Mysterious disappearance of man ‘who never left bar on CCTV’ but still remains missing to this day
The chilling story of Brian Shaffer's disappearance is still a question mark, almost 20 years on.
The second year medical student and his roommate, William “Clint” Florence, made their way to a bar called the Ugly Tuna Saloona in Columbus' University District on 31 March, 2006.
At 10pm, he called his girlfriend to confirm their upcoming Miami trip, telling her that he loved her as she was going to visit her parents in Toledo before coming back to meet with him the following Monday.
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Shaffer and Florence had some shots and beers at the bar, and later went to the Arena District and Short North, where they met Florence's friend, Meredith Reed, who offered to drive them back to the bar.
CCTV footage from outside the bar confirmed that they all took the escalator to the bar's second floor entrance at 1:15am.
However, just before 2am, Shaffer can be spotted outside chatting with two women before disappearing.
Call attempts from Florence and Reed proved unsuccessful, and they went home once the bar shut.
Shaffer's father also tried to call him through the weekend, though every attempt went unanswered - with Shaffer even missing his planned flight on Monday morning.
In the first days of his disappearance, up to 50 police officers would be searching for him at any one time, with his friends and family all being questioned, while everyone that undertook a lie detector test passed - except his roommate, who reportedly refused to part take in one.
But the two women he was spotted with on CCTV were not asked to take tests for some reason, they claimed.
His girlfriend claims that she tried to call him everyday, but it went straight to voicemail, though on one night in September, it seemed to ring three times, but his service provider said that it may have been a glitch with the system.
Shaffer's phone was not GPS enabled either, so its location could not be found, leaving authorities little to work with.
Final footage of Shaffer shows him walking offscreen and towards the bar entrance before vanishing entirely.
The camera may have missed him, and the exit leads straight to a construction site.
It has been theorised that he may have disappeared on purpose, perhaps changed his clothes or left to the construction site.
His family, however, insist that he had no motive to do so. Four years ago, a man pictured in Tijuana, Mexico appeared to share a resemblance to Shaffer, however, the FBI concluded it wasn't him.
The case still remains open.
Joshua Nair