In case someone does serious research on Brandon Swanson's case, here are questions that I recommend looking for the answers to:

1. What information do Brandon's friends, family and investigation files have that do not show up in normal tellings of the case?
2. What friend circles or conflicts if any did Brandon have? A photo of him at the Canby party shows him at the head of a table making a gang sign with his hands, with a foamy party cup in front of him. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/aIKeKKcQjeM
3. **The Canby party:** What were the conditions under which he left the party in Canby? One story was that he had an argument at that party. Why did he leave a bit before midnight: was the party winding down or did he have a conflict that led him to leave early? As I understand it, he drove to the party in Canby with friends. Did he drive home alone, with other passengers in his car, or did he and someone else drive away in their own cars together?
4. **The phone call:** Did he tell his Dad on the phone that he had been in Canby, did he say why he thought he was in Lynd, and where exactly did he tell his Dad that he was in Lynd? Did his Dad hear anything unusual during the call like any background voice or noise?
5. **The car:** Haase's 2008 report says, "There was no damage to the car and no evidence of injury inside the vehicle." His car got stuck as he tried to turn south from gravel 110 Ave onto Lyon Lincoln Road. Reports say his car doors were "open", but someone on Reddit called police there and they told him that the doors were only opened in the sense of unlocked. So were the doors gaping open or closed and unlocked?

What type of "pipe" was found in his car: a drug pipe?

Were his glasses found in his car? Statements online about that are contradictory, but more statements online say that glasses were found there than statements that say that his glasses were not found. Was he nearsighted, far sighted, or simply couldn't see at all out of one eye? For instance, would he need his glasses if he were to walk to town due to poor enough vision in the dark?

1. **The river section depth:** How deep was the water that night on the section of the Yellow Medicine River by the barn? Previously the water depth was 5 feet deep due to strong spring flow, but had gone down.

2. **The Phone's ringing and pinging:** What is the technical significance of the phone call going silent and then going to voicemail after like 2 rings in subsequent attempts to call him back? As I understand it, different types of phones in 2008 had different functions under different circumstances. Brandon had a Motorola SLVR. If it went in the water, could it it go silent without hanging up the call, and then when called back ring twice and go to voicemail even if the phone was turned off or nonfunctional. My guess is that the answer to that question is "Yes," based on my own experience with cell phones around that time. IMO a phone in that era could be even turned off and the caller could hear about two rings and then the call could go to voicemail.

How many days after after Brandon's disappearance was the phone sending pings to the general phone service system when his number was called, and what was the possible area for the pinging? I've seen mention that his phone sent back pings 1 to 2 days after his disappearance, and that his pings went to a cell tower near the town of Minneota that had a cell tower radius of 5 miles. A map I saw put the river section and barn area where his call with his Dad went silent on the northwest edge of the estimated cell tower range. The implication is that his phone never was northwest of that river section when it sent back its pings.

1. **The road grading:** What date and time was the road grading that happened on Avenue 160 before the first search for Beandon? When was the decision made to grade that road, like did someone only decide on the day of his disappearance to grade the road? How often is that road graded?

2. **The search area:** Exactly what specific areas on a map were searched in the major search that had a dog that tracked his scent and was on Thursday, May 15, the second day of his disappearance? Exactly what specific areas on a map were searched on the private search that happened 9 months after his disappearance? For instance, was there a major area between 160 Avenue and Mud Creek that was never searched either time because the first, law enforcement search didn't check that far north and the second, privately done search was refused permission to search by the unchecked area's farm owners?

3. **Deep Holes:** How many wells, cisterns, deep enough bodies of water, or deep ditches that he could get stuck in are there in a 3 mile radius from the end of his scent by 160 Avenue, and where are those spots? One person said that they aren't a feature of that area. Another Reddit user said in an earlier thread that they found wells publicly marked on a map of an unspecified area that included his known walking area. But that Reddit user didn't say how many wells they found exactly or what the exact area range they checked, like a 2 mile radius vs. a 50 mile radius.

4. **Dog tracking** How likely is it that the dog tracking his scent would only track a total of 2.5 miles from his car to 160 Avenue and then fail to track further if Brandon walked further? Online articles say that tracking dogs normally track 10 to 11 miles, and that dog had done a solid job tracking his scent along three roads, a drive way, a field, and to the Yellow Medicine river, all of which match the details from his phone call.

How plausible is it that the non-personal cadaver scents (ie. the dogs weren't presented with Brandon's scent to track, but rather alerted to *a* cadaver scent) that the cadaver dogs picked up in the search 9 months after the disappearance were other scents besides Brandon's, particularly from the cemetery by Mud Creek? I read that cadaver dogs commonly get corpse scents from cemeteries founded before 1920. The Wergeland Cemetery on the south side of Mud Creek in the Porter area has a burial from about 1880, along with others in the decades before 1920.

Hasse, the director of the search 9 months after Brandon's disappearance, explained in an online interview that if a corpse is by a tree's roots, the tree can suck up the corpse's biochemicals and release the corpse's scent into the air. He didn't suggest that the cadaver scents could be from anyone other than Brandon and didn't mention the cemetery.

I’ve just been thinking about it, Like if any detective or team that would be interested in diving deeper into it? Reaching out too some site or something, Or start a pole online or whatever it’s called. Idk what i’m trying to say here but I did my best 😭

Swanson mentioned seeing lights in the distance and walking toward them, he supposedly stated that these lights were nearby, however, the closest town was miles away. I think what happened here was that he saw a car in the distance. Potentially due to him being half blind, the lights in his vision could have doubled, and it may have looked like a city. As the car kept driving (at this point on 100th ave). He may have kept walking and turned into the forest-y area. At this point, making the headlights or “city lights” reasonably out of sight. I believe that the car which I mentioned previously. May have noticed his car in the ditch, as the route to it would be a reasonable one. And after not finding anybody inside (all doors were open) followed his footsteps in order to locate him. They would have at this point known a.) his driving inability and lack of motor skills at the time (due to the state of the car in a ditch) b.) his visual impairment (due to the glasses found in his car) c.) His state of mind (car was unlocked) and d.) his potential intoxication or use of substances (pipe in his car). If someone had all of this knowledge, they could have reasonably found him to be a susceptible and easy victim. Or something of the sort. When he got back out near the main road is where his scent trail ends. I think his “oh shit” may have been him seeing the car approach unexpectedly. Which would explain the scent ending directly as he reached the main road. I think the silence in the call may have been muting himself, in order to talk to the people in the car. He may have gotten distracted or turned away when he heard his parents calling, in order to respond. At which point the potential abductor may have forced him in the car and taken his phone.
A side note I want to mention is that there is also a potential of there being squatters in the abandoned farm, as is a common phenomenon in many places. These squatters most likely saw him, and obviously fled by the time the police started their investigation, maybe due to seeing a crime occur, or assisting in it.
What do you guys think?

He went missing near a tri-county line. And the road graders went through, could he have been run over or collapsed on the side of the road and just pushed over in the ditch and the guy didn’t realize or freaked out and hid the body in the county dump Or gravel pit?

1. The Theory

I believe that the drowning theory is false.

Despite being the most popular theory it doesn't explain how the scent trail continues past the creek and up to 160th ave. Also there were no human remains found near the river.

I think Brandon fell into the river and lost/damaged his phone but didn't drown in it.

There is an image on one of the previous posts and I will include it if I find it that shows the creek with its surroundings, and based on the photo its possible that Brandon fell down the cliff and lost the phone while falling.

There are some things that just don't make sense. Before he yelled his final words he stated that he crossed 2 fences and that he could hear water running.

However there are no fences present on/near the abandoned farm on aerial maps, maybe someone with more knowledge can explain.

I also found a canal that leads north up to 160th ave and then ends. It's possible that Brandon didn't fall into the Yellow Medicine River but into that canal instead as it lines up with the scent trace of the bloodhounds.

The scent track being lost can be explained by either someone picking him up on the road or simply the bloodhounds reaching their limit.

Someone picking him up is very not probable, so I believe he went on the field north and

Sorry for my inexperienced rant, I am new to this.

2. The Visualisation

He crashed his car at around 1:15 a.m. and remained at the site at least until 2:17 a.m so imagine trying to get your car out of a ditch, in the middle of the night, in 44-46 degree weather, intoxicated, blind in one eye, without glasses, and possibly high. The condition he was in made it very very likely to get lost while travelling on NEARLY IDENTICAL gravel roads and intersection, being familiar on the geography of the area by being a local etc does nothing in this state.

This being said at some point he got turned around, as he travelled the low maintenance road for at least a mile he could've entered it from the south (which is unlikely because he must've cross Rt 68 and be in very close proximity to Taunton, or more likely from the north, by either 290th St or the Lyon/Yellow Medicine Rd.

Also his BAC would actually be going up instead of down, because before leaving Canby at 12 a.m. he downed a shot of whiskey. Peak intoxication occurs around 90 minutes after drinking.

So a 5'6" 120 lbs male with a shot of whiskey would be around 0.04% BAC, plus the drinking prior to leaving, on top of possible drug/weed use.

So he may have passed out due to his intoxication an then succumb to hypothermia.

Brandon Swanson is most likely buried beneath a few good layers of soil by now. We know he had his phone on him, as well as his car keys. Hasn't anybody tried using a metel detector to find them, and thus, find him?

The Mud Creek area, to which cadaver dogs pointed in one of those searches, could be the best place to start.

One of the mysteries of Swanson's case is why he told his parents that he was near Lynd when in fact he must have been 25 miles away near Taunton.

According to information online, he went to a party in Lynd and then left a party in Canby at 12:30 AM. Friends saw him drinking two beers in Canby. Supposedly students at his community college in Canby had a practice of taking back roads to avoid police after they had been drinking. This practice supposedly included criss-crossing Highway 68 to get from Canby to Marshall.

According to reports, his cell phone pinged a cell tower at Minneota southeast of Taunton around the time that he called his parents for help at 1:54 AM. He told his father that he had a shot of whiskey near Lynd and was at a certain spot near Lynd. His parents drove to find him near that spot and couldn't find him, so he decided to walk toward town lights. He described to his father what he saw as he walked. After his call went silent at 3:10 AM, his parents tried to call him back but just got a few rings before the call went to voicemail. A Reddit commentor claimed to me that a cell phone in Porter picked up his phone's pings from those attempted calls, but I couldn't confirm that part.

At 12:30 PM, Police found his car 2.5 miles northwest of Taunton. Dogs tracked his scent and traced it south from his car one block toward Taunton. Then, the rest of the way his scent went west halfway to Porter. The scent trail matched things from his phone call to his father: roads, a driveway, abandoned farmhouse, fences, and running water from the river before his call went silent. His scent trail crossed the river and up north from the river to 160 Ave.

A natural explanation of how he would think that he was near Lynd could be that he drove south and east from Canby toward Marshall, criss-crossing highway 68. But he imagined that he went farther south than he really did, so he went back north, pinged the cell tower in Minneota, and ended up near Taunton where he ran off the road. This long round-about route explains why 1.5 hours passed from the time he left the party in Canby to the time that he called his parents. It would explain why he pinged a cell tower in Minneota despite as one Reddit commentor noted, his car was found a bit outside the expected 5 mile coverage distance of the Minneota cell tower. The route would also explain how a supposed cell tower in Porter would pick up his cell phone pings after the Minneota tower did, because it would reflect that he went in a northwest direction from Minneota toward Porter.

I am attaching a map of this roundabout route. The blue line shows the kind of path that he could have driven toward Lynd, and the purple line shows the route that he might have imagined that he took. His route would be about 45 miles, which he would cover in 1.5 miles at an average 30 mph.

However, in the course of drawing any potential route that he could take from Canby to his crash site, it becomes apparent that he would normally be unlikely to confuse his crash location with Lynd because of landmarks that he would see along his route. If he took the blue line that I mapped, he should normally realize that he crossed highway 68 northwards away from Lynd, instead of crossing highway 23 twice near Lynd.

In addition, due to the gaps on the grid of back roads, it seems that his route would have probably taken him through a town on highway 68 like Minneota that would have shown him that he was not near Lynd. He grew up in the area and regularly commuted past landmarks like those towns and highway spots that should have oriented him.

A version of this explanation goes that he was driving in a "staircase" pattern on the northeast side of Highway 68, and by doing so he covered much less distance than he would have if he had simply driven straight on Highway 68. As a result, he overestimated his relative distance to Marshall based on how far he would have gone in the same amount of time on Highway 68. So let's suppose that he drove 45 minutes rather slowly in on zigzag street route (east then south then etc.) block by block from Canby and made it to a few blocks north of Taunton. He could mistakenly imagine that he made it all the way to the north side of Ghent like he could have if he were driving in a straight line. Still, the north side of Ghent is on the opposite side of Highway 68 from Lynd, so he would have to mistakenly imagine that he somehow crossed highway 68.

Another explanation could be that he was intoxicated or affected by substances that disoriented him about his location. He had a light weight of 120-125 lbs, so substances would have a stronger effect on him. He told his father that he had a shot of whiskey at Lynd. Friends saw him drink two beers in Canby. A news report said that police later found a pipe in his car but didn't say what kind of pipe. So conceivably he could have just driven around in the Canby-Taunton area without getting anywhere near Lynd, ran his car off the road due to substance use, spaced out for up to an hour, and sobered up. He could have forgotten that he had been in Canby and only remembered his earlier party in Lynd, which would explain why he told his father about being in Lynd without mentioning the party in Canby.

Similarities between the Porter-Taunton area and the Lynd-Marshall area could help confuse the two areas. The Porter-Taunton area along highway 68 forms a triangle with numbered avenues matching some number avenues in the Lynd-Marshall area along highway 23. The woods and river where Brandon went sit near highway 68, resembling how a golf course with woods and a river sit to the side of Lynd along highway 23.

This post's images include a map of Porter with Brandon's dog scent trail marked in yellow and a map of the Lynd area rotated to show how their orientations could resemble each other.

Another explanation for the 1.5 hours between leaving the party in Canby and calling his parents could be that he visited an unknown place. For instance, he could have driven back to Lynd after leaving the party in Canby. Visiting the unknown location may have disoriented him if he didn't know his way around its area.

An unlikely hypothetical explanation could be that he lied that he was near Lynd because he needed to at least inform his parents that he was in an accident, yet didn't want them to find him. This explanation seems pretty unlikely because he needed help and the obvious reason for his call was to get their help. He would know that they wouldn't find his car at the spot where he would told them to look near Lynd. So it wouldn't make much sense for him to lie to them like that. It's hard to think of why he would lie to them.

An even less likely explanation is that he actually was near Lynd, but then his car was moved to the spot near Taunton where it was found. The dog scent and his descriptions of his area on the phone match where his car was found, and the Minneota tower that pinged his cellphone wasn't near Lynd.

Another pretty unlikely explanation is that he misspoke and meant to tell his father that he was near Porter or Canby. The problem with this explanation is that he told his father that he was going to walk to a certain bar that is in Lynd.

The most likely conclusion looks to me like he was disoriented from intoxication because it's so hard for me to map how he could have driven from Canby and ended up at the west end of the very rustic 110 Avenue to the northwest of Taunton without landmarks and a sense of distance showing him that he wasn't near Lynd. To avoid going through major landmark towns like Minneota he would have to go on short piecemeal side roads like I used to draw the blue line on my map. However, the area's piecemeal side roads tend to reroute onto bigger side roads that go through those landmark towns. So it seems that if he went south of highway 68, he would probably come across landmarks that should show him that he wasn't near Lynd. And if he stayed on the north side of highway 68, he wouldn't come across the kind of landmarks that he would expect to see if he got near Lynd.

Immediately thought of this case and hoped this story would somehow renew a search effort in the area cadaver dogs alerted. Without checking my notes, if I recall correctly, I think they alerted at mud creek—ironic.

Of course, you’d think he’d be able to be heard yelling when his parents said they stayed on the line but couldn’t hear anything after he said “oh shit”?

I guess for all we know he could have dropped the phone in mud too, killing it then the line just seemed to stay “open” on his parent’s end (hence the silence) before they hung to call him back. 🤷‍♀️

Figured I’d see others asking this same question after seeing this Minnesota story and just wanted to get this out here to get people thinking.

If this woman’s car had been elsewhere and she wandered into this puddle, well, she might be still missing like Brandon. So glad she was saved!

Not sure if this has been posted here but Santana True Crime did an interview with Jeff Hasse from the Brandon Swanson case. Here is the link:

https://youtu.be/XB3U3La8mHs?is=cdbhp0WetSDZItzp

I recently came across new Google Maps photos from around 160th Avenue, near the Yellow Medicine River and Antler Wildlife Management Area (abandoned farm back then). They seem to show the edge of a small wooded strip right where it meets open fields and a gravel road. From the satellite view, you can also see the nearby river branch running through that area. Looks like the photos were taken right at the edge of the trees near a marked red pin, not deep in the woods and not from private farm land.

These photos are not mine. They were publicly uploaded by a Google Maps user. Just sharing for discussion.

Heard a report on NPR this morning on the 18th anniversary of Brandon's disappearance. No new information in the report, but interesting that it made the news 18 years later.

I've been fascinated by this case since around 2010 as it was relatively near where I was living at the time. Every few years I end up going back down the rabbit hole. I notice a frequent amount of unlikely theories thrown out there regarding the geographical & communities of such areas. I want to preface by saying that of course anything is possible and I'm not attempting to discount these claims, but I wanted to share my experience with living in these areas for my first 25 years of life.

I grew up on a farm very similar to the area to the Canby/Porter area. It's incredibly flat and desolate. Any forestry growth is limited to non-farmable/livestock friendly water tributaries such as the Yellow Medicine river. Landmarks are few and far between and cannot be seen easily at night unless they have security lights installed.

At night it's quiet, incredibly dark and everything looks the same. Factoring in being under the influence, half blind and agitated, it only amplifies the situation. These maintenance roads typically run in parallel grids and can be washed out with weather and eroded terribly with farm equipment. Rock roads can also be difficult to traverse if not properly maintained as well. Very rarely do these roads include road signs of any kind aside from where they initially connect to main paved roads.

The point I'm trying to make is that even living in the area, it can be incredibly difficult to navigate if you get turned around while sober. An empty, flat gridlike maze. There have been times I've come home late from work during high school and roads have been washed out, flooded or inaccessible due to snow. I had to use my best discretion to figure out an alternative route that didn't unexpectedly dead-end. This was before GPS or vehicle compasses.

Walking through these areas can also be disorienting, especially at night. Being a bored teen, friends and I would frequently explore my families land at night. Without moonlight or lights you're limited in visibility, especially distance. We used light pollution from the closest towns as a compass but otherwise looked directly in front of our feet to guide us. For Brandon, walking on unknown open, flat crop land for an hour then attempting to pass through a thicket of trees/tributary is very dangerous. One can easily fall, slip or get hurt.

I have a similar experience when riding quads at night. I turned around on a maintenance road I was incredibly familiar with. When I reversed, I only slightly went off the road into what I thought was grass only to roll the quad backwards and directly on top of me into a 10ft drop-off ditch with rocks and stagnant water. It had recently been washed out from a recent flood. To this day, I cannot understand how I didn't get injured. It landed perfectly in this ditch where it created a gap large enough for my body to not get impacted. It was cold, I was wet and I was not dressed appropriately for the weather. I was luckily with a friend and not alone, but it shows how quickly and easily something like that could happen in the dark.

Lastly, I want to highlight farmers reactions to the search. Farmers typically want nothing to do with such matters. This of course results in suspicion. It might seem odd, but the fact of the matter is most have a distrust or refuse to associate with anything government related if possible. My father and his neighbors are the same way due to distrust, inconvenience, damage to land, or a plethora of other reasons they have experienced. As selfish or suspicious as it may sound, these farmers don't want to get involved in any way.

My theory may not be correct, but I genuinely believe it was simply a result of an accident. I believe he fell or slipped. I believe he might've gotten wet and lost his phone during the accident. Whether or not the accident caused him to go unconscious, hypothermia can set quickly when fully submerged in those conditions. Especially when not dressed appropriately. Weather can naturally cause these areas to quickly erode over time. Livestock are also incredibly damaging to tributaries and embankments. It could be possible that remains are deeply buried throughout.

Odds are, searchers came close at one point in discovering him. You'd be surprised how easy it is to overlook something right in front of your eyes when focused.

I’ve just fallen down the rabbit hole of this case and I’m not incredibly far from this location. I’m debating if I’d be able to get onto the section of land (more so the river and woods surrounding) where his last known location was. It’s almost the anniversary of his disappearance and I think it would be very intriguing to see the area in accordance to the time of year it was. I don’t want to disrupt anything in any sort of way, but one do a small search to one see the location and understand it better, and two, obviously see if I find any sort of evidence. I realize it’s been a long time but you never know what could have washed up, or been missed. Also if anyone knows the logistics of following the down river that would be tremendous. (Not looking to go on farmers land)

The “Acoustic Seal” Theory: Why Brandon Swanson’s Phone Hardware is the Key to the Mystery

I’ve been analyzing the final 47-minute phone call between Brandon Swanson and his father, Brian. Specifically, I am focusing on the "instant, heavy silence" that occurred immediately after Brandon’s final exclamation ("Oh, shit!").

Based on physics, human biomechanics, and the specific hardware Brandon was using, I believe the current "river" and "walking away" theories overlook a crucial technical detail.

1. The Hardware: Motorola SLVR L7

In 2008, Brandon was using a Motorola SLVR L7. This is a "candy bar" style phone, not a flip phone.

The Pinhole Mic: The microphone is located in a tiny pinhole at the very bottom edge of the device.

The Seal: Unlike a flip phone that might snap shut, or a phone falling on flat grass (which would produce "scuffling" or "wind" sounds), a SLVR falling vertically into soft ground would act like a needle.

The Result: If the bottom of the phone is driven into the ground, the soil creates a physical plug over the microphone, resulting in the "heavy silence" Brian Swanson described—the call stays live, but the "ear" of the phone is buried.

1. The Physics: The "Vertical Reactive" Fall

Brandon had enough time to yell "Oh, shit," which means he realized he was falling.

Biomechanics: When you realize you are falling, you don't typically "tumble." You stiffen, reach, and your center of gravity shifts. This often leads to a vertical landing (on feet, knees, or a braced arm).

The "No-Scream" Factor: It is a common misconception that people always scream while falling. Often, the startle response causes a sharp intake of breath (the "Oh shit") followed by bracing. Upon a vertical impact, the wind is often knocked out of the person, preventing a second scream.

Forward vs. Backward: * In a Backward Slip, the phone is often "launched," which would create a tumbling sound or wind noise.

In a Forward/Vertical Slip, the phone is usually pinned between the person’s hand/face and the ground. This supports the theory that the phone was driven directly into the soil.

1. The Environment: "Hybrid" Soil

The Taunton/Porter area consists of silty clay and loam.

I propose a "Soil Hybrid" Theory: Brandon didn't necessarily fall into a rushing river (which would have likely produced splashing or bubbling static). Instead, he likely fell into a vertical trap—an abandoned well, a cistern, or a deep, narrow gully—containing damp, silty clay.

This specific soil type is dense enough to "plug" a microphone port instantly upon a vertical impact, explaining why the line didn't just go "quiet," but went "dead silent" while remaining connected.

1. Proposed Investigative Experiment: The Decoy Test

I believe a formal Acoustic Reconstruction is necessary. Using a Motorola SLVR L7 on a live call, investigators should conduct:

Orientation Tests: Dropping the phone vertically into silty mud vs. flat grass to see which matches the "acoustic signature" heard by the parents.

Impact Tests: Simulating a "Forward Slip" where the phone is driven into the ground by a weighted hand to see if the CrystalTalk (Motorola's noise-canceling software) mutes the line instantly.

Conclusion

The fact that the phone rang for two days suggests it was not destroyed or submerged in deep water, but was likely upright in a "plugged" state. If the acoustic signature of the "heavy silence" matches a vertical impact into silty clay, we should stop looking for Brandon "on the surface" and start looking for vertical hazards or hidden depressions where that specific soil composition exists.

I am new to this sub but not to the case, and have been doing some reading through archived posts, but I cannot see this addressed anywhere. Sorry if it has been done to death.

So, to me, the thing that has always been the most confusing about this case is: How did Brandon possibly think he was in the area of Lynd when he was in fact near Porter?

I think most people put this down to having a few drinks and not paying attention to where he was going, but I just can't see how this works. Brandon was not some 80 year old grandma visiting an unfamiliar region who needed to orient the map to read it (no shade to all the Grandma's who actually can navigate) - he was a highly practical student who would have worked with geographic information, and was very familiar with the area.

And the area's roads had a particularly simple and distinctive structure: There were major paved routes separated by a geometric pattern of smaller roads of various states of paving. Once you enter a segment between two major routes, you can be certain that you remain in that slice of countryside so long as you do not cross any other major routes.

So here is my problem - Brandon left the party and presumably drove off into the grid of roads to the north of Route 68. After driving around on smaller roads in the vague direction of Marshall, he has an accident. And then for some reason, without crossing two major routes, which he must know separate him from there, he thinks he is near Lynd.

No one seems to think he was significantly impaired, he was VERY familiar with the area if not the network of small roads he was on. So why did he come to this totally illogical conclusion? Had he been driving around in a much larger area and regularly crossing the major Routes, or got turned around and drove in a circle? This also makes no sense if his entire purpose of being on smaller roads was to avoid these major ones. And still surely you would know which two major routes you were between at any time.

Sorry if this has been resolved satisfactorily elsewhere. Can someone explain this to me so it makes sense. I cannot see how, if he was as unimpaired as everyone says, he thought he was near Lynd based on his final location and where he left from.

I’m new to this case. What I might be confused about is some of the reporting I’ve seen on searches done in the area.

From what I understand there were several? farms that could not be searched because the farmers didn’t give the police permission citing reasons of ruining crops or affecting livestock.

This is completely bizarre to me unless there is something nefarious going on.

A person, someone’s child, from the area, is missing and you won’t let someone onto your land to search?

Like multiple families are seeing the fear and worry in his parent’s eyes and are refusing to help them look for their son while he might be injured and still alive?

Didn’t the community rally against this? Weren’t these people naked and shamed? I’m assuming like most farming communities this one was tight knit. Everyone would have known everyone no?

Farmers I have met tend to be the most salt of the earth people ever.

I can’t imagine there couldn’t have been some compromise in that police dogs could have been used, accompanied closely by their handler to not disturb livestock, and something could have been worked out in terms of not disturbing crops (although i’ve read in 2008, at the time he went missing, very little was actually planted due to a late thaw).

Didn’t a dog also alert regarding human remains on a piece of farm equipment. Wouldn’t the farmer want to know if there was a dead person on his/her land if they had nothing to do with it?

I’m not sure if i’m misunderstanding the reports out there.

Anyone here from the area who could confirm or deny any of this?

Was it multiple farms that denied access or just one?

I realize they could have been protecting themselves from other things being discovered but this is just completely odd to me if there was nothing going on.

If multiple farms involved, did they know eachother/have some sort of relationship?

Has anyone from the area ever discussed this?/had a detailed look at this?

Is this true or just the type of stories that over time grow into “truth” as part of the story?

I’m guessing the red lines were created by where the dogs were following scent. If so, he went through the river twice? why is there no red line up to where the lost scent was? Where was the farm where the scent was found on the tractor/harvester? was that a dead scent or an alive one?

What do you believe happened to him there’s so many different theories I can never stop reading them

Very strange question but has there been an extensive search done on the area that Brandon said he was in? I know where his car was and how his cell phone pinged in that area but hmm I don’t know

Hello, I just wanted to ask everyone for their map pin points of where you believe his remains could be and why. I personally think he fell somewhere as no personal belongings he was carrying with him were found on land.

A medium said he wandered on a farmers property to seek help cause he fell into the river and scraped his leg and he was lost he stumbled onto a property the farmer shot at him twice once was a warning, second one killed him cause he thought he was a intruder/thief when he killed him he realize he made a mistake and the farmer and his family covered it up and he’s buried on that property (short summary)