Yes and every single time that it turns out the person just took off and started a new life, the family and friends always say that the person would not have left their children or parents or friends, and yet they did. The missing mom found in Florida just left with the clothes on her back and some new homeless friends. Another woman who left her son and was found later living in California just took a bus out of town and a couple hundred bucks with her. I mean, you know those bums/homeless people you see? They did not plan that lifestyle out, and yet there they are, surviving with no jobs, no steady income, etc. Brandi Stahr just up and left and was assumed to have been murdered, when, in reality, she was working at a Sam's Club under her own name and social security number.
The thing that is "hard" about disappearing is that most people, no matter how bad their problems are, do not want to leave their friends and family behind. Most of us would rather go to prison and see our family once in a while than disappear but be free and have no contact with them.
I actually wonder sometimes if people who disappear voluntarily are not actually seemingly happier in the days leading up to their disappearance. They may have in their heads that if things get any worse, that they will just take off and start a new life and they may be able to take solace from that. Sometimes when I read these missing person's cases, friends and family will say that the missing person acted like their life was looking up or were seemingly more positive than they had been in years, and to me that could just as easily be evidence that they disappeared on their own, as it is evidence that they were doing better and so would not have gone and started a new life somewhere. Even people who commit suicide are sometimes in a better mood in days leading up to it, because in their minds they finally have found a solution to their problems.
In a way, people who disappear and start a new life are not all that different than people who commit suicide. Just look at Brandi Stahr - it seemed fairly obvious to me that she had completely severed her old life from her new one. She did not want to see her mother, who, btw, insisted that the issues between them were not that bad.
. I hear what you are saying, though. When someone mentions something, it seems like they must have some reason to do so. My thought was just that it was possible that Bryce had plans to do something where he would disappear (The reason they would mention this), but circumstances may have prevented him from doing so. I believe he could be somewhere else, living whatever life he chose. But he could equally have really crashed, had a head trauma and fallen into the lake. And there are a lot of other random things that COULD have happened, but are not as likely (How many cases have we seen where someone is just walking along and gets pulled into a vehicle and kidnapped?). If I were in his parents shoes, I'd like to believe he is still alive and so would write things exactly as they have, to cover all bases that might have been mentioned by anyone, anywhere, any time. JMO, of course, but I'd take any possibility that was out there, no matter how obscure or remote. The alternative is that he is deceased, or cannot voluntarily contact his family. I can see holding out hope for another possibility.
