MISSING: Ryan Shtuka

[00:00] Hi, Crime Junkies. It's Britt, and I have big news. One of my favorite seasonal shows, CounterClock, is back with a brand new season, and it is wild. Host Delia D'Ambra is digging into the 2008 Lane Bryant murders. I mean, this isn't just a recap. It is a reinvestigation. She's talking to law enforcement, people from the community, even sources who have never spoken publicly until now. And you know I love a show that asks all the questions. Listen to CounterClock Season 8 now wherever you get your podcasts. [00:31] Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. [00:35] And the story I have for you today is about a young man, just 20 years old, who left home to live a dream in a small, safe resort town, but never came home. [00:46] This is the story of Ryan Stuka. [00:49] *music* [01:20] It's mid-February 2018 in Beaumont, Alberta, a town about 40 minutes outside Edmonton. [01:27] And Heather Stuka is enjoying her Saturday night at home with her husband, Scott, and their two teenage daughters. They have one more kid, Ryan. I mean, I say kid, but actually Ryan is 20 and he doesn't live with them anymore. He is out chasing adventure with a friend working at a ski resort called Sun Peaks for the winter.

[01:45] Now it's about 10 p.m. and Heather is in the midst of a text conversation when a notification pops up on her screen from one of Ryan's friends, this guy James, actually the friend that he went out to Sun Peaks with for the winter. [01:57] And Heather kind of registers that the message is from James and thinks, you know, I wonder what he wants. But before she gets to that, she wants to finish what she's doing. So she just kind of like swipes up to clear the notification, finishes her thought or her little text chain or whatever, and then clicks back. [02:11] And as she's reading this message from his friend, it's almost not registering what James is saying, which is basically like, heads up, Ryan didn't show up for work today. He's not answering his phone and we're worried. So we just went ahead and reported him missing to police. So you're probably going to be getting a call just like FYI. [02:30] So Heather immediately gets James on the phone and is like, okay... [02:33] What the heck is going on? Start from the top. Tell me what happened. Thinking that maybe she can just help take the temperature down a couple of notches, like problem solve this mom style. Yeah. Is this just a couple of friends freaking out over nothing? Right. [02:47] Yeah, like get a mom involved. I totally support this. [02:50] Well, James says that he and Ryan and a group of their other friends had gone out on Friday night. First to this bar on the resort called Masa's. Then, according to Gene Strong's reporting for the Sun Peaks Independent News, to another place right next door called Bottoms for this like silent disco thing that they had going on. Silent disco is like when... [03:10] Everybody gets like their own pair of headphones and that's how you hear the music that the DJ is playing, right?

[03:16] Yeah. [03:16] Okay. Well, in true 20-year-old fashion, James says that no one was really ready to go home when bottoms closed for the night at 1 a.m. So they decided to all head down the hill and off the resort to this, like, little get-together that they heard was going on. [03:31] This was happening at a house that was just around the corner from where James and Ryan lived anyway. So they figured like, OK, we're going to head down there, maybe have another drink and then we'll just go home. [03:40] They ended up catching a lift down from the bar to the bottom of the hill, and then they were walking the rest of the way to the house party. And listen, I mean, this whole trip took like 10 minutes tops. By 1.30, though, James was ready to go home. He tells Heather that he saw Ryan stand up, and he thought that he was right behind him and a couple of other people who had left at like the same time. But somewhere during their walk home, I guess they looked around and realized he wasn't. [04:10] So they didn't wait for him before they left to all regroup and leave together? [04:15] No, they didn't. And I don't get the sense that they had any kind of like agreement that everyone was going to leave together or take care of one another or whatever. I mean, again, this dude's not a kid. He's about to turn 21. So even when they were like halfway into this walk and they realized he isn't right behind them, they just thought like, OK, he either changed his mind. He decided to stay a bit longer at the party or maybe he was slow getting out the door. He's going to catch up to soon. Whatever. And no one yelled around for him, called him, texted, nothing like that. [04:45] So, [04:46] This is a crime junkie rule for everyone who listens, and obviously you and I, but like, you don't leave without your people. You never leave someone behind. You never leave someone alone, right?

[04:56] - Well, I get what you're saying for sure, but there's a few things playing into this for me. Like, first of all, [05:00] I really think there just is this different expectation for us as women than there probably would be for Ryan and his friends in terms of like making sure everyone gets home safe and like, again, this this idea of like, [05:11] When I go out, a group of girls coming together and leaving together. And part of that's because no one would describe Ryan as vulnerable in any way. Again, he's young, strong, six feet tall, 180 pounds. Like, dude can handle himself, including in the winter. [05:25] especially in the winter. I mean, he's from Alberta, for God's sake. So this is nothing new for him. And even more than that, again, we talk about that when we go out into a big city or whatever, but Sun Peaks is so small. It's like a safe place that people really don't worry too much about anything. And when I say small, I mean like, [05:45] tiny geographically, but also in terms of number of people who live there. So Courtney Dickinson from the CBC wrote that Sun Peaks reported a population of 616 people in the last census. Oh, wow. Like you say resort town. I know it's small, but that's tiny. Yeah. And remember, the house that this party's happening at is literally around the corner from where James and Ryan live. Yeah, you had mentioned that. So how long would the walk be? [06:15] of anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes, so pretty quick. [06:18] Okay, so honestly, that just brings me more questions. Like, if it was that close, why wouldn't you just go back for him? Like, it's five minutes. Yeah. [06:25] I mean, on the surface, it seems kind of, you can call it shady or whatever, but Heather actually told Tyler Hooper for the Missing and Unexplained podcast that she doesn't feel that way at all. She thinks that the weather was a huge factor here. Like, it was cold, like minus 26 degrees Celsius or minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit. So this was not some, like, leisurely walk home chatting and, like, laughing along the way. Everyone's just trying to hightail it to, like, someplace warm. Yeah, as fast as humanly possible.

[06:55] Quickest route, there's no laughing, your head down, feet moving, laser focused on getting out of the cold. Which I get, but I don't know, I feel like I'd still go back, so maybe we just have to agree to disagree. [07:06] Well, James tells Heather that by the time he went to bed, Ryan still wasn't home. [07:12] But even the next morning when he woke up and Ryan wasn't in his bed, James just assumed that he crashed on someone's couch or maybe even went home with a girl, whatever. Like people did that all the time in Sun Peaks. And he figured like, OK, I'm either going to see him at the hill, like snowboarding, skiing, whatever, at work or at the very latest when everyone got home from work that night. [07:33] Ryan didn't show up to work. [07:35] Nor was he at the house when they got off work that night. And James says that is when things went from like, "Oh, he's probably fine," to "Something is definitely wrong here." [07:46] Heather asks all the questions you'd imagine a mother would be asking at this point. Did you check here? Did you check there? Could he be at this place or that place? But James is as new to Sun Peaks as Ryan. They haven't been here like three months. So he's basically like, I don't know. [08:02] But he does say that they've already asked around among their friends in town and they've posted to a local Facebook group, even checked the local hospitals before calling police to report Ryan missing about an hour before he made contact with Heather. [08:16] So Heather ends this call with James and relays everything to her husband Scott, who is just as confused and stunned by the whole thing as she is. And Scott had actually gotten in touch with police while Heather was on the phone with James getting more information. And police told him that they had a canine unit already out there searching the area between the house party and Ryan's place.

[08:46] up. [08:46] Now, there's nothing Heather and Scott can really do at this point, not from Beaumont anyway. So Scott just looks at Heather like... [08:54] There's only one thing we can do here. [08:57] We gotta go to Sun Peaks. [09:01] For decades, some cold cases have been reduced to files in a cabinet, but not anymore. I'm Ashley Flowers, and me and my team on the deck have been traveling across the country to report on these forgotten cases. And in some instances, it's resulted in these cases being solved after decades. Thank you. [09:21] Join me every Wednesday as we revive these stories one card at a time. Listen to the deck now. [09:28] wherever you get your podcasts. [09:31] Scott's mother is able to come to the Stuka's place to be with their daughters, who are 18 and 12 at this point. And by like 10:30 that night, Heather and Scott are on their way to Sun Peaks. [09:43] So is this like a couple of hours drive or what? [09:45] Oh, no, more than a couple of hours. We're talking like nine hours away. Oh, that's like a trek, especially overnight. Yeah. And especially when you're trying to get there like 15 minutes ago or, I don't know, yesterday. Right. I mean, for Heather and Scott, that drive doesn't just feel endless. It kind of is endless because they have to keep pulling over every 15 minutes to like catch their breath and try to just keep themselves together. [10:11] In those silent, sobbing moments in the car, all Heather and Scott can think about is their son and everything that got them to this point. Starting when Ryan sat them down several months before and told them that he wanted to spend the winter working at a ski resort. And at the time, he didn't know which ski resort. He just knew that he wanted to spend the winter doing something that he loved and he loved to snowboard.

[10:34] Heather and Scott didn't hate the idea for him. I mean, Ryan was still trying to find his own path in the world and figure out what he wanted to do career-wise, long-term. And he knew he didn't want to, like, work construction. He tried that already. He worked with his dad. He'd done the whole university thing, too, studying science for a year. But he didn't know that was the thing either. And he especially didn't want to waste a bunch of time and a bunch of money until he knew what his end goal was. I mean, I totally get that. [11:04] like figure it all out too especially at that age like to be able to name exactly what you want your life to look like in 20 years and the whole idea of like spending all that money on it too is it doesn't have to be right away yeah like that's why I went into the workforce right out of high school like I was like I have zero idea what I want to do right but in the meantime I can at least make a little bit of money and figure things out I mean also I would have never seen the [11:28] this for me if you'd asked me 10, 20 years ago. Oh yeah, you didn't think you were going to be a true crime podcaster when you graduated high school? Yeah, weirdly that wasn't in my capacity. I don't even remember really what I wanted to do. I just didn't want to do anything. I mean, I wanted to write. That's a great idea in theory. I wanted to live on a farm. Also, great idea. But that's a pretty limited range of things. Yeah, well, I spent a ton of money on a degree for biomedical research and here I am. So... [11:57] God bless you, Ryan. You knew what you were doing. [11:59] And so I think Heather and Scott got that, too. That's why they were so supportive of the whole thing. Although now, while they're making this endless trek across two provinces, I'm sure they're questioning pretty much all of that.

[12:11] At about 2 a.m., Heather connects with police by phone for an update. But then the whole rest of the ride just disappears. [12:19] Radio Silence. [12:20] deafening. [12:21] No calls from police, nothing. Which leaves Heather and Scott to fill those nine plus long dark hours with... [12:30] what-ifs, and worst-case scenarios. [12:33] And with every passing minute, that deafening silence feels more and more ominous, more and more like proof that the absolute worst has happened. That maybe police have found Ryan's body and they don't want to say anything while they're driving or over the phone like they're waiting to tell them in person. [12:48] Heather and Scott arrive in Sun Peaks around 6 the next morning. This is now Sunday, February 18th. And they arrive to a blanket of freshly fallen snow, which is what most people hope to find when they get to a ski resort. But the very last thing you want to see if you're hoping to find your missing son somewhere out there. [13:10] Kamloops this week reported that more than eight inches had fallen just since the time Ryan was last seen. And that's just the new snow. There was already a ton of it on the ground even before that. [13:23] And that's a lot of snow. I mean, like you said, there was snow on the ground already, but that means anything they might be looking for, footprints, clothing, anything like that is buried under an additional eight inches. Yeah. I mean, this is definitely posing some challenges for search and rescue. Yeah. But maybe not really in the way you think. Like, yes, it can bury some things and it might make visibility from above, like in a helicopter or drone kind of hard. I mean, especially if they're looking for like the flashes of color or whatever.

[13:53] cover-up footprints or indentations that were made before the snow fell, right? So you'd still be able to see those. They wouldn't be as crisp, but you'll be able to see, again, say someone fell over, they're still going to be that mark, right? [14:05] I was going to say, like, whether someone fell or there was a footprint, there'd be an indication. Or if there was an item that was on top of the snow that got snowed over, there might be a slight, like, bump in the new snow. I can kind of see that just because I live someplace that we do get eight inches of snow sometimes. [14:21] Well, and it turns out that the deep snow actually has its advantages, too. Someone from the search and rescue team spoke to Nikki Fredrickson for a piece in the Independent News and said, quote, You make a lot of evidence you've been there, so it can be helpful from a tracking perspective. End quote. Oh, that's honestly something I would have never thought of. Like, they can literally see where they've been and where they haven't been. So... [14:44] you aren't going over the same place over and over again. Exactly. The official search for Ryan begins later that morning, focusing on the area around Burfield Drive, which was the street that the House party was on, because they're figuring he likely set off toward home and somehow got into trouble along the way. [15:02] So you had mentioned earlier that the police had gone out overnight while Heather and Scott were driving to search that area with tracker dogs. Were they able to catch his scent or confirm which direction he was going in or anything? So this is the weird thing. The dogs didn't pick up Ryan's scent. [15:18] at the party house. [15:19] at all. And that initial search, which I imagine to be more of like,

[15:24] looking with flashlights calling out his name kind of thing, hadn't turned up anything either. [15:29] Okay, so they caught no scent at all. Like, do we even know that Ryan for sure was even at this party? I mean, we have a bunch of his friends saying that he was there, but if you mean like some kind of physical proof, like pictures or videos or something, [15:44] No, we don't. The last photo of Ryan, as far as I know, was from that silent disco earlier that evening. [15:51] And actually, we have that picture up on our fan club app. If you're listening within the app, you can see it right now or it's on our website. [15:57] But at this point, there doesn't seem to be any doubt from anyone, including police, that he was at the party. So it's not something that they're questioning, even though the dogs aren't lining up, like, [16:06] their indications aren't lining up with that. [16:08] And there doesn't seem to be any doubt that he left that morning. From everything that they're putting out at this point, they're thinking likely like 2 a.m., 2.10 a.m., something in that window. And they're thinking that he was trying to walk home. [16:19] Now from the start, police are pretty straight up with Heather and Scott about the reality of the situation. That if Ryan got himself into trouble along the way, like injured or whatever, the chances of finding him alive at this point are pretty slim. [16:35] But Slim is not zero and no one is giving up hope just yet. [16:40] And honestly, the area around the party house and Ryan's is searchable. Like, it's not some vast wilderness. It's pretty well contained, especially if you look at the area between the house party and Ryan's place. And I actually want to show you a picture. It's just an aerial map of that part of Sun Peaks, but it has circles around where the party happened and where Ryan was living. So maybe you could just describe it a little bit for listeners.

[17:09] Okay, so this area is almost more like a highway, but not quite, or like a pass through an area. It's almost like the roads are forking together to a certain extent. Well, just to jump in, you say highway, but like it's not like well-trafficked or big. Like it's just that there's no like sidewalks, there's no streetlights. Yeah, it's not someplace that you would expect like a lot of foot traffic, especially. Right. [17:29] And there's like a row of houses on one street, which I think is Burfield Drive. And there's a patch of woods. And then the circle where the other location is, is on the other side of the woods. [17:39] I say woods. There may be, what, a block, two blocks max away from each other? Yeah, the houses. Yeah, they're just a couple of blocks from one another. [17:48] And again, like to me, it looks like the quickest and closest route from the party house to Ryan's is through that little patch of woods. But could you even go through there or what? Well, that's just it. Going through the woods is the quickest way. It's just definitely not the safest. [18:06] For decades, some cold cases have been reduced to files in a cabinet, but not anymore. I'm Ashley Flowers, and me and my team on the deck have been traveling across the country to report on these forgotten cases. And in some instances, it's resulted in these cases being solved after decades. [18:26] Join me every Wednesday as we revive these stories one card at a time. Listen to The Deck now, wherever you get your podcasts. [18:37] So I know that the space between Ryan's and the party house looks just like a little patch of woods in this picture.

[18:43] But the terrain is actually brutal in there. There's like this terrible undergrowth and big trees, not to mention creeks and gullies. And at this point anyway, several feet of snow. But it kind of looks like there are trails in and around that area. Like, what about those? Would anyone use those? Yeah. [19:00] So I'm pretty sure those are old logging roads. And yes, people do use them for hiking and whatnot, but not in the winter. I mean, the picture you're looking at was taken in the summer. It would look totally different in the middle of February. I don't think this is something that they like plow out and keep like open for people to like hike through. I think it's all covered. So I don't think you'd be able to like spot those roads during the middle of winter. They can be completely covered just like everything else in Sun Peaks. [19:25] Okay, so if A Straight Shot Through the Woods... [19:28] isn't going to work, then what route would Ryan have taken home? Ryan's only safe route would be to follow the main road. So basically it's like to hang a right from the party house onto Burfield Drive. [19:39] walk up to Sun Peaks Road and then go left until he reached his house. So it's like, again, not literally a straight line, but a pretty straight shot. And that is the route that people estimate is like 5, 10, 15 minutes, probably, depending on how much snow is down, how long your legs are, again, how motivated you are to get home. But here's the thing, even that route, what I'm calling the safe route on the main roads, is freaking brutal in the winter. [20:05] Jean Strong from the Sun Peaks Independent News, who lives there and knows the area really well, said that there are no sidewalks to stick to, no streetlights to guide you. You're just literally walking on the road. Even if you wanted to walk on the shoulder, the shoulder is basically just six feet of a snowbank like all winter long.

[20:24] Okay, but Ryan is relatively new to Sun Peaks. He's also 20 years old, had been drinking, and was probably pretty motivated to get himself home ASAP and out of the minus 15 degree cold that night. So I guess to me, it's not a stretch to think maybe... [20:41] He made a bad judgment call and tried to cut through the woods anyway. [20:45] I've made worse judgment calls. So you're absolutely right. I mean, that's exactly what the search team is thinking about as they trudge through inch by inch in this like waist deep snow in this forest area looking for Ryan. Because they know like not only could he have gone into these woods, but also if he did. I mean, the biggest thing they're wondering is, is he still alive in there somewhere? [21:06] The search team spends the entire day going up and down around Burfield Drive and Sun Peaks Road and every inch in between, using every possible method to get around in deep snow and thick brush. They have people on snowshoes, driving snowmobiles. They have people on foot, not just looking for Ryan, but literally any sign he'd been there. And they even have helicopters and drones, like I said, searching from above, trying to glimpse, you know, Ryan's red hat or blue jacket or, again, anything. [21:35] any like indentations anywhere that would show where he might have gone. And they don't stop when the sun goes down. They keep... [21:42] going. For 18 hours, 22 trained search and rescue volunteers, 74 community volunteers, and several police officers with canine units searched for Ryan. [21:53] And after all of that,

[21:55] They find [21:57] Nothing. [21:58] Not one thing. Not Ryan. [22:01] Not a shoe or hat or wallet, not even a footprint. [22:06] Nothing. [22:07] And so, according to Jennifer Norwell's reporting for CBC... [22:12] Just before midnight on February 18th, they officially suspend the search. What? After just one day? What? [22:20] I know it seems fast, but you saw the map, there's only so much terrain to cover. Not to mention, by this time, Ryan has been missing almost 48 hours, and if he is out there in the bush, the window to find him alive, especially given the extreme low temperatures for the past two nights, has definitely passed. [22:41] As you can imagine, Heather and Scott are devastated. Not because they aren't realistic about the outcome at this point, but because how can you end a search before the person you're searching for is found? [22:53] Right, and like, now what? That's it? Like, everyone just goes home? Right. [22:57] Well, thankfully, no. So it's actually just Kamloops search and rescue operation that's wrapping up. The police investigation is very much still going on and will continue as long as it takes. And search and rescue says that they'll come back for another search as soon as there's some evidence that turns up to help guide their search efforts. [23:17] At this point, police need to consider Ryan's disappearance beyond just the woods around Sun Peaks. [23:23] And with no official search and rescue operation, it's up to the Stukas to pull together the volunteers and resources they need to continue the search for Ryan. They set up a Facebook page. They reach out to media to keep his story out there. They even put up a $5,000 reward for information, then raise it to $15,000.

[23:41] And the search that they're doing isn't contained the way the official search was. Because remember, it wasn't just that they didn't find Ryan in the woods. They didn't find anything to suggest that he'd ever even gone into the woods. [23:56] And even though police talked to every person who attended that party and they all say that he was definitely there, not a single one of them remembers seeing him leave the house that night. Like, not... [24:06] One, no one heard him say he was leaving either, or even if he was going to go somewhere else, no one heard him say where he was going. [24:13] Okay, but he wouldn't be the first person to pull an Irish goodbye. I mean... [24:17] You know, it's one of my personal favorite things to do. But you said this was like a small house party, not like a full-on rager. So... [24:25] Just peacing out like that would be kind of tough, maybe even impossible. [24:30] So here's the thing about that. Like, you're right. Ryan's friends described it not as like a, like you said, a rager, but kind of like a gathering, like a mellow gathering, in fact. And I don't know if the definition of gathering changes with age or what, but according to a piece by Joel Bard that was published in The Empire Advance, there were between like 30 and 50 people there that night. Like, not all at once, mind you, but people like coming and going over the course of the night. [24:53] OK, that doesn't sound like super mellow to me, at least. A small gathering in my mind is like six people tops. But I have to imagine like we're getting old, Britt. Yeah, I was gonna say we had dinner the other night and it was like that was a nice small gathering. It was four people. Us and our husbands. Right. But anyway, whatever you want to call it, I do think it was busy enough that Ryan could have easily slipped out undetected.

[25:16] And of course, the other thing impacting people's memory of Ryan that night beyond just the number of guests at the party is, of course, alcohol. Not everyone at the party was drinking, but most people were. And some were using drugs, too. And some were drinking and using drugs. And when you say drugs, what do you actually or maybe specifically mean? So from everything I've read, no one actually comes out and says which drugs, just that there was nothing out of the ordinary for like a ski resort. Now. [25:44] I've never worked at a ski resort, so I have no idea what is considered ordinary. I mean, I think it's pretty safe to assume that there was probably like cannabis around and available. But beyond that, I mean, who knows? Cocaine, ecstasy, opioids. Sun Peaks is only a few hours from Vancouver where pretty much anything you could want is readily available and being replenished all the time. [26:04] Now, whether Ryan himself was using drugs that night, I'm not sure. Heather has alluded to it in interviews, but beyond that, there isn't much detail out there. And honestly, it doesn't matter, except that, you know, when we're trying to figure out where to, like, go next in terms of the investigation, they need to consider the role that these substances may have played on Ryan's behavior that night, on other people's whatever. [26:27] Like, what if, for example, he left the party out the back door and instead of walking around the house and onto the street, instead wandered into the woods in the totally wrong direction? Like, if you pull that map again, that you'll see that the area between the party house and Ryan's house is pretty contained. But the area behind the party house? Oh, it's like a full on forest. Right. Now, I'm pretty confident that the search and rescue team covered at least some part of that area during their initial search, just based on media coverage from the time.

[26:57] at least a little ways in from the tree line. But they for sure didn't go all the way in there, like up the mountain. And to be fair, no one really thinks it's the likeliest possibility, but it definitely, at least to me, is a possibility. [27:11] Yeah. [27:12] Now, all along during the search and the investigation, the assumption has been that Ryan left that house and headed straight home. It was 2 a.m. He had a shift to work the next day at 11 and he was never late. [27:25] The opposite, actually. I mean, he was almost always early so that he could get in a couple of runs on his snowboard before he had to work. [27:31] But here's the thing. What if that assumption is wrong? What if he wasn't planning to go home at all? [27:37] I mean, is there anywhere else he may have gone? Like, I don't know, a girlfriend or a friend that lives somewhere else in town that he was known to spend time with? [27:45] Not that I know of, but this is kind of where everyone's heads go next. If not home, [27:51] Then where? Surely someone saw something that night or knows something and maybe doesn't even realize it. So they ask the public for help. They ask people to check their sheds, check their outbuildings, their cars, anywhere on their properties that a person might seek shelter from the cold. And they ask anyone who thinks that they might have seen Ryan Friday night or Saturday morning to come forward, especially any sightings after 2 10 a.m. when he was thought to have left that party. [28:20] And more importantly, they ask anyone with security cameras, dash cams, trail cams, anything like that, to review their footage, not just for signs of Ryan, but for any people or any vehicles spotted late Friday night or early Saturday morning.

[28:33] And jackpot. [28:35] According to the missing Ryan Stuka website, there are surveillance cameras that monitor the road into the resort and a few others within the village of Sun Peaks. This could be it. [28:50] For decades, some cold cases have been reduced to files in a cabinet, but not anymore. I'm Ashley Flowers, and me and my team on the deck have been traveling across the country to report on these forgotten cases. And in some instances, it's resulted in these cases being solved after decades. Thank you. [29:10] Join me every Wednesday as we revive these stories one card at a time. Listen to the deck now. [29:17] wherever you get your podcasts. [29:20] So police reach out to the resort operators looking for copies of the footage from Friday night. But actually, what do you know? [29:31] Okay, there are only two options here, and I'm convinced of it. [29:34] They either get taped over after like seven hours or something dumb, [29:39] Or, I don't know, maybe they weren't working at all. [29:41] weren't working [29:43] at all. [29:44] at the time. [29:45] Which is like, how many times does this happen? Why does everyone have cameras if they never work? Or if they tape over after like 17 seconds. Unreal. Like, what's the point? [29:54] Well, aside from these cameras, police do get one tip from the public. Someone who says that they saw a man matching Ryan's description on Fairway Drive near the village of Sun Peaks. This is like downtown, but it's about 1.55 on Saturday morning. Oh. But since as far as we know, he was still at that house party during that window, it doesn't really go anywhere.

[30:17] Until investigators find out that one of Ryan's roommates got a text the night of the party that, according to Jodi Brack's piece in the Nanaimo News Bulletin, suggests that Ryan may have actually left the party house at, like, once. [30:34] 1.30 or 1.40 a.m., a half an hour, maybe more, earlier than police were initially told. [30:41] Okay, speaking of video camera footage, can you rewind real quick? What? Why are we just now hearing about this text message? [30:48] Listen, I wish I could tell you, but I have no idea. No one says who it's from, what it's said, or anything like that. Just that this mysterious text puts Ryan leaving the party closer to 1:30. Which means that almost 2am sighting of Ryan on Fairway Drive -- That means it could be legit after all. Yes! Okay, so I guess why would Ryan want to go back into town instead of just heading home? [31:11] That same siren song that gets pretty much everyone after a night of drinking. [31:16] Pizza. [31:17] Apparently, there's this pizza place in town that's super popular with the late night crowd, and it was open until 2 a.m. on the night Ryan went missing. [31:27] Now, while I wouldn't call this a huge breakthrough in the case, it does give police a new direction for their investigation. And it gives the Stukas a new part of town to search. [31:37] And I assume the police are already monitoring his phone, his social accounts, bank accounts, everything like that. [31:42] Right, they are. [31:43] And they just keep saying there's nothing, no activity, nada.

[31:47] They don't say anything. And my main question was like, hey, we all think he bought pizza. Like, did he buy pizza? Right. But they don't say anything about a transaction at the pizza place or anything like that. But I have to imagine that if that came up, they would have seen that in the first several days. You know, maybe there's the option that he paid cash, right? Like it never came up. [32:06] And get this, Heather and Scott don't find this out until like May, but apparently Ryan's phone pinged at 3 a.m. on February 17th, an hour and a half after that last confirmed sighting. [32:19] Okay, but where? Like, still in Sun Peaks? I mean, this feels huge. I have no idea. [32:25] idea. The RCMP never releases any details about this, so I have no idea like where it happened, what if anything like came of it, what it could mean. OK, so you're just telling me something to give me more questions, right? [32:39] Basically. [32:40] Thanks. We all love you for this, Ashley. [32:43] Well finally, at the end of May 2018, after months of praying, searching, and hoping, Heather and Scott make the agonizing decision to leave Sun Peaks without Ryan and go home to Beaumont. [32:56] The fact is they still have two other children who need their parents too. But they plan to return to Sun Peaks every month to keep looking for Ryan, as long as it takes. [33:06] So we talked about maybe he walked into the woods behind the Burfield house, or maybe tried to cut through the woods between Burfield and Sunpeaks. [33:13] Maybe he was on his way for pizza, but like, is that it? Are there any other angles for the police to explore?

[33:18] I mean, whether police have investigated them or not, I mean, there were definitely lots of theories out there. One of the big ones is that, you know, maybe he was hit by a car. Maybe it was by an impaired driver, like maybe while he was walking home or to the pizza place or whatever. I mean, again, like this place doesn't have sidewalks. The roads look like they could be kind of treacherous, especially if there's a lot of snow or at least snow. [33:40] Not great for walking on the side of it or no lights. Like you said, there's nothing like that. Again, especially if you're talking about if it was a drunk driver. So like the thinking is that somehow like an accident happened, accident or not, like whatever, maybe the driver or driver plus passengers panicked and took his body with them to dispose of it somewhere else. I don't know. But to me, the problem with this theory is that if it was a hit and run, like an accident like that, especially one that would have killed someone, that would have left some evidence. [34:10] there would have been a shoe. Yeah, I mean that's my first thought was like blood in the snow or if he was carrying a pizza, would that still be on the side of the road? Like there would be something, right? [34:20] Yeah. And I again, there was that eight inches of snowfall that could have covered something up. But like blood just doesn't go away. Yeah. [34:27] As far as I can tell, the search team looked for any signs of that and found nothing. [34:32] Now another prevailing theory is that Ryan accidentally overdosed at the party and the people there with him panicked and disposed of his body. [34:40] Now we know there were drugs there that night, but the problem I have with this theory is [34:45] Where in the heck did they hide his body? I mean, I guess kind of same for the other theory.

[34:50] The search and rescue team were all over the area with a fine-tooth comb, looking at every single footprint and tire track and broken branch. And I have a hard time believing that anyone could get, again, this 6-foot, 180-pound guy out of the house, let alone dispose of him in a site far enough away to be, like, out of a search team's range without leaving some evidence behind. This isn't like a hit. This is, again, if you're going along with this theory, it's like an accident and a bunch of impaired kids trying to cover something up. [35:19] Like, wouldn't that leave a path in the snow leading directly to, like, a vehicle or dump site or something? Well, and even then, like, you're saying a dump site... [35:26] We have how many inches of snow on the ground? Like they're dumping his body... [35:29] The snow will eventually melt and you would still find him, right? [35:32] Yeah, you'd think. [35:33] It's not even like they can dig through the snow and into the ground to bury him. They'd literally just be dumping him somewhere. And this might be a potentially unpopular idea, but the tracking docs didn't find a scent trail at all. [35:45] all coming from the house. Which drives me wild. I can't, like, I can't even... No one saw Ryan leave. Right. And aside from that one unconfirmed sighting that may or may not have been pizza-related... [35:56] We don't actually know for sure that Ryan left the house that night. Like, did police even search the house? So there's no explicit mention of them searching the house, but I have to think that they did. And even if they didn't, surely someone would have uncovered something by now. I mean, that house was a rental and the people in it were resort staff, not Sun Peaks lifers. So that place would have turned over at least once, but probably many times since Ryan went missing.

[36:25] Okay, so if there's no evidence of Ryan anywhere in Sunpeaks, [36:28] Inside the house or outside, is there any chance that he just left town altogether, like wanted to disappear? I mean, sure, there could have been, but he certainly wasn't acting like a person who wanted to disappear. Yeah. [36:40] In Joel Bard's piece that I mentioned earlier, he writes that Ryan wasn't in any kind of legal trouble. He had no known substance use issues, no history of mental illness. I mean, on that Friday, he went out with friends to the disco at the party. He'd gotten paid earlier that day and took the time to make his rent payment, his car payment, pay his phone bill. So he was like being like a very responsible 20 year old compared to like me. [37:10] again. Yeah, but he's 20. Like, that's the age when, you know, a lot of mental illnesses can first kind of make themselves known. And there's a lot going on in Ryan's life at this point. A lot of change all at once, living on his own for the first time, being away from his family. Like, even if he's having the time of his life snowboarding for his job. [37:28] that can still be really stressful and a lot to take on. [37:31] I hear you. And listen, I'm sure police have considered it. Maybe they still are considering it. I don't know. But again, no one has ever said this. This has never been like proven in any way. And I think for the family, it just doesn't seem possible. And all signs that I've seen, again, we're not privy to everything, don't point to this as happening. And after all this time, more than three years of searching and investigating, what's interesting is RCMP have never shared their theory about what they think happened to Ryan.

[38:01] being just like super tight-lipped about it. [38:04] More like they don't have a theory. Truly, they just straight up don't know what happened. [38:10] Now, Heather says that she believes Ryan's body is somewhere in Sun Peaks. They just haven't uncovered it yet. But they are still searching. [38:18] They are determined to keep looking until they find Ryan, even though they know that finding him, especially them finding him, is yet another chapter in this nightmare that they're living in. [38:30] RCMP and Search and Rescue have been back to search too over the years, using helicopters and drones, cadaver dogs, even a dive team to search the creeks and gullies around Sun Peaks. In fact, they were out again earlier this year in May 2021. And despite all of that, despite three years of searching every possible part of this teeny tiny town, they find nothing. [38:52] To this day, there have been zero developments in Ryan's case, zero leads, zero suspects. It is truly one of those cases where the only explanation that makes sense is that he walked out of that house and vanished into thin air. [39:06] But that makes no sense, which leaves the Stukas, their friends and extended family, and the community of Sun Peaks trapped in a purgatory, praying for closure that after three years, they worry might never come. [39:19] Because honestly, the only thing worse than thinking someone out there knows something is that maybe no one knows anything. [39:26] But we have to hope that that isn't true. [39:28] If you have any information about the disappearance of Ryan Stuka, please call the Kamloops RCMP at [redacted phone].

[39:37] Or if you want to remain anonymous, you can call Kamloops Crime Stoppers at [redacted phone] or [39:45] or visit their website, camloopscrimestoppers.ca slash submit dash a dash tip. We'll link out to that in our show notes and on our website. [39:55] you can find all the source material for this episode on our website crimejunkiepodcast.com and be sure to follow us on instagram at crimejunkiepodcast and heads up crime junkies we are actually taking next week off brit and i are going to spend a little bit of time with our [40:25] of the month. [40:26] Thank you. [40:49] Thank you. [40:51] you [40:51] you [40:55] Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production. [40:58] So? [40:59] What do you think, Chuck? [41:00] Do you approve? [41:01] *Mario grunts*

[41:09] Okay, Ashley, I did not plan this, but today's prophet comes to us from our listener, Shana, and she submitted their prophet, Abby of the Great White North. Nice. We have a Canadian prophet today. That worked out perfectly. I know. I was so excited when this was the case that this landed on because I was like, oh, they're perfect. So Abby, who is, in my opinion, like a super much, [41:34] look of anything, but the most she looks like is [41:37] A red Australian shepherd-y kind of dog. She's actually a rescue who came to Canada by way of Mexico. Oh, she's been around. Yeah, so she was rescued in Mexico as a puppy and then moved to a rescue shelter in Canada, which is where Shana and her family met her. [41:55] And growing up, Shaina's grandpa had blue healer dogs and everyone in the family loved. So when it was time for Shaina's family to get a puppy, they looked for something kind of along the same lines of breeding. [42:07] when they found Abby and she's been a part of Shana's life since then. And that was almost 14 years ago. [42:14] But [42:15] A couple of years ago, she actually got a nick from a set of clippers while she was getting groomed. [42:20] And not only did the wound become infected, but it actually became necrotic. And they thought they were going to lose her. They tried everything from antibiotics to steroids, which just made her... [42:31] a notorious food snatcher from cheese buns on the counter to pizza right off your plate if you weren't watching, which Charlie already does that to me. So I have some questions. But it got so bad that Shana's mom actually behind Shana's back made an appointment to have her put down because Abby was in so much pain.

[42:51] But when they got there, the vet said, you know, let's try one more thing. And they numbed the area where the cut had gotten infected and her skin and body and muscle tissue was actually dying. [43:04] and cut all of it out and said, you know, if this doesn't work, then that was our last resort. [43:09] But... [43:09] It did. [43:10] And in like two weeks, [43:12] Abby was bouncing and running around like nothing had [43:16] ever happen. And like I said, she just celebrated her 14th birthday with a lovely little cupcake. [43:23] Gosh, is this like something that happens all the time? I'm like terrified to like take Charlie to get his nails cut. [43:28] Well, to be fair, this is a shepherd dog. So grooming does include like a lot of trimming. So I assume that it's more of a long hair dog concern. So Charlie is probably fine. [43:38] But... [43:39] It does send me into a panic attack. I'll tell you that much. Honestly, I'm so sketched out on grooming. [43:45] One of our employees here, Audiochuck, took their dog to a local groomer here in Indianapolis, like in the Broad Ripple area. [43:54] Literally, she got this call that was like, hey, we're rushing your dog to the emergency bed. And she's like, why? I remember this. [44:01] Yeah, and they wouldn't tell her. They had like cut the dog's throat and like had to rush the dog to a vent. She had like staples in her neck. [44:10] Literally, they were going to make her pay for the vet appointment. I couldn't. So I'm like, I'll be washing Charlie at home. I'm like, I'm done with groomers. I'm over it. And here's the thing. I know a handful of dog groomers, and they are the most amazing people in the world. And they are doing something that I barely have patience to wash my own children that are human, let alone my dogs or, God, other people's dogs. They do truly the Lord's work.

[44:36] Also, like, it stresses me out, too. So this sent me into a spiral. And I was just very thankful that I have a very, very silky-haired, short-haired pity who actually really loves a bath if I just put some peanut butter on the wall for her to be completely distracted by. Shocker. Roz. Roz. Anything for peanut butter. But Abby has always been the most gentle, gentle pup. She will give you a little tiny lick on the nose if you ask for kisses. And she'll nudge you if she wants pets. [45:05] and the only time she gets a little bit testy or huffy [45:09] is if she's ready to go to bed and you aren't. And she'll stand there, [45:13] I just... [45:13] Huh. [45:15] Hmm. [45:16] Bye. [45:16] Charlie used to do that. Now he just goes to bed on it like without me. He's like, "F you." [45:22] And this is one of my favorite stories that Shana told me. When her grandpa was hospitalized for an extended amount of time, [45:29] they actually got a special pass for Abby to come in and cuddle with him during that time. And [45:35] it was the highlight of her grandpa's day he would just cuddle up with her and [45:41] Abby, of course, probably just adored all the attention and the pets. And I mean, I feel like in cases like that, like the whole hospital staff kind of joins in and they're like, Abby just became like... [45:51] I was going to say Miss America, but I guess Miss Canada in the entire hospital. And she was just a joy to be around. [45:58] Shana said that if you believe dogs can have old souls, [46:02] then Abby definitely has one. [46:05] Even though she came from Mexico, she is a true Canadian preppet through and through, who loves...

[46:10] jumping around in fresh snow, and even laying in snowbanks whenever possible. So [46:16] The end. [46:17] And as always, there's a rescue I like to highlight, and it's called Dog Tales, but they actually rescue and shelter pretty much all animals, including horses. And they have volunteer opportunities, a store where you can buy leashes or postcards to help support them. And of course, if you're in Canada, check them out if you're looking for a new best friend. So their info, as well as pictures of Abby, will be up on our website, Twitter. [46:40] Crime Junkie podcast. [46:41] dot com. [46:43] Thank you. [46:49] Thank you. [46:51] Bye. [46:52] Bye. [46:53] Bye. [46:56] Okay, crime junkies, you know I absolutely love a twist and a turn, especially when it comes to people who turn out to be someone they're not. That's why I have been obsessed with the podcast Chameleon. Every Thursday, host Josh Dean deep dives into a scam so bizarre, it will leave you wondering, how did they get away with that? [47:15] It is truly one of my favorite podcasts right now and I've been listening for years. [47:18] I think you'll love it too. [47:20] Listen to Chameleon wherever you get your podcasts.