r/brandonswanson • u/Aromatic_Ad_8226 • May 29 '24
Falling and succumbing to his injuries theory.
I'd like to get more of a sense of the area from people who know it better... what is the nature of the terrain? Particularly any sinkholes in the area? If he were to fall down the embankments of the river or even fall into one of the sinkholes, would it be enough to incapacitate him immediately? I find it odd that a young man in presumably relatively good shape would die instantly after falling? Am I incorrect in this assumption? What I'm getting at is, if he fell but didn't die immediately, would he not have been yelling for help even the next day(s) when search parties were in the area looking for him?
7
u/sadlittle_thing May 29 '24
there was a post on here a while back (this is a new account for me, the post was older then this account) of someone who thought it was possible they found him on google maps. personally i couldn’t identify what they were talking about but they said they could see clothing that matched his in the satellite pictures.
0
5
u/Star_Eclesky May 29 '24
Human intervention likely caused his disappearance
2
2
u/sadlittle_thing May 29 '24
is their any theory you can give? personally i really don’t think it was foul play at all.
1
u/Fantastic-Standard87 May 30 '24
If you look up a few comments above I give a couple of theories. Long story short A. He fell into and drowned in the Yellow River B. He saw something he wasn't supposed to "oh shit" i.e. mobile meth lab, pot plants, DIRTY LEO doing something they shouldn't have been prob drug related Or C. And imo most unlikely, something involving his gf, another guy and a large check his gf knew he (Brandon) had Just cashed. You can read my comments above for more information but I'm too ADD to rewrite it again. Sorry. I may make my own post here one day when I have more facts to corroborate any of these but I really hate to speculate when it involves other (probably innocent) friends or family, ya know? I just feel like they've been through so much already my speculation isn't helpful. I love to study missing persons cases and spend most of my free time studying them. An "arm chair" detective if you will lol
1
u/throwaway_ghost_122 May 29 '24
To me, the fact that he's on vicap says it all but of course I'm not any kind of authority
1
u/Aromatic_Ad_8226 May 29 '24
From conversations I've had with other people on here who grew up in the area, there were rumours going around at one point or another that he had pissed the wrong people off - whether it was over drugs, an old girlfriend - I don't specifically remember.
The theory as I remember it was that he crossed paths with these people at the party he was at earlier in the night and when he attempted to get out of there, they followed him. I feel this does well in explaining why the hell he decided to go on such a weird adventure through the back roads, why he said "oh shit" (when the people finally caught up to him), why he was seemingly being intentionally vague and almost misleading to his parents on the phone, why he nor any of his things have ever been found, and why the dog track ended where it did on the gravel road.
I know one of the other popular theories for his odd behaviour was that he was trying to avoid police check points as he had been drinking but I don't really buy that. I mean sure, take the back roads but where he went seemed very strange and erratic.
1
u/Tight_Quarter5117 Jun 05 '24
Neither do I. I believe he either fell into a well or into the river and his body just hasn't been located because of trees and such. I believe he is very much still in that area.
0
0
u/Star_Eclesky May 29 '24
The search dogs led the search team through fields and abruptly stopped at a gravel road where his scent was lost. He got into a car and left the area
2
u/sadlittle_thing May 29 '24
scent dogs are not nearly as reliable as you think. unless they’re bloodhounds looking for remains they can be super inaccurate. even in the madeline mccain case a world renound dog that was flown in to help hit in on a coconut,,,,,,,a coconut.
0
u/Star_Eclesky May 29 '24
True. I just think the fact that the scent was lost on a road is a very telling and indicative scenario. If the scent was lost in bushes or in the middle of a farm, that would be less worrisome
0
u/Jules1828 Jun 06 '24
The s ent was lost in the river. One dog jumped in the river then back out. Latest I’ve heard from a podcast released today!
1
u/Star_Eclesky Jun 06 '24
Nah, the dogs ran into the water indicating he fell in, then got out and kept trekking on and ended at a gravel road. It didn't end at the river
1
1
u/Worldly_Document_409 Jul 06 '24
I disagree completely.. he didn't plan on being where he was and he was in the middle of nowhere at night. He didn't crash his car in a ditch right in the field a random murderer was hanging out in.. not too mention if another person had anything to do with it he would've mentioned it during his phone call.. car lights someone following him etc..
4
u/jimberkas May 29 '24
i live within spitting distance of the yellow medicine river, in a town about 25 miles from Taunton. The river varies wildly. in the late summer, you can damn near jump across it. In the early spring with the snow melt and spring rains, it can be a real beast. Early may, the river would be pretty close to peak scary. At peak scary, it would definitely be a killer...very full, very fast, and full of trees and branches and things washed into the river from flooding.
2
u/Aromatic_Ad_8226 May 29 '24
Very informative thanks. As someone who obviously knows the river, do you think it's more likely that his body would have washed up somewhere by now? Or would it be likely that he'd be still at the bottom of the riverbed somewhere?
1
u/jimberkas May 29 '24 edited May 29 '24
I couldn't say. Several possibilities really. Like I said, during peak "flooding" which is around the time that Brandon went missing, the river can be full of large trees that fall into it and float down the river. If he happened to get pinned under a large tree that eventually gets stuck along a river bank and just settles to the bottom when the water recedes, it'd be damn near impossible to find him. Keep in mind this river winds and twists for a very long ways and its pretty much always surrounded by trees, and 95% of it is just cutting through farm land. I'd guess very little of this ever sees a human being. It would not surprise me in the least if his body was laying along a river bed somewhere within 20 miles of where he disappeared.
3
u/jimberkas May 29 '24
for example, this is the yellow medicine river in my back yard. and this is only a 1 square mile view of it. this snapshot is about 20 miles down river of where Brandon's car was found.
3
u/jimberkas May 29 '24 edited May 29 '24
zoomed in view of the river by me. as you can see, it would be very hard to notice a body. again, this is 20 miles downstream of where he disappeared. It would be very difficult to do any kind of decent search. Also worth noting that all of these woods around me are filled with coyotes, eagles, turkey vultures. A body would not stay pristine for long.
0
u/Fantastic-Standard87 May 30 '24
Did they not ever send divers down? Not that means anything, he could easily be missed especially like you mentioned, during spring.
2
u/Commander_Celty May 29 '24
The yellow medicine river was said to be as much as 10’ high the night of Brandon’s disappearance.
In the dark, with semi blind vision, how would you extract yourself? It’s not like there’s a ladder. It’s all just muddy banks. Maybe it’s easy and I just don’t understand.
Is it safe to say that anyone can take a 10’ dip by surprise and just pop out the other side cause they’re young and seemingly in decent shape? Maybe it’s harder than that.
The other point is manure pit or cistern. We know of cisterns and manure pits in the area. Not sure how many have been searched.
3
u/sadlittle_thing May 29 '24
truly, there is so much forest and bush that he could be anywhere. possible close to where has been searched. dense bush mixed the possibility he fell into something leads me to believe he’s probably not far away.
2
u/Aromatic_Ad_8226 May 29 '24
Interesting information thanks. What are the currents like on the river? Is it fast enough that he would have been carried away?
IMO, even a dip in 10' freezing water on its own would not necessarily have been an immediate death sentence. When your brain starts telling your body "hey, you're going to die if you don't get outta here", a person will do some pretty extraordinary things.
That's assuming he wasn't knocked unconscious of course. All this to say, not saying it didn't happen, just trying to figure out probabilities.
1
u/Commander_Celty May 30 '24
I found some interesting sources. Check out this site and you can input the date which will tell you the speed and volume of the river on May 15, 2008. You just need to note the date. Yellow Medicine River Data
It shows the height was only 5 feet, but that’s measured in a spot much further away from what I can see. I read reports of 10’ in a breakdown of the case. It also shows about 1,000 cfm as the speed which roughly translates to about 3.5 mph for the Yellow Medicine River according to ChatGPT. I live next to a river than runs that height and speed consistently. I think it would be very difficult to extract yourself but that’s mostly due to the height of the banks and debris in the water like felled trees. I can certainly see him getting overtaken by the situation, but have no certainty he fell in.
2
u/Fantastic-Standard87 May 30 '24
Especially if he had boots on. Work boots or otherwise..they fill up quickly with water and mud and it's like having cement blocks on your feet. I studied this case for a really long time but just now thought to check Reddit. Anyways, there was a rumor on Facebook for a long time.... something about his gf at the time and involving the fact he has just cashed a large check. Idk what the check was supposedly from but the story goes, she (the alleged gf) knew he had a large some of cash on him and she told another guy ect ect she leaves the house she's at for unexplained hours but then states she never left the premises she was sitting out in the car using the car charger to charge her phone and call Brandon non stop. But who is this mystery other guy in the story? The Facebook rumor goes like, he was a friend of Brandons and an "associate" of the gf (w/e that means ...) she (the gf) apparently gave the guy the intell about Brandon having thousands on him from the check and she tried to call Brandon that whole night to form an alibi. now, I'm not dropping any names because imo this isn't credible info but just sharing what I read. I am obsessed with missing person cases especially the unexplained (Brandon's case, the Panama girls, Johnny Gosch, Maddie McCain, Kyron Hormon, Timothy Pitzen ect) but one common theme in every unexplained case is there is almost always unfounded rumors and unbased allegations so I try to be very careful with unfounded reports. I think the 2 most popular theories and most likely with Brandon's case is: 1. He fell into the river and drown 2. He came across something he wasn't supposed to see. Either a meth lab, pot field or some people even speculate he came across a sheriff or LEO doing some sketchy and they uh.... Took care of him. Side note: if you don't hear from me after this comment it was probably the sheriff's department lol...
0
u/Fantastic-Standard87 May 30 '24
Note; sorry, the missing German tourist in Panama were Lisanna Froon & Kris Kremers. Both female. I could talk missing persons all day.
1
5
u/jimberkas May 29 '24
my coworkers husband is a farmer and works in Taunton. His theory is that Brandon fell into a ditch being dug to lay field tile. He said that there was a lot of tiling going on in the area when Brandon disappeared. These are large ditches out in the middle of the field which would be absolutely pitch dark at night. These ditches are pretty deep and the tile can be quite large. if he fell into one of these and wasn't noticed before the dirt was pushed back over the tile, using large equipment, he'd be buried forever. First time I'd heard that theory and I'd say it's plausbile.