Brian Randall Shaffer (born February 25, 1979)[1][2] was an American medical student at the Ohio State University College of Medicine who has been missing since the early hours of April 1, 2006, after security cameras recorded him just outside a bar in Columbus.

The security camera outside the entrance to the second-floor bar recorded him briefly talking to two women just before 2 a.m. and then walking off-screen without any further evidence of him leaving the area.

Columbus police have several theories about what happened;[4] some interest and suspicion has been directed at a friend of Shaffer's who accompanied him that night, but he has refused to take polygraph tests regarding the incident.

[5] While foul play has been suspected, including the possible involvement of the purported Smiley Face serial killer,[6] it has also been speculated that he might be alive and living somewhere else under a new identity.

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.

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.

Shaffer's father noted that he seemed exhausted from having studied through the night earlier in the week cramming for some critical upcoming exams.

[6] At 9 p.m., Shaffer met Florence at the Ugly Tuna Saloona, a bar in the South Campus Gateway complex on High Street in Columbus.

[6] It was possible, investigators realized, that Shaffer could have changed his clothes in the bar or put on a hat and kept his head down, hiding his face from the camera.

[8] The search began to fan out from the Ugly Tuna Saloona, with officers, sometimes accompanied by police dogs, looking closely in the street, inspecting dumpsters and other waste containers, and asking residents if they had seen Shaffer.

Flyers bearing his picture, showing a tattoo on his upper right arm of a stick figure logo from the cover artwork for the single of "Alive"[8] by Pearl Jam, one of his favorite bands, and noting a distinctive fleck in one of his irises, were posted widely.

[6] After searching miles away from the Ugly Tuna Saloona in every direction, police began considering other possibilities besides an accident or foul play.

At a Pearl Jam concert later that year in Cincinnati, lead singer Eddie Vedder took time between songs to ask for tips on Shaffer's disappearance, but none were useful.

He and Derek, Brian's younger brother, along with some other citizens who had become interested in the case, bought waders and spent much of their free time along the shores of the Olentangy River, which flows through Columbus adjacent to the OSU campus, searching in vain for the body near bridges.

Columbus police eventually rejected any connection to the alleged killer in Shaffer's case, following the lead of most law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, that have looked into it.

[6] In September 2008, during a heavy windstorm, Randy Shaffer was clearing debris in the yard of his Baltimore, Ohio home.

Rosenberg intimated that he had learned that the Columbus police investigating the case believed Shaffer was alive: "If Brian is alive, which is what I'm led to believe after speaking with the detective involved, then it is Brian, and not Clint [Florence], who is causing his family pain and hardship," Rosenberg wrote.

[4] In 2019, an image of an alleged American homeless man in Tijuana, Mexico, bearing a resemblance to Shaffer began circulating online.

[10] 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.

[11] Between the time of Shaffer's disappearance and his own death, Randy joined the families of other missing adults in Ohio in lobbying the state legislature to pass a bill establishing a statewide protocol for such cases.