Home » Podcasts » Bryce Laspisa Missing For Five Years, Parents Still Hopeful He Will Be Found

Bryce Laspisa Missing For Five Years, Parents Still Hopeful He Will Be Found

Bryce Laspisa went missing near Castaic Lake on Aug. 30, 2013, and although his family remains hopeful that they will be reunited, there has been no trace of him in years.


Sponsored Articles


Don’t miss a thing. Get breaking KHTS Santa Clarita News Alerts delivered right to your inbox.

“Today marks the fifth anniversary of our son, Bryce, going missing. We miss him very much and continue to hope that one day he will be reunited with his family,” family members said in a statement posted on social media Thursday. “All we can ask is that people keep him in their thoughts and perform an act of kindness on his behalf today.”

At 1:50 a.m. on Aug. 30, 2013, Laspisa’s parents called their then-19-year-old son as he was driving home to Orange County from Northern California where he attended college. He told them he was driving on the 5 freeway, but could not see any signs indicating exactly where he was, said Karen Laspisa, Bryce’s mother.

“He took a detour at 2:08 a.m. and got off the I-5 in a suburban area and was going to sleep in his car,” his mother said in a previous KHTS story. “I told him to call me when he got up the next morning.”

Related: Bryce Laspisa To Be Featured On Investigation Discovery’s ‘Disappeared’

However, Karen Laspisa said that her son did not call back in the morning, and hasn’t made any contact with his parents since that last phone call.

Laspisa’s car was located between 4:20 a.m. and 5:15 a.m. by law enforcement officials who had arrived at Castaic Lake for a training exercise. The vehicle was found 15 feet down a ravine on its passenger side.

“They found his cell phone, wallet with all of his credit cards, laptop and all of his clothing in the car,” Laspisa’s mother said.

Since that date, there have been alleged sightings, but no verified trace of Laspisa has been found.

After several weeks of searching for Laspisa, his family hired a private investigator, who believes their son did not sustain any life-threatening injuries from the crash.

“He likely did not sustain a debilitating injury at the scene,” said Investigator Shannon Tulloss, noting the absence of blood that would be associated with such an injury. “Given his physical conditioning, he absolutely had the ability to leave the scene.”

There were also two sets of Search and Rescue dogs that tracked a path of Laspisa appearing to walk away from the vehicle, she said.

“Logic is usually our best friend,” Tulloss said. “All the logical facts surrounding this case seem to indicate that likely he walked away from the scene.”

However, it is still unclear to both Laspisa’s family and investigators on how or why he disappeared.

“As his mom, he’s my only child (and) I know he wouldn’t do this on purpose. His dad is on the same page too. The first week we thought that maybe he thought that he did something wrong and was ashamed, but after a week, we thought there is no way that he would just put everybody through this. Not just Mom and Dad, but also his family and friends,” said Laspisa in a previous story. “He loved life too much and he was looking forward to so many things. It just doesn’t make sense.”

A page on Facebook called “Find Bryce Laspisa” is dedicated to sharing possible sightings and organizing events to find him.

Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or send an email to newstip@hometownstation.com.

Report a typo or error, email Corrections@hometownstation.com

KHTS FM 98.1 and AM 1220 is Santa Clarita’s only local radio station. KHTS mixes in a combination of news, traffic, sports, and features along with your favorite adult contemporary hits. Santa Clarita news and features are delivered throughout the day over our airwaves, on our website and through a variety of social media platforms. Our KHTS national award-winning daily news briefs are now read daily by 34,000+ residents. A vibrant member of the Santa Clarita community, the KHTS broadcast signal reaches all of the Santa Clarita Valley and parts of the high desert communities located in the Antelope Valley. The station streams its talk shows over the web, reaching a potentially worldwide audience. Follow @KHTSRadio on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

KHTS FM 98.1 & AM 1220 - Santa Clarita News - Santa Clarita Radio

Bryce Laspisa Missing For Five Years, Parents Still Hopeful He Will Be Found

16 comments

  1. Could he be the misidentified remains found in Lancaster
    Burned ou well recently

  2. I pray that he comes home any homeless person I see I will be searching for him I just pray he goes home to his loving gamily

  3. I just watched the episode about Bryce that was done by ID’s “Dissapeared” program. Given what his state seemed to have been just before his disappearance I started thinking what would made him feel he had to break up with his girlfriend and be important to talk to his family about and emotional enough to walk away from everything (if that’s what happened). First impressions was flunking out of college, or financial problems but realized that would have been figured out in the first few weeks. Then I got to wondering if during the time playing games with his friend if he realized he was gay….. This would cause great emotional turmoil, enough to break off with a girlfriend, feel the need to talk to parents in person, and be something that he may have had an internal battle if he could face his family or not with the news….. I pray he is still alive and comes to terms with whatever caused him to disappear and he return to his family or at least let them know he is okay.

    • That was exactly my thought as well!!

    • He didn’t break up with his girlfriend she broke it off with him. Nevertheless I thought the same thing about him possibly being gay. His mother feels they were close and could talk about anything but this is a subject that he may not have been able to talk about.

    • I was thinking of the gay angle as well. It’s extremely difficult to come out of the closet no matter how close you are to your family.

    • I too thought of the gay angle and reluctance to coming out. For those of you who have followed his story more than I have, I have a few questions. 1. As with many missing persons stories, I always wonder if the missing person has studied a language other than English? Could he speak even rudimentary Spanish? 2. Reports differ on whether he had ADHD. Any info on that? 3. Anyone wonder if he’d hung around the Willowbutton or Castaic truck stops before? Could he have waiting for a specific trucker who he had on-going experience with? (It is not hard to imagine that he had “daddy” issues.) Also could he have frequented truck stops either near home or near college? 4. Some who follow his story have wondered if he had a second cell phone. Any info on that? (Could it have been given to him, or been paid for, by an older gentleman?) That would facilitate contact with someone coming to pick him up. It would also have allowed him to keep parts of his life secret from his parents. 5. In the seven or eight years since he disappeared, have any of his buddies come out?

  4. In my opinion, the parents can, apparently, according to the information of a very steady hand held and then released in school taking drugs and alcohol. I think mother, live life and spent that time at that stop, just because he or she come home. I decided to live and just left. to the left that it made parents as earrings and all things away. I stopped when I saw the missing and his mother Karen in one part of the slip and she said that he was in and fixed it…

  5. Bryce’s dissapearance is like Rodrigo Hredil’s…rodrigo had a bad moment in his mind…he wanted to killed his own father a he ask for help at a police woman…he went on driving his car and let it by the highway in the patagonia…he called to a cousin saying he lost the keys and when the cousin arrived there was the car but rodrigo wasnt…august1915…a few months before rodrigo was found dead by the sea…where all the police, dogs were looki g for him…

  6. Has witness protection been considered?

  7. I hope and pray that he is found safe. I know that as a mother, ( in my head)I probably would have driven there myself and picked him up the first time I spoke with him ——there’s witness and police that reported to have seen him alive that evening— a 3 hour drive up north is nothing whatever hour of the day/night it is when it comes down to safety of my loved one, however, I would never really know how to react if it happens to our own family. In his mom’s mind, he is on his way home. I can’t imagine how heartbreaking it is to not see him and hear him again. I will keep an eye and will continue to pray for this family.

    • I sincerely hope he is alive and being helped by someone during this troubled time. I don’t believe he is dead, but that he feels the need to distance himself from his parents. As rhea mentioned above, the behavior of his mother (from the moment of telling his friend to give him back his keys so he could drive “home”) does not reflect sincere concern. I am familiar with each of the places Bryce attended school, visited his girlfriend, drove and stopped at along I-5, and where his parents lived in CA and Ill. There is absolutely no way a truly concerned parent would make the decisions his mother made. You have been told your son is acting in an irrational way and his closest friends are concerned for his well being. At that point you advise him to remain with his friends until you arrive to pick him up. You tell them not to let him drive and if he starts acting more confused to either take him to the hospital or call the paramedics.

    • KINTARRI KOLIONNE CRAWFORD

      Yup Definitely should have Drove out there too him;like several of the Stories if Disappearance Parents could have prevented these strange occurances by Driving to their Children Asap!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About Louie Diaz

Louie was born and raised in Santa Clarita. At the age of two Louie lost his vision due to a brain tumor. However, Louie doesn't let blindness stop him from doing what ever it is he wants to accomplish. Growing up some of his favorite hobbies were wood working, fishing and riding bikes. Louie graduated from College of the Canyon in December of 2017, with a Broadcast Journalism degree. Growing up Louie has always wanted to be a fire fighter or a police officer, but because of his blindness Louie knew that wouldn't work. Louie has always loved listening to police and fire radio traffic, using a scanner, and he figured if he was going to listen to the scanner so much, he should do something with it.