Last call for Brian Shaffer

Annually, thousands of people vanish. Fortunately, many of them leave for various reasons, but eventually return. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t apply to a medical student named Brian Shaffer, 27. Brian had graduated from high school in 1997, and completed his degree in microbiology at Ohio State University (OSU). In 2004, he began attending medical school at OSU.

During Brian’s second year of medical school, his mother Renee died. Friends said he struggled with the loss, but he managed. While in medical school, Brian dated a fellow medical student named Alexis Waggoner. The couple had made plans for a romantic trip to Miami where friends and family expected Brian to propose marriage to Waggoner.

On March 31, 2006, OSU students were on spring break. Brian and his father Randy celebrated by going out to dinner earlier that evening. Randy thought his son seemed in good spirits. Brian told his father he was meeting friends for drinks later in the evening.

Sometime around 9 p.m., Shaffer met with a friend named William “Clint” Florence at a bar called the Ugly Tuna Saloona in Columbus, Ohio. Brian also called Waggoner, who was with her family in Toledo, Ohio. Brian told her he loved her.

Brian Shaffer disappears

Shaffer and Florence then went bar-hopping. According to Florence, the men drank heavily. After midnight, Meredith Reed, who was a friend of Florence, gave the men a ride back to the Ugly Tuna Saloona. And this would be the last place anyone would ever see Brian again.

He was last seen between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. on April 1, 2006.

Florence and Reed said they tried to find Shaffer after getting separated from him. They ended up leaving with the rest of the crowd at 2 a.m. After waiting outside, they expected to see Brian outside. After he didn’t show up, they had assumed he went home. A security camera recorded him speaking to two young women inside the bar. It also recorded him reentering the bar at closing time.

How did Brian leave without being seen?

And this is where the story gets really odd. The bar had a camera near the back door. Brian wasn’t seen exiting through this door, so where did he go? He had to either leave through the front or back door. None of the security cameras recorded Brian Shaffer leaving the bar. Additionally, his car, cellphone and personal belongings remained at his apartment.

I have reviewed several websites for anything referencing Brian’s disappearance. One of the more common assumptions is that he was so distraught over his mother’s death, he walked away from his life. I don’t think this is feasible.

Where would he have gone without his credit cards and his car? He also loved his girlfriend, father and brother. I don’t think he would have abandoned the three people whom he loved most. He was a responsible young man. For him to have just left on his own didn’t fit his character.

Another theory is someone murdered him and hid his body inside the bar. If so, someone could have removed his body after the bar had closed. Authorities suspect foul play, but have no evidence to support a homicide.

Today, Brian Shaffer’s disappearance still haunts Ohio. Fortunately, the media and crime podcasters won’t forget Brian’s case. During a 2006 concert in Cincinnati, Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam asked anyone with information about the case to speak to authorities. Brian Shaffer’s name often appears in the media in hopes that someone will speak to Columbus authorities with information. Unfortunately, Brian's father Randy Shaffer never learned what happened to his son; he passed away on September 14, 2008.

So what happened to Brian Shaffer? Will we ever learn the truth?