One year later: Searchers return to Walnut Creek to look for missing autistic La Vista boy
'Continue to investigate any leads, tips,' La Vista police won't stop searching for Ryan Larsen
'Continue to investigate any leads, tips,' La Vista police won't stop searching for Ryan Larsen
'Continue to investigate any leads, tips,' La Vista police won't stop searching for Ryan Larsen
Law enforcement is focusing on Walnut Creek Recreation Area in the search for Ryan Larsen, 12. La Vista Police Chief Bob Lausten said this is the only place where they have something to go on. He said a cadaver dog smelled human remains last year.
The Sarpy County Search and Rescue team spent a few hours on the water in a boat Tuesday morning.
"We have some new equipment available to us that Sarpy County has, so they wanted to put that in the lake and the lake is a lot clearer now than it was the last time we were out there," Lausten said.
This day has more meaning though, as Larsen vanished one year ago. He walked out of his school, La Vista West Elementary around 11:45 a.m. He was seen two hours later at his apartment complex near 84th and Harrison Streets and hasn't been seen since.
"We are trying to find a young man that's out there somewhere," Lausten said.
Volunteer Patrick Morrissey and his specially-trained cadaver dog, Prize, are back at it again too. Morrissey said Prize was interested in an area last year and they went back today.
"It's been a year but he's not interested there," Morrissey said.
Prize can tell the difference between human and animal remains. But the scent that got him excited last year isn't as strong 12 months later.
"Water is a different story because water is always moving so the scent is moving away from the land," he said. "Water is a moving target."
Prize even sniffed out the shore and land in that area.
But he didn't find anything significant.
Lausten said Walnut Creek remains a focus, in the search for Larsen.
"We've had something to go on that we don't have on the lake at La Vista Central Park. Thompson Creek," Lausten said. "We didn't have any of that there, so this is the best thing we got right now."
Lausten also said there is an area out that searchers couldn't get to today.
They'll review the data collected from the special equipment and look for any clues and head back out to Walnut Creek for another search.