MISSING: Brian Shaffer

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That's SoFi.com/CrimeJunkey and start making smarter money moves with SoFi. SoFi student loans are originated by SoFi bank, NA member FDIC, additional terms and conditions apply, NMLS 696891. - Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. - And I'm Brett. - And the story I want to tell you today is a creepy one. And one that I've been obsessed with for years, long before we had a podcast, this was one of those cases that I would put on my Google rotation along with like more Murray and Bryceless Pisa. I'd always wonder, has there been an update in the disappearance of Brian Schaefer? (upbeat music) In the spring of 2006, a young woman named Alexis should be getting ready to enjoy a hard earned vacation. She's in her second year of medical school at Ohio State University, studying to be an obstetrician, and the courses are tough, but she is thriving under the challenge along with her long-term boyfriend, Brian Schaefer, who's in medical school with her. Now, the both of them had planned this spring break trip to Miami, but on the morning of April 3rd, 2006, this was a Monday morning. Alexis is at the airport and she is anything but excited. She is anxious, she's scared, getting panicky even. She had spoke to Brian on Friday night, but she hadn't been able to get a hold of him all weekend. So she had stopped by his apartment multiple times throughout the weekend, Saturday, Sunday, each time finding nothing there, no Brian. She tried calling over and over all day Saturday, all day Sunday, but got no answer on his cell phone. So that Monday, this was her last shot at Hope that Brian was okay. Maybe he needed some time, but he would not miss this flight. Alexis waits for Brian. All around her flights are taking off, landing. It would be their turn soon, but Brian is nowhere in sight. And listen, there are two types of people in the world. Those that want to roll up to the gate just in time for boarding and those like me. Yeah, and then the people like me who are there two hours ahead of time so I can have my two glasses of wine and not feel rushed at all. So even though he's not there right that second, like again, she's still holding out hope. Until a half hour before takeoff when the flight attendant at the gate is ready to begin the boarding process and he's still not there. And she's getting more and more nervous, more and more anxious, where is Brian? She keeps trying to call his phone over and over. Why isn't he answering? It's not like him to just drop out of touch and disappear. By the final boarding call, Alexis is panicking because she knows something is terribly wrong. She keeps thinking back to the last time she talked to him on Friday night, just three days before. He sounded completely fine. He told her he loved her like nothing seemed wrong. When the flight takes off and Brian is still not there, Alexis calls Brian's dad Randy. And Randy goes right over to Brian's apartment to look for him. And according to Mel Magazine, Randy finds everything just like it should be a car outside the apartment, bed made, all of his schoolbooks are in order. Everything at the apartment is normal, except there's still no Brian. Right away, Randy calls the police to report Brian missing. Meanwhile, Brian's brother Derek gets involved too, hoping against hope that this is all just some misunderstanding. And according to the Columbus dispatch, he even wonders for a second like if this whole thing is a practical joke because Brian was last seen on April Fool's Day. And there's no way a guy like Brian just disappears. Not a guy who's six foot to 165 pounds, hands him with like just enough of a quirk to his features to make him like the best kind of memorable. And he even had this Pearl Jam tattoo on his right bicep and a distinctive fleck on his eye. Surely someone has seen him. Okay, so the last time Alexis talked to him was Friday night, right? Right, like what were his plans for the rest of the weekend? Well, that's something that the police and the family had to piece together. Randy knows that he actually saw Brian on Friday night, the same day that Alexis talked to him, but they start to realize as they talk more and more to one another to other people that no one had seen him after the early morning hours of Saturday, April 1st. And here's what they piece together. On March 31st, Brian has dinner with his dad, Randy, at a steakhouse in Columbus. Then he goes to a popular bar near campus on High Street called Ugly Tuna Saluna to meet up with his old roommate Clint. Now, the Ugly Tuna caters to the Ohio State crowd and it's known for like cheap drinks, loud music and like gently be like, yeah, it's like the good place to hang out. And I even saw some pictures online and they have like this fish bowl drink that are in actual fish bowls, like very complex. Yeah, so Brian, when he goes out, he leaves his dad, he goes out, he invites his brother Derek and Derek's girlfriend to come meet them, but Derek and his girlfriend had been at a comedy show all evening and they're just ready to head home. So they pass. Was Alexis with him at the saluna? No, so actually Alexis doesn't go out with Brian that night because she's not actually in town at all. She had gone back home to Toledo, Ohio to visit family. So around 10 o'clock, Brian actually calls Alexis just to like check in and they talk for a little while, you know, maybe at the vacation, whatever, they part on good terms. They're excited for Monday and then he goes back to having fun. And again, she says he sounded totally fine, totally normal. After a few drinks at the ugly tuna, Brian and Clint decide to leave. They do some shots at other bars in the area. They have a little bit of kind of like a pub crawl and according to 614now.com, Clint and Brian then meet up with another friend Meredith who drives them back to ugly tuna. Now, at some point at the ugly tuna, they get separated, like Clint and Meredith are still together but Brian gets split off. And you know, like this happens at a bar. Sometimes you leave your friends to like step outside for a second, you go to the bathroom, you grab another drink, like it's no big deal, you come right back when you're done. Right, so except after they got separated, Brian doesn't come back. Eventually last call comes up, the lights come on in the bar and Clint and Meredith are looking around for Brian because they're ready to leave, but they can't find him. They call his phone, Clint checks the men's room, but Brian is totally MIA. And they like wait outside in the bar for a little bit. But when they realize he's like nowhere to be seen, Clint and Meredith figure, you know, he probably just decided to head home on his own. Like he lived within walking distance of the ugly tuna. So he could have left early, it would have been super easy for him. Like who knows, maybe he didn't want to pressure them into leaving before they were ready, maybe he got the drunk munchies and wanted to go eat something. Like a thousand things, like I had this friend in college who that was like her MO, she would just disappear. And a friend disappearing is worrisome to all his crime junkies and life rule, if you came with friends, leave with friends. Yes, but they don't worry too much. at the time and they decide to make their own way home. Now, they weren't worried when they left the bar, and they're still not worried necessarily the next morning when he doesn't pick up their phone calls. For a lot of people, the general thought was, you know, maybe, you know, he was not drinking all night, they were doing shots everywhere, there's a good chance he's hung over, maybe he's just sleeping it off, like, been there, done that. Uh, yeah, morning afters are rough, and there are definitely times where you just, like, don't even want to get out of bed. Oh, yeah, I mean, I had more than I'd like to admit, those in college, so I get it. And even though, again, us crime junkies like to look back in hindsight and like scream, I think it was totally normal for no one to be, like, sounding the alarm bells right away that, like, Saturday morning. Brian was smart, he was a responsible guy, like, no one ever thinks something bad could happen to them or someone that they know. But Brian wasn't just sleeping it off. Everyone realizes that when they come together and realize that no one had talked to Brian during the day Saturday or Sunday, and now that he hasn't shown up for his trip, they were sure something serious was going on. You see, the trip was extra special, not just because Brian needed a break or because he was planning to propose to Alexis on the trip. The trip had a way more significant meaning than that. The trip was a gift from Brian's mom, Renee. The whole family was super close, but Brian was extra tight with his mom, Renee. She was a nurse and his whole inspiration for studying medicine came from her. Three weeks before he was supposed to leave for his trip, his mother actually passed away. She had been sick for a while, battling a rare form of blood cancer. So Brian's skipping out on the trip didn't seem right and it didn't seem like something that he would do, but now the shaffer family are in this devastating position having just lost Renee. And now just literally a couple of weeks later, Brian is missing after a night out drinking with friends, leaving his dad Randy and his brother Derek and girlfriend Alexis frantically searching for some insight about where he is. Now police did say that since Brian had been drinking all night, he was more vulnerable to getting mugged or for something like sinister having happened to him. Now he was six to remember and it's clear from photos on his Myspace page and around the internet that he kept himself in good shape. Like sober, he'd be a risky target for a prospective thief, but drunk, he might be a little easier to take advantage of. Now Brian's girlfriend Alexis stays at his apartment for days on end, desperate for that front door to open and Brian to walk back into their lives. She takes to social media begging Brian's Myspace friends to please spread the word and keep Brian in their prayers. These messages are heartbreaking and there's one from April 3rd, the day he missed the flight that says quote, I love you so much and I just want you to come home and quote. Police check local hospitals and homeless shelters, but there's no sign of Brian and no one that matches his description. Local media picks up the story, a tip line is set up, police and volunteers plaster missing person posters on telephone poles, all over Columbus, but Brian isn't found and no one is coming forward with any helpful information. So the police decide to go back to the ugly tuna saloona to retrace Brian's steps. They pull the video surveillance from that night and there he is on camera and here is where everything gets so strange and you'll see why I've never been able to stop thinking about this case. Every footage shows Brian going into the ugly tuna at 1.15 in the morning of April 1st. Now Brian can be seen outside on the escalator that leads up to the bar and he's standing in front with two people behind him, who 614 now says is Meredith and Clint. There's nothing weird about this footage. He looks like he's having a good time. Everyone's happy. He doesn't seem like overly intoxicated like he can still walk and function normally. Then, when he gets to the top of the escalator, he walks out of frame and heads inside the ugly tuna with Clint and Meredith behind him. Now according to date line, there were a couple of girls inside that Clint and Meredith knew and Brian starts talking to them. Now police know from talking to everyone that Clint and Meredith at some point got separated from Brian and they couldn't find him and they assume that he left on his own. So they start going through the other security tapes, fast forwarding to see when Brian comes out, you know, trying to like nail down exactly what time he left, maybe which direction he went, stuff like that, exactly, exactly like where did he go at the bottom of the escalator. So they spot him again on the tape at 155 in the morning and you can just barely see him in the corner of the frame, but he's hanging out at the top end of the escalator like right outside the entrance of the bar and he's talking to two girls. After a minute or two goes by, he walks off camera again back inside the bar. So the police fast forward again, again, looking for the time when he comes out and he leaves. But the thing is, they never see him on security footage again. Wait, what? Yeah, and I'm sure they rewound a couple of times, played it back slower, but no matter how many times they watch the tape, Brian never was seen on it again coming out of the ugly tuna. Okay, but like that can't be the only exit, right? Like, yes, it's like the one that the public uses or the one that everyone usually uses. But they have to have like an emergency exit or like a delivery door somewhere in the back. Like, come on. Yeah. So, yes, you're right. There is another exit. The ugly tuna has one other door out back, but there's a freight elevator and it leads to a really messy construction site, like heavily under construction site that would be super hard to navigate, even if Brian hadn't been drinking, but like again, like add alcohol to all of this. It's dark out. And it wouldn't make sense. Like, yeah, you would have had to like go out there again. If you're so wasted that you don't even know where you are, you're not functioning properly, like you go out there and you get stuck out there, right? But like again, no one found him in this construction site and there was no camera on that door. But a lot of other places around that area had cameras that would pick up that door. So they pulled video from all these places to see if Brian made the strange decision to exit that way. And again, Brian isn't on any of the other cameras footage. Now, this gets even crazier when you factor in just how much surveillance is in Columbus. Now, I didn't know this before I was researching, but according to this Mel magazine article that I read, Columbus, quote, has more clothes circuit television than Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo combined. Whoa, that's like a lot of surveillance. Right. So which means like if Brian left in any way, something would have seen it. Like, I don't know how he would have been able to leave and avoid all of those CCTVs. Now even though they aren't able to spot Brian on any of the video footage, they are able to use all of this video footage and comb through it to find out exactly who was at the bar that night. And Fox 8 Cleveland and other sources report that every single person who entered the bar that night was accounted for and seen leaving, except for Brian. And it's literally like he vanished into thin air somewhere inside that bar. I mean, yeah, but like unless we're going to stop this and make this show about aliens, that just doesn't happen like no, either he left or someone did something to him. Those are really the only two options, right? Right. I mean, I think the how, like the physical how of this could have us spinning in circles all day. You'd be seen going into a place and never seen leaving. Right. When everyone else is accounted for coming in and out, like how? So instead of how, maybe let's talk about why. So like you said, I feel like we have two real options here, either Brian left on his own or someone did something to him, right? And early on, and you still see people speculating about this today, people thought that maybe Brian did walk away on his own because he was so overcome with grief from the loss of his mother. I mean, I guess that's not out of the question. Like how many times have we seen like what grief can do to a person? Yeah. Like you can be 100% okay, one minute and then just devastate the next. Like there's nothing about the grieving process that's rational and people do things that they just wouldn't normally do or aren't them, you know? Right. Running away and starting a new life, I don't think it's like crazy to consider. No, it's, it's totally true. So I'll admit up front, like in all the past years that I've been obsessed with this case, I never really gave that possibility a ton of consideration because personally, I just didn't understand it, but I've also never lost a parent. And I think it's really hard to put yourself in someone else's shoes, but as I was putting together this episode, I was talking to a friend about the case and she opened up to me about the loss of her dad and she said, you know, as soon as he died, I ran. I went overseas for three weeks. I didn't go to a funeral. It was the only way that she could cope. And there's something about hearing it from her, like all of a sudden I got it. Like medical school was stressful enough without having a seriously ill family member. And remember Brian's mom Renee was in bad shape before she passed away. It didn't just happen overnight. And on top of that, she was his inspiration for going to medical school in the first place. Yeah. And I mean, watching a loved one go through cancer treatment is a grieving process all on its own. And I don't think it's something that I can even fully grasp or explain to you well. Like I don't think anyone could, unless you've had to live through it, but my friend, she helped describe it this way. She said, it's hell. and it's hard because when the cancer is terminal, their death just kind of slows down. So every moment with them is precious, but also every moment is just agony as well. - Right. - And even though Brian was a medical student and understood intellectually what his mom was going through, that didn't make it any easier for him. And so there's still the emotional component for sure. - Yeah, and he's caught between this turmoil of like wishing her suffering would end without wanting her to die. So what if in the middle of all this stress and pain, Brian decided to completely walk away and just start over somewhere? Like it becomes a little more possible in my mind. - Well, especially if you consider the fact that this trip was a gift from her. Like this trip could be an emotional trigger for him. - That's really true. - I had no idea until that moment. - Yeah, until it's like coming up and like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to leave. This is too much. Now everyone in his life knew how hard Renee's death was on him, but despite all of that and you know, they're considering all the same things we are here, they're convinced there's no way Brian would up and run away from his life, no matter how upset he was. Because of Renee's loss, Brian, Randy and Derek had all grown even closer and they all said Brian was expressing excitement about the future, his proposal, his trip and he was just determined to make his mom proud. And beyond that, when I kept talking to my friend about how she dealt with her grief, I said, here's the thing I don't get, like you came back, you wanted to see your mother again. Like I get him running and that part does make sense to me, but what doesn't make sense is that you would never come back to your girlfriend, who you're planning on making your wife, you never come back to your brother, to your dad. Like that part doesn't quite work for me. - Especially because they seem like such a close family. Like you said, your friend came back, like you would think that if he did decide to, you know, step away from his life or whatever for a time, he would want to reconnect and want to be there for his family, like they've been there for each other all along. - Right, and plus, let's just go back to the how if he wanted to leave and start over. Hey, he could have done it at any time. Like go missing from your apartment. Why the mystery of like you being seen coming into a bar and never coming out, yeah. And again, even be if that was your plan. Like I want to be seen going into this bar and then like just disappear. I still don't get how. Like he would have needed one crazy kind of disguise to leave the ugly tuna and totally avoid being spotted by all those cameras and everyone around him. And what I've never seen mentioned is again, police accounted for everyone walking in, everyone walking out. I've never seen it mentioned anywhere that like, oh, there's this like person who walks out that we never saw walking in. So even a disguise doesn't really make sense. - Right, everyone's walking out was accounted for walking in. - Yes, so I think, you know, if this was the plan, I think whatever he would have had to done would have been really hard. And then again, factor in that he had been taking shots and drinking all night long. It just even seems less plausible. So another possibility, police and the searchers have to consider is that maybe Brian had been the victim of a terrible accident. Maybe Brian got hurt somewhere or maybe he fell into the ol' and tangy river by his apartment. So they bring in cadaver dogs to the OSU campus. But the dogs don't pick up any scent. Columbus Monthly reported that the city even searched the sewer lines and found nothing. Okay, but what about his friends? Did any of them see anything like weird or out of the ordinary at the bar before they lost track of them? Nothing that's been officially reported. So here's the thing, police do talk to both Clint and Meredith, pretty early on in the investigation. Meredith doesn't know anything about what happened to Brian. And when they ask her to take a polygraph she agrees and she passes. Clint, however, is more of a mystery. When the holiday shopping season rolls around, business owners are reminded of how rewarding and demanding it can be to run an online store. For anyone developing a business idea or looking to start selling products, now is the ideal time to launch before the holiday rush its full speed. That is where Shopify comes in. 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Acorns advisors LLC and SEC registered investment advisor. View important disclosures at acorns.com/crimejunky. Clint refuses to take the polygraph. Then he gets a lawyer. And according to the lineup, Clint, through his lawyer, expressed that he had nothing to hide and felt that he already told the investigators everything he could. Which, yes, we talk all the time about knowing your rights and understanding how you interact with police, but you're not taking polygraphs. Yeah, like again, Clint's doing all the things I would do, but it instantly makes people suspicious, especially Brian's brother, Derek. He told Mel magazine, quote, "I didn't know Clint very well, but I always thought something was off with him. The way he talked about my brother after he went missing, kind of in a negative way, I wouldn't expect that from someone who's friend vanished. If Clint knew something, I hope he would have shared it. I deserve to know." End quote. But their friends, like Clint and Brian are friends. I mean, you'd want to help your friends family in a situation like this, which is like, literally a worst-case scenario situation. Like, even if it's just to help them get closure. Yeah, this kind of reminds me of the live show that we do. Like, there's a portion where someone related to the victim might have information, and they just like, they literally do the same thing. They shut down, they get a lawyer, the guy moves, and everyone is saying, like, I get protecting yourself, but at some point, like, if you're a family member, your friend is like missing, the most important thing isn't like if you were to get in trouble or something happening to you. It's like, let's find the missing person. Right. But the more I found, I guess things really weren't the best between Clint and Brian, though. In the investigation discovery special that I saw, they did like a piece on this case back in July of this year, and they spoke to Sergeant John Hurst of the Columbus PD, who was the lead investigator in Brian's case. And he said that at some point, they had found out that Clint and Brian had like gotten to a verbal argument at the bar, which I had never heard before. And this only makes Derek and Alexis more suspicious that Clint knows more than he's owning up to. Now, there's another theory that makes Clint look like he's involved, but with a twist. People say, if Brian really did have this like premeditated plan to run away, he probably would have needed help. So some are saying like, okay, he's this old friend and old roommate, maybe he helped him leave and disappear. But that's why he's being so cagey. Right, so maybe he is protecting his friend, but like in his own weird way that's making him look guilty. But that's just one of the theories, and there isn't anything to link Clint to Brian's disappearance. So investigators have to just keep looking. They talk to the two women who were chatting with Brian outside of that bar, you know, on the video at 155, and neither of them have any real insight either. So they're crossed off the list pretty fast. Now, as you can imagine, between losing his wife and his eldest son in the span of three weeks, Randy Schaeffer is devastated. So much trauma in such a short time makes him desperate. So he consults psychics while the police are searching for clues about where Brian might be. A Columbus Monthly article from 2009 told this heartbreaking story about how one psychic told Randy that Brian's body was, quote, submerged in water, held down by the whirlpools that form at the base of concrete bridge posts, end quote. Now, since Brian lived so close to the Ollentangie, less than a mile away, Randy goes out, buys waiters, and just starts canvassing the river with Derek. And they do this for miles looking into all of the whirlpools for any signs of Brian until Randy trips falls in the water and almost drowns in the same place that he's searching for his missing son. - Oh my God. - I know, there's something about that story that just really got to me. Now, Randy and Derek and Alexis keep searching and keep hoping and keep praying. Alexis calls Brian's phone every day for months and it always goes right to voicemail. But one day, about six months after he disappears, his phone rings. Now, when the phone rings, Brian doesn't pick up the phone, but just the phone ringing itself with something Alexis hadn't heard in half a year when she called his phone. So she notifies the police and they reach out to the phone company. - 'Cause if there's a ring, there's a ping, right? - I like that slogan. But yes, if there's a ring, there's a ping. So they reach out to the phone company and find that the phone pinged off of a tower outside of Columbus. The problem is, like no one can really like pin this down and the best anyone can say is his service provider says, you know, it's possible that this was just some kind of computer glitch and there's really nothing to indicate that Brian had actually turned his phone back on. And there's been no activity on his phone since the night he went missing. Not only has his phone not been used, but his bank accounts, his credit cards, all of that stuff is totally untouched. If Brian's still alive, he's not accessing his finances at all. And all he had with him when he went missing from the ugly tuna were like normal things you take with you if you're planning to come back home, like keys, wallet, shoes. But none of that stuff has ever been located either. With no new leads and every tip turning out to be either a vicious hoax or a dead end, gradually the case goes cold. By 2008, there haven't been any new leads in years and the tip line has turned into a place for the worst kind of humans to have fun. Like these quote unquote tips aren't even attempting to be credible. Like I read some of them in Mel magazine and they're just people being racist and obscene for the sake of just being gross. It's awful. It was total abuse of the tip line. Now, as if the Schaefer family hasn't had enough tragedy, Randy is killed in a freak accident on September 14th of 2008 when a tree branch falls and hits him during a wind storm. Before he died, Randy was involved in the central Ohio crime stoppers and he even worked to get legislation passed in Ohio that set up a statewide protocol for handling missing adults' cases. He had never given up hope that Brian would come home. And now for Derek, this is just another shock to his system. His whole immediate family is now gone in less than three years. Oh my God. Once again, the Schaefer's friends and family gather to mourn. They pay tribute at his funeral and online. And this is where things get even weirder. The Columbus Dispatch publishes Randy's obituary on their website where people can leave condolences and a mysterious post shows up in the comments. And it says quote, "Dad, I love you. Love Brian," end quote. And in parentheses, it finishes with US Virgin Islands. And everyone is like taken aback. Like, could this be real? Is this proof that Brian's alive and has somehow snuck out of the ugly tuna to start a new life, like away from all the suffering, away from his home? As an American citizen, he wouldn't need a passport to get into the Virgin Islands either. Like, and he had his wallet with him. So presumably he had a photo ID, which was never recovered. So if Brian had truly wanted to disappear and start over, it would be an easy place to go. Now, according to the Lantern, the Ohio State University's student newspaper, police subpoena the website records to find out where this comment originated, hoping that maybe, like just maybe, this is going to offer some genuine insight into Brian's disappearance. Right. But of course, it does not. On October 7, 2008, this is about three weeks after the message appears, police announced that the post was made on a public computer in Franklin County, Ohio, which houses both the city of Columbus and Ohio State University. And we find out that basically this post is just yet another hoax. And Brian's case stays cold. In the years right after Brian's disappearance, the internet kind of goes bananas for this case. There are so many conspiracy theories about what could have happened to him. One of them, though, is that Brian was murdered, not by a friend or someone he knew, but by an elusive predator known in the online community as the smiley face killer. Now, we have gotten so many requests to talk about the smiley face killer. And we might someday, but that's like a whole another can of worms that we're not opening just quite yet. - Yeah, it's not even been proven that it's like a real one person doing it. - Exactly. So for anyone who doesn't know, the smiley face killer theory was developed by a pair of retired NYPD detectives and a criminal justice professor in Minnesota. And basically, they think that a series of drownings in the Midwest over the 1990s and 2000s weren't accidents. Rather, they were the actions of a serial killer targeting intoxicated college age men, dumping their bodies in rivers, and then spray painting a signature smiley face near where the bodies were left. And this idea that Brian's disappearance was somehow connected to the smiley face killer really picked up a lot of steam in 2016 when another young man went missing from that same area where Brian vanished. And the parallels are eerie. This kid's name was Joey LeBute. He's 26 years old, where Brian was 27. They were both tall with dark hair. They were both drinking at bars on high street near campus in the spring time. And actually, they were just a mile apart. Now, in both cases, their friends lost track of them. And then they're each last seen on surveillance footage from the bars. Joey's loved ones were just as heart sick and terrified as Brian's as they waited for information. But three weeks later, his body was found in the Siato River. But here's the catch. His body was found in the river. But Joey didn't drown. There was no water in his lungs. So he was dead before his body was placed in the river. Oh my God. There was no sign of trauma, no obvious cause of death, like no sign of suicide. Nothing weird on the toxicology reports, just another enduring mystery and plenty to speculate on. This smiley face killer theory got so much attention that the FBI even looked into it for several years. And they put out a statement in 2008 saying, quote, "We have not developed any evidence to support links between these tragic deaths or any evidence substantiating the theory that these deaths are the work of a serial killer or killers." Aside from law enforcement agencies like the FBI saying this isn't a credible theory, even if Brian was a smiley face killer victim, there's no way to tell without his body or proof that he's even really dead. Right. Now, no smiley faces were found along the river where police and families searched for him. And even if there had been, it's a really common thing that anyone with a can of spray paint can just put up on a wall. Right, it's not like a unique tag or anything. Right. But again, you will still see this theory all over the internet. Now, shortly after Randy's death, another tip comes in. Columbus Monthly recalls the story of this more credible tip that puts Brian's body in a field near a freeway just outside of the city. So a team of human officers and canine sniffer dogs head out there, but the field is empty and they're at square one yet again. There's no new trace of Brian, just that same grainy image on the tape that's been rewound again and again and again, all with the enduring hope that maybe this time something new will emerge. College is a lot like Halloween. You can become whatever you want to be. The difference, a costume lasts one night, but a college degree lasts a whole lifetime. Try on something new with Southern New Hampshire University. They've got over 200 online degree programs for all kinds of career goals. Business, healthcare, technology, you name it. Plus, with no scheduled class times or live lectures to attend, you don't have to quit your day job to work toward your dream career. And get this, SNHU has some of the lowest online tuition rates in the US, which means you can still leave that house that gives out full size candy bars. So instead of pretending to have your dream job, why not earn a degree that helps you get there for real? Start your free application today at snhu.edu/crimejunkie. Navigating unexpected body changes or sudden mood shifts can feel completely overwhelming. That unsettling thought of what is happening to me. And unfortunately, when it comes to seeking hormonal health support, most women walk out of a doctor's office with no real answers. However, discovering midi health means finally finding clarity. Midi health exists to change that narrative with expert clinical care built specifically for women navigating hormonal shifts. Midi isn't another one-size-fits-all. It's a very, very, very important issue. For women navigating hormonal shifts, midi isn't another one-size-fits-all telehealth platform. It's virtual care exclusively focused on women's hormonal health, built by women who understand what patients go through firsthand. 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What if him being there changed all of it and completely changed the circumstances and everything would have gone differently? And even now, Derek asked himself the hardest question of all, if he'd gone to ugly tuna that night, would Brian still be with them today? Now, Derek eventually married the woman that he was out with that night, and while Derek remains haunted by Brian's disappearance, he's moved on with his life as best he can. And Alexis has, too, when the Columbus Dispatch visited her in 2016, 10 years after Brian disappeared, they reported that she'd finished medical school, she became an OB/GYN who practices in her hometown of Toledo, she's married with two young kids, and she's not the same person who was posting loving messages on Brian's Myspace page, but she's candid about that part of her past and how it altered her life. She told the Dispatch quote, "I put his things in the back of my closet, and I just needed that chapter of my life to be over. There were a lot of tears, and it was sad, but it was time to move forward." As for the ugly tuna saluna, it closed in 2018. Whatever clues the interior may still have held about Brian's fate are completely gone now. I mentioned earlier in the show that Brian had a tattoo of his favorite band Pearl Jam. Brian's Tribute Tattoo is a stick man, which has basically become like iconic as the cover art on the band's alive single. And Eddie Vetter, the band's lead singer, even dedicated one of their songs, come back to him when Pearl Jam performed in Columbus in 2010. Yeah, which if Brian knew about this tribute, it probably would have delighted him. And maybe, just maybe someday, he'll be able to find out about it, or may already know. If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Brian Schaeffer, please contact the Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-8477 or go to stopcrime.org to submit a tip online. Again, if you have any information about the disappearance of Brian Schaeffer, go to the Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at stopcrime.org. If you want to see any pictures or our sources for this episode, you can find those on our website crimejunkipodcast.com. And be sure to follow us on Instagram at crimejunkipodcast. And we'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Crime Junkie is an audio check production, so what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve? Okay, so profit of the month, right? Let's do it. Okay, so this one is a little bit unconventional, and I want to highlight it specifically because a lot of families get puppies for Christmas. And it's so true. And then so many people don't keep dogs past Christmas. Exactly, I am all for getting dogs for Christmas. I got one for my birthday once, and I still have him, Niles. But a lot of people get puppies from puppy mills and not great places, and adult dogs are everywhere, and they are in every shelter completely inundating their their shelter. And I really want to highlight some dogs that are being fostered right now that are looking for their forever homes. Oh, let's do it. Yeah. Okay, so Arlisner Jason emailed me and told me about three dogs that they are currently fostering, which three dogs. Oh, this is even better. So it's not like you just found them. They came from one of our crime junkies. Exactly. And it's a crime job listener. They have these dogs that they're fostering. They are willing to travel across state lines from where they are to get these dogs there forever homes. And I just, I'm so obsessed. So Jason and his wife has started fostering dogs, and they are in Houston, Texas, which actually, I don't know if you know this, but supposedly according to Jason, Houston is like the street dog. Charlie is bitching, and like making that padding noise. I don't know if you can hear it. It's a puppet month. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. Okay, let's go go back. So Jason and his wife have been fostering puppets that they've been finding in their hometown of Houston. And Ashley, I don't know if you know, but Houston is evidently like the stray dog capital of the US. Oh, really? I actually didn't know that at all. Neither did I. And there's like thousands of stray dogs just surrounding the Houston area. And so every time his wife kind of stumbles across when she brings it home, which like, same. Yeah. I catch it. I mean, I like cannot cross paths with a homeless dog. It would not end well. Right. Exactly. I just have like a million dogs in my home. Yeah, I cannot move to Houston. And when they emailed me, they had three foster dogs, Scarlet, Bruce, and Ivy. And he's not any pictures of them. And they're all just these beautiful, sweet, loving, pit bull puppies. I say puppies. That's, you know, very universal. They're a range of ages, but they're all puppies to my heart. And by the time that I emailed him and was like, we want to feature these puppets, tell me all the things more. He was like, so we've already gotten them adopted. That's great news. It is. It's it's such amazing news. And I was like, that's that's great. Like, I have no problem with that. Like, thank you. I'm glad you emailed us. Whatever. And he was like, yeah, like, this is a great, this is a great ending to my email. I would love, I would love for more emails to end like this. And then he was like, but also we found two more. I'll tell me about these two more. So they had just found them like this past week. So they don't know a ton about them. But they attached pictures and information on Barton and Gamora. And Bart is definitely pretty young. He has like the whole puppy energy going on. He is super friendly and loving. There is some skin damage around his legs. And again, like he's a stray. They have no idea what he has lived through in his very, very young life. And Gamora is super, super laid back and only once attention. And she is super sweet. It doesn't seem to have a violent bone in her body. And the only reason I say that is of course, she does. Because she is a pit bull. And a lot of people have, you know, negative connotations towards quote unquote, like violent breeds, which I have. That is such a bummer now. I have two pit bull crosses and Ash are my dogs colored. They're the sweetest little dogs in the world. They only want to sit on your lap. And they only went love. And so Bruce and Gamora are going to be on our page, along with Jason's information on how to reach out to them and figure out how to adopt them. I'm super excited. And again, like it's they will drive to you. They'll come to you, you guys. And it's the holiday season. If your kids or your family wants a dog this season, like please consider not getting a puppy from a mill. And or even from from rescue because they're so they go so, so quickly consider an adult dog. They're potty trained. Yeah, they've already trained completely. It can be trained on leashes. Yeah, I think that's great. Yeah, for the holiday season this year, you guys, yes, if you're going to get a dog for your family, consider a dog that's a little bit older. I mean, like you know, I have a soft spot for full on senior dogs, but even just a dog that's like a year, a year or two years. It's so much harder for them to get it adopted. It really is. And it's such a great knee in our country to adopt older dogs. So consider it. Like it's just an option. And everyone would love you for it. And before we sign off completely, I have like a little mini story to tell you. And it's kind of like a mystery dog. Because it's only a dog that I've heard about. Okay, listen to this. So I was having dinner a couple of weeks ago with the old director of crime stoppers who I'm still good friends with. Yeah. And he has this new job and works with some listener in Texas. If this is you, please reach out. So he works with one of our fans in Texas. And he said that they have this like shelter or rescue or something. And they had this dog who's been there a long time. Again, one of these like dogs who's a few years old. Nobody wants to adopt because they all want the puppies. And the dog is like kind of anxious. Like wouldn't really like calm down. Not that he's like violent or mean or like hyperactive, but just like just a lot. Yeah, just anxious. And so they tried all these things. They tried playing music. They tried like like the puppy teeth. Like all of the things and nothing work to get this dog to calm down until They started playing crime. Don't be for this dog. No, yes, and they said what I hear they said is like you know through the chain of people Is that when they started playing crime junkie as soon as this dog heard my voice just like totally calm down Totally so I'm about to cry. I know so if this listener is listening We need to know who this dog is because this seems like the perfect companion for any crime junkie Like listen to crime junkie with your new friends to feature him as a Properly the mind and get him a home with a crime junkie. Yeah, so call out to whoever that listener is I want to find this dog so this dog can find their new crime junkie home Make sure to go to our website to see the dogs that Brit featured and we'll be back next month with a new profit of the month Bye guys. Bye When the nights grow longer this shadow start to stir and that can only mean one thing Full body chills is back this season step inside original tails where every doorway leads somewhere darker Every stranger carries a secret and nothing is ever quite what it seems each story takes you somewhere new But be careful you never know what might follow you home So gather around listen close and stream full body chills wherever you get your podcasts