Disappearance of Brian Shaffer

In March 2021, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation released an age-progressed photo of what Shaffer might look like at age 42, nearly 15 years after his disappearance.

In 2019, an image of an alleged American homeless man in Tijuana, Mexico bearing a resemblance to Shaffer began circulating online. Columbus news station 10TV forwarded the image to the detective in charge of Shaffer's case in 2020. The detective sent the image to the FBI for facial recognition analysis, which ruled him out as the identity of the man.

In 2014, Columbus police said they were still receiving at least two tips a month on the case via the local Crime Stoppers hotline, though none had proven useful. The evidence in the case filled four boxes of files. One of the original investigators, Andre Edwards, told Columbus Monthly that after extensive review of the camera footage at the Ugly Tuna Saloona from the night Shaffer disappeared, which was intended to rule out the idea that he could have left in disguise, he could "say with 100-percent certainty" that Shaffer did not leave via the escalator. Police say they have three theories about the case but declined to discuss them even generally with the magazine.

Those who had seen Shaffer that evening, including his father, were asked to take lie detector tests. He and Reed passed theirs, as did reportedly all the others, while Florence refused. The two women Brian had last been seen talking to were later identified; they said in 2009 that they had never been asked to take one themselves.

In September 2008, during a heavy windstorm, Randy Shaffer was out in the yard of his Baltimore home clearing debris. A branch blew off from a nearby tree and fatally struck him. Neighbors found his body the next morning and called police.

During his time at medical school, Shaffer had become romantically involved with another medical student, Alexis Waggoner. She, along with their families and friends, believed that Brian would probably be proposing marriage to her later in 2006, most likely on a trip to Miami the couple had planned for spring break at the beginning of April. Tropical locations such as Miami were attractive to Shaffer; he liked the relaxed lifestyles. He told his friends that despite his decision to pursue a medical career, his real ambition was to start a band playing music in the vein of Jimmy Buffett.

Following that, Shaffer began studies at the OSU College of Medicine in 2004. During his second year there, in March 2006, his mother died of myelodysplasia. Shaffer's friends say that although he appeared to be handling it well, her death was hard for him.

Brian Shaffer grew up in Pickerington, Ohio, a suburb outside of Columbus, the eldest of two sons to Randy and Renee Shaffer. He graduated from the local high school in 1997 and went to Ohio State University (OSU) for his undergraduate work. Six years later he graduated with a degree in microbiology.

Brian Shaffer (born February 25, 1979) was an American medical student at the Ohio State University College of Medicine. On the night of March 31, 2006, Shaffer went out with friends to celebrate the beginning of spring break; later he was separated from them and they assumed he had gone home. However, a security camera near the entrance to a Columbus bar recorded him briefly talking to two women just before 2 a.m., April 1, and then apparently re-entering the bar without any evidence of him leaving the area. Shaffer has not been seen or heard from since. The case has received national media attention.