065 - The Disappearance of Brandon Swanson

Trace Evidence

Steven Pacheco

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.7 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2018

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nineteen year old Brandon Swanson had just completed his first year of college. Planning to spend his evening celebrating with friends, Brandon drove from his home in Marshall, MN to two separate gatherings. After leaving the second, near midnight, Brandon made the choice to take back roads rather than the faster and easier route of Highway 68.

While driving on gravel back roads, Brandon got his car stuck in a ditch. Calling his parents for help, Brandon gave them directions to come and pick him up but when they arrived, neither Brandon nor his car were anywhere to be found. It wouldn't be until later that Brandon's parents would learn their son was actually twenty-five miles away from where he had thought.

During a 47 minute phone call with his father, Brandon explained that he saw lights and was going to walk toward them. At some point, during the call, Brandon screamed out an expletive and the phone went dead. Neither Brandon, his phone or any shred of evidence has ever been found to explain what may have happened.

What happened to Brandon Swanson? Did the young man die of exposure due to the cold Minnesota night? Did he fall into the Yellow Medicine River, unable to escape its surging waters? Or, did Brandon come upon someone who had malicious intentions? Join host Steven Pacheco as he examines this haunting and disturbing story.

***This week's episode is brought to you by Care/of Vitamins. Visit TakeCareOf.com and use Promo Code Trace for 25% off your first order of vitamins.

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Sources: https://www.trace-evidence.com/brandon-swanson

Transcript

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0:00.0	19-year-old Brandon Swanson had just completed his first year of college.
0:14.1	The Marshall, Minnesota native planned to spend the evening of Tuesday, May 13, 2008, celebrating
0:20.7	with friends and having a good time.
0:23.7	All seemed to be going according to plan until Brandon's parents received a call from him
0:28.9	at one in the morning.
0:31.2	Brandon had gotten his car stuck in a ditch along some back roads which ran to the north
0:35.6	of Highway 68, the main stretch of road that he would normally have been driving on.
0:41.8	Why the young man elected to exit this main road and instead take gravel back roads is
0:47.2	yet but one mystery in a case filled with them.
0:51.5	When Brian and Annette Swanson arrived at the location Brandon directed them to, neither
0:57.0	he nor his car were anywhere to be found.
1:01.4	Believing he was near the town of Linde, Brandon elected to walk from his car, initiating
1:06.9	a 47 minute phone call with his father while he did so.
1:11.7	Throughout the call, Brandon described seeing the lights of a city in the distance, walking
1:16.7	down gravel roads, hopping fences and hearing the rushing of water.
1:21.9	All of a sudden Brandon shouted out an expletive and then the call went dead.
1:27.6	This was the last contact anyone ever had with Brandon Swanson.
1:33.0	More than 10 years later, the mystery of what happened to Brandon Swanson remains a haunting
1:37.9	story without any answers.
1:41.0	Despite exhaustive searches, extensive publicity and cell phone pings narrowing down an area,
1:47.8	but a single shred of evidence has ever been found to show where Brandon may have gone.
1:53.7	What happened to Brandon Swanson and why a decade later does this answer continue to
	...

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