Brandon Lawson went missing in 2013, leaving authorities perplexed and his family in disarray. The events leading up to his disappearance near Bronte, Texas, appeared to be completely contradictory. He was a loving father of four, but on the night of August 8, 2013, he stormed out of his house in a rage. He called police an hour later when he ran out of gas, but he hid from them when they arrived.

According to NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, Lawson told an emergency operator, “Yes, I’m in the middle of a field.” “I ran out of gas in my truck. There is only one car here. The man is pursuing [inaudible] into the woods. Please act quickly! We’re not speaking to him… “I told you I bumped into ’em.”

In addition to calling the cops, Lawson called his brother Kyle and asked him to bring some gas. Kyle arrived shortly after 1 a.m. on Aug. 9, but Lawson was nowhere to be found. Nobody has seen him since.

Disappearance of Brandon Lawson

Brandon Lawson was born on November 18, 1986, in Fort Worth, Texas, to Bradley and Kimberly Lawson. He grew up in a large family and appeared to have a happy childhood. He enjoyed spending time outside with his brothers Kyle and Billy, as well as his sister Brittany. He liked fishing and camping and was eager to get his own pickup truck.

Lawson, a junior in high school, approached sophomore Ladessa Lofton and asked for her phone number. The couple fell in love and went on to have three children together. Lofton also became a stepmother to Lawson’s previous relationship’s child. They’d been together for ten years when Lawson vanished.

With the stress of working more than 60 hours per week in the oil fields and a newborn son at home, Lawson turned to methamphetamine just before his disappearance. According to a Crawlspace podcast interview with Lawson’s brother Kyle, Lawson called Kyle on August 7, 2013 to see if he knew where to find the drug.

Lawson did not return home to his family that evening, prompting a fight with Lofton when he did on Aug. 8. He stormed out of their fight in his truck just before midnight.

“I guess he didn’t have a lot of gas when he left,” Lofton speculated. “I called my brother-in-law and told him [Lawson] was going to run out of gas, and I put the gas tin on the porch for him to give to him so he could go get him gas, because he was pretty angry at the time.”

Lawson had called his father at 11:30 p.m. to say he was on his way home to Crowley, Texas. Lawson, however, did not complete the three-hour drive because he ran out of gas on Route 277 at 12:30 a.m. on Aug. 9. In a panic, he called his brother Kyle, who was concerned that Lawson was high and hallucinating.

“Three (expletives) are chasing me out of town,” Lawson explained, adding that he was referring to “the Mexicans in the neighbourhood.”

When his brother questioned him, Lawson denied being high. Kyle left his house with his wife and four-year-old son in tow and drove to Lawson’s to retrieve the gas can Lofton had left on the porch.

The brothers spoke on the phone several more times, with Lawson frequently hanging up after only a few sentences. Lawson informed Kyle that he was bleeding at one point. Meanwhile, Oxygen reports that Lawson dialed 911 around 12:50 a.m. and told the dispatcher that he wasn’t alone — and that he needed the police.

Is Brandon Lawson Missing Due To Foul Play?

Lofton described the 911 call as “kind of in-and-out, but you can still understand what he’s saying.” “He just said someone was looking for him… I’m not sure what happened. That 911 call is all we have… “I’m still not sure what happened.”

At 12:56 a.m., a passing trucker noticed Lawson’s parked truck hanging over the white line of the road and called 911. Around 1:10 a.m., a police officer arrived to inspect the abandoned vehicle, just as Kyle pulled up while on the phone with Lawson. Lawson said he was right there and saw him arrive, but neither Kyle nor the police officer saw him.

Kyle suspected Lawson was hiding from the officer and parked down the road to wait. Lawson, however, was nowhere to be found even after the officer had left. Kyle left to take his family home because all of his calls were now going to Lawson’s voicemail. Kyle went back to the abandoned truck in the morning, but Lawson was still missing.

According to a deputy report, “the only sign of anyone being in that area was a spot under a tree where it appeared someone sat down close to the roadway within eyesight of where Lawson’s pickup broke down.”

The Coke County Sheriff’s Office towed Lawson’s truck at 8 a.m., noting that Lawson had an outstanding warrant for drug charges and had previously spent time in jail, leading them to suspect Kyle of assisting his brother in his disappearance. The search for Lawson continued after two polygraph tests cleared Kyle.

Authorities used thermal imaging cameras, planes, and six cadaver dogs to search the area but found nothing. Lofton even hired a private investigator who oversaw a team of ten. While Kyle claimed Lawson told him Lofton had “people from their neighborhood after him,” everyone involved agreed he was being paranoid.

Remains

In February 2022, his remains were found near where his vehicle had been left. Although police are still doing DNA tests to confirm the identification, Lawson’s clothes were also found in the vicinity and his family has accepted that the body must be his. His death is under investigation.

Investigating Agency

• Coke County Sheriff’s Office 325-453-2717