- [Dispatcher] 911 Emergency?
- [Brandon] Yes, I'm in the middle of the field
just pushed some guys over
right here going towards Abilene on both sides.
My truck ran out of gas.
There's one car here,
the guy's chasing me into the woods.
Please, hurry.
- [Dispatcher] Okay, now run that by me--
- [Brandon] I'm not talking to him.
I told you I ran into him.
- [Dispatcher] Oh, you ran into him, okay.
- [Brandon] Just the first guy.
- [Dispatcher] Do you need an ambulance?
- [Brandon] No, I need the cops.
- [Dispatcher] Okay.
Is anybody hurt?
Hello?
- [Narrator] What is up, EWU Crew?
Today we are covering the mysterious disappearance
of Coke County family man, Brandon Lawson.
Our story begins in the rather small town
of San Angelo, Texas.
On the evening of August 8, 2013.
Just before midnight, 26 year old, Brandon Lawson
and his longtime girlfriend, Ladessa Lofton
had a rather heated argument.
Brandon worked at San Angelo's Renegade Oil Services.
That week, Ladessa noted Brandon had worked over 60 hours
and had not even returned home the night before.
As Brandon had a rather tumultuous relationship
with drug addiction and had relapse recently,
Ladessa was rightfully furious
that he had stayed out instead of coming home
to her and their four children.
In the heat of the moment,
Brandon decided to walk away from the argument.
Around 11:30, he called his father, Bradley Lawson,
and asked if he could spend the night
at his home in Crowley.
The drive would take him around three and a half hours,
but Brandon was angry and exhausted,
so the travel time seemed worth it.
At 11:53 p.m, Brandon left his home in San Angelo
and hit the road.
While cruising down Highway 67,
Brandon received a call from a worried Ladessa,
asking him to please reconsider going
all the way to Crowley in the middle of the night.
She expressed that if he did not want to come home,
he could at least stay at his brother's house,
which was only five miles away.
Ladessa and Brandon were high school sweethearts
who argued like any other couple,
at the end of the day,
they cared more about each other
than any argument they may have had.
It is assumed that Brandon decided
to take Ladessa's advice
and actively turn his Ford F-150 around.
He headed north on Highway 277,
in the direction of his brother, Kyle's house.
Though that did not necessarily mean
that he intended to go there.
Rather, he could have decided
to take a longer route to his father's home.
Though at first consideration,
taking a longer route to his destination
in the middle of night does not seem to make much sense,
Brandon could have had his reasons.
Two years prior, Brandon Lawson had received a warrant
for possession with intent to deliver,
as this warrant was still active,
he may have wanted to avoid
any potential run-ins with police,
leading him to choose a more indirect route
through the back roads of Coke County.
Regardless of why he decided to hop on Highway 277,
doing so would end up changing his life
and the lives of his family members forever.
Looking down at the dashboard in front of him,
Brandon realized that his truck was almost out of gas.
He had been nearly 30 minutes away
from the nearest gas station
when his truck rolled to a stop near Bronte, Texas.
Brandon's truck was blocking the lane slightly,
but his lack of fuel meant that he could not adjust it.
Frustrated, he called his brother Kyle around 12:30,
asking him to meet him on the side of the road
with a gas can.
The request for a gas can was not all that transpired
in the conversation between the Lawson brothers.
Brandon's voice was panicky,
and the things he was saying to Kyle just didn't add up.
After begging his brother to rush the gasoline to him,
Brandon mentioned to Kyle that he was being followed.
In fact, Brandon used an expletive to refer
to three Mexican men who were apparently
chasing him out of town.
After hearing his brother's outlandish comments,
Kyle's first thought was that Brandon
must have relapsed once more.
Meth-induced hallucinations combined
with Brandon's obvious exhaustion
served as a perfect explanation
of why he would be so anxious.
Brandon was adamant that he was not high,
but he desperately needed his brother to hurry.
Kyle ended the phone call with Brandon
and called Ladessa to let her know what was going on.
Ladessa, still angry over the argument with her fiance,
said she would leave a gas canister outside of the house
that Kyle could pick up on his way to help Brandon.
As Brandon had taken the only working wall charger
the couple had in their home,
Ladessa decided to leave her phone in her truck
to charge overnight.
She placed a gas can on the porch, as promised,
before going back into the house to shower and go to sleep.
As she drifted off to sleep, Ladessa had no idea
about the turmoil that lay ahead of her.
Kyle, his girlfriend, Audrey,
and their four year old son,
hopped into Kyle's truck
and headed out on their mission
to bring Brandon enough gas
to get him to the Stripe's convenient store
and gas station in Bronte.
After picking up the gas can from Ladessa
at Brandon's front porch,
Kyle realized that his most recent paycheck from work
had yet to clear in his bank account.
As a result, he did not have the funds
to fill up the gas canister
as he initially intended.
Instead, he decided it would be best
to meet up with a stranded Brandon,
get some cash from him, head to the gas station
to fill up the can,
and then return to Brandon's truck.
In the time it took for Kyle to phone Ladessa,
pick up the gas can, and continue down Highway 277,
two important things occurred.
One of them involved a total stranger
phoning the local police department
to report an abandoned truck
blocking part of the northbound lane.
Coke County had extremely limited resources
in terms of a police task force.
At the time, calls would be answered
by staff members working at a nursing home in Robert Lee.
The dispatcher that received a call
from the random motorist,
assumed the abandoned truck owner
must have run out of gas,
as this happened rather frequently,
the dispatcher reached out to an officer on duty,
Deputy Neal from the Coke County Sheriff's Office,
who responded right away.
The second event that happened
before Kyle arrived at where his brother's truck was parked
was another 911 call.
This call was made by Brandon, himself
but was not mentioned by anyone
until three days later,
when Ladessa checked his phone records.
At 12:50 am, Brandon called a different dispatcher
at the same nursing home in Robert Lee,
sounding terrified and frantic.
- [Dispatcher] 911 Emergency?
- [Brandon] Yes, I'm in the middle of the field,
just pushed some guys over,
right here going towards Abilene on both sides.
- [Narrator] Brandon explained to the dispatcher
that he was in the middle of a field,
and that he was being chased.
- [Brandon] My truck ran out of gas.
There's one guy here, the guy's chasing me into the woods.
Please, hurry.
- [Dispatcher] Okay, now run that by me one more--
- [Brandon] I'm not talking to him.
I told you I ran into you.
- [Dispatcher] Oh, you ran into him, okay.
- [Brandon] That's the first guy.
- [Narrator] When the dispatcher asked Brandon
if he needs an ambulance, he says no, he needed the cops.
- [Dispatcher] Do you need an ambulance?
- [Brandon] No, I need the cops.
- [Dispatcher] Okay.
Is anybody hurt?
- [Narrator] Shortly after his plea for the cops,
Brandon stops responding to the dispatcher's questions,
and the call drops.
- [Dispatcher] Hello?
Hello?
- [Narrator] It is assumed
that the dispatcher had dismissed Brandon's 911 call
when it dropped, and she could not contact him again.
In fact, no officers were dispatched
in response to Brandon's call.
A minute after Brandon called 911,
Kyle made another effort to call Brandon.
Brandon did not answer,
so Kyle left him a voicemail.
Brandon had not been able to answer his brother's call,
because he had been trying to call Ladessa.
Because his wife had left her phone in the car to charge,
she was wholly unaware
that Brandon was even trying to reach her.
Another minute later, Audrey tried to call Brandon,
he did not answer.
She called Brandon again, he did not answer.
Two minutes later, Kyle tried to call Brandon,
he did not answer.
At 12:57, Brandon attempted to call his neighbor,
perhaps in an effort to get in touch with Ladessa
with no luck, Brandon hung up and called Kyle back.
His spotty connection made it so
that his call could not go through.
He called Kyle again and faced the same problem.
Brandon's neighbor tried to call him back,
the call did not connect.
The neighbor tried again, the call did not connect.
The tried a third and final time
to reach Brandon, the call did not connect.
At 1:04 am, the dispatcher attempted to call Brandon back
in hopes of getting more information
on what exactly was going on,
Brandon did not answer.
She left a voicemail and called again,
Brandon did not answer.
Five minutes later, Brandon called Kyle three times.
All three calls did not connect.
When Kyle Lawson pulled up
behind his brother's abandoned truck along the 277
at 1:10 in the morning,
he was not expecting to see Deputy Neal
in his police car parked nearby.
Kyle and Audrey's first thought
upon seeing Brandon's truck
is that he appeared to have left it in a hurry.
The back end of the truck was over the line,
protruding into the northbound lane,
as the motorist had reported to the dispatcher.
In addition to its skewed parking job,
the truck's doors were all unlocked,
Brandon, along with his keys, wallet, and cell phone,
were all missing from the vehicle.
Kyle and Brandon were finally able to contact each other
even though Brandon was no where to be seen.
Kyle assumed that his brother must have been hiding nearby
due to his active warrant.
On this call, Brandon mentions to Kyle,
I can see you, I'm right here.
Kyle decided to tell Deputy Neal
that the truck belonged to his brother
and that he had come to bring Brandon enough gas
to get back on the road.
Kyle purposefully left out the notion
that Brandon was still nearby
and mentioned instead that Brandon
must have started walking in the direction
of the gas station, despite the spotty phone service
in the area.
After the conversation between Deputy Neal and Kyle ended,
Kyle tried to call Brandon three more times,
all three calls did not connect.
At 1:15, Brandon attempted to call Kyle twice,
both calls failed to connect.
A few moments later, Audrey sent a text
to Brandon to let him know
that the officer was still present.
Both Audrey and Kyle were operating under the assumption
that Brandon wanted to avoid the police,
as they had no idea that Brandon himself
had attempted to request officers earlier.
After successfully receiving Audrey's message,
Brandon was able to call her.
Though the connect was still spotty,
he told Audrey and Kyle
that he was about 10 minutes down the road and bleeding.
If he'd have mentioned how the bleeding had started
or where he was bleeding from,
Audrey and Kyle could not decipher his jumbled words
through the poor quality of the phone call.
Kyle decided the Brandon would be more likely
to come out of his hiding place
after Deputy Neal was gone.
He turned his truck around
and headed back towards San Angelo
until they were just far enough away
from Brandon's vehicle
that the officer could no longer see them.
Kyle and Audrey waited around 30 to 45 minutes
for Brandon to emerge from wherever
he had been hiding.
During this time, their four year old son
was growing tired and hungry,
as it was the middle of the night
and they had not yet been able to sleep.
Deciding to do what was best for his family,
Kyle decided to abandoned his waiting post
and bring his son and girlfriend home.
He briefly stopped at Brandon's truck
to place the empty gas canister in the trunk,
assuming that Brandon would eventually return
and be able to acquire his own gas.
If not, Kyle planned on returning to the truck
with the gas himself,
once his check cleared in the morning.
Around 2:00 am, Kyle and Audrey arrived at their home,
fed their son, and put him to bed.
Audrey decided to stay at the house to watch over their son
and get some sleep.
Kyle's check finally cleared,
and around 3:00 am, any calls made to Brandon's phone
had gone straight to voicemail.
His phone had either been turned off,
or the battery had died.
Either way, no one could get in touch with Brandon.
At around 4:00 am in the morning,
Ladessa retrieved her phone
from its charging spot in the car.
She was shocked at the overflow of missed calls
from Brandon, Kyle, and the Lawson brother's mother.
Anxiously, Ladessa dialed Brandon's phone number,
the call went straight to voicemail.
Assuming Brandon must not have had service,
Ladessa called Kyle, who recounted the strange activities
that occurred throughout the night.
Assuming that Deputy Neal surely would have left the scene
since Kyle and Audrey had,
Kyle decided to head back out to Highway 277.
He picked up one of his friends on the way,
and the two of them filled a gas can up
around five gallons of gasoline,
to put into Brandon's truck if need be.
When he got to Brandon's pickup truck
at around five in the morning,
everything was just how he had left it.
The truck was in the same position,
the doors were still locked,
as Brandon was the only person
who had a key to the vehicle,
and Brandon was no where to be seen.
Kyle and his friend filled up Brandon's tank
alongside the road.
Once they had finished, Kyle yelled out
that there were no more police officers in the area,
and that Brandon's truck had enough gas
to get him to the gas station in Bronte.
He received silence in return.
At that moment, panic began to set in for Kyle.
He walked up and down the highway
near his brother's truck
and called out for him in desperation.
Nothing stirred in the field nearby.
At 8:30 am, Brandon Lawson's pickup truck was towed.
At 9:00 am, a shocked and distressed Ladessa
filed a mission person report
as she learned bits and pieces
of the events that had occurred while she slept.
The next day, August 10th,
Deputy Neal took it upon himself
to search the land and surrounding area.
Many of the properties along Highway 277
were only lived in seasonally.
Meaning that if anything was out of place or disturbed,
it would have been from Brandon.
Deputy Neal found no evidence
that any of the fields had been disturbed,
and there was no trace of blood anywhere.
Or at least, that is what local enforcement reported.
The lack of blood did not make much sense,
as Brandon had mentioned to Kyle and Audrey
that he had been bleeding.
On August 11th, a private search team
set out to look for any sign of Brandon.
Despite the use of cadaver dogs, infrared cameras,
and a pilot providing a bird's eye perspective,
no evidence of Brandon dead or alive was ever recovered.
Just like that, Brandon Lawson disappeared.
As one could assume,
there are a plethora of theories
regarding Brandon Lawson's mysterious disappearance.
Could he have staged the whole incident
and left Coke County on his own?
Did he do so because he was tired
of being a father and a common law husband
with a warrant out for his arrest?
Was he high on methamphetamine or other drugs
that caused him to hallucinate
and get himself lost in the woods
before succumbing to elements?
Did he stumble upon some sort of secretive activity
on behalf of law enforcement
causing the police to get rid of him
and create an elaborate cover up?
Or was he truly being chased that evening,
as he mentioned to his brother and the dispatcher?
For the past seven years, Brandon's family
have been mulling over these possibilities
and countless others.
Brandon's father insists that the warrant out for his arrest
did not scare him enough to run away.
In fact, Brandon was apparently working
with getting the warrant issue resolved.
Many investigators following this case
have noted that just before Brandon's disappearance,
he had cashed his 401k with Renegade Oil Services,
as he planned on starting a new job
the following Monday morning.
Many people speculate that if Brandon
had planned on running away,
cashing his 401k would have made perfect sense,
however Ladessa has remarked
that she is unaware if he had ever received the money.
In fact, she notes that his last paycheck from work
had been direct deposited the night he had gone missing.
But none of his debit or credit cards were ever used
and the money was never withdrawn from his account.
Coke County Law Enforcement
has repeatedly stated that they do not believe
that any foul play was involved
with Brandon Lawson's disappearance.
As Brandon was a grown man,
police assume he had left San Angelo on his own accord.
As there is little evidence to convince them otherwise.
This assertion, along with Brandon's character assassination
that was published in the Coke County newspaper
following his disappearance,
allow for Brandon's case to go cold.
Announcing that the man who had gone missing
was a drug addict struggling with a methamphetamine relapse
did not exactly help bring the community together
to find him.
Despite the multitude of unanswered questions
and an overall lack of closure on behalf of his family,
online communities, and outside investigators
are devoted to discovering the truth
about Brandon Lawson's disappearance one day.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts
or disappearance of Brandon Lawson
should contact the Coke County Sheriff's Office
at 325-453-2717.
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