A human skull and teeth found 10 weeks ago in a hilly rugged stretch of terrain near Templin Highway are not those of Bryce Laspisa who vanished four years ago.
When investigators revealed in May that they hoped dental work would lead them to the identity of victim, they received calls from the families of missing people, Ed Winter, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner, said Wednesday.
One of those calls to the coroner’s Special Operations Recovery team was from the Laspisa family, he said.
“The deceased had dental work, Laspisa does not,” Winter told The Signal Wednesday.
Bryce Laspisa went missing on Aug. 30, 2013 when California Highway Patrol officers found his 2003 Toyota Highlander SUV, its back window shattered, apparently toppled off a road near Castaic Lake.
In the days and weeks that followed, searchers combed the Castaic Lake area for the missing red-haired young man, without luck.
Next month will mark the four-year anniversary of his disappearance.
So, when news that human remains had been found north of Castaic Lake and that dental work might reveal the identity of the victim, the Laspisa family shared Bryce Laspisa’s dental information with the coroner.
During the last week of April, surveyors found what they thought were human remains and phoned the LASD sparking a search by both homicide detectives and investigators with the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Department.
Sgt. William Cotter of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Homicide Bureau told The Signal on May 1 that dental work had been discovered on the remains that had been found.
“There was some dental work discovered, so perhaps we’ll be able to track it,” Cotter said at the time,
In the meantime, the remains are being referred to at the coroner’s department as “Doe 12” which means the remains of at least 11 other people were found before that discovery this year.
The search for Bryce Laspisa, however, continues.
On Aug. 28, 2013, shortly after 10 p.m., Bryce Laspisa left Sierra College in Rocklin north of Sacramento and began his drive to Laguna Niguel, where his parents live.
Almost 12 hours later, Bryce told his mother on the phone that he had run out of gas near a Buttonwillow rest area west of Bakersfield, according to his mother.
By noon Aug. 29, a roadside assistance serviceman named Christian delivered three gallons of gasoline to Bryce, according to a credit card purchase for the fuel. When she phoned Christian, he told her Bryce appeared “OK.”
But for some unexplained reason, he stayed in Buttonwillow for the rest of the afternoon.
At 9 p.m. Aug. 29, responding to a call from Karen Laspisa, CHP officers spotted Bryce’s 2003 Toyota Highlander SUV on Lagoon Drive in Buttonwillow.
More than nine hours later the same SUV was found near Castaic Lake on its side at the bottom of a 15-foot ravine.
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