Nineteen-year-old Bryce Laspisa disappeared without a trace while driving home late one night. Now, a decade later, true crime fans are examining various theories that may explain what happened to him.
Bryce was an only child raised in Springfield, Illinois, by his parents, Karen and Michael. According to The Crime Wire, his friends and family described him as intelligent and outgoing. He was a talented artist and spent a lot of his free time gaming.
When Karen and Michael retired, they wanted to move to California. After Bryce graduated high school in 2012, the family moved to Laguna Niguel in Orange County. At this time, Bryce also started attending Sierra College, roughly a seven-hour drive from his parents.
Bryce started drinking a lot
Bryce’s freshman year went smoothly. He studied graphic and industrial design, became good friends with his roommate Sean Dixon, and started dating another student named Kim Sly. As the summer of 2013 approached, those closest to him noticed that he was drinking heavily.
According to All That’s Interesting, Sean noticed that his roommate was drinking hard liquor daily, finishing as much as two-fifths in a weekend. Additionally, both Sean and Kim claimed Bryce was taking Vyvanse, a prescription medication typically used to treat ADHD and binge-eating disorder, to help him stay awake longer and game.
Bryce started acting strangely
Bryce’s odd behavior increased during the first two weeks of his second year at Sierra College. He was using Vyvanse more frequently, and despite appearing happy in his relationship, he broke up with Kim in a text message that said she’d be better off without him.
Sean also received an odd text message from his roommate, which read:
“I love you bro, seriously. You are the best person I’ve ever met. You saved my soul.”
That same day, Bryce gave Sean his Xbox and a pair of diamond earrings he’d received from his mother. On August 28, Sean called his friend’s mother to express his concerns. However, he couldn’t have known how much worse it would get.
Bryce and Kim had a fight
After Sean contacted her, Karen called Bryce to check in on him. When they spoke, he was at Kim’s house fighting over the keys to his car. Kim had taken them away from him, as she didn’t think he should be driving based on his unusual behavior. Bryce claimed she was just upset because he broke up with her.
Ultimately, Karen convinced Kim to give Bryce back his keys so he could go back to school and get some sleep, a decision that likely haunts her to this day. While his mother offered to fly to see him the following day, Bryce told her not to make a reservation until he had the chance to talk to her.
Karen recalled this part of their conversation, saying:
“I said ‘Bryce, I’m worried. Let me come up there tomorrow. Let me fly up there tomorrow,’ and he says, ‘Mom, no. Don’t make any airline reservations until I talk to you because I have a lot to talk to you about.'”
She would never learn what her son had to tell her.
Bryce took an endless drive through California
After leaving Kim’s on August 28 at 11:30pm., Bryce was supposed to head back to his apartment near school. However, his mom missed a call from him at 1:00am, and phone records later showed that he was about an hour past the apartment. Around 11:00am, Karen and Michael received a notification that Bryce used their insurance’s roadside assistance at a gas station in Buttonwillow, roughly three hours from them, and assumed he was heading to the family’s home.
When several hours passed and Bryce never showed up, they called the owner of Castro Tire and Gas, and a man named Christian explained he’d delivered three gallons of gasoline to the teenager at 9:00am. Since he’d met Bryce just a few miles away, Christian offered to return to the area they’d met to see if Bryce was still there. Oddly enough, he was still sitting in the car on the side of the road four hours after receiving the gas. When Christian put him in touch with his parents, he offered no explanation but agreed to get back on the road and drive straight to their house. This is when things got truly weird.
The Laspisa family got the police involved
When 3:00pm rolled around, and Bryce still hadn’t returned home, Karen and Michael filed a missing persons report with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. The police were able to track his cell phone quickly and located Bryce just a few miles from where Christian had brought him gasoline. They reported that the teen didn’t seem intoxicated, and that they didn’t find any drugs or alcohol when they searched his car.
While with the police, Bryce spoke to his parents, and Karen told him to come home. She then got in touch with Christian, who drove to their son’s new location and made sure he got on the highway. At 2:00am Bryce called his parents, saying he was too tired to keep driving and planned to pull over to take a nap. It was the last time she heard from him.
Police found Bryce’s abandoned vehicle
Later that morning, police notified Karen and Michael that they discovered Bryce’s car at the bottom of a 25-foot embankment lying on its side near Castaic Lake. Bryce wasn’t in the vehicle, but the rear windshield had been broken from the inside, so police assumed that’s how he got out of the vehicle. Based on tire tracks, it’s thought the teen crashed intentionally.
Bloodhounds tracked Bryce’s scent to a nearby truck stop. Authorities believe he walked there from the crash site, leaving his wallet, phone, and laptop behind. Surveillance footage revealed that Bryce never pulled over to sleep like he told his mother. Instead, after their 2:00am phone conversation, he drove toward the lake. More than two hours later, his vehicle was seen on surveillance driving down the same road.
The search from Bryce was unsuccessful
Authorities performed an extensive search for the missing teen, even using cadaver dogs and divers to dredge the lake, but wound up empty-handed. Since then, dozens of theories have been made about what happened to Bryce, with many believing he was suffering from a mental health crisis.
Karen and Michael still hold out hope that someday they’ll learn the truth about what happened to their son and have an active Facebook page where they share updates and help get Bryce’s story out there.