Three years and counting
Search for 19-year-old Orange County teen who disappeared near Castaic Lake continues for man’s family
When an unidentified body is found in Los Angeles County, Karen Laspisa phones a detective. The mother questions the investigator, inquiring about the whereabouts of her son, Bryce, and if the corpse found was her boy.
For three years, the answer has been no.
“Bryce is in the database,” Laspisa said. “The DNA is there, the dental records are there, the fingerprints are there. If remains are found, we know he would be identified.”
Surrounded by mostly dead vegetation and golden tumbleweed, a newly erected billboard in Castaic still tells the story of how the lives of two parents paused in 2013.
Karen and Michael Laspisa last heard from their 19-year-old son when he traveled south from Sierra College near Sacramento to their Orange County home.
At 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 30, 2013, Bryce’s SUV was found on its side at the bottom of a 15-foot ravine near Castaic Lake.
Among the fragments of glass from a shattered rear window were his laptop, cell phone and wallet. Bryce, however, was not found.
In the initial days that followed his disappearance, hundreds of volunteers combed the hills and area surrounding the paved access road that leads to the lake.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department divers swept the bottom of the reservoir, as helicopters and search dogs bolstered attempts to locate Bryce on the ground.
None of those efforts yielded any results and further affirmed the notion that the young adult had vanished.
Disappeared from where exactly has never been confirmed. No witnesses actually ever reported seeing Laspisa in the Santa Clarita Valley. Only his SUV was found locally.
Burning body
On Sept. 4, a body set aflame was found near the crash site where Bryce’s 2003 Toyota Highlander was discovered.
Though it was unclear if the burned victim was the missing teenager, a murder investigation was launched.
One week later, questions regarding the body were answered — other matters remained unresolved.
The man found burning near the lake was not the missing Orange County teenager.
This news fueled hopes of the boy’s safe return and left one question unanswered — what happened to Bryce Laspisa?
Unsolved case
Though his case is still open with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, no additional clues or answers related to Bryce’s disappearance have turned up.
Active searches for the teenager have mostly wound down, but hopes for his resurfacing continue to grow.
“We still have a tip line and we still get phone calls,” Karen Laspisa said. A Facebook page set up shortly after Bryce’s disappearance has garnered global attention.
More than 21,000 people have followed the page “Find Bryce Laspisa.”
“People still send in tips as well as some photographs, but there’s never been any confirmed actual sighting of Bryce,” Karen Laspisa said.
Both parents are grateful for the amount of attention given to tracking down their son, but they share a frustration for the procedures in place to locate missing individuals, more specifically, non-critically missing adults.
“The sheer amount of people that go missing in L.A. County alone is staggering,” said Michael Laspisa. “Until you have a missing child or missing loved one, you don’t realize how many there are.”
Children and the elderly are often considered critically missing, which spurs a larger and continuous search.
Certain alert systems such as the Amber and Silver alerts are utilized to notify the public about a missing child under the age of 18 or a senior citizen with some form of dementia or mental disability.
Bryce didn’t meet the requirements to activate either system, a facet in the investigation that trouble the young man’s father.
“There is a category in the middle that doesn’t have extra procedures in place because they feel as an adult, the person could be choosing to do this on their own,” Michael Laspisa said.
Though some people, including law enforcement, believe Bryce is voluntarily missing, the Laspisas’ disagree.
“If Bryce is still alive out there, he doesn’t know who he is,” Karen Laspisa said. “I truly don’t believe Bryce is willingly not contacting me.
“Law enforcement might think differently, but that hasn’t created any kind of wedge between them and us.”
Hope
At times, the lack of an answer can be frustrating, but the Laguna Niguel couple is mostly satisfied with the aid given to find their boy.
“On one hand, sometimes it might be easy to criticize how much effort is put into it,” Michael Laspisa said.
“On the other hand the sheer magnitude of manpower required to handle all these cases is astronomical.”
Though the cloud of mystery surrounding Bryce Laspisa’s disappearance still drives a painful search for answers, an unwavering hope for his return is alive — mostly fueled by personal faith and a large outpouring of support.
“We keep hope alive,” Karen Laspisa said.
“We have heard stories of people that have been missing for years and have been found. That’s always our hope that we keep our faith that Bryce will be found or that we get closure of some sort.”