Bryce David Laspisa: The Drive Home and the Search at Castaic
Agency records, early reporting and later appeals leave important timeline questions open.
Abstract
NamUs MP21970 lists August 29, 2013, as Bryce David Laspisa’s Date of Last Contact in the Castaic Lake area of California.1
Dates That Need Their Sources
The narrative separately refers to his vehicle on August 30 near Lake Hughes Road. It does not establish an observation of Bryce after the vehicle was found.1
California’s Department of Justice lists August 12, 2013, as Date Last Seen. Its agency reference, 131196406, matches NamUs, while the date fields differ.1,2
The California entry names the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department as the reporting agency, without explaining how August 12 was established. The difference remains unresolved.2
The entry also describes a Taurus bull-head tattoo on the left shoulder. This is identifying information, not evidence fixing the last-contact date.2
The Destination and the First Search
Los Cerritos Community News’s September 3, 2013, account described a nineteen-year-old traveling from northern California to family in Orange County. It reported an earlier missing-person report on August 29 and deputies locating him that night in Buttonwillow.3
That account says a 5:30 a.m. August 30 collision report brought officers to an unoccupied Toyota Highlander near Castaic Lake’s Main Ramp Road. The subsequent search used boats, dogs, a helicopter and teams on foot.3
The report also recorded mounted deputies joining remote-area searches on the following Monday.3
The Call in Published Accounts
ABC7’s September 4 report placed a family call at about 2 a.m. on the preceding Friday and the vehicle’s discovery roughly three hours later. This is a reporter’s timing account, not a call log independently inspected here.4
A May 2023 article by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) described the call as a conversation with his mother: he reported being too tired to drive and planned to sleep. This was a later retelling, not new contact.8
The article identified him as a Sierra College student and presented his case in a feature on missing young adults.8
People Keeping His Name Visible
ABC7’s September 30, 2013, report described friends lighting candles at Naperville’s Frontier Sports Park and identified Bryce as a Naperville Central High School graduate. It records a community gathering, not an observation of him in Illinois.6
Sourced Accounts and Questions
Here’s where you come in. Can you identify what event each agency date field describes before using it to place Bryce on a timeline?1,2
Can you separate a described phone call from an independently timed sighting before inferring his route?4
Can you find an original search report that distinguishes the vehicle’s position from Bryce’s confirmed location?3
Keep the original links, each source’s wording and your unanswered questions in a Research File in Almost Solved. A vehicle location, a reporting step and a later appeal each belong to their own part of the record. A gap between them should remain open until documentation connects it.
Show later developments and reported outcomes
Later Search Reporting and Appeals
The September 4 story was published while a nearby discovery awaited identification. It records the earlier uncertainty of the coverage; the subsequently updated follow-up must be read separately for what was later established.4
ABC7’s later September 2013 follow-up reported that remains found earlier that month had been identified as another person. That was a separate case; it did not establish Bryce’s whereabouts.5
The same article, quoting Deputy Joshua Dubin, said a theft from his father’s car during the search was unrelated to the disappearance. The report’s explicit separation matters when placing nearby events in a list of possible leads.5
ABC7’s September 3, 2019, report described a renewed appeal from sheriff investigators and the earlier diving search. The appeal was published six years after Bryce went missing; it was not a new sighting or a newly established route.7
NCMEC’s May 2023 work included an age-progressed image as a recognition aid. It was not a later photograph or confirmation of his whereabouts.8
Scope and Method
Original witness statements, call logs, collision reports and the underlying search file were not independently inspected.
Prepared with AI assistance. Sources and references checked against the cited public materials. This paper is an original synthesis of the identified public sources; it does not reproduce article bodies, transcripts, or an investigative file.
Footnote References
- NamUs, MP21970, Bryce David Laspisa; reviewed November 2, 2026.
- California Department of Justice, Bryce David Laspisa entry; reviewed November 2, 2026.
- Los Cerritos Community News, Bryce Laspisa search account, September 3, 2013.
- ABC7, Castaic Lake discovery and missing-person report, September 4, 2013.
- ABC7, follow-up on the Castaic search and separate investigations, September 2013.
- ABC7, Friends hold vigil for Bryce Laspisa, September 30, 2013.
- ABC7.com Staff, Authorities still hoping for leads after man went missing in 2013, September 3, 2019.
- Emma Henderson Vaughan, NCMEC, Beyond Childhood: The Search for Critically Missing Young Adults, May 23, 2023.