Shaffer's friends say that although he appeared to be handling it well, her death was hard for him. During his second year there, in March 2006, his mother died of myelodysplasia. įollowing that, Shaffer began studies at the OSU College of Medicine in 2004. While foul play has been suspected, including the possible involvement of the purported Smiley Face serial killer, it has also been speculated that he might be alive and living somewhere else under a new identity. Columbus police have several theories about what happened some interest and suspicion has been directed at a friend of Shaffer's who accompanied him that night but who has refused to take lie detector tests regarding the incident. Shaffer's disappearance has been especially puzzling to investigators since there was no other publicly accessible entrance or exit to the bar at that time. The case has received national media attention. Shaffer has not been seen or heard from since. However, a security camera near the entrance to a Columbus bar recorded him briefly talking to two women just before 2 a.m., April 1, and then apparently re-entering the bar without any evidence of him leaving the area. On the night of March 31, 2006, Shaffer went out with friends to celebrate the beginning of spring break later he was separated from them and they assumed he had gone home. Brian Shaffer (born February 25, 1979) was an American medical student at Ohio State University.