The Night Of
That Friday evening—the start of spring break—Shaffer had dinner with his father at a steakhouse before meeting up with his friend and former roommate Clint Florence at Ugly Tuna Saloona, a popular bar located in a shopping complex near the university. The two men stopped at a few more bars near the college campus before heading back to Ugly Tuna shortly after 1 a.m., this time with Florence’s friend Meredith Reed in tow. Security cameras recorded them entering the building and riding an escalator up to the bar.
Inside the packed venue, music blasted, people were drinking and talking, and at some point, Shaffer became separated from his friends. Around 1:55 a.m., surveillance footage shows Shaffer standing right outside the bar’s entrance, casually chatting with two women he’d met that night (Brightan Zatko and Amber Ruic). They talked for a few minutes, then Shaffer turned and walked back toward the bar’s entrance, disappearing from the camera view.
That was the last confirmed sighting of Shaffer.
A Strange Disappearance
When the bar closed around 2 a.m., Florence waited outside with Reed, expecting Shaffer to come down the escalator with everyone else. But he never showed. At the time, Florence and his friend didn’t immediately assume anything was wrong. It was late, people were leaving in different directions and they figured Shaffer had simply headed home without them.
The next day, though, it became clear something was amiss. Shaffer had never returned home, his phone went straight to voicemail and he missed his flight to Miami with his girlfriend on April 3, 2006. He was reported missing after that. When police began reviewing the surveillance footage from the Ugly Tuna building, they found something strange: Though Shaffer had visibly entered the bar earlier in the night, there was no footage that showed him leaving through the main entrance.
There was also a service door, which bar patrons typically didn’t use, leading out of the building to a construction area. It’s unclear if Shaffer left through that service door. “In the last known video we have of Brian, he's standing directly in front of the door that leads you to that area,” Brian Shaffer: Dead or Alive host Kelly Cochenour, who also runs an active Facebook page centered on the case, tells A&E Crime + Investigation.
Investigators searched the area around the building and nearby streets. They checked dumpsters, construction areas and the nearby Olentangy River. Shaffer’s car was still parked at his apartment, and there was no activity on his bank accounts or phone after that night (other than his phone seeming to be briefly turned back on, which was chalked up to a cellphone provider glitch). Local police—as well as Shaffer’s father, Randy—began fervently searching for leads. But they turned up empty-handed, and despite exhaustive searches and many years of tips, Shaffer has never been found.
“This is a good-looking [guy] from a suburban neighborhood, medical school, achiever, athlete. He's not in a demographic where you would expect some mysterious end to his life,” Jay Fulton, a now-retired Columbus Division of Police homicide detective of 17 years, tells A&E Crime + Investigation.
What Could Have Happened to Brian Shaffer?
Some believe Shaffer may have slipped out through the service exit and had an accident of some kind outside the bar. Some speculate that he chose to disappear and start a new life; he’d allegedly asked his girlfriend to run away with him just weeks before he vanished, and he’d discussed an interest in moving to a tropical location, ditching med school and starting a band.
“Brian was talking like he wanted an escape. I just don't know if that escape was walking away or suicide,” Cochenour says, noting that she learned through her research that he had family members who died by suicide.
Some suggest Shaffer could have fallen prey to a serial killer, as a number of men had been found dead in bodies of water throughout the Midwest at the time. Others think he could have been robbed and killed in a random attack. Cochenour says only two of the theories make sense to her.
“He [could have] walked away from his life; there were signs that he wasn't happy. But I also think there's a strong possibility that he met with foul play that night,” she says. “There's a possibility that someone who knew Brian harmed him. And recently, over the last couple of weeks, we have found out through the Columbus Police Department that there have been some tips on another individual that may have harmed [Brian] or has knowledge as to what happened to Brian.”
Cochenour says she received a tip regarding a man who was out with Shaffer on the night of his disappearance, and that when she shared the information with Columbus Police, they told her they were aware of said person and had previously received a tip about them back in 2006. The person in question had been the subject of a prior investigation.
Though Fulton says he remembers “some dynamics that struck investigators as a little odd amongst [Shaffer’s] inner circle of friends”—namely the fact that Shaffer’s friend Florence refused to take a polygraph test after Shaffer went missing—he too believes there’s a good chance that Shaffer walked away to start a new life, and acknowledges the reality that Shaffer might have died by suicide.
“I'm of the school that he probably has gone off the grid on his own,” Fulton says. “Unless you're tied up with organized crime, bodies don't disappear. [There were] extensive searches and nothing's been found, nothing that would indicate violence. And one of the things that Brian talked about was living a less complicated life.”
As long as tips keep coming in, the case remains somewhat active.
