On November 7, 2001, Bianca Lebron, 10, arrived at Elias Howe School in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to begin a full day of classes. While waiting outside to go in, a man called out to her from a van. He was described as Hispanic, 20-30 years old, and stood 5’8″ – 5’11”. Bianca told a teacher and her friends that she was going shopping with her uncle.
A witness saw Bianca at 8:30 a.m. getting into an older model two-tone brown van with tinted windows. She has not been seen since.
Bianca’s mother, Carmelita Torres, assumed her daughter had attended the school that day and then went to a friend’s house afterward. When Bianca failed to return home by 8:30 p.m., Carmelita called the police and reported her missing.
According to Carmelita, Bianca did not have any uncles. Therefore, the man in the van was not related to her.
In 2002, police questioned 20-year-old Jason Lara (who also went by the last name Gonzalez), but he denied any involvement in her disappearance. It is worth noting here that one of Jason’s friends drove a van similar to the one mentioned above, according to The Charley Project.
Bianca’s family said someone had seen her kissing Jason before vanishing and referred to him as her boyfriend. However, Jason’s girlfriend at the time said these were false allegations the Lebron family were claiming due to a feud between them and Lara.
In 2009, law enforcement searched a local Bridgeport park for Bianca’s remains, but they did not find anything.
Carmelita declared her daughter dead so she could file a lawsuit against the school. However, Carmelita believes her daughter may still be alive.
It’s been almost 15 years since Bianca LeBron vanished, and no arrests have been made in her case.
True Crime Diva’s Thoughts
Bianca knew the van driver because she was comfortable enough to get in the van and willingly go with this man. I think Jason Lara makes the most sense, and he fits the description of the man seen in the van. However, in my opinion, he does not resemble the composite sketch. Lara had a bit of a criminal background, mostly burglary and forgery, a far cry from child abduction and possibly murder. But maybe he became obsessed with Bianca.
I did not find anything on any sightings of Bianca or the van after she left the school. Bridgeport is a decent size town, so maybe the van just went unnoticed.
What I don’t get is when Bianca told the teacher she was going shopping with her uncle, why didn’t the school verify this with her mother first? Why did the teacher just let Bianca walk away? Hello, she was about to get into a creeper van! If that teacher had insisted Bianca stayed at school until officials could verify this with Carmelita, she would be here today. This teacher was suspended afterward. Go figure.
Bianca referred to this man as her “uncle,” and he wasn’t, says that she was hiding who he was. But why? If this was Lara, and she believed he was her boyfriend, then she would have referred to him as her boyfriend to her friends. Maybe not to her teacher, but definitely to her friends. Yet she didn’t, so I find that a bit interesting.
There is a Facebook page set up for Bianca, but the last entry was posted in 2015.