The Disappearance Of BRANDON SWANSON: Aliens, Murder Or WORSE?

Sometimes you hear a story so mysterious, so bizarre, so shocking. The story consumes you. The facts of the case become an obsession of yours, and you dive deep into the dark waters, trying to dig up any and all information that you can possibly find. For me, one of those cases is that of the disappearance of Brandon Swanson, which remains in my mind one of the most mysterious and disturbing stories in the history of the United States of America. Brandon was your regular All-American 19-year-old kid from Minnesota. But one day, in May of 2008, he vanished into thin air. Until this day, not a trace of him, his body or his presence has ever been found. Some people believe Brandon was murdered, others believe he was kidnapped. Some believe he died on accident, fell into a well or was run over by farm equipment, and others believe that he may have slipped into another dimension, or could have possibly been abducted by aliens. On today's episode, we're going to be investigating the story of Brandon's disappearance, and through doing this episode and other episodes like this, we aim to raise awareness about these cases and to keep people talking about them, because knowledge is power. You may look at these investigations and say that they don't matter, that nothing counts, that we're not investigators, but we're getting people to think about these stories to bring them up to talk about them with their own families, and the hope that somebody knows something. And in some of these cases, to keep pressure on local authorities to continue the investigations, to not abandon hope. We want to show people out there, whether they're armchair detectives or victims, family members, that some people out here in the general public still care about these cases, and that we also demand that answers one day be found. Welcome to the conspiracy files. Brandon Swanson was your typical Minnesotan kid, a young man full of energy, passion, and excitement for the future. A native of Marshall, Minnesota, situated in Lyon County in southwestern Minnesota, Brandon successfully completed his secondary education at Marshall High School in 2007. Following graduation, he opted to pursue studies in wind energy technology at the Minnesota West Community and Technical College campus in Canby, dedicating a year to this specialized field. Now academic sessions at Minnesota West concluded for the year on May 13th, 2008. And in celebration on the night of May 13th, 2008, Brandon commenced his plan celebrations at a small house party in Linde, Minnesota, attended by several of his friends and school acquaintances. Having recently completed a year-long vocational certification program in wind energy, Brandon was on the brink of graduation. That night at the house in Linde, he attended a modest social function described by attendees as an informal assembly of close companions. While he did indeed drink at this party, and throughout the evening ingested an undetermined amount of alcohol, one friend of Brandon's later on characterized the atmosphere of the party as subdued, and noted that Brandon did not at any point appear to be heavily impaired. In other words, yes, Brandon had been drinking that night, but according to those who knew him and saw him that evening, Brandon was not incredibly drunk, at least not to the naked eye. He wasn't staggering around, slurring his words, slurring his speech, nobody was worried for him, he just seemed like, you know, a normal guy at the party celebrating the end of the school year. Between approximately 1030 and 11 pm, Brandon left that first gathering at the house in Linde on a company and headed over to another friend's home in the nearby town of Canby to bid farewell to a fellow student. Reports indicate that during his brief visit to this second social gathering, Brandon consumed an additional one shot of whiskey. His stay at the party was brief and shortly after midnight, he set off on his journey back to Marshall, Minnesota. This was the very last time that anyone would ever see branded swan-toe. Now, Highway 68 is a two-lane thoroughfare that extends southeast from Canby to Marshall, Minnesota, and that was the most direct route to Brandon's intended destination that evening, a road that Brandon had navigated on numerous occasions in the past. However, evidence suggests that on that evening, Brandon deviated from his usual route, and instead chose to drive down a network of rural gravel roads situated slightly northeast of the highway. It's believed that Brandon chose to take this alternate route home to avoid law enforcement officers. As he had been drinking that evening, it isn't that hard to believe why he would have chosen to take the back roads instead of the main road, the highway that evening. But this obviously meant that instead of driving down a well-lit, paved highway, Brandon would now be driving slightly under the influence down a series of dark, twisting country roads. And adding to the difficulty of this route, the gravel roads in that area don't run parallel to the highway. Rather, they intersect it at oblique angles, necessitating multiple sequential turns in a staggered configuration, meaning that he would be making some quick turns in the dark instead of essentially traveling straight back home. So Brandon had two options. He could either have taken the highway that he knew like the back of his hand all the way home, which was essentially a straight shot. It was well lit, it was paved, but he would have possibly run into law enforcement. He was drinking that night, so that's why everybody believes that he took the, you know, basically unlit gravel back roads. Now I'm from South Dakota, and this story actually took place about an hour and 20 minutes away from my hometown, so I know what the gravel roads are like outside of these towns, and especially in small communities, like, you know, Linden can be. They are really just dirt roads flanked by, you know, corn fields or whatever crops are growing. It's like a gravel path. There are no lights. There are no signs. These are just like, you know, kind of twisting and turning hills of gravel that you have to, you know, pay attention to while you're driving. Ultimately that night, Brandon arrived at a minimally maintained field road, which extended westward for approximately one mile. This unpaved gravel road, flanked on each side by expansive agricultural fields, was ill-suited for conventional vehicular travel, and this was where branded would unfortunately make some sort of a mistake. You see, while traveling down this road, at one point Brandon attempted to transition southward back onto a gravel road, misjudged the approach, and inadvertently drove himself into a roadside ditch. And this was a horrible place for Brandon to get his car stuck at, because the incline at this location was shallow, yet abrupt enough to immobilize the vehicle's undercarriage, rendering it incapable of moving either forward or backward. He was stuck on the side of the road, unable to move the vehicle or himself, the incident where Brandon crashed his car into the ditch, according to records, occurred at approximately 1.15am. Interestingly, the vehicle sustained no apparent damage, and there was no evidence of injury within the interior. After getting his car stuck in the ditch, Brandon initially attempted to contact two or three friends on his phone. He was calling frantically, trying to see who would pick up, but it was late at night. And when nobody answered his calls, he placed a phone call to his parents. The time at the beginning of that phone call was approximately 1.54am. Talking over the phone to his mother and father, Brandon conveyed to them that he was stranded in a ditch somewhere between Marshall and Lind, and tried to provide them with his location so that they could come pick him up. Between 1.54 and 2.17am, multiple calls were exchanged between Brandon and his parents as they attempted to locate him. But even though Brandon was providing them with clues to his location, they couldn't pinpoint exactly where he was at. And that's because at multiple points, Brandon told them incorrect information about his whereabouts. In one instance, he told his parents that he, at the time, was positioned just off of Highway 23. This was found to be incorrect, however, as he was actually located near Highway 68. He seemed to be confused, and in a way, dazed at the moment. And despite their best efforts, even though Brandon was describing what he saw around him and where he believed that he was, his parents were unable to locate him. There's been a lot of discussion about what caused Brandon to be so confused about where he was that evening. One likely explanation is that a mix of 5 key factors contributed to his disorientation. The exhaustion from the lateness of the hour, at least some level of intoxication, especially since his blood alcohol level was still increasing from his last drink and can be. Alright guys, so I'm sorry for the sudden jump cut and the change of shirt, but I finished this entire recording last evening, and when I went around to check on my camera, I realized that I had forgotten to format the memory card, which meant that it didn't record any of what I'm about to go through, which is like the major chunk of the script. So it's the next day I'm supposed to be editing right now, but I'm redoing this whole thing. That's why my shirt has changed and everything. But in any way, so let's just dig back in. So immediately after receiving their first phone call from Brandon, his parents, Annette and Brian Swanson, hopped into their pickup truck and began heading towards where their son was telling them that he had crashed his vehicle. And they kept heading in his supposed direction, even though their calls to Brandon kept either dropping or being hung up. At the time, Brandon even told his parents that he was sitting by his car, flashing his headlights on and off in an attempt to try help them find him. But it was to no avail. Annette and Brian saw no sign of Brandon anywhere in the immediate area. Now I have to say too, I, you know, like I said, I grew up in South Dakota. I know these dirt roads. I know country roads like this. My grandmother, before she passed away, she lived on a farm way out in the middle of nowhere in North Dakota. And I'm talking like 45 minutes outside of Fargo, purely down dirt roads, like, middle and a lot of these lands are pretty flat and they're pitch black at night. There are no lights, there are no towns. So if Annette and Brian were driving around looking for Brandon and he was flashing his brights on and off, I feel like if they were close to where he was at that time or they would have been in the area, they would have seen the lights. Somebody would have seen the lights because it's so dark it would have been like lightning flashing throughout the landscape. But yeah, they didn't see the lights, nobody saw the lights. And so at 2.17am from inside the pickup, Brandon's mother called him again. Growing frustrated with not being found, Brandon then told his parents that he was going to start walking towards some city lights that he saw, which he believed were coming from the nearby town of Lind. And so Brandon told his parents that he was going to start walking toward what he believed was Lind and he asked his parents to meet him in the parking lot of the Lindwood tavern, a local bar. Shortly afterwards the call dropped again, and after being disconnected, Brandon's parents called him and began another phone conversation at approximately 223am. During this call, Brandon and his father stayed on the phone for 47 minutes. Over the phone, dictating what he was seeing to his parents, Brandon described his walk, saying he was following a gravel road away from Marshall toward Lind. At one point, he told them that he had left the road and started cutting across fields. This will be a faster route, he told his parents. He was just taking a shortcut. Over the phone, he mentioned to them that he had come across two fences, and then at one point he heard running water nearby. Then at exactly 3.10am, Brandon interrupted himself and suddenly yelled out, "Oh shit!" And then the call went silent. His father later recalled hearing what sounded like Brandon's foot slipping right before the call cut off, but then afterwards, nothing. The only thing that Brandon's parents heard on the other end of the line was silence. Before eventually they had to hang up and end the phone call themselves so they could call him back. In a frantic move, Brandon's parents attempted to call him over and over again, trying to reestablish contact with their son. However, repeated attempts to call Brandon back were unsuccessful, and he never picked up the phone again. In fact, this would be the very last time that anyone heard from or saw Brandon ever again. His final words, "Oh shit, remain an intriguing part of this mystery that no one has been able to fully explain to this very day." In the early hours of May 14th, the weather was mostly clear with a light wind of 69 mph. The temperature was around 46 degrees Fahrenheit and dropped at one point to 39 degrees Fahrenheit. The moon was in its third quarter-phase position to the west of where Brandon likely was and was setting when the call ended. Even after the phone called disconnected, the search continued for Brandon's parents. In fact, Brandon's parents continued searching for him all night, but by 6.30 a.m., they had become more concerned and decided to call the Lyon County Sheriff's Office to officially report him missing. But the local authorities weren't too interested in helping the Swanson family at that time. In fact, the Swanson's were told at first that it was hardly unusual for young men Brandon's age to stay out all night after the last day of college classes. It was completely normal for them to disappear for the night. They claimed he had probably been drunk and had passed out somewhere. They'd find him soon enough. And additionally, when the Swanson's pushed back on the authorities and their hesitancies to help search for Brandon, and that Swanson specifically recalled that one of the officers told them that it was Brandon's quote, "right to be missing." But Brandon never awoke from a drunk and stupor and called his parents. He never emerged from the darkness hung over and made his way back home. And the search for Brandon began soon afterwards. Based on information from Brandon's family and media sources, law enforcement issued an attempt to locate requests for both Brandon and his car. The Lyon County Sheriff's Office also contacted Brandon's cell phone provider to get location data. However, because it was still early in the morning, the carrier's offices weren't open yet, so no immediate information was available. Once the phone company opened that day, they quickly determined that Brandon's phone had last connected to a tower just south of Minnesota. And this immediately led authorities to shift their search to that area. At around 12.30 pm, a Lyon County Sheriff's Deputy found Brandon's abandoned car in a ditch about 1.5 miles north of Minnesota Highway 68 near the border of Lyon and Lincoln Counties. And that swanson is joining us. She is the mother of Brandon Swanson joining us from Minnesota. You were on the phone with your son a large part of those early hours when you were trying to find him and he was trying to find you. He wasn't hurt at all, right? I mean, the car went into a ditch, but he seemed to be okay. Correct. He said he was fine, but he was not injured. And, you know, in fact, when we did find his vehicle, there was no damage to it. It was simply muddy from being on a gravel road, but no damage to the vehicle. What was it like that night to be going through this and so close to your son, but so far from your son? Yeah. You know, as, you know, as Brandon tried to explain to us where his location was and he was extremely sure of himself, he felt confident in where he was at and that we were the ones that were confused about, you know, how to get to him. And as the conversation went on, it's the minutes ticked by, you know, it came to a point where as long as Brandon was on the phone, as long as he was talking, as long as we had contact, it was okay. We would be okay. It's the minute that he, that that call dropped, I just became sick. I knew it was wrong. I knew it was very, very bad. And it just could hardly fathom, you know, what was happening at that point? Oh, I can imagine. I mean, to take a breath. Now, when the call just hung up like that with Brandon in dire distress, I mean, those were the words that he seemed to utter when he said, "Oh, did you try to call him after that and what happened?" Oh, yes, we did. You know, we, we didn't immediately hang up the phone. We, you know, we called his name. We tried to, you know, thinking that he still had the phone, that it was very near him, that he could take it out, eat here our voice, and we, we called out to him several times, and we realized, you know, he's, he's not there. We did, we called him back several times, thinking, you know, he'll, he'll see the phone light up. Even if he didn't have it on ring, he would see his phone light up when the call came down, he'd find it. You know, he'd, he'd answer the call, and it just didn't happen. Time and again, just, it just went on answered. What time did you finally call police? I finally called the Sheriff's Department at approximately 630 in the morning. So right when the sun was coming up. The exact location of the car was recorded using universal transverse Mercader coordinates, and this discovery became the key starting point for the next phase of the search, as investigators tried to figure out Brandon's final movements and what had happened to him. Strangely, there's been little information leaked to the public to this day about exactly what efforts were executed on that first day in the search for Brandon. According to a media report, local law enforcement requested assistance from a search canine unit in Chippewa County, but the specific findings of this dog remain unknown. Additionally, it's documented that Brandon's vehicle was towed away on the first day of the search. Unfortunately, on the morning of May 14th, road grading operations were conducted in the area, which inadvertently erased any potential footprints or other trace evidence that could have been useful in the search for Brandon. So incredibly poor timing on that. The county was actually doing road grading and road maintenance that morning. So any footprints, any tire tracks, maybe if there was even blood that had dripped out of Brandon from some sort of an injury, I don't know what they would have found, but those maintenance cars cleared all that stuff off of the gravel road. So any of that evidence that could have existed was immediately bulldozed. And so the day of May 14th, 2008 ended, and nobody had found a single trace of Brandon Swanson. It was literally as if he had vanished into thin air. Interestingly though, Lion County Sheriff Joel Dahl noted that from a general vicinity of the search area, a red beacon atop a grain elevator in the nearby town of Taunton was clearly visible. It was theorized at the time that Brandon may have mistaken this distant red light for Lind Minnesota, leading him to believe he was closer to town than he actually was. But it is bizarre, there weren't any immediate big city lights popping out anywhere. No light pollution, nothing crazy that authorities noticed that would have made sense with what Brandon was telling his parents. He was telling them he was walking towards the bright lights, the bright city lights, and they just didn't see what Brandon could have necessarily been talking about based on where his car crashed. The next day on May 15th, 2008, at approximately 11 a.m., members of the Codington County search dive and rescue team arrived in town at the request of the Lion County Sheriff's office. Initial efforts defined which direction Brandon had traveled in on the night of his disappearance using sent tracking dogs proved to be unsuccessful. However, once the dog's handler switched to a different sent article, basically used a different item of Brandon's to try to determine his scent and track that scent. One bloodhound was able to pick up a trail. The dog led search team south from Brandon's abandoned vehicle for half a mile before turning west under nearby 390th street. The trail then proceeded one mile west, turned north onto county road 16 for another half mile, and veered west again onto the driveway of a deserted farm. From there, Brandon's scent continued for a quarter of a mile before leaving the driveway and following the yellow medicine river northwest. At one point, the bloodhound entered and then exited the river, leading its handler to suspect that Brandon may have fallen into the water at that location. However, the central was picked up beyond the river, moving toward a drain area and eventually stopping near a gravel road marking the boundary between Lincoln and Yellow Medicine counties. This showed authorities that, even though it appeared that Brandon had stumbled into the river, it seemed as though he had crawled out and continued on his walk towards what he believed was a nearby town. Interestingly, the Bloodhound's findings align with Brandon's 47-minute phone conversation with his father. Throughout their discussion, Brandon described traveling along gravel roads before deciding to cut across open, grassy land. Through the phone, Brandon mentioned encountering two fence lines and hearing nearby running water. The search terrain in the area near the river is rugged, covered with dense vegetation and scattered with animal dents. Additionally, Brandon was congenitally blind in his left eye, which likely affected his depth perception, especially in the low light conditions that he was working with on the night of his disappearance. Given that the moon was setting at the time that he vanished, Brandon would have been left to navigate the rugged terrain that evening in near total darkness. If one factor's in an average walking speed of 1-3 miles per hour, then Brandon could have been anywhere from 3/4 of a mile to 2-1/2 miles away from his car when the phone call abruptly ended. The point where the dog entered and exited the river falls within that estimated range. To some people who study this case, it seems the most plausible that Brandon may have stumbled upon an unseen hazard. The trip door lost his balance while navigating the rugged and uneven terrain. In the process, he may have dropped and broken his phone, whether due to water exposure, impact damage, battery displacement, or simply an inability to locate it in the dark. In addition to the bloodhound, two other search dogs scoured the area near Brandon's vehicle and along the Yellow Medicine River. Numerous spontaneous volunteers joined the search and a team from the Department of Natural Resources conducted a boat patrol along the river. The strongest theory based on the bloodhound's tracking results suggests that Brandon may have fallen into the river and drowned. While this remains a primary focus of search efforts, alternative possibilities do exist. For instance, Brandon may have lost or broken his phone and just continued to walk. Notably, despite the bloodhound entering the river, it later exited and continued tracking purposefully, implying that the scent trail did indeed persist beyond the water's edge. The dog followed the trail up to another gravel road before it suddenly and abruptly lost the scent, which could indicate either an extended trek or the natural limits of the bloodhound's scent tracking abilities. Given that the trail stretched over three miles, it's considered a relatively extensive tracking result. Following the initial search, which yielded no definitive evidence of Brandon's whereabouts, most formal efforts were suspended. However, Sheriff Jack Vizekki, a law enforcement official who was remained committed to finding Brandon over the years, maintained a persistent search, systematically walking a two-mile stretch of the Yellow Medicine River daily for a duration of 30 days. Meanwhile, the Swanson family continued to leave their porch light illuminated each night, and enduring gestures symbolizing their hope that Brandon would either return or be located. However, as you know, Brandon never came home. How sad is that? His family leaves an actual light on on their porch, hoping that one day Brandon will make his way back home. He's lost somewhere. He doesn't know where he is. They're hoping that he just knows how to find his way home so they left the light on just in case one day he came back. But unfortunately, it's been almost 20 years, and no trace of Brandon has ever been found. So search operations recommenced later that autumn. Once the crops planted shortly after Brandon's disappearance had been harvested, cadaver dogs deployed during these renewed efforts at one point actually detected potential traces of human remains in an area northwest of Portard, Minnesota, an area which had not been previously examined. These efforts were further intensified that next spring, during the interval between the thawing of winter snow and the onset of the next planting season, a cyclical process that persisted through the year 2011. By the year 2011, approximately 122 square miles of the area surrounding the location of Brandon's disappearance had been systematically searched by law enforcement, local authorities, and volunteers alike. But no trace of Brandon was ever located, not a single piece of clothing, not a shred of DNA, not even his cell phone. He completely vanished. In 2010, jurisdiction over the case was assumed by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which became the lead investigative agency tasked with solving the case. The bureau, shortly afterwards, established a dedicated tip line, specifically for the case of Brandon Swanson, through which 90 leads had been reported by 2015. As investigative efforts continued, the primary area of focus shifted towards Mud Creek, a tributary of the Yellow Medicine River situated north and northwest of Portard. But still, to this day, no trace of Brandon has ever been found. So that's incredibly bizarre. This whole thing is bizarre. So, Courtney and my wife and I co-host the podcast Murder in America. We've done tons of in-depth, you know, really thoroughly research stories on people that have disappeared. I've consumed tons of media and read books by authors like David Politis examining missing persons cases on my TikTok account where I have almost 3 and a half million followers. I post almost every single day a different true crime case. And I've covered so many stories of people that have gone missing. What's incredibly strange to me is that in almost all of these cases that I've covered either on conspiracy files, murder in America, my TikTok, my Instagram, here on the paranormal files, they find something from the person. The person doesn't just vanish into thin air. And that's what's insane to me about this case is how have they never found Brandon's phone, how they never found any of his clothing, how they never found him or even any trace of him. One of this stuff adds up and then you clearly have this "oh shit" moment where something happens to Brandon. But then what's really strange and ominous to me is that it just goes completely silent. There's no sounds afterwards. So it's weird because the call didn't drop. Brandt like the phone didn't hang up. The call just went completely silent after he screamed that out. We need to take a look at some of the theories now behind Brandon's disappearance before we move on to finding evidence of our own. I mean, what possibly could have happened to him, that's something we're going to look into right now. So Jeff Haas is a search and rescue expert who gathered a lot of the information that I'm presenting to you in this episode. Jeff actually posted a very, very thorough paper online that you can go read yourself about Brandon's disappearance, analyzing a lot of the factors and, you know, compiling a lot of the information. So I want to thank Jeff for his contributions to this case and for what he did with that paper. I also want to give him credit for the work that he did. But something that I really liked about the paper that Jeff published was some of the theories were spelled out in the paper. And then he helped provide some arguments for and arguments against the people commonly cite when it comes to these theories. So we're going to examine a few of these theories that Jeff presents in his paper. And then we're going to move on to more theories that I gathered information on through independent research using newspaper articles, you know, online forums, all sorts of different things. And it's really bizarre. And I really would like you guys. If you're watching this episode, please leave me a long comment talking about what you think happened to Brandon. I want to start discussions in the chat. I want to start discussions in the comment section. I want people to comment on other people's comments because the main reason, like I said before, why we do so many of these episodes is to keep these people's names in the public consciousness. I don't want to let these things fade away and disappear. This wants in-family deserves justice and they deserve for their son to be found. I mean, I can't imagine the pain that they felt all these years. And at this point, when there's literally zero resolution in this case, I think that it's totally fair to examine, you know, all these different possibilities, things that may have happened, even things that are non-traditional. We're going to talk about some of that stuff in a little bit. But please keep this story alive and let me know what your thoughts are about these theories in the comment section. So all these theories are going to basically be what people think happened to Brandon after he yelled out, "Oh shit." So it's pretty well documented. You know, Brandon was alive and well. He was walking. His location data was tracked. And then all of a sudden, he yelled out, "Oh shit." And that's when the phone call, you know, went dead. So that's where all the question lies is what happened after he screamed that out and what caused him to scream that out. And that's what we're going to be examining. So the first theory that people believe in is theory number one. Brandon's phone call went dead and he exclaimed, "Oh shit, because he fell into a nearby river." His phone was fried in the cold waters and unable to escape the water himself, Brandon drowned. Now, there are a few potential locations where this drowning may have happened. And those locations include the yellow medicine river, located to the south and west, mud creek situated to the north, and really any of the smaller drainage ditches spread throughout the area. Now, some of the evidence that supports this theory includes the fact that Brandon mentioned hearing running water during his phone conversation. And the fact that the scent dogs tracked Brandon's scent to the yellow medicine river. Now drowning would explain why no physical evidence of Brandon's presence has ever been found, as it would have been swept away with him downstream to an unknown location. And in addition, searching bodies of water is incredibly difficult, making it possible that he has not yet been located within the.75 to 2.5 mile radius of his last known position. However, critics of the theory point out that even though Brandon's phone call abruptly ended, that doesn't necessarily mean that he was unable to continue walking afterwards. Extensive searches have been conducted within the suspected area, especially along the yellow medicine river, without success. suggests they. he probably ended up elsewhere. In addition, after Brandon disappeared, boats from the state's Department of Natural Resources were deployed to conduct a systematic search along the river, and water control gates were installed to manage flow and facilitate search efforts. Yes, gates were literally installed in key parts of the rivers where it was determined that if Brandon had fallen in, they would have caught his body. They literally put gates, metal in the rivers, essentially like a trap. So if Brandon's body or anything related to Brandon, you know, articles of clothing, his cell phone, something, his shoes, any of that, if that had floated down the river that he, you know, according to this theory, fell into, then those gates would have caught that, and we would have found it by now. But the gates never provided any additional evidence. And in certain locations within Lincoln County, water levels had reached a depth of 10 feet on the morning that Swanson disappeared, but had since receded, according to the sheriff at the time, that meant that there would have been less flow and less movement that could have swept Brandon's body away. So the river was pretty high on the morning that Brandon disappeared, but then it dropped, it dropped away lower. So he definitely would have washed up somewhere in a lot of people's minds. Additionally, law enforcement personnel patrolled the river banks on foot while equestrian units and all terrain vehicles were utilized to extend search efforts into the surrounding terrain, and they found no trace of it. Now, I personally don't believe that Brandon drowned in the river. I feel like they would have found at least a part of him, like his clothes, some of his DNA, his body, his cell phone, anything at this point. And it also doesn't explain how his scent trail continued out of the river. Remember, in that scent tracking dog went into the river, and then it went out, and all of a sudden, it stopped at that gravel road. I understand why people would believe in this theory, but it's just, I think that that's too simple of an explanation for what happened here. Then you have theory number two, which claims that after proclaiming, oh shit, Brandon may have tripped and sustained an injury, which rendered him unable to move. And he later died due to exposure to the elements. Now, proponents of this theory claim that given the cold night and the light clothing that Brandon was wearing, a person unable to move would almost certainly have succumbed to hypothermia. But critics of this theory say that if Brandon had indeed remained in one place within the search radius, like for example, if he broke his leg and he couldn't move further than, you know, where he had broken his leg, or if he had injured himself and he had been forced to crawl somewhere, he likely would have been found by now. I mean, he definitely would have been with how deep they have searched this area and how large the search radius is. Now, skeptics also claim that, yes, Brandon may have slipped and lost his phone, but if he survived that moment, he almost certainly continued walking. It's not like he would have lost his phone, and then said, oh shit, well, I'm just gonna lay down here and die. You know, he would have kept walking. I also don't believe this theory because I think it's once again too simple. And if he would have laid down and died somewhere, they would have found him by now. They would have found his phone, they would have found Brandon, they would have found his clothing, they would have found some sort of remains. But we have to move on to theory number three. So theory number three states that Brandon may have gotten wet from falling into the river, from walking through wet grass or sweating, which led to hypothermia over time, and then subsequent death. Now, people who believe in this theory state that there's no guarantee that Brandon stopped moving once his phone cut out. Fones, as we all know, are fragile and can be easily dropped or damaged. And despite extensive searches within the estimated range, Brandon has not been found, which has led many people to believe that he's in fact nowhere in the immediate area. According to Robert Coaster in Lost Person Behavior, studies show that in many missing person cases, searches often fail to check beyond the statistical median range. In this case, the median distance is 1.3 miles, which has already been searched very thoroughly. And this means that there's still a 50% chance that Brandon is located somewhere beyond that distance. But critics who don't believe in this theory state that, once again, Brandon was walking on foot that evening. So even if he had succumbed to hypothermia, his body would have been located by now, somewhere in the area. And also, they have thoroughly searched every parcel of land, well, almost every, we're gonna talk about that in a second, in that area. 120 plus square mile radius of search area and still no trace of Brandon. So I think if he had just laid down and died somewhere, he definitely would have been found by now. But we need to move on. So theory number four, and this is a pretty popular theory, states that while walking, Brandon may have fallen into an old well, an outdated sister, or an underground storage tank, was thus trapped and was unable to escape. This theory claims that Brandon was trapped down there, he died down there, and that's where his body remains to this day. People who believe in this theory claim that this would explain why his body has never been found. He fell into some deep sort of hole, a hole that is well hidden within the Minnesota in terrain, and he's been trapped there ever since. In addition, they claim that that's why Brandon's father hurt the sound of a shoe sliding or slipping before the call dropped. However, skeptic state that most residential wells in the area are too small. On average, they're only around four to six inches in diameter. So half a foot, I want you to imagine how small half a foot is. I think that's about six inches. A foot, six, eight. Way too small for a person to fall into. And larger wells for municipal or commercial use are extremely rare in that rural region and are typically enclosed within buildings and surrounded by fences, slash security measures, and typically lighting. The only kind of well large enough for an adult to fall into would be a hand dug stone or wood lined well, which would likely be over a century old and would probably have collapsed by now. Finding an intact well in that part of Minnesota would be incredibly rare, especially with the weather conditions, the constant freezing and thawing and flooding, and all the weather that has existed over the last century in Minnesota. And it's just unlikely. In addition, Minnesota law has required abandoned wells and cisterns to be sealed for years. Yes, that's an actual law in Minnesota, stating that if you have an abandoned well on your property, by law, you have to go out there and seal that and make sure that it's not a hazard, or you can face huge fines. A law which also reduced the likelihood of such a hazard existing in the search area. Now, while old cisterns are more common than old wells, they're often covered with rotting wooded lids that could give way. But despite thorough searches of the few remaining abandoned farmsteads in that area, including the abandoned farm that Brandon sent was tracked to, no such hazards. Not even one abandoned well or cistern have been found. You see, many old farm sites in the region have been completely removed to make room for agricultural use, making it completely unlikely that Brandon encountered such a structure. And I think that that's crazy. It totally makes sense, and I totally understand why some people would believe in that theory. But to me, it just doesn't make sense. The statistical likelihood that you would be walking through a field and just happened to step on an old well that's never crumbled, it's never been sealed off, it's completely unmarked, and it's just sitting there out in the open waiting for somebody to walk into it like a death trap. I just don't think that that's very likely, especially with how farmers pay attention to their land, and they love their land, and that's a rural agricultural farming area. These farmers that live in that area who wanted to help solve this case. If they had an old abandoned well in their property, I'm almost going to guarantee you that they would have known where it was on their land, and they would have led investigators to it. It just doesn't make sense to me that on some farmers' property, somewhere off in the deep-- I mean, there's not even really deep woods in that area, but somewhere there's a huge hole in the ground that nobody has ever looked into in the search for Brandon. It just doesn't-- that does not make sense to me personally, but I understand why some people would believe that's the case. Now, theory number five states that Brandon may have been picked up by someone and taken out of a search area, and that he may have been harmed by whoever picked him up. In this scenario, some phantom kidnapper happened to be at the right place at the right time and decided that on that evening, they were going to abduct and kill Brandon Swanson. Now, the proponents of this theory don't really have evidence. It's more circumstantial. The fact that Brandon yelled, oh shit, and the lack of any evidence relating to Brandon being found has led some to believe that he may have been physically taken and transported out of the area by an individual or group of persons with nefarious intentions. However, skeptics state that the chance of encountering a violent individual in such a rural area, especially in the middle of the night on a weekday, is quite low. While nothing in this world is truly impossible, it just seems unlikely to me that Brandon would have come across someone who was ready to abduct and murder a random person at that very moment. Some people also believe that Brandon may have been abducted by sex traffickers, but the skeptics kind of state the same things about that theory. There's no real evidence and no real reason to believe that that would be the case. Theory number six states that on that evening, Brandon may have hitched a ride from someone and started a new life elsewhere. Evidence for this theory doesn't really exist. It's just a thought or a concept. There's been no trace of Brandon ever found or recovered anywhere on Earth. If he had really escaped the area and started a new life, I believe that someone would have seen him or reported seeing him by now. In addition, at the time of his vanishing, he had his whole life ahead of him. He had a loving family and good friends, and also skeptics state that Brandon didn't appear to have any financial resources, means of support, or prior intent to disappear voluntarily. He didn't have the money to disappear. He had no reason to disappear. So I don't know why he would make himself disappear. Now, one of the most popular modern theories, theory number seven, is that Brandon may have accidentally been run over by a farm vehicle the next morning after laying down in a field due to exhaustion or hypothermia. This is a theory that I've heard and seen discussed many many times online about this case. So the theory basically states that Brandon indeed was suffering from hypothermia or some form of exhaustion. Maybe he got out of the river and he was soaking wet and dropped to almost freezing temperatures. So maybe he lied down in a field. So maybe on that evening he went to lay down in a field. He wanted to take a nap and he either fell into a really heavy slumber or he died. Then this theory states that after that in the morning a farmer who got up early at the crack of dawn to go work the fields was operating his farm equipment and he accidentally ran over Brandon's body as he was laying in the field. People who believe this theory also believe that after having run over and mutilated Brandon's body the farmer may have chosen to cover up the accident rather than report it. Interestingly I will say this, there is some compelling evidence for this theory. This kind of ties into what we talked about before. Like I said you know about Brandon laying down in the hypothermia that people believe he may have experienced. But this theory posits that shortly afterwards that farmer that was working on their field after Brandon laid down ran him over with a large piece of equipment. Imagine like a combine or something like that. And interestingly one of those scent dogs actually led investigators to a nearby farm when they were searching for Brandon and Brandon scent was reportedly detected on a piece of farm equipment there. And interestingly enough the owner of that farm property was hesitant to allow a full search of his land. To this day actually the farmer has never allowed investigators to thoroughly search his property. This is a real fact of the case that has always stuck out to me as being a bit odd. You see if Brandon had indeed collapsed or lied down to go to sleep in a field and was accidentally run over, the farmer may have feared incoming legal repercussions. I mean he possibly could have been facing a murder charge for brutally butchering a young man in his field. And according to this theory like I said the farmer may have disposed of Brandon's remains secretly. Feeding remains to livestock in fact would be a possible and viable method of covering up evidence. In the murder in America we've talked about murderous farmers that have fed corpses to pigs so it's not too far fetched and the fact that the guy won't allow a search of his property is just bizarre. However skeptics claim that no direct evidence has been found to support this theory. No DNA, no body, nothing. They also state that even if Brandon had been in a field it's unclear why he would not have been found before morning and why he wouldn't have been awoken by the roaring sounds of farming equipment. There's also no direct evidence and that's all pretty circumstantial stuff. Maybe the dog was confused. Maybe the farmer just doesn't want agents tearing up his land. You know I don't blame him for that. But it is odd. You know everybody else in that immediate area opened up their properties opened up their land invited the search teams to come in and thoroughly look for Brandon because they knew how big of a deal this was. I mean this was like national news. And this one farmer just didn't want to let them come take a look at what was going on there. So I don't know that's weird. Theory number 8 claims that while walking Brandon came across something that he should not have seen. Possibly a drug deal of some sort, some form of criminal activity or even a rip or a crime in progress. It's believed by some that that's the reason why Brandon shouted oh shit in surprise. He may have then dropped or disconnected his phone, was chased and was then abducted and killed by the criminal who was caught in the act. It's also posited by some believers in this theory that Brandon may have accidentally walked into the wrong field or farm property. Maybe a local farm that was growing illegal substances or plants and that the farmer trying to maintain control over his operation and the secrecy that they cultivated murdered Brandon in an attempt to keep the police away from their property. It's interesting. I'm sure a lot of people say this, maybe Brandon was walking through a field and he came across something he shouldn't have seen. He looks up, he sees this farmer holding up a shotgun pointed at him and he yells out oh shit. Boom. The farmer shoots Brandon at the same time. The bullet, if it's a shotgun, the spread may have taken out Brandon's cell phone which could have led to the silence. There's also the thought that maybe the farmer snuck up on Brandon if he was looking at something he shouldn't have seen and clocked him in the back of the head with a shovel. It's unknown. But once again there's no direct evidence to support this theory other than the theory itself. But then again, in this case, there really isn't any evidence at all. The evidence that exists mainly exists to debunk other theories. So I'm not completely ruling that one out. It's also been reported in various outlets that when Brandon's car was discovered it was found with the doors wide open where the doors opened after the fact by criminals looking to cover their tracks. Why were the doors all open in the first place? Another question that I have is did they ever check the car for any fingerprints or DNA evidence? To my knowledge, they did not. But we have to move on. Another theory theory number 9 states that Brandon may have been walking down the road where he was run over and killed by someone who was driving home late at night that evening. Brandon was possibly crossing that dirt road where his scent ended and someone was speeding down the road. Maybe with their lights off, they could have been drinking and driving since it was that time and night after bars closed. They hit Brandon, they killed Brandon, and then the driver panicked, packed up Brandon's body and spent away. And once again to reiterate on the morning of May 14th, the morning that Brandon went missing, road grading operations were conducted in that immediate area, which inadvertently erased any potential footprints or other trace evidence that could have been useful in the search for Brandon. So if there were other tire tracks or footprints in any roadways nearby, they were erased before they could have been discovered. And that's interesting. I mean, if Brandon really was hit, you'd imagine there would have been like swerve marks, there would have been, I don't know how you'd even describe that, like a track, tracks, tracks in, you know, the dirt and the gravel in that area. Maybe there even would have been a blood stain or something found, but those road grading operations completely erased any chance of finding stuff like that. But it would explain to some people why Brandon sent ended in the middle of that dirt road, and then randomly it just vanished. If someone really did hit him there and they put him in the back of their car and drove him off somewhere, I mean, that's totally possible too. In additional theory, theory number 10 states that Brandon may have been being chased on the evening of his disappearance. This theory posits that Brandon took the back roads that evening because he was being pursued by some phantom villain. They also claim that this explains why Brandon swerved his car into a ditch on a very straight clean cut road. It is interesting, you know, you're going to see this in the video when we visit the road in just a few minutes. It's a very, very straight road and it doesn't exactly make sense as to how he ended up in the ditch. I understand that, you know, he may have been trying to do some sort of a maneuver and accidentally went over, you know, into the ditch area and that's where his car bottomed out essentially. But it is weird because it's a very straight, kind of obvious wide road. It's not like a swerving country background like, you know, you'd see an Ireland or England. Believers in this theory also state that Brandon would not have told his parents if he was being pursued by someone. Maybe he owed someone some money. He had pissed someone off at one of the parties he attended or he was in with the wrong crowd and they had chased him down to collect on a dead. Once again, there's never been any direct evidence found that would support this theory. But people who believe this theory think that it might have been some sort of a drug dead that Brandon was late on some sort of a payment. He had, you know, gone in debt with these people that were giving him substances and for some reason they were really pissed off. He had shorted them and they came to collect. Now after his disappearance, a pipe was found in Brandon's vehicle. Some people have taken this as evidence or proof that Brandon had used drugs at some point before his death and that he may have owed someone money or a drug dead. On Reddit, this is interesting. Some users have claimed in the past to have been from the area and have commented about how they've heard local rumblings in the small towns like Linde that Brandon owed a drug dead. He was found and killed by the dealers that he shorted and that his body is now buried somewhere in the Dakotas. However, this is all conjecture and there's no real proof or smoking gun to this theory. Brandon also had no documented struggles with substance abuse so there's no paper trail to back any of these assertions up. I will state here though, I do have a friend. I have a friend that got mixed up in the wrong sort of activity for a little while when he was younger. And he was running with the wrong crowd. He's totally changed now. He's a very good friend of mine but at one point this is a real story he told me one time. He said that he was told to show up to this guy's house. My friend was doing stuff without my knowledge. This is when I was living in Texas at the time and he was back home in South Dakota. So I didn't know that this was all going on. Going to this guy's house who he was buying product from to disperse the product to other people trying to think if I could say this on YouTube. Let's just say, "Cush." Maybe that'll go past the thing. My friend was just doing some small time "Cush sales." Which I didn't know about. But he said that this guy who he would buy the stuff in bulk from told him, "You need to come over to my house." house right now. So my friend went over to this guy's house in a small town near Sioux Falls, South Dakota. When he went into the guy's house, he said he need to come downstairs with me. So he went downstairs to the basement of this home, which was a rental house this guy was in. And my friend said that he saw a human corpse being dissolved in acid. And he said, and this guy told my friend at the time when he was staring at this thing, this is what happens to you if you we over. And that was the last straw for my friend. This is why he told me all this because he immediately stopped doing what he was doing, realizing how, you know, what a bad road he was on. And yeah, that story's always shocked me because it's like, where I'm from, that shit doesn't happen. I think there's been one or two serial killers in the entire, you know, history of South Dakota. They're really aren't murders in South Dakota. So to hear a story like that was shocking. So when I was reading this story and I heard, oh, he's buried in the Dakota somewhere. And I have like a personal connection to a story that I believe to be true because I trust my friend. It's really crazy. And yes, for people that are going to ask, he did call the police and report this whole thing, but they never got back to him and nothing ever happened. But he was, he was legitimately really, really freaked out and fearing for his life for a little while after that story. So anyways, let's get back to Brandon. So there are also some people who believe that the paranormal may have been at play in Brandon's disappearance. Some people claim that Brandon was a part of a bizarre string of disappearances that have happened across the globe that have been chronicled by researcher David politis in his series, Missing 411. We could spend the entire episode talking about Missing 411, which we're actually going to be doing a full episode about Missing 411 in the near future. So you should get excited because that was going to be crazy. But it's worth mentioning here. If you don't know what Missing 411 is, I'd highly recommend you do some independent research because hearing the details of those stories will change your life and your perception of the world around you. Basically, Missing 411 is this like string of disappearances that have happened across the globe, but so many in America and in mainly in like American national parks. People that like, let's say for an example, I'm here and my friend Joe is right here. Joe's like 20 feet away from me in the woods. We're hunting. We have rifles. We're walking through the woods together. We're talking to each other. I can see him clearly through the trees. And as we're walking, we pass by a big tree trunk. And when I keep walking, all the sudden Joe stops responding. I turn to my left. Joe's gone. I go over and look for him. There's no trace of him there. Nothing. His clothing isn't there. His gun isn't there. He's just vanished. And from that point on, Joe remains Missing forever. That's happened thousands of times in America and Canada and all over the place, but essentially where these people just vanish into thin air. There are a certain set of specific circumstances that, you know, have to exist within the environment for it to be a Missing 411 case, which is why I'm hesitant to call this Missing 411. But this is exactly like what Missing 411 is saying happens. These people completely vanish off the face of the earth. And it's very scary stuff. They're children that have gone missing adults, you know, men, women, everybody. It can affect anyone. And people think maybe they're being abducted by aliens. There's a whole Missing 411 aliens movie that's really interesting. People think that it could be a slip into an alternate dimension. It's just it's it's stuff that's absolutely beyond human comprehension. Even weirder than Brandon's disappearance. These stories where it's like literally you're standing next to your friend, you turn your back to go walk in the other direction. And 10 seconds later you turn around and your friends are missing and they're never seen again. It's the most insane shit ever. So some people believe Brandon is one of those cases. He was in nature after all and he was never found again. But some people also claim that they believe Brandon may have slipped somehow into another dimension. And that explains why no trace of him has ever been located. I do want to express here that we are not trying to trivialize the the disappearance of Brandon Swanson. We're not trying to sensationalize any of this. In my opinion, I believe in the paranormal and I believe in all these things. I believe people have been abducted by aliens. I believe Missing 411 thousands of people have vanished into thin air with no explanation, which could be aliens could be dimensional time slips. I don't know what it could be. But I genuinely believe in this stuff. And I feel like in a case like this when there's no leads and no information, it's like exploring the unknown angles of this are interesting and important. Because I just have an open mind and having an open mind is incredibly important in this line of work. We're not trying to solve crimes here on this channel. We're trying to dig up evidence of our own, especially with crimes where investigators have failed. I'm not necessarily saying there was a failure here, but they have failed to find any trace of Brandon. In a lot of the other cases, we are investigating crimes where detectives have completely ignored evidence where detectives have been bribed and corrupted and where perpetrators have been allowed to get away. And the goal of these videos is to raise awareness about this stuff and keep people talking about it in whatever way that we can. I've worked with victims of crimes to help them tell their stories on my podcast on this upcoming documentary. I've spent the last year on all these different things. I've interviewed perpetrators of crimes to try get an idea of why they've done these things. And I've even worked with like Nico to expose darker elements of the world. Like Nico's a dark guy, but these elements of the world are so much darker. It's so dark that even he's disgusted by it. And no one talks about this stuff. So we're just examining things holistically here. And this leads into the final theory. Finally, with all the strangeness surrounding Brandon's disappearance, people have claimed that it's possible that Brandon was abducted into the sky by aliens or some form of intelligence from outer space. They claim that this is why Brandon proclaimed, oh shit, and that this is why no trace of him has ever been recovered, which seems to be almost impossible in this day and age. Now I want you to think of it like this. I don't want you to think that Brandon was walking down the street and he this flying saucer like a UFO hovered over him and beamed him up like Star Trek. What I'm positing here as someone who could potentially believe that this theory could be possible. There have been tons of people who have been abducted by these things. Same with you know, missing 411 people that just vanish. It's not like a Hollywood movie where these UAPs are like, you know, saucers. This would be like if something from another dimension or just some force or energy that is beyond human comprehension. If that really were to have targeted a guy like Brandon, what I see happening would be like maybe he saw a glimpse of what was about to happen. But then it's like, boom, God, like just a flash and somebody disappears. That's what I think happens with missing 411. So that's what we're examining here. How that could be like a flash of light that abducts someone not like a Hollywood UFO. And interestingly, Minnesota has had a long and colorful history of UFO sightings and potential abductions. Now one of the most shocking UFO encounters in Minnesota history in fact was reported to authorities and to national news outlets by Marshall County Minnesota deputy Sheriff Val Johnson in 1979. And this story is absolutely insane. So officer Val Johnson reported that while conducting a patrol near Stephen Minnesota at approximately 2 a.m. on August 27th 1979, he observed a concentrated beam of light hovering above the roadway. According to officer Johnson's account, the beam of light emanating from the sky rapidly advanced towards him, enveloping his squad car in an intense illumination followed by the distinct sound of breaking glass. Officer Johnson stated that he subsequently lost consciousness for a duration of 39 minutes. Now upon regaining awareness, he noted that both his wristwatch and the vehicle's clock had ceased functioning for precisely 14 minutes. Upon further examination and after making an official report to his superiors about the incident, it was determined that officer Johnson's squad car had indeed sustained multiple damages, including a shattered windshield, a compromised headlight and red emergency light, an event thin radio antenna. Responding deputies who were tasked with following up on the report discovered the vehicle position sideways on the road, exactly as Johnson had described it. After the alleged encounter, officer Johnson exhibited physical symptoms, including bruising all over his body and ocular irritation, which a medical professional likened to burns commonly experienced by welders. So officer Johnson reported this happening and he actually showed physical symptoms from it. His eyes were burned, there were bruises all over his body that were unexplainable, and this incident, which was corroborated by law enforcement officers, is regarded as one of the most credible alien encounter stories ever told. And it happened just a few hours away from where Brandon disappeared in Minnesota. It was 140 AM. Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson was on patrol in rural Marshall County when suddenly he saw a bright light a few feet above ground level two miles down the road. I travel about a mile and the light seemed to intercept me. So to speak, he came right upon me. He was painful. The light was extremely brilliant and painful. I closed my eyes and I heard the sound of breaking glass and that's the last I remember. Whatever it was came extremely fast. He didn't have time to be scared. He doesn't know what it was. "I have no idea. It's truly unexplainable to me or unknown to me." Johnson was unconscious for 40 minutes before he radioed for help and was taken to the hospital. A doctor and later an eye specialist confirmed that Johnson had suffered mild, welder or flashburns to his eyes. Even stranger, both Johnson's wristwatch and the electric clock in his patrol car had mysteriously stopped for 14 minutes. An investigator from the Center for UFO Studies in Evanston, Illinois flew in to examine the damaged patrol car. There was no evidence of radioactivity and neither the investigator nor the sheriff could figure how the two spring-mounted antennas became bent at almost 90 degree angles. At the scene of the accident, Skidmark showed Deputy Johnson coasted for 800 feet after impact before applying the brakes. The area around here has been searched but nothing's been found. All kinds of small airplane theories have been bandied around, but Deputy Johnson clearly remembers hearing no engine noise. And nothing explains the 14-minute lapse in the two timepieces nor the peculiar bending of the antennas. It's a mystery. Or as the UFO investigator from Illinois said, "It appears to have been a close encounter of the second kind." 36 years later, the Deputy Squad Car is slain the Marshall County Museum. Her more stead was a fellow deputy at the time the broken headlight and the dented hood, the antennas, warped in different directions. The dashboard clock stopped for 14 minutes. "You can see that it wasn't Bell Johnson's head, for example, that hit there because it's in the wrong place." "It didn't seem to be any airplane not way faster than something like that." "We do believe that our deputy had an encounter with something that we haven't been able to explain yet on this day." conspiracy theorists are still trying to solve what law enforcement, mechanical inspectors and the Center for UFO Studies could not. "I know on my own mind I did the best job with code of me and my department to investigate and find out what went on and all we found out is we don't know." "Do you believe in UFOs?" "Yeah, yeah, I kind of do. I just got to be something more than us wrong." In fact, according to the National UFO Reporting Center, which verifies N.D. Bunk's thousands of reports each year, there have been over 2,100 credible reports of UFO sightings recorded in Minnesota, spanning all the way back to the year 1932. Most of these sightings involve phantom lights that travel through the skies, lights which seem to emit no sound at all, silent alien objects that move rapidly and zigzag around before vanishing up into the sky. There are also a few other interesting reports I'd like to talk about that have emerged from Minnesota over the years. Two documented reports of UFO sightings were officially recorded in Minnesota during the year 1965. The first incident involved Arthur Strauch, a deputy sheriff from Sibley County who was returning home from a family bow hunting excursion when he and his companions observed a metallic silver-hued object moving through the sky at an extraordinary velocity. Strauch successfully captured an image of the UAP using his Konaq Instamatic camera, an image to this day that has yet to be debunked. In another account, K.E.Y.L. Long Prairie Radio announcer Jerry Townsend reported that his vehicle suddenly stalled while he was driving along Highway 27. Upon investigation, he claimed to have encountered an unusual spacecraft resembling a rocket. Townsend further asserted that he was approached by three diminutive beings, each approximately six inches in height, with cylindrical forms resembling beverage cans, equipped with small appendages resembling fins. According to his report, the entities eventually departed, leaving behind three distinct oily residue markings on the roadway. Now this is really interesting, so the sheriff, who made that first report we talked about where the light beam destroyed his car, the sheriff from the second report we talked about where they saw that thing zipping through the sky, and this radio announcer who saw these beings on the side of the road, they were all on country gravel roads very late at night. So I think that's a very interesting commonality between all of these stories, is that these UFOs or UAPs or extraterrestrials, I know those are loaded words, but these things are really making themselves known and visible to small select individuals and groups of individuals way out, you know, in the countryside, in an area kind of like where Brandon was, where there isn't a lot of light, there's really nothing going on around the area. So I thought that was weird, a later incident in 1988 that I thought was interesting was documented by a mother in St. Paul, Minnesota, who submitted a report to the Mutual UFO network or Mufat. She recounted that her two and a half year old son awakened her abruptly in the middle of the night while playing a ukulele that was ordinarily stored on a high shelf beyond his reach. Moments later, after a loud impact was heard against the ceiling, the child exclaimed, "Bug eyes is here." Yeah, so the mom saw that this child had somehow gotten a hold of this thing that was way up on the shelf, they heard a huge bang on the ceiling and the kids screamed out, "Bug eyes is here!" A subsequent medical evaluation revealed the presence of an omega-shaped abrasion on the child's back, and the origin of that remains to this day by doctors and scientists alike unexplained. So, could extraterrestrials have been involved in the disappearance of Brandon Swanson? Once again, I really do not want to sound like we're reaching here or being insensitive. I'm just legitimately questioning all of the evidence and presenting you people with every theory that has been brought up by investigators and armchair detectives alike. And I think it's interesting. I mean, so many of these theories, you can see they make sense up until this point where it doesn't make sense. Or, you know, this one seems really strong, but then this one also seems like it's really strong, and it's just confusing all around. You don't really know what to think. So I don't really know what to make of all that. Now, I know some people are going to say, "Oh, there's no way that he, you know, got abducted by aliens, and there's no way that there's interdimensional blah, blah, blah." But in a case like this where there's no clear explanation, I feel you have to at times reach beyond the realm of human comprehension. Because missing 4-1-1, if you've never looked into that, I need to do an episode on that soon. It is crazy. And I'm not alleging, you know, that Brandon was abducted by aliens, and I don't want to seem like some sort of a lunatic. But it is just interesting. It's interesting to examine these things from every single angle, because as we know, the United States government knows so much more than they'll ever let on to, whether it's about, you know, our weapon abilities, our energy capabilities, extra to restrials, life at the bottom of the oceans. I mean, they know so much. And I've even heard some people theorize that the United States government themselves are the ones abducting people to experiment on them. Like, I've heard lots of crazy things, and I've gone down lots of crazy rabbit holes, but I just want the truth in all of these stories. And I don't know. Please let me know what your thoughts are about what happened to Brandon, because this story is heartbreaking, it's infuriating. And one day I would really like to see some sort of justice, you know, happen for the Swanson family, because they've suffered long enough, and I just don't know what to do. Someone has to know something at this point, and someone's going to take a secret with them to their grave. You know, I don't know if someone's found Brandon on their property, and they've never reported it. Maybe the farmer did kill Brandon, maybe Brandon did slip into some interdimensional, you know, time slip, or maybe he's just somewhere in the river still. I don't know, but I just really hope that one day there is some form of closure. If you've enjoyed today's show and you're listening, please make sure you can do this on YouTube too, and you can really help me out. Please leave a five star review on either Apple podcasts or Spotify. Those reviews really help. And it also kind of sucks because people can write whatever the hell they want on there. So I've gotten people like accusing me of being a predator, because that's all that I talk about on this show, which is just an insanity. But yeah, if you guys can go spam those reviews, that would be amazing. Be sure to like and comment on the video if you're watching on YouTube, because that helps the channel grow. But yeah, if there's ever any update, I'll keep you guys updated on this case. But for now, it's Colin. Thank you for watching. Keep that tinfoil hat on. Stay suspicious, and I'll see you next week. [Music]