaker 1: call from Brandon's fiance, Ladessa, and Ladessa had given them
14:42
Speaker 1: a very different story than the one Brandon's brother Kyle
14:45
Speaker 1: had told Neil the night before. According to Ledessa, she
14:49
Speaker 1: and Brandon had been fighting for the past few days
14:52
Speaker 1: and last night. So on the night that this whole
14:54
Speaker 1: truck thing happened, Brandon was supposed to be on his
14:57
Speaker 1: way to his parents' house to cool off from the
15:00
Speaker 1: fight he was having with Ledessa. But he never arrived
15:03
Speaker 1: at his parents' house and he never came back to
15:06
Speaker 1: Ladessa's house, and so Brandon was totally unaccounted for. And
15:10
Speaker 1: on top of that, nobody could get in touch with Brandon.
15:13
Speaker 1: They were calling and texting him no response. After hearing this,
15:18
Speaker 1: Deputy Neil was surprised and also pretty angry because clearly
15:22
Speaker 1: Brandon's brother, Kyle, had acted like everything was totally fine
15:25
Speaker 1: the night before, but that had to have been a lie,
15:28
Speaker 1: you know, because Ladessa is saying this totally different story.
15:31
Speaker 1: And so the first thing Neil did is he went
15:33
Speaker 1: and spoke to Kyle and also to the rest of
15:35
Speaker 1: Brandon's family to get the story straight here. And very
15:39
Speaker 1: quickly it became clear to Deputy Neil that any omissions
15:43
Speaker 1: or even lies about what had happened exactly on the
15:46
Speaker 1: night that Kyle went missing were not because the family
15:49
Speaker 1: was hiding something. I mean, they were kind of trying
15:51
Speaker 1: to protect Brandon, but it was because they didn't understand
15:54
Speaker 1: how serious this situation really was. And so now that
15:58
Speaker 1: Brandon really was missing and nobody what happened to him,
16:01
Speaker 1: the family was very forthright that they really didn't know
16:04
Speaker 1: what had happened to him, and that yes, maybe he
16:06
Speaker 1: was on drugs, we don't know, but he really is
16:09
Speaker 1: missing and you got to go look for him. And
16:11
Speaker 1: so that's what Neil did. Over the next four days,
16:14
Speaker 1: there was this huge search that Neil led all around
16:18
Speaker 1: Highway to seventy seven, where the center of the search
16:21
Speaker 1: was where Brandon's truck had been found. But despite using
16:24
Speaker 1: canines and helicopters and these huge search teams, some of
16:27
Speaker 1: which had thermal cameras which would allow you to see
16:29
Speaker 1: body heat like, despite covering this vast area all around
16:33
Speaker 1: where Brandon clearly had been, there was absolutely no sign
16:38
Speaker 1: of him. And they also spoke to the homeowners and
16:40
Speaker 1: the property owners sort of roughly in the area to
16:43
Speaker 1: see if maybe they had seen something strange, maybe seen
16:46
Speaker 1: Brandon or or those three men that apparently had been
16:49
Speaker 1: chasing him on the night he went missing. But nobody
16:52
Speaker 1: had seen anything, and so basically Brandon was definitely not
16:55
Speaker 1: here and there was no sign he had been here.
16:58
Speaker 1: Other than his truck that was. And so Deputy Neil
17:01
Speaker 1: and the rest of the authorities who were involved in
17:03
Speaker 1: this search ultimately came to the conclusion that, based on
17:07
Speaker 1: the fact that Brandon had clearly been fighting with his fiance,
17:11
Speaker 1: that he had an active warrant out for his arrest,
17:14
Speaker 1: and that he had not been seen in days and
17:16
Speaker 1: there was no sign of him anywhere nothing, that what
17:19
Speaker 1: must have happened here is Brandon fled, that he's not
17:23
Speaker 1: here because he chose not to be here, that he
17:25
Speaker 1: was never in any danger, he fled the area, and
17:29
Speaker 1: looking here is going to do nothing. We basically have
17:31
Speaker 1: to wait for Brandon to show up at some point,
17:34
Speaker 1: and so for the most part, this seemed like a
17:36
Speaker 1: pretty open and shutcase until Brandon's fiance, Ladessa, came into
17:41
Speaker 1: the station in person with the bombshell on August thirteenth,
17:46
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, so four days after Brandon went missing. This
17:48
Speaker 1: is right around the time the search has been called off.
17:51
Speaker 1: The officer on duty at the Coke County Sheriff's Department
17:54
Speaker 1: sat across from Ladessa, and Ladessa looked extremely upset, and
17:59
Speaker 1: she said that she got so worried about Brandon that
18:01
Speaker 1: she'd started searching through their cell phone records and she
18:04
Speaker 1: had found something really concerning. She pulled out a piece
18:07
Speaker 1: of paper and she handed it to the officer, and
18:09
Speaker 1: she pointed at a specific section, and this officer he
18:13
Speaker 1: realized quickly that this was a printed out copy of
18:15
Speaker 1: Brandon's call locks And what Ledessa was pointing to was
18:19
Speaker 1: a call that Brandon had made at twelve fifty a m.
18:23
Speaker 1: On the night he disappeared. In between a flurry of
18:26
Speaker 1: calls to Kyle and also to Kyle's wife, Brandon had
18:30
Speaker 1: also placed a call to nine one one. Ladessa told
18:34
Speaker 1: the officer that the fact that Brandon himself had called
18:37
Speaker 1: nine one one actually terrified her, because Brandon would have
18:40
Speaker 1: done practically anything to avoid the police. He was terrified
18:44
Speaker 1: of the police. In fact, she knew from talking to
18:46
Speaker 1: Kyle that Brandon had even suggested to him that he
18:50
Speaker 1: should run from the police on the night he went
18:52
Speaker 1: missing when he saw the cop approaching him. And so
18:54
Speaker 1: she said, look like he would only ever call the
18:57
Speaker 1: police if he truly had two But She's like, why
19:03
Speaker 1: then after calling the police did he presumably run away.
19:06
Speaker 1: It just doesn't make any sense. And all of this
19:09
Speaker 1: came as a total surprise to this officer and to
19:12
Speaker 1: the Sheriff's Department, because until this moment, the belief had
19:15
Speaker 1: been that a trucker had called nine to one one
19:18
Speaker 1: about a stranded driver, and that was how Deputy Neil
19:20
Speaker 1: got involved, and really this whole thing started, but nobody
19:23
Speaker 1: knew there had also been this other nine to one
19:25
Speaker 1: one call from Brandon himself. The nine to one to
19:29
Speaker 1: one dispatch in the area was tiny, underfunded, and understaffed,
19:33
Speaker 1: and at some point someone must have just dropped the
19:35
Speaker 1: ball when it came to informing the Sheriff's department about
19:39
Speaker 1: Brandon's nine to one one call, because they really didn't
19:41
Speaker 1: know about it, but now that they did, they needed
19:44
Speaker 1: to hear that call for themselves. The Sheriff's Department would
19:47
Speaker 1: contact that nine to one one dispatch and they would
19:50
Speaker 1: send them an audio recording of Brandon's call, and when
19:53
Speaker 1: they listened to it, they were shocked because one, Brandon
19:57
Speaker 1: one hundred percent sounded like he was an imminent danger.
20:00
Speaker 1: This was not like a low stakes call from a
20:03
Speaker 1: stranded driver. This was someone who thought they were in
20:05
Speaker 1: real peril here. And then two, if you listen closely,
20:09
Speaker 1: you can hear the sound of somebody else's voice in
20:13
Speaker 1: the background on Brandon's side of the call, shortly before
20:17
Speaker 1: it cuts out, Man an emergency. Yes, I'm in the
20:21
Speaker 1: middle of the field A side. We're just persting guys
20:23
Speaker 1: over got here going to a raveling on both sides.
20:26
Speaker 1: It's not turning out of gas. There's wal car here.
20:28
Speaker 1: You got strake the woods pretty okay, now run that,
20:33
Speaker 1: I mean we're not Ah, you ran into them, okay,
20:40
Speaker 1: Joseph Hart scot you need an ambulet? No, I need
20:45
Speaker 1: a call. Okay, Is anybody hurt? Tell? So they hello.
21:03
Speaker 1: And so at this point authorities are thinking, Okay, this
21:06
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily seem like this is just a disappearance. This
21:10
Speaker 1: might be a murder. I mean, they didn't have a body,
21:12
Speaker 1: but the idea that there's another voice and he's talking
21:15
Speaker 1: about being chased through the woods and there's these men
21:18
Speaker 1: coming after him, I mean, this audio recording gave a
21:20
Speaker 1: lot of legitimacy to that. And so the search, which
21:24
Speaker 1: had just ended, was quickly resumed and expanded dramatically, and
21:28
Speaker 1: for the next year, with all these additional resources being
21:32
Speaker 1: poured in, there was this massive effort to find Brandon Lawson,
21:37
Speaker 1: but they didn't find him. There was no other sign
21:40
Speaker 1: of him. He was just completely gone. They looked everywhere
21:44
Speaker 1: around that highway to seventy seven, all over the place
21:48
Speaker 1: near where his truck was. There was no evidence. He
21:50
Speaker 1: was just gone. And so ultimately Brandon's case went cold,
21:54
Speaker 1: and for the most part, authorities just kind of moved on,
21:58
Speaker 1: But Brandon's family did not move on. His fiance, Ladessa,
22:02
Speaker 1: would go on to hire two private detectives and they
22:05
Speaker 1: would both conduct these big searches multiple times over around
22:09
Speaker 1: the area where Brandon left his truck and also across
22:11
Speaker 1: the state, but they too, also just came up empty.
22:15
Speaker 1: And as the years passed by without answers, Brandon's disappearance
22:19
Speaker 1: captured more people's attention and it started being featured on
22:22
Speaker 1: TV shows and podcasts. People had all kinds of theories
22:26
Speaker 1: about what had happened. You know, maybe Brandon really was
22:28
Speaker 1: just high and hallucinating and he wandered off somewhere and
22:32
Speaker 1: got attacked by wild animals, or maybe he really was
22:35
Speaker 1: being chased by these three men and they kidnapped or
22:38
Speaker 1: killed him, And maybe that voice you hear on the
22:40
Speaker 1: recording was one of those three men, or maybe he
22:43
Speaker 1: really had just fled the area on purpose, like the
22:45
Speaker 1: Sheriff's department originally thought, nobody really knew, And so for
22:49
Speaker 1: nine years Brandon's case was full of questions and zero answers.
22:53
Speaker 1: But then in January of twenty twenty two, a small
22:57
Speaker 1: group of volunteers went out to Highway two seventy seven
23:00
Speaker 1: to the area where Brandon had disappeared, which had been
23:03
Speaker 1: searched so many times over They this small group of
23:07
Speaker 1: volunteers would make the biggest breakthrough in Brandon's case in
23:11
Speaker 1: nearly a decade. While they were combing through this field
23:15
Speaker 1: off the side of the highway again, a field that
23:17
Speaker 1: had been searched numerous times by hundreds and hundreds of people,
23:21
Speaker 1: these volunteers came across an old pair of shorts and
23:25
Speaker 1: pieces of two white shoes. They called the Sheriff's department,
23:28
Speaker 1: and very quickly a team of deputies arrived and cordoned
23:32
Speaker 1: off the area, and they continued the search, and in
23:34
Speaker 1: that same field, not far from the shorts and the shoes,
23:38
Speaker 1: they found a fragment of a human skull, and DNA
23:41
Speaker 1: testing confirmed the skull fragment belonged to Brandon Lawson. Now
23:45
Speaker 1: you would think that finding some of Brandon's remains would
23:48
Speaker 1: answer at least some of the questions about his disappearance,
23:52
Speaker 1: but actually it just made the whole thing more baffling
23:55
Speaker 1: because the area where Brandon's skull was found was right
23:58
Speaker 1: near his truck, had been searched so many times. There
24:03
Speaker 1: were thermal cameras and canines and helicopters and hundreds of searchers,
24:08
Speaker 1: and nobody found it. Remember, off the side of the highway.
24:11
Speaker 1: This is not some thick forest. It is like this
24:15
Speaker 1: huge flat field in West Texas with nothing but grass
24:19
Speaker 1: and short cactus plants and scattered trees, like this is
24:23
Speaker 1: an easy place to find stuff. Yet this skull fragment
24:26
Speaker 1: was not found, nor were the shorts or the shoes.
24:29
Speaker 1: It just seems so improbable. So where does that leave us. Well,
24:33
Speaker 1: we basically have two options here. Option one is despite
24:37
Speaker 1: the enormous man power, the helicopters, canine units, the thermal
24:42
Speaker 1: cameras that were used, the hundreds of volunteers and searchers
24:45
Speaker 1: that combed this area for years, either they just didn't
24:50
Speaker 1: see the grown man and bright white sneakers who was
24:53
Speaker 1: in this barren strip of West Texas, where it's easy
24:57
Speaker 1: to see anything. They just didn't see him, So that's
24:59
Speaker 1: option one or two. He wasn't there. Brandon was not
25:04
Speaker 1: in the search area when they were looking for him.
25:07
Speaker 1: He was somewhere else. But if you believe option two,
25:10
Speaker 1: the question becomes, well, where was Brandon? Where was he?
25:14
Speaker 1: Why did he call nine one one and then run
25:16
Speaker 1: away and go somewhere else? Why where was he? And
25:19
Speaker 1: then also, even if you answer that, how did his skull,
25:23
Speaker 1: fragment and his clothes wind up back in the search
25:26
Speaker 1: area nine years later? It is one of the most
25:29
Speaker 1: profound mysteries on the Internet, and to this day we
25:32
Speaker 1: still don't have a good answer. Thank you so much
25:43
Speaker 1: for watching. Let me know what you thought of today's
25:45
Speaker 1: episode in the comments. And remember we have hundreds of
25:49
Speaker 1: videos for you to binge right now. But if you're
25:51
Speaker 1: looking for a recommendation for me of that one video
25:54
Speaker 1: that's worth your time, well it's this one right here,
25:58
Speaker 1: So give it a watch. All right, until next time,
26:01
Speaker 1: see ya,