Episode 34: The Mysterious Death of Bryan Nisenfeld
18-year-old Bryan Nisenfeld of Audobon, New Jersey, was a freshman at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island. Initially, he started out in the architecture program, but quickly found that the caseload was heavy and the work was hard. Already a lover of reading and writing poetry, he changed his major to English in his second semester at college in January of 1997.
One night at the end of January, Bryan called his dad, Steven Nisenfeld, and claimed that he was receiving threatening phone calls from a former classmate who he was close with in the last semester. The classmate, Josh Cohen, claimed that he was going to come onto campus any time he wanted, and beat Bryan up. This understandably scared Bryan, and so Steven made the move to call campus security to check on his son. After sending an advisor to check on him, Bryan claimed he was overreacting and that everything was alright.
A few days later on February 6th, 1997, Bryan was last seen attending his mid-afternoon literature class. After talking with the professor, he walked out and was never seen again. His friends began to get worried when he did not show up for classes the next day and did not contact any of them over the weekend. His friend told security of his disappearance on the following Monday, and security finally alerted Bryan’s parents of his disappearance on Wednesday, February 12th. This was six whole days after Bryan went missing.
Not much was known about Bryan’s disappearance. The threatening phone calls were considered but ruled out as anything important, as Josh Cohen claimed they was something he and Bryan did a lot.
Six months after he disappeared, in August of 1997, a tan boot was discovered on the shore of Hogs Island. Inside was a human foot. A few feet away was a shin bone, later determined to be human. DNA testing concluded that the bones belonged to Bryan Nisenfeld.
To this day, the answers of Bryan’s disappearance are still unknown. Was it suicide? Was it an accident? Was it murder? Theories have been thrown around for the last 25 years, but there has yet to be any conclusion. The rest of Bryan’s remains have never been found.
Anyone with any information is asked to please contact the Rhode Island State Police at (401) 444-1000 or the Bristol Police Department at (401) 253-6900.
Image sources:
unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com - “Bryan Nisenfeld”
wpri.com - “Detectives determined to conquer decades-old quest for answers in college student’s death”