His family never saw it coming...

today's story covers one of the strangest and most hotly debated mysteries on the internet but before we get into today's story if you're a fan of the strange dark and mysterious delivered in story format then you come to the right place because that's all we do and we upload three or four times every week so if that's of interest to you please offer to help the like button pack up all their things so they can move but only use old and weak tape so the bottom of the moving boxes fall out as soon as anyone tries to lift them also please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads alright let's get into today's story in mid-august 2013 mike and karen luspisa helped their beloved only child 19 year old bracelets pisa get all of his things packed up and into the family car bryce had just spent the summer with his parents in their home in laguna niguel california which is one of the nicest places to live in the entire country but now that the summer was coming to an end it was time for bryce to head back to sierra college in rocklin california where he was set to start his sophomore year once all of his things were packed inside the trunk of the car all three of them hopped inside and then made the seven hour drive north to his campus once his parents had moved him into his apartment they gave him a hug and a kiss and wished him luck and then they left on their ride back home mike and karen talked about how well their son seemed to be doing he loved his school he loved the program he was in he was in graphic design he was very gifted artist he had lots of friends he had a wonderful girlfriend it just seemed like he was living his best life and he was on the path to success so nothing could prepare them for what their son did two weeks later just a couple of days after getting dropped off at school bryce's very close friend and roommate sean and bryce's girlfriend kim noticed bryce was acting erratically specifically he was drinking a ton of hard alcohol now bryce was no saint he liked to drink and party like many other kids his age did but the amount of alcohol he was consuming was concerning also bryce began experimenting with a drug called vyvanse which is a very powerful stimulant that's normally used to treat attention deficit disorder now bryce didn't have attention deficit disorder he was taking it in order to stay up late at night and play video games but between the heavy drinking and the drug use it seemed like bryce's personality was starting to change he was becoming anxious and skittish and kind of paranoid and so finally sean and kim confronted him about his substance abuse and asked him you know like what's going on what's causing you to act this way and bryce would say nothing guys i'm fine i'm just you know drinking and doing whatever i want to do it's not a big deal but shawn and kim they weren't buying it they were convinced that something bad had happened to bryce and the way he was coping with it was by drinking really heavily and taking this drug on august 28th so about two weeks after bryce has been dropped back off at school by his parents bryce and his roommate sean were alone in their apartment together and at some point as they're sitting there just kind of minding their own business bryce says to sean hey i want to give you something and he takes his diamond earrings out and he gives them to sean and sean's looking at these earrings and he's like you know didn't your mom give these to you aren't these important to you these are expensive and bryce just says no i want you to have them and so sean is looking at these earrings looking back at bryce wondering what's going on here and then before he can even refuse the gift bryce is grabbing his xbox and putting it on the table and telling sean i want you to have this too take my xbox and so sean is like i can't accept these two things these are expensive these are valuable to you you know what's going on here but bryce would just say look man i want you to have these things you're important to me and i want to give these to you and so as sean is sitting there wondering how to handle this very strange offering he watched bryce pull his phone out and begin really aggressively texting somebody and then after a while bryce looks up from his phone and he tells sean hey just so you know i broke up with kim at this point sean knows okay something is definitely wrong here there's no reason bryce would break up with kim they were such a loving couple they doted on each other they were very close they had just seen each other earlier in the day nothing seemed to be wrong and so now bryce is text breaking up with her it didn't make any sense plus bryce is now trying to give him all these valuable things it just wasn't really adding up and so sean decided he needed to get in touch with bryce's parents because clearly someone needed to intervene and so sean waited until bryce left bryce actually left to go talk to kim and at that point shawn got his phone out and he looked up bryce's parents and he called them bryce's mother karen she picks up the phone and shawn explains that you know your son he's acting strangely he's abusing drugs and alcohol and i wouldn't be doing this unless i thought there was a problem like i'm not trying to get him in trouble i want you to reach out to him and see what's going on because i think there's a problem and so karen was alarmed by this she had no idea any of this was going on and she says okay now i'll reach out to my son thank you for telling me so they hang up and before karen can even call bryce bryce is calling her and so karen answers the phone but it's not bryce it's kim his now ex-girlfriend and she says to karen hey i'm sorry to just call you like this but your son he just showed up at my apartment and he's acting so strangely that i actually took his keys i don't want him to drive there's something wrong with him it's hard to describe but he just seems totally off and so now karen's really concerned because just seconds ago shawn has told her basically the same thing and so karen asked him would you please put my son on the phone bryce picks up the phone and he says hey mom he sounds totally normal and she asked him you know what's going on i keep hearing that you're acting strangely and you know what are you doing over at kim's apartment what's going on here and bryce would tell his mom that look mom i just broke up with kim it's a very messy breakup that's why she's calling you she's upset and you know that's why i'm over here we're talking about it and look at this point i just really want to go home i want to go back to my apartment but she has my keys can you please tell her to give me my car keys back so i can leave but karen wasn't really buying it she knew her son really well and it just seemed totally strange that two of his very close friends in his inner circle would say the same thing independent of one another and so she says you know what bryce look i want you to just stay there and i'm gonna fly out there first thing tomorrow morning and i'm gonna just see what's going on out there and at this bryce immediately says noma i have a lot to talk to you about and until i talk to you about it i don't want you coming out here and so karen's like what do you mean you have a lot to talk to me about what is it that you have to talk to me about i don't really understand but bryce refused to elaborate over the phone which karen thought was very odd because bryce was remarkably forthcoming with his parents they had a very open relationship they were very honest with each other so for him to not even give a hint at whatever it was that was on his mind that in some way had to do with what was going on here it just seemed very odd and unnecessarily cryptic and so karen gave up trying to get more information out of her son and instead she put her husband on the phone and he asked bryce hey you know what's going on here are you okay and your mom tells me there's some problem like what's going on here and bryce again just reiterates look dad i just broke up with my girlfriend that's all that's going on here there's no need to be concerned i just need one of you to tell kim to give me my keys back so i can go back to my apartment that's all i need right now and so mike felt convinced that his son was totally fine even though it did seem odd that two of his friends had said he was acting erratically but from mike's perspective bryce seemed just fine and so he said as much to karen and thought you know let's just get kim to give him his keys back and he can go back to his apartment and we can talk to him later about whatever it is that's going on and so reluctantly karen gets back on the phone and she asked to speak with kim and she says hey kim would you mind giving our son his keys back he'd like to leave and so kim says okay i'll give him his keys and then they hung up and then kim got the keys out she gave him to bryce and bryce left at about 11 30 p.m that night bryce was in his car he was getting ready to leave when his mom called him back and said okay look i want you to go home but as soon as you get there just give me a call so i know you're safe and bryce said no problem i'll give you a call about an hour and a half later at 1am bryce called his mom back to let her know that he was home safe at his apartment and karen and mike are totally relieved and they tell their son okay you know we'll talk to you tomorrow morning 10 hours later at 11 a.m on august 29th karen received an automated phone call from her car insurance company letting her know that roadside assistance had been used on their 2003 toyota highlander car that was bryce's car and so karen's totally confused because the last she spoke to her son he was at his apartment he was home safe he did not have any car problems and so she's thinking you know did he get up early this morning and get into an accident and call roadside assistance or maybe last night he got into car problems and just didn't tell her about it but they were minor and so she calls bryce but bryce doesn't pick up and so she dials his roommate shawn shawn does answer the phone and she says hey would you mind putting bryce on the line but sean says bryce isn't here and he didn't come home last night considering the general weirdness around their son's recent behavior this really shocked karen and mike at first they thought we need to call the police because something horrible has happened but then they thought well wait a minute let's go into his bank statements because he has a credit card that we gave him and let's see if there's any recent purchases that will allow us to track where he is and so they pull up his bank statements and his most recent charge was only a few hours earlier and it was at a car repair shop in button willow california which is the small desert town right off of the i-5 highway located about halfway between his school campus and their hometown in laguna niguel and so karen and mike assume their son last night must not have gone to his apartment but instead just kept on driving south in an attempt to drive all the way back home to his hometown of laguna niquel i mean after all he did tell his mom he had a lot to talk about and he didn't want to talk about it on the phone and so they assumed he must be driving here to talk about whatever it was in person and perhaps he ran into some car problems in button willow california that's why he pulled over that's why there's this charge at this auto repair shop and so karen calls the auto repair shop in button willow and a man who worked there named christian answered the phone and so karen asked him you know have you seen my son he's got red hair he's got a tattoo on his arm he's driving a 2003 toyota highlander and christian says oh yeah yeah we saw him a couple hours ago we responded to his roadside assistance call he ran out of gas on the i-5 highway he pulled into a rest stop and we drove to that rest stop and we gave him gas and so karen asked christian you know did my son indicate where he was going next and christian said no he didn't we just gave him the gas and then we left but if you'd like i'd be more than happy to just drive over to the rest stop it's only about 15 minutes away and see if he's still there it's unlikely because it's been a couple of hours but you know maybe and karen and mike are like oh my gosh thank you so much would you do that that would be great and so christian hops in his car and he drives the 15 minutes over to this rest stop and he's not really expecting to see bryce in this parking lot it had been almost three hours but he pulls into the lot and there is the 2003 toyota highlander with bryce sitting inside of it he's just sitting behind the wheel staring out into nothingness and so christian walks up to the driver's side and he looks down to get bryce's attention and bryce kind of snaps out of it and looks up and he's surprised to see christian again he rolls the window down and christian says to him hey i just talked to your parents they're really concerned about you you gotta talk to them and so christian actually pulls out his phone and he calls karen and says hey he is still here here he is and he hands the phone to bryce and as soon as bryce puts the phone to his ear and he says hello karen's like what are you doing what are you doing just sitting in this rest stop in the middle of buttonwillow california we're so worried about you and bryce didn't really have an answer he just kept telling his mom i'm not doing anything i'm just i'm just sitting here and so finally his mom stops trying to get information from him and just says look please just fill your car up with gas and come straight home please and bryce says okay yeah that's what i'll do i'll do that right now and so bryce hands the phone back to christian christian pulls it up to his ear and he says hey karen it looks like he's leaving now so i'm gonna take off karen thanks him and they hang up christian goes back into his car he leaves the lot and as he's driving he looks over at bryce and it didn't really look like bryce was getting ready to leave it looked like he had just gone back to sitting and blankly staring out of his car but christian figured you know what he just talked to his mom he said he was gonna go home i'm sure that's what he's gonna do the drive from button willow california south to laguna niguel california where bryce's parents were was about a three hour trip and so the los pizzas were expecting their son to arrive around 3 pm by 3 30 p.m when he still hadn't shown up and he still hadn't called karen began calling her son but he wasn't answering the phone and as much as karen and mike wanted to believe their son had just gotten stuck in traffic or something like that they knew deep down something was wrong something was off about his behavior they just didn't understand what it was for the next several hours they continuously tried calling their son and he never answered the phone and so finally by 6 pm that night when he still hadn't shown up and they still couldn't get in touch with them they called the police and they filed an official missing person report the police began their search by contacting bryce's cell phone provider at t and they asked them to use their cell phone towers to ping bryce's cell phone basically triangulate where his phone is located and once they did that and they had the actual location of his phone the police and bryce's parents were shocked at where it was it was still in button willow california it was located just a couple of miles down the road from that rest stop where christian had last seen bryce it was now in this parking lot of this hotel and so the police around button willow were alerted to the fact that bryce was a missing person and his phone was apparently in this parking lot and so police were sent over there to see if bryce was there too and so the police arrive in this hotel parking lot and sure enough right in the middle is the 2003 toyota highlander with bryce sitting behind the wheel just sitting there staring out the front and so an officer walks up and he knocks on the glass and bryce rolls the window down and the officer would say bryce acted totally normally he was friendly he was lucid he answered all their questions when he got out of the car and they conducted field sobriety tests he passed all of them he even said hey if you want to search my car go for it i'm not doing anything out here and so the officers did search his car and there were no drugs no alcohol there was nothing suspicious in his car and when they asked him you know what are you doing out here your parents are so concerned about you bryce would tell them that he was just sitting there he didn't really have much of an answer but he told them he planned on going home soon and so one of the officers said to him hey you really need to call your mom you need to call home and let them know that you're okay and when they told him to do that bryce suddenly became really apprehensive like he did not want to call home and the officer picked up on it and he said hey you gotta tell your family what's going on they're the reason we're out here they're concerned about you so get out your phone and dial your mom and so bryce reluctantly pulled his phone out he dialed his mother's number and he hit call and the officer said give me the phone so bryce hands over the phone the officer picks it up karen answers the phone and the officer tells her hey look i'm with your son he's just fine he's sober there's no drugs there's no alcohol i don't really know what he's doing but he says he's gonna go home pretty soon but there's nothing wrong about the situation that i can tell you need to talk to your son and figure out what's going on and so he hands the phone over to bryce bryce picks it up and karen says to him what's going on why are you still in button willow it's been like nine hours and bryce really didn't give her an answer to any of her questions he just kind of deflected all of them and said he'd be home soon and don't worry about it i'm just sitting here there's nothing to worry about and so finally karen just stopped trying to pull information out of her son she could tell that again he was not gonna tell her what's going on and so she changed her tactic and she told her son very gently bryce please just go get a bite to eat get a cup of coffee kind of get yourself together here and then please just drive home it's only a few hours away drive home and we can talk about whatever problems you have but you just gotta drive home you gotta leave button willow you gotta come home and at this bryce says to his mom you know what okay i'm sorry i'll be home in a few hours and so they hang up and the officer who was kind of eavesdropping intentionally on this conversation to make sure everything was fine the officer was satisfied that everything was fine that bryce was sober that he would head home and so he says okay bryce you know best of luck head home to your parents and the officer left an hour later karen received a call from christian the car repairman who had checked on bryce earlier and he was actually returning one of karen's calls she had called him some time and he didn't get back to her and so he was calling back and he wanted to know you know had bryce made it home safely because now it's been several hours from when he saw him last and karen would tell christian actually no after you left my son did not leave button willow he just went down the road to a parking lot but you know the police actually were just over there they checked on him and now i'm certain he's making his way home christian who felt kind of invested in what was happening with bryce would say to karen hey i don't mind driving over there and just confirming he has left this parking lot but karen would say you know what i'm confident he's on his way don't worry about it you're too kind so they hang up and afterwards christian even though he didn't have to he decides i'm going to go over there and make sure bryce really has left because obviously something strange is going on here and you know if there is some problem maybe i can assist and so he drives over to this hotel parking lot and he really was not expecting to see bryce there but he pulls into the lot and who's still in the middle of the lot but bryce in his 2003 toyota highlander just staring out the front of his car and so this time christian pulls up right next to him he parks the car he walks right up to the window and he's a little bit more forceful friendly but forceful with bryce he hasn't rolled the window down and bryce obviously is very surprised to see christian again it's the third time he's seen this car repair man and christian says to him hey price you need to go home your parents are so worried about you you need to leave right now in fact i'm going to watch you leave and then i'm going to follow you onto the highway to make sure you're going home and so bryce was a little bit taken aback at how forceful he was being but he would ultimately say okay yeah all right let's leave and so christian gets back in his car and he goes right behind bryce and after a few seconds bryce pulls out of the lot and he starts driving onto the road and christian follows him and for the next hour christian would just remain behind bryce and watch him drive towards laguna niguel and while he was driving christian would actually call karen and mike back and he would say to them that you know your son had not left but now he's good he's on the highway i'm right behind him he'll be home soon and so when christian and bryce made it to the last leg on the way to laguna niguel christian was confident that bryce was fine and he would get home under his own steam he wasn't driving erratically everything seemed normal and so christian pulled up alongside bryce he kind of waved to him to say you know i'm leaving and then he turned around and he headed back to button willow shortly after this karen called bryce bryce picked up the phone he's still driving and karen tells him okay you're gonna give me landmarks of the things you're seeing as you're driving so that i know you're actually driving home but bryce refused to give them to her he would say oh i can't see anything out my window it's too dark and i don't know where anything is and so despite karen and mike getting so frustrated with him saying come on tell us something give us a sign a road sign anything tell us anything around you bryce didn't give them any information and so finally at about 2 a.m when bryce really should have been in laguna niguel or very close he tells his parents over the phone that he's too tired to continue and he needs to pull over and take a nap at first his parents urged him to just keep on going come home you can sleep as long as you want when you get here but as they were saying it they realized their son had been awake for nearly 24 hours at this point and it's the middle of the night so it does kind of make sense for him to pull over and take a nap and so they say okay pull over but as soon as you wake up you need to call us so we know you're back on the road so bryce says no problem i'll do that and they hang up several hours later at 8 00 a.m karen and mike have still not heard from their son and they're telling themselves that he's probably just sleeping he's totally exhausted i'm sure he's fine and then they hear their doorbell ring and they're immediately so relieved because they're thinking bryce is here he's finally arrived thank goodness they run to the door they open it up and it's not bryce it's a police officer and the officer asked them do you own a 2003 toyota highlander car and so mike and karen's heart sank and they say yes our son bryce drives that car the officer told them that the car had been located a few hours earlier at the bottom of a 25-foot cliff near costay lake the state lake is about halfway between button willow and laguna niguel they told the parents that there was no sign of a driver bryce was not there they did find two small drops of blood inside the vehicle but beyond that there was no indication that bryce had sustained life-threatening injuries from this crash they said the back window of the vehicle had been broken from the inside indicating that bryce had escaped the wreck by punching out that window his laptop and phone were still in the vehicle and his wallet and duffel bag were outside the vehicle on the road and looked like they had been rummaged through before they were left there after an examination of the damage to the car the final tire tracks that led down to where it had been found and traffic cameras in the area it was concluded that bryce had actually intentionally driven off this cliff and he had actually hit the accelerator right before he went over the edge after mike and karen headed out to the crash scene and had a chance to talk to some of the investigators that had been looking for bryce they informed the parents that most likely what they were looking at with this crash was a failed suicide attempt but mike and karen they just couldn't buy that that was not like their son and just two weeks earlier when they dropped him off he was happy he was excited to be at school he was talking about the future he was not someone that was suicidal and so what situation could he have possibly gotten himself into in just those two weeks that was so bad it would lead to something like this it made investigators and the parents wonder you know was bryce hiding something what did he mean when he said he had a lot to talk about did that have something to do with this thing he was hiding a huge search was launched in and around the area where the car had been found with hundreds of people on horseback on atv on foot there were helicopters in the air they put divers in the lake i mean they looked everywhere for days and days and days but nothing was found of brice on the ninth day of the search they brought a bloodhound out to see if it could pick up bryce's scent and sure enough it did right at the crash site and the dog followed the scent all the way down to the lake and walked around the lake to this bridge it was actually a dam that went across the lake and followed his scent right across the bridge to the other side and then it kept on following it up this small access road until it reached a truck stop and then ascent just stopped and so police and the parents and everyone involved in this investigation was really surprised at this discovery and so police got another bloodhound a separate bloodhound they brought it out to see if it could do the same thing to prove that this really was his scent trail and sure enough the bloodhound picked up his scent it went down to the lake it went around to the bridge went over went to the truck stop and then it just stopped but after the scent trail was discovered there was no other leads for anyone to follow and so after three weeks of looking everywhere for bryce the search was called off some say bryce was suicidal that's why he drove off the cliff that was a suicide attempt and despite the bloodhounds picking up his scent bryce was most likely in the lake somewhere others disagree and say bryce is still alive that after this crash he gets out of the car and he walks down to the lake he walks around to that bridge he goes up to the truck stop and then he hitches a ride with someone and vanishes and now he's living off the grid somewhere and still others believe bryce's drug and alcohol use caused a psychotic break and that was what was causing all this strange behavior and that was what led him to drive off the cliff and perhaps when he landed he sustained a vicious head wound that caused him to forget who he was and so now he's just kind of wandering around somewhere not knowing who he is or knowing that he's a missing person as for his parents they say he would never do this on purpose he would never cause this much pain to the people that love him and so he must have been a victim of foul play but regardless of what you believe happened to bryce something happened to him and it's probably connected to whatever it was he said he needed to talk to his mom about that thing that he couldn't discuss on the phone that potentially he was trying to drive home to talk to his mom and dad in person about but unless we find bryce and he's still alive it's unlikely we'll ever know what it was since august 30th 2013 when bryce went missing no one has heard from him and no one has seen him if you think you have information about bracelets pisa please call this number now let them know what you know because his parents volunteers the police there's so many people still looking for him and so any bit of information could crack this case so please if you have information call this number below so that's gonna do it guys if you found the secret in today's episode let us know in the comments what it is and where you found it so give us the time stamp and if you're the first to do that we'll pin you at the top of the comments section if you got something out of today's episode and you haven't done this already please offer to help the like button pack up all their things so they can move but only use weak and old tape so the bottom of the moving boxes falls out as soon as anyone tries to lift them also please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly 3 or 4 video uploads if you want to get in touch with me you can direct message me on instagram or on twitter my username for both platforms is the same it's johnballin416. i also have a ton of content over on tiktok where my username is mr ballen i also have a second youtube channel called mr ball and shorts where i post random short videos and lost episodes if you have a story suggestion please submit it to our subreddit just called mr ballen it's linked in the description below so whether i see you on instagram twitter tick tock reddit youtube or some combination just know that i really appreciate your support and until next time that's going to do it see ya

Channel: MrBallen

Views: 3,483,404

Rating: 4.9420128 out of 5

Keywords: strange, dark, mysterious, true, story, scary, scary story, horror story, disturbing, narration, narrator, storyteller, storytime, storytelling, unsolved mystery, solved mystery, true crime, oof, nope, Buttonwillow, california, ca, Laguna Niguel, truck stop, missing person, missing, mystery, Bryce Laspisa, Sierra college, rocklin, bizarre, cliff, car accident, accident, psychotic break, substance, addiction, head injury, car crash, crash, roadside assistance, out of gas, desert, tragedy, sad, true story

Id: WO28hxU6qjs

Length: 25min 46sec (1546 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 11 2021