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Presenting - The First Degree with Jac Vanek and Alexis Linkletter · The Knife: A True Crime Podcast

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Speaker 1: This story contains adult content and language. Listener discretion is advised.
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Speaker 1: The claims and opinions in this podcast are those of
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Speaker 1: the speaker and do not necessarily represent The Knife or
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Speaker 1: Exactly Right Media. Welcome to the Knife. I'm Hannah Smith,
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Speaker 1: I'm Patia Eaton. Today we're dropping one of our favorite
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Speaker 1: episodes of The First Degree, a true crime podcast from
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Speaker 1: Jack Vanick and Alexis link Letter. If you're a true
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Speaker 1: crime listener, this show is for you. They cover everything
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Speaker 1: from murders to cults to conspiracies. They dive into the
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Speaker 1: lives of people connected to the most infamous crimes, and
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Speaker 1: today we're going to play one of our favorite episodes
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Speaker 1: from their show. It is about the mysterious disappearance of
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Speaker 1: Brian Schaeffer back in two thousand and six. You can
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Speaker 1: listen to The First Degree anywhere you listen to your
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Speaker 1: favorite podcast, So go check them out and we hope
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Speaker 1: you enjoy the episode.
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Speaker 2: The first Degree.
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Speaker 3: First Degree, First Degree, First Degree, First Degree, First Degree,
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Speaker 3: The first.
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Speaker 2: Degree on the news on Facebook. These things are supposed
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Speaker 2: to happen in movies, not in real life.
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Speaker 3: Welcome to the First Degree, the true crime podcast that
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Speaker 3: you might end up on. My name is Jack Fanick.
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Speaker 3: I'm sitting here with Alexis link letter. Happy Wednesday, Happy hump.
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Speaker 4: Day, Happy Wednesday everyone.
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Speaker 3: Happy Wednesday everyone. I think that we have the best
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Speaker 3: announcement that we could ever have, and that is that
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Speaker 3: our premium episodes, our First Degree Underground, is now available
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Speaker 3: on Apple podcast subscriptions. Now. This is the same content
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Speaker 3: that we have over on our Patreon that we have
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Speaker 3: been giving you for the past like four years now,
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Speaker 3: like something crazy, many many years. There's over one hundred
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Speaker 3: and fifty episodes, but they're now all available on Apple
2:14
Speaker 3: podcast subscription. It's so easy. All you do go on
2:17
Speaker 3: your Apple podcasts, go to the First Degree, click a
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Speaker 3: little button and you're subscribed.
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Speaker 4: And honestly, people have been rejoicing. We didn't even we
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Speaker 4: didn't even promote it. It just sort of went live
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Speaker 4: quietly and people have been going nuts with joy, being
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Speaker 4: like this makes it so much easier. I don't want
2:34
Speaker 4: to use another app. I only like Apple subscriptions. So
2:38
Speaker 4: we sense this. We knew it was a desire and
2:41
Speaker 4: we just brought it. We brought it to the God,
2:43
Speaker 4: we brought it to the people. If you didn't know,
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Speaker 4: it's called the Underground. It's where we take your recommendations
2:50
Speaker 4: on cases. We take cases that we have been fascinated with,
2:53
Speaker 4: and we do a full length episode about all of
2:59
Speaker 4: the cases, exclusive content, Baby, and they're really good. They're
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Speaker 4: as good as our regular episodes.
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Speaker 3: They're so good. So please join us in the Underground.
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Speaker 3: We have a seven day free trial for you if
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Speaker 3: you just want to check it out a little bit,
3:11
Speaker 3: but youah lots to listen to. That's right, endless. And
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Speaker 3: then the last little tidbit I want to say is
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Speaker 3: if you want to read with us. This month we
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Speaker 3: are reading Misery by Stephen King. It's so good. And
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Speaker 3: every month we have a book club meet up at
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Speaker 3: the end of the month to discuss the book and
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Speaker 3: it's our favorite place to be. That's right, all right, Well,
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Speaker 3: that is enough of that, So let's turn down the.
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Speaker 4: Lights and turn up your anxiety because this could be you.
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Speaker 4: It was the start of spring break in Columbus, Ohio,
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Speaker 4: a college town. Winding down the streets, still slick with rain,
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Speaker 4: bars were buzzing, students were celebrating. Music was spilling onto
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Speaker 4: the sidewalks, and at one of them, a second story
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Speaker 4: bar tucked above a retail strip near campus, a twenty
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Speaker 4: seven year old med student bought a drink. He laughed
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Speaker 4: with friends, he made small talk with strangers. He was smart,
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Speaker 4: he was charming, sober enough to know his limits, and
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Speaker 4: looking forward to a trip in the coming days with
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Speaker 4: the woman he loved. He steps inside, and from that
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Speaker 4: moment on no one can say for certain where he
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Speaker 4: went next. This is the story of Brian Schaeffer.
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Speaker 3: Today's case is taking us back to April first of
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Speaker 3: two thousand and six. The top song on the charts
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Speaker 3: was So Sick by Neo, followed by Me Without You
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Speaker 3: by Mary J. Blige, Talk by Coldplay, Living and Fast
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Speaker 3: Forward by Kenny Chesney, and Worldwide Suicide by Pearl Jam
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Speaker 3: And this one kind of feels a little bit ironic,
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Speaker 3: and you're going to understand a little bit later. The
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Speaker 3: top movies included Failure to Launch V for Vendetta, The
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Speaker 3: Shaggy Dog, and The Inside Man. Oh and of course
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Speaker 3: The Hills Have Eyes.
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Speaker 4: In the setting for today's case, Columbus, Ohio, one of
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Speaker 4: the largest universities in the US. OSU is deeply embedded
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Speaker 4: in this city's identity, and the Wexner Medical Center and
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Speaker 4: College of medicine remained prestigious and central to campus. The
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Speaker 4: surrounding area was a bustling, high traffic area with nightlife
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Speaker 4: and student housing, and the Olentangy River flows just west
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Speaker 4: of the OSU campus. The river is lined with parks, trails,
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Speaker 4: and wooded areas, and in two thousand and six, when
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Speaker 4: today's story took place, Columbus had a vibrant, evolving nightlife scene,
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Speaker 4: especially for the students. And the man at the center
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Speaker 4: of today's story lived in Columbus and attended Ohio State
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Speaker 4: University's medical school.
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Speaker 3: Brian Schaeffer was a second year medical student. He was
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Speaker 3: well loved, close to his family, and he kind of
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Speaker 3: had it all. He was described was charismatic, intelligent, and
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Speaker 3: well liked by those who knew him. He had a
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Speaker 3: girlfriend named Alexis. He was ambitious and obviously you have
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Speaker 3: to be kind of ambitious if you want to become
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Speaker 3: a doctor. And these dreams were inspired in part by
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Speaker 3: the fact that his mother was battling cancer, So that
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Speaker 3: kind of describes the kind of guy that Brian was.
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Speaker 4: Brian was also known for his love of music, and
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Speaker 4: he had always wanted to start a band, and everyone
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Speaker 4: who knew Brian knew this about him, including our first degree.
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Speaker 4: For today's story, Nicki, who grew up with Brian in
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Speaker 4: the same small town and they went to school together.
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Speaker 2: We grew up in Pickerington, which is like a small
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Speaker 2: suburb outside of Columbus. We graduated in ninety seven. I
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Speaker 2: met him, I mean like kindergarten, first grade, so I
6:45
Speaker 2: would have met him in like eighty four, which seems
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Speaker 2: like it was just like yesterday, but it wasn't. We
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Speaker 2: went to pickeringson Elementary behind our elementary school of there
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Speaker 2: was his fields and there was this old barnhouse and
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Speaker 2: we used to scare each other. Man was like more
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Speaker 2: of my other friends. And I just remember Brian, I
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Speaker 2: just like screaming but laughing, and just it's so ironic
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Speaker 2: to think about, like that was like, you know, when
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Speaker 2: we were five six years old.
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Speaker 3: Brian and Nicki also went to middle and high school
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Speaker 3: together and they remained friends.
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Speaker 2: He was in the band. He was really big into music.
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Speaker 2: He played and he did played the drums and he
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Speaker 2: played guitar, but he did the bands. And I remember
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Speaker 2: he was in the band. Friday night football games, like
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Speaker 2: the town shuts down, like that's where you're at and
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Speaker 2: he would just be on the drum line and they
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Speaker 2: would always do the beginning of this one bec voice
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Speaker 2: song where everybody's doing that, and he just he loved music,
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Speaker 2: and like all through high school, he was just a
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Speaker 2: really nice guy. This was a really chill nice guy.
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Speaker 2: And he was also like an quote unquote alternative kid,
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Speaker 2: which was like before there was like gos or Emo,
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Speaker 2: there was the grund.
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Speaker 4: Brian loved pearl Jam and this was also something that
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Speaker 4: everyone knew about him.
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Speaker 2: And he was really big into pearl jam. He had
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Speaker 2: he has a pearl Jam tattoo.
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Speaker 3: Nick you saw Brian after they graduated high school as well,
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Speaker 3: and she remembers one encounter early in two thousand and six.
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Speaker 3: This running seemed kind of trivial at the time, but
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Speaker 3: she doesn't feel that way about it now.
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Speaker 2: I actually had seen him about three months before this,
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Speaker 2: his parents at a restaurant, Italian oven restaurant outside of
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Speaker 2: our little town, and we just he was there with
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Speaker 2: his parents, I was there with my mom, and we
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Speaker 2: just got ran in each other and talked about student debt.
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Speaker 4: They talked about mundane things like student loan debt, their
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Speaker 4: respective relationships. They just sort of caught up about life.
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Speaker 2: I had never met his girlfriend, but he had mentioned
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Speaker 2: to her and that, you know, they were still together,
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Speaker 2: but I never met her, you know, so that was
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Speaker 2: the last time I saw him. So I just got
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Speaker 2: married in December, and I just feld on to that.
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Speaker 2: I just breezed in my mind.
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Speaker 3: Brian was there with his parents, who Nikki had met
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Speaker 3: in Passing over the years, and.
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Speaker 2: I did know his family yet, you know, I'd met
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Speaker 2: his parents in Passing, you know, at graduation parties like this.
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Speaker 2: So I said, ah, eye to him. But we just
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Speaker 2: got up and was like, hey, how are you.
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Speaker 4: Brian talked about med school and shared the sad news
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Speaker 4: that his mom's cancer was back.
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Speaker 2: His mom was sick again and that was something that
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Speaker 2: was a big concern of his, that she had the
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Speaker 2: Bono marage cancer again. But he was just talking about
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Speaker 2: med school. Yeah, he was kind of stressed about that
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Speaker 2: and his mom being sick.
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Speaker 4: They talked about how much time had passed and as
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Speaker 4: far as NICKI could tell, Brian still had everything going
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Speaker 4: for him. He was twenty seven years old, with his
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Speaker 4: whole life ahead, handsome, and he was going to be
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Speaker 4: a doctor one day. And it was good to see him.
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Speaker 3: But then three months later, Niki got a phone call,
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Speaker 3: a phone call that stunned her. And now when she
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Speaker 3: thinks back, she sees that final encounter a little bit differently.
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Speaker 2: My mom actually called me she had ran into another
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Speaker 2: classmate's parent at a Kroger, which at a grocery store,
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Speaker 2: and they had mentioned did you hear Brian? And this
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Speaker 2: was like, so he went the scene, And so my
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Speaker 2: mom ran into a parent on Monday at the grocery
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Speaker 2: store and that parent has said it with my mom.
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Speaker 2: So that my mom called me and was like, you
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Speaker 2: know Brian Shaffer, you graduated with him. I'm like, yeah,
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Speaker 2: Then that's when she said that a parent had said
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Speaker 2: he's missing or something. So this would before like I
10:13
Speaker 2: think Facebook maybe was it in its infancy. But I
10:16
Speaker 2: ended up calling a friend of mine, Alyssa, who knew
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Speaker 2: one of his best friends, and come to find out like, yeah,
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Speaker 2: that's he was missing.
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Speaker 4: Missing A word that doesn't make sense, not in the
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Speaker 4: context of Brian Schaeffer. People like Brian don't just go missing.
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Speaker 4: Brian was responsible, dedicated to his education, to becoming a doctor,
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Speaker 4: to his family. Nicki wasn't worried at first, I mean,
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Speaker 4: why would she be he'd turn up. But at that
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Speaker 4: early stage, NICKI never could have guessed that Brian's disappearance
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Speaker 4: would land among the most mysterious, perplexing, and debated in
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Speaker 4: US history. But that's exactly what happened. There are so
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Speaker 4: many questions to answer and so much ground to cover,
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Speaker 4: so you know that we're going back.
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Speaker 3: On the night of March thirty first, two thousand and six,
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Speaker 3: Brian was reportedly doing well all things considered. His mother
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Speaker 3: had lost her fight with cancer a few weeks back,
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Speaker 3: and the loss had been a profound emotional blow to him.
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Speaker 3: Her illness is why he wanted to be a doctor.
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Speaker 3: But he was taking his grief on the chin, and
11:35
Speaker 3: he decided to go out with some friends to blow
11:38
Speaker 3: off some steam. You know, maybe his grief was why
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Speaker 3: he was growing out, a distraction, seeing some friends a
11:44
Speaker 3: reminder of what life is really all about.
11:47
Speaker 4: So we met up with Clint Florence. Brian and Clint
11:50
Speaker 4: were friends and med school classmates at Ohio State. Both
11:53
Speaker 4: were in their second year. Brian considered Clint a close
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Speaker 4: friend and they hung out often. And I met at
12:00
Speaker 4: Brian's apartment at nine pm that night and their first
12:03
Speaker 4: stop was at the Ugly Tuna Saluna, and the Ugly
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Speaker 4: Tuna was a distinctive college bar and live music venue.
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Speaker 4: It was located on High Street, on the second floor
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Speaker 4: of the South Campus Gateway complex.
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Speaker 3: And will paint a little picture for you. So the
12:20
Speaker 3: Ugly Tuna was on the second level of a multi
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Speaker 3: use building. Bargoers accessed it via a long escalator from
12:26
Speaker 3: the sidewalk, and the building was kind of like a
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Speaker 3: modern building. There was a glass storefront that had these
12:31
Speaker 3: big windows that overlooked the plaza below, and it had
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Speaker 3: signage with a distinctive Ugly Tuna Saluna lettering lit up
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Speaker 3: in bright neon. Security cameras were mounted at the top
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Speaker 3: of the escalator, and the bar was positioned above a
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Speaker 3: large area that was under construction at the time.
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Speaker 4: And the vibe of this place was laid back and
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Speaker 4: decor was ocean themed, kitch beach signs, fishing nets and
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Speaker 4: kind of ugly fish art in line with the playful
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Speaker 4: corky name. It was dimly lit, colorful, loud, and lively,
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Speaker 4: especially on weekends and during college events. Thank like Jimmy
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Speaker 4: Buffett meets Dive Bar with an Ohio State twist. Honestly,
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Speaker 4: the Ugly Tuna sounds like a great place to commence
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Speaker 4: a bop, and that's exactly what they did. Oh and
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Speaker 4: Nicki had been to the Ugly Tuna Saluna as well.
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Speaker 3: So Clint and Brian left the Ugly Tuna Saluna and
13:25
Speaker 3: went bar hopping in the area known as the Arena District.
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Speaker 3: This area is still known for its sports bars, dance clubs,
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Speaker 3: and music venues. Eventually, they met up with one of
13:35
Speaker 3: Clint's friends, a girl named Meredith Reid, and Meredith drove
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Speaker 3: Clinton Brian back to the Ugly Tuna Saluna at around
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Speaker 3: one fifteen in the morning. We know the exact time
13:45
Speaker 3: because security footage captured Brian returning to the bar, and
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Speaker 3: this security footage would add a layer of confusion to
13:52
Speaker 3: this mystery that still lingers around today.
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Speaker 4: And according to Nicki, based on her knowledge of the
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Speaker 4: Ugly Tuna Saluna, once Brian arrived and entered and basically
14:03
Speaker 4: ascended this escalator, there are only two places that he
14:06
Speaker 4: could have gone because this area was well contained.
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Speaker 2: I remember an Ugly Tuna Salouona was like a two
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Speaker 2: story It was in a building and it was on
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Speaker 2: the second floor. You had to go up these escalators
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Speaker 2: and you can either go into the bar or you
14:20
Speaker 2: can go to the bathroom, and then there's cameras covering
14:25
Speaker 2: all of the exits to that building.
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Speaker 4: The Ugly tun Of reportedly only had one main entrance,
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Speaker 4: which was covered by the surveillance. There was an emergency
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Speaker 4: exit in the back, but it led to a construction
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Speaker 4: zone with no easy access or surveillance, and the cameras
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Speaker 4: captured Brian last. You're an exit leading into a hallway
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Speaker 4: that accessed this construction area with an exterior door. It's
14:47
Speaker 4: a little confusing if you're not looking at it, but
14:51
Speaker 4: you can look at this footage, which will encourage you
14:54
Speaker 4: to do so. This exit that we're talking about was
14:58
Speaker 4: not for public use. Cameras there were limited, one panning
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Speaker 4: continuously in another manually controlled. When Brian was lasting on camera,
15:07
Speaker 4: he was wearing an olive green Polo shirt, boot cut jeans,
15:11
Speaker 4: white Adidas sneakers with blue stripes, a silver wristwatch, and
15:15
Speaker 4: a yellow Liftstrong bracelet. He is again briefly seen on
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Speaker 4: the surveillance footage at one fifty five am speaking to
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Speaker 4: two women at the top of the escalator outside the bar.
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Speaker 4: Then he walked back into the bar. But here's where
15:29
Speaker 4: it gets really crazy. After he walks back inside, the
15:32
Speaker 4: security cameras never capture Brian leaving the bar ever. In fact,
15:37
Speaker 4: after this moment, Brian is never seen again.
15:41
Speaker 3: The next morning, a red flags were raised almost immediately.
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Speaker 3: It was April first, and his girlfriend Alexis tried calling
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Speaker 3: Brian multiple times starting that morning, and she heard nothing back.
15:52
Speaker 3: At first, she thought maybe he was just hungover or
15:55
Speaker 3: laying low after a late night, so she kept trying
15:58
Speaker 3: to reach him over and over again. Eventually, people started
16:02
Speaker 3: asking Brian's friend Clint if he knew where Brian was.
16:05
Speaker 3: Clint said he had no idea. He said he had
16:07
Speaker 3: lost track of Brian the previous night and assumed that
16:10
Speaker 3: he had left to go home or just meet up
16:12
Speaker 3: with somebody else.
16:14
Speaker 4: And the whole day passed and Alexis never heard back
16:16
Speaker 4: from Brian, so she started obviously getting probably weirded out, annoyed, pissed.
16:22
Speaker 4: That's where I would start anyway. So by this point,
16:26
Speaker 4: Brian's dad, Randy, also began trying to reach his son.
16:30
Speaker 4: That evening, which was a Sunday night, Brian missed a
16:32
Speaker 4: family dinner, which was really out of character, especially considering
16:37
Speaker 4: they had just lost his mom. Like the rest of
16:39
Speaker 4: the family was really close at this time, and his
16:42
Speaker 4: girlfriend Alexis became increasingly worried and began calling around, including
16:46
Speaker 4: to friends and to the police.
16:48
Speaker 3: But things felt really serious when Brian missed a flight
16:51
Speaker 3: to Miami for a vacation that he had planned with Alexis.
16:55
Speaker 3: Alexis was at the airport waiting for him, calling and
16:58
Speaker 3: texting him, and he just never showed up. She already
17:01
Speaker 3: knew that something was deeply wrong, but now there was
17:03
Speaker 3: no lingering doubt about it. After that, Alexis and Brian's dad, Randy,
17:08
Speaker 3: filed a missing persons report the same day, and Alexis
17:11
Speaker 3: told the media outlets the following she had this gut
17:15
Speaker 3: feeling something was terribly wrong, and described calling his phone repeatedly,
17:19
Speaker 3: sometimes hearing it ring and other times going straight to voicemail.
17:24
Speaker 2: He was supposed to meet his girlfriend at the airport
17:28
Speaker 2: to side to Miami that Sunday, and that was when
17:32
Speaker 2: they noticed. That's when they first were like, he's missing
17:35
Speaker 2: because he was not at the airport, and they're pretty
17:37
Speaker 2: sure he was a proposed to her on the strips
17:39
Speaker 2: to Miami, horrible, horrible, And then you're at the airport
17:44
Speaker 2: waiting for me. He doesn't show up, and then first
17:46
Speaker 2: or privates sorry first, or prite.
17:47
Speaker 4: Mad, and like we talked about if I was in
17:50
Speaker 4: this position, and maybe if you were in this position.
17:53
Speaker 4: First you start thinking like he's breaking up with me,
17:57
Speaker 4: he's ghosting me, Like he's straight up bailing on this relationlationship. Yeah,
18:01
Speaker 4: it starts with anger, irritation, fear, and that pivots to hurt,
18:05
Speaker 4: maybe even feelings of betrayal. But then soon the realization
18:09
Speaker 4: creeps in that you know Brian and he wouldn't do
18:12
Speaker 4: this to you. And it's at this point that Alexis
18:15
Speaker 4: and Brian's dad began to really mobilize, alerting people actively
18:19
Speaker 4: looking for Brian and handing out missing persons flyers near campus.
18:24
Speaker 4: And this is when NICKI heard about what happened and
18:26
Speaker 4: was compelled to help them.
18:28
Speaker 2: I don't remember how it happened. I remember us being
18:31
Speaker 2: down on campus like with with flyers, like looking for
18:36
Speaker 2: him and passing out flyers, and so his dad was
18:38
Speaker 2: the one that was like and his brother were down there.
18:41
Speaker 3: At first, NICKI was convinced that there had to be
18:43
Speaker 3: a reasonable explanation for all.
18:45
Speaker 2: Of this, and I remember thinking, like, he's just he's
18:48
Speaker 2: obviously just passed out somewhere on campus, Like there were
18:51
Speaker 2: parts of campus that were pretty dodgy like that we
18:54
Speaker 2: all still went to them, but like where the bars were,
18:56
Speaker 2: it wasn't. So I just think her like, maybe he's
18:58
Speaker 2: passed out somewhere, or maybe the word tithnario he has
19:01
Speaker 2: gotten an accident or he's in the hospital.
19:04
Speaker 3: Soon the police were involved. They pulled the surveillance footage
19:08
Speaker 3: from the Ugly Tuna Saluna and the other bars nearby.
19:11
Speaker 3: They interviewed Clint Florence and Meredith Read. They searched the bar,
19:15
Speaker 3: the building, and the surrounding construction sites. They checked Brian's apartment.
19:20
Speaker 3: His car was still there where he had left it,
19:23
Speaker 3: and they checked his phone records, his bank accounts, and
19:25
Speaker 3: there was absolutely no activity.
19:28
Speaker 4: And the police determined that Brian's last known communication before
19:31
Speaker 4: he vanished was a call to his girlfriend Alexis, that
19:34
Speaker 4: he'd made earlier that evening. Alexis was asked about this
19:38
Speaker 4: call and she said when she talked to Brian, he
19:41
Speaker 4: was his normal self, he was affectionate, and that they
19:44
Speaker 4: were both looking forward to their Miami trip, nothing was amiss.
19:48
Speaker 3: When the video clip of Brian's final moments at the
19:50
Speaker 3: Ugly Tuna Saluna were released, is really when the public
19:54
Speaker 3: started paying attention. How is it that Brian walked in
19:58
Speaker 3: but he never walked out? No? What he could make
20:00
Speaker 3: sense of it?
20:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, because your options are like where they're showing him.
20:04
Speaker 2: You can go into the bar, you can go into
20:07
Speaker 2: the bathrooms where he supposedly went, and or you can
20:10
Speaker 2: go into a corner. Lets you like a corner. That's
20:12
Speaker 2: about it. It was just so bad, Like, how does
20:15
Speaker 2: someone just vanish? When I saw the footage and the
20:19
Speaker 2: detective said, he has been Everyone on that film is
20:22
Speaker 2: an account of for It's like he just vanished. That's
20:26
Speaker 2: when I was like, I have I have no idea
20:28
Speaker 2: what happened to him.
20:36
Speaker 4: The search for Brian continued for days, for weeks, and
20:40
Speaker 4: obviously the hope that Brian would return unscathed, unharmed remained,
20:45
Speaker 4: despite the fact that his med school classes resumed following
20:49
Speaker 4: spring break and he was nowhere to be seen, And
20:52
Speaker 4: the investigation and the search for him continued as well,
20:55
Speaker 4: and soon three months had passed, and suddenly a new
20:59
Speaker 4: wave of confusion and speculation arrived.
21:03
Speaker 2: About three months after his disappearances, apartment was broken into,
21:08
Speaker 2: and so people thought, okay, here it is. This is something.
21:13
Speaker 3: The hope was that Brian had surfaced and broken into
21:15
Speaker 3: his own apartment, but that wasn't the case.
21:19
Speaker 2: But no, it was just a random idiot that broke
21:21
Speaker 2: into his apartment and sold some CDs or something. But
21:24
Speaker 2: they taught him and it was some It was just
21:26
Speaker 2: some random person. He had broken in like a few
21:29
Speaker 2: apartments that night, and just so everyone of course, everyone's like, okay,
21:32
Speaker 2: this is it.
21:34
Speaker 4: The longer that Brian remained missing, the deeper the mystery
21:37
Speaker 4: of what happened to him became. Everyone in Brian's life
21:40
Speaker 4: was interviewed, and so were as many people who were
21:43
Speaker 4: at the Ugly Tuna on the night he vanished that
21:45
Speaker 4: police could find. And no one reported seeing him leave
21:49
Speaker 4: or being involved in any sort of altercation with anyone
21:52
Speaker 4: that night, and also Brian didn't have any enemies.
21:56
Speaker 3: The police searched the area around the Ugly Tuna Suluna
21:59
Speaker 3: with cadaver dogs. They searched every nook and cranny within
22:02
Speaker 3: the construction area, and they found nothing. No Brian and
22:07
Speaker 3: no physical evidence in the media.
22:09
Speaker 4: Coverage started small, with local Columbus outlets covering the case first,
22:14
Speaker 4: but as the surveillance footage emerged and started circulating the
22:18
Speaker 4: fact that he was seen entering but not leaving, well,
22:22
Speaker 4: that's when national media outlets picked up the story. This
22:25
Speaker 4: footage was poured over, dissected, watched on repeat. No one
22:30
Speaker 4: could get over how just normal Brian looked in these
22:33
Speaker 4: final moments. The story took hold. Maybe it was because
22:37
Speaker 4: Brian was the boy next door, young, good looking, intelligent,
22:41
Speaker 4: with no obvious reason to disappear. Maybe people watched and
22:45
Speaker 4: followed the story, hoping for a happy ending, an answer
22:48
Speaker 4: to the looming questions. His case had that locked room
22:51
Speaker 4: mystery quality. How can someone vanish from a bar with
22:55
Speaker 4: cameras at every exit.
22:57
Speaker 3: People have criticized the friend that Brian was with that night, Clint,
23:01
Speaker 3: for how he has behaved following Brian's disappearance. He was
23:05
Speaker 3: reportedly cooperative at first, but later refused to take a
23:08
Speaker 3: polygraph test. He refused to comment publicly about the case,
23:13
Speaker 3: and his behavior raised public suspicion. The police have never
23:17
Speaker 3: named him as an official suspect. He retained a lawyer
23:20
Speaker 3: early on and has declined interviews in the recent years.
23:24
Speaker 3: So is that suspicious or is it just smart? Clint
23:27
Speaker 3: was a medical school student and he had a future
23:30
Speaker 3: to protect, especially if he knew for sure that he
23:33
Speaker 3: had nothing to do with why his friend was missing.
23:38
Speaker 2: Meredith and Clint were the two people he was with.
23:40
Speaker 2: Clint got an attorney right away, which in twenty sixteen
23:43
Speaker 2: odd in twenty twenty five to meet does nasimod like,
23:45
Speaker 2: Now that I'm older, I go, yeah, get an attorney's coming,
23:47
Speaker 2: you know, like, is there good question?
23:50
Speaker 3: You know?
23:50
Speaker 2: But back then that seemed weird. But now they were
23:54
Speaker 2: older and we know more about law enforcement. Yeah, he probed,
23:56
Speaker 2: should get attorney.
23:58
Speaker 4: Eventually Nikky realized that this was real. Brian wasn't missing
24:02
Speaker 4: in a type of situation where he was going to
24:04
Speaker 4: emerge suddenly with an innocent explanation. And once everyone else
24:09
Speaker 4: realized this was for real, no one believed he was
24:12
Speaker 4: voluntarily missing, which was a really sad thing to reconcile,
24:16
Speaker 4: because that meant that something horrible had happened to him,
24:19
Speaker 4: and also that Brian was probably no longer alive.
24:23
Speaker 3: There were several vigils held to raise awareness for Brian's disappearance.
24:27
Speaker 3: One was organized by Ohio State University classmates and friends.
24:31
Speaker 3: It was held close to wherever he was last seen,
24:34
Speaker 3: and there have been annual vigils ever since his disappearance
24:37
Speaker 3: as well, often held on or near the anniversary. They
24:42
Speaker 3: were designated to keep public pressure on the police investigation
24:45
Speaker 3: and to offer emotional support for Brian's loved ones. Brian's friends, family,
24:50
Speaker 3: and anonymous donors have offered reward money at various times.
24:54
Speaker 3: Early reward offers range from twenty five to one hundred
24:57
Speaker 3: thousand dollars.
24:59
Speaker 4: Obviously, Brian's girlfriend struggled with a sudden disappearance of her
25:02
Speaker 4: serious boyfriend. There were rumors that they were going to
25:06
Speaker 4: get engaged on that Miami trip, so this would have
25:08
Speaker 4: been devastating. At this point, they had already decided to
25:11
Speaker 4: spend their lives together, and they had a plan to
25:15
Speaker 4: go and finish med school together to become doctors together.
25:19
Speaker 4: Who wouldn't be devastated by this?
25:21
Speaker 2: You know?
25:22
Speaker 4: She was vocal in the weeks and months following Brian's disappearance,
25:26
Speaker 4: and she said that she continued calling his phone every
25:29
Speaker 4: night at ten pm, hoping that he'd answer, and one night,
25:33
Speaker 4: she said that the phone rang three times, which was
25:36
Speaker 4: enough to give her just a spark of hope, though
25:39
Speaker 4: it may have been a glitch or momentary signal from
25:42
Speaker 4: a dead phone. She also kept visiting his apartment, She
25:46
Speaker 4: stayed in touch with Brian's dad, and she kept pushing
25:49
Speaker 4: for media attention. And it's sad, but Alexis later became
25:53
Speaker 4: a doctor, which was the very path that she and
25:56
Speaker 4: Brian had planned together.
25:58
Speaker 3: And it's important to know that those close to Brian
26:01
Speaker 3: said that he never spoke of suicidal ideation. He was
26:04
Speaker 3: still grieving the recent loss of his mother, who had
26:07
Speaker 3: passed away just three weeks earlier from cancer, but his grief,
26:10
Speaker 3: according to his friends, was one that they would just
26:13
Speaker 3: consider normal. He had good days and bad days, but
26:16
Speaker 3: that night he appeared to be celebrating, not withdrawn.
26:20
Speaker 4: One thing that does remain murky about this night and
26:23
Speaker 4: could play a key role in what happened, was how
26:26
Speaker 4: much alcohol Brian had consumed. And we lack the clarity
26:29
Speaker 4: here because they visited multiple bars three or four, but
26:34
Speaker 4: Meredith Reid, who gave the guys a ride back to
26:36
Speaker 4: the Ugly Tuna, did not report that Brian was intoxicated
26:40
Speaker 4: when she gave him a ride. She said that he
26:43
Speaker 4: was in good spirits and relaxed. And this assumption of
26:47
Speaker 4: how much alcohol he did drink. People have said it's
26:50
Speaker 4: between four and six drinks over several hours, possibly more,
26:54
Speaker 4: possibly less, But we know for sure that if you
26:57
Speaker 4: watch this surveillance footage of Brian, he doesn't look belligerent
27:01
Speaker 4: or incoherent.
27:03
Speaker 3: The police determined that Brian spoke to two women outside
27:06
Speaker 3: the bar shortly after one fifty five am. These women
27:10
Speaker 3: were tracked down and interviewed. They said that their chat
27:12
Speaker 3: with Brian was brief, friendly and unremarkable. No red flags,
27:17
Speaker 3: no odd behavior, no signs of distress.
27:20
Speaker 4: It is one of the craziest cases where you're just like, so,
27:24
Speaker 4: what happened? What happened? Right?
27:26
Speaker 3: No clues.
27:28
Speaker 4: When we were talking to Niki, the interviewee the first
27:31
Speaker 4: degree for this episode, it's just like you can talk
27:34
Speaker 4: through all these little like the minutia of any scenario
27:38
Speaker 4: because something did happen, something that doesn't make any sense,
27:41
Speaker 4: and it's like, what is it? Did he get locked
27:44
Speaker 4: in the freezer of the bar and then the bar
27:47
Speaker 4: didn't want liability so they covered up, like it has
27:50
Speaker 4: to be something that no one saw, no one heard,
27:53
Speaker 4: and no one in a busy bar witnessed, So what
27:55
Speaker 4: is it?
27:56
Speaker 3: And there was no evidence at all. Right, it's like
27:59
Speaker 3: he literally poofed.
28:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's crazy, devastating, right, And because as someone who
28:06
Speaker 4: knew Brian, I'm sure none of this is good enough,
28:10
Speaker 4: Like you need an answer, and to not know if
28:12
Speaker 4: this was your son or close friend would be would
28:16
Speaker 4: haunt you. Right. So, obviously a lot of the theories
28:20
Speaker 4: surrounding the case are tied to the rivers in the area.
28:24
Speaker 4: So it's the closest major body of water to the
28:27
Speaker 4: Ugly Tuna. It's the Old and Tangy River, and it
28:30
Speaker 4: runs about a mile west of where Brian disappeared. And
28:33
Speaker 4: here's what we know about it. So it's accessible by foot,
28:36
Speaker 4: but not directly adjacent to the bar. Some suggest that
28:39
Speaker 4: he could have wandered in that direction if intoxicated. Several
28:43
Speaker 4: unrelated deaths in Ohio have involved intoxicated men found in rivers,
28:49
Speaker 4: but in those cases, the remains were discovered pretty quickly,
28:53
Speaker 4: so that doesn't really align with what happened here.
28:56
Speaker 3: People also wonder whether Brian could have left the Ugly
28:58
Speaker 3: Tuna via the back and walked alone along the Arena
29:02
Speaker 3: district and fell into the river, possibly disoriented or intoxicated.
29:07
Speaker 3: This has happened many times in other college towns with
29:09
Speaker 3: rivers running through them, but the river was searched and they.
29:14
Speaker 4: Use sonar and dogs to search the river. And Nikki
29:17
Speaker 4: doesn't buy the river theory for several reasons.
29:20
Speaker 2: There was a two rivers that converge into Columbus that
29:24
Speaker 2: are not right by the bar but are in downtown Columbus.
29:29
Speaker 2: So then they're like, maybe he's in the river. I
29:31
Speaker 2: think he would have honestly, Like, I think it's because
29:34
Speaker 2: the river it's not like it's a kayaking, fast flowing river.
29:40
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's flowing in this river like you
29:42
Speaker 2: could jump in one. Like we have festivals downtown and
29:45
Speaker 2: Columbus like the Jazz Best and It's and we have
29:48
Speaker 2: a couple of bridges that go over you could swim
29:50
Speaker 2: over this river. She would have found if he was
29:52
Speaker 2: in that river at some point, if not right when
29:54
Speaker 2: you fell in where it flows the way that it
29:57
Speaker 2: was pretty slow flowing, like he would have been his
30:00
Speaker 2: body would have surfaced Like by now, I just think
30:03
Speaker 2: you would have been found if you went in the river, and.
30:05
Speaker 3: While more signs point away from the river than towards it,
30:08
Speaker 3: there's been a talk of other ways the river could
30:10
Speaker 3: have played a part in this mystery. Perhaps Brian was
30:14
Speaker 3: killed somewhere and his body was put into the river
30:16
Speaker 3: much later, possibly even outside the city itself, particularly because
30:21
Speaker 3: Columbus has multiple rivers, multiple lakes, and reservoirs in surrounding counties, and.
30:26
Speaker 4: Some people suggest that the river is just a total
30:29
Speaker 4: red herring used to explain away disappearances that otherwise have
30:32
Speaker 4: more sinister explanations. And when it comes to Brian in
30:37
Speaker 4: the Night in question, every single angle has been explored.
30:41
Speaker 4: The theories really are boundless, and we're going to take
30:43
Speaker 4: you through the most prevailing ones to the best of
30:47
Speaker 4: our ability. So let's start right next to the ugly
30:51
Speaker 4: to Nea Saluna. So we talked about the surrounding area
30:55
Speaker 4: and how there was a lot of construction in the
30:57
Speaker 4: area back then. This includes the back of the Ugly
31:00
Speaker 4: Tuna Sluna, which faced a dark, unlit, fenced off construction
31:05
Speaker 4: site with limited foot traffic. In these construction areas had
31:10
Speaker 4: multiple potential hazards including open trenches, tools, rebar and debris.
31:15
Speaker 4: And while the main entrance of the bar was visible
31:18
Speaker 4: and well trafficked and covered by surveillance. The rear exit
31:22
Speaker 4: area was dim, largely unsupervised, and not covered by comprehensive surveillance.
31:28
Speaker 3: Some speculate that perhaps Brian left the bar intoxicated and
31:32
Speaker 3: maybe he fell, or he was injured in the construction
31:35
Speaker 3: zone and his body was somehow missed. Investigators flagged that
31:39
Speaker 3: the construction area was difficult to navigate, especially while drunk,
31:43
Speaker 3: but the construction areas were searched thoroughly with no signs
31:46
Speaker 3: of him. That didn't stop many from theorizing that he
31:49
Speaker 3: may have tried and either got lost or fell. This
31:52
Speaker 3: is a theory that Nikki has poured over a.
31:54
Speaker 2: Lot for a long time. I thought maybe he had
31:58
Speaker 2: fallen and they were doing instruction there. I thought maybe
32:02
Speaker 2: he fell in anstruction and then like they poured said,
32:07
Speaker 2: they may have bordement him. Okay, so then maybe he's
32:10
Speaker 2: in the building. But wait, they remodeled the building. Like
32:12
Speaker 2: how wouldn't that smell? I mean, that'd be disrespcestful. But
32:15
Speaker 2: you know, if there's if he was in the in
32:17
Speaker 2: the building somewhere, you'd think at some point like and
32:20
Speaker 2: then they remodeled it. Now it's an office and apartment building,
32:25
Speaker 2: and you think you would have a smell, and how
32:26
Speaker 2: would nobody say anything.
32:29
Speaker 4: So people wonder whether Brian fell in the construction area
32:32
Speaker 4: and somehow his body was maybe sealed into the foundation,
32:36
Speaker 4: maybe concrete was poured on top of him. But police
32:40
Speaker 4: say that's just not possible. That they searched this area
32:43
Speaker 4: thoroughly and presumably prior to any construction like that happening.
32:48
Speaker 4: And to Nikki's point, wouldn't construction workers have found, smelled,
32:53
Speaker 4: noted something. And this still doesn't explain why Brian isn't
32:57
Speaker 4: seen leaving on surveillance camera. So you know, it is
33:03
Speaker 4: one of these cases where once you can get convinced
33:05
Speaker 4: of one theory, like Okay, this construction theory makes sense,
33:09
Speaker 4: there's something, there's a way to poke a hole in it.
33:11
Speaker 4: Like that still doesn't explain why he wasn't seen leaving,
33:14
Speaker 4: Like to be in the construction area, he would have
33:17
Speaker 4: needed to leave. Yeah, so why wasn't he seen leaving?
33:21
Speaker 3: Yeah.
33:22
Speaker 2: The hypothesis for a while is maybe he was drunk
33:24
Speaker 2: and went into the construction area and then fell, But
33:28
Speaker 2: I I think that that interest is covered by the
33:31
Speaker 2: cameras too. I don't think there's any exit that's not
33:33
Speaker 2: covered by cameras, I know. And then and like his
33:35
Speaker 2: brother is like lost his dad. So it's just and
33:38
Speaker 2: like I said, when you go down one avenue, you're like, okay,
33:41
Speaker 2: it could be this, and then you're like, then, wait,
33:42
Speaker 2: how did he get out of the bar?
33:44
Speaker 4: Some argue that despite the police searches, that Brian could
33:47
Speaker 4: have been missed in this construction zone. Some argue that
33:50
Speaker 4: bodies and trenches can remain hidden. There's also another theory
33:54
Speaker 4: that Brian might have somehow accessed a freight elevator or
33:57
Speaker 4: rooftop area, then descended through the construction site, effectively disappearing
34:02
Speaker 4: down stairways or shafts into some blind spot, which is
34:05
Speaker 4: why the cameras would have missed him. But like literally
34:08
Speaker 4: this means that he would have had to shimmy through
34:11
Speaker 4: the ceiling or something like yeah tie, yeah, like go
34:15
Speaker 4: through an air conditioning event like really some secret spy shit.
34:18
Speaker 4: And let's talk like he's had six drinks, he's there
34:21
Speaker 4: with friends, Why would he That makes no sense not
34:23
Speaker 4: doing that, right. So Nikki also brings up a good
34:26
Speaker 4: point that the building in the area, and the bar
34:29
Speaker 4: of the Ugly Tin of Salouona itself has since been
34:32
Speaker 4: gutted and completely renovated. Say his body had been stuck
34:35
Speaker 4: in some shaft, they would have found.
34:37
Speaker 2: It now that they've totally gutted that space. I would
34:42
Speaker 2: think if he was there, they would have found him
34:43
Speaker 2: because the only two options for him at the top
34:45
Speaker 2: of the escalator was the bathroom or the bar and
34:49
Speaker 2: there and then there is the part where they were
34:53
Speaker 2: doing construction was like off a little bit right by
34:58
Speaker 2: the bathroom.
35:00
Speaker 3: Then there are theories that are tied to both foul
35:02
Speaker 3: play and the construction side itself. One Reddit user wondered
35:05
Speaker 3: whether Brian may have exited via a construction door and
35:08
Speaker 3: been lured or violently taken into unseen areas like stairwells, dumpsters,
35:13
Speaker 3: or unobserved parts of the site. They said this, I
35:17
Speaker 3: think Brian Schaeffer left through the construction area, possibly put
35:20
Speaker 3: in a garbage dumpster, which explains why they never found him.
35:24
Speaker 4: Right Because remember we mentioned that the back of the
35:26
Speaker 4: Ugly Tuna faced this dark construction area limited foot traffic,
35:30
Speaker 4: So if he somehow ended up back there, this theory
35:33
Speaker 4: isn't off the table. There could be blind spots in
35:37
Speaker 4: surveillance footage, and obviously like this treacherous terrain of this
35:42
Speaker 4: construction area is an ideal for someone intoxicated or walking alone.
35:47
Speaker 3: Additional foul play theories include the possibility that Brian could
35:50
Speaker 3: have been harmed inside or just outside the bar, and
35:53
Speaker 3: that somebody may have helped cover it up because of
35:56
Speaker 3: Brian's failure to be seen leaving the bar on surveillance,
35:59
Speaker 3: some inspect that Brian was assaulted or killed inside the
36:02
Speaker 3: Ugly Tuna or its back areas like the kitchen, and
36:06
Speaker 3: that maybe his body was removed covertly or concealed.
36:10
Speaker 1: Right.
36:10
Speaker 4: So, this is often when the dumpster gets brought up
36:13
Speaker 4: where it's like, maybe he was killed inside the bar,
36:16
Speaker 4: hidden somewhere for a day and putting a giant trash can,
36:22
Speaker 4: and that's why he wasn't seen leaving, Like how else
36:24
Speaker 4: do you remove a grown man without being seen? Right, So,
36:30
Speaker 4: there are supporting points to that theory, Right, we talked
36:33
Speaker 4: about this. He wasn't seen exiting the bar has this
36:36
Speaker 4: back service exit, which maybe that's how they remove the trash.
36:40
Speaker 4: Maybe he was ambushed or caught off guard, But there
36:43
Speaker 4: are challenges to this possibility too. There were reportedly no
36:48
Speaker 4: known fights that night. You know, the bouncers, the bar
36:50
Speaker 4: staff were interviewed. Search dogs found no scent or trace
36:54
Speaker 4: of Brian inside the bar, and this scenario where he
36:58
Speaker 4: was killed inside the bar would like require cooperation from
37:02
Speaker 4: multiple people. This involves maybe a sophisticated cover up. So
37:07
Speaker 4: was this robbery was this a crime of opportunity? We
37:10
Speaker 4: just don't really know still. And also, even if Brian
37:14
Speaker 4: was robbed or beaten up, what perpetrators also take the victim?
37:19
Speaker 4: Like we hear about people getting mugged or shot, you know,
37:23
Speaker 4: when they're mugged, they don't take the body too, No,
37:26
Speaker 4: they just take the things they're trying to steal.
37:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I also feel like it was a random
37:31
Speaker 2: like like somebody's trying to rob them. They wouldn't have
37:33
Speaker 2: taken him, you know, And he's like, you don't usually
37:35
Speaker 2: just you know, you take somebody, take their stuff and
37:39
Speaker 2: leave them. I don't feel like they would take them.
37:40
Speaker 2: But there have been a couple of guys that have disappeared,
37:43
Speaker 2: so that's why people have tried to link that into it.
37:45
Speaker 3: Then there's foul play scenario number two, where Brian could
37:48
Speaker 3: have exited through the back and was followed by someone
37:52
Speaker 3: and possibly attacked and dumped or buried in or near
37:55
Speaker 3: the construction zone behind the bar. Others think that he
37:58
Speaker 3: was intentionally dumped there and later removed or covered, but.
38:02
Speaker 4: The challenges for this possibility include the fact that the
38:04
Speaker 4: construction areas again were searched so many times. No blood,
38:08
Speaker 4: no clothing, no, nothing was found. Then there's another theory
38:13
Speaker 4: that Brian got into an altercation with a bar employee
38:16
Speaker 4: and that something you know, happened, and that bar employee
38:20
Speaker 4: alone could have kind of done dealt with this. But
38:24
Speaker 4: that's like, that's crazy, that's like seeing it.
38:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, but like and no evidence.
38:30
Speaker 4: It would be really hard and again require cooperation from
38:34
Speaker 4: at least one person, and people conspiracies involving that many people.
38:41
Speaker 4: Just look what happened with Karen Reid, Okay, Like it's
38:43
Speaker 4: impossible to keep that kind of coordination quiet, especially for
38:50
Speaker 4: all these years, right, It's just seems unlikely.
38:54
Speaker 3: Other foul play theories include the following. Maybe Brian was
38:57
Speaker 3: hurt and his body was placed in a dump and
39:00
Speaker 3: removed during trash pickup, possibly after being assaulted near or
39:04
Speaker 3: inside the construction zone.
39:06
Speaker 4: Or maybe Brian was lured from the bar into you know,
39:11
Speaker 4: ran into the wrong person. Maybe he was assaulted and
39:14
Speaker 4: killed far far away from the bar, so the searches
39:17
Speaker 4: of the surrounding area were irrelevant. Maybe he was abducted, assaulted, murdered,
39:23
Speaker 4: but of course none of these make sense without seeing
39:26
Speaker 4: him leaving on surveillance.
39:29
Speaker 3: It's worth noting that Columbus and the area around where
39:31
Speaker 3: Brian disappeared was not a particularly safe area back then.
39:36
Speaker 3: The Ugly Tuna is closed now, and back then it
39:38
Speaker 3: was situated in a mixed use entertainment district still undergoing
39:42
Speaker 3: revitalization and construction. At the time, the area was known
39:46
Speaker 3: for minor crimes, including theft, especially targeting students, fights and
39:51
Speaker 3: altercations outside bars, and drug related activity. It wasn't considered
39:55
Speaker 3: a high violent zone like some parts of Columbus at
39:57
Speaker 3: the time, but it wasn't squeaky clean either, especially in
40:01
Speaker 3: off hours or around bar closing times. Students from that
40:05
Speaker 3: area have commented online that the area was gritty, especially
40:08
Speaker 3: just off the main trag and this aligns with Nicky's
40:11
Speaker 3: description of the area.
40:14
Speaker 2: I remember, back in like two thousand and six, the
40:16
Speaker 2: bar across the street from ugly Tina had just enforced
40:19
Speaker 2: the dress code because of people coming in and like
40:23
Speaker 2: gang affiliated clothes. It was getting to where there were
40:26
Speaker 2: parts of Columbus downtown and the campus area that I
40:30
Speaker 2: look back on and I'm like, oh my gosh, why
40:33
Speaker 2: was I walking around at you know, that age, you
40:35
Speaker 2: know downtown? It was just on campus and so I know,
40:39
Speaker 2: like they had just sawed a cover charge in a
40:41
Speaker 2: dress code across the street because of people coming in
40:45
Speaker 2: and starting fights and being in gang related colors and
40:48
Speaker 2: stuff like that. So it wasn't like the best part
40:50
Speaker 2: of town, but it was still considered o issue campus,
40:52
Speaker 2: so people had this false sense of it's safe, it's
40:55
Speaker 2: a campus, you know, and that area is not like
40:58
Speaker 2: the area around Columbus is not great.
41:02
Speaker 4: So some speculate again that there's a small chance that
41:06
Speaker 4: Brian may have chosen to disappear, overwhelmed by grief from
41:10
Speaker 4: his mother's death, but that doesn't really make sense to
41:13
Speaker 4: those who know him, especially the circumstances like he hid
41:17
Speaker 4: in a dumpster to leave a bar when he was drunk,
41:21
Speaker 4: like didn't go back for his phone, no money used.
41:25
Speaker 4: He was also very close with his father and girlfriend
41:28
Speaker 4: had that vacation planned, showed no concrete signs of wanting
41:32
Speaker 4: to leave his life behind. And you know, Nikki made
41:37
Speaker 4: a good point, you know, after Brian's father died, She's like,
41:41
Speaker 4: if the small chance that if Brian was voluntarily missing,
41:45
Speaker 4: he would have come back. He loved his dad.
41:48
Speaker 2: Two years later, his dad passed away, so his brother
41:51
Speaker 2: lost everybody like in this and so like this is
41:56
Speaker 2: another reason. If he was going on his own, he
42:00
Speaker 2: would have on. I really feel he would have gave
42:02
Speaker 2: less he had some annania or something. When his dad
42:05
Speaker 2: passed away, he would have been back here. And his
42:07
Speaker 2: dad was out back of you know, the debris from
42:10
Speaker 2: the storm, and it's like a tree limb fell on
42:11
Speaker 2: him and killed him. It is horrible.
42:14
Speaker 3: So the bottom line is if Brian was voluntarily missing,
42:17
Speaker 3: he wouldn't have stayed gone. Following his dad's tragic death.
42:20
Speaker 3: In two thousand and eight, Randy Shaeffer died in a
42:22
Speaker 3: tragic accident when a tree fell on him. It seems
42:25
Speaker 3: so unfair for this family to suffer yet another loss.
42:30
Speaker 4: Then there was yet another brief wave of confusion and
42:32
Speaker 4: speculation following his dad's death.
42:35
Speaker 2: So then as his dad died somebody wrote on his
42:39
Speaker 2: dad's obituary like miss your dad, I'll see you see
42:42
Speaker 2: love Brian, and it said Virgin Islands. So of course
42:46
Speaker 2: everyone's like, Brian, you know, no, that was a hope.
42:48
Speaker 2: But it was just somebody in Hilliard, which is on
42:50
Speaker 2: the west side of Columbus. They've got it was a
42:53
Speaker 2: library on the west side of Columbus. They found the
42:56
Speaker 2: IP address and may had written it from that library.
42:59
Speaker 3: Then and there are theories that involve corruption. Fringe theories
43:03
Speaker 3: suggest that somebody tampered with surveillance footage or exploited a
43:06
Speaker 3: blind spot in security. Police never confirmed any tampering. To
43:11
Speaker 3: this day, people want to know what happened, and it's
43:14
Speaker 3: among one of the most well known and high profile
43:17
Speaker 3: disappearances in the country. The case was featured on America's
43:21
Speaker 3: Most Wanted Dateline NBC, in various true crime podcasts, and
43:25
Speaker 3: once you talk to Nikki about Brian, it's not hard
43:28
Speaker 3: to understand why Brian was one of the good ones.
43:31
Speaker 3: He was just a good guy.
43:33
Speaker 2: Well, I remember in high school, like I was at
43:35
Speaker 2: the school one day for like student council or something,
43:37
Speaker 2: and Brian was walking in and he had a big
43:39
Speaker 2: box of clothes, and I'm like, we were like juniors.
43:42
Speaker 2: I'm like, what are you doing? And he was bringing
43:44
Speaker 2: in stuff from his house, like a box of like
43:48
Speaker 2: shoes and jaggets that he just was donating to are
43:52
Speaker 2: Lost and Bound. And I found out that he'd done
43:54
Speaker 2: that every year. Nobody knew, like it wasn't even something
43:57
Speaker 2: that the teachers even said to do, but he just
43:58
Speaker 2: did it. And that's just like I was thinking about
44:01
Speaker 2: like this that what he was just a nice guy,
44:03
Speaker 2: No wonder he went into medicine, like, no wonder he was.
44:06
Speaker 2: You know, his mom had been sick and that was
44:09
Speaker 2: one reason, but also because he was just a nice
44:11
Speaker 2: I think. I know people say that when someone happened
44:13
Speaker 2: to somebody, but he really was this a nice guy.
44:17
Speaker 4: Nicky learned that members of Brian's favorite band, Pearl Jam,
44:20
Speaker 4: even took an interest in his disappearance, and he.
44:24
Speaker 2: Was really big into Pearl Jam. He had he has
44:26
Speaker 2: a Pearl Jam tattoo, and Eddie Vedder even has mentioned
44:30
Speaker 2: him in a couple of concerts about him being missing,
44:32
Speaker 2: which which is just like so sad that he would
44:36
Speaker 2: love he would love for Eddie better to even know
44:38
Speaker 2: his name. But the reason why he knows his name
44:40
Speaker 2: is what's so sad? You know what I mean, It's
44:41
Speaker 2: just that's what it breaks your heart. He just was
44:43
Speaker 2: a really nice guy. I was talking to my friend
44:45
Speaker 2: about this a few years ago, like, we can't remember
44:48
Speaker 2: one thing like that. He he never broke a girl's heart.
44:54
Speaker 2: He loves music. He loves music. He loves music. And
44:57
Speaker 2: I just find it so ironic that Eddi vedder Like
45:00
Speaker 2: said something about my concert, because that he would have died.
45:02
Speaker 2: I think that any that we even knew it his existence.
45:05
Speaker 3: As recently as twenty twenty one, the FBI released an
45:09
Speaker 3: age progressed image of Brian at age forty two. Tips
45:13
Speaker 3: still come in, but none have produced credible leads. Columbus
45:17
Speaker 3: Police Department and the FBI still list him as a
45:19
Speaker 3: missing person.
45:21
Speaker 4: And what I will say is like I asked chat
45:23
Speaker 4: GPT what they think it is, and you know, they
45:28
Speaker 4: just crunch numbers, do algorithms. I call it a they
45:30
Speaker 4: because I don't know what to call it, this plot
45:33
Speaker 4: and they are like an Okham's razor thinker, Yeah, you
45:37
Speaker 4: know processor. And according to chat GPT, it believes that
45:43
Speaker 4: the most plausible theory is that there was foul play,
45:46
Speaker 4: likely inside or right near the bar. But again, you
45:51
Speaker 4: know that means that Brian was killed in this bar
45:53
Speaker 4: and his body hidden and never found. And like, think
45:55
Speaker 4: about all the acrobatics and movements in planning and covering
46:00
Speaker 4: up that would require. It's really hard to understand how
46:04
Speaker 4: that would have happened. But really you can poke holes
46:07
Speaker 4: in every single one of these possibilities.
46:10
Speaker 2: That's where every time I go down a road where
46:11
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, this could be it, I think, well,
46:13
Speaker 2: how would nobody notice?
46:14
Speaker 3: That?
46:14
Speaker 2: Would take an entire group of people knowing that he
46:17
Speaker 2: was hurt or something, and how are you going to
46:19
Speaker 2: have for twenty years? Almost these just where my brain,
46:22
Speaker 2: Sorry my moing, So this is where my brain like,
46:24
Speaker 2: how can you have all these people know if you
46:26
Speaker 2: got hurt in there and they took them out in
46:27
Speaker 2: the tracks and I said, a trash can? I don't know?
46:31
Speaker 2: And then it gets so build up in your head
46:33
Speaker 2: that you're like, if it is something very simple, why
46:37
Speaker 2: haven't we figured it out? You know, the more people
46:39
Speaker 2: that know somebody may say I'm not a detective, but
46:43
Speaker 2: usually somebody, you know, the more people that know, less
46:45
Speaker 2: likely it doesn't keep a secret.
46:47
Speaker 3: To this day, tips about Brian still get called.
46:49
Speaker 2: In a few years ago, they thought they spotted a
46:52
Speaker 2: guy in Mexico that looks like Brian, but it was
46:54
Speaker 2: not Brian, so it's just it's just baffling.
46:58
Speaker 3: Brian had big plans, but he didn't get the opportunity
47:01
Speaker 3: to pursue any of them. Brian's former classmates and friends
47:05
Speaker 3: like Nikki got to live their lives.
47:08
Speaker 2: I'm that person in the family, you know, that's just
47:10
Speaker 2: the way to many of them. But my daughters home
47:12
Speaker 2: to floridast it does serve for me to give people advice,
47:14
Speaker 2: Like my daughter is just from eighteen and which is
47:18
Speaker 2: crazy to me, Like like I remember when I was eighteen,
47:22
Speaker 2: Like it feels like it was yesterday, like a two
47:24
Speaker 2: years ago. We had our twenty year union and a
47:25
Speaker 2: lot of us spoke about Brian and like, how we
47:30
Speaker 2: have you know, gotten married and we've started careers and
47:33
Speaker 2: we started new careers and some of us have gotten divorced,
47:36
Speaker 2: like not me, but other people, and then we had
47:37
Speaker 2: children and Brian is still stuck at like twenty six.
47:39
Speaker 2: Like it's heartbreaking.
47:42
Speaker 4: For now, we all have to live with the fact
47:44
Speaker 4: that none of us may ever know what happened.
47:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you build it up in your head
47:48
Speaker 2: that if it's something like that, then you're kind of like,
47:50
Speaker 2: that's it. Like, I don't want it to be anything horrible,
47:53
Speaker 2: white brush. I wish he was on island somewhere, like
47:56
Speaker 2: in a band. But then when it then, when you
47:58
Speaker 2: hear something like that, you're gonna like you're kind of like, oh, oh, well,
48:00
Speaker 2: he deserves it a little bit, something a little bit
48:01
Speaker 2: bigger than that. You feel like, because it's been building
48:03
Speaker 2: up for so long that you're just like, oh, somebody
48:05
Speaker 2: it robbed him. Yeah, you feel like at this point,
48:07
Speaker 2: as image he's filled up, like he deserves to be,
48:09
Speaker 2: like as he was inducted by aliens and now he's
48:11
Speaker 2: the king of Mars. I don't know what it would
48:13
Speaker 2: be that would make it. Nothing would make it right. Obviously,
48:17
Speaker 2: there is.
48:18
Speaker 4: No arguing that Brian Schaeffer's disappearance remains one of the
48:21
Speaker 4: most baffling in modern American history, and despite not knowing
48:25
Speaker 4: what happened for sure, his case became a cautionary tale
48:29
Speaker 4: and discussions about campus safety, surveillance, blind spots, and what
48:33
Speaker 4: law enforcement can and can't do when someone vanishes, and
48:37
Speaker 4: while the answer to this mystery remains hotly debated, what
48:40
Speaker 4: is crystal clear is that Brian was left. His father,
48:44
Speaker 4: Randy remains an outspoken advocate for missing persons until his
48:48
Speaker 4: accidental death in two thousand and eight, and Alexis's quiet
48:51
Speaker 4: but persistent visibility helped keep Brian in the spotlight. It's
48:55
Speaker 4: been more than eighteen years since Brian Schaeffer walked into
48:58
Speaker 4: the Ugly Tuna Saluna and never walked out. His face
49:02
Speaker 4: still appears on missing Persons posters, and Brian's story still
49:06
Speaker 4: haunts everyone who hears it because if a man can
49:09
Speaker 4: vanish under cameras in a bar full of people in
49:12
Speaker 4: the middle of a busy city, what does that say
49:15
Speaker 4: about the rest of us? We live in a world
49:17
Speaker 4: of footprints, fingerprints, pings, pixels, and yet Brian left nothing behind,
49:23
Speaker 4: no goodbyes, no evidence of struggle, and no second chance.
49:28
Speaker 4: Someone knows what happened that night, and until they speak,
49:31
Speaker 4: Brian remains exactly where he's been since April first, two
49:35
Speaker 4: thousand and six, missing.
49:52
Speaker 3: A huge thing. You to Nikki for being our first
49:54
Speaker 3: degree for today's episode. If you are listening out there
49:57
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50:00
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50:27
Speaker 4: And remember, only you can prevent serial killers and keep
50:30
Speaker 4: your friends close by, not that close. Shout out to
50:39
Speaker 4: Jared Monago first scoring your original music for the First
50:42
Speaker 4: Gree Sources for this episode include The Columbus Dispatch, People Magazine, CNN, ABC,
50:47
Speaker 4: America's Most Watten, NBC's Dateline, ABC's Primetime, The Charlie Project,
50:53
Speaker 4: the FBI name is and remember, our first Greek guest
50:56
Speaker 4: is always our largest source