Katharina Buczek
Ryan Larsen, an 11-year-old from La Vista, Nebraska, loved Legos, army figurines, Matchbox cars, and playing pranks.
“He has a mechanical wind-up bug. He loved to wind it up and let it go in his sisters’ room, wait for them to see it, and then giggle when they did. He always thinks it’s hilarious. He also would take it to school to play pranks on his teachers,” detailed his mother, Tammi Larsen.
Ryan has three older sisters, and according to one of his sisters, Taylor, the word that best describes him is “original.”
Yet, ever since Ryan vanished from his elementary school on May 17, 2021, the Larsen family hasn’t been the same.
That day started off as normal for Tammi, who dropped her son off at La Vista West Elementary School in the morning. Ryan was reportedly very excited to head home after school, too, since he had some after-school plans.
“We were sending a present to a friend across the country, and it was kind of a mystery. So we were going to come up with clues [that night] to leave him guessing, so he’d have to try to figure out what he was going to get in the mail,” Tammi remembered.
After bringing Ryan to school, she went to work as usual. But at 12:27 p.m., she received a phone call informing her that her son had walked out of school.
Ryan had autism, as well as epilepsy and Tourette’s. On the phone, his school claimed to believe that he’d left, but they weren’t certain.
This wasn’t the first time Ryan had left school or gone missing. He was actually referred to as “the king of hide and seek” by local police, given his habit of running away.
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