The Last Mile He Walked: The Disappearance of Brandon Swanson
On a quiet night in May 2008, nineteen-year-old Brandon Swanson called his parents for help after his car slipped into a ditch on a rural Minnesota road. Calm, collected, and believing he was close to home, he began walking toward what he thought were the lights of a nearby town. For 47 minutes, he stayed on the phone with his father-until his final words cut through the line: "Oh, sht."*
The call went silent. Brandon was never seen again.
Sixteen years later, there are still no answers. His car was found. His scent tracked to a river's edge. Yet no trace of Brandon has ever been recovered. What happened in those missing minutes remains one of the Midwest's most haunting mysteries.
The Last Mile He Walked is more than the story of a disappearance-it is a story of resilience, advocacy, and grief without closure. Through gripping detail, it explores Brandon's life, the night he vanished, the agonizing mistakes that cost precious time, and the tireless fight of his parents, who turned their loss into "Brandon's Law," a landmark change in how missing adult cases are handled.
Both heartbreaking and hopeful, this book gives voice to the silence that follows when someone vanishes and honors a young man whose name still echoes in the dark.
If you are drawn to true crime stories that linger long after the last page, The Last Mile He Walked will stay with you.