The Disappearance of Brian Shaffer: Part Five
New Developments: 2020 to 2026
Read part one here.
Read part two here.
Read part three here.
Read part four here.
In March 2021, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation released an age-progressed image of what Brian Shaffer might look like in his early forties.
Meanwhile, nearly five years passed with no sign of Brian or his remains.
In early 2026, a baffling case that had been cold and quiescent had some notable developments, and researchers continued to learn more about the weeks, days, and moments leading up to Brian’s disappearance.
A few months ago, the Columbus Police Department released all of the surveillance footage from the camera that captured the South Campus Gateway building’s escalator and the Ugly Tuna Saloona’s entrance area from Friday, March 31, 2006 to early Saturday, April 1, 2006. Kelly Bruce Cochenour and Meredith Erin, the dedicated researchers at Brian Shaffer Dead or Alive, are continuing to review it (as are others), and they have made discoveries.
A few weeks ago, Brian Shaffer Dead or Alive received another tip. An informant sent them the name of a man he asserted harmed Brian or knew what happened to him. Something about the tip was different and intriguing. After looking into it and deciding the information was credible, the researchers shared the information with the Columbus Police Department, who responded with shock: “Holy hell, how did you get that name?!” The police told them quite a story and eventually gave them permission to share everything the researchers know except the man’s name.
In 2006, two different people, unknown to each other, reported this man as a person of interest in Brian’s case.
One of them was Meredith Reed. Why she thought he was suspicious is not known, at least to the general public.
The police and researchers determined that the recent informant was a third party, independent of the two who reported the suspect in 2006.
Police shared that in 2020, detectives assigned to Brian Shaffer’s case discussed this individual again. They decided to knock on the door of the house where this man lived on April 1, 2006 and ask the current owner or owners permission to look around the house. This permission was granted, and detectives looked in the basement. They thought a portion of the concrete foundation looked more recent than the rest of it.
They applied for a search warrant to tear the basement apart and dig up the yard. The judge issued the search warrant. This suggests that they had significantly more reasons to suspect this man than they have made public. Presumably, a judge would be hesitant to sign off on this based on a hunch fourteen years later, especially when different people now owned and lived in the house.
To date, this is another dead end. No sign of Brian was found. Only an old, empty fuel tank that used to heat the house was found.
What did Cochenour and Reed find on the surveillance footage?
So far, they found a few things, including previously unseen footage of Brian and Amber Ruic near the bar entrance a few minutes before Brian is last seen. They also found that Florence left the building briefly and apparently circled it, as he returns a few minutes later from the opposite direction.
Of most interest to me is that they found that the story told by the two women who officially last saw Brian was not entirely true.
Amber Ruic and Brightan Zatko, from their earliest interviews in 2006, told police and others that they arrived at the Ugly Tuna Saloona together and that they did not know the woman seen leaving with them at 1:58 AM.
The footage shows that Ruic arrived with the unknown woman at 10:26 PM, before Brian and Clint Florence left for awhile to go barhopping. The men left at 10:40 PM, and Zatko arrived alone at 11:23 PM, fifty-seven minutes after the other two women arrived. The unknown woman left the building at 12:48 AM, twenty-seven minutes before the guys returned with Meredith Reed. When Brian is last seen at 1:55 AM, talking to Zatko before walking out of frame, Ruic points to the unknown woman returning on the escalator. Three minutes later, the three women left the building together after Zatko returned from the restroom.
The researchers contacted Ruic and Zatko. Zatko told them she didn’t know the woman. She lived with Ruic at some point prior to April 1, 2006. She couldn’t remember her name.
Ruic acknowledged that the woman shared a home with her once but also insisted she could not remember her name.
Whether or not police have ever identified this woman is unknown. Also unknown is why the other two women avoided discussing her for almost twenty years.
To be continued, with what I consider the two likeliest explanations (of many possible) for the disappearance of Brian Shaffer …
Around 39:57, Brian Shaffer begins to appear on camera for the final time.