CA CA - Bryce Laspisa, 19, Castaic, 30 Aug 2013 - #3

[cluciano63]

I know people survive on the streets in all kinds of conditions.
But I just don't see a college kid from an apparently wealthy family, who called his parens for every little thing, doing so. JMO

 

[BluePoppy]

Thanks!

"“Thinking that he’s out there hurt is the main focus. I can’t believe he would be on a journey of his own without telling his parents,” Bryce Laspisa’s father, Michael Laspisa said.

“Totally out of character. He’s the kind of son who will call you if he’s got a hangnail. He’s totally an open book,” Michael Laspisa said."

I took the father's statement about being "on a journey" to refer to the journey he may be on now, post crash. JMO

You are absolutely right. I just listened to the audio of this statement by Michael & the intonation sounded exactly like that. As if he didn't see Bryce journey'ing off on his own to disappear. Not referring to Bryce's drive down to Laguna Niguel.

 

[BluePoppy]

“He said to California Highway Patrol later that day that he was heading to Laguna Niguel to hang out with a friend and blow off steam,“ Karen said.

Great find! I hadn't heard this before & I've looked at all this every day all day since Memorial Day weekend...

 

[mck16]

She spoke about it on the John and Ken show on KFI640 radio (I am looking for the audio of it) and Dragracerz posted the following on September 5th:

"Could be ? I don't know if it is in the timeline or not, but the road service driver showed up with gas and Bryce wasn't by his car, the driver left and Bryce called back immediately requesting gas, the driver turned around and brought him 3 gallons of gas.

My sister was notified of the road service via text (survey on service) and called and actually talked to the driver while he was with Bryce. He said he didn't see him when he first got there and maybe Bryce was sleeping, Bryce was listening to the conversation and butted in, "Yeah, I was sleeping"

Okay, I don't know if the driver looked in the car when he first got there and left OR if he did and Bryce wasn't in the car ???"

This may have been mentioned before, but I am just wondering if the road service man actually identified the person he spoke to by picture as Bryce, or did he assume he was talking to Bryce. ty

 

[LaborDayRN]

This whole flying thing has never made sense to me. By the time you pack, get to the airport, park, get through security, pick up your bags on the other end (possibly, depending how much you pack), get picked up or get a taxi/shuttle from Sacramento to Rocklin/Roseville... well, I just don't see the point in flying from Laguna. It's not that far. I don't think it'd take much more time, if any, to drive it.

I don't know that it means anything, but it continues to nag at me. Maybe it means that the family's very comfortable flying even for short distances? I know it's out there, but is it possible Bryce has flown somewhere?

That reminds me of the last time my husband and I took a flight. We are in So Cal. and were flying east. We had a layover in Las Vegas, then direct to Conn.
We left the house early (1.5 hour drive to the airport), parked in off site parking, got a shuttle to the airport, checked in 1 hour early, waited for flight and boarded. Took off 30 minutes late. When we got off the plane in Las Vegas to make our connection, I realized it had been over 6 hours since we left home that morning. Las Vegas is a 4 hour drive from my house. :floorlaugh:

 

[PoirotsGirlFriday]

You didn't dream that. Friends took his keys because, he wast acting "strangely", Mom instructed friends to give them back after speaking to Bryce on the phone. IIR, Mom also offered to fly up there and Bryce told her he was driving home.

I thought he told her he was driving home as well. But I went back and re-read some news articles and can not find that anywhere. It only says that he told her not to fly out to see him because he had a lot to talk to her about. No where does it say that he told her he was driving home, that I can find.

 

[LaborDayRN]

I don't think that he was. He was avoiding her calls to the point that she felt it necessary to contact a stranger (the roadside assistance serviceman) to check on him and then later had to go down to the police station to file a missing person report to have the police ping his cell phone to find out where he was because he wasn't answering her calls. (He used his cell phone later so we know that it was working.) Plus he sat in Buttonwillow for at least 17 hours instead of driving the 2.75 remaining hours back to Laguna Niguel. When he finally did get back on the 5 freeway he drove less than an hour and a half and then spent several hours driving around the Castaic area. It doesn't appear to me that he was in any hurry to go home.

I agree.

 

[LaborDayRN]

I thought he told her he was driving home as well. But I went back and re-read some news articles and can not find that anywhere. It only says that he told her not to fly out to see him because he had a lot to talk to her about. No where does it say that he told her he was driving home, that I can find.

I looked back over old stories and was unable to find it also. My mistake, I guess I was reading into it.

 

[gitana1]

I think they need to check the lake again. And again. With divers.

Just in case.

Terrilynn Monette was found in Bayou St. John in New Orleans, in a part of the bayou that had been ruled out previously by sonar. A diver found her in the bayou several months after she went missing in an area that had already been cleared...and she was in a vehicle underwater, which is much bigger than a body alone.

I hope Bryce is out there alive but I hope that lake is being searched and searched just in case. I can't count the number of cases here on WS missing young men near Bryce's age go missing and end up in the water.

And again, I can't get over the similarities between Bryce's case & the case of Shane Fell:
LA LA - Shane Fell, 36, Marrero, 9 June 2011 - Page 2 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

But she was stuck in a car. Unless Bryce is being weighted down by something he would have surfaced by now in water as warm as lake Castaic. And it's not like a bayou or river or the ocean. Really no trees or brush in the water or currents that could hold down a body. At this point I doubt he's in there.

I know people survive on the streets in all kinds of conditions.
But I just don't see a college kid from an apparently wealthy family, who called his parens for every little thing, doing so. JMO

Man, I spent a lot of time cutting and pasting several examples of middle class types including a lawyer who suffered amnesia and took off, surviving on the streets for days, weeks even months.

By the way, Laguna Niguel is not all wealthy. Some condos and middle class people there. But even the wealthy can have mental or neurological issues and take off and survive.

 

[Ghostwheel]

If he had been assaulted and killed I think his phone and maybe even the truck would be missing too.

I think Bryce was with the car. If it were some assailant, I could see leaving the phone, but they'd take the laptop for sure, and wallet if it had any money or credit cards (see my response on money below). If Bryce assumed he was coming back to the car (or assumed he wasn't), he might leave his things in the car.

But since the SUV was shown on camera 1 minute after Bryce's last call to his mom and he didn't give any indication of a problem (other than he was tired), than we have to assume either Bryce was the driver or, at least, it was Bryce's choice to have this person driving his car.

Which means Bryce was most likely driving at the time he was speaking to his mother. This could be the reason he turned around the first time, he was sidetracked by speaking to his mother, and didn't originally intend on going that far or that way.

I am not convinced that he spent 17+ hours in Buttonwillow sleeping. If he did, why would he then be so exhausted after only driving an hour and fifteen minutes to Castaic that he would have to pull over and sleep some more? (Laguna Niguel, if you believe he was really heading there, was only an additional hour and a half away.)

I am having trouble following the reports. Originally it was reported that he ran out of gas at the Buttonwillow rest stop. He ran out of gas at 9:00am, but the guy with the gas didn't arrive until 12:00pm (3 hours-seems like a long time). If he got back on the road at 12:30, , he'd have arrived at the TA Travel center (on Lagoon drive) around 12:45. Or he might have tried to sleep some more at the rest stop before heading to Buttonwillow proper. If he left Lagoon Dr. around 11:00 PM ish, he was there for around 11 hours or less. Fill up gas tank, use facilities, maybe grab something to eat would take around an hour to 2 hours. 8.5-9.5 hours unaccounted for. He may have tried to sleep, and didn't get much due to comings, goings, heat, light, etc.

This: “Sergeant Wallace called and said the vehicle had crashed and was on its side. It had gone down a 15-foot ravine,” she said. “It went nose first and landed on the passenger side. Bryce has used an emergency tool to break the back window.” Totally contradictory to YellowCamaro's assessment which sounds solid as a rock to me... how odd.

Sgt Wallace was replaced with some other LE. That tells me a lot.... But again, an emergency tool leaves a distinctive pattern when used. I wonder if what Yellow Camaro saw could be correct, but with going forward? Stuck with the rear wheels spinning, but trying to back up the hill, while the nose was pointing downhill?

How did he pay? I am guessing he had very little money.

Or possibly he was using his card and saving his cash for when he ended up places that only take cash. I do that on trips all the time. You end up at JoeBobs gas station in the middle of nowhere because your fan belt gave out and by George, JoeBob only takes cash. Bryce may not have been that savvy, but maybe he was.

If the above is correct and he left Buttonwillow at 11pm it took him 3 hours to make the 1.25 hour drive down to Castaic.

If his mom kept calling every hour, legally he'd have had to pull over to talk to her (unless he had a hands free thing going in his car). It could take that long if he did. There is also a rest area at Frazier Park (Lebec?) at the top of Grapevine hill, he might have stopped there for a bit. That's a bit odd; if it had been by itself, not so much, but with everything else...maybe.

She spoke about it on the John and Ken show on KFI640 radio (I am looking for the audio of it) and Dragracerz posted the following on September 5th:

"Could be ? I don't know if it is in the timeline or not, but the road service driver showed up with gas and Bryce wasn't by his car, the driver left and Bryce called back immediately requesting gas, the driver turned around and brought him 3 gallons of gas.

My sister was notified of the road service via text (survey on service) and called and actually talked to the driver while he was with Bryce. He said he didn't see him when he first got there and maybe Bryce was sleeping, Bryce was listening to the conversation and butted in, "Yeah, I was sleeping"

Okay, I don't know if the driver looked in the car when he first got there and left OR if he did and Bryce wasn't in the car ???"

BBM: If I were him, I'd have been sleeping in the back of the car. I'm pretty sure you can put down the back rows of seats and have a pretty flat spot to sleep in. The back windows are usually tinted, so the road service guy might not have seen him. Most people waiting for gas are standing outside the car, chomping at the bit to get going. I can't imagine anyone sleeping anywhere outside in the Buttonwillow rest stop, but there are covered picnic benches for shade.

 

[Voice4theSilent]

I think the 4 days of Bryce being awake are: Monday (Madden 25 was released at midnight on Monday night/Tuesday morning), Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, leading up to the crash on Friday morning (if you don't believe that he spend any time on Thursday sleeping in his car.)

 

[BluePoppy]

I am not convinced that he spent 17+ hours in Buttonwillow sleeping. If he did, why would he then be so exhausted after only driving an hour and fifteen minutes to Castaic that he would have to pull over and sleep some more? (Laguna Niguel, if you believe he was really heading there, was only an additional hour and a half away.)

Remember, Bryce had never driven this distance alone & certainly not at night. I have driven from the So Cal to Nor Cal area late at night many, many times. Everyone handles driving tired at night different.

There have been many times we (yes neither I nor my husband could go on) had to pull over multiple times in just the last 1 hr 45 min stretch of a 4 hr 45 min drive. One particular time I recall we were only 45 minutes from home, but our eyes were shutting against our will, despite the caffeine, and we were drifting out of our lane. Scary! Some people just being dark makes them sleepy when driving.

ETA: Certainly 17 hrs in Buttonwillow is extreme. I don't have an explanation for that aside from sleeping & just sitting there. Clearly he didn't sleep a full 17 hrs.

 

[PoirotsGirlFriday]

I looked back over old stories and was unable to find it also. My mistake, I guess I was reading into it.

I did the same in the beginning! It just made sense for that to be the reason why he would tell her not to come!

 

[SandSage]

I know people survive on the streets in all kinds of conditions.
But I just don't see a college kid from an apparently wealthy family, who called his parens for every little thing, doing so. JMO

This assumes he did so intentionally.

This indicates how and why he may not have: Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community - View Single Post - CA CA - Bryce Laspisa, 19, Castaic, 30 Aug 2013 - #3

 

[moonstone]

This may be not be worth much, but it dawned on me to ask: Has anyone thought of checking out / posting flyers in the adjacent, neighboring community of Val Verde for any leads/info? It is near Castaic and it's own little enclave nestled within surrounding canyons/hills and not visible right off any main highway. It used to be mostly an ethnic neighborhood (in the 1930's it was known as the 'black palm springs') and quite run down though seemingly quiet.

In fact, as a local child with a family penchant for exploring, I never knew it existed until the late 80's when my Dad spontaneously drove us through on a daytrip back from Ventura. We lived in a rural community so I was used to different places, and perhaps it was the particular streets we went down, but back then it was quite a unique place; a total world away from the surrounding towns. It seemed so isolated back in the hills.

Looking at Google images it appears there have been some newer subdivisions built and I imagine the huge growth of Castaic and SCV area have made it more a much more accessible community. Wikipedia lists the white population at about 56%, and as early as the late 90's I had some college friends who rented a house there because they could live there so cheaply, (and have wilder parties than they could in the suburbs areas). So it's not a stretch to think there might be lots more art college students holing up there.

Not saying there is any kind of connection to anything at all, mostly just giving some perspective on the place (as far as I can remember it)... but if I was still local to LA, I might drive up and post some flyers at the local library or stores while in the area. It's so near-yet-not-so-obvious to Castaic, I would think it worth posting a few flyers (assuming this hasn't already been done, and if it has, thanks!)

 

[Voice4theSilent]

This may have been mentioned before, but I am just wondering if the road service man actually identified the person he spoke to by picture as Bryce, or did he assume he was talking to Bryce. ty

I haven't read anything about anyone being interviewed by LE but I would hope that they would have interviewed him extensively especially since he was one of the last people to see and speak to Bryce in person.

However, if Bryce's mom heard him say that he was sleeping I am pretty confident that she would have been able to tell if it was his voice or not.

 

[mck16]

I haven't read anything about anyone being interviewed by LE but I would hope that they would have interviewed him extensively especially since he was one of the last people to see and speak to Bryce in person.However, if Bryce's mom heard him say that he was sleeping I am pretty confident that she would have been able to tell if it was his voice or not.

I would hope so too. But, didn't know for sure and that is why I asked. Just thought of it since everything else is so weird. jmo

 

[BluePoppy]

I think the 4 days of Bryce being awake are: Monday (Madden 25 was released at midnight on Monday night/Tuesday morning), Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, leading up to the crash on Friday morning (if you don't believe that he spend any time on Thursday sleeping in his car.)

Madden was released Wed 8/28 (midnight Tues night). Tues is the day he told his gf he took the pill. The roommate made the 4 day statement early on & I'm not thinking he's analyzed all the info we have. He probably is thinking he didn't sleep in Buttonwillow.

 

[PoirotsGirlFriday]

She spoke about it on the John and Ken show on KFI640 radio (I am looking for the audio of it) and Dragracerz posted the following on September 5th:

"Could be ? I don't know if it is in the timeline or not, but the road service driver showed up with gas and Bryce wasn't by his car, the driver left and Bryce called back immediately requesting gas, the driver turned around and brought him 3 gallons of gas.

My sister was notified of the road service via text (survey on service) and called and actually talked to the driver while he was with Bryce. He said he didn't see him when he first got there and maybe Bryce was sleeping, Bryce was listening to the conversation and butted in, "Yeah, I was sleeping"

Okay, I don't know if the driver looked in the car when he first got there and left OR if he did and Bryce wasn't in the car ???"

Thank you!!! This was what I was trying to find!!!

Yeah, that whole thing just REALLY makes me wonder. If I thought someone might be sleeping in the car I was supposed to deliver gas to, I think I would tap on the door/look in the window and check! Especially before I would just leave. Maybe the driver did and didn't see Bryce but didn't want to say anything about it?

The other thing that strikes me is that the driver was the first to use the word "sleeping" and then Bryce just chimes in and agrees. Maybe Bryce just saw his chance for a cover up and took it?

I'm honestly not trying to make Bryce look bad at all. We all have our reasons for wanting to keep something secret sometimes! Whatever his reason, I am leaning more and more towards a few things.

1. That Bryce was not actually heading home to begin with.
2. Once Bryce knew his Mom found out about the roadside call he had to come up with a reason for why he was in Buttonwillow and out of gas.
3. Whatever he was actually doing and wherever he was actually going, he couldn't reveal. So he just said he was coming home. Maybe he even decided right then and there that he could go home, just to keep it all above board.
4. What he was there to do was not finished yet. Which is why he didn't just hop in after he got some gas and head down to Laguna Niguel.

ALL just my opinion though, of course!

 

[lillygator]

Exactly. Granted I'm not a 19 year old young man, but I just don't see calling every few hours and then disappearing. Maybe I suck at keeping in touch but I think I could be gone for a week before my Mom would even be worried. We're not talking about a 10 year old.

honestly, back in the day, I would agree. I went to college in 1992, my mom dropped me off at UF and there would be weeks without speaking. But now, with cell phones, as a 38 yr old, its rare we don't talk daily, same with my 10 yr old........and her friends, they are constantly calling mom!!!!