Brian Shaffer
47:18 Share

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. What are some of your self-care non-negotiables? Maybe you never skip leg day or therapy day. When your schedule is packed with kids' activities, big work projects, or podcasting like me, it's easy to let your priorities slip. Even when we know it makes us feel good, it's hard to make time for it.

But when you feel like you have no time for yourself, non-negotiables like therapy are more important than ever. Therapy can help with things like how to set healthy boundaries or find ways to be the best version of yourself. So if you're thinking about starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule.

Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist or switch therapist anytime for no additional charge. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash tails to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash tails.

To get this episode of Forensic Tales ad-free, check us out at patreon.com slash forensic tales. Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. March 31st, 2006, Brian celebrated another round of intense medical school finals. Another huge step closer to achieving his dreams.

On the horizon, spring break with the love of his life. He and his friends drank the night away on that fateful April Fool's Eve. The celebratory night ended quietly. But the following morning, April Fool's, 2006, Brian vanished. Can someone disappear without a trace? This is Forensic Tales, episode number 106, The Mysterious Disappearance of Brian Schaefer. ♪

Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola.

Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, spine-tingling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.

Sharing true crime stories isn't just about the story themselves. It's about getting justice for the victims and their families. True crime helps hold criminals accountable so they can't continue to cause us harm. As a one-woman show, your support helps me find new exciting cases, conduct in-depth, fact-based research, produce and edit this weekly show.

And for supporting the show, you'll get early access to ad-free episodes, exclusive merchandise not available anywhere else, bonus content, shout-outs and episodes, and priority on case suggestions. To learn more about supporting Forensic Tales, consider visiting our Patreon page at patreon.com slash Forensic Tales, or simply click the support link in the show notes.

You can also support the show by leaving us a positive rating with a review. Now, let's jump right into this week's story. On March 31st, 2006, April Fool's Eve, 27-year-old Ohio State University med student Brian Schaefer met up with his dad for dinner. It was a Friday night and the start of spring break, which meant that Brian had the entire next week off from classes.

The plan that night was to spend some quality time with his dad, Randy, at a steak dinner to celebrate the start of spring break. And then after dinner, Brian was going to go meet up with some of his friends. At dinner, Brian seemed a little stressed out. He told his dad that he was exhausted from pulling all-nighters and cramming for his midterms. Sounds like a nightmare to me.

Randy told his son that he didn't think he should go out after dinner. He looked exhausted and thought that it would be better for his son just to stay in and get some rest. But Brian didn't listen. It was a Friday night, the start of a week off from med school. He just wanted to go out and have some drinks with friends. Around 9 p.m., Brian finished dinner with his dad and met up with his friend and former roommate, William Florence, a.k.a. Clint.

Brian and Clint had plans to go on a bar crawl on the southern campus of Ohio State. They wanted to have some fun and just blow off steam from their spring midterms. After sharing some drinks at the first couple of stops, they ran into one of Clint's friends, Meredith Reed. The three of them ended up making their way to the Ugly Tuna Saloon, a popular bar in Columbus University District.

Slightly after 10 p.m., Brian picked up his phone and called his girlfriend, Alexis Wagoner. Brian told Alexis he loved her and that he was looking forward to their upcoming trip to Miami. Alexis, also a medical student, was at her parents' home in Toledo and was excited to visit Miami with Brian just a few days later.

After talking with Alexis on the phone, Brian returned to Clint and Meredith. The trio continued drinking and taking shots at the ugly tuna. Around 2 o'clock in the morning, the bar was preparing to close. They flashed the lights on throughout the building in typical bar fashion, letting everyone know, hey, the bar's closing, time to go home. Once the lights flashed on, Meredith and Clint quickly realized that Brian wasn't with them.

They decided to look around the bar and see if they could find him. Maybe he's in the restroom, or perhaps he's somewhere else talking with someone that he met up with. But after checking the men's restroom and looking for him everywhere, they can't find him. Thinking that maybe Brian decided to leave on his own, they also went home. The following day, Brian's girlfriend Alexis woke up excited about their upcoming trip to Miami.

She tried calling Brian to confirm a few details about the trip, but he didn't answer. It wasn't like him not to answer his phone, so she called again, and still no answer. Alexis thought that Brian probably had a little too much to drink at the bars and that he was probably just sleeping off a nasty hangover. Later that morning, Brian's dad, Randy, decided to go over to his apartment.

When he arrived, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Brian's car was parked in the driveway. His bed was made. Everything looked normal and everything looked neat inside. Except Brian wasn't home. Randy tried calling his cell phone a few times, but no luck. So he called his other son, Derek, to see maybe if Derek knew where Brian was. But Derek didn't know where Brian was. He hadn't heard from him.

Throughout the rest of the weekend, no one heard from Brian. He wasn't answering his phone and no one was at his apartment. Finally, on Monday morning, Brian didn't show up to meet his girlfriend at the airport. He missed their flight to Miami. 48 hours after Brian was last seen, the police issued a missing person report.

Brian Schaefer grew up in a small suburb just outside of Columbus, Ohio. His parents, Randy and Renee Schaefer, raised Brian and his younger brother, Derek, in just your all-typical American household. From an early age, they could tell Brian had a bright future ahead of him. After graduating high school in 1997, Brian was accepted to Ohio State University, where he received his bachelor's degree in microbiology.

After graduation, he stuck around Ohio State and was accepted into their med school program. Although Brian wanted to become a doctor, he always told his friends that his real ambition in life was to be a rock star. During his time in med school at Ohio State, he met his girlfriend and fellow med student, Alexis.

Right from the get-go, Brian and Alexis just hit it off. They were both really easygoing, they shared mutual interest, and together they just made a really great couple. Both families believed that Brian was planning to propose to Alexis on that upcoming Miami trip during spring break, the trip that Brian never made.

A few weeks before Brian's disappearance, his mom Renee passed away from a rare form of bone cancer in March of 2006. Renee's death was crushing. He was super close to his mom. Her tragic loss occurred during the middle of his second year of med school. Renee, who worked as a nurse, was Brian's inspiration. He wanted to follow in her footsteps. He wanted to become a doctor.

On the outside, Brian kept his guard up around his friends. Even though he appeared to be handling his mom's death okay, on the inside, he was hurting. As soon as Columbus police filed a missing person report on Brian, an all-hands-on-deck search began. In the beginning, up to 50 police officers were assigned to help search.

They knew this was entirely out of character for someone like Brian, so the need to find him quickly intensified. Everyone began stapling missing person posters all around town. The police spoke with everyone who was at the Ugly Tuna Saloon that night. Investigators brought in cadaver dogs to try and pick up any body scent in the area. But nothing seemed to turn up. Brian was nowhere to be found.

Detectives got their hands on the surveillance footage from cameras in and around the Ugly Tuna Bar. When they combed through the tapes, they got their first big break in the case. At 1.15 a.m., the bar's surveillance cameras captured Brian and his friends Clint and Meredith going up an escalator to the bar's second-story main entrance.

In the video, you can see all three of them walking together, and it's clear that Brian is still at the bar at 1.15 a.m. A little over 30 minutes later, another camera captured Brian at 1.55 a.m. just outside of the bar.

In the video, you can see Brian and it looks like he's chatting with two females. A few minutes later, you see him simply walk off camera back in the direction of the bar's entrance. Even though the camera doesn't capture it, it does look like Brian was headed back inside of the bar. Now, this was the last time he was ever seen.

Although a camera captured Brian and his friends entering the bar and another camera saw him what looked like him chatting to a couple of females outside of the Ugly Tuna, no camera captured him ever leaving that night. Just after 2 a.m., a video captured Clint and Meredith leaving the bar, but Brian wasn't with them.

Here's where things get even stranger, okay? After combing through the videotapes for hours, the police determined that everyone, every single person entering the Ugly Tuna Bar that night was accounted for. They could determine when every single person entered and when they left the bar. Everyone was accounted for.

Everyone except for Brian Schaefer. He was never seen leaving through any of the bar's entrances. It was like he completely vanished after stepping back inside of the bar only a few minutes before closing time. Investigators working on Brian's case started to develop different theories to explain why cameras caught him entering the bar but not leaving.

One of these early theories was that maybe he disguised himself before leaving the bar, whether that was changing clothes or possibly just covering his face and head like a hat maybe. And then he simply just snuck out by walking out with a group of people who were also leaving.

Remember, this all happened at closing time. It's two o'clock in the morning. So there's going to be a lot of people walking out of the bar's front door at the same time that Brian would have left that night. But there's a couple problems with this early on theory. Number one, the police accounted for every person coming and leaving the bar that night, every single person.

So if Brian disguised himself, if he threw on a hat or maybe changed clothes, then that would have left at least one person unaccounted for. Number two, another problem with this theory. Brian is a pretty identifiable guy. He's described as being 6'2", 160, 170 pounds, and he has this distinctive Pearl Jam tattoo on one of his biceps.

So he's not exactly someone who is just going to blend in easy, a guy who sticks to is typically going to stand out in a crowd. And then number three, the third problem with this early on theory, and to me at least, is the most troubling. Why would Brian want to disguise himself? Another theory was that Brian used another exit from the bar, not the bar's main entrance.

Besides the front, the Ugly Tuna Saloon also had a back exit. Now, this wasn't a door that the public was allowed to use. This door is an emergency exit door located in the back of the bar. But there's also a problem with this theory. The police learned that the rear exit of the place led to a huge, extensive construction site.

So not only would Brian A have to know where this back door is, but B, once he got outside of this door that he would have to know was there, he would have to navigate this massive construction zone. The entire area behind the ugly tuna was under construction.

So it's not like he could have just opened the door and then walked out. Sure, it's possible. He's a 27-year-old grown adult. He could have probably found his way out of a construction zone. But let's not forget that Brian was drinking that night.

According to his friend and former roommate Clint, who he was with that night, they took at least one shot of alcohol at every bar they went to. So it's pretty fair to say that by the time this trio got to the Ugly Tuna Saloon, that Brian would have been drunk. He would have been very drunk. But if Brian didn't leave through the front or back door, how did he get out of the bar?

Detectives began combing through security cameras all around the Ugly Tuna. Lucky for the Columbus police, there was no shortage of security cameras in the area. But the search didn't turn anything up. There wasn't a single camera that captured Brian. Not even the security camera set up in the construction site right behind the Ugly Tuna. The only one that was right up against the bar's back door. Again, it was like Brian was a complete ghost.

With no evidence to suggest that he was a victim of foul play, the Columbus police couldn't rule out the possibility that maybe he simply ran away. He wanted to escape the pressure of med school. He was grieving the sudden loss of his mom. Maybe he just up and left.

But from day one of the investigation, Brian's family insisted that no, he didn't run away. He couldn't run away. He wouldn't run away. To them, he had no reason to run away. Despite the loss of his mom, the sudden loss,

He had everything going for him. He was doing well in school. He had a girlfriend who, by all accounts, he adored. They had a trip planned to Miami a few days later, a trip that many people in Brian's life thought that maybe he was going to propose to Alexis. So why would he simply run away?

Let's discuss Brian's bank records. So following April 1st, there's been zero activity on his credit cards, bank accounts, or cell phone. So if Brian Schaefer decided to run away, he did so without using any of his accounts and without accessing any of his money.

But what about his cell phone? Well, the cell phone is mysterious. So Brian's girlfriend, Alexis, called his phone every day throughout the investigation. She would simply pick up her phone, call him in hopes of having him answer one day. She wanted him to answer and tell her that everything was okay. Every time she called his cell phone, it would go straight to voicemail. Until...

until one night in September when she called. At this particular time in September, instead of going straight to voicemail, it rang three times before going to his voicemail. Now, later on, Brian's cell phone company said that there may have been a computer glitch in their system, which could explain why the phone rang three times.

There's no evidence to suggest that anyone ever turned the cell phone back on. But then there's the cell phone GPS.

Even though Brian's cell phone was not GPS enabled, the police couldn't determine its location. However, the cell phone did ping off a cell phone tower 14 miles away from Columbus, 14 miles away from where Brian was last seen and heard from at the Tuna Saloon.

The police immediately brought in Brian's two friends, Clint and Meredith, for questioning. They were with Brian that night, so naturally, Policing 101 says that they're going to be the first people that they're going to want to speak to and to interview. So the police asked both of them if they would be willing to submit a polygraph test.

Even though they weren't considered possible suspects in Brian's disappearance, a polygraph test would officially rule them out so that then the police could move on to other potential suspects. So about a month into the search for Brian, he'd been missing now for about four weeks. Meredith Reed sat down and passed her polygraph test and was officially cleared.

But the other friend and Brian's former roommate, Clint Florence, wasn't as cooperative. Instead of agreeing to take a polygraph test, he hired an attorney and refused to participate.

So this is a little weird, right? Clint is supposed to be one of Brian's good friends, their former dorm roommates from college. You would think that he would want to do anything and everything to help find his missing friend and help the police conduct their investigation.

Now, I'm not exactly sure what's going on here, but when your friend goes missing, you're the last one to see him and you decide to lawyer up and not answer any of the police's questions.

Well, that's going to raise some eyebrows, right? There's this common misconception that only guilty people hire attorneys. It's like if you've got nothing to hide, why tell the police to speak to your attorney? Why not just sit down with detectives and tell your side of the story? Again, if you're innocent, what are you so worried about?

Now, I do think it's always a smart idea to get legal help or advice when faced with a situation like this. Anytime you're going to sit down and be interviewed by the police, you do want to make sure you know what you're doing. And of course, you want to know what your rights are. But in this case, from what I understand, at least, it's a little odd that Clint lawyered up so quickly and that he refused to talk.

If it were me and I was in Clint's shoes and Brian was my good friend, I know I would be doing everything to help find my missing friend. I would talk to the police. I would take a polygraph test if I had nothing to hide. I would certainly be doing everything I can to help this investigation. But from what we know, that's not exactly what Clint did.

He also refused to take that polygraph test. Now, I do want to stop there for just a second because I am bothered that he lawyered up as quickly as he did. And it is a little odd that he stopped cooperating with the police. But as far as not taking the polygraph test, I'm not quite as bothered by that.

The reason why is because I'm skeptical of polygraph tests. I know I've talked about this in previous episodes, but I think polygraphs can be problematic. There's a reason why they aren't admissible in court as evidence in a criminal trial. People can fail a polygraph even when they're being 100% honest.

I think they're a good tool. I think they're a good investigative tool. But personally, I don't put too much weight in them. Clint probably told his lawyer that the Columbus police wanted him to take a polygraph, and it was probably his lawyer who told him not to.

Now, Clint can refuse to speak to the police and he can refuse to take a polygraph. But that's going to mean that some people will speculate that he had something to do with Brian's disappearance. They are going to wonder why his close friend won't help in the investigation, especially if he's one of the last people to see him.

Now, there are rumors and reports that Brian and Clint got into an argument at the Ugly Tuna that night. There are also rumors that Clint may have helped Brian disappear and voluntarily walk away from his life.

In an interview with reporters, Brian's younger brother, Derek, told reporters that something seemed, quote, off about Clint. He said, quote, the way he talked about my brother after he went missing, kind of in a negative way. I wouldn't expect that from someone whose friend vanished, end quote. Columbus police continued to search for Brian over the next two years.

With zero activity on his cell phone and bank accounts, the hope of finding him alive started to fade.

By 2009, Clint's attorney, Neil Rosenberg, sent a message to Don Corbett, a private investigator working on the case. In the email, Neil Rosenberg, again, this is Clint's private attorney, Neil Rosenberg seemed to suggest that he and his client, Clint, believed that Brian was still alive even two years later.

In his email, which is dated September 22nd, 2008, Clint's attorney wrote, quote, If Brian is alive, which is what I'm led to believe after speaking with a detective involved, then it is Brian and not Clint who is causing his family pain and hardship. Brian should come forward and end this, end quote.

Wow. Okay, let's unpack that statement. This attorney claims to have information from detectives working on the case that Brian is still alive in 2009, two years later. Or, again, still alive.

So which detective allegedly gave him this information? Who told this private attorney, Neil Rosenberg, that they believe and that the police are operating under the assumption that Brian Schaefer is A-OK? Well,

The Columbus police have never said that they ever told Neil Rosenberg that they think that Brian is still alive. And according to Don Corbett, the private investigator who was hired to help the Schaefer family, he looked into this. He spoke with everyone.

with every single detective who has ever worked Brian Schaefer's case, and he couldn't find one detective who ever said that they spoke to Neil Rosenberg, telling him that they believe Brian is alive. Now, Neil Rosenberg, this private attorney, declined to discuss the email or his claims about Brian being alive in any interview since then with reporters.

Over the years, Brian's father, Randy, searched for his son. He never gave up hope that he would find him alive. In a sad, sad twist of fate, Randy was killed before discovering what happened to his son. He searched for answers until his sudden death in September of 2008.

Two years after Brian's disappearance, Randy was found dead outside of his Baltimore home after a tree fell and fatally struck him during a heavy windstorm. Neighbors found his body the following day and he was pronounced dead. The Schaefer family set up a condolence book online following Randy's death. It was meant to be a platform where people who knew and loved Randy could come online and sign a digital book.

Well, instead of attracting family and friends, it also attracted internet trolls. One of the book's signatures read, To Dad, Love Brian, in parentheses, U.S. Virgin Islands. When the news first broke about this post, everyone wondered, is that the real Brian Schaefer? Did he just find out about his dad's sudden death and then decide that it was time to reach out?

Not exactly, because after looking into the post and the IP address, the police discovered that someone had created the post on a computer in Franklin County. It turned out to be just some sick internet troll pretending to be Brian. After Randy's death, the Columbus Police Department continued to receive tips in the case, but none of the information led to any significant break in the investigation.

Since it had been over two years with zero activity on Brian's cell phone and bank accounts, it seemed more likely that foul play was involved. Brian didn't simply walk away from his life. Unfortunately, sometime after leaving the Ugly Tuna, something bad happened. But who would want to harm Brian? One theory swirling around the internet is that he was a victim of a serial killer.

Internet sleuths and true crime bloggers began speculating if Brian had become a victim of the Smiley Face Killer, a serial killer whose M.O. was to murder intoxicated young men by drowning them and then spray paint a smiley face somewhere near the victim's body. Now, we know that 27-year-old Brian Schaefer was drunk that night, the Smiley Killer's prime target, right?

problems with this theory. One, we aren't sure the smiley face killer even exists. We don't know if there's one person or a few copycat type killers. Number two, the 40 or so victims possibly linked to the smiley face killer aren't confirmed, meaning we know about 40 cases, but law enforcement can't say beyond a reasonable doubt if all of them are smiley face victims.

And then number three, even though Brian fit the victim profile, intoxicated young male, the police never found his body in any nearby bodies of water. They never found his signature, the spray painted smiley face anywhere.

So it might be a good theory, at least a good one to talk about on the Internet, but it's not strong enough for the authorities to continue to investigate because in 2008, the FBI officially ruled out the theory of the smiley face killer. In 2014, this is now eight years into the investigation, Columbus police announced that they still received at least two tips per month about Brian's whereabouts.

Most of the tips come in through the Crime Stoppers hotline. So although none of the tips have led anywhere, it is promising to know that tips are continuing to come in even after all of these years. The most significant tip to come in was in 2019, 13 years later. The tip was about a possible sighting of Brian in Mexico.

So an image of a homeless man living in Tijuana who resembled Brian began circulating on the internet. This was the first break in years and it looked promising. The guy was around Brian's height, around his age and around his weight. And to be honest, the guy looks like him. Even though it was hard to tell because it had been over 13 years and the man was homeless,

but it was enough for law enforcement to send the image of the man over to the FBI. When the FBI received the image, they conducted what is known as a facial recognition analysis.

While the FBI tested it, everyone was on pins and needles waiting to find out, is this Brian Schaefer? And it kept the hope alive that maybe he did run away and maybe he is still alive. He somehow got out of the club without detection and he's now living in Mexico.

But unfortunately, when the FBI's facial recognition test came back, it wasn't the result we all hoped for. The homeless man living in Tijuana, Mexico may have looked like him, but it wasn't Brian.

The latest update in the case came in March of 2021. In March of last year, the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Columbus Division of Police released an age progression photo of Brian, and they openly pleaded with the public for its help. Forensic sketch artists have been recreating age progressions for years, whether they're hand-drawn or created on a computer.

I think the first time many of us saw these age progressions in forensics was while watching the popular television show America's Most Wanted. We all know the show. Each week, new fugitives were presented in hopes that someone would recognize the suspect and then turn them over to the police.

In 2008, the show captured its 1,000th featured criminal through the use of a forensic sketch artist in egg progressions.

Since then, age progressions have been used for much more than just identifying fugitives. It's also been used in cases of missing person investigations. We see it a lot when children go missing and it's been 10, 15 or 20 years and then a forensic sketch artist creates an age progression to try and figure out what that missing child would look like in their teenage years or even in their adult years.

A forensic artist performed the same thing in the case of Brian Schaefer. Based on how he looked at 27 years old when he went missing, he created an image of what he might look like all of these years later, now in his early 40s.

Age progression is different from composite sketches or facial recognition, which forensic artists also can do. The forensic artist already knows what the person looks like, or at least what they used to look like. They have photographs of the person.

But the art of age progression isn't a hard science like DNA or fingerprints. It can be very difficult to get right.

Forensic artists need to understand the human face structure to create an age progression. They need to know how human faces grow, how they develop and change over the years, and also how they stay the same at the same time. They might also look at an individual's lifestyle to try and predict their age or how they would look at a certain age.

For example, do they take care of themselves? Do they work out? Do they not? What are their genetics? What do their family members look like at a certain age? But because this isn't a hard science like DNA and fingerprints, it's not perfect. It's not exact. The age progression image a forensic artist comes up with is only a guess of what the person might look like.

Sometimes they're spot on and lead to the capture or discovery of a wanted person, but sometimes they do absolutely nothing for the investigation. And in a worst case scenario, sometimes an age progression image that is not correct and is not accurate may actually lead investigators down the wrong path.

Now, the goal behind Brian Schaefer's age progression is to help locate him if, in fact, he's still alive. Just like with a fugitive, what we saw back in America's Most Wanted,

We want people to look at this image and if they think they recognize it, then we want them to call into the police. They can see this image of Brian of what he might look like now in his early 40s and call it into the police. Until Brian's remains are found, the work of a forensic sketch artist is our biggest hope at solving this case. Or if there's someone out there who knows something.

I'll be posting this age progression photo to our website, ForensicTales.com. So take a moment after this episode and go check it out for yourself. It'll just take a few minutes and the family would greatly appreciate any tips. So if you look at this photo, you think you have seen Brian Schaefer or you think you have seen someone who looks like him before.

The more eyes we have looking for Brian Schaefer, the more his family has a chance at some bit of closure.

Brian Schaefer's mysterious disappearance has devastated his family, friends, and loved ones. And it has left us all wondering, where is he? What happened to him? Will we ever know how he got out of that bar without anyone seeing him, without detection? Will we ever find him?

Following his disappearance, the only surviving member of the immediate Schaefer family is Brian's younger brother, Derek. Then there's also Brian's girlfriend, Alexis. From day one, she was active in his search, putting up missing person flyers, calling his cell phone every single day, and holding out hope that one day the answers will come.

Today, Alexis has moved on with her life, at least as probably as best as she could after such a tragedy. She's married, but still hopeful. Brian's father's website is still active and receives tips sparingly. When this episode airs, Brian has been missing for over 15 years. If alive, he would now be in his 40s.

The FBI has assigned Brian's case to the Homicide Missing Persons and the Crime Analysis Units. At the time of his disappearance, he was 6'2", 165 pounds. He had brown hair and hazel eyes. He had a Pearl Jam tattoo on his upper right arm.

Anyone with information about Brian Schaefer's disappearance is asked to contact the Central Ohio Crime Stoppers Unit at 614-645-8477. They are offering a $100,000 reward for any credible information in the case.

If you have information and you wish to remain anonymous, you can. Any information disclosed to the Central Ohio Crime Stoppers Unit can remain anonymous if requested. Please, if you have any information or think you might know where Brian is or what happened to him, or you think you may have seen him, call the police.

You can also contact Detective Andre Edwards of the Columbus Police Department at 614-645-4624 or contact the FBI at 1-800-634-4097.

If Brian Schaefer is still alive, we can bring him home. And if he isn't, we can help bring a small amount of relief and justice to the Schaefer's only surviving family member, Brian's younger brother, Derek. To share your thoughts on the mysterious disappearance of Brian Schaefer, be sure to follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at Forensic Tales.

Do you think a forensic sketch will help locate him if he's still alive? Let me know what you think happened to him. To find out what I think about the case, sign up to become a patron at patreon.com slash forensic tales. After each episode, I release a bonus episode where I share my personal thoughts and opinions about the case. This is where I get the opportunity to say what I think happened to Brian Schaefer.

To check out photos from the case, be sure to head to our website, ForensicTales.com. Don't forget to subscribe to Forensic Tales so you don't miss an episode. We release a new episode every Monday. If you love the show, consider leaving us a positive review or tell friends and family about us. You can also help support the show through Patreon. Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please join me next week.

We'll have a brand new case and a brand new story to talk about. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.

Forensic Tales is a Rockefeller Audio production. The show is written and produced by me, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola. For a small monthly contribution, you can create new compelling cases for the show, help fund research, and assist with production and editing costs. In addition, for supporting the show, you'll become one of the first to listen to new ad-free episodes, as well as snag some exclusive show merchandise not available anywhere else.

To learn more about how you can support the show, head over to our Patreon page, patreon.com slash Forensic Tales, or simply click the support link in the show notes. You can also support the show by leaving a positive review or spreading the good word about us.

Forensic Tales is a podcast made possible by our Patreon producers. If you'd like to become a producer of the show, head over to our Patreon page or send me an email to find out how you can become involved.

For a complete list of sources used in this episode, please visit ForensicTales.com. Thank you so much for listening. Your support of the show means the world to me. I'll see you next week. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.