Brian Shaffer

Hi, I'm Katie and I'm Kelly. And if you're looking for a super fun, awesome podcast to listen to, check us out. All things outrageously dark, scary, beautiful and totally true. All witnesses, purchase of interest, and suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now and true crime, and then together we are going to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go. Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. I am back from my one episode hiatus, which to me feels like fifty episodes. I don't know what it is like not releasing an episode on Monday. I just feel off, like my routine is off. I just don't feel like normal. And I'm recording this episode midweek, which also doesn't feel normal. But I have a couple of days off work, so I'm using it to my advantage and just kind of trying to get some more episodes under my belt. So I'm entirely off with this whole thing. But we are going to go ahead and dive right in to right now at your crime. So first thing we're going to talk about is the murder of a pregnant Amish woman named Rebecca Buyler. She was twenty three years old. She was found dead in her home in Pennsylvania. The authorities did confirm that Rebecca was shot and her two and three year old children were in the house at the time of her murder, which is horrific. They arrested a fifty two year old man named Sean Cranston for the murder of Rebecca in her home. I don't really know a whole lot about this Cranston character other than he was married to a nurse named Jamie. He was taken into custody and he's been charged with criminal homicide, criminal homicide of an unborn child burger, and criminal trespassing. And he is not eligible for any bail. And he lived like in pretty close proximity to where Rebecca lived. So I don't really know what the motive was here. If he's just a deranged psychopath, what is going on. We're not really sure Rebecca was married. Her husband is unfortunately the person that found her. Horrible tragic. I don't even have words, and I really just don't even I don't even know like why, why, just why. Now his daughter has spoken out and she said that it was a case of mistaken identity and her dad meant to kill the previous homeowner, which we shouldn't be giving anyone an excuse for murdering anybody. But she's saying that he did not mean to kill Rebecca. He was plotting to kill the former homeowner. And his daughter said that there was an Amish couple who had lived in Rebecca's home a few years ago, and this couple had adopted his grandson, and she said, as far as I know, he just wanted the grandson back. So obviously it's not really like an ideal situation that you go and kill anybody to get custody of children back, I e. The ATel sins. We'll talk about that in the Starmer series, but it just doesn't make sense. The daughters now saying that things took a deadly turn when Rebecca started chatting out him and she was yelling at him, and that's when like everything took off. Well, obviously, if a random man comes in your home, you're gonna probably yell like I'll yell, So obviously I don't really understand the gist of this. Like, I don't really understand this being the technical like motive, like he was going there to claim what was rightfully his, but he didn't do his research and ended up killing a random woman. I don't know, It's going to be interesting to see it all kind of come out. Moving on to other news, they finally have set a trial date for Lindsay Shiver. She is the Georgia mom that is to stand trial for the conspiracy to have her husband killed. This trial will take place July first in the Bahamas, which we love for her and she was conspiring with her boyfriend who lived in the Bahamas to commit this crime against her husband. So I will be sure to keep you guys updated on that one. We are going to have a lot of trial activity coming up in the next few months, so I am preparing to stay on top of all of the trials and all of the things, and I just feel like it's going to be a really, really busy summer for the trials. Update in the Jennifer Dulo's case, so for those that aren't familiar with her, she is the mother and wife who is presumed deceased and her her soon to be ex husband Photos Dulos is allegedly along with his girlfriend Michelle Traconus, they were in cahoots and conspired to kill her. Photus committed suicide her body. Jennifer's body has never been found, but Michelle was found guilty this past week of her part in Jennifer's death and disappearance. So we celebrate that because I one hundred percent think that she was involved. And it really grinds my gears when women let horrible men like horrible, horrible men. If a man tells you that his soon to be ex wife is crazy and insane and she did this, and she did that, and poor pitiful me, this is what's going on in my life. We're having this horrible custody battle. As a woman, you automatically shouldn't believe the man. You really shouldn't automatically be the man. Fotus, in my opinion, allegedly he's deceased now so he can't come after me. But in my opinion, allegedly, photos Dulus is a piece of crap and probably always was a piece of crap. And the way that these men are able to manipulate women into siding with them and being on their side and buying their bullshit story of I'm a poor man and she's attacking me is just ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. If you're a woman, don't fall for this bullshit. Don't let these men manipulate you. And I know it goes both ways. I know it's not just men manipulating women. I know women manipulate men all the time. But if you are getting into a relationship with the man that is in the process of a divorce, it's obviously probably going to be a little bit traumatic. There's probably gonna be like some bad blood. But see yourself out and don't become involved with that man until, like you have the divorce papers in your hands, like tactile, actual divorce papers in your hands. You do not want to be involved in this mess. So now Jennifer is gone, Photus committed suicide because he's a coward, and Michelle is left to serve the rest of her life potentially in prison for aiding in Jennifer's murder and the disposal of her body. WTF, Like, don't involve yourself in other people's relationships and think that it's going to go well, It's not going to go well. Sorry, that's just my little rant. We can look at it all we want and say that Michelle was another victim of Photus, but at the end of the day, we're all responsible for actions, and even though sometimes like yeah, you can make really bad choices, but sometimes your bad choices are big and broad and have something to do with taking someone else's life. Whether you're directly involved or not, it still is really crappy and we should not be giving her any kind of free pass because she was also manipulated by Photus. He in my opinion, admitted his guilt when he took his life, and unfortunately, whether voluntary or involuntary, she ended up going along with whatever sick, twisted plan he had, and once photos was gone, she was the one who was left to make the brunt of the actions that her and Photus conspire to do. So justice for Jennifer and all of her children who were left with no parents awful horrible, horrible, horrible things. And unfortunately Jennifer still has not been found. And maybe Michelle will grow a heart, grow a soul and decide to let investigators know where to find her so her family can get a little bit more peace and try to start building back the pieces of their life because this is really interrupted their entire well being. I can't even imagine. So last thing I want to talk about is the Rust movie trial that has been going on for the last couple of weeks. I've been following along with Gigi from Pretty List Alibi. She has been doing daily trial updates, taking us through a rundown of the day, and it is such an interesting trial. I know it's gotten a lot of attention because of Alec Baldwin and his involvement and so on and so forth, but this isn't the trial against Alec. It's the trial against Hannahgutiers Reid, who was like the AMMO not AMMO like gun prop handler on the set of the movie Rust. So they are bringing everything into question in regards to if she did her job right and if there was, you know, anything that she did that led to the victim, in this case, Helena Hutchins, getting shot and ended up losing her life ultimately. So it's been really really interesting to kind of hear all of the different witnesses and the testimonies of all of them, and it really gives you kind of an idea of like how things work on a movie set and for me, it was like super super interesting. So the trial officially came to a close on Wednesday after two and a half hours of jury deliberations. They found Hannah Gutier's read guilty of involuntary manslaughter and not guilty of terraporing with evidence, and they will sentence her but she can face up to three years in prison. And here's what's going to be interesting. Alec Baldwin is next to go on trial and it's going to be really interesting. Hannah obviously found guilty involuntary manslaughter. Hannah is not a Baldwin, so it's gonna be really interesting to see what transpires in Alex's trial as far as what's going to go down, what they're going to come out with, and if they're going to find him guilty or not. It's going to be very very interesting. And I will definitely keep you guys updated. I have gone on entirely too long, but we had a lot to cover since I didn't do an episode on Monday, So we are going to call that good for right now in True Crime. If anything else major happens in the meantime, I will be sure to do a surprise bonus episode on it. Or something like that. But I think we're going to be safe until next Monday. So with all of that, you guys enjoy today's episode. All right, guys, jumping into a brand new episode today. Today we are going to talk about the unsolved mysterious disappearance of a guy named Brian Schaefer. So we are going to talk a little bit about Brian, what was going on in his life leading up to him going missing, and we're gonna talk about it all and try to unpack all of this. So. Brian Randall Shaeffer was born on February twenty fifth of nineteen seventy nine in Pinkerton, Ohio, to his parents, Randy and Renee Schaeffer. He had a younger brother who was named Derek. Brian had graduated from high school in nineteen ninety seven and decided to go on to Ohio State University and graduated six years after that with a degree in microbiology, and then he decided he wanted to further his career and then went to Ohio State University College of Medicine beginning in two thousand and four. So two years into him being at Ohio State University College of Medicine, in two thousand and six, his mother, Renee, passed away from Mila's plastic syndrome, which is also called MDS, And basically what MDS is is it's a group of cancers in which your immature blood cells that are in your bone marrow do not mature and as a result of this, they do not develop into healthy blood cells. And so she was diagnosed with this and lived with this for a while before she ultimately passed away in two thousand and six. And Brian's friends say that although he appeared to be dealing with his mother's death, it was very very hard for him, and I definitely think he probably internalized a lot of it. And it's hard enough going to medical school and being in school and working super super hard, and then having a deal with the death of a parent on top of that must have just been so so hard for him. So while he was in school, he had started dating another medical student who was named Alexis Wagner, and Brian's family and friends very much believed that Alexis and him were going to get married and thought that Brian was actually going to propose to Alexis. They had planned on taking a trip to Miami Florida for spring break, which was coming up at the time of Brian's disappearance, and they very much thought that he was going to pop the question and that him and Alexis would be engaged and would be planning a wedding. Brian was very much a free spirit. He loved the beach in the outdoors, and he had expressed one day that he wanted to have a band and play music similar to the music of Jimmy Buffett. So he was very much a beachy, just enjoying life with his family and friends kind of guy while being in med school. So he's got a lot going on. So we are on March thirty, first of two thousand and six. Again. This is shortly after Brian's mom passes away. Brian is twenty seven years old. It is a Friday, the friday right before spring break starts, and Brian had gone to the last few of his classes and he had a lot on his plate out at the moment. He had been cramming for exams, staying up getting ready to take all of these end of semester exams for his medical school stuff. And he got all of his tests done and his dad took him out to dinner. They went out and had a steak dinner to celebrate the end of the semester, and Brian's dad very much felt that Brian was exhausted. And Brian had talked to his dad about going out with a friend of his and how they were going to meet up after Brian and his dad had dinner, and they were going to go out and like go drinking and party and all the things that you do when it's the start of spring break and you're in college. That's just normal. But his dad did not want him to go, felt that he needed to rest, but he didn't express these things to Brian, and Brian left dinner with his dad and then went and met up with a friend who was named William. We're going to call him Clint. That is what he went by, William Clint Florence, and they met up around nine pm. They met up at a place called the Ugly Tuna saloona which I love the name. It's a vibe and that is a bar that was in South Campus Skateweek complex on High Street in Columbus, Ohio. About an hour later, Brian phoned his girlfriend Alexis and she had gone home to Toledo to visit with her family and then the next morning her and Brian were going to be flying out to Miami. So they briefly talked and Brian and Clint started at the Ugly Tuna Saluna and then they went bar hopping. They went to several other places and they were of course drinking and all the things, so they each at each stop had about a shot or two of hard liquor. And then, according to Clint, after about midnight, Brian and Clint had met up with another friend who was named Meredith Reid, and she ended up giving them a ride back to the Ugly Tuna Saluna where they had started and said that she was going to join them there for a final round of drinks. So somewhere in the mid of them going to the Ugly Tuna Saluna going back to the Ugly Tuna Saluna, Brian disappeared and he separated from the friend group of Clint and Meredith. So Clint and Meredith attempted to look for Brian. They called him and they had no luck finding him. So obviously, the bar closes at two am and they walked out. They left. They were waiting outside to see if Brian would show up, and they just assumed at this point that Brian had probably gone back to his apartment without letting them know that he was leaving, so they just left. Alexis, Brian's girlfriend, and as well as Brian's family, tried to call him that weekend and there was no answer from Brian on his cell phone. He of course missed the flight to Miammy that him and Alexis were supposed to be taking. So right after that, Brian was reported missing to Columbus Police Department. So of course law enforcement starts their search the last place that Brian was seen, which was the Ugly Tuna Saluna. Now there had been a lot of crime in this area recently, so they did have securities cameras that had been installed and they of course reviewed the footage and they have video footage of Brian, Clint, and Meredith going up to the escalator to the bar's main entrance at about one fifteen am. And then there's another video of Brian outside of the bar around one fifty five am. Again, this is five minutes before closing, five minutes before two am. And in this video he's talking with two young women and they you know, part way say goodbye, and then they all pretty much just move off camera, and the camera did not record Brian leaving. There is no video footage of Brian actually exiting the bar, and there were cameras pretty much all over the place. So this is kind of where the mystery begins because it's literally like Brian vanished into thin air. So of course the bar closes and nobody knows where Brian is. They just assumed that he saw himself out and went home, but that was proving not to be the case because nobody could get a hold of Brian, even his family, who he seemed to be pretty close with his dad and his brother. It didn't seem like he would be the type that would just run off and not speak with them, and his fiance as well, or soon to be fiance, i should say. Now. Investigators did think that it was possible that Brian could potentially had changed his clothes inside of the bar, maybe had a hat on to kind of disguise who he was from the cameras and the cameras as well. They did say that the cameras could have missed Brian since there was one that panned across the one area constantly and the other one was operated manually, so that one just kind of stayed in a fixed position. So they thought that maybe the cameras could have missed him, And then they also thought that he potentially could have left the building by another route. But there was really only one other exit that he could have potentially gone out of, and it was a service door that was generally not used by people in the public, and it opened onto an area that was a construction site. And they thought that if Brian was heavily intoxicated, which they do believe he was because he was drinking pretty much all night long, that it would have been really difficult for him to navigate through this area that was a construction site. So they kind of pretty much immediately ruled out that that's the route he had taken. So where did Brian go? The cameras did not capture him, leaving he literally vanished into thin air. Where did he go? The detectives decided to go ahead and check other security cameras from other places that Brian had been that night, and they also checked the security cameras all across Columbus in Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Toledo. They did not find anything on the footage at all, and they looked, of course at the footage from the other bars, and they thought that maybe they could capture him on there after he had already left the Ugly Tuna Saluna, but there was literally no trace of Brian, which is just so weird. So from there they kind of expanded their search away from the Ugly Tuna Saluna and they used search dogs. They searched all the dumpsters and alleyways. They were also going around asking residents that they had seen Brian. There was flyers being passed around. He had a tattoo on his upper right arm of a stick figure logo from the cover artwork for the single Alive by Pearl Jam, so that was a pretty identifiable feature. Police even persuaded the city of Columbus to let them into their sore system. Sewer I always said that word wrong, judge me later. So they persuaded them to let them into the system to search for him, and again they came up empty handed. And they checked his apartment, of course, which was on King Avenue, which was about six blocks from the Ugly Tuna Saluna, and his car was parked outside and literally looked like nothing had been touched. Investigators, of course, were trying to figure out why he would have wanted to disappear on his own. They thought that maybe, dealing with the death of his mother, he was really struggling and decided that he was going to go off on his own and just kind of do his own things start anew. But there wasn't really any hints to him being upset. He was making plans for the future, he had already planned a trip. It just didn't seem that he would voluntarily go off on his own. The investigators had asked everyone that had been around Brian that night to take light detector tests, and they all agreed except for Quint. He did not agree, But his father took a light detector test passed, and Meredith took a light detector test and passed, And of course, like I said, Clint refused. And the two women that Brian was last seen talking to in the surveillance footage were identified, and as of two thousand and nine, they said that they had never been asked to take a lie detector test themselves, but it sounds like they were more than willing and cooperative to do so if they had been asked. So obviously, Brian's girlfriend, Alexis is just beside herself with this, and she made it a habit to call his cell phone every evening before she went to bed, and she did this for a long time following his disappearance. And she said that it usually would go to voicemail, but one night in September, it actually rang three times, and she said once it rang, she just kept calling it to hear it because it was one of the best sounds that she had ever heard, even if nobody picked up. And she had documented all of this and written this on her MySpace page. So Singular Wireless, which was Brian's wireless provider, said that they thought that it might have been some type of computer glitch that caused the phone to ring. And there was a ping that came from the phone that was detected at a cell tower in Hillford, which was fourteen miles north of Columbus, so odd enough that it pinged where it pinged, and also it rang like that's I don't know, I feel like that's more than just a glitch and a miscommunication. Just my opinion, but I'm not a techy person, so what do I know. There were many tips that came in and other sightings of Brian all over, but none of them turned out to be anything. There were possible sightings in Michigan, in Texas, and even in Sweden. They were all investigated and turned up to be nothing. So at this point police don't really have hardly anything to go on. Randy Schaeffer, Brian's dad is still reeling from the loss of his wife and now the disappearance of his son, and he just decided that he wasn't going to let his son fade out and he was going to keep the search going for him. So he had consulted a psychic and this psychic had told him that Brian was in a body of water near a bridge pier. So Randy and Brian's younger brother Derek, along with some other people in the community, had invested interests in the case, and they all bought waiters and went in to the area of the oln Tangy River to try to see if they could find any traits of Brian. Of course, they came up completely empty handed. There was a theory out there that Brian could have been a victim of the Smiley Face murderer, and they did discredit this, but I feel like it's worth it's worth a thought. But law enforcement and the FBI have looked into it and have disputed that Brian was a victim of the Smiley Face Killer. And they also have said that, of course all the Smiley Faced Killers victims have been found, so if Brian was a victim of the Smiley Face Killer, he's the only one to this state that hasn't been found. But law enforcement says that it is not connected at all to that theory. So for a good two years, Randy Schaeffer, Brian's dad, is clinging on to hope that his son is still out there and that he is going to be found. He's lost his wife, he has lost his son, and it is just a mystery as to what has happened to his son. And he keeps on fighting, keeps on looking, keeps on searching, but does not have any luck. And then in September of two thousand and eight, they had a really really heavy windstorm in Baltimore, Ohio, where Randy was living, and he was out in his yard clearing some of the debris and a branch flew off from a tree and fatally struck him, killing Randy neighbors found him the next morning, and of course they called nine one one. He was pronounced out on the scene. So awful tragic that this poor man suffered the last two years of his life and then was tragically taken out by a tree branch. That's just like such a freak accident. So Randy's obituary ran online, and of course they have the guest book that people can sign and this is where it just gets really crazy to me. But one of the signatures in the book said to Dad love Brian from the US Virgin Islands, So of course one could think that, oh, my gosh, Brian is still alive. He left to live in the Virgin Islands and he is still out there. So they did find that the post was posted from a computer accessible to the public in Franklin County, and they determined that it was a hoax, which very well could have been a hoax. But how did they determine it was a hoax? I need more information in regards to who did this, Like why would someone do this? I think that is so shady to create like that controversy surrounding an already cold, unsolved case, especially on someone's online guestbook for their obituary, like it takes some real balls to do something like that, and I just don't know, Like I feel like there's more to it, and I just question a lot of things. So there was a attorney for Clint, and he wrote to this guy named Don Corbett, who is a private investigator. This private investigator has volunteered his time to help the Shaeffer family try to find Brian. And this attorney for Clint had messaged Don in regards to Clint saying he was not going to take a light detector test. He said that he had learned that the Columbus police investigating the case believe that Brian was alive and said, quote, if Brian is alive, which is what I'm believed after speaking with the detective involved, then it is Brian and not Clint who was causing his family pain and hardship. End quote. He went on to say, quote Brian should come forward and end this end quote. Clint, he said, did not have anything to hide. He said, he told them everything he knew from the very beginning, and he didn't see the value in rehashing it and going over it again and again and again. However, Derek believes things went a lot differently in the beginning. He said, as soon as the detective started getting involved with Brian's case, Clint pretty much had no contact, and Derek is quoted as saying, I've always thought he definitely knows something, just won't come forward with it. And Derek does still believe that his brother potentially still could be alive and Clint might have known where he went and could be hiding some of the truth from him, which is just crazy. I just don't think I could ever loop with something like that. Seeing this man's family just try to figure out what happened to him, and if I know the truth, I am saying it immediately. Alexis also thinks that Clint is withholding information, but does not think that Brian is still alive because she doesn't picture him as being the kind that would just run off, and she just doesn't see him being the person that would do that and then just not resurface and put his family through Helen back. She said, that's just not who he was. In twenty fourteen, the Columbus Police Department said that they were still receiving at least two step tips a month from crime stoppers, but nothing really proved to be useful. They of course continue to extensively review the security camera footage from that night, and they very much said that a hundred percent certainty that Brian did not leave via the escalator. So, however he got out of the Ugly Tuna Saluna, which was on the second floor, he did not leave via the escalator. And police did say that they have three theories about the case, but they did not want to discuss them, so that just remains a mystery. In twenty nineteen, there was a image that was released of a American homeless man that was living in Tijuana, Mexico, and this individual had a definite resemblance to Brian Schaefer, So it of course began to circulate and the Columbus news station that had access to the copies of these photos then forwarded it to the detectives that were working Brian's case. In twenty twenty, the detectives therefore took the images and sent them to the FBI so they could do a facial recognition analysis, and that ruled him out as the identity of the man. So the homeless man in Tijuana, Mexico was not Brian Schaefer, and in March of twenty twenty one, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation did end up releasing an age progressed photo of what Brian might look like at the age of forty two, which is wild. Nearly fifteen years after his disappearance and now present day twenty twenty four, Brian has been gone eighteen years, which is so wild. How fast time flies. When I think two thousand and six, I do not feel like that was that long ago, but holy moly, it was is eighteen years ago, and it is insanity, true insanity. So that is the story of Brian Schaefer. I don't know. There have been so many theories thrown out on Reddit and social media and just every rabbit hole I went down. In regards to Brian. There are so many different theories. I think all of them could be a possibility. He was struggling with depression from losing his mom. He was very, very stressed in school. He could have had type of mental health break. He could be living somewhere and not even know his true identity. Like you have alcohol that's involved, you have the stress of maybe potentially getting engaged on top of losing your mom. On top of being super stressed in medical school, Brian had a lot going on, and you just truly never know what someone is internally struggling with, and we never know how we're going to react to a situation until we're directly in that situation. I do think that Brian's family knew him pretty well, and if they don't think that he was the type to take off, then he probably didn't take off. Something happened to Brian that night, and I think somebody out there knows something. Someone out there knows more than they're coming forward with and it's just going to take that person to eventually come out and speak what they know. So Brian's family can get some closure in this, because it has been eighteen years too long that they're his family LEAs had to try to navigate life without him and not knowing if he's alive, not knowing if he is somewhere deceased, and it's really sad and tragic and it never should happen. Things like this should not happen. Someone knows something, and they have to have enough courage to step forward and let the authorities know what they know. So I am going to post the h progress photos of Brian. I'm also going to post pictures of the security camera footage. I'm going to see if I can also get the actual video footage from the Ugly Tuna Saluna that night, so you can kind of see the layout of outside of the bar. It's kind of like there's an escalator and then there's kind of the area where like you would gather a common area, and then there's the bar. So there's not really a whole lot of other spots Brian could have gone. But somehow or another he managed to evade cameras. And I don't know if that was intentional or if somebody did harm to him and then they were able to evade the cameras. I don't really know. It's such an interesting rabbit hole of a case, and I am bound and determined to try to figure it out one day, just what happened to Brian. So be sure to check out my Instagram and Facebook pages. Be sure to subscribe and rate the podcast if you're on Apple or Spotify. I really appreciate each and every rating, and I appreciate you all listening as always, and I will see you guys on Monday for a brand new Cold Case talk to you guys later. Bye a Hey guys. I'm Tyler, I'm Thomas, and I'm Jake. And this is a call to medas. This is a comedy show where we have no idea where these topics will take us, whether it be history, relevance between us, they're all around straight madness. Learn with us, grow with us, and laugh with us every other Saturday at noon Central Time on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just remember, guys, you called, but you only found madness.