brandon swanson was 19 when he went missing on may 14th 2008 near porter minnesota usa after attending a party in canby. brandon was from marshall and was driving back home after midnight, some say around 1am. he called his parents around 1:54am after he drove his car into a ditch and after he called friends first (guess they didn't answer or couldn't help out?) his parents got in their car and started driving towards where brandon said he was (lynd - wrong direction). he was on and off the phone to his parents til around 2:17am.
at first brandon waited by his car and flashed his headlights hoping his parents would spot him then he started walking along gravel roads. heading north (brown arrow) because he thought he was near lynd.
since brandon thought he was near lynd he must have thought he'd driven more south than he had and for longer than he actually had (blue arrow - a guesstimate of where brandon thought he traveled).
at 2:20am brandon called his dad and they stayed on the phone for 47mins while brandon walked along gravel roads, walking in the opposite direction from home. he told his dad he was going to walk to the nearest town since he could see the lights. what lights was he referring to? st leo? (it wold have taken around 2 1/4 hours to reach st leo.)
after walking along, still on the phone to his dad, brandon suddenly says 'oh shit'. there was a sliding, ruffling sound, then nothing. his mum says it sounded like the phone fell and brandon said 'oh shit'. some say the line was still open and his dad was still trying to talk to him and get him to respond but brandon didn't say anything after that. others claim the line went dead. did the phone also die or was it still working? the dad hung up from the call and kept trying to call back with no answer.
according to search manager jeff hasse with midwest technical rescue training brandon's car was found right on the border between lincoln, yellow medicine and lyon counties.
that's the red circle in the image below. just north between porter and taunton.
if we follow along the map from the approximate location where his car was found, 47mins take us to this approximate location (red pointer) - give or take the direction brandon was taking. if we guesstimate he started walking after 2am and before 2:17am and talked and walked from 2:20am for 47mins that gives brandon approximately an hour of walking before something happened to make him exclaim.
if he followed along the path outlined above, he'd have reached the mud creek intersection in 55 minutes. is this where he slipped, got himself and his phone wet, losing his phone in the dark creek water? (do water logged phones ring out or go to directly to voice mail?)
was brandon significantly injured when he dropped his phone, badly sprained or broken an ankle, knocked his head? or maybe just dazzed and confused, while walking on un-even ground in the dark - treacherous.
you can see from an aerial view that this area is mostly cleared agricultural land with a smallish creek running through - mud creek. there are few trees aside from those dotted around properties and along creek and river beds. no thick forest to get lost in. no cliffs to fall off, though some ditches and creek beds can have big drop offs. it looks relatively harmless but navigating in the dark would have been difficult. the moon was waxing but clouds could have hindered any moonlight.
dogs tracked brandon's scent to farm fields north of porter. not yellow medicine river which others are saying brandon fell into and drowned which is south of his known location and direction.
we do not know how much further brandon walked after his phone call with his dad ended, however, search and rescue say brandon did continue walking based on sniffer dog tracking. certainly something significant enough happened that made him not be able to retrieve his phone and be able to respond to his dad's calls thereafter.
his phone was never found which could suggest it was on brandon's person and disappeared along with him. or brandon could have slipped and dropped his phone on the ground and not been able to find it in the dark. though both of these scenarios are unlikely because why not answer incoming calls if he still has his phone (unless it got wet and stopped working) and phones make noise and light up when they're rung - as his dad was continually doing - therefore could easily be spotted. makes more sense the phone fell some place non retrievable, like water, never to be seen again. particularly in the dark.
as mentioned above it would have taken 2 1/4 hours to reach st leo (if that's the lights he could see), except st leo is north east and brandon's scent was picked up north of porter.
2 1/2 hours of walking north of porter (around 4:30am by then) puts brandon at around the 220th ave (country highway 3) location. just throwing out theories of how far brandon could travel during that dark, freezing, fateful night. considering it is theorised brandon died of hypothermia, he stopped sometime after 3am (soon after his phone call ended or for a longer period of time?) and died before dawn presumably. the coldest part of the night is before sunrise.
did he make it to the lac qui parle river and fall in and drown? did he crawl under a bush to rest only to succumb to the elements?
what happened to brandon? where did he go? why has his body never been found?
let's get into theories.
a) he fell into and drowned in yellow medicine river.
we can rule this out since the river is in the opposite direction to which brandon traveled. the other creeks and rivers north of brandon's car don't appear to be large enough to drown in, though looks can be deceiving. still, surely brandon's body would have been found somewhere along a creek or river.
also his dad did not hear splashing or water. if he fell in water would there be sounds of water before the phone went dead?
b) he was nabbed by someone in a car or a victim of a hit and run.
we can rule this out since a car would have been seen and heard approaching and he'd have mentioned this to his dad, even thinking it was his dad, and a car on gravel would also be heard by his dad on the other end of the phone. there would have also been other noises like voices, scuffling or a crash which his dad did not hear. abductions and crashes aren't quiet.
c) brandon fell down a well.
maybe, but then his body would be found in said well during searching, surely. and if not found, surely there is more to the sound of falling down a well than mere sliding, ruffling sounds, such as crying out way more than just oh shit!, phone and body hitting walls, a loud thud or splash at the bottom.
d) he fell asleep somewhere and died of hypothermia.
the theory is he slipped into water, got cold and wet and this killed (lost) his phone. why would he fall asleep? alcohol? tiredness? cold? temperatures were cold that night (3 degrees) but surely he'd have kept walking towards lights or a house or something (then again house lights would be off during the night). if he did die of hypothermia where is his body?
is it plausible brandon fell asleep in some giant wheat field and was accidentally ground up by an unsuspecting farmer who either didn't notice him there or didn't want to tell anyone because he felt criminally negligent? surely this is debatable since it would be an obvious sight!
jeff said brandon's scent was strongly picked up north of porter then nothing. did brand die there and some local farmer moved and hid his body? why would they want to do this? why not call in the discovery of a dead body? (maybe they're up to nefarious things and announcing the finding of a deceased person risks exposing their crimes? people can be cretins after all!)
e) he stumbled across something he shouldn't have and was murdered by a farmer or workers.
again there would have been noises to that effect. there was nothing stopping brandon from announcing to his dad there is someone pointing a gun at him (the way brandon lawson did), like saying 'hey don't shoot', and no shots or noises were heard after the oh shit and ruffling. being held up wouldn't have ended his phone call automatically.
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seems the most likely scenario is brandon dying of hypothermia and someone removing his body for whatever reason. there is the possibility his body just hasn't been found however i find it hard to believe farmers don't know every inch of their land, let alone if there is a body on their property. the smell of death would alert them to it.
thoughts?
