Brandon Mark Pollock was 31 years old when he disappeared from Hamilton, Ontario, on September 10, 2019. His case is particularly unusual because there appears to have been a sighting of Brandon several hours after he left home, approximately one kilometre from shore in Lake Ontario. After that encounter, the trail seemingly ended.
At approximately 4:00am that morning, Brandon’s mother heard him leave the family home near Herkimer Street and Caroline Street in Hamilton. Leaving the house early in the morning was apparently not unusual for Brandon. He sometimes went out to clear his head, but he would normally return within a couple of hours.
That morning was different.
Brandon did not return as expected, and he also did not attend school that day. As his absence became unusual and concerning, his mother reported him missing.
Meanwhile, something was happening several kilometres away that would eventually become the most important and puzzling part of Brandon’s disappearance.
Three men travelling by boat on Lake Ontario noticed a lone man swimming near the Burlington Canal Lift Bridge. The swimmer was approximately one kilometre from shore and was in the middle of the boat channel.
Concerned about seeing someone swimming so far offshore, the boaters approached the man to make sure he was all right. The swimmer told them he was okay and waved them on.
The men continued on, but something about the situation bothered them. They circled back to check on the swimmer a second time and recorded the interaction. Once again, the man indicated that he was okay and encouraged them to continue on their way.
Later that same day, the boaters saw media coverage about Brandon’s disappearance. Realizing that the swimmer they had encountered might have been Brandon, they contacted Hamilton Police and provided investigators with the photographs and video they had taken.
Brandon’s family viewed the images and believed the swimmer was Brandon. The current Canada’s Missing record goes further, stating that the swimmer was later identified as Brandon Pollock.
If that identification is correct, the encounter on Lake Ontario appears to be Brandon’s last known sighting.
It also raises one of the central questions in his disappearance: how did Brandon get from his home near Herkimer and Caroline streets to the Burlington Canal area and ultimately end up approximately a kilometre offshore?
Brandon generally travelled on foot or used Hamilton Street Railway transit. He was known to frequent downtown Hamilton and Bayfront Park. He was also extremely active and was known to be a mountain climber, suggesting he was accustomed to significant physical activity.
What has never been publicly explained is Brandon’s route after he left home that morning. Police have not publicly established whether he walked, took public transit, received a ride, or used another method to reach the waterfront. It is also unclear where he entered Lake Ontario or why he decided to enter the water.
The encounter with the boaters becomes especially haunting in retrospect. They checked on the swimmer twice. On both occasions, he apparently communicated that he was okay and did not need assistance. Nothing in the publicly released account indicates that he asked the men for help.
After the boaters departed for the second time, however, there is no publicly confirmed trace of Brandon.
By June 2020, more than nine months after his disappearance, Hamilton Police reported that they had received no new leads. Brandon’s family had received no communication from him, and investigators continued trying to determine what had happened after that final encounter on the lake.
There are surprisingly few publicly available details about the searches conducted following Brandon’s disappearance. Public police and media reports do not provide a comprehensive account of any water, shoreline or aerial searches that may have taken place. There is also no publicly released information indicating that Brandon’s clothing or other personal belongings were recovered.
Similarly, there has been no publicly disclosed cellphone, banking or transit activity establishing that Brandon was alive after September 10, 2019.
Canada’s Missing describes Brandon as a white man born in 1988. He is approximately 5’9″ tall and weighed about 165 pounds, with a medium build, brown hair and hazel eyes. Brandon also has a distinctive brown birthmark on the right side of his neck, below his ear.
There is an important distinction in the way the swimmer has been described over the years. Hamilton Police’s original information indicated that Brandon’s family viewed the photographs and video and believed the swimmer was him. The current Canada’s Missing record states more definitively that the swimmer was later identified as Brandon.
What happened after that encounter remains unknown.
The circumstances naturally raise the possibility that Brandon encountered difficulty in the water after the boaters left. However, there has been no publicly reported recovery of Brandon’s remains, and authorities have not established publicly that he drowned. At the same time, there is no confirmed evidence showing that Brandon successfully returned to shore.
Without that evidence, neither possibility can be stated as fact.
There is also no publicly released evidence indicating that another person was responsible for Brandon’s disappearance. Police have not publicly characterized his case as involving foul play, and there is no known evidence suggesting Brandon deliberately disappeared to begin another life elsewhere.
As of August 2026, Brandon Mark Pollock remains listed as missing through Canada’s Missing, and his case remains among Hamilton Police Service’s unresolved missing-person investigations.
More than six years later, Brandon’s disappearance continues to revolve around an extraordinary chance encounter on Lake Ontario.
Three boaters happened to notice a lone swimmer approximately one kilometre offshore. They were concerned enough to check on him not once, but twice. They recorded their second interaction and, after seeing news of Brandon’s disappearance later that day, recognized the possible connection and contacted police.
Their decision provided investigators with what may be photographic and video documentation of Brandon during his final known hours.
But it could not answer what happened next.
Did Brandon continue swimming farther into the lake? Was he trying to reach a particular destination? Did he eventually turn around and attempt to reach shore? Did something happen after the boaters lost sight of him?
And if Brandon did make it safely out of the water, where did he go?
Those questions have remained unanswered since September 10, 2019. Somewhere between Brandon leaving his Hamilton home in the early hours of that morning and the boaters losing sight of a lone swimmer in Lake Ontario, the trail disappeared.
Brandon Mark Pollock has never been found.
If you have information on Brandon’s case, please contact any of the following:
Hamilton Police Service:
Telephone: 905-546-3843 or 905-540-6477
Reference Case#: 19731737
Canada’s Missing Case reference: 2019052051
Crime Stoppers: 1-800-222-TIPS(8477)
Online at: https://www.canadiancrimestoppers.org/submit-a-tip/submit-a-tip
Crime Stoppers provides anonymous tipping
Send email to the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains at: canadasmissing-disparuscanada@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
Sources: Canada’s Missing, Hamilton Police Service, CHCH News, Global News.
🕯️ Subscribe to Someone Saw Something. I dig through the details, ask the unanswered questions, and occasionally fall down research rabbit holes so you don’t have to. 🧡
