19-year-old Brandon Swanson called his parents for help after getting stuck in a ditch on a rural Minnesota road. For 47 minutes, they stayed on the phone as Brandon walked through dark farmland, trying to meet his parents at a safe location.

His last words were "Oh, shit!" before the line went dead. He vanished without a trace.

On May 14, 2008, Brandon left a party in Lynd, Minnesota, and drove toward home in Marshall. When his car slid into a roadside ditch, he called his father for assistance. But cell tower data later revealed Brandon wasn't where he thought he was - he was actually 25 miles away from his believed location.

During the 47-minute phone call, Brandon described walking through fields, climbing wire fences, and hearing running water nearby. His parents drove through Lynd searching for him, flashing their headlights while Brandon flashed his phone screen. Neither could see the other's signals.

Then Brandon encountered something in the darkness that made him exclaim in alarm. The call ended abruptly, and Brandon Swanson disappeared forever.

Despite one of the largest search operations in Minnesota history involving over 500 volunteers and 34 search dogs from 9 states, no trace of Brandon has ever been found. Search dogs tracked his scent for three miles to the Yellow Medicine River, where the trail vanished.

17 years later, Brandon Swanson's disappearance remains one of Minnesota's most baffling missing person cases. What happened during those final moments? What did Brandon see that made him cry out? And how does someone vanish completely from flat, open farmland?

The Crime Division examines the evidence, analyzes the timeline discrepancies, and explores the theories surrounding Brandon's mysterious disappearance.