Missing Persons Cases 02

Missing Persons Cases (Summer Edition)

Introduction 

Well here we are right smack in the middle of summer and it’s time for another set of Missing Person Cases. When it comes to the true crime genre I think these are my favorite stories to tell because you never know when someone listening will have that once crucial piece of evidence that brings an ending to one of these most tragic of stories. And as always remember that every missing person matters, and all of their cases are important.

Brandon Swanson’s Story

When you’ve just completed high school and are just starting your college years it’s not uncommon for someone to want to decompress and celebrate a little bit. On the night of May 13 that’s exactly what 19 year old Brandon Swanson was trying to do with friends. He left his home in Marshall Minnesota and traveled just a few minutes away to Lynd and joined some friends at a party. Around 10:30 Brandon leaves the party and heads west to Canby where the college campus he attends (Minnesota West Community and Technical College) is. We do know that at the party in Lynd that Brandon had indulged in a few adult beverages, and while it’s hard to trust the judgment of other impaired people, other people that had been at the party with him said he wasn’t acting overly impaired or as if her were past the point he could safely get himself home.

In Canby we know that Brandon had himself a single shot of whiskey and at some point before midnight left for the 30 mile drive home to Marshall. Now Brandon’s evening had consisted of him basically making a kind of triangle with him beginning by heading southwest to Lynd, then further west to Canby. The drive from Canby back to Marshall would have been the most direct and technically easiest portion of this trip as the two towns are connected by Highway 68. However for reasons I think we can all surmise Brandon instead opted to take the backroads home. This did add a bit of time to his trip but he still should have made it home in a fairly timely fashion. This however was not to be.

Around 2am his parents received a phone call from Brandon saying that he had hung his car up in a ditch. He was unsure of exactly where he was but he said that he thought he was near Lynd and asked his parents if they could come and help him. Between 1:54am and 2:14am there are multiple calls between Brandon and his parents as he tries to explain to them just where he is. During one of these calls he stresses to his parents that he is uninjured from the accident. He describes to them being somewhere between Lynd and Marshall just off Highway 23 and tells them he is on the left side of the road.

And this is where things actually start to get interesting because when his vehicle is eventually located he is nowhere near Highway 23 or Lynd. His car is found 25 miles from where he thought he was near the town of Taunton. This entire scenario suggests that he was impaired enough when he left the party that he got himself turned around. What is really indicative of this is the fact that Brandon had lived in this area his whole life and back in 2008 GPS and smartphones weren’t as prevalent as they are today, so when Brandon would have been learning to drive he would have had to actually learned the roads and landmarks, as unlike today he couldn’t just put in an address and then followed the blue line.

When you consider his choice to take back roads instead of the main highway which would have been the most direct and fastest route home I think we can safely assume it was to avoid a possible confrontation with police. As at this time of the year when school is ending the police know all too well that the kids are going to start getting up to things such as underage drinking, driving under the influence, etc. They possibly even would have sobriety checkpoints to check for people who are driving under the influence.

During the multiple phone calls with his parents one thing that is clear: He genuinely wanted their help and was trying to help them locate him. He wasn’t just jerking them around and trying to send them on a wild goose chase or anything. Though it is worth noting that he only called his parents as a last resort. Initially he had tried to reach out to friends for help but he had gotten no answers from anyone that might have been closer to his location. Thus with his back against the wall he called his parents seeking help in his situation.

During the final phone call with his parents Brandon tells them that he is walking towards what he believes to be the town lights of Lynd, however at roughly the 47 minute mark Brandon says “Oh shit!” Before the line goes dead. At the time this happened his parents were searching for him and his car around the Lynd area. At 6:30am his parents contacted police to report him missing. The initial response was the one we all have come to expect in these kinds of stories and an officer actually told Brandon’s mother that the 19 year old “Had every right to be missing” and the initial response was greatly delayed.

Even when the police did begin to search for the young man they were still searching in the Lynd area where Brandon believed himself to be in. However it wouldn’t be until later that afternoon when police began checking cell phone data that the search area was expanded to the Taunton area where his car was found exactly as he had told his parents.

Despite a very, very exhaustive search no sign of Brandon has ever been found. The thing that did strike people as odd was the fact that his glasses were found inside the car. This came off as strange because he was legally blind in one eye. Before long air patrol and K9 units were dispatched to search the area. One of the K9’s followed Brandon’s scent trail to the Yellow Medicine River but there was still no definitive sign of Brandon nor anything that could suggest what had possibly befallen him.

So while we have no definitive answers to this case, what we do have are some theories. One theory states that while walking in the dark he had fallen into the Yellow River and drowned. Another theory states that he may have crossed the river and then due to cold temperatures fallen victim to hypothermia. Other theories say he might have fallen into an old abandoned well, of which there are many in the area and this would explain why no real trace of him had ever been located.

While we don’t know just what happened to this bright young man it can be said that some good came from his disappearance because the result of this has been the passage of “Brandon’s Law” which states that police are to begin investigating the disappearance of an adult straight away regardless of their age. While a hollow comfort perhaps this law just may help a lot of people be found and returned safely home than otherwise shared Brandon’s fate of being missing for nearly 20 years and counting.

If you have any information on Brandon Swanson’s whereabouts or fate please contact: Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) or the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office.

Kassandra Ramirez’s Story

This is one of those stories that really, really resonates with me due to some of the details that serve as something of a backdrop to this incredibly tragic story. I will give a bit of a trigger warning as some details of this case will possibly be upsetting to some listeners.

Kassandra Briana Ramirez was born March 15, 1993. While a lot of details about her early life are difficult to find, such as where she was born, the details we do have provide enough of a picture that it can be said that she was really invested in turning her life around from the path that she had started to head down. It can be really difficult when telling these kinds of stories to figure out just where to begin, however in cases like Kassandra’s due to the lack of certain details sometimes that choice is made for you.

In this case we’ll begin with the birth of Kassandra’s first child, a son, in November of 2010 when Kassandra was only 17 years old. Jay’Den Isaiah was born prematurely and would tragically pass only 12 days after his birth and this event would serve as a catalyst for Kassandra to fall into a pattern of substance abuse in order to try and cope. As a tribute to her first born son Kassandra got a tattoo with his name and dates of birth and passing. Two years later in 2012 she would give birth to her son Ethan whom she would lose custody of. Ethan currently resides with his paternal grandmother.

During intervening years and while struggling with both her substance abuse issues and homelessness Kassandra was trying to put her life to rights and completed culinary school and was aspiring to become a chef. Despite the positive strides she took Kassandra still had a good many of those little hurdles that do love to spring up and take us all by surprise when she was assaulted by her ex-boyfriend’s current girlfriend in July of 2017 and ended up being stabbed by her. While the assailant was charged in the case, so too was Kassandra, although those charges were later dropped.

Things were not bound to get any easier for her either as a year later Kassandra would be attacked again. This time it was by a family friend, and the attack was of the most heinous kind. The assault took place in an apartment in The Bronx and in the aftermath she called her mother, Ingrid, in tears saying that she didn’t know what to do. Ultimately she pursued charges against the individual, and this entire situation kind of marks the run up to her ultimate disappearance in 2018.

She had very conflicted feelings going forward, afraid of what people were going to be saying about her. Her aunt specifically said she was very nervous when she spoke about having to testify before a grand jury in the case. As you can imagine this took a toll on Kassandra. While she had never outright said that she was scared Kassandra did voice that she was “going to have to be careful now”. And oh just how eerily prophetic those words would prove to be.

You see just one week after this Kassandra would disappear. Her aunt was one of the last people to speak to Kassandra the night she went missing. The young woman was out with one of her exes that she had a kind of on/off again relationship with. During the call Kassandra told her aunt that they had stopped for gas and that they were then heading to Long Island. The guy in question by all accounts is said to have had a very unhealthy and downright toxic relationship with Kassandra. Ingrid says that the first time she met the man he said “I just love your daughter so much, but she pisses me off. Just all the time.”

And that was apparently just the first in a series of not red, but crimson flags. Every one of Kassandra’s friends and family members that met this unnamed guy said they all knew something about him was off the moment they met him. And on the night in question Kassandra was in touch with her aunt periodically checking in and letting her know that she was safe. So it would seem that even Kassandra herself felt the need to let someone know that she was safe as the night progressed. Kassandra was due to begin working at a new job the next morning and had been emphasizing to everyone that she was going to be going to bed early and getting up early.

The next day however was when the horror would begin for Kassandra’s family. After she not only failed to get in touch with any of her family but was also strangely absent from her social media, her family immediately knew that something was terribly wrong. Unfortunately this is also that point in the story where we have to begin dealing with speculation and theory since we have no way of knowing just what exactly happened to Kassandra overnight.

But this is also where it gets kind of interesting as a New York reporter was given access to Kassandra’s call log and she went through calling some of the more frequently dialed numbers. She got in touch with a few people that all acted very sketched out when she started asking questions. The really interesting bit is that when she called the ex that Kassandra had been with the night she vanished the guy that answered was most certainly not the guy she was trying to reach. The man said that he’d had the number for about three years which would fit the timeline when Kassandra disappeared.

It would mean that not long after her disappearance the ex in question had dumped his old number. The person that has it now said that when he first got the number that he received a lot of texts from people asking for “bars” (which is a slang term for bars of Xanax). So while Kassandra might have cleaned up her own act it would seem that some of the people she associated with were still involved in the seedy underbelly of society and in that world of drugs.

It’s really tragic that a young woman that was rising above the challenges life had thrown at her and preparing a better life for herself and her son would so suddenly and completely vanish, especially after all she had endured in her life.

Dennis Lloyd Martin’s Story

I want to start this piece by saying that the case of young Dennis Lloyd Martin very quickly became a far more intriguing story than I had ever dared to think that it might be. This case is actually quite unique among some of the MPC’s that I have looked into and researched; and that is probably because this particular story is said to have paranormal aspects to it. So my dear audience today we are going to look into a case that while it certainly falls under some type of True Crime umbrella also brings that supernatural kind of mystique to it. Now, let’s jump into this one.

I don’t think I would have to tell people just what a bizarre and creepy place that Appalachia can be. The stories that have come out of those ancient mountains and the valleys around them quite frankly speak for themselves. And I’m not just talking about the creepy ghost/cryptid/supernatural kinds of stories. There are just as many unsettling true crime stories from this enigmatic region as well. I would know as I have researched both sides of that coin (and I do have plans to do some Appalachia themed pieces in the future). But even in a place known for some of it’s more unsettling happenings the story of young Dennis Martin is especially disturbing, and is a tale that generations of children have grown up being told by their parents as a cautionary tale, spoken of in hushed tones around campfires by other children as they spun their own creepy versions of the story and speculated about the possible fate of the young boy.

And just right out the gate this case hits a level that not a whole lot of such cases do. While in some communities it might not be uncommon for people to clam up and just not talk about a particular incident or individual, in the case of Dennis Martin there have been people actively researching the case that have been threatened and told to keep their mouths shut about the entire Dennis Martin incident (so Raven if this gets us heat I do apologize in advance). So with some of this groundwork laid, let’s go back to 1969 and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

On June 14, 1969 young Dennis and his older brother Doug Martin and some other children camping in the National Park were planning to sneak up on and surprise the adults back at camp when the group separated from the six year old Dennis who was wearing a bright red shirt and therefore the other boys thought he would be a liability in their stealth approach. They sent him down the path back towards the adults and camp while Doug and the others crept along the edge of the trees until they reached their parents. Upon arriving back at camp when Doug and the others asked about where Dennis was they were informed that the adults had no idea where he was.

In the immediate aftermath of Dennis’ disappearance the first strange story emerged from witnesses that claimed to have heard a young boy scream in the woods on that day with one family saying they saw a figure emerge from the bushes shortly after the scream with something slung over its shoulder. In the first seconds of seeing the creature the family thought it might have been a bear, but quickly realized that the figure was far too humanoid to be a bear. Yes my friends in one of the most roundabout kinds of write ups I’ve ever done today we are going to touch on the topic of the Tennessee Wild Man because as far as a lot of accounts go there is a strong connection between the infamous cryptid and the vanishing of young Dennis Martin.

In fact one of the park rangers has even been reported as flat out saying that one of the Wild Men took young Dennis. For anyone remotely familiar with Appalachia or the Smoky Mountains specifically, then you know that for generations the Tennessee Wild Man has just been a part of the history of the region. What for some is just a scary story to tell around a campfire before bedtime to others is a terrifying fact of life. Since the 1800’s there have been stories of these Wild Men attacking and even abducting people. Specifically women. Now while the stories of them abducting women are possibly the most common, it is not women that are exclusively targeted by these creatures.

So, if we for the sake of argument just assume that this cryptid does in fact exist, then it wouldn’t be a stretch to see a creature that attacks and abducts human women as fully capable of,  and willing to attack an even more vulnerable child and abduct them. Especially if that child were, for instance, separated from their “pack” and walking alone down an isolated park trail way up in the mountains. For just about any creature with a predatory kind of instinct this would be too tempting a target to pass up. Now while what the purpose might be for taking a child like Dennis is definitely open to speculation; I think we can all agree that the drive to abduct him for any reason is nothing short of predatory.

However we are immediately hit with the question of whether the instance of the scream and the figure carrying something over its shoulder are the same instance as that of Dennis Martin vanishing. This question comes about based on where Dennis was at the time of his disappearance and where the subsequent search area was and the location where the scream was heard and the creature was witnessed. It would be nearly impossible if not impossible for anything or anyone to have crossed that distance in the elapsed amount of time between the occurrences.

Despite these doubts people who have had alleged encounters with the Tennessee Wild Men will tell you that for one of these creatures traversing that distance would be nothing as one of the local names for the Wild Men are “Ridge Runners”. And when we think about how any creature is at its deadliest in its native environment and couple that with the Wild Men’s reputation for its agility and mobility then it would fall into the category of plausible that such a creature would have little issues making that trek in the allotted time frame.

The more disturbing angle to this comes in when you think about the fact that even at the time of his disappearance Dennis Martin was far from the first child to mysteriously vanish in the Smoky Mountains with no real explanation. Nor has he been the last. At this point the phenomenon of children disappearing in the Smoky Mountains might have even supplanted those of women being targeted by these Tennessee Wild Men.

What’s truly unsettling to consider are the possible motives for these abductions. But since tales of the Wild Men date all the way back to the 19th century and we can categorically say that should the Wild Man exist especially into modern times there would have to be Wild Men and not just one Wild Man; I think possible implications become clear. Which only makes the thought of a child like six year old Dennis Martin being taken by them all the more terrifying and down right bone chilling.

Dwight McCarter, a very decorated park ranger was part of the search for Dennis and he documented extensively his involvement in the search for the boy. He reported that they encountered multiple dog teams that had found no sign of him, and that it was as if “he had dropped off the face of the earth”. By the third day of the search more than 300 people, including green berets, were in the park searching for any sign of the missing child. By day 5 the FBI was begrudgingly involved with William Martin, Dennis’ father, personally reaching out to then Director Edgar J. Hoover by letter asking for the Bureau to get involved in the search.

There are FBI files associated with this case that contain redacted information. They did become involved due to the possible “Kidnapping theory”. These files however say they found no signs of evidence suggesting a kidnapping and as such would not investigate further. Even 50 years later this does remain a possibility as well for Dennis’ disappearance. So looking at a “kidnapping theory” we need suspects to consider right? So who could have possibly kidnapped the unfortunate boy? Well again if you are familiar with the lore of Appalachia you are likely familiar with the stories of the feral people, the literal wildmen of the Appalachians. They are said to be cannibalistic and are often implicated when people go missing along the Appalachian Trail.

Stories of these people date all the way back to a time before the Great Smoky Mountain National Park even existed all the way back to the pioneer days when each new hilltop, every new valley marked the beginning of the new frontier. The Andersons are one such example of a “clan” that isolated themselves up into the mountains and deepest parts of the woods and are said to have devolved into a feral incestuous and cannibalistic pack of feral people. With stories such as these it’s not as far-fetched a theory as it first sounds.

But before we start wrapping this whole thing up I want to circle back to the original conversation about the potential cryptid connection in this story. You see there are also stories of those things even older than the feral humans of the Smoky’s and Appalachians. There are stories of a time when men were paid by “federal men” to “go hunting” in the woods around where today the National Park exists.  Many families that had homesteads there took the feds up on their offer and once they were displaced by the government in order for the park to be established all such “hunting” ceased. It’s said they were hunting what we call today the Tennessee Wild Man or in this case Men. I mention this because I want to circle a bit further into our earlier narrative (have fun wrapping your head around that statement) to day 5 of the search for Dennis Martin when we have the Green Berets deployed to the park.

While the Green Berets are an absolute beast of a fighting force I think it is an interesting choice to send them into the National Park when I feel the Army Rangers may have been a bit more natural of a choice. It certainly implies some kind of combat was expected or at least seen as a possibility out there in those woods. Some of course based on history like to say that with the rumors that a Wild Man took Dennis that the Berets were sent in to “finish the job” of hunting down the infamous cryptid. Kind of an “Order 66” on the so-called Tennessee Wild Men.

The sad outcome of the story though is mostly that we don’t truly have one. We have no more answers today in 2025 than we did back in 1969 when young Dennis Lloyd Martin vanished in the woods of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park at only 6 years old. The only truly definitive traces of the boy ever found was a set of footprints that went for a short distance. One foot was bare while the other was clearly the imprint of a shoe with the prints being consistent with those of a child in both size and gait. However that trail didn’t run very far and no further evidence of what happened to him has ever been found. I think to any of us the very notion of a child spending a single night alone in the wilderness is terrifying, but the thought of that child spending longer than that out there, perhaps amongst feral people and slowly becoming one themselves is even more terrifying.

Conclusion 

I just wanted to take a moment and say that I know the final story on this particular piece is more of a “Missing 411” case than a traditional MPC, I wanted to include it because I was unfamiliar with it and I found the whole possible cryptid connection to be quite fascinating. Of course the vanishing of a child is a tragedy but with no definitive explanation you have to consider all possible explanations. As a great Vulcan once said “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truth.”