Kamloops RCMP investigators are planning to meet with Ryan Shtuka’s family regarding recent work into the search for the 19-year-old, who went missing in Sun Peaks earlier this year.
“We’ve recently had our dive team out that were doing some examination along the creeks and that sort of thing,” Supt. Syd Lecky said. “That was the last update.”
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Ryan went missing on Feb. 17, last seen leaving a house party on Burfield Drive at about 2 a.m. to walk a short distance home.
Lecky called his disappearance a “puzzle.”
“We don’t know where he is,” Lecky said. “The snow melted and we had hoped to find him and we haven’t. That makes it a bit of a puzzle.”
Lecky said he has children around Ryan’s age and empathizes with the family.
“This is a parent’s worst nightmare,” he said.
Ryan arrived in Sun Peaks on Dec. 1 to snowboard for the season, with plans to return to his home in Beaumont, Alta., to work as an apprentice construction worker for his dad in the spring.
Ryan’s family, volunteers and the entire community have rallied together, working since his disappearance to find him, thus far to no avail.
Ryan’s parents, Heather and Scott, returned to Alberta at the end of June to attend their eldest daughter’s high school graduation. They planned to return to Sun Peaks this week to resume their search and plan to return periodically in August, September and October.
“We’ll come back until the snow falls and then once the snow melts, we’ll come back again each month until we find him or we’ve been given a new direction as to where we can find him,” Heather told KTW last month.
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She said the family is encouraging those who have volunteered to search for Ryan to continue doing so in their absence.
She said the outpouring of support from the community has been indescribable.
Kamloops RCMP Cpl. Jodi Shelkie has told KTW police have no evidence to suggest Ryan met with foul play when he went missing.
Heather believes her son likely succumbed to the elements and his body is somewhere in Sun Peaks. She said she understood after the first few days without any sign of Ryan the chances of finding him alive were slim.
“There’s no leads and that has always been the frustrating part — that there’s no evidence to suggest he left Sun Peaks at all. There’s no tips, no gossip, nothing that would lead us into a different direction,” Heather said.
