New information refocuses search for missing Ryan Shtuka

Heather Shtuka won't leave Sun Peaks, near Kamloops, B.C., until she and her husband have found their missing son Ryan — or the snow has melted and it's clear he is no longer in or near the ski resort.

"I can't go home and Scott can't go home. It's just not something we are able to physically do. Or mentally, I suppose," Heather said.

Now, the search has been refocused after a new lead spurred by a possible sighting of Ryan on the night he disappeared.

The 20-year-old went missing after leaving a house party on Feb. 17, 2018, on Burfield Drive. 

Since then, his parents have been living at Sun Peaks, organizing searches for Ryan with volunteers that come up from Kamloops and even the Shtukas' home province of Alberta.

"It is not about finding him alive. I think that we knew that within the first week — if he's here, that was not a possibility," Heather said.

"But it is about finding him. I don't know if any parent, anybody that loves somebody, would just go away and just wait for the snow to melt and come back up. We just can't do it."

New search location

Initial searches focused on the area between the party Ryan left the night he went missing and the house he was living at.

However, a possible sighting and a reconsideration of the timeline of Ryan's disappearance has led the Shtukas to believe their son may have walked toward the resort's centre for fast food.

"There is a pizza place that is open until 2 [a.m.] so it is quite possible that he left the party and maybe he found himself hungry," she said.

"There is a possible sighting [of Ryan] by someone who is sober and had an exact time."

The Shtukas did an initial, cursory search of the area, but now they will explore the region in a more methodical way with excavators and bobcats to move snow and volunteers performing a grid search.

Heather said she and her husband are focused on the search and that keeps them from just sitting and wondering about what happened to their son — but every day it is tough to keep going.

"When does it end? When will this be over? When will we have peace? Because right now we don't seem to have any," she said.