Mystery remains over the fate of a man who disappeared after entering a bar in Ohio and was never seen again.
Brian Shaffer was 27 when he vanished in the early hours of April 1, 2006, while celebrating the start of Spring Break with friends.
The American medical student had gone out in Columbus, Ohio, with his friends and was recorded on security footage outside a bar at around 2AM, briefly talking to two women.
This was the last time Shaffer was ever seen, and almost 20 years on, what happened to him that night remains unknown.
Shaffer had grown up in Pickering, a suburb near Columbus, and was studying medicine at Ohio State University.
During his second year there, his mother, Renee, died from myelodysplasia in March 2006, a rare form of blood cancer, something his friends say he found hard, despite appearing to deal with her death well.
On March 31, after classes ended for Spring Break, Shaffer went to have a steak dinner with his father, Randy, before heading out with his friends for the evening.
Shaffer met his fried William ‘Clint’ Florence at around 9PM, at the Ugly Tuna Saloona, a bar in the South Campus Gateway complex on High Street in Columbus.
An hour later, he called his girlfriend who’d already traveled home to Toledo, before he and Florence went bar-hopping, having a shot of hard liquor at each establishment, according to Florence.
After midnight, the pair met with Florence’s friend Meredith Reed, who gave them a ride back to the Ugly Tuna Saloona where they’d started their night, joining them for a last round.
Shortly afterward, Shaffer was separated from Reed and Florence, who attempted to find him and called him repeatedly, before leaving at 2AM when the bar closed and waiting outside for Shaffer.
When he failed to emerge with the other patrons, they assumed he’d made his way back to his apartment without telling them.
Shaffer’s father and girlfriend grew concerned after they both tried calling him later that weekend, but got no answer, and he was reported missing after failing to board a flight to Miami he was due to be on on Monday.
Surveillance footage from April 2006 shows Brian Shaffer entering the Ugly Tuna Saloona bar in Columbus, Ohio, with two friends. In a later clip, he is seen talking to two women outside the bar around 2 am. After leaving the camera's view, he mysteriously disappeared and was… pic.twitter.com/yDF2XPliiH
— Winnie Schola (@WinnieSchola) August 12, 2024
Police began searching for Shaffer at the Ugly Tuna Saloona, which was located in an area with a high crime rate, meaning security cameras had been installed nearby.
The footage showed Shaffer, Florence, and Reed going up an escalator to the bar’s main entrance at 1.15AM, before he was again caught on camera outside the bar at 1.55AM, briefly speaking to two women and saying goodbye before moving out of shot.
This is the last known time Shaffer was seen, as cameras did not capture him leaving shortly afterward when the bar closed.
Officers then scoured footage from other bars to see if they could explain how Shaffer had left the Ugly Tuna Saloona, however, no trace of him was found on those either.
The search then fanned out from the Ugly Tuna Saloona, with officers and police dogs meticulously searching the streets nearby, including speaking with local residents and checking through dumpsters.
No leads came from their efforts, and police discovered that Shaffer’s car was also still outside his apartment, and all of his possessions appeared untouched.
Police continued searching for miles around the bar, which led them to speculate other possibilities instead of an accident or foul play.
They began to consider whether Shaffer may have disappeared intentionally to gain some temporary solitude to grieve his mother, however, with his disappearance being permanent, no motive for him voluntarily vanishing has been discovered.
One possibility that has been floated is of Shaffer potentially changing his clothing and putting on a hat to pass by the security cameras unnoticed, or that he may have slipped out of a service door that was not accessible to the public, a short distance from where he was last seen, however, some officers believe the route – which led to a construction area at the time – would have been very difficult to navigate sober, let alone while drunk.
Those who’d seen Shaffer on that final night were asked to take a lie detector test, and while his father and Reed passed theirs, Florence refused to take one.
Shaffer’s girlfriend also reported calling his phone every night before bed for months after his disappearance, and while it usually went straight to voicemail, she claims that on one night in September it rang three times.
While the phone provider claimed it could have been down to a glitch, a ping from the phone was detected at a cell tower in Hilliard, 14 miles (23 km) northwest of Columbus.
Brian Shaffer still missing from Columbus Ohio. I wish we lived in a world where everyone would post a missing person instead of how they aged. We know how you have aged you have been posting selfies for the last 10 years. Sorry rant over. I love everyone again. pic.twitter.com/bIQrGsKTK2
— Captain (@truecrimegarage) January 15, 2019
While there have been several tips come through in the resulting 19 years since Shaffer disappeared, none of them have ever led to anything conclusive.
Mystery still remains over whether Shaffer could possibly be alive and living under a different identity, as he would be in his 40s today, or whether he tragically died that evening.
