Disappearance Of Brian Shaffer

2023-01-30 18:49:49 Written by Alex

Brian Shaffer was raised in Columbus, Ohio, and studied Microbiology at Ohio State University, earning his degree there. He started medical school at OSU in 2004 but vanished during his second year. Sadly, his beloved mother passed away from myelodysplasia in March 2006.


On March 31st, Brian and his father Randy had a celebratory dinner marking the end of classes for the spring. Randy noticed that Brian seemed exhausted from a tough semester, but when Brian mentioned plans to go out with a friend, Randy kept his thoughts to himself despite thinking Brian was too tired.

That evening, Brian met with his friend Clint Florence at the Ugly Tuna Saloona at 9 pm where they had a few drinks before bar hopping around the area for several hours.
While out drinking Brian called his girlfriend, Alexis Waggoner, and spoke to her about their upcoming trip to Miami.

Unsolved mystery: 10 years later, Brian Shaffer still missing, Disappearance Of Brian Shaffer

At midnight, Clint and Brian reunited with their friend Meredith Reed and returned to the Ugly Tuna Saloona. At some point, Brian disappeared from the group and despite their attempts to find him and call him, he did not respond. When the bar closed, they waited outside for Brian but he was nowhere to be found. Eventually, they assumed he had made his way home by himself.


Brian's girlfriend and father tried to reach him multiple times over the weekend but were unsuccessful. Upon his failure to show up for a scheduled flight to Miami on Monday, they grew concerned and contacted the police, suspecting something was wrong.


INVESTIGATION 

Police started their investigation at the Ugly Tuna Saloona, where security footage showed Brian entering the bar with friends at 1:15 AM and talking with two women just before 2 AM, the last time he was seen on camera. Despite the bar closing at 2 AM and other patrons leaving, Brian was nowhere to be found. Police examined footage from other security cameras in the area but failed to locate any additional footage of Brian after his interaction with the women.


Police interviewed everyone Brian had seen that night but didn’t find any credible leads. They were all asked to take lie detector tests and all passed except Clint Florence who refused to be polygraphed.
Brian's girlfriend tried to reach him every night by calling his phone, hoping he would answer one day. After several weeks, instead of going straight to voicemail, the phone rang several times first, indicating a signal from a cell tower 14 miles northwest of Columbus near Hilliard.

 


Police looked into it and determined it was a technical glitch with the cell phone provider. Randy, Brian's father, never gave up searching for his son and continued until his death in 2008. On Randy's obituary page, a note appeared that said "To Dad, love Brian (U.S. Virgin Islands)." Police investigated and found that the message was likely a hoax, left from a public computer in Franklin County.

Theories about the disappearance of Brian Shaffer


Many theories have been floated surrounding the fate of Brian Shaffer. His disappearance was connected with the Smiley Face Murders; a series of murders of college-aged men who were all later found in bodies of water near smiley face graffiti. 

Ohio Man Who Vanished After Entering Bar But  Never Leaving - UNILAD

 

There is a theory that Brian disappeared of his own accord and wanted to leave his old life behind. Even though he was studying medicine he was a laid-back man who would have preferred to start a band and live by the coast. Brian’s credit cards and bank accounts have not been accessed since his disappearance which makes this unlikely.


The area where Brian vanished is known as a high-crime area. It is possible that he was killed in a robbery gone wrong or became the victim of some other crime resulting in his death.

What do you think occurred to Brian Shaffer? Let us know in the comments!

Check also:
True Crime Case Histories, Books 1, 2 & 3: 32 Disturbing True Crime Stories (3 Book True Crime Collection)

 

Thirty-two true crime stories of murder and mayhem in a three-book collection. The first three books of the True Crime Case Histories Series (2019). A quick word of warning: The true crime short stories within this three-book collection are unimaginably gruesome.

I start all of my true crime books with a quick word of warning. Most news articles and television true crime shows skim over the vile details of truly horrible crimes. In my books, I don’t gloss over the facts, regardless of how disgusting they may be. I try to give my listeners a clear and accurate description on just how demented the killers really were. I do my best not to leave anything out. The stories included in these books are not for the squeamish.

What you are about to hear are my first three books. The stories in this collection will make you realize just how fragile the human mind can be.

A sampling of the stories include:

The Canal Killer - A violent psychopath cuts off the head, hands, and feet of his girlfriends and dumps them in the canals of London and Rotterdam.

The Head in the Bucket - A drug kingpin chops off the head of one of his dealers and carries it around in a Home Depot bucket.

Captain Cash - Another drug dealer butchers an entire family so he can take over a man’s fruit shipping business and transform it into a drug shipping business.

The Coffee Killer - A young woman, jealous of her rich socialite friend, poisons her by lacing her coffee with cyanide in a public coffee shop.

The Arizona Torso Killer - A petite trophy wife shoots her husband, freezes his body, hacks him up with a jigsaw, and dumps his torso in a dumpster behind a grocery store.

The Oxford Murder - A young college student strangles his girlfriend and crams her body into an eight-inch crawlspace beneath the stairs.

The Girl in the Barrel - A homeowner finds a 55-gallon barrel in the crawl space beneath his home. What they find inside the barrel unlocks a murder mystery dating back 30 years.

The Dexter Wannabe - A young man obsessed with the TV show Dexter lures unsuspecting victims to his "kill room" and keeps a detailed diary of the dismemberment of his prey. 

The Murder of Elizabeth Olten - A 15-year-old girl wants to know what it feels like to kill a person.

Interpol's Most Wanted - When fishermen pull up the dead body of a man in the English Channel, police stumble upon one of Interpol's Most Wanted criminals.

The Girl in the Box - An unbelievable story of a psychopath who kidnaps a young girl and keeps her as a slave locked beneath his bed for seven years.

The Green Chain Rapist - A beautiful young mother is butchered in broad daylight in a London park and the only witness is her two-year-old son. Police then waste three years chasing the wrong man while the real killer slaughters another woman.

Paige’s Secret Life - A young single mother of three goes missing and police realize she's been living a secret life that her friends and family didn't know about.

A Walking Shadow - A suicidal teenager, frustrated with the bank threatening to foreclose on the family home, kidnaps the bank manager's 10-year-old son and holds him for ransom.

True Crime Case Histories, Books 1, 2 & 3: 32 Disturbing True Crime Stories (3 Book True Crime Collection)

True Crime Case Histories, Books 1, 2 & 3: 32 Disturbing True Crime Stories (3 Book True Crime Collection)