Brian Shaffer drives 30 minutes from Columbus to celebrate the start of Spring Break with a steak dinner at his father’s house.
During dinner, Brian eagerly discusses his upcoming vacation to Miami with his girlfriend, Alexis Waggoner. According to his family, Brian plans to propose during the trip. He also mentions plans to go out that evening with his former roommate, William “Clint” Florence.
At 9:00 p.m., Brian meets Clint at the Ugly Tuna Saloona, a popular college bar on the second floor of the Gateway Building. Around 10:00 p.m., Brian calls Alexis to check in before he and Clint head to another bar in the Arena District. They visit several bars, each having a shot, before meeting up with Clint’s friend, Meredith Reed, around midnight. The group then returns to the Ugly Tuna in Meredith’s car for one last round.
At 1:15 a.m., Brian, Clint, and Meredith ride the Gateway Building escalator back to the Ugly Tuna and have another round of shots while listening to the band. Brian steps outside the bar to chat with two women, leaving Clint and Meredith to spend some time alone. Surveillance footage captures Brian speaking to the women until 1:55 a.m.
Five minutes later, as the bar begins to close and patrons head down the escalator, Clint and Meredith realize Brian is missing. Assuming he walked home to his off-campus apartment, located six blocks away, they leave.
On Saturday morning, Alexis calls Brian to finalize plans for their upcoming vacation. Her call goes straight to voicemail, but she assumes he is still sleeping off the previous night. That afternoon, her second call also goes unanswered.
Brian’s father and brother, Randy and Derek Shaffer, also fail to reach him. On Sunday, Derek visits Brian’s apartment. He finds Brian’s car parked outside, and nothing seems out of place inside the apartment, but Brian is nowhere to be found.
When Brian doesn’t show up at the airport on Monday morning, Randy reports him missing.
Investigators review surveillance footage from the Gateway Building. Brian is last seen walking off camera toward the Ugly Tuna’s entrance but never comes back down the escalator. He is not seen exiting the building through an emergency door or other exits.
The only other way out from the second floor is a service door leading to an area under construction. This door provides access to a temporary freight elevator and a service ladder. Climbing down would have been challenging for a sober person, let alone someone intoxicated.
Nearby surveillance cameras from other bars should have captured Brian if he had exited the Gateway Building through the first-floor doors, but no footage shows him leaving.
Columbus police search garbage leaving the building, the sewers below, and use dogs to comb a miles-wide radius. Despite extensive efforts, no trace of Brian Shaffer is found.
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Sydney Sumner – CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter
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[Feature Photo: Brian Shaffer/Handout]
