BRILLIANT MED STUDENT GOES IN BAR, NEVER COMES OUT: WHERE'S BRIAN?

Brian Shaffer makes the 30-minute drive from Columbus to celebrate the start of Spring Break with a steak dinner at his father’s house.

Over dinner, Brian excitedly discusses his upcoming vacation to Miami with girlfriend, Alexis Waggoner. According to family, Brian plans to propose. Brian also mentions his plans to go out that evening with his former roommate, William “Clint” Florence.

At 9:00 p.m, Brian Shaffer meets up with Clint Florence at the Ugly Tuna Saloona, a popular college bar on the second floor of the Gateway Building. Around 10:00 PM, Shaffer calls his girlfriend, Alexis Waggoner to check in before he and Florence leave for another bar in the Arena district. Shaffer and Florence each have a shot at several bars before meeting up with Florence’s friend, Meredith Reed, around midnight. The group heads back to the Ugly Tuna in Reed’s car for one last round.

At 1:15 aa.m., Shaffer, Florence, and Reed head up the Gateway Building’s escalator to the Ugly Tuna and partake in one more round of shots while listening to the band. Shaffer gives Florence and Reed some time alone, and chats with two women just outside the bar until 1:55 a.m.

Just 5 minutes later, the bar is closing and masses of patrons head down the escalator, but Florence and Reed can’t find Shaffer. The pair eventually assumes that Shaffer went home, likely walking to his off-campus apartment just six blocks away.

Saturday morning, Alexis Waggoner calls her boyfriend to nail down some final plans for their upcoming vacation. It goes straight to Brian Shaffer’s voicemail, but Waggoner assumes Shaffer is sleeping off the night before.  That afternoon, a second call from Waggoner goes to voicemail.

Shaffer isn’t answering his father either. On Sunday, Derek Shaffer heads to his brother’s apartment. Brian’s car is parked outside, and nothing’s amiss inside his apartment, but no Brian. Monday morning, Brian Shaffer doesn’t show at the airport. Randy Shaffer immediately reports his son missing.

Investigators immediately look to surveillance footage at the Gateway building.  Shaffer is last seen walking off camera toward the Tuna’s entrance—but Shaffer never comes back down the escalator. Shaffer isn’t caught outside the building at an emergency exit, either. It appears Shaffer never left the building.

The only other exit from the second floor is a service door not meant for public use. The service door leads to an area of the building under construction, where a temporary freight elevator is installed, but climbing down the service ladder would have been tough for a sober person, much less an intoxicated one.

Surveillance cameras from nearby bars also should have spotted Shaffer leaving from that first floor exit. Columbus police search garbage that left the Gateway building, the sewers below, and use dogs to comb a miles-wide radius. There’s no sign of Brian Shaffer.

JOINING NANCY GRACE TODAY: 

• Matthew Mangino – Attorney, Former District Attorney (Lawrence County); Author: “The Executioner’s Toll: The Crimes, Arrests, Trials, Appeals, Last Meals, Final Words and Executions of 46 Persons in the United States”
• Steve Fischer  – Missing Persons Private Investigator, Search & Rescue Specialist, & Owner of Search Investigations; X: @SF_Investigates (helping in the search for Riley)
• Dr. Angela Arnold – Psychiatrist, Atlanta GA. Expert in the Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women, Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University, Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital
• Todd G. Shipley, CFE, CFCE– Cyber Crime Expert, and Author: “Investigating Internet Crimes: An Introduction to Solving Crimes in Cyberspace;” X: @webcase
• Sydney Sumner - CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter

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