Brandon Lawson

Case background and investigation

Brandon Mason Lawson was a 26-year-old man from San Angelo, Texas, and a father. In the early hours of August 9, 2013, he ran out of gas along a remote, dark stretch of U.S. Highway 277 a few miles south of the small town of Bronte, Texas, north of San Angelo. Around 12:30 a.m. he called his brother Kyle for help. During that call he said he was being chased out of town, which led Kyle to wonder whether Brandon was hallucinating from drugs; Brandon denied it. Kyle and his girlfriend set out to bring him gas.

At about 12:50 a.m., Lawson called 911 and reached a dispatcher. In the recording, which was later widely circulated online, he sounded confused and frightened. He said his truck had run out of gas and pleaded for police to hurry, with fragmented statements including references to someone chasing him toward the woods and a car nearby. The call then cut off. When his brother and, later, responders arrived in the area, they found his truck but could not find Brandon. He had apparently disappeared into the surrounding fields and thick brush.

Extensive searches of the rugged rural terrain over the following days, months, and years failed to locate him, and the case drew national attention, in large part because of the haunting 911 recording. Investigators, family members, and volunteers repeatedly combed the fields and mesquite near where he was last known to be. For a long time no definitive trace was found, and theories about his fate ranged from an accidental death of exposure or a fall to the possibility of foul play. His family kept the search active through social media and independent searchers.

In early 2022, human remains and clothing were discovered in the area near his last known location. Testing took time, but on December 25, 2024, Lawson's family announced that DNA analysis had confirmed the remains were his. His remains were formally released to the family in 2025 so he could be laid to rest. While Brandon Lawson has now been identified and recovered, ending more than a decade of uncertainty for his family, the exact circumstances and cause of his death were not conclusively determined, and questions about what happened that night remain.