S03-E02 - The Strange Disappearance of Bryce Laspisa
Haunted UK Podcast: History, Hauntings and the Unexplained
Steven Holloway
4.5 • 652 Ratings
🗓️ 7 October 2022
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A student begins acting strangely.
A late-night drive stretches into hours of confusion.
Then his car is found wrecked near Castaic Lake — with his phone, wallet, laptop, and belongings still inside.
In this episode of Haunted UK Podcast, Steve explores the troubling and unresolved disappearance of Bryce Laspisa, a 19-year-old college student who vanished in California in August 2013.
Bryce had recently returned to Sierra College for a new term, but friends and his girlfriend began noticing worrying changes in his behaviour. He became withdrawn, erratic, and increasingly dependent on alcohol, while also taking medication that had not been prescribed to him. After ending his relationship, giving away personal belongings, and sending emotional messages to those closest to him, Bryce left his girlfriend’s apartment and began a journey that still defies easy explanation.
Over the next day, he was repeatedly found sitting in or near his car around Buttonwillow, hundreds of miles from where he was supposed to be. A roadside assistance worker, police officers, and his parents all tried to persuade him to drive home safely. But instead of arriving, Bryce took a different route, made one final phone call, and then disappeared.
Hours later, his Toyota Highlander was found crashed down an embankment near Castaic Lake. The rear window appeared to have been broken from the inside, suggesting he escaped the vehicle, but there was no sign of him nearby. Search teams, dogs, divers, helicopters, and investigators found no body, no confirmed trail, and no clear answer.
Careful, unsettling, and deeply human, this episode examines the theories around Bryce’s disappearance — suicide, voluntary disappearance, foul play, mental health crisis, and the possibility that he may have left the scene and started again elsewhere. But beneath every theory is the same painful truth: Bryce Laspisa walked away from that crash site, and has never been found.
Content note: this episode includes discussion of mental health, substance misuse, suicide theories, and a missing person case.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ramadan is a time to reflect, connect and experience the world more meaningfully. |
| 0:07.0 | In Abu Dhabi, Curiosity leads the way through adventure, wildlife and moments of wonder, |
| 0:14.0 | culture, movement and well-being create lasting connections, while shared tables and rich flavors turn every meal into a story. |
| 0:24.3 | Travel deeper, travel richer. Experience Abu Dhabi. |
| 0:31.1 | Want to stay up to date with everything that's happening on the show, or do you have a story |
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| 0:51.7 | at haunted UK podcast.com. We're also on Facebook and TikTok. And if you want to |
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| 1:04.0 | but work in slightly different ways. One of the advantages of Patreon is its sleek user interface, |
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| 1:30.7 | Whichever platform you choose, we're sure you'll enjoy the bonus content. Thanks for listening and enjoy the episode. With the popularity of the missing 411, mysterious disappearances have certainly piqued the interest of millions of people. |
| 1:58.0 | From children and adults who are happily on holiday in a state park |
| 2:02.8 | to experienced hunters and hikers who have knowledge of the terrain, |
| 2:07.6 | the missing 411 cases prove that anyone, at any time, |
| 2:11.8 | can fall foul of this strange phenomenon. |
| 2:15.3 | But disappearances with curious backstories and mind-boggling evidence that |
| 2:19.6 | doesn't seem to lead anywhere still exist outside of the missing 411 boundaries. And it's one |
| 2:26.5 | of these stories that we're going to look at in this episode. God. |
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