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👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@paul_lando
0:06 - Introduction and Disappearance
1:15 - The Search for Aaron
3:19 - Aaron’s Background and Last Trip
6:25 - Investigation Leads to Brandon
10:23 - Brandon’s Mental Health and Arrest
14:28 - Crime Details and Aftermath
19:40 - Legal Case and Sentencing
22:13 - Conclusion and Reflection
We're now available on Spotify! Listen now https://open.spotify.com/show/033MgMUOXQEOYvZBJxmxir
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@paul_lando
0:06 - Introduction and Disappearance
1:15 - The Search for Aaron
3:19 - Aaron’s Background and Last Trip
6:25 - Investigation Leads to Brandon
10:23 - Brandon’s Mental Health and Arrest
14:28 - Crime Details and Aftermath
19:40 - Legal Case and Sentencing
22:13 - Conclusion and Reflection
We're now available on Spotify! Listen now https://open.spotify.com/show/033MgMUOXQEOYvZBJxmxir
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NewsTranscript
00:05Aaron Davis, a 21-year-old young man, never imagined that a seemingly ordinary trip would
00:13end up becoming the center of a disturbing investigation. After his family and friends
00:19lost contact with him, a race against time began to discover what had happened and where he was.
00:27But the deeper the investigators delved into the case, the more evident it seemed that the key
00:33to everything might lie with someone very close to him. Someone who had known him for a long time
00:40and who might be hiding much more than they were saying. What began as a search for a missing
00:48person ended up turning into an investigation full of surprising twists. There was an intense police
00:54chase. Evidence discovered at key moments, contradictory statements, and shocking revelations.
01:17On the morning of Saturday, November 12, 2022, the police in Rome, Georgia, found an abandoned
01:24Toyota Prius in a ditch next to a levee in a park area near Heritage Park. The car was in
01:34a place
01:34where it shouldn't have been, with no owner in sight. At first, it didn't seem too strange to them
01:41because the place was close to a university. And it could be that a student drank too much the night
01:47before and maybe ended up crashing their vehicle into this ditch and decided to abandon it there.
01:54They searched for the owner of the vehicle using the car's license plate. It belonged to Randy Davis.
02:00When they called the man to inform him about the discovery of the vehicle, he seemed very confused
02:05by the situation. He said that his son Aaron had been using the vehicle and that he hadn't heard from
02:11Aaron since Thursday and that Aaron was no longer responding to his messages. According to his father,
02:18Aaron left on Thursday afternoon with his vehicle and was planning to drive to Rome, Georgia. He was
02:23going to spend the night at an old high school friend's house and the next day continue his trip to
02:30Alabama to see his girlfriend. But with the discovery of the vehicle, concern turned into alarm. The family
02:37was very worried. They tried to contact Aaron again. They called him, but he still didn't answer.
02:43They spoke with his girlfriend. She told them that Aaron never arrived at her house. So they decided to
02:50report their son's disappearance and go to Rome themselves to look for him. Where was Aaron? Could
02:57something have happened to him on his way from his friend's house to his girlfriend's house?
03:02All these questions and more would be answered just a few hours later.
03:19Aaron William Davis was 21 years old and was just starting his adult life. He was doing it step by
03:25step.
03:26He was born in Rhode Island, grew up in Massachusetts, and since 2011 had been living with his family
03:32in Cumming, a city in Georgia. He came from a very close-knit family, active in their church with
03:39parents and siblings who described him as loving, with a sense of humor and a rare ability to make others
03:46feel comfortable. In July 2022, he graduated in political science from Brigham Young University,
03:54Idaho in Rexburg. Before that, he had served a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ
04:03of Latter-day Saints and had done a law internship in North Carolina, which led him to the idea of
04:10studying law. In the end, he decided that litigation was not for him but rather teaching. He wanted to
04:17teach civics right away to study and help other young people understand how the world they lived in
04:22and worked. Aaron was not a stranger to the people around him. His classmates remembered him as a
04:28kind guy who greeted everyone and had the habit of staying to chat a little longer when someone was
04:34having a hard time. A friend described him in the press as someone with radical kindness,
04:40a radical goodness that he didn't keep just for those closest to him. His immediate plan was very
04:47specific. On the morning of Thursday, November 10, 2022, Aaron took the Gaze, the entrance exam for
04:55graduate studies in Georgia, so he could continue his training as a teacher. He had prepared for it,
05:01took it seriously, and according to his family, he left the test feeling like he was taking the next
05:06logical step in his life plan. Aaron told his family that he was going on a road trip.
05:12He planned to sleep at a friend's house in Rome on Thursday night and the next day continue on to
05:19Alabama to see his girlfriend, Charlie. The last time Charlie spoke directly with Aaron was that
05:26Thursday night. It was what they always did. Messages, calls, and telling each other about their day.
05:33From that point on, communication stopped. On Friday the 11th, she didn't receive any calls or clear
05:38responses. The messages she sent him were left unread or simply unanswered. She started to get worried,
05:46but she could still think he was driving, without service or distracted. When the worry became too
05:53much, Charlie did what anyone would do in her place. She wrote to and called that friend, the person
05:59Aaron was staying with. He was the one who gave her the first reassuring explanation. He told her that
06:06Aaron was with him, that everything was fine, that he couldn't answer because his phone had died,
06:11and that he would stay with him on Friday and then on Saturday head to Alabama. Were those normal
06:18excuses? Normal, everyday ones, the kind anyone might believe if they didn't have a bad feeling.
06:24At home, Aaron's parents also felt that something was wrong. It wasn't normal for so many hours to go
06:30by without any news or messages from him. It wasn't until Saturday the 12th that the police found the
06:36car and notified the family. From that point on, everything sped up. The family formally reported
06:42his disappearance. They called local hospitals, checked if he had been in any accident, and also
06:49worked with the police to reconstruct his last known movements. With the missing person report filed,
07:02the police started with the basics, reconstructing Aaron's route from the moment he left coming.
07:08They checked which route he had taken, where he might have stopped, who he had met with, and who was
07:15the last person who claimed to have been with him. That name kept coming up everywhere. Brandon
07:21Christopher Rizner, who was Aaron's friend from his teenage years, and also the host, the one who was
07:28going to host him. On Saturday afternoon, the detectives decided to go to Brandon's parents' house
07:36in East Rome, since it was the last place where Aaron was seen, where he had spent the night, and
07:44also to
07:44talk to the friend. There, Brandon welcomed them. He told them that he was also looking for his friend.
07:51He said he had called his cell phone several times, and he wasn't answering. Brandon told them that the
07:57last time he saw Aaron was Friday night at his house. He said he had been drinking since the afternoon
08:03at a bar. Then they went back to his house, and Aaron was vomiting, so Aaron asked Brandon to leave
08:09him
08:09alone. So Brandon went downstairs and fell asleep, and when he woke up around one or two in the morning,
08:17he saw that Aaron's car was already gone. He also added that he didn't know if Aaron's parents knew
08:24that he drank alcohol, because they are all Mormons, and as you know, Mormons can't drink alcohol. But
08:30supposedly Aaron used to drink alcohol occasionally with him. He also told them that on Saturday morning,
08:37he went to the emergency room at a hospital because he had cut some fingers on one hand with a
08:42bottle
08:42to explain his injury. The officers asked him if there was anyone else in the house, and he said he
08:48was alone, that his parents had traveled. They asked to enter the house to take a look around, and he
08:53allowed them in without any problems. He didn't ask for a search warrant or anything, so we can say that
09:00he was cooperating. The house looked tidy, with no signs of any kind of struggle. They checked the room
09:07where Aaron spent the night. When they entered, they noticed a strong smell of disinfectant and cleaning products.
09:14The bed had no sheets or pillows, but that made sense because Brandon said Aaron had been vomiting a lot,
09:20so that explained it. But upon further inspection, they found several blood stains on the carpet next to
09:27the bed, which immediately set off all the alarms. So the officers decided to call the detectives to
09:34start a thorough inspection of the house and get a warrant, so they could search it completely.
09:40The officers suspected that these traces of blood could mean that Aaron was attacked,
09:45but they still didn't know where he was. He could be injured or trapped somewhere, and they needed to
09:52question the friend, who now looked even more like a suspect. While all this was happening, Brandon
09:59realized that the officers had found the blood stains and decided to run away. That's when a food chase
10:05through the neighborhood began. They couldn't catch him, and he got away. They had to call for reinforcements
10:12and search the whole neighborhood, but they still couldn't find him. Now they had two missing people,
10:18an abandoned car, and a house as a possible crime scene. The officers called Brandon's parents to see
10:26if they knew where he might be hiding. They were surprised to hear that their son had run from the
10:31officers.
10:32The parents explained that their son used to have panic attacks and that he was taking medication,
10:38that he had been diagnosed with OCD and Tourette's. The parents were very distressed about Brandon.
10:45They said he probably just got scared and had a panic attack. That's why he ran. While the search for
10:51Aaron, and now also for Brandon, continued, the detectives obtained approval for the search warrant
10:56for Brandon's family home. They focused on the upstairs room where Aaron had slept. It was clear that
11:04someone had tried to clean the scene, but there were blood stains on the bed, on the carpet, and
11:10splattered on the wall as well. In the nearby bathroom, they found more traces, signs that the
11:17body had been moved or handled there before leaving the house. The agents didn't just look at the blood,
11:24they took kitchen knives, clothes, towels, cleaning products, and any other potentially relevant item.
11:31When they analyzed Brandon's phone, they found searches that didn't leave much room for doubt.
11:39For example, how to clean blood from a carpet, what products could be used to remove tough stains.
11:47They also discovered recent purchases of new sheets and cleaning supplies at a local supermarket,
11:52made right after the time investigators believe Aaron had been killed.
11:58All this evidence, Aaron's disappearance, a house stained with blood, internet searches,
12:05and the fact that he ran from the police, made Brandon Reisner the main and only suspect
12:10in his friend's disappearance.
12:20Aaron and Brandon met when they were in elementary school, but they became very good friends in high
12:27school. Their bond went back years.
12:32They had also been members of the same congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
12:37when they were teenagers, and they had stayed in touch even after Brandon's family moved to Rome.
12:45Brandon had stayed at the Davies' house on numerous occasions. He was always welcomed and everyone liked him,
12:52for Aaron, stopping by his house on the way to Alabama wasn't unusual. He was going to see a trusted
12:58friend. He wasn't couch surfing with a stranger, nor a date with someone he barely knew. He was literally
13:04his best friend from his teenage years. Brandon was a 23-year-old young man. He lived in Rome, Georgia,
13:11with his father and stepmother. On the outside, he didn't attract much attention. He worked as a scare
13:17actor at a local amusement park. One of those employees who dresses up as monsters or sinister
13:24figures to scare people in the dark hallways during Halloween and themed events. Those who knew him
13:31from high school remembered him as the weird but approachable guy. Someone who sometimes isolated
13:38himself who could get very intense about certain topics. They saw him as a guy who had trouble fitting
13:45in but not as an imminent danger. The strongest contrast appears when they talk about his mental
13:52health. His own family acknowledged that Brandon had been struggling with problems for years.
13:58Episodes of intense anxiety, intrusive thoughts, distorted religious ideas. He used to hear and see
14:05things that didn't exist and he had periods when he seemed to live more in his head than in the
14:11real
14:11world. They talk about crises that had forced him to drop out of school, about times when he needed
14:18treatment and about the deterioration that, according to them, got worse with the use of marijuana and THC
14:26edibles. On Saturday night, Brandon finally decided to turn himself in and went to a police station with his
14:34parents. His dad told the detectives that Brandon had recently confessed everything he had done and
14:41told them where they could find Aaron's body. An area in Old East, Rome. The search for the body began
14:50immediately. The area was a mix of park, trails and wooded land with spaces where someone could hide
14:57something without it being seen at first glance. First, there were food patrols, then more specialized
15:04teams until they finally made the worst discovery. Under a fallen tree in a hole just over half a meter
15:12deep,
15:13there was disturbed earth, recently dug, and there was the body of Aaron. Wrapped and mutilated,
15:22barely covered by a few centimeters of earth. Brandon was arrested and asked for a lawyer and that way
15:31they would know what happened, what led Brandon to attack his best friend.
15:42With the investigation and the interrogation of Brandon, it was possible to determine what happened
15:48on the night of the crime. The night of November 10, 2022 began. Aaron and Brandon went to a bar
15:56together, had some strong beers and went back to Brandon's parents' house in East Rome to spend the
16:01night. For Brandon, as he later said, that night was marked by something very different, a vision he
16:10claimed to have had after taking marijuana edibles. He said that after consuming those edibles,
16:18he felt that God was giving him a direct and brutal command. He had two options, to kill his best
16:25friend or have intimate relations with his stepmother. He presented that ultimatum as a kind of moral test
16:33in his mind. In his account, he said he chose murder because he considered it less selfish,
16:40quote unquote, less tied to his own pleasure. In his mind, killing his friend was a sacrifice and not a
16:48crime.
16:50Aaron went to sleep in the guest room, trusting, suspecting nothing. At some point during the night,
16:56Brandon went upstairs with a large kitchen knife, the kind used for meat.
17:01He entered the room while Aaron was sleeping and stabbed him repeatedly. The autopsy later determined
17:09that Aaron had about 40 wounds on his head, neck and torso and that they were inflicted with such
17:15force that blood splattered on the walls and ceiling. There were no defensive wounds. The forensic
17:22report indicated that Aaron practically had no chance to react. There are no typical cuts on the hands or
17:28forearms. There are no signs of a struggle. He was caught by surprise while lying down, defenseless,
17:34and everything was over in a matter of seconds. After killing him, Brandon didn't stop. He dragged the
17:39body to the bathroom and began to mutilate it. The prosecution spoke of a mutilated and disfigured body
17:46beyond what would be necessary to move or hide it. At some point on November 11, Brandon searched the
17:54internet for sheets. He went shopping at Walmart where he bought tape and cleaning products.
18:00Brandon wrapped the body in a sheet and used the tape he bought to help wrap it.
18:06He put it first in the suitcase and then in the trunk of Aaron's Prius. He left the house calmly
18:13enough to go almost unnoticed. He drove to a wooded area and dug a shallow grave next to a fallen
18:20tree.
18:22There he buried his friend, covering him with a few centimeters of dirt and leaves in a spot that
18:28didn't seem randomly chosen. Far enough away so that no one would see him right away, but not so far
18:34that getting there and leaving would be complicated. Afterwards, he abandoned Aaron's car behind the dam
18:40and went back to his life as if nothing had happened. According to what they found on his phone, he
18:45did
18:46things as mundane as looking up information to apply to another university, taking a shower, and continuing
18:52to interact with people who were asking about Aaron. He made lists on his phone with tasks for after the
18:58murder, bought new sheets, cleaning supplies, and wrote down what to say to Aaron's girlfriend and
19:03family to buy time. Something quite disturbing that he did after the crime was that he wrote down the
19:10lyrics to a song that said in one part, he screamed until he choked on his own tongue and his
19:17own blood.
19:18His scream turned into a gurgle as he swallowed his tongue. In his mind, he said he kept struggling
19:25with the idea that he had fulfilled the divine order. For the police and for the prosecutors,
19:30what he had done was much easier to call. He had planned, carried out, and covered up the brutal murder
19:37of his best friend from his teenage years. For Brandon's family, he was a person with mental
19:43health issues who needed treatment and support. For Aaron's family, he was the friend from his
19:49teenage years who turned a normal visit into a scene of horror. And for the justice system in Georgia,
19:57it ended up being something more straightforward, a murder, a killer responsible for his actions,
20:02with a history of mental problems. Yes, we can say that. But also with enough moments of lucidity to plan
20:10to hide and lie after the crime.
20:30The case of Brandon Riesner never went to a long jury trial. In June 2024, he pleaded guilty to
20:37several serious charges for the death of Aaron. I mean, we're talking about murder, homicide, violent
20:45assault, and concealment of the body, among other crimes. His lawyers insisted that Brandon was not
20:51a monster, but a person with very serious mental health issues. They talked about years of crises,
20:58strange thoughts, religious delusions, and how the use of marijuana and edibles had made everything worse.
21:05They used the story of the vision or divine prophecy as an example. For them, it was proof
21:11that Brandon was not thinking clearly, that he was living in a world distorted by his own mind.
21:17A psychiatrist determined that Brandon had ASD, which would be autism spectrum disorder,
21:23unspecified schizophrenia spectrum disorder, and other psychotic disorders. The prosecution
21:29responded from another angle. They pointed out that Brandon not only talked about visions,
21:34but had also searched for how to clean blood. They recalled the to-do list he wrote on his phone
21:39after the crime, the shopping at the supermarket, the lies to Aaron's family and girlfriend,
21:45for the prosecutor. All of that showed that, regardless of what was going on in his head,
21:51Brandon understood enough to plan, execute, and cover up a murder, and he also understood what was
21:58right and what was wrong. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
22:05That means Brandon Reisner is going to spend his entire life in a Georgia prison,
22:10with no chance of getting out even after many decades. Aaron Davis, meanwhile, was forever remembered
22:16as the friend who trusted the wrong person, the young man who left his house to see his girlfriend,
22:21and ended up being the victim of a fatal mix of delusion and calculation. For Aaron's family,
22:28there is no real closure. No, even though a final sentence has already been handed down,
22:34they continue living with the absence of the son, the brother, the boyfriend, and with the idea that
22:40nothing that happens behind the doors of a prison is going to change what happened in that room in East
22:46Rome.
22:49For those of us who look at the case from the outside, it gives the uncomfortable feeling that
22:54sometimes danger doesn't come from a stranger at night, but from someone we've always known.
23:00Someone we would let through without thinking twice. That's it for today's case. I look forward
23:07to your comments below. And with that, we'll meet again in the next story.
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