Updated: Authorities search for missing teen

LYON COUNTY — The search for Brandon Swanson, 19, of Marshall continued into its second day in Lyon County Thursday. Swanson was reported missing Wednesday morning by his parents when they couldn’t find or reach him after cellular telephone call earlier that morning when he told his parents his car went into a ditch, the Lyon County Sheriff’s Department said. The search on Thursday focused on an area near Taunton and the Lincoln Lyon County Line road, less than a half-mile north of the intersection Minnesota Highway 68. The search area included land along the Yellow Medicine River. Swanson had called his parents between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. Wednesday and told them he had a car accident near Lynd, county sheriff Joel Dahl said. His dad Brian Swanson told his son to meet him at the Lyndwood lounge, Dahl said. “His dad was talking to him and he said he wasn’t hurt,” Dahl said. “We spent time yesterday searching that direction.” Brian Swanson said Thursday his son sounded coherent and did not seem to be impaired with alcohol. Later on Wednesday, the cellular telephone company said it had narrowed the last cell phone call between Swanson and his father to a tower near the intersection of Lyon County roads 10 and 3 near Minneota, Dahl said. “From that position, it was narrowed to a 5-mile radius from that tower,” Dahl said of the search and area from which the call was made. “By 12:30 p.m. (Wednesday) we found his car in the ditch,” Dahl said. Swanson was apparently using a field road north of Minnesota Highway 68 when he ran into the ditch where the field road intersects with the Lincoln Lyon County line Road, Dahl said. “He’s healthy,” Dahl said of Swanson. “He’s not diabetic. He has no history of seizures.” Swanson’s parents and law enforcement have not been able to contact Swanson on his cell phone, Dahl said. When the phone is now called, calls go directly to voice mail, which likely means the cell phone needs charging, Dahl said. “We’ve gotta be upbeat,” Swanson’s sister Jamine Swanson said Thursday of the search. “From here, you can see the red light on the elevator in Taunton,” Dahl said. It’s logical to believe Swanson headed toward the light, especially if he believed he was headed toward Lynd and the Lyndwood, Dahl said. If Swanson took what appeared to be the shortest route, he would have crossed farm fields and the river, Dahl said. Search dogs were called in Thursday from Coddington County, S.D., Dahl said, and there was consideration of bringing in an air search team, depending on Thursday's weather. A search dog picked up Swanson’s scent at the car and returned to the road but once on the road, “There is no way for the scent to stay there,” Dahl said. Swanson is a 2007 graduate of Marshall High School and is a student at the Minnesota West Canby Campus, friends and family said. “We’ll find him in good condition,” friend Ethan Lundberg said Thursday of Swanson. Swanson was likely wearing jeans, a dressier shirt with a white t-shirt under it and a black hooded sweatshirt with an emblem on the back, Brian Swanson said. Lundberg and Jamine Swanson said Swanson is skinny and about 5’5’’ with brown, short hair.