They contacted authorities after a cellular telephone call earlier that morning when Swanson told his parents his car went into a ditch, the Lyon County Sheriff’s Department said.
It was believed he was going to Marshall from Canby, where he attends Minnesota West college, Lyon County Sheriff Joel Dahl said.
The search on Thursday focused on an area near Taunton and the Lincoln-Lyon County Line road, less than a half-mile north of the intersection with Minnesota Highway 68. The search area included land along the Yellow Medicine River.
“At this point we’re not calling it a recovery effort,” Dahl said at about 4 p.m. Thursday. The search would continue Thursday evening, he said.
Dahl did say that with friends and family looking for him, it seems unlikely Swanson could be with a friend or be unaware of the search for him.
“We just have not found him,” Dahl said.
“We’ve gotta be upbeat,” Swanson’s sister Jamine Swanson said Thursday morning of the search.
“We’ll find him in good condition,” friend Ethan Lundberg said Thursday morning of Swanson.
Dahl said there was no new information to help determine Swanson’s possible whereabouts or to change thoughts that Swanson was in good condition when he contacted his parents early Wednesday morning.
Search dogs from Codington County, S.D., were helping with the search Thursday.
A plane did an air search Thursday. A search and rescue dog team from the Twin Cities was also due to arrive and help late Thursday afternoon, Dahl said.
Swanson had called his parents between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. Wednesday and told them he had a car accident near Lynd, Dahl said.
His dad, Brian Swanson, told his son to meet him at the Lyndwood Lounge, Dahl said.
“His dad was talking to him and he said he wasn’t hurt,” Dahl said. “We spent time yesterday searching that direction.”
Brian Swanson said Thursday his son sounded coherent and did not seem to be impaired.
Later on Wednesday, the cellular telephone company said it had narrowed the last cell phone call between Swanson and his father to a tower near the intersection of Lyon County roads 10 and 3 near Minneota, Dahl said.
“From that position, it was narrowed to a 5-mile radius from that tower,” Dahl said of the search and area from which the call was made.
“By 12:30 p.m. (Wednesday) we found his car in the ditch,” Dahl said.
Swanson was apparently using a field road north of Minnesota Highway 68 when he ran into the ditch where the field road intersects with the Lincoln Lyon County Line Road, Dahl said.
“He’s healthy,” Dahl said of Swanson. “He’s not diabetic. He has no history of seizures.”
Swanson’s parents and law enforcement have not been able to contact Swanson on his cell phone, Dahl said. When the phone is now called, calls go directly to his voice mail, which likely means the cell phone needs charging, Dahl said.
“From here, you can see the red light on the elevator in Taunton,” Dahl said.
It’s logical to believe Swanson headed toward the light, especially if he believed he was headed toward Lynd and the Lyndwood, Dahl said.
If Swanson took what appeared to be the shortest route, he would have crossed farm fields and the river, Dahl said.
A search dog picked up Swanson’s scent at the car and returned to the road, but once on the road, “There is no way for the scent to stay there,” Dahl said.
Swanson is a 2007 graduate of Marshall High School and is a student at the Minnesota West Canby Campus, friends and family said.
Swanson was likely wearing jeans, a dressier shirt with a white T-shirt under it and a black, hooded sweatshirt with an emblem on the back, Brian Swanson said.
Lundberg and Jamine Swanson said Swanson is skinny and about 5-foot-5 with brown, short hair.
Article Photos
Photo by Rae Kruger
Emergency personnel from neighboring towns, along with friends of 19-year-old Brandon Swanson, walk through a pasture near Taunton in search of Swanson, who has been missing since Wednesday morning. Swanson has not been heard from since he called his parents early Wednesday morning to tell them his car went into a ditch, the Lyon County Sheriff’s Department said.