Katharina Buczek
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.
