When an Ohio medical student disappears into thin air during a night out, a massive investigation fails to uncover any trace of him.

One of the Midwest's most baffling mysteries is explored in this episode of Last Seen Alive.

... Thanks for listening to Last Seen Alive. I'm your host Leah, crime analyst by day, and true crime storyteller by night.

As always, I'm your co-host Scott.

This is the revisited and enhanced edition of one of our early episodes, which features the unsolved disappearance of Brian Schaefer. The original edition was recorded in 2020, and we've

revisited and re-recorded an episode on his case in 2025. As I'm sure those of you who've been

listening since the early days of Last Scene Alive have noticed, our production and audio quality

have improved significantly over the years. Lately, we've been working on remaking our earlier episodes.

When we originally recorded them, we were doing the best we knew how at the time. However,

our best wasn't the best, and how at the time. However, our

best wasn't the best and we've learned a lot since then. We want to honor those victims by telling

their stories with the production quality they deserve. So we've been completely remaking all

of our early episodes, including this one. A quick heads up. This episode contains discussion

of the topic of suicide. Please listen with care.

Brian Schaefer was last seen alive on April 1, 2006. He was 27 years old and lived in Columbus, Ohio.

The area was home for him. He'd grown up in a Columbus suburb with his parents and younger brother. As a young

adult, he'd chosen to attend a local college, Ohio State University. Not only did he complete an

undergraduate degree there, he went on to attend the university's medical school. Brian was an outgoing,

funny, and intelligent guy. Getting into medical school is notoriously tough, but he was smart and

academically inclined. After completing his undergraduate degree in microbiology, he'd had no

trouble getting in. By 2006, he was a second-year medical student well on his way to a successful

career in medicine. And this was something Brian had been looking forward to for years, because he'd

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