Brandon’s Law and the Disappearance of Brandon Swanson

Brandon’s Law is a Minnesota statute, enacted in 2009, that requires law enforcement agencies to accept and begin investigating a missing person report immediately, whether the missing person is a child or an adult. Governor Tim Pawlenty signed it on May 7, 2009, and it took effect July 1 of that year.¹ The law ended the once-common practice of telling families to wait 24 hours, or to come back when there was evidence of foul play, before police would open a case.²

What the Law Requires of Police

Brandon’s Law is codified primarily at Minnesota Statutes sections 299C.52 through 299C.565. Section 299C.53 sets the core duties.³

An agency must accept a missing person report “without delay.” It cannot refuse the report because the person is an adult, because the disappearance looks voluntary, because there is no sign of foul play, because of how little time has passed, or because the person filing the report is not an immediate family member.
After accepting the report, the agency must conduct a preliminary investigation to determine whether the person is in fact missing and whether they are “endangered.”
If the person is missing and endangered, the agency must immediately consult the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) and enter the person’s information into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. The statute states that “the first two hours are critical.”
The BCA superintendent then originates a missing person alert, and the local agency issues a notification through the state’s Crime Alert Network.

Who Counts as an Endangered Missing Person

The “endangered” label is what triggers the fastest response. It applies when the circumstances suggest the disappearance was involuntary, when the person faces a known danger, when the person needs medication or has a mental impairment, or when the person is under 21 and at least one additional risk factor is present.¹

Which Agency Has to Take the Report

Section 299C.565 assigns responsibility to the agency with jurisdiction over the place where the person went missing or was last seen. If that location is unclear, the duty falls to the agency covering the person’s last known residence. When agencies dispute who owns the case, the BCA is required to step in and provide guidance.⁴ The alert provisions were updated in 2023, but the reporting and investigation duties remain in place.³

What the Law Changed

Before 2009, Minnesota’s governing statute was the Missing Children’s Act, and it used the word “child” throughout. That left agencies with no clear duty to act quickly on reports involving anyone 18 or older. Departments cited a handful of standard reasons to delay: no suspected foul play, only a few hours missing, a presumption that the adult had left voluntarily, or a report filed by someone who was not immediate family. Policies varied by county, and some departments told families to wait 24 hours before filing at all.¹² Brandon’s Law removed each of those excuses from the statute.

Why the Law Exists

The law is named for Brandon Swanson, a 19-year-old from southwestern Minnesota who disappeared on May 14, 2008. Driving home after leaving a friend’s house near Marshall, he put his Chevrolet Lumina in a ditch on a rural road in Lyon County. He called his parents, Annette and Brian Swanson, and told them he was walking toward the small town of Lynd. While still on the phone, he shouted an expletive and the call went silent.⁵⁶

His parents filed a report at 6:15 a.m. that morning. Because Brandon was a legal adult, the response was not urgent, and law enforcement did not begin searching until the afternoon. Cellphone tower data eventually led searchers to his car, which was found about 20 miles from where Brandon had believed he was. The doors were open, his keys and belongings were gone, and there was no sign of foul play.⁷⁵ The Swansons spent the first hours searching on their own.

Representative Marty Seifert, a Republican from Marshall, met with the family and introduced House File 1242. Senator Dennis Frederickson of New Ulm carried the companion bill, Senate File 1146. Annette and Brian Swanson testified at the Capitol, joined by other Minnesota families who had run into the same wall when they tried to report an adult child missing. The House Finance Committee passed the bill unanimously in April 2009, and Governor Pawlenty signed it as Chapter 38 of that year’s session laws.⁸⁹

Brandon’s own case remains unsolved. As of May 2026, 18 years after he disappeared, no physical evidence of his fate has been recovered, and the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office continues to accept tips at (507) 537-7666.⁶

Reach Beyond Minnesota

The Minnesota framework has been copied elsewhere. By 2015, at least four other states had enacted similar legislation, and advocates including the Jon Francis Foundation had lobbied roughly 40 states to adopt comparable measures.¹¹⁰ If you are trying to report a missing adult outside Minnesota, the specific duties described here are Minnesota law; other states have their own rules, and not all of them require an immediate response.

What to Do If You Need to File a Report in Minnesota

Contact the police department or sheriff’s office covering the place where the person went missing or was last seen. If you do not know where that is, contact the agency serving the person’s last known home address. The agency is required to take the report right away. Tell the officer about anything that could support an “endangered” finding: medical conditions, medications, mental health concerns, threats, unusual circumstances around the disappearance, or the person’s age if under 21. That designation is what puts the case into NCIC and onto the state’s alert network within the first critical hours.

1
Marshall Independent. Gaining Ground in the Search for Missing Adults
2
MPR News. Brandon Swanson’s Legacy Helps Others Be Found Faster
3
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Statutes Section 299C.53
4
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Statutes Section 299C.565
5
FBI. Brandon Victor Swanson
6
Inforum. 18 Years Later, Missing Persons Case Continues to Prompt Tips
7
Inforum. Missing Persons Investigations
8
Minnesota House of Representatives. Session Daily – Brandon’s Law
9
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. 2009 Session Laws, Chapter 38
10
Star Tribune. A Father Who Never Gave Up