CA CA - Bryce Laspisa, 19, Castaic, 30 Aug 2013 - #4

[SandSage]

He went back to sitting in the same parking lot after getting the gas. None of it makes any sense. There is a lot of missing information, obviously.

Okay. If he left the parking lot to get fuel and returned to the same parking lot... he had to be waiting for someone. What was it about THAT parking lot?... sounds like the entire area is one big parking lot. :scared:

 

[Voice4theSilent]

Okay. If he left the parking lot to get fuel and returned to the same parking lot... he had to be waiting for someone. What was it about THAT parking lot?... sounds like the entire area is one big parking lot. :scared:

Waiting for someone at a rest stop and ending up in a motel/hotel doesn't sound too good.

 

[Ghostwheel]

I don't see any motel/hotels on Lagoon Drive (???) using the google map guy. Did the police find him on Lagoon Drive once and at a motel/hotel another time? Or did they find his car on Lagoon Drive and him somewhere else? Or is there a motel/hotel that I am missing? His mom said, in the John and Ken interview, that the police found him sitting in his car parked on Lagoon Drive in Buttonwillow. (The police log is hard for me to understand.)

She also stated in that interview that he told the Kern County Police that "he was heading down to Laguna Niguel and he wanted to blow off steam with a friend." I think that possibly mom was assuming the friend he was going to hang out with was one in Laguna Niguel because she also says he doesn't have any friends between school and home (which I don't know why she would assume that he couldn't have met someone while at school up north that she may not have known about.)

There is a Motel 6 at least on Tracy Ave (I have stayed there-currently $38.00), and Tracy Ave intersects with Lagoon Dr. The Sheriff's report says the phone pinged " WITHIN 271 METERS, AREA OF 27700 LAGOON DR. BUTTONWILLOW, CA." There is no official 27700 Lagoon, that location is exactly where Lagoon meets Tracy. There is also a Knight's Inn and an Econo lodge on Tracy Ave. The Knight's Inn is actually the closest to being within the 271 meter radius, FWIW.

 

[Voice4theSilent]

There is a Motel 6 at least on Tracy Ave (I have stayed there-currently $38.00), and Tracy Ave intersects with Lagoon Dr. The Sheriff's report says the phone pinged " WITHIN 271 METERS, AREA OF 27700 LAGOON DR. BUTTONWILLOW, CA." There is no official 27700 Lagoon, that location is exactly where Lagoon meets Tracy. There is also a Knight's Inn and an Econo lodge on Tracy Ave. The Knight's Inn is actually the closest to being within the 271 meter radius, FWIW.

Thank you!

 

[Ghostwheel]

I believe he purchased gas at the Oasis Valero Gas station right off the 5 freeway near the truck stop in Buttonwillow at 12:30pm on Thursday (per KL's interview on John and Ken) which means that he had the 3 gallons of gas delivered, left to put $39 worth of gas in his car, and then returned to the rest stop to sit in his car (?) in the same place in the parking lot.

The ButtonWillow Rest stop is in a completely different place than Buttonwillow proper. There is a TRUCK stop in Buttonwillow proper (actually, several).

My understanding is that Bryce ran out of gas at the Buttonwillow REST stop. When he got the three gallons of gas, he went to Buttonwillow proper, got off the freeway and filled up at Shell station (per link from SandSage here http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9816644&postcount=864)

There is a Shell station right near where his cell phone pinged (" WITHIN 271 METERS, AREA OF 27700 LAGOON DR. BUTTONWILLOW, CA."), as well as three motels.

 

[SandSage]

Okay - we don't know if he was in the hotel parking lot or was a guest.

DEP HERNANDEZ FROM KERN CO SHERIFF`S HAS FOUND SUBJECT BRYCE AT A HOTEL AT HWY 58//FWY 5 SUBJECT SAID THAT HE WAS ON HIS WAY TO VISIT A FRIEND DEP STATED SUBJECT IS NO FURTHER ASSISTANCE NEEDED AND NOTHING WRONG WITH HIM SUBJECT WAS TOLD TO CONTACT HIS FAMILY AND ADV OF LOCATION

Hotels in that area:

CA 58 (Blue Star Memorial Highway) Buttonwillow

Econo Lodge Inn & Suites Buttonwillow
Motel 6 Buttonwillow North
Motel 6 Buttonwillow Central
Super 8 Buttonwillow

http://www.americansouthwest.net/california/hotels/interstate-5.html

 

[Ghostwheel]

Okay - we don't know if he was in the hotel parking lot or was a guest.



Hotels in that area:

CA 58 (Blue Star Memorial Highway) Buttonwillow

Econo Lodge Inn & Suites Buttonwillow
Motel 6 Buttonwillow North
Motel 6 Buttonwillow Central
Super 8 Buttonwillow

http://www.americansouthwest.net/california/hotels/interstate-5.html

You missed the Knight's Inn
http://www.knightsinn.com/hotels/california/buttonwillow/knights-inn-buttonwillow/hotel-overview

 

[Whiteorchids]

He went back to sitting in the same parking lot after getting the gas. None of it makes any sense. There is a lot of missing information, obviously.

Waiting for someone to arrive he was supposed to meet?

 

[SandSage]

You missed the Knight's Inn
http://www.knightsinn.com/hotels/california/buttonwillow/knights-inn-buttonwillow/hotel-overview

Yes. Yes I did.

 

[sreshowtime]

well...I am back to my 3 mile radius, 3/4 around, of the vehicle accident
...now to figure that out.

 

[Ghostwheel]

well...I am back to my 3 mile radius, 3/4 around, of the vehicle accident
...now to figure that out.

That is all the way from the freeway to the accident site (about 2.6 miles). Plenty of motels there, too. But are you thinking more back in the brush?

 

[Voice4theSilent]

The ButtonWillow Rest stop is in a completely different place than Buttonwillow proper. There is a TRUCK stop in Buttonwillow proper (actually, several).

My understanding is that Bryce ran out of gas at the Buttonwillow REST stop. When he got the three gallons of gas, he went to Buttonwillow proper, got off the freeway and filled up at Shell station (per link from SandSage here http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9816644&postcount=864)

There is a Shell station right near where his cell phone pinged (" WITHIN 271 METERS, AREA OF 27700 LAGOON DR. BUTTONWILLOW, CA."), as well as three motels.

Sorry. My post should have stated that the gas station he got gas at was near the rest stop, not the truck stop. His mom said it was the Oasis Valero (not the Shell, which is where he got the drink and is also by the truck stop) that he put gas in his car at 12:30pm on Thursday and it was 5 miles away from where the police found him by the truck stop. She stated that several hours after he got the 3 gallons of gas the man who brought him the gas went back to check on him and he was in the same location, which means that he got gas and then went back to the same spot at the rest stop.

 

[sreshowtime]

brush & such

 

[gitana1]

He went back to sitting in the same parking lot after getting the gas. None of it makes any sense. There is a lot of missing information, obviously.

To me, it doesn't make sense because he wasn't making sense. I;m convinced Bryce was having some sort of an episode. Nothing suggests this kid, the same happy, normal kid we see in the video, was into prostitutes or drug dealing or was at all sophisticated enough to understand bat phones or whatever. I do not believe he was meeting anyone nor that he is being hidden by a secret network of friends, or something like that. It would be so easy to determine any of that via computer and phone records and witness statements. But much suggests to me that Bryce was either not in his right mind when he got in his truck or well on his way to having a serious problem.

I am hopeful he's still alive. I doubt the Tehachapi sightings. I think if Bryce is alive he's long gone because if he was close by, walking around, there would be so many calls to the police our heads would spin. No way is he just casually hanging at a K-Mart in Tehachapi or whatever without a dozen people calling LE or trying to talk to him.

The Oregon sighting by the older man seemed the most likely to me. Way too coincidental that a red haired young man would be wandering in the middle of nowhere, really, on foot, near a truck stop, in the dark in the early morning, asking for directions, wearing similar clothes to what Bryce was last seen in, and spotted by someone with no knowledge of the case.

But I don't think too much of the second sighting up there. Tiny, tiny town. He would not be able to walk around there without being noticed very quickly and having tons of LE swooping in, IMO, since there was already a sighting everyone must be aware of there by now.

If Bryce has survived, I'd look elsewhere. I still think truckers and truck stops along highways are good places to search, as well as homeless communities all across the west, in big cities and small towns.

If Bryce was my relative (and I could afford it), I'd be out each week in a new town along the highway, posting flyers at truck stops and homeless shelters. Although, as someone pointed out, a vigil might bring more attention to the case, that possibility is more remote in areas farther away from Southern California. Here it will make the news, but in Washington state or Idaho, for example, I doubt it.

I do see similarities with Linnea Lomax's case but there are differences as well. I remain hopeful that the outcome will not be the same.

 

[SandSage]

To me, it doesn't make sense because he wasn't making sense. I;m convinced Bryce was having some sort of an episode. Nothing suggests this kid, the same happy, normal kid we see in the video, was into prostitutes or drug dealing or was at all sophisticated enough to understand bat phones or whatever. I do not believe he was meeting anyone nor that he is being hidden by a secret network of friends, or whatever. It would be so easy to determine any of that via computer and phone records and witness statements. But much suggests to me that Bryce was either not in his right mind when he got in his truck or well on his way to having a serious problem.

I am hopeful he's still alive. I doubt the Tehachapi sightings. I think if Bryce is alive he's long gone because if he was close by, walking around, there would be so many calls to the police our heads would spin. No way is he just casually hanging at a K-Mart in Tehachapi or whatever without a dozen people calling LE or trying to talk to him.

The Oregon sighting by the older man seemed the most likely to me. Way too coincidental that a red haired young man would be wandering in the middle of nowhere, really, on foot, near a truck stop, in the dark in the early morning, asking for directions, wearing similar clothes to what Bryce was last seen in, and spotted by someone with no knowledge of the case.

But I don't think too much of the second sighting up there. Tiny, tiny town. He would not be able to walk around there without being noticed very quickly and having tons of LE swooping in, IMO, since there was already a sighting everyone must be aware of there by now.

If Bryce has survived, I'd look elsewhere. I still think truckers and truck stops along highways are good places to search, as well as homeless communities all across the west, in big cities and small towns.

If Bryce was my relative (and I could afford it), I'd be out each week in a new town along the highway, posting flyers at truck stops and homeless shelters. Although, as someone pointed out, a vigil might bring more attention to the case, that possibility is more remote in areas farther away from Southern California. Here it will make the news, but in Washington state or Idaho, for example, I doubt it.

I do see similarities with Linnea Lomax's case but there are differences as well. I remain hopeful that the outcome will not be the same.

Thank you.
"Like"
"+1"

 

[Whiteorchids]

There are many YouTube videos of Linnea Lomax case including candlelight vigil videos. Too bad Bryce's family hasn't posted youtube videos of Bryce, searches, or family reaching out to Bryce. This is a great way to get the word out all over the world.

What happened to Klaas Kids? Their team along with the parents helped locate Linnea.

http://www.klaaskids.org/blog/?cat=314

 

[Seajay]

I've been saving timelines as they have appeared, made by our wonderful sleuthers here (not me, I just saved them.)

8/26 (Mon.) - Bryce goes to class. The mother states she had a “good normal conversation” with him.

The report then says that the family has a photo taken of him that afternoon in which he appears happy.


8/27 (Tues.) - Bryce's girlfriend notes that he is acting weird and he then admits he took some ADHD medication.


8/28 (Wed.) The next day, the following occurs:

10:00 p.m. - Wednesday - Bryce reportedly tries to break up with his girlfriend. Friends, concerned about his behavior, take away his car keys.

10:30 p.m. Wednesday - Karen Laspisa tells the friends, by phone, to return the keys to her son after she speaks to him. He tells her: “I have a lot to talk to you about.”

11:30 p.m. Wednesday - Bryce Laspisa leaves Chico.

8/29 (Thurs.)

9:00 a.m. Thursday - Bryce runs out of gas near the Buttonwillow Rest Area, west of Bakersfield.

12:00 p.m. Thursday - a roadside assistance serviceman named Christian delivers three gallons of gasoline to Bryce, according to a $20 credit card purchase for the fuel. “He’s not answering his phone (at this time),” his mother said.

12:30 p.m. Thursday - Karen Laspisa calls serviceman Christian and asks about her son. He tells her he appears “OK” but adds: “His eyes look a little red.” Bryce does not answer his cell phone.

9:00 p.m. Thursday - responding to a call from the mother - CHP officers stop and search Bryce’s car spotted on Lagoon Drive in Buttonwillow. Some reports say they searched for drugs or alcohol but found none. The mom told John and Ken that the police spent 20 minutes with her son.

Shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday - Karen speaks to her son on the phone and asks: “What are you doing?” His response, she said, is: “I’m going to hang with friends later.”

11:00 p.m. Thursday - Bryce tells his mother he’s buying a beverage at a gas station. A purchase is made for $1.71, she said.
Shortly after midnight Thursday - “He tells me he’s on the I-5 south but he’s telling me nothing,” she said.

As per Uncle dragracerz-Bryce bought $39 worth of gas at the Valero Station on Lagoon Drive in Buttonwillow.

8/30 - (Fri.)

1:50 a.m. Friday - Bryce, by phone, tells the mother that he “had detoured off I-5 but was back on the I-5.”

2:08 a.m. Friday - Karen Laspisa talks to her son for the last time. He tells her his GPS tells him he will arrive in Laguna Niguel in three hours and 25 minutes. “He told me ‘I got off the I-5 and I’m in a suburban area. I’m going to sleep in my car.’”

2:08 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Friday - Bryce makes three trips to the crash site – the last trip ending with the crash, according to what his mother described as surveillance footage captured by cameras set up near Castaic Lake.

5:30 a.m. Friday - CHP officers locate his overturned SUV on a paved access road that leads to the Castaic Lake Main Boat ramp, at the bottom of a 15-foot ravine, on its side, with its rear window smashed. Although he left the valuables – laptop, cell phone and wallet – a duffle bag is found at the rear of the car and zipped open, prompting investigators to suspect he took something from it. He walked back from his car to a nearby lake after the crash, it appears.

9/4/13 (Wed.) - A burning body is found in the Lake Castaic area.


http://www.signalscv.com/section/36/article/104116/
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sec...cal&id=9235339
http://www.signalscv.com/section/36/article/104204/

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.

...

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

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

Thursday 9:am Bryce ran out of gas and called roadside assistance from the Buttonwillow Rest Area west of Bakersfield, a fact confirmed by the credit card company.

Thursday 12pm a roadside assistance serviceman named Christian delivers three gallons of gasoline to Bryce, according to a $20 credit card purchase for the fuel. “He’s not answering his phone (at this time),” his mother said.

Thursday 12:30pm Karen Laspisa calls serviceman Christian and asks about her son. He tells her he appears “OK” but adds: “His eyes look a little red.” Bryce does not answer his cell phone.

Thursday 9pm responding to a call from the mother, CHP officers stop and search Bryce’s car spotted on Lagoon Drive in Buttonwillow. “Something happened in the whole 10 hours he was around there,” she said. This may be the time at which he was considered missing with police first but then taken off that list.

Thursday 10pm Karen speaks to her son on the phone and asks: “What are you doing?” His response, she said, is: “I’m going to hang with friends later.” Thirty minutes later, he bought a $1.71 beverage from a Shell gas station near Buttonwillow exit on the corner of Tracey Ave and Lagoon Dr. According to Uncle dragracerz he also bought $39 worth of gas at a Valero Gas station.

*Poster Note: My post should have stated that the gas station he got gas at was near the rest stop, not the truck stop. His mom said it was the Oasis Valero (not the Shell, which is where he got the drink and is also by the truck stop) that he put gas in his car at 12:30pm on Thursday and it was 5 miles away from where the police found him by the truck stop. She stated that several hours after he got the 3 gallons of gas the man who brought him the gas went back to check on him and he was in the same location, which means that he got gas and then went back to the same spot at the rest stop.


Friday 12:30 am parents tried calling him but got no answer

Friday 1:50am Bryce’s parents reached him and he had said he was driving on the I-5 but could not see any signs, she said.

Friday 2:08 am last call to parents, was tired and going to pullover to rest. “He told me ‘I got off the I-5 and I’m in a suburban area. I’m going to sleep in my car,’” said Karen Laspisa (mother) “I told him to call me when he got up the next morning.”
He never called

Between 2:08 a.m. and 5 a.m. Friday - Bryce makes three trips to the crash site – the last trip ending with the crash, according to what his mother described as surveillance footage captured by cameras set up near Castaic Lake.

The crash had to happen between 4:20 a.m. and 5:15 a.m, It had gone down a 15-foot ravine nose first and landed on the passenger side. Bryce (or someone) has used an emergency tool to break the back window

Friday 5:30 am officers of the California Highway Patrol found his 2003 Toyota Highlander SUV on its side.

*Law Enforcement Transcript

Missing adult. 7:15 p.m. Thursday, Aug 29. ...
Description
9:33 p.m.: DEP HERNANDEZ FROM KERN CO SHERIFF`S HAS FOUND SUBJECT BRYCE AT A HOTEL AT HWY 58//FWY 5 SUBJECT SAID THAT HE WAS ON HIS WAY TO VISIT A FRIEND DEP STATED SUBJECT IS NO FURTHER ASSISTANCE NEEDED AND NOTHING WRONG WITH HIM SUBJECT WAS TOLD TO CONTACT HIS FAMILY AND ADV OF LOCATION

I added the info about dragracerz saying he got $39 worth of gas at a Valero Gas Station, and the transcript information from LE who did the welfare check.

HTH.

 

[AnjL]

I believe he purchased gas at the Oasis Valero Gas station right off the 5 freeway near the rest stop in Buttonwillow at 12:30pm on Thursday (per KL's interview on John and Ken) which means that he had the 3 gallons of gas delivered, left to put $39 worth of gas in his car, and then returned to the rest stop to sit in his car (?) in the same place in the parking lot.

So 3 gals of gas + $39 worth of gas (11-13 gals depending on price) would have given him an almost full tank. Per link 03 Toyota highlander tank size is 19.8 gallons http://www.edmunds.com/toyota/highlander/2003/features-specs.html
If he put all of that $39 into gas tank and didn't do a 'cash back' transaction.

Now I have 2 questions. #1 how much gas was remaining in vehicle and did any spill at accident site? #2 can LE or family follow up with gas station to check transactions for that date/time to see if cash back given?

 

[AnjL]

I don't see any motel/hotels on Lagoon Drive (???) using the google map guy. Did the police find him on Lagoon Drive once and at a motel/hotel another time? Or did they find his car on Lagoon Drive and him somewhere else? Or is there a motel/hotel that I am missing? His mom said, in the John and Ken interview, that the police found him sitting in his car parked on Lagoon Drive in Buttonwillow. (The police log is hard for me to understand.)

She also stated in that interview that he told the Kern County Police that "he was heading down to Laguna Niguel and he wanted to blow off steam with a friend." I think that possibly mom was assuming the friend he was going to hang out with was one in Laguna Niguel because she also says he doesn't have any friends between school and home (which I don't know why she would assume that he couldn't have met someone while at school up north that she may not have known about.)

Per police log he was pinged at 27700 Lagoon Drive so was within a few 100 ft of that address. There is a super 8 motel just across the street on Tracy Ave. not sure if my link will work, I googled the address, went to street view and took a little drive http://maps.gstatic.com/m/streetvie...+ca&ei=PZ5GUrqvBIbhyQH8wYHwBw&ved=0CC4QxB0wAA

 

[AnjL]

To me, it doesn't make sense because he wasn't making sense. I;m convinced Bryce was having some sort of an episode. Nothing suggests this kid, the same happy, normal kid we see in the video, was into prostitutes or drug dealing or was at all sophisticated enough to understand bat phones or whatever. I do not believe he was meeting anyone nor that he is being hidden by a secret network of friends, or something like that. It would be so easy to determine any of that via computer and phone records and witness statements. But much suggests to me that Bryce was either not in his right mind when he got in his truck or well on his way to having a serious problem.

I am hopeful he's still alive. I doubt the Tehachapi sightings. I think if Bryce is alive he's long gone because if he was close by, walking around, there would be so many calls to the police our heads would spin. No way is he just casually hanging at a K-Mart in Tehachapi or whatever without a dozen people calling LE or trying to talk to him.

The Oregon sighting by the older man seemed the most likely to me. Way too coincidental that a red haired young man would be wandering in the middle of nowhere, really, on foot, near a truck stop, in the dark in the early morning, asking for directions, wearing similar clothes to what Bryce was last seen in, and spotted by someone with no knowledge of the case.

But I don't think too much of the second sighting up there. Tiny, tiny town. He would not be able to walk around there without being noticed very quickly and having tons of LE swooping in, IMO, since there was already a sighting everyone must be aware of there by now.

If Bryce has survived, I'd look elsewhere. I still think truckers and truck stops along highways are good places to search, as well as homeless communities all across the west, in big cities and small towns.

If Bryce was my relative (and I could afford it), I'd be out each week in a new town along the highway, posting flyers at truck stops and homeless shelters. Although, as someone pointed out, a vigil might bring more attention to the case, that possibility is more remote in areas farther away from Southern California. Here it will make the news, but in Washington state or Idaho, for example, I doubt it.

I do see similarities with Linnea Lomax's case but there are differences as well. I remain hopeful that the outcome will not be the same.

I agree with you 100%. I really feel that he's confused/disoriented/amnesia and wandering somewhere far away. Maybe this is due to my own experiences, I don't know. But I certainly hope it's true and that he will be found soon or somehow find his way home soon.

There is an organization called Trucker Angels who may be able to help spread the word and get fliers out to truckers nationwide. I wonder if the family has contacted them yet?