What happens when you lose a person who is very close to your heart? You cried for a while, and then you moved on with your life. But when someone tells you that there is some hope to bring that person back, you will do whatever in your capacity to bring that person. This is precisely what happened to the family of a missing person.
According to reports, every year, large numbers of Americans are reported missing. Most return safely to their homes after a short period. Unfortunately, some never return to their homes, and their family is still waiting for them, and their cases remain unresolved for many years.
The circumstances, doubts, and lack of closure or a burial create harsh effects on family and friends. In this article, we will be discussing the case of a missing person Brandon Swanson and discuss the hidden mystery behind it.
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Early Life
On January 30, 1989, he was born in Marshall, the seat of Lyon County in southwestern Minnesota. Being a native of Marshall, he graduated from Marshall High School in 2007. According to his family, he was interested in studying wind turbines, so he went to the Minnesota West Community and Technical College campus in Canby to study wind turbines.
The Night Of Disappearance
The Brandon classes at Minnesota West was ended on May 13, 2008. To celebrate the end of one academic year, he stayed there for the evening in Canby to celebrate with friends. On that day, he attended two different parties and consumed some alcoholic beverages. But according to his friends but he didn’t drink to make him intoxicated.
Disappearance
Before midnight he decided to go home. He was driving out from Canby for the 30-mile (48 km). At 2 a.m., he called his family on his phone and told them that he accidentally had driven his car, Chevrolet Lumina, off the roadway and into a furrow from which he could not remove the car on his own, and he needed their help.
He further told his parents that he was okay and asked them to come and pick him up. His parents Annette and Brian Swanson, hurried to their pickup truck and drove it to where they thought he was, keeping him. They tried to talk with their son continuously on the phone during driving despite infrequent hang-ups and drops.
Brandon Swanson stayed with his car all the time and tried to signal his parents by blinking his car lights on and off, but his parent saw nothing. So he decided to go by himself and told them he was leaving the car and started walking toward the lights.
Brandon told them the lights might be coming from the small town Lynd, roughly 7 miles (11 km) southwest of Marshall. He also told his father to travel to the parking lot of a town bar and stay there till he arrived there. So Brian began to drive there while talking to his son on the phone.
Soon after 2:30 a.m., while talking on the phone with his father, Brandon suddenly interrupted himself and said, “Oh, shit!” and remained silent for the rest of the call until his parents ended the call. They tried to call back. Since then, Brandon has not been seen or heard.
Investigation Of The Case
Nearly at 6:30 a.m., his parents rushed to Lynd police and reported Brandon missing. At first, the Police were relaxed and told his parents that it was slightly odd for young guys to stay out all night to celebrate the last day of college classes. The parents were hurt by the police behavior and Annette Swanson, his mother, clearly remembered that one of the officers said it was Brandon’s “right to be missing.”
At the request of the parents, Lynd police did start a search in the morning but found no clue of Brandon in the township or outside. The parents then requested that sheriff Joel Dahl, who was in the office of Lyon County at that time, assist them. The sheriff’s office then obtained Brandon’s cell phone records to locate his position at the time of disappearance.
The GPS data revealed that Brandon had been calling his parents from the vicinity of Taunton, along State Highway 68, the main route to Canby, Northwest of Marshall 25 miles (40 km) from Lynd.
So the Police started searching that area. Luckily, the search team found Brandon’s abandoned car in a furrow off a road along the Lincoln County line a mile north of Highway 68, which brought the county’s sheriff, Jack Vizecky, into the investigation.
Jack Vizecky, while talking to the media, said that Brandon’s car was found hung up on the top of a slope, which was not severe enough to damage his car, but it was enough to keep the wheels up from the ground on that side. He further told the media that they did not find anything besides the car which could lead them to Brandon. There were no tracks of Brandon walking due to grass and gravel, which could give any clue of direction Brandon might have begun walking.
However, his mobile phone call had been connected through a tower at the junction of County Routes 3 and 10 near Minnesota. Because part of his cell phone route circle included Yellow Medicine County, which is located north, the police authorities from that range also took part in the investigation. Joel Dahl saw that the red light on top of the Taunton grain elevator could be seen from the area of his disappearance, which was thought by Brandon as the light of the town.
The Police included Ground searches and flyover searches by an aerial team; they also included search dogs in the team, which were brought in from the Twin Cities. To reach their goal of finding Brandon early, they also brought in a team of bloodhounds from nearby Codington County, South Dakota. The bloodhounds picked up a 3-mile (4.8 km) path that mainly followed the field roads west-northwest to a farm, and then the path finally entered the stream.
His father recalled that his son had mentioned passing barriers and hearing water running nearby during the call. So based on his father’s words and the finding of bloodhounds, the Police thought Brandon might have drowned. To find the body of Brandon, they deployed the boats from the state’s Department of Natural Resources. Search teams also walked the river’s banks, and horses and all-terrain vehicles were stationed in the neighboring area.
Later Searches
After the initial search teams found no clue of Brandon Swanson, most attempts were stopped. Sheriff Vizecky tried to continue his search in the two miles (3.2 km) of the Yellow Medicine every day for nearly a month days. The Brandon Swanson family left their doorstep light on all nights to symbolize their faith that their son would ultimately come back or be found, and still, they hoped for his safe return.
Searches continued late that autumn after fields had been harvested. Dogs on those search teams followed smells of human remains into an area northwest of Porter, which was not included in the searches before. The searches stopped again in winters, and then in spring, investigation picked up again. This cycle continued through 2011.
Theories
During one of the searches, one of the dogs went to the Yellow Medicine. After following the smell to the water, the dog continued over the other side of the river and another rocky road. It continued to walk towards the north of Yellow Medicine County line and suddenly stopped there. The Police assumed that Brandon drowned in the river.
But his mother, Annette Swanson, does not believe that he drowned there and said,
“There really is nothing to indicate that he’s in the river.”
His father, Brian Swanson, also recalls that his son was absolutely finned during the whole conversation and does not show any sign of alcohol he had consumed earlier in the evening.
His father further said that he did not seem confused or distracted during their phone talks. Police and other investigators also thought that Brandon Swanson intentionally disappeared. But his parents don’t believe any of this.
Brandon’s Law
Annette Swanson, the mother of Brandon, was still hit by the first response of the Police of Lynd; they went to ask for help. She still recalled the officer’s words that her son had “a right to be missing” she said,
She and her husband Brian began requesting changes in-country Law that would order an inquiry into the case of a missing adult to begin as soon as it is reported by the family.
For this purpose, Annette Swanson met with Marty Seifert, minority leader of the state House of Representatives, in a local restaurant whose division included Marshall. The two discussed the difficulties she had encountered with the Police when she informed them about his son’s disappearance. Seifert described their meeting and said,
“She knew it wouldn’t help in her son’s case, but that it could help others in the future.”
Later on, Seifert introduced a bill called “Brandon’s Law” by changing the Law administering the state’s Law of Missing Child Program to replace the word “child” with “person.” Seifert further recalled and mentioned that he faced resistance in implementing this in the start from the state’s Law enforcing community. and said,
“Part of it had to do with privacy, especially regarding cell phones,” further adding, “Technology was emerging then, so there were discussions about privacy and when can they ping you and when can’t they.”
Dennis Frederickson was the one who introduced the bill in the State Senate, and this bill passed in both houses. In the month of May 2009, Governor Tim Pawlenty signed it at a ceremony that was also attended by the family of Brandon Swanson.
Because of this law, Police were not allowed to reject a report filed by the family based on a first belief that no illegal activity was included. After the governor’s signature, the Law was implemented at the start of July 2009. This new law inspired four other states to pass similar laws related to finding missing persons.
Where Is Brandon Now?
Until now, nobody has seen or heard from Brandon, but his family hopes that he will return to his house one day. But his parent’s efforts in formulating new laws regarding missing persons have saved the lives of several children and adults. According to Seifert, this was one of the most important bills he authorized in his career.
