Ryan Larsen was 11 when he went missing on May 17, 2021.
Ryan was born on June 8, 2009. Ryan’s mother is Tammi and I believe he also had two older sisters. His father is never mentioned and I don’t believe he was involved with Ryan.
Ryan has autism, Tourette’s syndrome and epilepsy, and needs medication which he doesn’t have with him. Although he’s considered high-functioning, he is usually non-verbal with strangers.
Ryan’s sisters said he is a happy boy who enjoyed helping others. They have said he was funny and awkward but that made him who he was. He loved to help the janitor at school and he was allowed to do this when he got good grades.
Ryan had a history of running and hiding in small places.
Ryan had run away a few times before, for short periods of time. Local police said that he was the ‘King of Hide and Seek’. He was enrolled in Project Lifesaver and had been given a bracelet to wear with a GPS tracker. Ryan kept cutting off the bracelet so his mother stopped making him wear it.
Ryan was in 6th grade at La Vista West Elementary school in 2021. On Monday May 17, 2021, he became frustrated with a math problem and left the room to calm down.
There was supposed to be an adult supervising him but one person had to leave the room and the replacement was late.
Ryan was unsupervised for 10 minutes, between 11.55am and 12.05pm. During that time, he left the school grounds.
Ryan’s mother was notified that he was missing at 12.27pm. 911 was called at 12.29pm and the police arrived five minutes later.
A neighbor saw Ryan at 1.45pm that day at Southfield Apartments, where they lived which was around two blocks from the school. He was carrying his umbrella at the time.
Ryan could not have entered his apartment at this time as he did not have the key. There was a family member due home at around 2pm though, so there was not much time in between.
This was the last sighting of Ryan. More than six weeks after he vanished, his umbrella was found near a dumpster behind the Southfield Apartments. This is where he was last seen on the day he vanished.
A La Vista police officer said “This case has really been challenging because there hasn’t been a lot of information,” he said. “We’ve had different theories that we’ve looked at, but we’ve come up empty.”
The search for Ryan included more than 100 police officers, hundreds of volunteers and the use of dogs, divers and a helicopter.
After Ryan vanished, police looked into his internet history. They found search terms including ‘how to hide underground’, ‘how to avoid being spotted’ and ‘how to hide from police’.
After Ryan had been missing for a year, police searched Walnut Creek Lake for him. Cadaver dogs had alerted to that area. No results were found.
In January 2023, Tammi petitioned for Ryan to be declared dead. The petition also seeks to hold the Papillion-La Vista school district accountable for his disappearance.
The petition argued that because Ryan has not been seen since the day he vanished, he is likely dead. Due to his health problems, he would not have survived on his own. “Unless Ryan Larsen is under the supervision of a suitable caretaker, his medical conditions prevent him from exercising the necessary self-care to sustain his own life,” the petition stated.
The petition alleges that staff members at La Vista Elementary saw Ryan leave that day but did nothing to stop him or bring him back to the school.
In April 2023, a judge threw out the petition to have Ryan declared dead. The judge said there wasn’t enough evidence to conclude that.
If the petition was approved, it would have allowed Tammi Larsen to receive a death certificate so she could presumably take legal action against the Papillion-La Vista School District.
Under Nebraska law, a person who is missing is pronounced dead after 5 years. If Ryan is not found at any point in the near future, then he would be presumed dead around May 2026.
In November 2023, a judge dismissed the lawsuit. The judge said Ryan’s family failed to prove that school officials violated his civil rights under the Constitution.
In dismissing the claim, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Bataillon said Tammi’s complaint “does not allege an unconstitutional policy of the school district,” which is required for a federal lawsuit.
The judge dismissed the case without prejudice, meaning the family could bring another lawsuit forward. The lawsuit, filed in May, was seeking an unspecified amount of money as well as punitive damages.
In November 2023, the police issued a statement about the case.
“We will keep working it until we find Ryan,” said La Vista Police Capt. Tom Armburst.
“Well I don’t like to use the word ‘cold,’ but I understand the analogy,” Armburst said. “We do still follow up on leads and tips as we get them. It is not as active as it was when it initially happened, it’s been some time, a substantial period of time has elapsed, but it is an open, active investigation.”
Nowadays, Captain Armbrust said tips and sightings are much more infrequent, but they’ve come from as far as the east coast of the U.S.
“If somebody thinks they saw someone that looks like Ryan then we’ll call that jurisdiction and ask them to follow up on it,” Captain Armburst said.
But still, Ryan’s disappearance remains a mystery.
“It’s hard to fathom that someone could just literally vanish, especially in 2021, with how many people there are and cameras and cell phones and things like that.”
But Captain Armbrust insists that the department has not given up hope, and they don’t plan to.
“I’m hopeful that Ryan is still alive and that Ryan is out there,” Captain Armburst said. “That’s the message that we at the La Vista Police Department want to put out there. Until we can prove otherwise, that’s the way we are going to look at it and we want people to think that way and think in a positive manner for Ryan and his loved ones.”
SOURCE LIST
https://thecrimewire.com/true-crime/Missing-Ryan-D-Larson