Almost 20 years ago, a man disappeared and has never been seen again, even though CCTV footage from the last place he was seen appears to show that he never left.
During the early hours of 1 April, 2006, Brian Shaffer was seen walking into the Ugly Tuna Saloon in Columbus’ University District in Ohio, US.
He'd been out on the town with fellow student William ‘Clint’ Florence to celebrate them completing their exams, and had already been to the Ugly Tuna as they'd been bar-hopping throughout the night and come across a friend of Clint's who drove them back there.
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CCTV showed Brian Shaffer going up an escalator to return to the bar at around 1:15am.
Earlier into the night, at 10.00pm, Shaffer rang his girlfriend, Alexis Waggoner, to confirm their upcoming trip to Miami.
He told her he loved her as she was going away to visit her parents before coming back to meet with him on the following Monday.
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Both Waggoner and his parents believed he was going to propose to her on their trip, but it never happened.
At 2.00am, the med student was seen for the last time as he was spotted in footage chatting with two women outside. It seems to show that he walked back in but no one could find him.
Call attempts from both Florence and Reed proved unsuccessful, and they went home once the bar shut, assuming he must have left himself.
Shaffer's dad also tried to call him over the weekend, but every attempt went unanswered and he ended up missing his flight on the Monday morning.
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In the first days of his disappearance, up to 50 police officers were 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.
And the two women Shaffer was spotted on CCTV with claimed they were not asked to take tests.
Waggoner said she tried to call him everyday, but it went straight to voicemail. Although, on one night in September, it apparently seemed to ring three times, but his service provider said it may have been a glitch with the system.
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With his phone not being GPS enabled, authorities also couldn’t find its location.
While the final CCTV of Shaffer appears to show him walking offscreen and towards the bar entrance, the camera could have missed him, and the exit leads straight to a construction site.
Theories suggest 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.
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Several years ago, a man pictured in Tijuana, Mexico appeared to share a resemblance to Shaffer but the FBI concluded it wasn't him.
Additional words by Jess Battison.
Topics: US News, True Crime
Joe Harker