What Happened To Brandon Swanson on his way home?

Brandon Victor Swanson

He was born on January 30th, 1989 in Marshall Minnesota to Annette and Brian Swanson. Brandon was 17 months older than  his sister, Jamine. He was very protective of her. He has a strong sense of family. He made time to be with his grandparents and parents and  helped out his family as much as he could saying, “they’re family and that’s what you do for family."

Brandon had worked at the local Hy-Vee Food Store in Marshall for four years, the last two in the bakery. 

In May 2007, He graduated from Marshall Senior High School and in August of the same year, he began attending classes at Minnesota West Technical and Community College in Canby, MN in the Wind Energy Program. Brandon was an avid believer in natural renewable resources. He loved climbing the wind towers. Brandon made plans to attend Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, Iowa in August, 2008. He was enrolled at IWCC with intent to take general courses that would lead him to a four year university to major in a science program.

Brandon enjoys a good debate and he always won. He also enjoyed politics, history and music. He often watched CNN, the History and Discovery Channels. He was an avid reader and everything he read he could remember. Brandon also enjoyed sports and a special liking for the MN Twins.

On May 14th, 2008, Brandon was 19 years old and had finished his last day of classes at Minnesota West Community and Technical College. Just before midnight he was on his 30 mile journey back home from celebrating with friends, when he accidentally drove his vehicle into a ditch. Brandon's Chevrolet Lumina became hopelessly stuck. 

At 12:30 a.m., Brandon made a cell phone call to his parents for help. He told them he was not hurt and he asked them to come to where he was and to pick him up. His parents got in their pickup truck and drove out to where they thought he was, keeping Brandon on the phone. Brandon stayed with his car and tried to signal them by flashing his lights on and off, but they saw nothing. 

Brandon finally gave up and told them he was going to walk toward lights he could see that led him to believe he was near Lynd. He told his father to head for the parking lot of a local bar and wait for him there. Brian began driving there, talking to his son as he did.

Shortly after 2:30 a.m., Brandon suddenly said "Oh, shit!" on the phone and immediately the connection was lost. His parents continued looking for him for several hours, but there was no sign of Brandon.

At 6:30 a.m. Brandon's parents reported him missing to the Lynd police. They were told at first that it was hardly unusual for young men that age to stay out all night after the last day of college classes and that he had "the right to be missing."

Later that morning, the Lynd police searched for Brandon, but found no trace of him in the town or outside. They requested that the office of Lyon County sheriff Joel Dahl assist them. Using cellular phone records, they located Brandon's car 1-1/2 miles north on Lyon Lincoln Rd., off Hwy 68 west of Taunton and about 20 miles from Lynd. This was no where near where Brandon thought he was. Besides being stuck in the ditch, there was nothing amiss with Brandon's car, and due to the grass and gravel in the area surrounding it, there were no foot prints. 

One of the areas where Brandon's phone possibly pinged was the Yellow Medicine county. A red light atop a Taunton grain elevator could be seen from that area. It was possible that was what Brandon had seen that led him to believe Lynd was within walking distance. Ground searches and air searches were underway and search dogs were also brought in. A team of bloodhounds from nearby Codington County, South Dakota, picked up a 3-mile trail that largely followed the field roads west-northwest to an abandoned farm, then along the Yellow Medicine River to a point where it appeared to enter the stream. Since Brandon wore glasses and was legally blind in his left eye, some authorities believed that he fell into the Yellow Medicine River while he was walking in the dark. The river was up to 15 feet deep in places, and was running high and fast at that time. 

Brandon had mentioned passing fences and hearing nearby water when he was on the phone with his father. Boats from the state's Department of Natural Resources were deployed along the river, and gates were installed. Deputies also walked the river's banks, and horses and all-terrain vehicles were deployed in the surrounding area.  No sign of Brandon was found.

Sheriff Vizecky continued to walk the two miles of the Yellow Medicine in that area every day for 30 days. 

Searches resumed late that fall and dogs on those searches continued to follow scents of human remains into an area northwest of Porter that had not been searched earlier. 

By 2015, when official searches resumed, the area of interest had moved towards Mud Creek, a tributary of the Yellow Medicine north and northwest of Porter.

The Swansons leave their porch light on all night every night as a symbol of their hope that Brandon will eventually return or be found.

On March 12, 2009, Brian and Annette Swanson spoke before the House to help expand the Minnesota's Missing Children's Act so it can help missing and endangered adults.The law requires Minnesota police to begin an immediate search for missing adults under 21, as well as older adults who are missing under suspicious circumstances. On May 6, 2009, Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed the bill into law.

At the time of his disappearance, Brandon was 5'6" tall, 120 pounds
with brown hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a white t-shirt under a blue striped Polo sweatshirt, baggy blue jeans, a black hooded zip-up jacket with an emblem on the back, a white flat-billed Minnesota Twins baseball cap twisted to the side, white sneakers, a heavy sterling silver necklace and one stud earring in each ear. Brandon wears black wire-framed eyeglasses. He has pierced ears and a small scar above his left eye. He is legally blind in his left eye.