The Odd Disappearance of Brandon Swanson, Missing Since 2008

The Disappearance of Brandon Swanson

Born on January 30, 1989, in Marshall, Minnesota, Brandon Swanson was a 19-year-old college student who was enrolled in a wind turbine program at Minnesota West Community and Technical College in Canby.

The Night of the Incident

The spring semester had just come to an end and on the night of May 13th, 2008, Swanson attended two different parties to celebrate. He was seen drinking at both parties, but according to his friends, he didn’t drink enough to become overly intoxicated.

The route Brandon drove from the gathering in Canby to Marshall was familiar to him. It was the same route along Minnesota State Highway 68 that he had taken every day to attend classes. But for some reason, Brandon avoided the highway and took the back roads.

When he reached the 3900 block of Lyon Lincoln Road, Brandon suddenly swerved off the road and into a ditch. At around 2 a.m. on the morning of May 14th, Swanson called his parents from his cellphone, informing them that he had essentially "high centered" the vehicle. He assured them that both he and the car were fine and that he merely needed to be picked up.

He told his parents that he believed himself to be near the city of Lynd and that the lights he spotted off in the distance were coming from there. So they drove out there looking for him. Both Swanson and his parents had agreed to flash their headlights on and off in order to signal to each other. However, after several failed attempts at locating Swanson using this method, tensions began to rise.

Last Call

Finally, Swanson decided on a different course of action. He started walking through a field in the direction of the lights and asked his parents to meet him in the parking lot of a popular nightclub in Lynd.

Unfortunately, he would never make it there.

Forty-seven minutes into the call, Swanson suddenly exclaimed: “Oh, shit!” Then there was silence. The call didn’t end at that point, though. There was just silence as Brian and Annette waited in agony for their son to tell them what was wrong. But he never did.

Unsure of what else to do, they hung up and tried calling him again multiple times, each time getting no response.