EAST LANSING, Mich. – For the first time in nearly three years, the parents of Brendan Santo are breaking their silence and demanding answers to their son’s mysterious death.
Brad and Wendy Santo said they have “no closure” regarding his death.
Santo, 18, disappeared from the campus of Michigan State University on the weekend of Oct. 29, 2021. He was a Grand Valley State freshman who came to campus to visit friends during the busy weekend of the Michigan vs. Michigan State football game in East Lansing.
Background: Case closed, truth still missing: What happened to Brendan Santo?
He was last seen leaving Yakeley Hall just before midnight and walking near Michigan Avenue and Beal Street. He disappeared, and his body was found 84 days later in the Red Cedar River.
His death was ruled an accidental drowning, but a medical examiner said the case should have been left undetermined.
Read: The new pieces of evidence raising major questions about Brendan Santo’s death
“I mean, we know where he ended up. We just don’t know what happened to him,” said Brad Santo, his father. “A lot of questions.”
Three years later, the police reports regarding the incident remain heavily redacted, but new pieces of evidence have been uncovered that raise questions about how police managed the case.
Local 4 Investigator Karen Drew spoke with Santo’s parents after the new details had come to light.
The person who found Santo’s body was private investigator Ryan Robison, who took a personal interest in the case and spent hours talking to Santo’s father.
Robinson didn’t know them before the incident, but reached out on his own and said he wanted to help.
“His email just kind of stuck with me, and we hit it off from day one,” Brad Santo said. “You know, we just felt like we knew each other for a long time. And I mean, he certainly hasn been instrumental in helping us.”
The autopsy report revealed that there was no water found in Santo’s lungs. When Karen Drew brought the autopsy report to Chief Oakland County Medical Examiner Ljubisa Dragovic, he said drowning could not be confirmed as a cause of death and “Proclaiming that it is solved is not fair by any measure.”
“It’s shocking,” said Wendy Santo. “They’re professionals, that’s their job there. I just assumed that it would be correct.”
Read: Medical examiner says Brendan Santo’s cause of death should be ‘undetermined’
Police said Santo’s cellphone last pinged at 12:09 a.m. and then went dead. The theory was that he fell in the water sometime after midnight, so the phone wasn’t used after that.
But new information shows Santo’s phone pinged again at 2:39 a.m. -- a full two and a half hours later.
Digital forensics expert Scott Bailey said the phone couldn’t have turned on by itself and that someone had to manually turn it back on.
Police aren’t sharing the location of that ping, but some witnesses who spoke to Robison put Santo on North Campus at about 2 a.m.
“The last ping that we weren’t aware of from early in the morning that they decided not to tell us, I mean, that throws more questions for us,” Brad Santo said.
Investigators never told the family about the 2:39 a.m. ping and they only found out through Robison and through the police report he obtained.
While they still don’t have answers, Brad and Wendy Santo want Brendan’s legacy to be who he was and not how he died.
“He was a great kid,” Wendy Santo said. “He had a funny sense of humor, a great smile.”
“He was the one who always made sure everybody got home. That was one of the last texts we saw,” Brad Santo said. “He was checking on a friend right before his phone went out. That was Brendan.”
