TADP Season 2 Episode 9 – The mysterious disappearance of Brian Shaffer

The armchair detective podcast

The mysterious disappearance of Brian Shaffer:

Brian Shaffer on February 25th 1979. He was a medical student at the Ohio State University at the time of his disappearance. At the time of his disappearance, Brian was 27 years old and today he would be 39 years old. Brian is described as 6 feet two inches tall and weighing about 165 lbs. At the time of his disappearance, he was wearing an olive green short-sleeved polo shirt over a white long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans, white Adidas sneakers and a yellow rubber cancer awareness bracelet. Brian is a Caucasian male with Light brown hair and hazel eyes. Shaffer has a tattoo of a Pearl Jam symbol on his upper right arm; I have included a copy of the photo on my website. He also wears wire-framed eyeglasses. Shaffer has a black spot on his left iris.

Shaffer grew up in Pickerington, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus, the state capital, where The Ohio State University (OSU) is located, the older of Randy and Renee Shaffer’s two sons. He graduated from the local high school in 1997 and went to OSU for his undergraduate work. Six years later he graduated with a degree in microbiology.

Following that, he began studies at Ohio State University College of Medicine in 2004. During his second year there, in March 2006, his mother Renee died of myelodysplasia. His friends say that although he appeared to be handling it well, her death was hard for him.

Renee was not the only woman important in Brian’s life. He had become romantically involved with a fellow second-year medical student, Alexis Waggoner. She, along with their families and friends, believed that Brian would probably be proposing marriage to her later that year, most likely on a trip to Miami the couple had planned for spring break at the beginning of April.

On March 31, a Friday, classes at OSU ended for spring break the next week. Brian and Randy Shaffer, his father, celebrated the occasion by going out for a steak dinner together earlier that evening. The older man noted that his son seemed exhausted from having pulled all-nighters earlier in the week cramming for some important upcoming exams. He did not think Brian should go out with a friend, William “Clint” Florence, later that night as he planned to do, but did not express his reservations to his son.

At 9 p.m., Brian met Florence at the Ugly Tuna Saloona, a bar in the South Campus Gateway complex on High Street. An hour later, Brian called Waggoner, who had returned to her home in Toledo to visit with her family before the two went to Miami, and told her he loved her. He and Florence went bar-hopping, visiting several other drinking establishments and working their way down to the Arena District. At each stop the two had one shot each of hard liquor, according to Florence.

After midnight, the two met Meredith Reed, a friend of Florence, in The Short North. She gave them a ride back to the Ugly Tuna Saloona, where they had started the night, and joined them there for a last round. While the three were there, Brian separated from his companions. Florence and Reed had been trying to find him, repeatedly calling him. They left with other patrons when the bar closed at 2 a.m., waiting outside for Brian. When he was not among the departing crowd, they assumed he had gone back to his apartment without letting them know.

Waggoner and Randy Shaffer both tried to call Brian later that weekend but he did not answer. On Monday morning he missed the flight to Miami he and Waggoner had scheduled long before. He was reported missing to the Columbus police.

Now Brian Shaffer was last seen at the Ugly Tuna Saloona, which at the time was a bar near the Ohio State University (OSU) campus, between the hours of 1:30 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. on April 1, 2006. He had gone there to celebrate the beginning of spring break with several male friends, and drank several shots of hard liquor.

Brian was last seen having a conversation with two college-age women inside the bar. Brian has never been heard from again. Security cameras at the bar show him entering the establishment, but not leaving it.

Brian’s vehicle was located in the parking lot of his apartment, which is near the Ugly Tuna Saloona, after his disappearance. He did not have any of his personal belongings at the time of his disappearance, and his cellular phone, credit cards and bank accounts have not been used since he went missing.

Brian’s family and loved ones describe his disappearance as highly unusual. He was a second-year medical student at OSU at the time of his disappearance, and by all accounts was a great student and made excellent grades.

He and his girlfriend, also a medical student, were planning to go on a vacation in Miami, Florida for spring break and were scheduled to fly there on April 3, two days after his disappearance. His family reported him missing after he missed the flight.

From all accounts, Brian was in love with his girlfriend at the time and reportedly he was planning on marrying her. Three weeks prior to Brian’s disappearance, his mother succumbed to cancer. Brian was very close to his mother and had been mourning her passing, but his family and friends stated he was not visibly depressed or suicidal.

In May 2006, there was a break in at Brian’s apartment. The burglary turned out to be unrelated to his disappearance. Brian’s father looked in the Olentangy River for his son’s remains after his disappearance, but turned up no evidence. His father was killed in a freak accident in September 2008. Brian’s only surviving relative is his younger brother.

Authorities do not believe Shaffer left of his own accord, but it is unclear what caused his disappearance. He graduated Pickerington High School in 1997 and got a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from OSU in 2003. Shaffer’s case remains unsolved.

Shaffer’s father, Randy, and his girlfriend, Alexis Waggoner, became the early faces of the search for Brian. His picture was broadcast on the evening news and stapled to utility poles. Theories abounded.

Some theorized that due to the strain from medical school and the passing of his mother due to cancer, that Brian took his own life. It was also theorized that perhaps he fell victim to an accident or crime. The other theory is that perhaps he invented a new life as a result of all the stress he was feeling. It’s also possible he had a nervous breakdown or even suffers from amnesia and doesn’t know his own identify. There’s many theories in this case, and I will look into what other websleuths think later.

The tips began slowing down over the years, and Brian Shaffer’s missing-person case grew cold. The mystery was followed by a major tragedy when Brian’s father, Randy Shaffer, was killed by a falling limb while assessing storm damage outside his home in 2008.

And now the bar where his Brian Shaffer was last seen has now closed.

“Anytime the name Ugly Tuna comes up … that’s the first thing that pops into my head,” Columbus police Sgt. John Hurst said to the Columbus dispatch.

John Hurst was the supervisor of the missing-persons unit in 2006, and worked with detectives as they chased leads, and also reviewed videotape and interviewed witnesses. He has since moved on to another unit, but he and detective Andre Edwards still take the lead whenever tips come in on the Shaffer.

Hurst keeps the details of their working theories under wraps but said Wednesday that “everything is still on the table.”

“We haven’t ruled out foul play, just like we haven’t ruled out that he just took off,” Hurst said.

The last location where police were able to place Shaffer was at the top of the escalator leading to the bar, and some online amateur sleuths still hold the theory that he never left the building, which was partly under construction. Hurst, though, debunked that idea.

“We searched every nook and cranny” of the building, including with cadaver dogs, he said.

Hurst is set to retire soon.

“I think at some point, everything will come together,” he said. “It’s like a puzzle. We put pieces in, and we have to work at getting them to fit.”

In a puzzle such as this, a bar’s closing is secondary. Brian’s classmates graduate and part ways and begin their lives. They get older, and perhaps a little, But in the back of their minds, the lingering thought remains. What happened to that missing Ohio State University Student Brian Shaffer?

On findbrianshaffer.com they mention the following “Conversations have been had with the two girls who were outside the bar speaking with Brian but they were not able to provide any additional information to help locate Brian. At one point, the police were looking for an individual seen on the escalator (the man with the orange sweater) – this has been ruled out and not considered linked to Brian’s case.”

It is also mentioned on the website findbrianshaffer.com the following “Years later, there are still no answers. Numerous searches have been conducted including the construction area by the Ugly Tuna Saloona, numerous locations close to his disappearance including help from Texas Equusearch and numerous search agencies in the Ohio area but to no avail.”

Now I’m going to review some theories from other armchair detectives on websites like websleuth and reddit.

Jodierenee said the following on websleuths on April 5 2006:

Psychics searched Brian Shaffer’s apartment on Tuesday evening.

“When I saw his picture (Monday) night, I immediately tuned into him and felt that he’d been drinking too much over the weekend. He’s gone through a recent tragedy. His mother’s passed away. I think he was just a little too drunk to really make it home safely,” psychic Bill Mitchell said.

Psychics said they had visions inside the apartment.

“I feel positive that he’s alive, but I feel there has been injury. I keep feeling impact in my abdomen,” psychic Marc Moody said.

Columbus police thought they might have had a break in the case with a surveillance video taken early Saturday morning outside of the Ugly Tuna Saloona, where Brian Shaffer was last seen. They thought a man seen on the video getting onto an escalator outside of the bar, followed by two men in black shirts, was Brian Shaffer.

Late Tuesday, however, police determined that the man was not Brian Shaffer after blowing up the video and showing it to family and friends.

*For me personally, I don’t put much impact into what psychics have to say, but that’s just my own opinion.

Now user Dex on websleuth said the following:

Without sounding odd, something bothers me about that area. I found another osu man from 2002 that was found near old state road. Assuming the 3 men that were convicted were the only ones involved OK. however, looking at this case, his case, and luzio case, i plotted the locations on google’s 3d map and noticed a triangle. I highly doubt their related, but thats how I keep track of what im currently looking at. The case from 02 seems less likely to connect to these two, but it was drug related. I found one internet site with “hearsay/rumor” insinuating that Tony was involved with meth somehow. Which is an AWFUL drug that can completely change a person. I lost my bestfriend of 12 + years to it. She stopped caring about people caring about her, and stopped talking to anyone who didn’t do it with her. I contacted crimestoppers with the information I found on Tony including a description of an image I found on satellite that looks like a car a couple of days ago. I was shocked to find another website where supposedly Tony’s bestfriend asked a psychic where tony was after I submitted my info to pd. It made the hairs on my neck stand up. I’ve showed many people the same imagine and most agree, it looks like a car in the river with water flowing around it.
http://www.cleveland.com/psychic/index.ssf?/living/more/psychic/archive/090205a.html

I did receive an email back from an investigator, however they didn’t ask about the image. I hope and pray that for his parents sake, im blind and seeing things and that psychic is wrong. I watched the same satellite image for weeks, and it did change, but the object I saw is still there. I even scanned the river looking for possible drop sites where someone could have either ditched a car into it, or drove off accidentally. All I know is I can’t wait til it gets warm, if its still there by summer Im thinking about renting a boat and going swimming.

Another thing that bothers me is a man they found here months ago was last seen in delaware, while he lived 50 miles ne, he was found dead in the woods, drug related. The man who shot him, shot him for witnessing ANOTHER crime a week prior in delaware county…..the man in 02 was also an osu student killed by a hired gunmen shot in the head. I looked up the 3 men convicted. All got life except one man got 6 years I believe. It just makes me wonder if one of those was the “main guy” or just his little dealers.

The man in 02 was found not even 15 minutes from Luzio’s last appearance. The man in this post was last seen 23 minutes from the same area….is it just a coincidence or is it possible that I may be onto something.

I watched a show on meth a couple of weeks ago, and it angered me because LE was talking about “what if it made it to the east coast” WHERE HAVE THEY BEEN? It’s been here in my town since about 2000. That Im aware of. The funniest thing about it, is you would think that you can tell. They hide it very well. My bestfriend hid it for a year, then I found out the guy she was living with was cooking it, and he was busted.

I hope they find Brian, and I hope its not in the same situation as the two above. Hopefully he just needed some time to think. But I would bet $20 he met someone the night he left the bar. Its crossed my mind that possibly Tony met his fate by someone finding out that his father was a cop and maybe he witnessed a deal or something. I hope the info I gave the pd will help to answer some questions.

Also, I found this reddit post by u/Sober_junkies which was on the /r/UnsolvedMysteries subreddit. He has quite a lot of information on the case so I added the link in my description which can be found on my website. All credit goes directly to u/Sober_junkies for the great work he/she did. One thing I found interesting is the timeline that was put together.

Timeline of night of March 31st, 2006:

9:30 pm – Brian meets Clint at Ugly Tuna Saloona.

9:56 pm – Brian calls Alexis Waggoner(GF) tells her he loves her.

10 pm-12 am – They start bar hopping in the “Arena District” of Columbus, Ohio.

Around 12:30 am – They meet up with Clint’s friend Meredith Reed and then she drives them back to the Ugly Tuna Saloona.

1:15 am – Brian, Clint, and Meredith can be seen on video footage going up the escalator and entering the Ugly Tuna Saloona.

1:50 am – Video footage captures Brian outside the bar talking to two girls.

1:55 am – Clint claims he saw Brian back inside the bar but lost track of him.

2 am – Bar starts closing so Meredith and Clint start looking for Brian so they can leave.

2:10 am – Meredith and Clint can’t find Brian anywhere in the bar so they assume he walked home.

2:15 am – Clint and Meredith are seen on video footage leaving the bar.

Security footage shows Brian entering the Ugly Tuna Saloona that night but never shows him exiting. Every other person who entered the Ugly Tuna that night was seen on the security footage leaving the bar except Brian. I’ve seen many news stories and blogs claiming that the footage “clearly shows” Brian walking back inside the bar after talking to the women. If you watch the video you can see Brian moving off-camera in the direction of the door to the bar, apparently to re-enter but you can’t see if he actually does, leaving some room for doubt. It only shows that Brian was last seen on video at the top of the escalator outside the bar at 1:50 am talking to two women. Clint Florence later told police he had seen Brian after he came back inside and said they were planning to leave but he then lost track of him. Another camera shows Brian didn’t leave through an emergency exit.

I also found the police investigations:

Police began their search for Brian at the Ugly Tuna Saloona. Police interviewed employees at the bar and the two women Brian was last seen talking to but none of them could supply any useful information. Police never found any blood or any other evidence inside the bar. They reviewed the security footage showing Brian’s last time he was seen. Since Columbus has the most security cameras in any city in Ohio, police looked through footage from nearby bars to see if any of their footage could explain how Brian had left the Ugly Tuna.

However, they couldn’t find any trace of Brian on the other bar’s cameras or any security footage from businesses along his route home. Investigators realized he could have changed his clothes in the bar or put on a hat and kept his head down to hide from the cameras. It’s feasible he could have also left the building by another previously unthought of route. However the building’s only other exit was a service door, used by the staff and not open to the public, at the time it opened onto a construction site that police believed would have been hard to walk through while sober in the dark, much less as inebriated as Brian was at the time. They did take some dogs through the construction site but they didn’t pick up enough to make the police think that Brian had left that way, willingly or otherwise.

The search started to extend out from the Ugly Tuna Saloona. Police started searching nearby streets checking dumpsters, nearby body’s of water and canvassing locals asking if they had seen him. The police even compelled the city to let them into the sewers so they could look through there. After searching miles away from the bar in every direction police started to consider other potential possibilities other than an accident or foul play. Since his mother had died so recently they suggested he had run away to grieve and would come back. Yet when his disappearance was shown to be permanent and no obvious reasons emerged for him to voluntarily leave, this was proven false. No useful information has been uncovered.

And also found the theories interesting:

One of the many theories people have come up with is that he could be a victim of the “Smiley face murder theory” though this has been met with a lot of skepticism because that would make, Brian Shaffer, the killers only victim whose body has never been found. Columbus police eventually rejected any connection to the alleged “Smiley face murder theory” in Brian’s case citing that the FBI had looked into it.

Another theory has Clint helping Brian Shaffer vanish willingly: why would a second-year medical student want to throw away over 6 years of college, hard work, his family and girlfriend he loved? Not only that but a grown man choosing to disappear or kill himself because his mother died? People lose family members every day. As someone who lost their little sister when I was 17, I can tell you that’s it’s extremely traumatic but you don’t usually give up your life because of it. That being said his mother’s death was extremely fresh in his life. But combining that with what this man’s character seems to be, that alone is not a reason he would suddenly commit suicide after a night of bar hopping with friends.

Now to explain the girlfriend getting 3 rings when she called Brian’s cell phone, six months after he had gone missing. His cell provider stated this call “going through” and the resulting ping off a tower 14 miles away could have been a “crossed wire” sort of glitch. It’s possible this was his killer briefly turning the phone on and freaking out when the girlfriend called and getting rid of it once and for all. What are really the chances of that though? I’m guessing the person could have curious about who had been calling Brian after he had been missing for months, or maybe thought it would be safe to check the phone after so many months had passed. I have a family member that works in the cell phone industry and I told him about this case and asked him about how cell phones work and if this was possible/likely and keeping in mind that this was back in 2006, he said it was completely possible and something like that could happen even nowadays.

The comment on Randy Shaffer’s online obituary was clearly a prank. The FBI have come out and stated that they traced the IP address and it traced back to a public library’s computer but it turned out to be a prank. Also if Brain did, in fact, walk away from his life I doubt he would make it so obvious it was from him especially when his dad is already dead, if he really didn’t want to be found he wouldn’t make it so conspicuous. In fact he most likely wouldn’t have commented at all or he would’ve done it anonymously using Tor.

Alexis Waggoner later stated that a few days before he disappeared Brian told her he was struggling with his mother’s death and that Alexis should move on and find someone else. I’d like to remind you that this was 2-3 weeks after his mother had died rather suddenly, I’d say this is normal grieving behavior. Two weeks before that Brian had said he wanted her “to go away with him”, once again shortly after this man had lost a very important woman in his life. However Brian’s family and friends, including Alexis Waggoner, believe he would not have just up and left his life and left them grieving him and his mother. He loved Alexis and was very close to his little brother and was doing extremely well in school. To this day they still don’t think he committed suicide or left his life willingly.

I also found his/her take on the case:

Brian’s case has been written about many times but I chose it for my first case write-up because it was one of the first cases I got really interested in. There are a few different options for theories of what could have happened to Brian Shaffer that night. It’s feasible that Brian was deeply saddened by the death of his mom and jumped on a bus headed who knows where. Perhaps his downfall was to disaster and not depression, he could have stumbled drunk into the Olentangy River (which was about .6 miles away in the other direction of his apartment) The police did end up investigating this line of thought and dragged the nearby rivers and found nothing. I really have to question if Brian ever left the Ugly Tuna Saloona alive, he could have chanced upon something he wasn’t supposed to see and it got him killed and they hid his body and put it where he will never be found.

There might have been a blind spot maybe Brian was able to dodge being seen on any of the cameras. For all we know the whole thing could have been planned and Clint could have been helping him. The building that houses the Ugly Tuna Saloona was under construction and there was a temporary freight elevator that didn’t have surveillance. Maybe this is where he saw something he shouldn’t have, it’s been said many times how possible it is that because Brian was drinking so heavily that night he would have been vulnerable to foul play. If Brian did try to walk back to his apartment six blocks away, he would have been an easy target, that neighborhood (the area around South Campus Gateway) is known for having a somewhat higher crime rate. I could see if maybe Clint didn’t look for Brian as good as he told the police and he got left behind and he only lives 6 blocks away, about a half mile walk, he’s just going to walk home.

There are two big holes in that theory: One, he is really inebriated at this point in the night, way too drunk to successfully pull off running away and leaving no clues. Second is the security footage from the nearby bars would have captured him no matter how he left the building. To think that he still somehow was able to circumnavigate all the surveillance in a city with more CCTV cameras than Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo combined seems a little bit far-fetched. Remember Brian disappeared in Ohio’s most-recorded city and the FBI got involved a lot of people really wanted to find this guy.

If the bar’s camera footage does show what it seems to be showing and Clint Florence isn’t lying about seeing Brian in the bar again then, I don’t think he ever left that bar alive and something happened inside of it, most likely after it closed. Everyone else who entered that bar was seen exiting that bar, Brian was not. This bar doesn’t seem to be a very big bar so someone else had to have seen Brian after he spoke with the women if he really went back inside. Clint and Meredith said they got separated from Brian which is obvious in the video. Clint told the police that he had seen Brian talking to the two women and he seems to imply that he saw Brian at around 1:55 am after he came back inside the bar. He claims he lost track of him again and leaving a less than 15-minute window before they looked for him but couldn’t find him so they assume he left. They are both on footage leaving the bar at 2:15 am.

So, Brian is last seen on camera talking to the two women at 1:50 am. After that if we assume he walked back into the bar, what would you be doing in the last 15 minutes before the bar’s closing? Either go to use the bathroom, get a drink before last call or go find your friends that you came with so you can leave. So like Clint says, he saw Brian back in the bar at 1:55 am, did he talk to him, what was he doing and where was he headed? Something feels off there, how does someone lose track of their friend between 1:55 am and 2:10 am in a crowded bar without anyone seeing anything? I don’t like the fact that Clint Florence got a lawyer and refused to cooperate after that fairly quickly, to me that seems like he’s hiding something. I do think that he knows more than he’s saying, but it could be something as simple as “OMG they also did drugs that night and they are medical students that don’t want to fuck up their lives.” Or something along those lines that might not directly relate to Brian’s disappearance.

I just don’t buy the simplest theories simply because he would’ve been caught on CCTV somewhere and where is his body? I don’t believe he committed suicide either because police likely would have found his body by now.

I think it’s likely they wouldn’t have wanted it all over the news that this handsome 2nd-year med student died in their bar (possibly because of unknown substances the bartender/owner could have sold Brian/Clint.)

I do not believe Brian left on his own accord. I honestly don’t believe he left that bar alive. I believe that no matter how Brian died at least one of the bar’s employee’s had to be involved in getting Brian’s body out of the building undetected. I believe he may have walked in on something that got him murdered, a case of wrong place wrong time perhaps. Brian Shaffer by all accounts was getting ready to propose to his girlfriend. A man who is getting ready to disappear or kill himself wouldn’t have been talking about something like that, let alone buy the plane tickets and book the hotel for it.

Brian Shaffer’s disappearance is an enduring mystery that has perplexed many with few clues and more questions than answers. How can a grown man just disappear with no trace of what happened to him? It’s been over eleven years now and nothing new has popped up. There have been zero confirmed sightings of Brian Shaffer. I really don’t think anything will move forward unless Clint or the one or more of the employee’s comes forward perhaps with the missing piece of 1:55 am to 2:15 am.

Now personally, I really don’t know what happened to Brian Shaffer. One thing I did notice and perhaps it’s nothing at all, is that Brian had a habit of flashing a hand gesture when taking pictures. He would put his hand to his side and stick out his thumb, index and pinky finger. While this might be nothing, this particular hand gesture is used by a gang known as the Latin kings. At the time of his disappearance the Latin kings had a huge presence in Ohio. When the hand gesture is pointed downwards as Brian has shown in several pictures which I have included on my website, it is actually seen as a sign of disrespect to the Latin kings. Now I’m not suggesting that this gang has anything to do with his disappearance but I do find it odd that Brian would show this sign openly. Perhaps the sign has another meaning that I am not aware of. If you know what the sign might mean, please let me know.

If you have any tips regarding the disappearance of Brian Shaffer, I urge you to contact (614) 645.TIPS. You can remain anonymous. If you don’t feel like calling this number, you can always contact me directly.

Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of the armchair detective podcast. As I mentioned in the opening, I will be putting up some content on my patron page so if you want to access this content and wish to support this podcast, just click on the link on my website on the top right which says become a patron and you can donate as little as 1 dollar a month. I will be uploading some content. The first two cases I will upload content about on my patron page is content which I haven’t shared about the Maura Murray case, and also some content I haven’t shared about the Brandon Lawson case. Again, feel free to share this podcast on social media to raise awareness. Thanks again for listening and until next time.

~Acdetective~