Brandon Swanson was a 19-year-old student at Minnesota West Community and Technical College. On the 13th of May 2008, he completed his first year in the school, the reason for the party — he and his friends were going to celebrate the occasion at a home where many other people came to the party that night.
According to many, he and his friends had been drinking that night.
Brandon went to another friend and left the party in his car around an hour before midnight. After the visit, he left to go to his parents, which reportedly was a 30-minute drive.
His car got stuck in a ditch on the way home. First, he tried to call some of his friends with no response, then he tried to call his parents to come and help him, but he didn’t know his exact location.
He probably didn’t have any advanced maps software from 2022.
He told his parents he needed a ride home and explained something about the location. When his parents arrived at his location, Brandon wasn’t anywhere to be seen, nor was his car.
Where Did Brandon Go?
In the morning, Brandon’s parents reported the missing of their son at the local police station.
Police told them that it wasn’t a big deal that young people stayed away late.
But after a wait that day, the police started searching for the young student. There wasn’t found any trace of him in the area, and the police requested call records.
Those records showed the location from where he called his parents.
When the police corps searched the area, they didn’t find Brandon, but they did find his missing car? What was going on here? Where was Brandon?
The car didn’t show any sign of him, so they had no idea where to start looking for the guy — eventually, the police decided to let searcher dogs help track Brandon, these dogs found a track of him, and when they followed along.
First, they ended up on an abandoned farm which eventually led to a River in which the track ended.
They Searched in the River But Found Nothing
When the police and research team discovered that the track led into the river, they thought he fell into the stream, so they started searching the river for signs of his body.
They didn’t find any, but the dogs picked up the track again. So the theory that suggested that he drowned was thrown in the bin — so the next possible outcome was that he managed to get out of the water and then died due to undercooling.
Even after an intense search, they never found a body. Till today.
The parents of Brandon also were mad at the authorities for not handling adequate and quick enough after their report — they should’ve started looking for Brandon the moment they reported the missing.
Nowadays, there is a Law, called Brandon’s Law (referring to Brandon Swanson) that requires authorities to do just that — to make sure that missing persons can be tracked as soon as possible.
We can thank Senator Dennis Frederickson that introduced this law in 2009.
Sources & References
- Sec. 299C.53 MN Statutes. (n.d.). Minnesota Legislature. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/299C.53
- Editorial: “Brandon’s Law” merits support. (2009, April 26). Star Tribune. https://www.startribune.com/editorial-brandon-s-law-merits-support/43648307/
- C. (2022, February 12). The Disappearance of Brandon Swanson. The True Crime Files. https://thetruecrimefiles.com/brandon-swanson-disappearance/