The Disappearance of Brian Shaffer
Episode 024
Twenty-seven year old Brian Shaffer was a handsome, hard working man with a dream of living on a tropical island and being in a band. In the meantime, he was in his second year of med school, working hard toward a career that he didn't quite envision himself doing. He had a loving girlfriend, and a tight knit family that supported him.
Sadly, his mother, Renee, passed away due to a rare form of cancer and while Brian was struggling to deal with the aftermath. He was drawn closer to his father, Randy and his brother, Derek, and as a family they supported one another through that difficult time. As spring break 2006 approached, Brian made plans with his girlfriend to take a vacation to Miami, had dinner with his father and asked his brother to come out bar hopping along with his best friend, Clint Florence. Derek wasn't able to make is, so Brian and Clint went to downtown Columbus and started their evening at the Ugly Tuna Saloona.
Brian called his girlfriend at 10pm and told her that he loved her and couldn't wait to go on vacation with her. Over the course of the next few hours, he and Clint bounced up and down North High Street, hitting up every bar and getting a shot. Around midnight, they ran into Meredith Reed, a friend of Clint's who offered them a ride back to the Ugly Tuna. Brian was seen on surveillance cameras at 1:55am, on April 1st, outside of the Ugly Tuna. He walked back in, and when the bar close five minutes later, everyone filed out, including Clint and Meredith who had lost track of Brian. He was never seen again, and despite thorough investigation, police could find no evidence that he ever left the bar that night.
Over the next few years, investigators worked every lead they had, but could come up with no viable evidence for where Brian could have went. Brian's best friend Clint, helpful at the beginning, quickly hired a lawyer and refused to take a polygraph, fueling speculation that he had more information about Brian's whereabouts than he was letting on. In the eleven years since Brian vanished, there has been nothing discovered and no real leads or information. It quickly became one of the most baffling disappearances in American History, the story of a man who walked into a bar and seemed to vanish into thin air.
What happened to Brian Shaffer? Did he choose to run off, overcome with depression over the loss of his mother? Did his depression get so deep that he chose to commit suicide? Was Brian attacked by a stranger who murdered him and hid the body? Does Clint Florence know more than he is saying and could he possibly have been involved in Brian's disappearance? Join host Steven Pacheco as he explores the details of this case and attempts to sort through one of the most perplexing mysteries in American History: What happened to Brian Shaffer?
Listen to 024 - The Disappearance of Brian Shaffer
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Brian_Shaffer
https://web.archive.org/web/20160320200912/
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/shaffer_brian.html
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/12689476/ns/dateline_nbc/t/thin-air/#.XGyrZehKiCg
https://www.columbusmonthly.com/content/stories/2014/09/when-missing-persons-cases-go-cold.html
https://www.thelantern.com/2009/04/is-brian-shaffer-alive/
https://web.archive.org/web/20160313231009/
http://www.columbusmonthly.com/content/stories/2009/04/randy-shaffer-in-the-name-of-the-father.html