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Cops CAN’T EXPLAIN his 911 call · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today, I'm gonna tell you the story of one of
0:02
Speaker 1: the most talked about mysteries on the internet. And I
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Speaker 1: think part of the reason this story is so mysterious
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Speaker 1: and so intriguing is because there's this really unsettling audio
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Speaker 1: recording that sort of confounds the whole mystery and really
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Speaker 1: forces you to take a stance about what you think
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Speaker 1: really happened. And so I'm gonna tell you the story
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Speaker 1: and towards the end, I'm gonna play you that recording
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Speaker 1: and you can decide what you think really happened. But
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Speaker 1: before we get into that story, If you're a fan
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Speaker 1: our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story. At
1:06
Speaker 1: 1230 a.m.
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Speaker 2: On August 9th, 2013.
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Speaker 1: A man named Kyle Lawson was asleep in his bedroom
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Speaker 1: 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 26-year-old brother, Brandon. And so,
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Speaker 1: you know, Kyle picked it up. But before he could
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Speaker 1: even say hello, his brother said he needed help. And
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Speaker 1: then he launched into this big story that really sounded
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Speaker 1: completely insane. He told Kyle he was currently driving north
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Speaker 1: on Highway 277, which is this totally desolate two-lane country
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Speaker 1: road that runs through West Texas, and that three men
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Speaker 1: were chasing Brandon. And on top of that, Brandon told
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Speaker 1: his brother that he's trying to get away from these men,
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Speaker 1: but his truck was about to run out of gas.
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Speaker 1: And so what he wanted Kyle to do was to,
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Speaker 1: right now in the middle of the night, come meet
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Speaker 1: him secretly to hand off a gas tank so Brandon
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Speaker 1: could officially escape these three men. But as Kyle listened
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Speaker 1: to this, he was not really actually concerned, at least
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Speaker 1: in terms of Brandon being in any sort of real
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Speaker 1: danger with regards to these three men that were chasing him.
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Speaker 1: In reality, Kyle's reaction to this was just being so
2:32
Speaker 1: annoyed at Brandon. Because after hearing this story, this frantic
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Speaker 1: story Brandon's telling him in the middle of the night,
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Speaker 1: he was sure that really there were no three men.
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Speaker 1: That instead, his brother Brandon was just high again. And
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Speaker 1: he was hallucinating. He was basically having an episode that
2:49
Speaker 1: was substance-induced. So Brandon had a history of methamphetamine use.
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Speaker 1: He'd been clean for the last six months or so,
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Speaker 1: and he'd been working on, you know, being a better
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Speaker 1: partner to his fiance, Ledessa, and also a better father
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Speaker 1: to his four children. But just two days ago, Brandon
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Speaker 1: had also called Kyle, but it had been to ask
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Speaker 1: Kyle if he knew where he could get some drugs. Now,
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Speaker 1: Kyle did not immediately say, oh, here's where you go
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Speaker 1: to get drugs. Instead, he tried to tell Brandon, like,
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Speaker 1: Don't do it. Like, you should not get high. You're clean. Like,
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Speaker 1: you're doing good. But he was pretty sure Brandon had
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Speaker 1: not listened because ever since that phone call, even though
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Speaker 1: Kyle didn't give him any, you know, resources for drugs,
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Speaker 1: Brandon must have gone and gotten drugs anyways because his
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Speaker 1: behavior had just been completely crazy in general. In fact,
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Speaker 1: right now, Kyle knew from having spoken to his parents
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Speaker 1: earlier that the whole reason Brandon was even driving on
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Speaker 1: Highway 277 right now was because he'd gotten into a
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Speaker 1: big fight with his fiancée and was supposed to be
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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
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Speaker 1: why he was out right now. Now, Kyle knew Brandon
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Speaker 1: was very likely high, and so this was not going
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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 instead,
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Speaker 1: Kyle just focused on trying to calm Brandon down because, again...
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Speaker 1: Kyle is not thinking Brandon is actually in danger. He's
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Speaker 1: thinking this is just a hallucination. But as Kyle tried
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Speaker 1: to do that, Brandon did not calm down. He got
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Speaker 1: more and more anxious, and he's continuing to talk about
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Speaker 1: these three men that are gaining on him. And finally,
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Speaker 1: Kyle just said, dude, Brandon. Have you relapsed? Is that
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Speaker 1: what's going on here? But as Kyle expected, Brandon swore
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Speaker 1: up and down that he was not high. And he
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Speaker 1: just kept on begging Kyle to come help him fast
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Speaker 1: before these men caught up to him. Like, come give
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Speaker 1: me the gas I need so I can escape. Come on, man.
4:50
Speaker 1: At this point, Kyle felt like there was no point
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Speaker 1: even talking to Brandon. And in some ways, he just
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Speaker 1: wanted to hang up and forget about this whole thing. Like,
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Speaker 1: this was crazy. He has his own life and his
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Speaker 1: own responsibilities. Like, he shouldn't be babysitting his younger brother.
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Speaker 1: But at the same time, Kyle was very close with
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Speaker 1: his brother. Even if, you know, he resented it, he
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Speaker 1: did love his brother very much. And even though he
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Speaker 1: did feel like there is no imminent danger here other
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Speaker 1: than maybe Brandon to himself, Kyle decided, you know what?
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Speaker 1: I'm just going to go out on Highway 277. I'm
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Speaker 1: going to find Brandon and just get him back home.
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Speaker 1: So he told Brandon he'd be right there. And then
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Speaker 1: he hung up. About 45 minutes later, Kyle drove north
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Speaker 1: on Highway 277, along with his wife in his passenger
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Speaker 1: seat and their four-year-old son in the back. Kyle's wife
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Speaker 1: had not wanted him to be out in the middle
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Speaker 1: of the night dealing with his crazy brother all alone,
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Speaker 1: so she'd insisted that she and their son come along.
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Speaker 1: And so as Kyle drove down the road, he kept
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Speaker 1: an eye out for Brandon's truck. Now, to set the
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Speaker 1: scene for you, this really is like a desolate highway.
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Speaker 1: There's no real traffic, and really in either direction, it's
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Speaker 1: just kind of open plains and some shrubs and small trees. Like,
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Speaker 1: this is a a big wide open area. It's pretty
6:02
Speaker 1: easy to see way out in front of you. And
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Speaker 1: so he's got a great view, even though it's nighttime,
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Speaker 1: but he can't see any vehicles. Like there's no truck,
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Speaker 1: there's nothing. Like his brother is nowhere to be seen.
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Speaker 1: But 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
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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
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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
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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
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Speaker 1: sitting in his truck, you know, waiting for Kyle. And
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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. He's probably just sitting here high as can be.
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Speaker 1: And I'm going to talk to him and he's just
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Speaker 1: going to go home and we're going to move past this.
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Speaker 1: But when Kyle walked over to the vehicle, there was
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Speaker 1: nobody inside of it. Brandon's gone. And he's thinking to himself,
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Speaker 1: this really doesn't make any sense because on the ride
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Speaker 1: to the truck, as they were on highway 277, Brandon
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Speaker 1: kept repeatedly calling Kyle over and over and over again,
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Speaker 1: being like, come on, you got to hurry up. You
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Speaker 1: got to get here. They're gaining on me like I'm
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Speaker 1: in trouble. Bring that gasoline. You got to get here.
7:33
Speaker 1: And now that he's here, he's finally reached clearly Brandon's truck.
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Speaker 1: It's right here. And Brandon's gone. He's gone from his truck.
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Speaker 1: He didn't tell him that on the phone. Like, where
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Speaker 1: is he? What's going on here? And so Kyle, he's
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Speaker 1: like looking under the vehicle. He's He's searching the vehicle
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Speaker 1: now for his brother, which is totally crazy. Like, what's
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Speaker 1: his brother doing here? But as he's searching the vehicle
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Speaker 1: for his brother and looking around the area for his brother,
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Speaker 1: Kyle's phone rings and it's Brandon. And so Kyle, who
8:01
Speaker 1: at this point is feeling really annoyed, he answers the
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Speaker 1: phone 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.
8:33
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
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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
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Speaker 1: nearby because he can clearly see the cop car approaching Kyle.
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Speaker 1: He's watching the scene. Even though Kyle has not found
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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
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Speaker 1: fields in either direction on either side of this highway.
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Speaker 1: It's like this this barren wasteland out in the middle
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Speaker 1: of Texas. Like, where is he hiding? There's nowhere to hide.
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Speaker 1: There's a couple of shrubs and really small trees sort
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Speaker 1: of off in the distance, but like, there's really nowhere
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Speaker 1: to hide. So where is Brandon? And Kyle, he's just
9:24
Speaker 1: feeling furious at this point, confused, but furious. It's like,
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Speaker 1: what are you doing, Brandon? Like, he knew the reason
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Speaker 1: Brandon wanted Kyle to run also is because Brandon had
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Speaker 1: an active warrant out for his arrest that had to
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Speaker 1: do with 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 off his rocker. Like he was
9:50
Speaker 1: so annoyed. But again, it's like, what does he even do?
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Speaker 1: He has no idea where Brandon is. And so Kyle,
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Speaker 1: he was about to say something to Brandon to demand,
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Speaker 1: you know, where are you? Come out here. But Brandon
10:01
Speaker 1: hung up. Now, by this point, the police officer had
10:04
Speaker 1: arrived on scene. He had parked his car and he
10:07
Speaker 1: walked over to Kyle, who now is standing right next
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Speaker 1: to his brother's vehicle. You know, he's put his phone
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Speaker 1: back in his pocket. And the officer, when he got
10:14
Speaker 1: close enough, He introduced himself as Deputy Neal of the
10:17
Speaker 1: Coke County Sheriff's Department. And he told Kyle that he
10:19
Speaker 1: was responding to a 911 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?
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Speaker 1: Are you the stranded driver? You know, pointing to Brandon's truck.
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Speaker 1: But Kyle said no, it was not his. It belonged
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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
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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 had run out of gas. So
10:57
Speaker 1: he parked his car here. So he probably has walked
11:00
Speaker 1: on and, you know, I just got here. Is it
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Speaker 1: okay with you if I get back in the car
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Speaker 1: with my wife and son and just drive up and
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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,
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Speaker 1: the deputy was like, yeah, that's fine. Go ahead. And
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Speaker 1: so Kyle, he got right back into his car with
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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
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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
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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
11:35
Speaker 1: couldn't see him anymore... He pulled over to the side
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Speaker 1: of the road and he began really angrily calling his
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Speaker 1: brother over and over and over again to get him
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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
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Speaker 1: little bit longer, like continuing to try to get in
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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 so late
12:04
Speaker 1: and he's tired. And, you know, Kyle's wife is tired.
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Speaker 1: It's two in the morning. And Kyle, he's just so
12:10
Speaker 1: over it. He's like, you know what? Brandon is an adult.
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Speaker 1: I tried to come out here and get him out
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Speaker 1: of this mess. But if he doesn't want to be
12:16
Speaker 1: in touch with me and he wants to hide off
12:19
Speaker 1: the side of the highway, that's on him. I'm taking
12:21
Speaker 1: my family and I'm going home. And so that's what
12:24
Speaker 1: he did. He turned around. He drove right back the
12:26
Speaker 1: way he came. And he actually passed by his brother's
12:29
Speaker 1: truck that was still there. So Brandon clearly is still
12:31
Speaker 1: in hiding. And standing next to his brother's truck is
12:35
Speaker 1: still Deputy Neal. He presumably was waiting for Brandon to
12:38
Speaker 1: show back up. He drove right past them, went back
12:41
Speaker 1: to his home, and they went to bed. And he figured,
12:44
Speaker 1: you know what, tomorrow I will likely hear from Brandon,
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Speaker 1: and he'll tell me some crazy story explaining what really happened.
12:50
Speaker 1: But you know what, whatever. That's on him. Not long
12:53
Speaker 1: after Kyle had driven past Deputy Neal on his way
12:56
Speaker 1: back home, Neal decided, you know what, I'm not just
12:59
Speaker 1: going to sit here all night waiting for Brandon. He
13:01
Speaker 1: had searched Brandon's truck, and there was nothing concerning inside
13:04
Speaker 1: of it. There was no phone, no wallet, no keys,
13:07
Speaker 1: things that people would not leave behind if they ran
13:10
Speaker 1: out of gas and decided to go walk to get gas.
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Speaker 1: So it seemed very much like that is what happened.
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Speaker 1: Brandon had pulled his car over, gotten out, and begun
13:18
Speaker 1: the walk. And then his brother showed up, and the
13:20
Speaker 1: whole thing was playing out here. And so Neil figured, OK, well,
13:23
Speaker 1: I have other calls to go to. It doesn't seem
13:25
Speaker 1: like this is a huge emergency. And so he just
13:28
Speaker 1: reached inside the truck, he turned on the hazard lights,
13:30
Speaker 1: then he locked all the doors and shut them, and
13:33
Speaker 1: then he got in his own vehicle and he took off.
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Speaker 1: Because again, he had other calls to attend to that night.
13:39
Speaker 1: The next morning, around 8 a.m., Deputy Neal was back
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Speaker 1: out on Highway 277 just to make sure Brandon had
13:46
Speaker 1: eventually come back and claimed his truck. But no, the
13:49
Speaker 1: truck was still sitting there, hazards on. Now, at this point,
13:53
Speaker 1: Deputy Neal was starting to get a bit concerned about Brandon. Because,
13:56
Speaker 1: you know, he's out on foot walking to get gas
13:58
Speaker 1: for his truck. And even though it seemed like the
14:00
Speaker 1: risk was sort of low for him, it is possible
14:03
Speaker 1: something could have happened to him. And that's why he
14:05
Speaker 1: had not come back to his truck. You know, maybe
14:07
Speaker 1: he was hit by a car or, you know, got
14:09
Speaker 1: lost or something. Who knows? Like anything could have happened. Or,
14:12
Speaker 1: you know, maybe Brandon decided not to claim his truck yet.
14:15
Speaker 1: Maybe he just went home and he's going to get
14:17
Speaker 1: it later. But regardless, it just seemed like Neil really
14:20
Speaker 1: had to go follow up personally with Brandon just to
14:23
Speaker 1: make sure he was okay. And so Neil drove back
14:26
Speaker 1: to the sheriff's department to see if he could find
14:28
Speaker 1: the contact information for Brandon. But when he walked in
14:31
Speaker 1: the door, he didn't have any time to do any
14:33
Speaker 1: digging because another employee told him that while he was out,
14:37
Speaker 1: the department had gotten a call from Brandon's fiancee, Ledessa.
14:41
Speaker 1: And Ledessa had given them a very different story than
14:44
Speaker 1: the one Brandon's brother, Kyle, had told Neil the night before.
14:47
Speaker 1: According to Ledessa, she and Brandon had been fighting for
14:50
Speaker 1: the past few days. And last night, so on the
14:53
Speaker 1: night that this whole truck thing happened, Brandon was supposed
14:56
Speaker 1: to be on his way to his parents' house to
14:59
Speaker 1: cool off from the fight he was having with Ledessa,
15:02
Speaker 1: but he never arrived at his parents' house and he
15:05
Speaker 1: never came back to Ledessa's house. And so Brandon was
15:09
Speaker 1: totally unaccounted for. And on top of that, nobody could
15:12
Speaker 1: get in touch with Brandon. They were calling and texting him,
15:15
Speaker 1: no response. After hearing this, Deputy Neal was surprised and
15:19
Speaker 1: also pretty angry because clearly Brandon's brother, Kyle... had acted
15:24
Speaker 1: like everything was totally fine the night before, but that
15:26
Speaker 1: had to have been a lie, you know, because Ledessa
15:29
Speaker 1: is saying this totally different story. And so the first
15:32
Speaker 1: thing Neil did is he went and spoke to Kyle
15:34
Speaker 1: and also to the rest of Brandon's family to get
15:37
Speaker 1: the story straight here. And very quickly, it became clear
15:40
Speaker 1: to Deputy Neil that any omissions or even lies about
15:44
Speaker 1: what had happened exactly on the night that Kyle went
15:46
Speaker 1: missing were not because the family was hiding something. I mean,
15:50
Speaker 1: they were kind of trying to protect Brandon, but It
15:53
Speaker 1: was because they didn't understand how serious this situation really was.
15:57
Speaker 1: And so now that Brandon really was missing and nobody
15:59
Speaker 1: knew what happened to him, the family was very forthright
16:02
Speaker 1: that they really didn't know what had happened to him
16:05
Speaker 1: and that, yes, maybe he was on drugs. We don't know,
16:07
Speaker 1: but he really is missing and you got to go
16:10
Speaker 1: look for him. And so that's what Neil did. Over
16:13
Speaker 1: the next four days, there was this huge search that
16:16
Speaker 1: Neil led all around Highway 277, where the center of
16:20
Speaker 1: the search was where Brandon's truck had been found. But
16:23
Speaker 1: despite using canines and helicopters and these huge search teams,
16:27
Speaker 1: some of which had thermal cameras which would allow you
16:29
Speaker 1: to see body heat, like despite covering this vast area
16:32
Speaker 1: all around where Brandon clearly had been, there was absolutely
16:37
Speaker 1: no sign of him. And they also spoke to the
16:40
Speaker 1: homeowners and the property owners sort of roughly in the
16:42
Speaker 1: area to see if maybe they had seen something strange,
16:46
Speaker 1: maybe seen Brandon or those three men that apparently had
16:49
Speaker 1: been chasing him on the night he went missing, but
16:51
Speaker 1: Nobody had seen anything. And so basically, Brandon was definitely
16:55
Speaker 1: not here. And there was no sign he had been
16:57
Speaker 1: here other than his truck. That was it. And so
17:01
Speaker 1: Deputy Neal and the rest of the authorities who were
17:03
Speaker 1: involved in the search ultimately came to the conclusion that
17:07
Speaker 1: based on the fact that Brandon had clearly been fighting
17:10
Speaker 1: with his fiance, that he had an active warrant out
17:12
Speaker 1: for his arrest, and that he had not been seen
17:15
Speaker 1: in days, and there was no sign of him anywhere, nothing,
17:19
Speaker 1: that what must have happened here was is Brandon fled.
17:22
Speaker 1: That he's not here because he chose not to be here.
17:25
Speaker 1: That he was never in any danger. He fled the area,
17:29
Speaker 1: and looking here is going to do nothing. We basically
17:31
Speaker 1: have 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 shut case. Until Brandon's fiancée, Ledessa, came
17:41
Speaker 1: into the station in person with a bombshell. On August 13th, 2013,
17:46
Speaker 1: so four days after Brandon went missing, this is right
17:49
Speaker 1: around the time the search has been called off, the
17:52
Speaker 1: officer on duty at the Coke County Sheriff's Department sat
17:54
Speaker 1: across from Ledessa. And Ledessa looked extremely upset. And she
17:59
Speaker 1: said that she'd gotten so worried about Brandon that she'd
18:01
Speaker 1: started searching through their cell phone records. And she'd found
18:05
Speaker 1: something really concerning. She pulled out a piece of paper
18:08
Speaker 1: and she handed it to the officer and she pointed
18:10
Speaker 1: at a specific section. And this officer, he realized quickly
18:14
Speaker 1: that this was a printed out copy of Brandon's call logs.
18:17
Speaker 1: And what Ledessa was pointing to was a call that
18:20
Speaker 1: Brandon had made at 1250 a.m. on the night he disappeared.
18:25
Speaker 1: In between a flurry of calls to Kyle and also
18:28
Speaker 1: to Kyle's wife, Brandon had also placed a call to 911.
18:33
Speaker 1: Ledessa told the officer that the fact that Brandon himself
18:36
Speaker 1: had called 911 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 to. But she's like, why then,
19:03
Speaker 1: after calling the police, did he presumably run away? It
19:07
Speaker 1: just doesn't make any sense. And all of this came
19:10
Speaker 1: as a total surprise to this officer and to the
19:12
Speaker 1: sheriff's department. Because until this moment, the belief had been
19:16
Speaker 1: that a trucker had called 911 about a stranded driver.
19:19
Speaker 1: And that was how Deputy Neal got involved and really
19:21
Speaker 1: this whole thing started. But nobody knew there had also
19:24
Speaker 1: been this other 911 call from Brandon himself. The 911
19:29
Speaker 1: dispatch in the area was tiny, underfunded, and understaffed. And
19:33
Speaker 1: at some point, someone must have just dropped the ball
19:36
Speaker 1: when it came to informing the sheriff's department that about
19:39
Speaker 1: Brandon's 911 call because they really didn't know about it.
19:42
Speaker 1: But now that they did, they needed to hear that
19:44
Speaker 1: call for themselves. The sheriff's department would contact that 911
19:48
Speaker 1: dispatch and they would send them an audio recording of
19:52
Speaker 1: Brandon's call. And when they listened to it, they were
19:55
Speaker 1: shocked because one, Brandon 100% sounded like he was in
20:00
Speaker 1: imminent danger. This was not like a low stakes call
20:03
Speaker 1: from a stranded driver. This was someone who thought they
20:05
Speaker 1: were in real peril here. And then, two, if you
20:08
Speaker 1: listen closely, you can hear the sound of somebody else's
20:12
Speaker 1: voice in the background on Brandon's side of the call
20:16
Speaker 1: shortly before it cuts out.
20:17
Speaker 2: 911 emergency. Yes, I'm in the middle of the field.
20:22
Speaker 2: It's like we're just pushing guys over. Right here going
20:24
Speaker 2: towards that one on both sides. My truck ran out
20:27
Speaker 2: of gas. There's one car here that got taken to
20:29
Speaker 2: the woods. Please hurry. Okay, now run that down. We're
20:34
Speaker 2: not talking to them. I certainly ran into them. Ah,
20:38
Speaker 2: you ran into him. Okay. That's the first stop. Do
20:42
Speaker 2: you need an ambulance? No, I need a call. Okay.
20:48
Speaker 2: Is anybody hurt?
20:53
Speaker 1: Hello? Hello?
20:58
Speaker 2: 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
21:23
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, 277, all over the place near where
21:48
Speaker 1: his truck was. There was no evidence. He was just gone.
21:52
Speaker 1: And so ultimately, Brandon's case went cold. And for the
21:55
Speaker 1: most part, authorities just kind of moved on. but Brandon's
21:59
Speaker 1: family did not move on. His fiancee, Ledessa, would go
22:02
Speaker 1: on to hire two private detectives, and they would both
22:05
Speaker 1: conduct these big searches multiple times over around the area
22:09
Speaker 1: where Brandon left his truck and also across the state.
22:12
Speaker 1: But they too also just came up empty. And as
22:15
Speaker 1: the years passed by without answers, Brandon's disappearance captured more
22:20
Speaker 1: people's attention, and it started being featured on TV shows
22:23
Speaker 1: and podcasts. People had all kinds of theories about what
22:26
Speaker 1: had happened. You know, maybe Brandon really was just high
22:29
Speaker 1: and hallucinating and he wandered off somewhere and got attacked
22:32
Speaker 1: by wild animals. Or maybe he really was being chased
22:36
Speaker 1: by these three men and they kidnapped or killed him.
22:39
Speaker 1: And maybe that voice you hear on the recording was
22:41
Speaker 1: one of those three men. Or maybe he really had
22:43
Speaker 1: just fled the area on purpose, like the sheriff's department
22:46
Speaker 1: originally thought. Nobody really knew. And so for nine years,
22:50
Speaker 1: Brandon's case was full of questions and zero answers. But
22:53
Speaker 1: then in January of 2022... a small group of volunteers
22:58
Speaker 1: went out to Highway 277 to the area where Brandon
23:01
Speaker 1: had disappeared, which had been searched so many times over. They,
23:06
Speaker 1: this small group of volunteers, would make the biggest breakthrough
23:10
Speaker 1: in Brandon's case in nearly a decade. While they were
23:13
Speaker 1: combing through this field off the side of the highway, again,
23:16
Speaker 1: a field that had been searched numerous times by hundreds
23:19
Speaker 1: and hundreds of people, these volunteers came across an old
23:23
Speaker 1: pair of shorts and and pieces of two white shoes.
23:27
Speaker 1: They called the sheriff's department, and very quickly, a team
23:30
Speaker 1: of deputies arrived and cordoned off the area, and they
23:33
Speaker 1: continued the search. And in that same field, not far
23:36
Speaker 1: from the shorts and the shoes, they found a fragment
23:39
Speaker 1: of a human skull. And DNA testing confirmed the skull
23:43
Speaker 1: fragment belonged to Brandon Lawson. Now, you would think that
23:46
Speaker 1: finding some of Brandon's remains would answer at least some
23:50
Speaker 1: of the questions about his disappearance. But actually, no. It
23:53
Speaker 1: just made the whole thing more baffling. Because the area
23:56
Speaker 1: where Brandon's skull was found was right near his truck.
23:59
Speaker 1: It had been searched so many times. There were thermal
24:03
Speaker 1: cameras and canines and helicopters and hundreds of searchers. And
24:08
Speaker 1: nobody found it? Remember, off the side of the highway,
24:11
Speaker 1: this is not some thick forest. It is like this
24:14
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 manpower, the helicopters, canine units, the thermal cameras
24:42
Speaker 1: that were used, the hundreds of volunteers and searchers that
24:45
Speaker 1: combed this area for years, either they... just didn't see
24:51
Speaker 1: the grown man in bright white sneakers who was in
24:54
Speaker 1: this barren strip of West Texas where it's easy to
24:57
Speaker 1: see anything. They just didn't see him. So that's option one.
25:01
Speaker 1: Or two, he wasn't there. Brandon was not in the
25:05
Speaker 1: search area when they were looking for him. He was
25:07
Speaker 1: somewhere else. But if you believe option two, the question becomes, well,
25:12
Speaker 1: where was Brandon? Where was he? Why did he call
25:15
Speaker 1: 911 and then run away and go somewhere else?
25:18
Speaker 2: Why?
25:18
Speaker 1: Where was he? And then also, even if you answer that,
25:22
Speaker 1: how did his skull fragment and his clothes wind up
25:25
Speaker 1: back in the search area nine years later? It is
25:28
Speaker 1: one of the most profound mysteries on the internet, and
25:31
Speaker 1: to this day, we still don't have a good answer.
25:42
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what
25:44
Speaker 1: you thought of today's episode in the comments. And remember,
25:47
Speaker 1: we have hundreds of videos for you to binge right now.
25:51
Speaker 1: But if you're looking for a recommendation from me of
25:53
Speaker 1: that one video that's worth your time, well, it's this
25:57
Speaker 1: one right here. So give it a watch. All right,
26:00
Speaker 1: until next time, see ya.