108. Bryce Laspisa - The Confusing Disappearance
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Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. Before we jump into anything, I did just want to remind everyone about CrimeCon. It is coming up. We are going to be there. Murder With My Husband is going to be there. And if you are coming, we would love for you to come and say hi. So it's at the end of April and we hope to see you there. All right, Garrett, you got your 10 seconds.

So a ton of people gave me... Remember last week when I talked about hats? Oh, yeah, yeah. I got so many hat suggestions. Yeah. So many. So I'm going to have to go through those. I actually think the Smarties were the wives who DM'd me personally and said, hey, go ahead and you can just buy him this hat. Oh, that's funny. Other than that...

Oh, I am getting surgery. Well, by the time you hear this, my surgery will have been done. Yes. I'm getting surgery on Thursday. I'm okay. Don't worry. Try not to freak out about it. It's not that big of a deal, but... It's just a mouth surgery. Yeah. But yeah, it's always a little nerve-wracking. I talk too much, so Payne's trying to sew my mouth shut. Yeah. Yeah.

No, but it should be fine. I just don't like going under for things. And so it's like my biggest thing is I'm going under, but... It'll be great. We'll get it done. We'll come back. Garrett might be talking funny, but hey, at least you'll be here. Oh yeah, I might not be here for a week. There might be an episode without me. Garrett's really trying hard to pull out of this next episode. I know, I've been telling Peyton for the last two weeks, like, you're going to have to record one alone. And she keeps ignoring me. Because no way, Jose. Even if you're all drugged up, you're coming on. Oh yeah, 100%.

Other than that, oh, I actually do have one more thing. Okay, go ahead. Oh, no, I'm scared. I got you a surprise. What is that? You're going to have to open it and see. I'm scared. I'm excited, but I'm scared. I love this. Peyton does love surprises. Okay, for everyone listening on audio, he just pulled out, it looks like a ring box.

Wait, I am so nervous right now. It's a new car. Oh my gosh, wait, I feel like I'm going to be on the camera. No, I feel like I should open it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? Wait, get on your knee. We're already married. Don't worry. Oh my gosh, Garrett, I'm so excited. Wait, I want to open it upside down. Give me a second. Is this like a PTSD? Oh, that's upside down. Good thing I checked. Okay, hold on.

Pt is this remind you of like our proposal? Yeah, really? Yes, wait close it again. You're supposed to open it up towards me I'm trying to hide it from you. Oh I'm crying. Oh my gosh everyone. Garrett just dropped the ring. Okay. Hold on. It's like a glove

Oh my gosh. Thank you so much, Garrett. Oh my gosh. Okay. Okay. We can get away from my ring. I feel like I could talk about it forever. All right. Well, let's get into it. Our case sources are allthatsinteresting.com, ranker.com, hometownstation.com, Disappeared Episode Season 7, Episode 3, WikiNG, Reddit, of course, charlieproject.org.

ChicagoTribune.com and LivingMGZ.com. So something about our podcast that's different than most is the fact that obviously our co-host Garrett has never heard any of these stories before, even the popular ones he doesn't know. And I think it's definitely interesting to hear that perspective from someone who is getting shocked and intrigued and

In the same way that we all did while hearing these cases for the first time ever. It's definitely like a, I can't wait till he hears this part moment. And with that, we get a lot of case suggestions from people who suggest a case purely so they can hear Garrett react to it. They say, Garrett will love this one. He'll be so confused about this case. This one has a lot of cameras. You have to do it.

And today's case is one of those ones. So yes, I had heard this case before on other podcasts. It's not necessarily popular within the news, but more within the true crime community, mainly because it's a rabbit hole Reddit case. So if you've heard this case, stay and listen to Garrett here, all of the details for the first time ever. And also you might learn something new. And if you are like me, it's easy to forget certain things once you've heard so many others. So this will definitely be helpful.

As I was researching this case, though, it did kind of stun me how much of it will resonate with Garrett.

Um, like I said, I'd heard it before, but I didn't tie all of the details back to him. Um, and kind of the little ties he'll have to it. So I'm excited to hear you listen to this one. All right. I don't know anything about this. So our episode begins on April 30th, 1994, when Bryce Las Pisa was born to Karen Las Pisa and adopted later by Michael Las Pisa in Springfield, Illinois. Now, I don't know if you caught that, but he was born in 1994.

Okay. Which is the same year I was born. And I looked it up because my family actually watched the Simpsons a lot growing up and the town in that TV show is called Springfield. So I was like, wait, is, is the Simpsons based off of Springfield, Illinois? But it's not the Springfield from the show is actually based off of Springfield, Oregon, which is where the writer grew up. So one of the writers grew up. So no.

Bryce was actually Karen and Michael's first and only child. From a young age, Bryce was very artistically talented. Karen and Michael remember him as such an easygoing child. And as he grew older, he developed a very great personality that made it really easy for him to make friends.

By 2012, Bryce graduated from Naperville Central High School outside of Chicago. And to put it into perspective, that would be the same year Garrett graduated. So now you will have a good understanding of what advances the world was going through in this time and in Bryce's case.

After Bryce graduated high school, his parents had actually just barely retired and decided that they wanted to move to California and take Bryce with them. Laguna Niguel, Orange County was where they landed together as a family, which is a very nice place. I mean, Garrett can attest he grew up in that area. I grew up in Orange County, so that's...

It's ironic. I know. Same year, same graduation. It was not me, I promise. It was pretty soon after arriving in Orange County with his family that Bryce decided to move north to a city named Rockland, California. Now, Rockland is roughly 458 miles away from Laguna Niguel and would be about a seven hour drive.

Bryce moved here because he decided to begin his freshman year of college there studying graphic and industrial design at Sierra College, which is a community college.

So it was still 2012 when his first semester started and it was going pretty well. I mean, based on all accounts, Bryce was flourishing in college. He was getting good grades and he got along very well with his roommate named Sean Dixon. And I do think all the time, what are the odds that your freshman year roommate becomes your best friend? And I'm always happy for people like Bryce who were able to have that experience because I don't think it happens often.

During his freshman year, Bryce also began dating a girl. Her name was Kim Sly, and she was also a student. Kim actually lived in Chico, California, which was roughly 90 miles or an hour and a half drive away from where Bryce was living in Rockland.

After his freshman year was over and he returned back to Laguna Niguel for summer break, Bryce was anxious to actually get back to school. I think we all love summer break, but Bryce just wanted to go back. His friends, his girlfriend, that's where his new life was. And so although he enjoyed his summer break in 2013, he did want to get back to the new fun college life he had found.

In August of 2013, that time came as Bryce returned back to Sierra College for his sophomore year. He arrived roughly two weeks before classes were to start, and according to his mother, Karen, he was settling back in nicely. Karen and Bryce talked pretty regularly on the phone as mother and son, and she recalls a phone call they had had right as his classes were starting, and everything seemed pretty normal. There was nothing odd about their calls or Bryce himself.

But just days after starting school, those regular phone calls from Bryce to his parents back home became...

unusual it was subtle but bryce just became withdrawn and almost absent from afar back home it might have seemed like he was just really enjoying his new life and school had just started and maybe he was you know separating from his parents a bit more but in rockland close up and seeing him often girlfriend kim and his best friend sean knew it was much more than that

As Bryce had arrived back to college that year, he had started using drugs more than ever before. Kim, his girlfriend, actually recalled that Bryce admitted to taking a drug called Vyvanse with a friend, which is an amphetamine used to treat ADHD, which is a condition he didn't have. So like Adderall? Kind of, yeah. Kim says that he told her it had all started when he had been told that taking that drug would make it so he could stay up longer. Hmm.

And Bryce really wanted to stay up into the night and play video games with his friend, which is a very normal thing in college. But you usually don't do drugs to do that. So that's what's not normal. Now, Vyvan surfaced severe side effects in Bryce, including psychosis, depression and mania.

Sean and Kim noticed the behavior changes as soon as Bryce moved back to college. Bryce became withdrawn, erratic, depressed. They assumed that Bryce was still taking Vyvanse even after that first time that he had done it. That maybe the one-time thing of staying up all night soon became an everyday thing. And within the first two weeks that Bryce moved back,

Sean, his roommate, noticed that Bryce was doing it almost every single day. Well, that seems so unhealthy. Right. And with the reliance on the drugs, Bryce's best friend also noted that Bryce began drinking alcohol every day with it. So it's not just a beer here and there either. It's heavy liquor every single day combined with the pills. And this combination of drugs and alcohol was easily unraveling Bryce's life and worrying his friend and girlfriend.

At this point, he had had only two full days of school so far. It already wasn't going well with him staying up all night and the past two weeks bender, basically, that he'd been on. So about two weeks after moving back to Rockland for his sophomore year, Bryce was now experiencing a completely different college life than the year before, and his behavior was growing more and more out of character and alarming.

On August 27th, 2013, it all came to a head when he ended his relationship with his girlfriend, Kim, over text. He actually told her that she'd be better off without him. Now that same day, he also texted Sean an unusual and heartfelt message saying, I love you, bro. Seriously, you're the best person I've ever met and you've saved my soul. And then he also gave Sean his Xbox.

and gave away a pair of diamond earrings that his mother had given him to wear. So this strange behavior had become so worrisome so fast. Just two weeks earlier, Bryce's parents had dropped him off after spending a very normal summer with him.

So the next day, Sean Dixon decided that all of this had come to a head and he was going to try and do something in hopes of helping his roommate out. August 28th, 2013 is the day that this case really starts and also where things become extremely confusing. So pay attention as I try to lay out the next couple days for us.

On the morning of August 28th, Sean called Bryce's mom, Karen Lespisa. He told her that he was really worried about Bryce and informed her of everything that had been going on. Now, I want to point out here exactly how, you know, bad this would have had to get for a college boy to get a hold of his friend's mom.

mom. I think it speaks volumes as to what kind of person Sean was and how much he cared for Bryce, but also he's a full grown adult now calling his best friend's mom saying, Hey, I'm worried about your son. After talking to Sean that morning, Karen got a call from her son Bryce that night. He told his mom that he had driven the hour and a half drive and was now at Kim's house the day after breaking up with her.

Now, from all accounts, Bryce and Kim were in a disagreement that night and arguing as he called his mom. So keep in mind, he broke up with her the day before. I'm assuming this is a like, come get your stuff or hey, let's talk about this in person type visit. But now they're arguing. So he's called his mom. She answers and she was probably stunned and uncomfortable to be being brought into the middle of this argument. Yeah.

Bryce explained that Kim had taken his keys to his 2003 Toyota Highlander and wasn't letting him leave her apartment. So at first, this seems like a lover's fight. They had just broke up. Tensions are high, but you still need to allow someone their free will. Like if he wants to leave, she needs to let him leave. It was bad enough that he had to call his mom in hopes that it would help. This doesn't seem very good.

But Kim, his girlfriend, quickly explains to Karen, his mom, that she didn't take his keys because they are fighting and she doesn't want him to go. She took them because Bryce's behavior and the way he's acting was so alarming that she doesn't think he's in good enough condition to drive home. She's like, it's dangerous. I don't think he should be in a car. He's just acting really bad.

weird. Now, Bryce demands to his mom on the phone that he's fine. He's not under the influence of drugs and that he just wants to leave. He's like, can you please tell her to give me my keys back?

Now, Karen hears both of them out and then tries to deescalate the situation. She tells Kim to give Bryce his keys back. She's talked to him. He just seems upset. He doesn't seem like he's under the influence of drugs or alcohol. She demands that Bryce take the keys and drive the 90 miles straight home and get in bed. She's like, get in bed, take some rest, like leave the house and go straight home. She tells Bryce that she will catch a flight out there immediately and

And come check on things. Because now at this point, she's received a call from his best friend that morning. And now a call tonight. And Kim's saying, hey, he's not doing very well. So she says, I'll catch a flight out and come check on you. But Bryce tells her not to come until he could call her back the next day when he was alone. He tells her on the phone that night that he, quote, has a lot to talk to her about before she comes out there. But doesn't say what it is. He says he needs to be alone when he tells her.

Karen claims that she doesn't know what this means. What could have possibly gone so wrong in the last two weeks that now he has so much he needs to tell her and his friends are worried about him? But either way, in that moment, everyone agrees to just turn in for the night. Bryce promises to drive straight home back to his apartment and sleep it off. So he leaves Kim's apartment at 1130 p.m. on August 28th, 2013.

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At 1 a.m. August 29th, so just a couple hours later, after Bryce left Kim's apartment, Karen is woken up by another call. It's from Bryce again. Karen answers. Now I need to clarify here that I have no idea what they talked about on this call.

What do you mean? Every single source just says Bryce called his mom at 1 a.m. and then nothing. Doesn't say the context of the call. What was said on this phone call? Oh, that's weird. Yes, it doesn't seem like much now, but I will circle back to it at the end of the case because I do find it very strange that no sources even mention that this isn't even brought up at all. So we'll circle back here, but just remember that he calls her at 1 a.m.,

They hang up and Karen goes back to bed. Now the next morning, both Karen and her husband wake up and around 11 a.m. they are notified that their insurance roadside assistance service had been used earlier that morning. And they're like,

What we haven't left the house today and the company explains no. No, it wasn't used by you guys It was used by your son around 9:00 a.m So we talked to her at 1:00 a.m. And then at 9:00 a.m. He used the when he talked to her she assumes so because it had been long enough that he made the hour-and-a-half drive back and he doesn't say otherwise and

So Karen tries calling Bryce. She's like, okay, we'll figure out what's going on. Maybe he left this morning and something happened, but he doesn't answer. So she calls Sean, his roommate, and she asks him if Bryce is there, that he had used their roadside assistance. They want to make sure he's okay. But Sean is now confused. He informs Karen that not only is Bryce not home now, he had never come home last night after leaving Kim's house. So he did never get home. Had Sean informed her about...

Him drinking heavily and any of this? On that phone call the day before when he called her, he did inform her of the drinking. Got it.

So now Karen is even more confused because she talked to him at 1 a.m. and she just assumed during that call that he was back home because she demanded he had drive there after leaving Kim's. And Bryce had never made it seem like he wasn't. He never said anything. But apparently he wasn't. So where was he when he was on the phone with her at 1 a.m.? And then also, where was he at 9 a.m. when he used roadside assistance?

Searching for some idea, Karen and Mike discover a small charge on their credit card from a small desolate town named Buttonwillow that's roughly only 200 miles or a three and a half hour drive away from their home in Laguna Niguel.

Weird. I wonder if you think you heard her wrong and figured college.

drive home. He went, okay, I'm going to go home to Laguna Niguel. Could have, could be, but we don't know. I mean, if it was a misunderstanding, we don't know. So Mike calls the company where the charge was placed, um, to, and actually gets in contact with a man named Christian, who was the owner of Castro tire and gas in the town of button Willow. Now, Christian from button Willow tells Karen and Michael that he didn't

fact, talked to their son that morning around 9 a.m. because he was the one that responded to the roadside assistance. According to Christian, Bryce had called roadside assistance after running out of gas near Bakersfield and he had been sent to help. There are two major problems with this story that you haven't pieced together yet.

If Bryce left Kim's house at 1130 p.m. and left immediately for Laguna Niguel because his roommate said he never came home, he had already been driving for over nine hours by the time he called roadside assistance for

and when he called roadside assistance he was still 200 miles or three and a half hours away from home so where did he go in between we have missing time yeah he should have already been home or close to it by that point so he stopped somewhere for a while and we know it wasn't back at his apartment so still where was he when he called his mom at 1am and why didn't he tell her he was just driving home to laguna niguel

The second is if Bryce got gas around 9 a.m., where is he now that it's 12 p.m.? The nine hour drive has already taken way too long and he's still not home. He only had a three and a half hour drive left. So where is he? He's alive, obviously, because he got gas at 9 a.m. Right. So now. And it's roughly 12 now.

So Christian tells Karen that he brought her son the three gallons of gas that afternoon as he was stranded on the side of the road near a rest stop. He wasn't at the rest stop. He was just pulled off on the road near the rest stop. He confirms that Bryce seemed fine. He wasn't acting erratic or strange. He didn't seem under the influence. He just simply ran out of gas. And Bryce told Christian, I'm out of gas and thank you for bringing me the gas. And he told Christian that he was on his way to his parents' house in Laguna Niguel.

- 'Cause he's not lying. - No, he told roadside assistance that's where he was going. - Some weird timelines, but it doesn't seem like he's lying yet. - Right, so Karen decides to ask Christian if he can drive back to the rest stop and ask around to figure out what time Bryce might have left, which direction, had anyone seen anything? Because Bryce is still not answering his phone. Christian agrees. So by this point, like I said, it's almost noon and all of this back and forth had taken some time to figure out which is why it's been three hours.

Karen is fearing the worst. Bryce had gotten the gas and then somehow gotten into an accident. It is on the side of the road or in a hospital somewhere.

15 excruciating minutes later, Christian calls Karen back with some more astonishing news. - I assume she hasn't called the police yet, correct? - No, because Christian talked to her son and said, "Oh, he was just getting gas." So maybe he just got in an accident, but he was still had a three hour drive. - And honestly, if you tell the police this, they're probably not gonna get involved yet because-- - Like he's driving home. He'll be there soon, right?

So the news that Christian told Karen was, hey, we know where Bryce is. Like I went to the place we know where Bryce is because he's still sitting in his car in the same spot on the side of the road. What? Where Christian had dropped him off gas three hours earlier. Bryce is still just sitting there? Yes. So Christian goes back to ask around. But when he pulls up, he's confused because Bryce hasn't.

hasn't moved, not even driven to the nearby rest stop. He's still pulled off on the side of the highway. Christian gave the phone to Bryce. So he pulls up, he's like, "Hey, Bryce is here." He hands the phone over to Bryce and says, "Hey, your mom's on the line and she wants to talk to you." And Karen confronted him. Why wasn't he answering his phone? What was taking so long? Why hadn't he moved? Where did he go?

And Bryce doesn't really answer the questions. He just, is he on drugs? Is he on drinking? Karen is like, no, he seems fine. He's lucid. He's talking like nothing seems wrong. He literally, everything seems normal. He reassures his mom that he was fine and he had just been getting some sleep before leaving soon because if he left at 1130, he hasn't slept yet.

So he was just getting some sleep and he'll, he'll leave right now. He says that she shouldn't worry. And, um, that once he's off the phone, he will head out and should be there soon. He still had roughly three hours and 30 minutes left of the drive.

So at this point, Karen's like, okay, it's been a weird night. Like, you know, like considering yesterday to now has been really weird, but he's going to make the drive home. Everything's going to be fine. Um, so she reluctantly agrees. She demands that Bryce had straight home right now and that he keep his phone on so that she can call him.

I mean, what else is she really supposed to do? Christian watches as Bryce pulls off from the side of the road and heads into the direction on the freeway of Laguna Niguel. Now, since it's almost noon, Karen and Mike eagerly wait around, expecting Bryce to get home by 3, 3.30 p.m. on the 29th.

But as 3.30 rolls around, Bryce is still not home and once again is no longer answering his phone. Oh my gosh. So his parents wait around anxiously, but by 6 p.m. that night, Bryce is still not home. So they file a missing person report with the Orange County Sheriff's Department. I'm so confused. What a roller coaster of like emotions for the parents. Well, and also like answer your phone. Keep your phone on. It's off.

Please keep your phone on. I've just now found you again and you're alive and well and nothing's wrong. Please keep your phone on. It's off. I'm still trying to figure out where the, where he was during the night. Right. Like why did it even take so long to get there in the first place? Yep.

So the past two days have already been confusing and worrisome for Karen and Mike. It all started with both Sean and Kim telling them that Bryce had been having trouble and acting strange, only for him to then run out of gas on an unexpected and unannounced trip home, despite talking to his mother multiple times and never mentioning that he was coming home. Then after getting the gas, Bryce still doesn't leave, waits the three hours, dragging out a trip that has already somehow managed to take much longer than imaginable.

And now he's still not home and once again not answering his phone. Karen and Mike have to wonder, has all of this strange behavior now ended in a car crash? Like what are the chances that it's been this weird up to now and now he's in the car crash? Is he in trouble now? What's going on? That night, two officers head back out near the rest stop in Buttonwillow because according to an emergency order from AT&T, it seemed to be the last place that Bryce's cell phone pinged before maybe being shut off or

being destroyed. It has no other data. When police don't find Bryce at the spot that he pulled off at the rest stop or at the rest stop, they aren't surprised. I mean, it's been hours. He was seen driving away from there nine hours earlier. So it was where they had to start though. Like they had to go back just to check.

But it was while driving away from the rest stop that police discover something that will take this case from strange and mysterious to completely mind boggling and frustrating and is the reason why it is a Reddit rabbit hole.

Police are driving away from the rest stop when they see a car pulled off on the side of the highway. A 2003 Toyota Highlander with license plates that match those of Bryce's car. Okay. But this couldn't be him. His car is only eight miles away from where he stopped that morning. Eight miles away from where he had told his mom he was leaving and immediately heading home nine hours earlier.

Police pull over and walk up to the car and are stunned to find Bryce LaSpisa alive and well, just sitting in the driver's seat, eight miles away from where he was last found the first time he went missing nine hours earlier. So he's just been sitting in his car for like nine hours. On top of already a long night. With his phone off. With his phone off. He's not even like on social media. He's not even playing like games. He's just sitting in his car.

For nine hours. He ran out of gas, got that three gallons of gas, and used it to drive eight miles. Okay, so they check. Is there drugs in the car? Is there alcohol in the car? What's going on with that? So that, I just need to clarify before we go there. This is a total of almost 20 known hours that Bryce has been lingering around this exact spot in Buttonwillow. 20 hours he's been in this area. Do you think he's been driving around like that square mile range? Right. Not that we know. Okay.

I don't think in the first one because he was sitting in the same exact spot that Christian saw him the first time. Now he's ignoring calls. He's acting as if he just innocently is on his way home whenever he's talking to anyone, but he's clearly not. So police ask Bryce, they go up to his window and they're like, hey, buddy, what are you doing? And he tells them, oh, I'm just on my way home to Laguna Niguel.

What in the world is going on? And they explained to him, okay, well, your parents have actually filed a missing person report because you were supposed to be there nine hours ago or six hours ago. And it's, you know, taking you an awfully long time to get home. And you're right near the spot where we last found you, where Christian last found you. And he goes, oh, it's fine. I've just been getting some sleep. I'm just kind of clearing my head and then I'm driving home.

And police tell Bryce that, okay, that's fine. But due to the circumstances as to why we're here, which is a missing person report, you're going to need to take a sobriety test. Like we don't have any options. He passes.

So they say, okay, can you step out of your car so we can search your vehicle? They find nothing. There's no drugs. There's no pills. There's no alcohol. They note that Bryce seems completely level-headed and stable. He's lucid. He's calm. He's alert. They're like, this kid seems fine. So police tell Bryce, okay, well, you should probably call your parents back home and tell them that you're all right. Because I mean, they're so worried they filed a missing persons report.

And to their surprise, Bryce seems reluctant. He tries to push it off. He says, okay, I'll do it. I'll do it. And police are like,

"Uh, okay, no, you're gonna do it right now in front of us. You're gonna call your parents." Police actually dial Karen's number and put the phone in Bryce's hand so he can talk to her in front of them. - What is happening right now? - When Karen answers the phone, she's relieved once again to hear Bryce's voice. He's okay, he's been found. I mean, he's gone missing twice now. She asks him, "Okay, what have you been doing?" She explains to him that he's been sitting in the same spot for another nine hours.

She asks him, have you eaten? He says, no. She's like, okay, go get some food and head home. Like, come home, Bryce. She demands that he leave his phone on because she's going to be calling him the whole time. Karen speaks to the officer and tells him her worries. She's like, listen, if he's not okay, I need you guys to take him in. But they're like, no, he really does seem fine. Like, he's promised us that he's going to drive home, so we're going to let him drive home. Can you...

It's probably such a dumb question. I'm sure I know the answer. So you can pass a sobriety test, right? Right. Which means you're not under the influence of...

Right. But you could still have, he could still be on some sort of drugs and they not know, correct? He could be, except for he's not exhibiting any signs. So unless he's under drugs and they're having no side effect and he's not acting like he's under drugs. Maybe he's just like in his own world. Maybe, but I think they would notice that. I mean, they were going into this stop looking for strange behavior. Yeah. And we're surprised to not find any. Totally. He really seems fine. So they just decide to let him go home, drive home.

And the deputies then decide to leave Bryce telling him to get on his way. And Bryce agrees. Roughly an hour later, Karen calls Christian, the man who had found Bryce earlier, who had given him the gas and then come back and followed up to see where he was and found him again. I mean, she explained what happened. And she also explained it to him that, hey, you know, I know you saw him drive off earlier, but he never actually left. He only drove eight miles away and then pulled back off. Christian listens to the story and then tells Karen that,

Okay, let me drive down to the road where the police stopped him and just make sure that he really left. And Karen's like, no, you don't need to because the police watched him leave. Like they were there and Bryce promised he's on his way. I've talked to him since he said he's driving, but Christian hangs up the phone and then just decides to go do a drive by on his own. Super nice of Christian. Right. 15 minutes later, Karen gets a call from Christian again. She answers and Christian tells her,

He doesn't really know how to say this, but he drove down to the road. No. And Bryce is still pulled off in his car, sitting in the same spot the deputies told him to leave an hour earlier. What? I don't even know how to react to this. Right. This is so strange. He hasn't moved.

And I think it's weird because normally when these cases happen, nobody knows anything. Nobody ever, it's just like, oh my gosh, this guy just up and vanished. But this kid has been found three times. - He's just sitting there. - He's just sitting there. - This makes absolutely no sense. - Okay, let me guess. Your medicine cabinet is crammed with stuff that does not work.

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And Christian's like, no, really, you need to leave. Like you need to leave and I'm going to follow you. I'm going to follow your car.

So about 30 minutes later, Bryce pulls off onto the interstate and Christian begins following him. After about 10 miles, Christian pulls off and calls Karen to let her know, okay, I followed him. Like, I think he's finally left for reals. Over the next couple hours, Bryce and his parents exchanged several phone calls as they make sure that he's driving. They're like, you have to keep... Oh, so he is driving still. And he's answering his phone. Okay. They're asking where he is. They're making sure he's safe. He's not really telling him...

where he is, he's like, oh, I can't see any signs, but my GPS, I've plugged in your address. And it says that I'll be home at 3 29 AM. So think of how long this is all taken. It's now been around 25 hours since he originally left Kim's apartment back on the 28th. What is Bryce doing? Right. At 2 0 9 AM Bryce calls his parents back. Remember he's supposed to be there at three 30 and he tells them, listen, I'm almost there. I'm just, I'm too tired to try and drive anymore.

So he explains to them that he's going to pull over and sleep for a little while before finishing the drive. And they're like, okay, well, if you really are tired and you're getting drowsy, it is smart to pull off. But like, can you just wake up in a couple hours and please, you only have an hour and a half left. Please make the drive home. He's close at this point. Around 8 a.m. the next morning, the lesbians' front doorbell rings and they both jump up to let Bryce in. Finally, he's home. They have a lot of questions about what happened over the last two days, but at least Bryce

He's home and he's finally made it into their hands. They open the door and their hearts drop. Standing in front of them on their doorstep is not Bryce, but a highway patrol officer. He wants to know if they own a 2003 Toyota Highlander. Oh, man. And they're like, yes, it's the car Bryce is driving. He tells them that they found the car crashed and on its side abandoned at the bottom of a

a 25-foot embankment near an access road to Castaic Lake. The back window of the car had been broken out from the inside, and Bryce's phone and laptop was found inside. His duffel bag and wallet was outside of the car, but Bryce himself was missing. Okay, so he obviously...

Right. He kicked out of the car, but he's no longer there, but he left his phone, his wallet, his laptop, his belongings in the car. Police theorized that the car drove off of the 25 foot embankment crashing at the bottom where Bryce then kicked the window and crawled out. There

There was a small drop of blood, Bryce's blood, on the passenger seat headrest and another spot in the backseat, but that was it. Did he do it on purpose? He left all of his belongings, including his phone, with the car. Now, Castaic Lake sits roughly two hours north of Laguna Niguel. Surveillance footage and cell phone pings show that around 2.15 a.m., right after he got off the phone with his parents telling him that he was pulling over to sleep,

Bryce instead turned onto an access road near Castaic Lake where a camera captured his license plate. It's not known where he went after that. The strange part is, I mean, strange on top of an already strange case, is that again, two hours later around 4 a.m.,

Bryce's license plate is captured by the same camera on the same road going the same direction as before. Oh, so he's going in circles basically. Almost like he's going in circles. There's no explanation. Eventually, based on the tracks, Bryce accelerated the

The car accelerated down a hill where it then fell off the 25 foot embankment. So I think he's at the top. He drives fast downhill, but then falls off like there's a cliff and then he falls off the cliff. The car landed on its front bumper and then fell onto the side. And if you look down from the top where this first acceleration started, it almost looks like the lake appears a lot closer than it actually is. Like maybe if you drove down, you would hit the water soon.

But there was obviously a 25 foot drop that you can't see from the top, especially at night. So most of this theory initially seems, you know, pretty deliberate. And police theorize that this was an attempt for Bryce to take his own life. Like he was maybe trying to drive down into the water, didn't know there was a 25 foot cliff, ended up driving off the cliff because they can tell by the tracks that the car accelerated down. Got it.

tack on everything else that has happened in the past two days, it seems to back up their theory. I mean, he gave stuff away, he's acting strange, he's on drugs, he's drinking, and now this. That exact same day Bryce's car was found, a large search begins for him because they know he's not in the car. And they're searching 2,200 acres of the Castaic Lake as well as the 11,000 acre park that surrounds it. They

They believe that he walked away from the accident and would be found nearby. Divers enter the lake. Dogs are brought in to track the scent. Helicopters are searching everywhere. But in the days that follow, no leads surface from the search until five days after the accident when a jogger at Castaic Lake calls 911.

He reports on September 4th, that there was a brush fire in the area. And when firefighters respond to put out the fire, they discover that the fire had been started because a human body had been like lit on fire. - What? - Investigators collect the body and it's, I mean, everyone's like, well, I guess we found Bryce. They run tests to confirm the identity as Bryce. But when tests come back,

The remains do not match. Oh, it's not Bryce. The body does not belong to Bryce. It was a man from Los Angeles who was a victim of homicide, like completely unrelated. Someone killed him? Yes. And lit him on fire? Yes. Oh my gosh. So after more searches, both from cops and personal investigators his family has hired, Bryce's body was not found in the area. Like he literally just disappeared.

Mike hung up missing person posters. Karen contacts the media from back home for help. And if you think about it, where did he go? Because he's clearly injured. He just drove off of a 25 foot cliff. There was blood, not a lot, but drops in the car. He most likely has internal bleeding. He couldn't have made it far, right?

But the dogs who are tracking two of them finally track Bryce's scent all the way to a dam that then goes across the lake. So Bryce walked across the dam and then to a nearby truck stop where from there the trail goes cold. Oh, so he could have gotten in a truck. He could have hitchhiked, car, I mean, anything. Anything.

Now, did they check the cameras here? I don't know. I looked everywhere. They must have not had cameras because nothing is about him being on camera at this truck stop. Of course there were no cameras. Police now believe that maybe Bryce is not dead and that he caught a ride at the truck stop and left like left his life just up and left because at first they thought he's for sure dead. This was a suicide attempt, but now they're not sure.

Or did Bryce meet someone who he knew who helped him do this? I doubt it. They really found the car only an hour after it had been crashed.

So he only had an hour to crawl out, get to where he's going and disappear. He had to have been, I mean, maybe not running, but moving. He had to have been moving. Yeah. He wasn't crawling. About a month after he went missing, a police officer in Port Oford, Oregon confirmed that he saw Bryce, but wasn't aware he was a missing person until after. So he calls and he's like, I saw this kid. Now I do have to say here,

A lot of the time missing person, it's like, ah, everyone kind of looks similar and it's really hard to tell. And now Bryce is very unique looking. He has fire red hair, like orange, orange, red hair. He has this huge smile, a very big mouth, very big teeth. Like he would stand out. If you were looking for him, you might be able to find the cops pretty dang sure that he's home. Yeah. It's not like, yeah, it could be. I mean, it would be hard to mistake him for someone else.

Bryce's parents also came forward around this time claiming that multiple people from that exact same area that the cops said he saw him reached out stating they too had saw him. In Oregon. In Oregon. But none of this goes confirmed. Like none of it's confirmed. They never find him there. Nothing. Time goes on. The searches are suspended. The case is unable to be closed. It goes cold. And to this day...

Bryce has never been found. Oh my gosh. Do not end it like this. It remains one of the biggest true crime mysteries. Four years after the disappearance, a skull was found off Templin Highway, which was near the crash site, but it's tested and confirmed not to be Bryce. And then in 2021, there was this big rumor that a body was found near the area and everyone thought it was Bryce, but that again, nothing ever came of it.

I don't know. I really have no idea what to think. I mean, obviously, he ran away. Right. I mean, he got out of the car and he took off. Right. I mean, let's quickly discuss it. Those are the facts, right? He got out of the car, he took off, he probably saw an organ, and he could be there to this day. Right. Who knows? But no one's seen him since? No one's seen him since. And he's, I mean, you would know what he looks like. You would know what he looks like. Now, I have to say, like I said, this case is a huge...

Reddit rabbit hole. I mean, there are threads of threads of threads and I'm sure our comments leave a comment. If you know more about this case of what you think your possible theories, but here are the three main possible theories that remain the most concrete. I think after reading Reddit threads and everything, the first is, and I think this is the most believed is that Bryce attempted to take his own life that night by driving into the water, but didn't make it to the water.

Only to then crawl out, leaving his possessions behind with a possible head and internal injuries where he wandered into the vast land area around and eventually died. Him giving away items to his friends, delaying his drive, even circling around for two hours, like kind of debating before finally accelerating down the hill and off the embankment is the most concrete proof.

Friends said that he had been depressed. He was dabbling in drugs and alcohol that had side effects of depression. He even broke up with his girlfriend. I think all of this goes points to suicide. To combat this theory, though, Bryce's parents do not believe this in the slightest. And they don't think that there was anything happening in Bryce's life that would lead him to want to take his own life. Unless he was on those drugs. Right. Right.

Now, the next theory is that Bryce was having a psychotic break from his recent substance abuse and wandered off and died or forgot who he was. Now, a lot of people who have taken Vyvanse for ADHD have said, have commented, I was reading on the threads that like, there is a huge crash and huge withdrawals. And sometimes you cannot know where you're at. Things can get confusing. They're like, this is very common for this. This would explain his strange behavior, the sitting in the same spot.

seemingly unbothered for hours, barely moving. The unlike himself behavior he exhibited all the day previous, the driving in circles and plummeting down a hill, crawling out of the car and just leaving his cell phone behind if he needed help. Again, the biggest issue with this theory is that everyone who talked to him on the way home said that Bryce seemed fine. Didn't look like he was having a psychotic break. He didn't act like he was having a psychotic break.

Although he was like, his actions were weird. He was sitting in the same spot. He was acting fine. He wasn't under any substances according to the cops. And again, Bryce's parents have since said that they don't believe Bryce was abusing drugs or alcohol. That in two weeks, how is it even possible for someone to go from one end to the other? They know he occasionally partook, but not to the extent that this case makes it seem like. I guess I'm confused though because his own roommate said he did, correct?

He said he did, but his parents have since come out and said he wasn't addicted. He didn't have a problem. Now, I'm not going to debate that. We have two people saying both. Two different things. Right. So that is what it is.

Now, the last and final theory is that Bryce did not die that day, but was instead running from something, whether that's his life that he was living now and he just wanted to start over or he was in trouble with some people and needed to get away and make it look like he died. And to me, I think this is on the very bottom of what I think happened.

This is the theory I find myself staring to the most. So that's surprising to me. I feel like I'm a little more black and white about it. Right. Maybe it's because I've been down the rabbit hole. Yeah, I feel like it's the last thing that happened. Because, well, I just think he's alive. Correct. I think he's alive. Well, but this is the theory that he's running away. You don't think he just ran away from his life and disappeared?

- I don't think he's running from people. - You think he's, oh, you don't think he's in trouble. - Yeah, I don't think he's in trouble. - So then it's the same theory. I mean, I just looped them together. So this theory is supported by some similar things as the others, him giving away all of his stuff, like abandoning his life, the reluctance to actually go home that day.

Like he kept saying he was, but he wasn't. The dogs tracking his scent all the way through the weird path to the truck stop and then losing it is the biggest clue that he's alive because he had to have went somewhere from there. And I think one thing personally for me that has always stuck in the back of my head was that maybe he was possibly waiting for someone.

In that area. Whether good or bad. In the rest stop area. Which was why he was refusing to leave. But where he went to the rest stop, the...

The new one he went to the truck stop. It's like so much further than this other one. It was. So my theory is maybe they never came. Yeah. Or maybe around two 15 AM. They somehow met up with him and told him to ditch his car, make it look like suicide and then get to the truck stop where they can bring him. No way. I feel like that's just too complicated. Like what are the chances he goes, okay, I'm going to drive off this cliff and hope that I survive. Like that just seems so minuscule. Um,

And another thing is I think Bryce telling his mom the night before that he had a lot he needed to talk to her about is further proof of this theory. Because what was going on that he was like, what was happening in his life that he was this big? You know what I mean? Maybe he just wanted to say I was sad. Maybe. The problem.

with all this, like you said, is how does this all happen in two weeks? Like he, it had only been two weeks since he'd last been with his parents. How does all this happen? It's all, it's hard though too, because there's so many, I mean, I've never had anyone in my family

Take their own life or anything. But I mean, I hear all the time that people say, I had no idea. I didn't see, I'm not saying that he did this for sure. I'm just saying that I know there's a lot to people who take their own life and they say, and the family all the time or friends all the time say, I had no idea. I didn't know this was happening. So it,

I guess every theory can be backed up to an extent. I don't know which one I lean towards the most. It's so true because suicide does not look like anything. Suicide does not have a look. It doesn't have an explanation. And I think too often we stigmatize it. And the truth is, is what people have said is it doesn't look like anything. It just, it's there. But if he was seen in Oregon-

Right. Well, I mean, that was never super confirmed. No, it's him. I can feel it.

I like know it's him. So the problem with this is, like I said, how can this have all happened so fast? And then also, how would he have known he would survive the crash? Yeah. Like how do you fake your own death and drive off? And like I said, I don't think he knew he was going to drive off that cliff. I think he just thought he was going to drive his car into the water. Yeah. But it does explain the sitting around for hours in the same position. If you needed to meet someone there that you weren't going to contact on your phone, which is why your phone's turned off.

then that explains him kind of having to stay in that vicinity. Some further things that have been discussed on Reddit, I just want to jump into real quick is, is there a chance that Bryce had actually been addicted to drugs before all of this and somehow relapsed in those two weeks? I think everything would make more sense if this wasn't the first time and the relapse is what he needed to tell his parents. Maybe.

Maybe he was possibly waiting for a dealer for those 13 hours because addiction is no joke. It's heartbreaking. It controls someone's life and there is unexplainable behavior that comes along with it. No one else thought he was ever to drugs before this time. Right. Okay. Then I think that's how would no one else have known?

A lot of recovering addicts actually say that when they hear this story, this is the first theory that pops into their head because the strange incessant waiting doesn't seem so weird if it's for an addiction. But the thing is, there's no one who knew Bryce personally who has come forward and stated he had a prior drug addiction. So I don't want anyone going around saying that this is what happened because we don't have proof. It's just a theory. I do feel like, and I don't know enough about drugs or being addicted, but...

prescription drugs are probably easier to hide an addiction to than others? - Right, I would say so, yes. I would probably agree with that.

So to go on to that, his parents do describe like an insanely close relationship. They say he could talk to him about anything. They were super close. But then he moved nine hours away to go to a community college. There was plenty of community colleges in Orange County. Outsiders say that Bryce had a good life in Illinois. Remember, they moved him right after he graduated. But the first signs of depression actually started when he was pulled from that life suddenly and moved to California. So there's...

There's a lot of theories out there that is, is there something that happened in his life over there with his parents or whatever that hasn't come out because they don't think it pertains to the case, which is kind of what you're saying. It's easy to hide. And what if only his parents knew? And now it's just not something that they want to talk about.

And then going back to what I said at the beginning, what was the context of the 1 a.m. call? Now that you've heard the case, how do we not know what that call to his mom was? He initiated that call. And no one, she hasn't said anything about it? She hasn't come out. Have people asked her? I don't know. None of the sources talk about it. Even Reddit doesn't really talk about it. Maybe it wasn't a big deal then. Maybe, maybe. But to me, it's like if he initiated that call and then we just start this huge string of weirdness.

I think it's important to know what that call was. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. That is so crazy. I don't even know what to think. I know. I,

Now you understand why other podcasts have covered it. I mean, I know we could probably talk about this for hours. Hours. Hours. Yeah, so we'll cut it off now, but you guys keep going in the comments. We can discuss it further. I don't know what everyone else thinks. I know. I'm going to read some of the YouTube comments and Instagram comments. To see what everyone else's theory is. Yeah. So I'm just going to give a little short synopsis if you've seen him. So Bryce Lispisa was last seen in Kern County, August 30th, 2013 at approximately 2.08 a.m. on camera.

and has not been seen or heard from since, according to sheriff's officials. Bryce was 19 years old and stood 5'11", weighing 170 pounds with red hair, bright red hair, and blue eyes. He was also wearing cargo shorts, a blue-white checkered shirt, and white-red Nike shoes, and he has a tattoo on his left arm shoulder area.

His friends and family are still looking for him, and any information can be reported to 932-308-5500 or anonymously through Crime Stoppers. Bryce's mom, Karen, has since said that before all of this, she used to think the worst thing that could happen to her would be to lose her child. She now knows that the worst thing that can happen is to never know where your child is. That's sad. She feels like she's in a nightmare that she can't wake up from. And that is the mysterious disappearance of Bryce LaSpisa.

Okay, you guys, thank you so much for listening to our episode this week. We love you guys so much. Just a reminder about CrimeCon. If you can make it, we'd love to see you there. And we will see you guys next week with another episode. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.