Cold and Missing: Brandon Swanson

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The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.

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All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.

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Listener discretion is advised.

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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.

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And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.

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And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.

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Hello everyone and welcome back.

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Welcome back everyone.

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I'm Eli.

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And I'm Ali.

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And this is Cold and Missing.

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And this is episode 41.

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The 41st episode.

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Way to go, baby.

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We are here zeroing in on a year of Cold and Missing.

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Yeah.

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Amazing.

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Slowly but surely.

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It'll be here before we even know it.

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Yeah.

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But without further ado.

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Yeah.

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Would you like to start us off?

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Yeah.

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Let's just get into it.

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I have a lot this week.

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So.

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Oh, okay.

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Great.

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Let's get started.

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Groovy.

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So today I have for you a missing person case.

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And it is the missing person case of Brandon Swanson.

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And this takes place in May of 2008 in southwest Minnesota.

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We're going to be mentioning a few towns, but it's centered around Marshall, Minnesota.

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But first, a little bit about Brandon.

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Brandon is 19 years old in 2008.

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He was born January 30th, 1989.

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And he would be 34 years old today.

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He was born and raised in Marshall, Minnesota.

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He had just finished his freshman year at Minnesota West Community College and Technical

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College at the Canby campus.

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He studied wind turbines and had planned to transfer to Iowa Western Community College

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and major in science.

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His family and friends say that he had a big heart.

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His smile lit up his whole face and he believed in doing the right thing.

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And at this time in 2008, he drove a green Chevy Lumina.

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And now into the timeline of events.

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On Tuesday, May 13th, 2008, Brandon spends the day celebrating the end of the school

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year.

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He spent the day in Lynd, Minnesota with friends.

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He was wearing baggy jeans, a blue striped polo shirt, a black hoodie, a white twins

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baseball cap, wired rimmed glasses, and a silver necklace.

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Brandon pops into his house to say goodbye for the night.

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Only his mom Annette was home.

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She said, quote, I said the things I normally say to him.

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See you later.

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Be safe.

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End quote.

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Brandon then spends the night celebrating the end of the year in Canby near his campus.

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Brandon was observed drinking alcohol at two of the parties that he attended that evening,

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but none of the attendants say that he was drunk.

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Just before midnight, Brandon leaves Canby to drive home to Marshall, Minnesota.

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A trip that he did a lot because he was commuting back and forth to school.

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It's roughly a 30 mile drive.

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But instead of taking highway 68, which would have been a straight shot home, Brandon decided

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to take the back roads that evening.

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So Brandon leaves the party and it's just after 1 a.m.

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So this is now May 14th, 2008.

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Brandon is driving west down a maintenance road between two large crop fields.

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He was attempting to turn south on a gravel road when he missed the field approach and

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went into the ditch at a low speed.

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The ditch was shallow but steep and the car frame was hung up so Brandon could not move

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the car.

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At 1 15 a.m. he starts to call a few friends for help, but he's unable to reach anyone.

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Finally, at 1 54 a.m. he calls his parents.

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He asks his parents to come and get him and he tells them that he's in a ditch between

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Marshall and Lynd, Minnesota.

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Brandon tells his folks that he can see lights from the nearby town of Lynd.

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Brandon's parents, Brian and Annette, hop in their pickup truck and head towards what

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they believe is Brandon's location.

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He stays with his car and on the phone with his parents.

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The call drops occasionally, but they're able to call him right back.

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When his parents get to where they believe Brandon is, they try to signal each other.

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Brandon tries flashing his lights, the parents try flashing their lights up and down the

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road, but could not see each other.

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Brandon, according to his parents, was certain of his location and did not seem intoxicated.

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Eventually, Brandon, still talking to his mother, gets frustrated and hangs up on her.

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When she calls him back to apologize, he says he's walking towards Lynd and to meet him

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there.

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He'll meet them at the Lyndwood Tavern, which was a popular bar in the area.

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Brian calls Brandon back at 2 17 a.m.

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During the call, Brandon says that he is walking next to a gravel road but decides to cut across

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a field, thinking it will be quicker.

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Brandon also told his father that he had to hop fences and could hear water running nearby.

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Eventually, at 3 10 a.m., Brandon says, oh shit, followed by silence.

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His parents keep the line active, but they can't hear anything.

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They call his name, thinking maybe he dropped the phone and would be able to hear them to

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find it because it's the middle of the night and Brandon is walking by moonlight at this

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time.

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After a few minutes, they hang up and call back, thinking that the phone will ring and

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light up so he'll be able to find it.

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The phone rings a couple of times and then goes to voicemail.

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Brandon's parents continue to look for him and try to call him, but they are unsuccessful.

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At 6 30 a.m., Brandon's parents call police to report him missing.

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The Lynd police initially are unconcerned and tell them it's normal for a young man to

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stay out all night after a semester ends.

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One officer even tells Annette that Brandon had, quote, a right to be missing, end quote.

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Eventually, Lynd police officers do begin to look for him, but can find no trace of

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him in or around Lynd .

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So they call the Lyon County Sheriff to help expand the search.

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The Lyon County Sheriff obtains Brandon's cell phone records, which actually put him

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near Taunton, Minnesota, about 25 miles away from Lynd.

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Police find Brandon's car at 12 30 in the afternoon.

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Sheriff Eric Wallin says, quote, The vehicle simply looked like it was stuck in the ditch

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or partially in the ditch.

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There was nothing odd about it.

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If a person passed by, they would think it was just parked there or broken down and stuck,

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end quote.

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There was no serious damage to the car, but the car frame was hung up enough to keep two

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of the wheels on one side from touching.

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The car did not have the keys in it.

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It is presumed that Brandon has them, but the car was unlocked.

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And according to the FBI, the doors were open inside the car.

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It's reported that there was a cannabis pipe and curiously, Brandon's glasses.

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Brandon was legally blind in his left eye and had trouble with depth perception, especially

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at night.

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So it's curious that he would leave his glasses behind when he was walking in the dark.

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Investigators focus on the area around Brandon's car, but nothing is found.

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On Thursday, May 15th, so this is the next day, the Lyon County Sheriff requested the

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help of the Codington County search, dive and rescue team from South Dakota.

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And by 11 a.m. they arrive.

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The bloodhounds pick up Brandon's scent.

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From Brandon's vehicle, the scent went half a mile south and turned west onto 390th Street,

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where it continued for a mile.

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The trail then turned north for half a mile and then turned west onto a driveway of an

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abandoned farm.

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The trail followed the driveway a quarter of a mile and then left the driveway and roughly

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followed the course of the Yellow Medicine River heading northwest.

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At one point, the bloodhound jumped into the river and exited.

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The dog handler interpreted this as Brandon possibly falling into the water at some point,

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but getting back out.

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The bloodhound picked up on the trail again, headed toward a drainage ditch where it continued

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north towards 160th Avenue.

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Here the dog lost the trail.

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The Department of Natural Resources deployed gates into the Yellow Medicine River because

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at this time it was 10 feet deep in some places.

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Searchers scoured the area around the river with dogs, ATVs, horseback and drones.

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The next day, Brandon's phone stops working.

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People had been trying to call it continuously over the past day and it had continued to

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ring but today it stops ringing.

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Police continue their efforts in searching for Brandon, focusing on a five mile radius

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around the car.

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The thought being that in the 47 minute phone call with his dad, he would not be able to

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walk more than five miles an hour.

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An average adult can walk about three miles an hour.

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On May 20th, six days after Brandon disappeared, police call off their search.

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Brandon's parents immediately begin organized searches that same weekend.

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And almost every weekend for the next several years, weather permitting, they would be out

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searching.

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Police at this time believe Brandon is in the Yellow Medicine River and that it could

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take weeks for the body to emerge.

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Lyon County Sheriff Joel Dahl says, quote, If I had to lay any money down, I'd say

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we're missing him somewhere in the water.

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He's in an eddy somewhere being held down by a log.

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He's got to be here.

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Everything is consistent that he was walking and something happened to him.

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End quote.

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So Brandon's family continue to search for him over the weekends.

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And by July of 2008, Brandon's family are helped by David and Linda Francis.

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They had a son, Jon, who went missing while climbing mountains in Idaho.

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It took over a year to recover his body.

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But in his memory, his parents have created the Jon Francis Foundation to help locate

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those missing in the wilderness.

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Brian Swanson says, quote, They've been very supportive.

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They talked with us.

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They listened to us emotionally.

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That has really helped coming from somebody who has gone through this terrible situation.

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I hope nobody else ever has to go through this.

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I wish it would never happen against anybody.

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It's just so painful.

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We're going to keep looking.

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That's all we can do until we find him.

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There's no way I could stop until I know where he is.

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Either way it ends, it ends its closure.

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End quote.

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Brandon's parents have also left the porch light on for him.

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And this is something that they continue to do into 2023.

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Brandon's mother Annette says, quote, That morning when we left, we turned the porch

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light on for him.

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Well, we haven't turned it off since.

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We're leaving it on until he comes home.

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End quote.

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The search for Brandon continues almost every weekend through the summer and fall.

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But by November of 2008, the police rejoined the search.

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At this time, crops had been harvested and the area that Brandon went missing is mostly

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farmland.

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The water levels of the Yellow Medicine River had also drastically lowered.

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So these were all favorable conditions to find any evidence of Brandon, but nothing

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is found.

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No cell phone, no keys, no clothing, no jewelry.

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And then searches halt in the winter times, especially in Minnesota, which gets a lot

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of snow, which would make ground searches extremely difficult.

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But in March of 2009, the searches continue.

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On Wednesday, May 6, 2009, Brandon's law was signed into effect by the governor.

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This waives the 24-hour waiting period for missing adults under suspicious circumstances.

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The searches continue, but one of the most notable things that I found in the searches

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come from the November 14 through the 15 search of 2009.

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So at this time, searchers believe that they are getting close to the remains.

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And they point to two moments of the search that make them think this.

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The first is the scent of human remains was transferred to a searcher's boot.

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All three of the dogs hid on it.

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Searchers believe that the scent was blown into the area.

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And the second event is two of the three dogs alerted to a field cultivator that was parked

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alongside a field.

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Searchers believe that there are a number of ways the scent had got there.

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But all this considered, they believe they are very close.

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But nothing was found of Brandon's during this time.

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Searchers also become interested in Mud Creek, which runs north of Yellow Medicine River,

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because dogs alerted there also.

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But again, nothing is found there.

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Now the search for Brandon continues year over year over year.

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The last notable search took place in the fall of 2021.

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The Yellow Medicine River had dried up due to drought.

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Eric Wallin, the Lyon County Sheriff says, quote, we've had excavators come and sift

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through the dirt looking for something, whether it's remains or property, end quote.

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However, an issue that has persisted since the start of the search is land access.

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Farmers don't want the dogs around their cattle or to damage crops.

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And there are still fields that searchers have not been able to access since 2008.

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So they've never been searched.

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Ken Anderson of Emergency Support Services, who help run the search for Brandon now, says,

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quote, in at least a couple of circumstances, that problem is still in existence.

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They will not allow us on their property.

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We don't dispute the reason why.

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We try and work out a method that would make it acceptable.

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And we've not been able to come up with a working compromise, end quote.

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Police say they continue to get tips in the case, but they all fizzle out.

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Lyon County Sheriff Eric Wallin says, quote, it seems that every tip that we receive, we

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investigate and we run into a dead end.

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It was either false or the information wasn't accurate.

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They all seem to run into a dead end, end quote.

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Annette Swanson, Brandon's mother, stopped physically searching for him in 2008.

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She said she couldn't be the one to come across him.

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But she spearheads the fundraising efforts to keep the search going.

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And she says, quote, I want people to remember Brandon, talk about Brandon.

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Brandon is a real person.

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He touched a lot of lives and don't forget him, end quote.

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So with that, if you know anything about the disappearance of Brandon Swanson or his whereabouts

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today, please call the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

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And you can specifically ask for Agent Derrick Woodford.

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And that number is 651-793-7000.

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And the sources for today's podcasts come from the St. Cloud Times, the Argus Leader,

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CNN.com, the Marshall Independent, the search for Brandon Swanson.blogspot.com, and the

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Crime Wire.

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So that is the case of Brandon Swanson.

257
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You chose a missing person case that I actually know quite a bit about.

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Really?

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Yes.

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This is a more popular case.

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It's been done on a lot of podcasts.

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It's just one that as soon as I heard about it, it's just it's stuck in your head.

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And so I wanted to cover it.

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And I wanted to look into it because there's been a lot of rumors.

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There's been a lot of theories out there.

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So I just wanted to know what the facts were of this case.

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And these are the facts that I could come up with and verify.

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And I've been following this case for multiple years.

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I was a fresh I was just finishing my freshman year of college.

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I was the we're the same age.

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And particularly I took an interest in it because we had a pond on my college that unfortunately

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someone had fallen into.

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Resulted in them passing away, which is sad.

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But anyway, just it was the time and yeah, I took an interest in it and have followed

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it ever since.

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So I have not that anyone has asked for it, but I have my own theory that mostly I echo

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what law enforcement says in this case, and it's quite possible that because of probably

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wasn't that cold.

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Actually, I looked this up.

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It did get really cold that night.

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It was.

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Yeah, yes.

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It was like upper 30s, lower 40s to the point where if he did get wet, hypothermia would

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have set in.

285
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Yes.

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So what I think I think that the oh shit he dropped his phone.

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It was damaged, but we know the phone was still taking calls into the following day

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for two days.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So the phone was still taking calls.

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I think like just a possibility of a few drunk things happened in the moment that made him

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kind of like ping pong around.

294
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And then eventually he fell into the river.

295
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But the thing about Yellow Madison River is that it is a watershed.

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It's a drainage basin, which you already mentioned.

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And especially that time of year.

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If if that happened, then like that's where he is.

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And it's pretty clear to me, his remains are in those spaces that we've never had access

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to.

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And I feel like that makes close to 100 percent sense to me.

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So that's my theory is that he's there.

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Now if you really want to go down the pathway that some people have that something sinister

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has happened on those properties and that's why we don't have access to them.

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Go for it.

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The theories are out there, but I don't think that that's the case.

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I don't think maybe anything nefarious happened to him.

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But I did have a different theory coming out of this as to what happened to him.

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Based off of the scent dog, my theory is, you know, he kind of follows that trail.

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The oh shit moment, whatever that is, if he slips, if he falls, if he goes into the water,

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if he drops his phone.

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I think at some point he does fall into the Yellow Medicine River, but because the dogs

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do pick up his scent on the other side of the river, I think that could suggest that

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he continued walking, but he's wet, it's cold, hypothermia would start setting in.

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So I think it's possible that maybe he sat down to try to warm himself up, to get his

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bearings, whatever, but he falls asleep in a field, on a field, near a field.

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And as those big machines come around and start tilling and moving the land and digging

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it all up, you wouldn't necessarily always see what's underneath you and he kind of gets

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mixed up in these big machineries and in the field.

320
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Because if maybe after you were done using your machinery and you noticed some whatever

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00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:26,360
on it, whether it be material, clothing, you know, just something odd stuck in your machine,

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00:19:26,360 --> 00:19:31,900
near your machine, maybe you would put two and two together and decide, I'm never going

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to let them on my property.

324
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I'm never going to let them on here because I don't need this and I didn't do anything

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wrong.

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So because I just don't know why else you wouldn't let someone on your property.

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And especially after all this time, I would think that they would almost want to let them

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search it just to be done with it, just so that they would stop asking, you know what

329
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I mean?

330
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Because that feels like part of it, but maybe it's not.

331
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But that's my theory.

332
00:20:01,360 --> 00:20:05,120
Oh, yeah, about hypothermia.

333
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After a certain point, especially when you're drunk, you start, you believe that you are

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hot.

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So you take your clothes off.

336
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Yeah.

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And you would maybe step into the river to cool off.

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It is interesting to me, though, that just they've really searched this river, like in

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all the missing person cases I've covered, even ones that have had very extensive searches.

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It is curious to me that, you know, no clothing, his hat, his shoes, the necklace he was wearing,

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nothing has ever been found.

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To the point that some searchers have said that, you know, he's not in Yellow Medicine

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River, he's in Mud Creek.

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And this is the creek I briefly mentioned.

345
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But it's north of it.

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Yeah, it runs north of Yellow Medicine River.

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And there have been canine hits there as well of human remains, but still no sign of him

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in Mud River either.

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I guess I want to make clear that I wasn't saying he was in the river.

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Like that's where his remains are.

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I think he's it's the field, it's Mud River, Mud Creek.

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This search, I think, will be kind of historic and will like go back and be analyzed about,

353
00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:32,480
you know, scent trails and grid searches and things like that, just because it has been

354
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so extensive.

355
00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:37,160
It's been over 10 years of searches.

356
00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:43,440
Well, ultimately, we could talk about our own theories all day long.

357
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Yeah.

358
00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:47,840
And most importantly, is figuring out what happened to him.

359
00:21:47,840 --> 00:21:48,840
You know, answers.

360
00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:49,840
There's family.

361
00:21:49,840 --> 00:21:55,920
Yeah, they absolutely deserve answers and just, you know, bringing him home after all

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00:21:55,920 --> 00:21:57,480
of this effort.

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00:21:57,480 --> 00:22:02,120
And I think a lot of people are invested in the search for Brandon and just want to see

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00:22:02,120 --> 00:22:05,400
him come home and, you know, be at peace and resting.

365
00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:06,400
Yeah.

366
00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:15,640
Again, for me to literally one man's opinion, because I'm sure there are people that do

367
00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:17,720
not agree with me, which is totally fine.

368
00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:18,720
I encourage that.

369
00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:21,760
I definitely welcome it, especially in true crime.

370
00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:26,040
I think it's important to stay mindful of all of the possibilities, because that's where

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00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:29,240
we find, like, where error happens.

372
00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:34,000
Is that enough people believe one thing and everyone gets stuck in that?

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00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:35,000
Yeah.

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00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:41,200
I mean, it's just whatever the evidence leads, you know, whatever the evidence suggests,

375
00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:43,760
like you can't all facts are friendly.

376
00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:48,840
So you got to take them all into account until until you got the whole picture.

377
00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:53,680
But yeah, there's and this is one of those cases that there's 100 theories out there.

378
00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:57,920
But ultimately, we just want Brandon to come home.

379
00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:03,320
So again, if you know anything about the disappearance of Brandon Swanson or his whereabouts today,

380
00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:08,320
please call the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and specifically Agent Derrick

381
00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:14,280
Woodford at 651-793-700.

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00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:23,840
Thanks so much for being with us for Episode 41 and for continuing getting Brandon's name

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00:23:23,840 --> 00:23:24,840
out there.

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00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:28,240
This case has been there for a long time.

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00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:35,040
And if you go to our website, cold and missing dot com and click on Brandon's episode, I'm

386
00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:42,080
going to have just a Google Maps or technically it's Apple Maps picture of the sent trail

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00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:46,240
that the dog picked up just because I know I was saying like half a mile this way and

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00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:47,400
then you turn west.

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00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:52,560
So just if you are a visual person, which I am, you can go to cold and missing and find

390
00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:55,700
Brandon's episode and that will be on the web page.

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00:23:55,700 --> 00:23:58,400
You can also follow us on Instagram.

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00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:02,560
You can search us at cold and missing that'll pop right up and follow us there.

393
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:07,840
We'll get updates if we ever have to delay an episode or come out a day late.

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00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:09,160
You'll be full in the know.

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So follow us there and have a good week and stay safe y'all.

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Stay safe y'all.