On August 28, 2013, 19-year-old Bryce Laspisa made a decision. He left Sierra College in Rocklin, California, and drove to Chico to break up with his girlfriend. After that conversation, he apparently decided to make the 500-mile journey home to see his parents in Laguna Niguel. But Karen and Mike Laspisa didn’t know that was his plan at the time.
The next day, August 29, Karen received a notification from her insurance company that Bryce, who was driving a car registered to her, had called for roadside assistance in Buttonwillow in Kern County because he had run out of fuel. But hours after having fuel delivered to him from a local service station, he still hadn’t moved from where he had stopped.
Concerned, Karen called the service station owner and asked if he would go back and check for Bryce, which he did. According to Karen, Bryce was still at the same location, and the service station owner convinced Bryce to continue his drive. It was after that when Karen spoke with Bryce for the first time that day. He told her he was coming home to Laguna Niguel in Orange County. It should have been about a three-hour drive.
Hours went by and Bryce still wasn’t home. Karen and Mike reported their son missing to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. According to Karen, Orange County pinged Bryce’s phone and it was still located in Kern County. After 7 p.m., a Kern County Police Officer found Bryce parked only a few miles down the road from Buttonwillow.
The officer then checked in with Karen and told her that Bryce seemed fine. There were no signs of intoxication, and he searched the vehicle and did not find anything.
“So at that point, we still were not alarmed,” Karen said.
Then, she says, at 2:08 a.m. on August 30, Bryce called her to say he was tired and had pulled off I-5 to rest. “So I said, ‘Well, then just lock your door,’” Karen told Dateline. He described the area he had pulled off to rest as a residential area, though it was unclear exactly where.
When the doorbell rang hours later, Karen assumed it was her son. “We honestly thought it was Bryce arriving to our home,” Karen told Dateline.
It was not her son. It was a California Highway Patrol officer, and what the officer told her changed her life forever.
The officer explained that her Toyota Highlander SUV had been found in Castaic in Los Angeles County, about 90 miles south of Buttonwillow and roughly two hours north of Laguna Niguel.
“We didn’t even know where this was,” Karen told Dateline. According to Karen, she was told the vehicle was turned on its side. She says she was also told that all of Bryce’s personal belongings were found in the vehicle. “Literally the only thing missing was those clothes Bryce had on,” she said. Bryce was nowhere to be found.
Karen says she was also told blood had been found on the SUV’s windshield, presumably from the impact. “He was physically strong and able to get himself out of that vehicle,” she said. She added that she was told Bryce appeared to have gotten out through the back hatch of the SUV.
“Obviously, he was still coherent enough that he was able to crawl from the front seat through the back and out the back hatch,” Karen said.
Karen says her husband drove to the scene that morning, where he was told that the case was being transferred from the highway patrol to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. “Searches were conducted all day,” Karen told Dateline.
Boats, helicopters, planes, dogs, divers, and other resources were all used in an effort to locate Bryce, but they turned up nothing, according to Karen. “Unfortunately, there’s never been one sighting of Bryce, and there’s no closure,” she said.
Dateline reached out to the LASD for comment on the search for Bryce and where his case currently stands, but has not yet heard back.
For 12 years, Karen has been left with only memories of her only child. “We always had a good, close relationship,” she told Dateline. “I live with that permanent hole in my heart.”
Karen created the Facebook page “FIND BRYCE LASPISA,” to share information about her son’s case. She asks anyone with information to come forward. At the time of his disappearance, Bryce was 5’11” and 170 lbs. He has blue eyes and red hair. He has a tattoo on his left shoulder of a Taurus bull head and Roman numerals. He would be 31 years old today.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department at 213-229-1700.
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