This new and intriguing group will meet once a month to look at what many people are fascinated by, True Crime Cases. Each month we’ll discuss cases that have gripped a nation and try to explain the criminal psychology by using descriptions of police investigations and trial procedures.
Discussion for this case will be on Tuesday, November 20th at 6pm.
Brandon Mason Lawson Disappearance
On the night of Thursday, August 8, 2013, twenty-six-year-old Brandon Mason Lawson got into his car and left his San Angelo, TX home after an argument with his girlfriend of over 10 years, Ladessa Lofton.
Nearing Bronte on highway 277, Lawson reportedly dialed 911 at 12:50am because he had had an apparent accident and had run out of gas, however the phone call was hardly intelligible.
“Brandon said he had run out of gas, he needed the police, and something else about hitting somebody,” Coke County Sheriff Wayne McCutchen said. “But it was so garbled and the 911 kept having to ask him what he was saying…I don’t know if it was a bad connection; he was talking really fast and it was hard to understand him.”
At 12:58am the Coke County Sheriff’s office received a call that a vehicle was parked haphazard on the side of the road out on highway 277, thus posing a risk to oncoming traffic.
Deputies responded to the call and arrived on the scene, where Lawson’s truck stood abandoned. At the same time, Kyle Lawson, Brandon’s brother, appeared with a gas can and filled his brother’s truck.
According to Lori Norris, Lawson and Lofton’s neighbor, the Sheriff’s deputies asked Kyle Lawson if he was the one who had made the call, and Kyle stated that the vehicle was his brother’s and that he must have stepped away. Kyle Lawson would gas it up and his brother would return to retrieve it.
After this, the deputies left the scene.
This part of the story has been confirmed by Coke County Sheriff Wayne McCutchen, Lawson’s girlfriend Ladessa Lofton, and Lori Norris. What happened thereafter, however is where the story gets murky.
When deputies were on the scene, no mention was made concerning the potential whereabouts of Brandon Lawson. It wasn’t until two to three days later that Kyle Lawson came forward and admitted to the Sheriff that his girlfriend had been on the phone with Brandon while Kyle was talking to the deputies, Sheriff McCutchen said.
According to Norris, who has been assisting in the search for Lawson since his disappearance six weeks ago, “Kyle went down the road and waited for the Sheriff’s deputies to leave, and went back and was calling out to Brandon.”
Lofton added that Kyle had driven up and down the highway looking for his brother until 4:30am, and claimed that a few of his co-workers had assisted in the search, however was unable to say whether or not anyone stepped out of the vehicle to search in the brush where Brandon had reported he was hiding.
Lawson is said to have been ‘hiding in the bushes because he was scared,’ and, according to his brother’s girlfriend, his last words were ‘I’m bleeding, I’m bleeding.’ Shortly thereafter, the cell phone cut out and contact was lost.
“That’s the last anyone’s seen or heard from Brandon,” Norris said.
No one seems to know why Brandon Lawson was hiding out in the bushes, however an outstanding warrant from 2005 out of Johnson County has aroused suspicion in the authorities and in Bronte residents.
“It (the warrant) was possession of a controlled substance. That’s where all the confusion is coming from,” Norris says. “People are assuming Brandon ran, but if he ran, why hasn’t he spent any money, why hasn’t he contacted anybody? Nobody has heard from him. And his vehicle was found out there; And he called 911 on his own.”
Lawson’s truck revealed no damage whatsoever upon inspection, and who or what Lawson claimed to have hit in his 911 call has remained a mystery. While there are many theories surrounding Lawson’s disappearance, the most sobering comes from his girlfriend, Ladessa Lofton.
“I think he’s out in that field,” said Lofton. “There are wild hogs, there are wild snakes, you know, there all kinds of things out there that can do stuff to you, and coyotes…There’s so many ditches, so many wells, so many stuff that you can fall in, you know?
“I think something got him—I don’t know what got him, I don’t think a landowner would have got him…I think an animal got Brandon or, I don’t know; did somebody pick him up, did he hitchhike a ride, did they kill him? I don’t know,” said Lofton. “I don’t know what to think anymore. My head’s thinking of 50 million things, but I think Brandon is in that land somewhere.”
Since Lawson’s disappearance, there have been four aerial searches, one put on by the Coke County Sheriff’s Office and three privately-funded aerial charters paid for by Lofton. The authorities have also conducted a grid search on foot, however none of the searches have turned up anything.
“There were two or three Texas Rangers, deputies from Tom Green County, Coke County, San Angelo Fire Department, DPS Highway Patrol, DPS Criminal Investigation, and a Search and Rescue Tracker…there was somewhere between 20 and 25 people [looking for Brandon],” Sheriff McCutchen said.
“They covered about 3,000 acres…We only have one point where we know he was at. You can’t search all of Coke County, it’s a physical impossibility. And we have no idea if he went north, south, east or west. We don’t know if he got picked up by a truck driver, we don’t know if a member of the family came out there and got him, we just don’t know,” Sheriff McCutchen said.
Since his disappearance, Sheriff McCutchen has received three or four anonymous calls proclaiming to know the whereabouts of Lawson, and these vary from San Angelo to Fort Worth and in between.
The Sheriff’s deputies have been keeping a look out when they make routine patrols, however up until now, no further information or evidence has surfaced.
The Sheriff’s Department does not suspect foul play in the case of Brandon Lawson, and he is currently listed as a missing person.
Timeline
Take a look at the timeline of events according to the website True Noir: Everyday Mysteries.
https://truenoirstories.wordpress.com/2016/06/14/brandon-lawson/
Podcasts
Listen to one of these podcasts to learn more details about the case.
Search in your preferred podcast app, or use Podbean, Pocket Casts, or Stitcher. You can also search podcasts by going to Youtube, although not all episodes will be available.
https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/true-crime-garage/e/49292893
http://www.thevanishedpodcast.com/episodes/2016/5/10/episode-6-brandon-lawson
https://podfanatic.com/podcast/the-generation-why-podcast/episode/brandon-lawson-193-generation-why
Questions or Suggestions
I’d love to hear from you. What are your thoughts regarding this case?