(gates clinking)
(gates slam)
(static buzzing and screeching)
- (reporter) This beautiful college student vanished
without a trace after a night of partying five years ago.
Her parents-- - Oh, I can't even imagine
what they're going through. - (Mrs. Spierer) Where are you,
my sweet girl? I'm just missing you so desperately.
- (reporter) The mystery of what happened to 20-year-old
Lauren Spierer has... - I'm 20!
- (reporter) ...never been solved. - Ah, it's so sad that these
are real cases and real people. You kind of just-- like, ugh!
This is so nuts. - (reporter) They know
what may have happened. - (man) Lauren was part
of a wild party scene. And in some way or another,
drugs and students using drugs led to her demise.
- Wow. - (reporter) The Indiana University
student was seen on surveillance video
the night of her disappearance in June 2011.
She partied at this sports bar and met up with several male friends.
But they have lawyered up and aren't talking
about Lauren's fate. - What?!
- (man) Why are they trying to keep quiet?
What are they hiding? - Can we pause for a second?
- Oh my god. - That's always really interesting,
the people that the person was with never end up really speaking out.
That's not okay. - That is so entirely sus.
- (reporter) One theory is that Lauren was kidnapped
by a biker gang after collapsing in the street
on the way to her apartment. Garrett says he does not believe
she was kidnapped. He says he was given information
from a source that Lauren's college friends...
- What? - (reporter) ...hold the key
to the mystery. - (man) He had heard
she was at a party, had a bad reaction to ecstasy,
died, they panicked, and moved her to the Ohio River.
- Oh God. - (reporter) Lauren was only 4 feet 11
and weighed 90 pounds and would have been easy prey
in an intoxicated state. Just a few months ago,
the FBI dug up farmland in Indiana but didn't find Lauren's body.
- I don't think that she's alive. - A lot of people,
when they're partying, are only there to have
a good time for themselves. And they don't care
what happens to you, and they will cover their [censored]
if something goes wrong. - Nothing screams guilt
than going silent and hiring a lawyer.
- You get lawyered up if you think you're gonna get screwed over.
- They don't want to be falsely identified as being guilty,
because sometimes that does happen. - The biker gang is
a very realistic thing. But at the same time,
they have no motive per se. And I think it's also
kind of an obvious choice, because, "Oh, biker gang.
They're very aggressive. They have to have something
to do with it." But I think more realistically,
it was probably with somebody that she knew and trusted.
- (reporter) 2008, 19-year-old Brandon Swanson
disappeared at around 2 AM. - Ah, that sucks.
To celebrate the final day of their classes,
Brandon and his classmates held a party.
- I'm telling you, sus stuff always happens
in parties though, too. - (reporter) Brandon accidentally
drove into a ditch... - It's so scary. I'm already
getting creeped out. Ugh. It gives me the shivers.
- (reporter) Not enough to account for poor driving
or disorientation. After attempting to contact friends
to no avail, Brandon called his father.
He told his parents that he was close to the town of Lynd,
a short commute from Marshall, Minnesota,
where the three family members lived. - Okay.
- (reporter) His parents drove to the location
and flashed their headlights to alert Brandon's attention.
He reported being unable to see their lights.
Brandon then flashed his lights, but his parents too
were unable to see anything. - That don't add up.
- (reporter) Throughout this entire period,
Brandon and his father were in communication
via their cellphones. Brandon then made the decision
to walk to a friend's house in Lynd. He remained on the telephone
with his father. During the call,
he allegedly crossed fields as a shortcut.
After around 47 minutes of speaking to one another...
- Oh... - (reporter) ...his father
heard Brandon say, "Oh, [censored]..." - What?
- (reporter) ...before the line went dead.
- This is so weird. - (reporter) His parents claim
that it sounded as if Brandon had slipped, fell,
or dropped his phone. Brian Swanson tried
to call his son back several times, but the line rang out.
- Ooh. - (reporter) He then searched
for his son but could find no trace of him.
- Authorities were able to locate Brandon's car
via cellphone records. Oddly, the car was nowhere near
where Brandon had reported it to be. - Oh.
- (reporter) It was, in fact, 20 miles north
of his alleged location. - What?!
- (reporter) The farmland and woods in the area
all look very similar, which could explain his confusion.
Strangely, some sources also claim that all of Brandon's car doors
were left open. - For someone to go missing,
there had to have been some kind of premeditated factor about it.
Foul play, I think, is more of a realistic possibility.
- It seems pretty aggressive to intentionally disappear
if you have a good enough relationship with your family
to call them when you're in trouble. - Who calls their parents
to disappear? - Obviously, the phone call
is a little creepy, 'cause it's kind of like
you either saw something or saw someone.
- If you're in a rural area like that, one of the factors that come to mind
is wildlife, and I feel like if he did drown and then washed up,
a bear maybe came. But there would be evidence.
- Or aliens. - Okay, I know this sounds
really weird, but sometimes I think it could be something
with UFOs and stuff, 'cause I think it's called
missing time, where people say they're somewhere,
and then they come back, and then they're like,
"Oh, I was only gone for" how long, but they were really gone
for how many hours or how many days.
So, that theory, it kind of always goes to my head,
'cause it seemed like Unsolved Mysteries and stuff.
- Okay, wait! Wait. Okay, you're saying that now,
and it's making a lot more sense, 'cause I'm over here trying to, like,
what is the answer in this case?
I mean, he's in the middle of nowhere, right?
And for him to say something real quickly
and then it just go blank-- the line go dead,
dude, maybe it was aliens.
- (interviewer) You think something terrible happened.
- (man) I truly do. - (reporter) It's a mystery
with tantalizing clues on tape. One minute, this young man
was a grainy image on a surveillance video.
The next minute, he was gone. And police are baffled.
- (officer) All the tips that we've received thus far
has turned into nothing. - (reporter) And about 9 PM
when Brian met up with his friend Clint Florence.
The two were former roommates and drinking buddies.
That Friday was supposed to be just another night out
as Clint told MSNBC's Rita Cosby. - (Clint) Me and Brian
always went out. It was nothing new.
Sat down, opened a tab, and... - Of course there's drinking involved.
- (Clint) ...three, four, five shots of liquor.
- (laughs) "Three, four, five shots." - "Three, four, five."
- (reporter) ...that he and Brian walked to some more bars
and downed some more shots. - Oh, you know, six, seven, eight,
nine, ten shots. - (reporter) ...ended the night
at the bar where they'd started. - Oh my god.
- (reporter) Brian made his final appearance on the video.
- Everybody looks drunk in that video to be honest.
He's in the way corner though, and then just is gone.
- (reporter) ...and disappeared. - Oh my god. This is so weird.
People don't just disappear. There's always an explanation.
- (reporter) Police say it appears he went back into the bar.
Minutes later, Clint and his friend got ready to go.
- (Clint) It was closing time, like 2, 2:10, 2 o'clock,
and Brian was nowhere to be seen. - (reporter) They told police
they called Brian's cell and got no answer.
He even checked the bathroom, but no luck.
So, they left without him. - Okay, that's-- okay,
first of all, you never leave your friend, okay?
That is wrong. (laughs) - (reporter) Saturday passed
without a word from Brian. One part of the mystery
is how Brian left the building without being caught on tape.
Both bar exits are covered by cameras as is the escalator
that leads to the street. Outside the bar, out of camera view,
are stairs and an elevator... - He was not on camera the whole time.
- (reporter) Once on the first floor, the only way out without being seen
on tape would be through a service exit that leads
to a construction site with doors to the street.
- It's kind of weird to go out with your buddy and then,
"Ah, where'd he go? Ah, well, he'll find his way home,"
and you leave. - I would never leave my friend.
I would literally wait until we find him.
And if we don't find him, you call the cops right away.
You don't wait till the next day, and just be like, "Oh yeah.
Oh, he'll be fine." Like, no, you don't ever do that.
- If they were drunk and drinking, the thought of maybe leaving
his friend behind wasn't at the forefront of his to-dos.
He just probably felt like leaving was the best option.
But I genuinely think that if you are
really, really good friends with someone,
you'll leave with the same person you came in with.
- Unless they're [censored] friends, but girls are usually more used
to looking out for each other. - They said they checked
the bathrooms and stuff. I would've just assumed he went home.
But going home without saying goodbye? Weird.
- That was such a creepy episode. But I loved it, 'cause I always
watch [censored] like this all the time.
- I'm getting nervous. I swear to God.
I'm driving home in the dark. You guys always leave me
with scary episodes like when it's after dark
and I'm leaving, and I'm gonna walk alone
to the parking garage. And I'm gonna have my keys
in my head and ready to stab someone. - You know, aliens. (chuckles)