Bryce Laspisa

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1:20Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder. This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.

1:53Today I'm discussing the case of Bryce Lespisa. This case is one of the most perplexing I've ever researched. As I dug deeper into the details of Bryce's final known movements, his erratic behavior, unexplained stops, cryptic text messages, and the eventual discovery of his overturned vehicle, I realized that there are a lot more questions in this case than there are answers. Really, each new detail that I uncovered only deepened the mystery. And despite extensive search efforts and countless theories, Bryce's disappearance remains unsolved over a decade later. This is the case of Bryce Laspisa.

2:33At about 1 a.m. on Thursday, August 29, 2013, Karen Laspisa gets a phone call that changes the rest of her life, but she doesn't know that yet. The call is from her son, 19-year-old Bryce Laspisa, and Bryce has been going through some rough times lately. He'd actually spent the summer with his parents at their home in Laguna Niguel, California, after his freshman year at Sierra College in Rockland. And while everything seemed to be fine over the summer, just a few days into his sophomore year, Karen got a call from Bryce's roommate, Sean Dixon. She spoke with him just the day before Bryce makes this 1am phone call to her, so really just hours before he makes this call.

3:13Sean was concerned about Bryce. He tells Karen that Bryce has been abusing alcohol and a prescription drug called Vyvanse. It's a stimulant most commonly used to treat symptoms of ADHD. He says that Bryce has been using it to stay up all night and has been acting just really strange. He adds that Bryce broke up with his girlfriend of about a year, Kim Sly, over text. Bryce had also given Sean his Xbox and a pair of diamond earrings that his mom gave him. Sean just knows that something is off with Bryce. While it's definitely not uncommon for kids in college to experiment, he just really isn't acting like himself and he's obviously taking it way too far.

3:53A few hours after Sean talks to Karen, she gets a call from Bryce too. Bryce is now at Kim's apartment in Chico, California. This is about an hour and a half from his apartment. He went there to break up with Kim in person. According to Sean, Bryce packed up a few essentials and told him that he'd be back in a few days for Labor Day. But during this call, Kim jumps on the phone to echo a similar sentiment to Sean. She says that Bryce is acting really strange. She doesn't want him driving, so she took his keys. And here, there's a bit of a back and forth. Bryce gets back on the phone and says that he's fine.

4:28He broke up with Kim and just wants his keys back so he can go home. Bryce's father, Mike Laspisa, hops on the phone and asks Bryce if he's okay. Bryce again reiterates that he's fine. In her interview for the TV show Disappeared, Karen explains that Bryce sounded completely normal to her. He didn't seem distraught, and he didn't seem heartbroken. It really just seemed like he wanted to go home. But of course, given all that's happening, she is still worried. She tells Bryce that she'll fly up to Rockland tomorrow so they can talk. But Bryce tells her not to make any flight reservations until they talk.

5:02He specifically says he has a lot to talk about. Bryce is 19, he's an adult, and he doesn't appear to be inebriated. There's not much Karen can do other than say okay and advise him to go back to his apartment and call her in the morning. She asks Kim to give Bryce back his keys, and she does. Bryce leaves Kim's apartment in Chico at about 11.30 p.m. Now, that night, Bryce also texts Sean, quote, I love you, bro. Seriously, you are the best person I've ever met. You saved my soul, end quote. But of course, Karen doesn't know that at this point. She goes to bed thinking that she'll hear from her son tomorrow and they'll talk through whatever seems to be going on with him.

5:45But then she gets that 1 a.m. phone call. She assumed that Bryce was back at home in his apartment, but he's not. He's driving and about an hour south of Rockland. Investigators and Bryce's family still don't know where he was headed at this time. Karen has said that she thinks Bryce didn't really know either, while their private investigator believes that he was headed back to his parents' home. But something made him hesitate. This message is sponsored by Greenlight. Money is this invisible thread that ties us all together. It's something everyone has to deal with. That's why teaching kids about money isn't just smart, it's essential.

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7:24While his loved ones don't know it yet, Bryce continues driving south for another eight hours. So he's driving all through the night, until 9 a.m., when he runs out of gas in the small town of Buttonwillow, California. Now, why Bryce ran out of gas is unclear. Obviously, he's passed by countless gas stations, but he either chose not to stop or didn't realize he was running out of gas. Either way, Bryce calls a local repair shop, Castro Tire and Truck. He asks for roadside assistance and a man named Christian drives to Bryce to bring him three gallons of gas. Bryce's parents have no idea this is happening until 11 a.m.

8:04That's when they get a notification from their insurance company that this service request was submitted and completed. While Bryce is an adult, his 2003 Toyota Highlander is in his parents' name, and he's still on their insurance. When Bryce doesn't answer his phone, Karen calls Sean and asks if Bryce is still sleeping, but Sean tells Karen that Bryce never came home. Obviously, his parents are worried. They have no idea where their son is, they just know that he called for roadside assistance. But they are able to track him down. In addition to being on his parents' insurance, he's also still using a credit card tied to their account.

8:42So they go online and see if there were any recent charges. And that's when they see a charge from the repair shop in Buttonwillow. Mike calls the repair shop. He says his credit card was used for his vehicle and asks for any information they may be able to give him to make sure that his son is okay. He speaks directly to Christian, the man who brought Bryce the gas. and Christian says yes, a few hours ago I brought him gas and then like an actual saint, he offers to go back and check and see if Bryce was still there or in the area and when Christian goes back to the rest stop where Bryce's vehicle ran out of gas, Bryce is still there.

9:20At this point, about three hours later, Bryce tells Christian that he's fine, he was just getting some sleep, which after driving all night seems normal enough But Christian does insist that Bryce checks in with his mom. Karen asks him what's going on, but Bryce says that he wasn't doing anything and he was fine. At this point, she's like, listen, you're three hours from home, fill up your gas tank, and just get here. Bryce agrees, and he gets gas at a nearby station. At this point, it's about noon, so his parents are expecting him home close to 3 p.m. Then 3 p.m. hits, and there's no sign of Bryce.

9:59By 3.30, Karen calls his cell phone. There's no answer. But it is Labor Day weekend in California, so she knows that the traffic could be out of control. She figures he'll call back when he can. But he doesn't. So she keeps calling again and again and again, leaving message after message with no response from her son. In her interview with Disappeared, Karen said that at this point, her husband Mike is outside pacing, just waiting for Bryce to pull up. But that doesn't happen. Finally, at 6 p.m., Karen and Mike file a missing persons report with the Orange County Sheriff's Office. And they really jump into action assisting this family.

10:42In less than two hours, they're able to get an emergency ping order from AT &T to get the location of Bryce's cell phone. And what they discover surprises everyone. Bryce has barely moved from where Christian found him earlier. To be exact, he's eight miles from where he ran out of gas. He's still in Buttonwillow. Now, this is a tiny town. It's actually not even a town or a city. It's an unincorporated community in Kern County. The population is just over 1 ,000. Some consider the community to essentially just be a truck stop. So it's not like Bryce stopped at the beach or Disneyland or something.

11:22His parents have no idea what Bryce could be doing in Buttonwillow for nearly half a day. But they did find Bryce. Officers approach him in his vehicle at about 8 p.m. They ask him what he's doing, and he basically says that he was just planning on blowing off some steam before getting back on the road to see his parents in Laguna Niguel. Now, they actually administer a sobriety test to Bryce, and he passes. They ask him if they can search his vehicle. He agrees. And they don't find any drugs or alcohol or anything illegal. They would later describe Bryce as coherent, alert, friendly, and cooperative.

11:59They say that he was in good spirits. But when they tell him that he needs to call his parents because they are very worried about him, for some reason, he hesitates. And not just a little. The officer literally has to dial his mom's phone number for him and hand him the phone. At this point, Karen just wants to know what's going on. And really, Bryce kind of blows off the question. He says that he's putting stuff back in his vehicle because the police searched it. And Karen's basically like, no, why are you still in Buttonwillow? And ultimately, he never answers the question. Karen asks the officer if they think Bryce is okay to drive.

12:39And they say, yeah, he seems completely fine to them. So Karen tells Bryce to get some food and get home. At this point, it's dark, so she's even more nervous now. But Bryce does agree, and he's removed from the missing persons list. Everyone assumes that Bryce is on his way home. Then, by chance, Karen gets a call from Christian. It seems that Karen called him earlier and he'd missed the call, so he called back and just asked what was going on. She explains what happened, and again, Christian, this angel of a human, offers to check on Bryce or at least confirm that he's left Buttonwillow. Now, Karen actually says, no, that's okay, he should be on his way home.

13:21Basically, you've already done so much already. But Christian insists. Karen tells him where the police found him, Christian hops in his truck to go check on Bryce, and Bryce is still there. So he calls Karen back and tells her what's going on. Everyone is confused at this point. No one knows why Bryce has been in this same spot for so long. But they focus on getting him home. Christian really does go above and beyond. He says, listen, I'll follow him to the freeway, to the 5 South, to make sure he knows where he's going and that he's actually headed home this time. It takes about 30 minutes, but Bryce finally gets on the freeway, followed by Christian.

14:02Christian follows Bryce for about 10 miles before pulling over. Then he calls Karen and tells her that it seems that Bryce is finally on his way home. Now, while he's driving, Bryce and his parents do exchange a few phone calls. Sometimes Bryce calls them, sometimes they call him. At about 12.30 a.m. on now August 30th, Karen calls Bryce and he says that his GPS is telling him that he'll get home just after 3 a.m. They speak again at just before 2 a.m. His parents want to know where he is, that he's actually making some progress on this trip and didn't go back to Buttonwillow. And Bryce says that he's still driving down the I-5 but doesn't really know where he is.

14:43They ask him to name some signs or some landmarks, something so they can figure out where he is. And Bryce says that he can't really see anything, but that his GPS says that he's on the right track and he'll be home by 3.25 a.m. At this point, his parents are like, fine, okay, and they end the phone call. But just a few minutes later, Bryce calls back. He says he's too tired to keep driving, and he's gonna pull over to a residential area and sleep in his car for a few hours. Again, it does make sense to me. At this point, he hasn't slept in a bed for basically two nights. He's only about an hour away from home at this point, but his parents say, okay, just call us when you wake up.

15:23They hang up, assuming that they'll hear from him in the morning. What they don't know is that this is the last time they'll hear from their son.

15:35It's 8 a.m. on Friday, August 30th, 2013, and after spending a grueling day trying to help their son Bryce get back home, they hear the doorbell ring, and I imagine let out a huge sigh of relief. They think that after all this time, it must be Bryce. Instead, it's a California Highway Patrol officer. They ask if they own a 2003 Toyota Highlander, and they say that they do, but their son is using it. Then he breaks the news to them. They found the vehicle, but Bryce isn't with it. According to Karen's statements to Hometown Station News, she doesn't really get all the details when she's notified in person.

16:18They tell her more when they call her a bit later, but eventually this is what she learns. At about 5.30 that morning, officers conducting a training exercise found his vehicle overturned on its side on an access road near the Castaic Lake State Recreational Area. It's about 90 miles south of Buttonwillow and 40 miles north of LA, right along the I-5 where Bryce was last known to be. It seems that Bryce's Highlander dropped down a 15-foot ravine. Karen says it went nose down first, then landed on the passenger side. From there, they believe Bryce use some type of tool on the back window to get out of the vehicle.

17:00Now, I'm not sure if the door was jammed or what, but they believe that he did leave the vehicle from the window. They do find some of Bryce's blood inside the car. There's a small amount on the headrest of the passenger seat and in the back seat, but they don't find any blood outside of the car at all. So investigators believe that whatever injuries he may have sustained in the vehicle when it went over the embankment, they weren't bad enough to prevent him from leaving the scene. Whatever happened, Bryce seems to have walked away. But here's what's strange. I mean, there are a lot of strange things in this case, but here's what gets me.

17:42You'd think that no matter what happened, he'd try to get some help. He'd try to call someone, but he seems to have left everything behind. His phone and laptop are in his Highlander, and his wallet and duffel bag are outside of it. For some reason, Bryce doesn't grab his phone or any form of payment when he leaves the vehicle. Whether this was voluntary or he was trying to get away from something or someone, we don't know. Of course, Karen fears the worst, that Bryce has been in this horrific accident, and maybe he hit his head and is just out in the California desert wandering without any way to call her.

18:24So they get to work. Bryce is listed as a critical missing person, and they launch a massive search for him. Now this is a huge area. The lake is about 2 ,200 acres. So they're using helicopters, planes, boats, dogs, divers, and search teams on foot. There are hundreds of people out looking for him. They call all the nearby hospitals. but there's no sign of Bryce. And before the end of the day, his case is transferred to the Long Beach Homicide Unit. But not all is lost. While there is no sign of Bryce anywhere, they are able to piece together some of his movements before the crash. It seems that just a few minutes after telling his mom that he was pulling over to get some sleep, a camera snapped a photo of his license plate as he traveled up Lake Hughes Road near the crash site.

19:16Basically, this camera only snaps a photo of the license plate, so we can't even confirm that Bryce was driving or in the car. After that, his whereabouts are completely unknown for about two hours, until the same camera takes a photo of his license plate again at 4.29 a.m. From here, he or whoever was driving the vehicle drives up a hill near a cell tower, drives over the top of this hill, and starts going down. Now, it's definitely steep, so it's unclear if he meant to go over the edge, but once he does, he actually accelerates, hits a bunch of rocks, and eventually goes over the edge of the embankment, nose first, and crashes.

20:00Again, this really doesn't give us a ton more answers, but we know that his vehicle was in the area, left for about two hours, came back, and then crashed. Now, there are more searches for Bryce that weekend, and Mike and Karen kind of divide and conquer. Mike focuses on putting up flyers offering a$5 ,000 reward for information while Karen works on getting as much media coverage for Bryce as she can. Bryce's ex-girlfriend Kim also gives them some of his dirty clothing to help the dogs track him down and they do hit on something. Two separate dogs trace his trail. They follow his scent from the crash site down to the dam on the lake, across a bridge and to a truck stop.

20:44Then the trail stops. So this really divides investigators. At this point, there are quite a few theories that they're considering. One, that Bryce was trying to die by suicide. Investigators argue that because of his erratic behavior, seemingly saying goodbye to his roommate, giving away some of his belongings, and breaking up with his girlfriend, that all of this may indicate that he was considering to die by suicide. The second theory using the same evidence is that Bryce was intentionally trying to disappear and not be found. The third theory is that Bryce was injured during the crash and possibly suffered some type of injury that resulted in him losing his life after leaving the scene.

21:33A fourth theory is that he suffered from a psychotic break, either naturally, induced by the drugs he was taking, they're not sure. A fifth theory is that he suffered an injury and lost his memory or was disoriented, and was either wandering or got lost or was met with foul play. But because the scent trail ended at that truck stop, some investigators believe this could point to Bryce getting into a vehicle, and whatever happened from there opens us up to many other theories. Bryce's parents don't believe that he would have left his life intentionally. They say that he was happy. While he did have a turbulent few weeks, Bryce spent the entire summer with them and was fine.

22:16He wasn't drinking or abusing drugs that they were aware of. He was also doing well in his studies in graphic and industrial design. Karen has described her son as an open book, someone who came to his parents to discuss his problems. And I do think that there's some evidence to back up how close Karen says Bryce was to his parents. When Bryce's roommate Sean felt that Bryce was abusing drugs and alcohol, he pretty much immediately called his parents. When Kim felt that Bryce was acting odd and wasn't able to drive, she told his parents that. Now this is just speculation, it's just my opinion, but between both his roommate and his girlfriend communicating with his parents like this, It seems like they felt comfortable that they were going to address these issues in a helpful way.

23:05Obviously, there's no denying that something was making Bryce hesitant to come home and have this huge conversation with them, but his GPS was set for home and he was traveling in that direction. So I can understand why Bryce's parents and some investigators believe that he did not want to die by suicide or run from his life. Bryce's roommate Sean tells the media that he doesn't think Bryce wants to be found right now, but he adds that he left Bryce's sneakers right next to the door, and they'll be waiting for him when he gets back. And despite the breakup, Kim makes a Facebook page for Bryce in order to help with the search, and she talks to the media too.

23:47She tells 4LA News, quote, I've thought about every possible scenario about where he could be and what could have happened to him. I still remain hopeful that he's out there somewhere trying to get home, and I really hope that he will just show up or call anybody." Luckily, the media really is all over this, in large part thanks to Karen's efforts. She says she's been overwhelmed by the amount of emails and support she's gotten from the public in looking for Bryce. And I think this is a good time to point out that he would have been hard to miss. Bryce is 5 '11", with bright red hair, blue eyes, and a huge smile.

24:26He's just someone that stands out in a crowd, but at this point, it seems that no one has seen him, or at least there aren't any credible sightings. It's obviously a very difficult time for Bryce's family. His dad's car even gets broken into while searching for Bryce. Two men were arrested, and it's not believed to have any connection to Bryce's disappearance, but it just seems like it's been one thing after another for this family. Then, a few days into the search, they get news that makes their hearts drop. About three miles from the crash site, a jogger reported a fire, and when they came to put it out, they discovered that it was a body that had been burning.

25:09As they wait to see if it's Bryce, his loved ones are split, Sean tells the media that he doesn't think it's Bryce, while his uncle, Frank David, told CBS News that he believed it was more than likely his nephew. But in the end, it wasn't. It was the body of 35-year-old LaMondre Dion Miles. He'd been shot and then set on fire. As a side note, three people were eventually arrested and charged with his murder. But of course, Bryce was still missing. Unfortunately, a few weeks after his disappearance, the search for him is officially called off. Authorities say that he's an adult, and he's allowed to be missing if he wants to be.

25:52The school semester and the holidays all end without Bryce returning. At the end of February 2014, his family holds three vigils in one day for him. They're hoping for a renewed interest by the media. And in March, Bakersfield News reports that the liens have dried up in his case. Karen tells them, quote, It's gut-wrenching. Every day not knowing. It's a living nightmare. End quote. In 2015, there's another search of Castaic Lake using sonar, and nothing is found. Investigators say that they are certain that Bryce is not in that lake. Now, Bryce's parents have hired a private investigator, but it doesn't appear that she's come up with much.