In 2013, This College Student’s Car Was Discovered Overturned In A Ravine In California, But He Has Remained Missing Ever Since
In 2013, 19-year-old Bryce Laspisa was a college student who had recently begun his sophomore year at Sierra College located in Rocklin, California. One year prior, the teen had graduated from high school in Illinois and decided to move to California to study graphic and industrial design.
But, on August 28, 2013, it appears that Bryce really needed to speak with his parents, Karen and Mike Laspisa. That night, the parents received a call from their son, who claimed he was going to drive down to their house in Laguna Niguel, California.
Karen reportedly told the teen that she would fly up to visit him– knowing that Bryce had just broken up with his girlfriend. But Bryce shook his mom off and told her not to buy any plane tickets until they spoke to each other.
“I have a lot to talk about,” he told Karen.
This phone call took place at about 11:30 p.m., at which point Karen and Mike believed Bryce was going to drive back to his apartment in Rocklin. This trip would have taken 90 minutes from the teen’s ex-girlfriend’s home.
But, the following morning, Bryce’s parents received a puzzling call from their insurance provider. They learned that someone on their account had requested roadside assistance.
Karen was ultimately confused and reached out to her son’s roommate, Sean. Then, she learned that Bryce had never returned home the prior evening.
Later in the investigation, authorities learned that Bryce did begin driving to his parent’s home after breaking up with his girlfriend. This trip should have taken about eight hours. However, Bryce reportedly ran out of gas while outside of Buttonwillow– which is under 200 miles away from Laguna Niguel.
When Bryce contacted roadside assistance at about 9:00 a.m., he was reportedly nearby a rest stop. The time at which the 19-year-old called for assistance also indicated he had been in the car for over nine hours.
Facebook – pictured above is Bryce
While Bryce was sitting outside of the rest stop, one roadside attendant then brought the teen three gallons of gas. However, the teen did not immediately get back on the road.
During this time, Karen had also repeatedly attempted to get in touch with her son. So, as a last-ditch effort, she decided to contact the shop that had serviced Bryce’s car.
Karen got in touch with the attendant, named Christian, who offered to check on Bryce and make sure he had exited the rest stop. After 15 minutes, though, Karen received a call back from Christian– who claimed that Bryce had still been parked in the same exact spot for the three hours since he was provided with gas.
At that point, Karen was finally able to get in contact with her son. And Bryce just claimed to have been getting sleep and said he would be heading out.
So, Karen and Mike believed that their son would finally get to Laguna Niguel at about 3:00 p.m. on August 29, 2013. As the time came and went, though, Bryce never arrived and did not answer his cell phone.
This pushed the parents to file a missing person report at 6:00 p.m. with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
Following the report, police officers ultimately found Bryce in his car just eight miles away from the rest stop– where he had been sitting for at least nine hours. At that point, officers searched the teen’s car and conducted a sobriety test. However, no signs of alcohol or drugs were found.
During this encounter with police, Bryce also said that he was heading to Laguna Niguel in order to “hang out with a friend and blow off steam.”
So, one officer told Bryce to contact his mother, and during this call, Karen instructed the teen to keep his phone on. And for several more hours, Bryce and his parents remained in contact before he ultimately disappeared.
Eventually, the 19-year-old stopped answering his phone again– pushing Mike and Karen to call back Christian, the roadside attendant. Christian offered to check on Bryce again and revealed that the teen was still parked near the same spot police had approached him hours before.
This call took place at approximately 10:00 p.m. on August 29– 13 hours after Bryce first ran out of gas. So, Christian decided to follow the teen back on the highway and drove behind him for approximately 10 miles.
Throughout most of Bryce’s subsequent drive, Karen and Mike decided to stay on the phone with their son. When the parents asked for updates on their son’s location, though, Bryce was unable to provide a clear answer.
The 19-year-old reportedly told his parents that he was not sure where he was and that there were no clear signs. All Bryce said was that his estimated time of arrival, according to his GPS, was 3:25 a.m. on August 30, 2013.
Karen and Mike last spoke with Bryce one final time at 2:09 a.m. that early morning. During the call, their son’s location was still unknown, but the teen claimed that he could not keep driving because he was too tired.
So, Bryce decided to pull off on the side of the road and go back to sleep for a few more hours.
By that point, Bryce had been on the road for between 24 and 27 hours. This pushed Karen and Mike to agree that their son needed to sleep for a while.
Tragically, though, six hours later, at 8:00 a.m., a California Highway Patrol officer went to the Lapisa’s home to deliver some unsettling news. Authorities had located Bryce’s car, but the teen was missing.
Bryce’s vehicle, a 2003 Toyota highlander, was discovered lying on its side in a ravine near Castaic Lake at about 5:30 a.m. on August 30. Castaic Lake is approximately two hours from Laguna Niguel.
Investigators later determined that the SUV had driven off of a 25-foot embankment– landing in the ravine. Some reports also suggested that the car had accelerated while driving down the embankment, which would indicate that Bryce had been in control of the car.
Nonetheless, the SUV ultimately crashed into the ravine bumper-first before turning over on its side.
In spite of the crash’s severity, authorities only found two drops of blood inside Bryce’s Toyota. They also discovered that the back window had been broken, pushing investigators to conclude that Bryce had exited through the window. In the crash’s wake, the teen left behind his wallet, phone, laptop, and other personal belongings.
Hundreds of sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the area– searching Castaic Lake, which is 2,200 acres, and the surrounding 11,000-acre area. No signs of Bryce were ever found, though.
At the same time, dive crews searched the lake, helicopters flew over the area, and cadaver dogs were deployed. None of these efforts yielded any evidence, though.
This lack of answers persisted until 2015– pushing the Laspisa family to search Castaic Lake on their own with the help of private investigators.
“We hired a sonar boat that searched for two days and did not find any human remains. Our private investigator had a drone operator searching the area north of the boat launch access road. Nothing was found,” Karen said in an interview with Chicago Tribune.
Surveillance footage also later revealed more perplexing parts of this disappearance. Even though Bryce had told his parents that he pulled over to sleep at 2:09 a.m., surveillance footage captured the 19-year-old driving down the Castaic Lake access road at 2:30 a.m.
Nearly two hours later, at 4:29 a.m., Bryce’s vehicle was seen by the same surveillance camera again.
This suggests that the teen was driving back and forth on the same road for two hours. Investigators later revealed their belief that perhaps Bryce might have been “contemplating” during the pacing.
Regardless, just one hour after the teen’s car was last seen on camera, authorities discovered the vehicle without Bryce in it.
Interviews with Bryce’s girlfriend, Kim, and his roommate, Sean, revealed that the teen had not been acting like himself in the days before his disappearance.
According to Sean, the 19-year-old had been drinking excessively and taking Vynase, an ADHD medication, in order to stay up all night and play video games.
Kim, too, noticed odd behavior– revealing how Bryce had begun giving away personal belongings, such as his Xbox and a pair of diamond earrings that Karen had gifted him.
As for their relationship, Kim claimed that Bryce broke up with her via text– reportedly claiming that she would be “better off” without him. She also claimed that on the evening they broke up, she took Bryce’s car keys away while he was at her apartment. However, Kim eventually returned the keys at Karen and Mike’s request.
With this information, investigators began to wonder whether Bryce had suffered from a psychotic break due to alcohol and medication abuse. This theory might have explained why the teen was acting so strangely before he ultimately crashed his car on August 30, 2013. Despite this theory, though, Bryce has unfortunately remained missing for nearly 10 years now.
In the months following the teen’s disappearance, there were several alleged sightings of Bryce. One police officer from Port Orford, Oregon, claimed to have seen Bryce but said he was unaware of his status as a missing person.
Other sightings were reported, too. However, they remain unconfirmed, and Bryce’s parents have been left searching for answers. According to some investigators, like LAPD Detective Robert Martindale, it appeared as though Bryce wanted to walk away from his life. During an interview with Investigation Discovery, Martindale recalled how bloodhounds quickly found Bryce’s scent after they were brought to Castaic Lake.
Then, the dogs reportedly followed the teen’s scent across a dam and to a truck stop before the scent was lost. Due to this, Martindale’s theory is that the 19-year-old might have received a ride from a truck driver and disappeared on his own accord.
Karen and Mike Laspisa, though, find it very hard to believe that their son was attempting to disappear willingly. So, the Laspisa family has continued searching– creating a Facebook group entitled Find Bryce Laspisa to raise awareness surrounding the teen’s case.
“August 30th marks nine years since we lost Bryce. Still no answers or closure. Bryce, you are loved beyond words and missed beyond measure,” a post from August 29, 2022, reads.
At the time of Bryce’s disappearance, he was five foot eleven, weighed 170 pounds, and had red hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing white cargo shorts, a blue and white checkered shirt, and white and red Nike shoes. Bryce would be 28 years old today.
If you have any information regarding Bryce’s case, you are urged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department at (818) 984-0630.
If true crime defines your free time, this is for you: join Chip Chick’s True Crime Tribe
Why Do People Fall Out Of Love, And Is There Anything You Can Do To Prevent This?
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
More About:True Crime