State representative wants 2014 Lansing drowning investigation reopened

LANSING — Shirley Mitchner has a lot of unanswered questions about her son's 2014 death. 

She mainly wants to know: Was the 22-year-old's death really an accident, or was someone at fault? 

Brandon Mitchner fell into the Grand River June 29, 2014, after a night of drinking as he celebrated a friend's 21st birthday. Surveillance footage from a nearby house showed him and another man walking by the river near South Street shortly before he disappeared. 

His body was pulled from the river the next day near the Elm Street bridge. 

The Lansing Police Department determined Brandon's death was accidental, and have stood by that conclusion. 

"I have been diagnosed with being depressed," Shirley Mitchner said. "My depression is coming because I have no answers on what happened to my child." 

State Rep. Cynthia Johnson, D-Detroit, emailed Lansing Mayor Andy Schor Tuesday asking him to reopen Brandon's death investigation. Johnson met with Mitchner after the mother reached out to her. 

"It may be five years later, but Brandon is still somebody's child," Johnson said. "It just needs to be reopened and done right...If you are a black male or black woman, your issues are not as important. We just need to stop that." 

Reopening the investigation

Johnson said too many unanswered questions exist for the case to be fully resolved. Like Mitchner, she believes Brandon's death may not have been accidental. 

"I'm not going to ignore the issue," Johnson said. "(This case) needs to be reopened." 

In December, Lansing police passed Brandon's case to Michigan State Police to get another set of eyes on it, Lansing Police Chief Daryl Green said. If MSP determines there is probable cause to reopen the case, they will do so, he said. 

A MSP investigator is in the process of reviewing the case, MSP Lt. Brian Oleksyk said. 

This is not the first time police have been asked to reopen Brandon's case. 

Four years after Brandon's death, one of his friends reached out to Mitchner and told her a mutual friend knew what had happened to Brandon. The man said the mutual friend "made a statement that indicated (the man who was with Brandon the night he died) admitted responsibility of Mitchner's death to him," according to the police report. 

New information in the case?

After nine unsuccessful attempts to contact the mutual friend over the course of two months in 2018, an LPD detective gave up trying to reach the friend. After prompting from Mitchner in 2019, another investigator reached out to the man, but also did not receive a response. 

Police were never able to confirm if the information was true. The man who was with Brandon the night he died told police he thought Brandon fell down near the sidewalk, possibly over the edge of the embankment, because he heard a thud. He thought he was puking, so he ran to call a friend. 

He couldn't find Brandon after that, he told police. He has little memory of the night, as both he and Brandon were intoxicated, police said. 

"There's so many things we don't know the answer to," Mitchner said. "At the end of the day, I want to know what happened to my child." 

Contact reporter Kara Berg at 517-377-1113 or kberg@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @karaberg95.