Brandon Swanson, 19, disappeared on May 14, 2008 while on the phone with his father. Closer returns to this mysterious case.
The name Brandon Swanson probably means nothing to you. However, his mysterious disappearance one night in May 2008 caused a stir in the state of Minnesota. It was 2 am on May 14, 2008 when Brian Swanson received a call from his son. Brandon, 19, says he slipped his pickup truck into a ditch on the University of Minnesota campus on his way home from a student party in Canby. He claims to be near Lynd, about six miles south of the family home in Marshall. Without waiting, his parents go in search of him. Once there, the two cars flash each other’s headlights to signal their presence. “You dont see me ?”asks Brandon. “There was nothing. Absolutely nothing”, his father would tell later.
Frustrated, the young student decides to abandon his vehicle and join Lynd on foot. On the way he phones his father, but after 47 minutes of the call, around 2:30 a.m., the conversation takes a tragic turn. “Oh shit !” exclaims Brandon before closing in silence. This is the last time Brian Swanson will hear his son’s voice.
“We know people don’t go up in smoke, but it really looks like he did”
After scouring the surrounding streets in search of Brandon, Brian and Annette Swanson report him missing at 6:30 a.m. Lynd Police did not immediately take their concerns seriously and say it is not uncommon for a student of this age to come home late after a night out. Nevertheless, the research is organized. Lynd’s area is combed, but an element interferes with the investigation. Brandon’s cell phone trace suggests the teenager wasn’t actually in Lynd the night before, but was near Taunton on State Road 68 Canby to Marshall. With this information, it only took investigators a few hours to locate Brandon’s Chevrolet Lumina by the side of the road. “The pitch is pretty steep, not bad, but enough that the wheels don’t touch the ground anymore,” describes Lincoln County Sheriff Jack Vizecky. The teenager has disappeared.
Lincoln County Police Department, which still uses telephone beacons, estimated that Brandon was within five miles of a base station near Minneota, another city that borders Route 68, at the time of his disappearance. Then large-scale excavations are organized. After sniffer dogs intervene, divers return to the depths of the Yellow Medicine River in case Brandon drowned. Vain. “We know people don’t go up in smoke, but it really looks like he did”then comments Annette Swanson, the mother of the deceased.
The criminal trail was never investigated
Fifteen years later, young Brandon Swanson remains untraceable. The criminal lead was never investigated, although the Lincoln County Sheriff never dismissed it. “Someone could be in the shadows attacking him like that,” Jack Vizecky speculated in the columns of CNN in 2010. I can’t say there was nobody there – low, but I can’t find any evidence that was the case.”
There’s no way Brandon’s parents could have drowned. Bryan Swanson attests that his son was very attentive on the phone despite having a few drinks that evening. However, he does not explain why Brandon thought he was near Lynd when he was 30 kilometers further north. A mystery that may never be solved.