CA CA - Bryce Laspisa, 19, Castaic, 30 Aug 2013 - #1

[Kaliste]

I've been following this on the local news and I have to say this is one of the more bizarre cases I've seen. I just can't make sense of anything! Was it a series of unfortunate events? Wrong place wrong time? Was he hiding out in the area for 4 days then set himself on fire?? Nothing fits with the norm here.

 

[UCLAEigenguy]

Or having gasoline on his clothing and a lighter in his pocket.

This was my thought if it is a suicide, but I am very conflicted. Too much coincidence that he is murdered by opportunity while also acting bizarre and having them to be completely independent incidents. But at the same time it is hard to believe someone setting themselves on fire to kill themselves, though it does happen. I dunno. Suicides seem like they also only occur close to home, or somewhere significant to the deceased or their family unless the person planned a trip as a suicide mission.

I am curious if roadside assistance "handed" him the gasoline, or if they just put it in the car. Also, something was presumably taken from a duffle bag (it was at least unzipped), maybe a lighter or matches.

This is Michael Negrete and Maura Murray level of bizarre.

 

[gitana1]

I just can't think of a motive for a crime, without robbery being a factor. Unless...some kind of sexual encounter went bad?

Well, we've had a few serial killers who preyed on young men- sexual predators like Randy Kraft. They drug young men before torturing and raping them.

But this almost seems like a badly executed hit with someone returning to the scene to dispose of evidence.

As to suicide, what's the time line here? When did he go missing and how soon after was his car found and then a body?

Is there any indication he had mental issues or turmoil recently?

 

[CatFancier]

UPDATE: Homicide: Can’t yet determine if burned body is that of missing teen

http://www.signalscv.com/section/36/article/104204/

 

[IHAVENOCLUE]

I just tried with mapquest, but I have a brand new laptop, can't find the Shift-Printscreen keys to get a screenshot and mapquest didn't give me a specific link and gave all the driving directions...

Got links!:http://mapq.st/13eNyiu

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=...nxGGnCKnrCgDFGTMan3K63LA&oq=Ca&t=h&mra=ls&z=6

Great job on map and locations, LinasK!

Thank you! :thumb:

 

[Seajay]

Did he get carjacked at the rest area???

It's hard for me to believe that he wandered around injured on Lake Hughes Rd for days when it's a tourist/water sport area that had people all over celebrating the end of the summer for Labor Day and no one saw him. He could have asked for help at any time in those days.

What would be the motive for killing him??? There was no robbery. If the accident was staged, it would have to be because they killed him, but why??? Where and why??? I don't see a motive to harm him.

Yet if it's a suicide, which seems more likely, where was he those 4 days and why light himself on fire. Why not walk into the lake and give up? He'd have to have the means to light the fire. If he doused himself with gasoline, there would be an empty receptical for it somewhere nearby. (Who says their isn't?)

This case is really confusing. The facts as we know them don't lead to anything definitive.

 

[gitana1]

I have such a sick, uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach right now.

What are the odds that it's Bryce?? Who would hang on to him for 4 days before lighting him on fire???

This makes no sense other than that the body is not Bryce. Where was he for 4 days? And if he set himself on fire, he'd have to have the means. Where did he get that???

I'm more inclined to think the two are unrelated. Yet that in itself would be a coincidence.

It can be seriously hard to find a body. He may have been in the brush for days before the body caught on fire. It could have been lit on fire later by someone increasingly scared their crime would be found out. Who was the last person to see him alive?

 

[Voice4theSilent]

(deleted my comment about the body being male as it may, or may not, have been false information on the news. Will wait for a link before I re-post.)

 

[UCLAEigenguy]

As to suicide, what's the time line here? When did he go missing and how soon after was his car found and then a body?

Is there any indication he had mental issues or turmoil recently?

There is an article somewhere earlier in this thread that has a timeline. The timeline is weird and doesn't make sense.

http://www.signalscv.com/section/36/article/104072/

For some reason, he spent 9 hours in Buttonwillow after getting roadside assistance. At one point his mother got worried and asked either police or roadside assistance to check on him and he was still with the vehicle. There was also a period of a few hours where he didn't answer calls on his phone.

That is the most worrisome part of this.

The only trauma we know about was something about breaking up with this GF. That has been a source of real confusion. Some articles said he was going to Chico to break up with her, others said he was returning home for the holiday. It seems a breakup never occurred. He had taken ADHD medication to stay up all night to play video games earlier in the week before he left. No history of mental illness though.

 

[TupeloMz]

Well, we've had a few serial killers who preyed on young men- sexual predators like Randy Kraft. They drug young men before torturing and raping them.

This is what I have been thinking every since I heard about the fire and the body burning this morning.
I am also thinking if it is Bryce and possibly a serial killer it would not be so unheard of for them to taunt police by bringing the body back to the same area..



and :moo:

 

[gitana1]

There is an article somewhere earlier in this thread that has a timeline. The timeline is weird and doesn't make sense.

http://www.signalscv.com/section/36/article/104072/

For some reason, he spent 9 hours in Buttonwillow after getting roadside assistance. At one point his mother got worried and asked either police or roadside assistance to check on him and he was still with the vehicle. There was also a period of a few hours where he didn't answer calls on his phone.

That is the most worrisome part of this.

The only trauma we know about was something about breaking up with this GF. That has been a source of real confusion. Some articles said he was going to Chico to break up with her, others said he was returning home for the holiday. It seems a breakup never occurred. He had taken ADHD medication to stay up all night to play video games earlier in the week before he left. No history of mental illness though.

Hmmm. Very strange. If he obtained roadside assistance why didn't he leave? Why stay by the side of the road? And was he in contact with his mom during that time? What was he saying?

The Adderall to stay up, or whatever he was taking, sounds dangerous. I always think of the initial onset of psychosis with kids this age. The initial onset can be devastating. Sleep induced psychosis can be devastating as well. Look at that guy who got naked in San Diego and went running around.

But this is all so odd.

 

[UCLAEigenguy]

Here is a paraphrased timeline from the article cited in my previous post. Notice that the beginning of the timeline does not make sense and may be a typo.

Wed 1:30pm
Announces he is breaking up with GF.
Mother offers to fly up. He declined says he has "a lot to talk about" with mother.

Wed 10pm
Left Sierra College to go home

Wed 11:30pm
Called roadside assistance from Buttonwillow. (1.5 hours is impossible to travel such distance)
...
???
Roadside assistance checks him at mother's request. Is fine, but eyes are a little red.
...
???
Roadside assistance (some other articles say Kern County PD) checked again. He is now 5 miles away from the rest stop after having been there for 10 hours.
...
Thu 10:30pm
"I'm just chilling. I'm going to hang with friends later."

Thu 11:00pm
Buys a drink from a Shell gas station near Buttonwillow (he is still there)

Fri 12:50am
No answer to call.

Fri 1:50am
Answered. Says there are no lights and cannot see any signs.

Fri 2:08am
Tells mother he is pulling off I-5 to sleep.

Fri Some time 4:20am - 5:15am
Bryce's car is in an accident.

Fri 8:00am
CHP asks parents if their car was stolen.

...

Wed 6:04am
911 call receieved about brush fire 3 miles north of Lake Hughes Rd.

Wed 6:22am
Firefighters reach the fire and discover a burning body.

 

[Voice4theSilent]

It can be seriously hard to find a body. He may have been in the brush for days before the body caught on fire. It could have been lit on fire later by someone increasingly scared their crime would be found out. Who was the last person to see him alive?

BBM The last known person to see him alive was the Kern County police officer who did a wellness check on him (at the request of his parents) after pinging his phone and finding him in the Buttonwood area. His mother stated on John and Ken that they spent a significant amount of time with him (20 minutes, I believe) and told her that he was fine.

 

[AnjL]

Yeah, maybe the perp realized that there may be something on the body that linked him/her to the crime and decided to burn it to destroy the evidence...?

I'm grasping at straws.

If it is Bryce (I'm still hoping that it is not) and someone came back to burn the body and evidence, they have a lot of guys seeing as this area has been crawling with LE and searchers looking for Bryce.

If it isn't Bryce, still whoever dumped the body and set it on fire was taking a pretty big risk with LE in the area. Either way it seems whoever the murderer is, they are not the brightest crayon in the box and will have left p,entry of evidence behind. Lets just hope that the murderer is caught quickly.

 

[BluePoppy]

Such a crazy set of circumstances - lots of interesting details here...
http://www.signalscv.com/section/36/article/104072/

*Wed - leaves Sacramento area
*Wed 11:30pm - runs out of gas near Buttonwillow rest stop (3.5 mi north of Buttonwillow truck stop exit which is an itty bitty town in the middle of tin-buck-two nowhere off the I-5) ***Odd to know you're making a 400 mile trip, but have so little gas.

*Thurs - Contacted approx 10 hrs later (10am'ish) at Buttonwillow truck stop area (small road with handful of gas stations & food joints) when mom sends serviceman that gave him gas to check on him.
*Later Thurs - mom puts out missing person. Sheriff locates Bryce still in Buttonwillow.
10:30pm Bryce tells mom he's going to "chill" with friends. WHO is he with in Buttonwillow???

F*ri 2:00am - Bryce talks to mom again - seemingly still in Buttonwillow & says he's too tired to drive.
*5:30 am - car found.

Again - WHO was Bryce with in Buttonwillow??? This seems to be the place where things got really weird. Why was he there for over 24 hrs??? Buttonwillow is such a dinky town in the middle of nowhere. He couldn't have known anyone from there. If he had, he'd have called them to bring gas, not roadside assistance.

 

[ItsACarat]

Here is a paraphrased timeline from the article cited in my previous post. Notice that the beginning of the timeline does not make sense and may be a typo.

Wed 1:30pm
Announces he is breaking up with GF.
Mother offers to fly up. He declined says he has "a lot to talk about" with mother.

Jumping in here, but I keep going back to the fact that mom is REALLY overly involved in Bryce's life. Why does she think he would need her to fly up because of personal relationship troubles? That, paired with the constant checking in calls, prior missing persons report and the dad's quote of loving him unconditionally despite other things he's done--I think Bryce might have had some mental stability issues or at least displayed behavior that made the parents think he needed near constant supervision.

Still troubled by the fact that he's been missing for 5 days now. I used to live in Castaic, it's not a huge town so surely if he was wandering around he would have been spotted days ago.

 

[gitana1]

BBM The last known person to see him alive was the Kern County police officer who did a wellness check on him (at the request of his parents) after pinging his phone and finding him in the Buttonwood area. His mother stated on John and Ken that they spent a significant amount of time with him (20 minutes, I believe) and told her that he was fine.

Well did they ask him why the hell he was still there hanging out by his car in the middle of nowhere? And why did they spend do much time with him (20 minutes)? I think he was not acting normally.

Such a crazy set of circumstances - lots of interesting details here...
http://www.signalscv.com/section/36/article/104072/

*Wed - leaves Sacramento area
*Wed 11:30pm - runs out of gas near Buttonwillow rest stop (3.5 mi north of Buttonwillow truck stop exit which is an itty bitty town in the middle of tin-buck-two nowhere off the I-5) ***Odd to know you're making a 400 mile trip, but have so little gas.

*Thurs - Contacted approx 10 hrs later (10am'ish) at Buttonwillow truck stop area (small road with handful of gas stations & food joints) when mom sends serviceman that gave him gas to check on him.
*Later Thurs - mom puts out missing person. Sheriff locates Bryce still in Buttonwillow.
10:30pm Bryce tells mom he's going to "chill" with friends. WHO is he with in Buttonwillow???

F*ri 2:00am - Bryce talks to mom again - seemingly still in Buttonwillow & says he's too tired to drive.
*5:30 am - car found.

Again - WHO was Bryce with in Buttonwillow??? This seems to be the place where things got really weird. Why was he there for over 24 hrs??? Buttonwillow is such a dinky town in the middle of nowhere. He couldn't have known anyone from there. If he had, he'd have called them to bring gas, not roadside assistance.

My sense at this point is Bryce wasn't with anyone. I get the feeling he was having some sort of mental breakdown. Then he either killed himself or fell prey to a weirdo.

 

[AnjL]

Wouldn't they have stolen his stuff if this was a carjacking or robbery?

Why drive his body around in his own car? If the murderer could burn the body, he sure as heck should have also burned the car with evidence all over it. It's possible, but that would be a really dumb murderer. My point being that nothing makes sense, especially any of the stuff that happened at Castaic Lake.

Just jumping off your post with a thought of my own...

Bryce's mom said he was in button willow 'hanging with friends' for 9 hours. At first I thought it was poor reporting, how could he have friends in buttonwillow, it's merely a stop on the way home. But what if someone he knew from high school, or someone he just met at college lived in buttonwillow? Maybe his connection for ADHD meds lived there, or was visiting there for long weekend etc. Maybe something went wrong with a drug deal?

There are just too many bizarre behaviors leading up to his disappearance. If he were just a kid on his way home for a planned visit with parents I would think crime of opportunity. But heading home without telling parents he is coming, running out of gas on the way, disappearing for 9 hours on the trip, and then 3 trips around to Casaic Lake is just too hinky. I think they should question his college friends and look at his phone records really closely...jmo

 

[IHAVENOCLUE]

I have a feeling that Bryce's friends from college and Chico State would be able to give a more clear picture of Bryce's frame of mind prior to this mysterious trip...(including days/weeks before)...

but... If they haven't shared yet... I wonder if they are afraid to be too candid...
both for Bryce's sake... And their own...
JMO

 

[mayelf]

Well did they ask him why the hell he was still there hanging out by his car in the middle of nowhere? And why did they spend do much time with him (20 minutes)? I think he was not acting normally.

So I think it took 20 minutes because they searched his car. Which seems weird, no?

Kern County sheriff's deputies located him in Buttonwillow.

They found him in good spirits and searched his car but didn't find any drugs or alcohol, his mother, Karen Laspisa, told the Orange County Register

Read more here: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2013/09/04/2666017/body-found-at-fire-in-northern.html#storylink=cpy