See You Never

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A SuperValu insurance are regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland, listed below decks captain Lee. Listen to my new podcast Salty with Captain Lee. Don't you mean our podcast? Yeah, I guess I do. Anyhow, listen to Soldi with Catherine Lee, co-hosted by my assistant Sam, and we will be talking about the latest pop culture news and all the gossip every week. So does this mean we have to talk, fire ourselves about ourselves, or at least have some guests on? And no, I find myself pretty interesting. But yeah, we can have some guests on some of our reality TV friends and some stars. Works for me. Listen to Saltine now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode three, twenty nine of the True Crime All the Time Unsolved podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson, and with me, as always, is my partner in true crime, my Jimmy Gibson. What is going on with you? What's happening with you? Fergie Ferg, I'm having a great week, man. That's good. My new basketball game comes out on the Xbox at the end of this week. Yeah, it's like my favorite time of year because your player going to look like you. Yeah, always OK. Receding hairline gray. The whole works. OK, let's go ahead and give our patron shout outs. We had Christine Craig. Hey, Christine. Rocky walls of Rocky Billy Lockey. Hey, lucky teen AK. What's going on here? Torrey S. Kane are notorious cave or terrace. I'm I'm gone back and forth on that one. Or just Kane. OK, Jimmy Burley. Hey, Jimmy. Rhonda Gunnell, they've gone all Ashley. Hey, Ashley. Len Feather. Appreciate that feather. Stephen Ashley. Hey, Steven. Haywood not only sure. Maria Byram Hey Byrum Lexie New Listen. Well, I appreciate the listens. Kumasi, Kumasi Mall Berman. There's a Little Debbie pack. Well, thank you. Debbie Riley. What's happened in Riley? And last but not least, Brad Schaffen. Well, it's awesome. Schaffen Yep. And then we go back into the vault. This week we selected Lisa Sabo. Thank you, Lisa. Yeah, appreciate the new page support to continued patron support. We had a couple of great PayPal donations from Brian Coffey, Brian and Kaylee Strong. Thanks, Kelly. So thank you to everyone. Gibbs right now on true crime all the time, we have an episode out on Louis Hastings. We're headed to the Alaska wilderness. Such a strange story of a man who goes on a shooting rampage and kills almost a third of the population of an entire community. Now it's a small community. It is, but still. But it's the reasons for the murders that really get me fired up on this one. Yeah, it's kind of a little hard to figure out what they are or what they were. To be honest with you. All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time unsolved? I am. We are talking about the disappearance of Ryan Stuka. Ryan Stuka went missing after leaving a party at a ski resort in British Columbia, Canada. Five years later, no physical evidence pinpointing his location has been found, and there are several unconfirmed theories about what happened to him. So this case is not that old happened five years ago. Ryan Stuka was born on March 17th, 1997. He was just 20 years old at the time of his disappearance. Ryan lived in Beaumont, Alberta, with his parents, Heather and Scott Sugar, in his younger sisters, Jordan and Julia. One of Ryan's co-workers told CBC that he was a genuine and confident person who was liked by everyone. Those are good traits to have. No, absolutely. But you know, this is kind of emblematic of what we hear about what we see people saying about people who have disappeared. Yeah. Now one of Ryan's childhood friends, Danny Perreault, told Paek news magazine there, Ryan was shy but was quote a bit of a s**thead and quick to rip on you. Once you got to know him, Perreault said, I don't remember any times with Ryan when we weren't just laughing away. We just always be having fun. So it's not often that you hear someone call someone who has disappeared a quote unquote s**thead. Yeah, but you can tell from the tone of this that these guys were great friends, and it's kind of like some of the banter that you and I have. A lot of people take it the wrong way, but it's just us kind of goofing on each other and having fun. And so when he says that I don't take it as derogatory, I don't either. I mean, it's not uncommon for me to call. You should know it's happened many times. You're not you won't do it on the podcast. Yeah, for reasons that I've talked about it, you would lose your good guy image and you don't want to do that. I am a good guy. You said it. Now, Ryan wasn't sure what he wanted to do after high school. He worked for his dad's construction company in the summers. He also went to university for a year. He did well academically, but still hadn't decided what career path he wanted to take. I think a lot of people go down that avenue. I know I did. I think you even did. I did. I did. And I think, you know, a lot of kids now. Our are going down that route. And for reasons that you and I didn't have. You know, now you can make a lot of money on YouTube. You could be a podcaster. You could be a streamer. Yeah. These were things that didn't exist when you and I were trying to figure out what we wanted to be in life. Definitely more opportunities in that area. Well, and there's opportunities that don't require going to school or learning a craft. These are things that you can do in your basement. Now, unfortunately, it's a little bit like trying to be a Major League Baseball player. Right? There's a very small percentage that are going to make it big. A whole bunch of people are going to try it. And very few are going to make it big. And I think you're going to have the same thing and a lot of these others as well. So I worry about it a little bit that, you know, people are going to put all their hopes on a YouTube channel or be the best gamer or something like that and not have the degree, you know, to fall back on. But, you know, I've been watching a lot more British shows than I ever have before, and so university and uni in these terms. I've heard a lot now, but they still kind of always went to university, you know, or went to uni or something like that. It's a hospital is another one. Right? You don't go to the hospital or vacation holiday there. They just say it a little differently than the way we would say it here. And they use their British voice. Oh, yeah, that as well. Ryan told his mom that he was thinking about working at a ski resort. He had enjoyed snowboarding since he was a kid. Ryan and his friend James Maxwell, a friend who lived in Beaumont, decided to live and work at the Sun Peaks Resort in British Columbia for the winter season. You know, for a kid in that age range to work at a resort, probably pretty fun. Yeah, pretty cool. Yeah, just like as evidenced in every 80s movie that was ever made. That's true. It really is. Or Hot Tub Time Machine, which was not made in the 80s, but they went back to they. It is so weird that you just said that because that was playing in my head at that moment. That's because you and I are on the same wavelength, right? So this Sun Peaks Resort is a ski resort in British Columbia, about 35 miles from the city of Kamloops. The resort village has a population of less than 2000. Sun Peaks is about a nine hour drive from Ryan's hometown. But, you know, all joking aside, you know what, kid? That age doesn't want a little bit of freedom. Most do. All right. And what's better than getting that freedom, but also getting paid to kind of get away from your parents for the winter? It's a dream. Yeah, I think for a lot of people, it really would be. So Ryan moved to Sun Peaks on December 1st, 2017, and he intended to stay for the season. He worked at the resorts to park as a lift operator. Ryan lived in a cabin with five other people. He shared a room with James Maxwell. Another one of his roommates was Chris Feeney, a man from Australia. Feeney and Maxwell spoke with Peak News Magazine about Ryan's disappearance. He said it seemed like Ryan was having a great time at Sun peeks in his free time. He liked to snowboard or spend time with his friends before he went missing. Ryan texted his dad that he had gone snowboarding for 36 days straight and just landed a backflip for the first time. Those aren't easy to land. I would not know. First of all, I've never snowboarded. I've never skied for reasons which I've discussed before. But if you are a snowboarder and you're being paid to work, but in your free time, you can go snowboard snowboarding for 36 days straight. OK, more of a dream. Absolutely. It's a piece of heaven for them. Ryan went to work as usual on Friday, February 16, 2018. After work, he went home, and later that evening, he and his friends went to a silent disco event at a local bar called Bottoms. You ever seen those? No. I would love you to explain what that is. When they wear the headphones and everybody has their headphones on, they hear the music blaring like you would be at a club. Mm-Hmm. But the community that you're in, they don't hear it. So when you walk up on one of these events, you see all these people dancing, but it's silent. But Joe here, unless you had the headphones on, but everybody is listening to the same song, right? Oh, OK. Yeah, see, I was picturing like everybody listening to their own music. I like that's going to be some weird dance. Yeah, right there. That's the next stage. They will come up one day afterwards, the group left to attend a party at a village residence. The house was located on Burchfield Drive, which was described as a nice part of the town where families and seasonal workers live. According to CBK. Not everyone who attended the party has been identified by new sources, but we do know that James Maxwell, Chris Feeney and Chris's girlfriend were there that night. The party was a mix of year round residents and seasonal workers. Ryan's mother, Heather Stuka, estimated that there could have been 30 to 50 people there throughout the night. That's a lot of people it is, but you know, what does that mean? Was there 30 people there, all at the same time or were people coming and going? And the end result was that 30 to 50 people were there at some point? Yeah, I think that makes more sense. I know you were the type of guy that always showed at the party late. You don't want to get there right away. No, you won't. But I will close it down. Yeah, he would. But I do think it's important to identify these people because my thought is, no matter what time they were there, police would want to talk with them. You had to see, did they see anything unusual? You know, what time did you get there? What time did you leave all that stuff? Because Ryan went missing around 2:00 a.m. on February 17th, 2018. James Maxwell decided to leave the party first. Chris Feeney and his girlfriend then decided to leave between 1:30 and 2:00 a.m.. Ryan's roommate saw him getting up as if he were going to leave with them. They thought they saw him put on his coat and shoes and assumed that, you know, he was right behind them during the walk home. Heather Stuka told Paek News magazine that Ryan gestured like he was heading out with them, but no one can remember him leaving the party, she said. Ryan's friend stood up and said, OK, we're going. And Ryan stood up and looked like he was going to put on his coat, and the friends continued out. And that's the mystery. No one can really remember him saying, Hey, I'm leaving. And yet when his friends look behind them, at some point he wasn't there. I don't know if you want to talk about, you know, they probably had a couple of drinks and I'm sure they were drinking that night. Things are going to look a little different to you at that moment when you've been drinking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If they were drinking, I mean, I assume they were, but who knows? But even an event like that, if there's enough people around a lot of activity, you know, I can see where you look back and it looks like that individuals coming with you and you think, OK, and you keep moving. And next thing you know, you're like, Well, I guess they changed their mind. Hmm. Yeah. And you know, he's not a little kid, right? So what would you do? Run back in and make sure you've got him. Maybe not. Maybe just keep going and figure he decided to stay. He'll go, you know, he'll get home later. You know, I just wonder, at what point did they realize he wasn't there because it was a little vague. It was just like all of a sudden they turned around and, you know, he wasn't there. Heather added that she doesn't blame them for leaving Ryan behind. She said, I think they were like, OK, maybe he thought he would stay. And I think their thoughts would have been different if he had said, I'm coming with you. I agree with her. Yeah, because it almost sounds like, you know, he stood up, acted like he was getting ready to put his coat on. And that was just kind of an assumption, I think made by them that he was coming. But at that same moment, maybe somebody across the room said, kind of pointed at him like, Hey, what's going on? You do a man or some girl approached him or something. Or maybe he just stood up to stretch his legs and never, never meant to come with them at all. We don't know. And I think even his mom said it right? That's part of the mystery. Yeah. It's only about a five minute walk between the two houses. But it's very important to note the weather conditions at that time. It was minus 20 degrees Celsius for us, minus four degrees Fahrenheit. Either way, that's very, very cold. I mean, it's the same temperature. But whether you say you think of it as minus 20 or minus four. Any time there's a minus sign in front of it. To me, that is way too cold, not good. And then also, the snow was 14 feet high in some areas and there were 20 centimeters or almost eight inches of snowfall that night. That's a lot. You know, some places here in the U.S., you get like two inches and the whole town shuts down. That's true. Not where we live, but you get a little farther south where they're not used to snow. And it's like, shut it down. That's right. Shut everything, the first go to the store, get all the eggs, milk and bread for some reason, water toilet paper, but eight inches is, yeah, that's quite a bit of snow. Ryan was not dressed in winter gear that night. So, you know, if we get into theories about him going out and getting lost or falling down or whatever in that temperature, if you're not dressed appropriately, it doesn't take very long for some very bad things to happen. But if you're like a lot of kids that age, I know how my son is. Your son would probably be wearing shorts. He always wear shorts. Exactly. You know, and I'm thinking, How can you be wearing shorts? It's like almost zero degrees out. But that's what he always wore. No shorts with maybe a hoodie. Warm up top. Yeah, legs are freezing. Yeah. So I could see Ryan thinking, Well, I'm just right next door. It's not that big of a trek. It's cold, but it's five minutes. Yeah, yeah, I can see, you know, a younger person thinking that not me. I don't want to be that cold. I don't care if it's for five minutes or what. You put the whole snow outfit on just to go out to get your mail. I got that the little the the younger brother's outfit from a Christmas story where I can barely walk the puffy jacket. The puffy Jack Ryan was also intoxicated at the time of his disappearance, but no one really knows to what extent, according to Jeanne Strong, the editor of The Sun Peak Independent News. Ryan reportedly used recreational drugs that night. There are rumors about what exactly he took, but no sources have said what drugs or alcohol Ryan used that night. And that's pretty tough. You know, when you're trying to figure out a story like this? Sure, because you know, you don't know if somebody was slightly buzzed, you don't know if they could barely stand up. There's a big difference. And then you add on top of that. Well, what type of recreational drugs are we talking about? Because they can be pretty varied. They can have different side effects and do different things. The combination of those can have an impact on your decision making. And again, that depends on what type of drug. Right? You know, as to how they might mix with alcohol. I mean, you walk out that door thinking your home is five minutes to the left, but you go to the right now, there's a problem. There was some speculation that Ryan went to another party that night, but this has been disproven, according to Ryan's page on the website. Please bring me home. Ryan did not show up for work later that day. His supervisor contacted one of his roommates and they posted on the resort community Facebook page after more time had passed. They call it a local hospital and were advised to call the police, and I mentioned it right. This is a newer case. So, you know, here we have roommates posting on Facebook, whereas if we were talking about a case 20 or 30 years ago, you'd have people calling around to friends and family and saying, Hey, have you seen this person? But in reality, you can reach a lot of people quickly. Oh, for sure. Using social media, it's a good way to get the message out. Maybe somehow you can resolve the case a little sooner. Yeah. You don't need to go door to door in the resort because probably a lot of people are tapped into this community Facebook page. RCMP received the Missing Persons Report at 8:47 p.m. James Maxwell texted Heather to inform her that they had reported Ryan missing. James sent the following message Hey Heather, I don't mean to worry you, but Ryan didn't come home last night and didn't show up for work. The next day, I filed a missing persons report and just wanted to let you know in case the police call you. All right, so I've got to talk about receiving a text from one of my children's friends saying, Hey, I don't mean to worry you. But but I filed a missing persons report because this person didn't come home. We haven't heard from them. You don't mean to worry me. I'm immediately worried for sure. And please, I don't want to be worried, but I want to know. For me, it's kind of weird that they send a message or text, not a call. Like when I say, Hey, can you call me when you have a moment? Yeah. Well, and again, maybe that's just a younger person's thing, because they don't. Many of them like to talk on the phone. What's true? They're they're more comfortable with texting and and things like that. But you know, the way it comes out is just kind of a little cavalier. Hey, this is not that big a deal. No, I don't want to worry you, but it's a very big deal. And Brian's parents were immediately very concerned. Heather checked her phone and saw that attack she sent to Ryan that morning had not been delivered to his phone. She and Scott drove through the night to get to sun peaks, and I can imagine every parent thinking the same thing. Hey, we don't know what the hell is going on, but we're going, Hey, we better get up there and see what's happening. True crime all the time unsolved is sponsored by Better BetterHelp, folks. 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So we wanted to tell you about deadly nightmares because we think you'll want to add it to your list. This is a great true crime podcast, and you get to hear from those very close to the case, and I always think that that's an interesting aspect. I especially recommend when a stranger knocks. This episode is about 36 year old Debra Brown, who's trying to get a fresh start and relocates with her children from New York to Maine. She gets a new job and a new boyfriend, and everything seems to be going great until one night when a knock on the door changes her life forever. Got to check that one out. So listen to deadly nightmares wherever you listen to your podcasts. When they arrived on Sunday, February 18th, they spoke with the Kamloops Search and Rescue, who told them the chance of finding Ryan. A lot was slim to none. And I found that to be very pretty cold. Well, I know I get that, but it wasn't. And maybe there was more to the conversation, but it wasn't. You know, if he's if he was out all night exposed to the elements, right? OK, yes. Finding him alive is probably not going to happen, but they don't have any idea where he is. He could be crashed out at a friend's house. So to say that the chances of finding him alive are slim to none, I thought at that point was a strange thing. I think that could have been a better delivery of that message, and maybe there was more to it. This was, you know, just some of the things we saw quoted. The first search lasted 15 hours and utilized dog and drone teams. Searchers worried that Ryan fell into a gully and was covered by snowfall over the. I think it's a real concern it wouldn't be very difficult if you're getting eight inches the night of the party and probably more snow after that for a body to be covered with snow. Yeah, and very hard to find until that that snow falls out. But it's interesting, you know, because this case is so new that instead of talking about helicopters searching with small drones. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the new technology now. Additionally, the RCMP found no social media or cell phone activity after the time Ryan disappeared, and it has remained that way for years now. The police also spoke to the people who attended the party, but they couldn't get much information because no one knew where exactly Ryan went. So I mentioned that I thought it was strange that, you know, right off the bat, they said the chance of finding him alive was slim to none. Well, you know, after it comes out that there's no social media, there's no cell phone activity. That would become more worrisome because even if he was somewhere in someone's house, let's say he's not at the party because we know that right. So means he had to have left at some point, went somewhere and gone somewhere. But if he was holed up in somebody else's place, most likely he's going to have some type of cell phone activity, a kid his age and most likely, he would go on those different sites. Yeah, Facebook something along those lines. On February 19th, the Kamloops Search and Rescue suspended the search. The family was informed that they would not be coming back until there was a change in the environment. And I think as a family, that's tough, of course. Yeah. Now I understand it from their side of it because they had done quite a bit of searching. There was a lot of snow. They hadn't found anything and they were probably thinking, Hey, until something changes, we're not going to find anything so more of from a search and rescue to search and recovery. Yeah. And that would make sense because by that point, there's no way he would still be alive if he had been out in the elements all that time. Cpl. Jody Shawky from the Kamloops RCMP told the public that they had a helicopter searching the area and would do patrols with the police dog service. So, you know, apparently they did use helicopters too, but they used the drones, and that's good. Their use of anything available for them. Yeah, absolutely. The RCMP also asked Sun Peaks residents to check outbuildings and vehicles in case Ryan tried to find shelter. The initial efforts focused on the area between the party and Ryan's residence, and that makes sense, right? You leave the party. Most likely, you would think he might be headed home. There are trails near the house that go off into the woods, so search parties walk those trails. They didn't find Ryan. They also checked the village and as more time passed forests and mountains. At the time of Ryan's disappearance, the search efforts were hampered by heavy snowfall and rough terrain, which is why I think they suspended it and said, hey, until things change, until the snow goes away or whatever. We're not going to have any luck. And it's also a bigger risk to the people. Search, searching. Yeah, absolutely. According to the Ryan Stuka website, there have been three official searches with the RCMP in Kamloops Search and Rescue, as well as informal volunteer searches. Ryan's family and friends from Alberta traveled to Sun Peaks to participate in searches with the locals, Heather told CBC. It's hard every day. I think as soon as it starts getting dark and it gets colder. It's hard knowing that your child still out there and that they still need you and you feel like you can do anything. You feel helpless. Yeah, I'm sure she felt helpless. How else could you feel? Yeah, and I don't think it would matter what's going on in your head. You know, whether you thought, OK, he's so alive, still helpless feeling because you can't find him, or at some point you were resigned to the fact that he was most likely not alive. Yeah, it's still a helpless feeling because either way, you want to find him, whether it's find him alive or recover his body. One of the other has to happen. Exactly. She added, There's those feelings of hopefulness, and then there's the harsh reality of knowing that if he's in the elements at this point in time, we are looking at recovery. So that's hard as a parent. So I mean, I think she's saying it right there. There's always hopeful. Because until you prove to me that someone is not alive, I have to hold out hope. Yeah, I think I think you do. But then there's a part of me that is smart enough to know that if he was out in the elements, there's too much time that has passed for him to have been able to survive. But I think your mine always says, but what if? What if he wasn't out in the open race? What if he found shelter? What if he found a way to stay warm? But then logically, every day that goes by makes that harder to believe? Yeah, because he would have contacted us by now, he would have used his cell phone posted on social media something from March seven to the 9th 2018. The Canadian Search and Disaster Dogs Association conducted a search for Ryan but found no evidence. A third search took place on March 11. Search efforts were suspended the next day and the Stuka family started managing their own searches. I just think in that environment, knowing how the terrain is very rough and then you add the elements on top of that. I think any search effort is going to be very, very difficult. Even with dogs, helicopters, drones, ATVs, whatever type of machinery you have, it's still going to be very tough. But how tough is it going to be for the family to try to do it themselves? Exponentially tougher? But as the family, you have to have to. In an interview with CBC Edmonton's radioactive on March 13th, Heather expressed her frustrations with the search effort. She said when people ask, How can you still believe that Ryan is here 24 days later, it's because we are conducting the searches. We, as parents, had no guide on how to do this. She said time and effort were wasted because they were not told how to properly manage search efforts. And just like I just said, they don't have the knowledge and they don't have the resources. Now they've got to do something they do because they're trying to find their child. But how effective can they really be? And it could be natural for them to be frustrated. Yep, we see it. In every unsolved case, a possible sighting led investigators to reconsider the established timeline and Ryan's last movements. Investigators received a tip that suggested Ryan might have left the party at 1:30 a.m., which caused them to reconsider. A reported citing there had been dismissed. It was thought that Ryan was seen on Fairways Drive in Sun Peaks, heading to the village to buy food. A pizza restaurant stayed open until two a.m. Heather told CBC it was possible that Ryan was hungry and decided to go to the resort centre to get food. The individual who allegedly saw Ryan was sober and gave an exact time. Well, that changes a lot, but I wonder why it was discounted early on. Yeah, I do think it changes a few things, right? Were they searching in the wrong area because we mentioned it right? Their assumption was that, OK, we're going to search from the location of the party to the residence. That was the first part, right? If they had not discounted deciding, would they have maybe done a search in that area or from the party to that area? And would it have yielded any results? We don't know. But I want to go back to the thought that, you know, there was alcohol consumption and maybe recreational drugs. So if one of those drugs was marijuana, which is very, very common, I think we all know one of the side effects of that is getting hungry. Yeah, I've been told that. So could it be possible that at 1:30, someone gets hungry as the munchies has the munchies and they go looking for food? And I would say, yeah, very possible. Again, I've been told that. So you've heard, so saw. The problem is that surveillance cameras in this area were inactive or not working on February 17. And you know, that's so disappointing. Know we do all these cases. We've done a lot of cases over in Britain lately. And you know, they have surveillance cameras everywhere. This is this case is only five years old. Surveillance cameras have come a long ways. They have. They really. And five years ago, they were pretty good. They're even better today. But if they're not working. Number one, why are they not working? Exactly. But then all of that lost information was somebody else with. What direction did did he leave and did he actually even make it there? No, I agree with you. If they could see him walking in a video, it changes everything. Yeah, because I say video doesn't lie. For the most part, that's true. Can you fake a video? Yeah, but I don't think we're in that area. Yeah, it's one thing for someone to say. You know, I think I saw him headed this direction. The video with landmarks and buildings, it kind of proves all that. Now, at some point, he's going to walk out of frame. But at least you know what direction he was headed at that point. And potentially what time? Yeah, and what time. As spring came, volunteers were hopeful that they would find Ryan's body once the snow melted, Heather told CBC five weeks and I know the likelihood of him surviving is next and that we believe he just got caught up in the elements and we just can't find him. And I and I wonder, you know, in a lot of these cases, at what point does the family kind of get their meaning? They start to believe that their loved one is is no longer a lock. Now she's giving this interview five weeks, and it sounds like they were at that point, then they could have been there even even before that. And a lot of stories, they never get there. Right? But they don't have the same elements, right? The cold, the snow. The fact that he wasn't dressed. Do you think in the back of their minds, they still have a little reserve? Oh, I think you always have some hope. Yeah. You have to have some hope. But I think, you know, if you're looking at it like as a scale and you have hope on one side and doubt on the other, that scale, it starts the tip. Right. It has to as time goes on. But I don't think you ever fully give up hope until something is proven to you. Heather and Scott stayed until June 2018 to wait for the snow to melt and continue searching the ski resort and surrounding area. Ryan's body was not found in or near the resort. Additionally, no other evidence was found, such as the clothing he was wearing that night or any personal items. So Gibbs, I mean, as far as unsolved cases go, you know, we often see that there's very little information evidence we've got next to nothing here. Nothing really solid to go on after the Stuka is returned to Alberta. They traveled back to Sun Peaks every month to continue searching. Of course, why wouldn't they? Yeah, and then doesn't surprise me one bit. I think almost every parent in that situation would do the same thing. Local newspaper publisher Brandy Chaia told CBC that the RCMP silence about the disappearance was a vacuum of information and that there was widespread misinformation and rumors. Kind of a weird quote. Yeah, yeah, I get that, you know, a vacuum of information regarding the RCMP silence. What does that mean? What are they supposed to say? You know, either they don't know anything or they know something that they can't share. And then I think when you talk about widespread misinformation and rumors, I mean, don't you have that in every unsolved case? I think you do because people are making assumptions or they're trying to figure out what happened, but they don't know. So they're saying things that could be true could not be true. And I think in a case like this, the rumors would just grow, you know, because the body hasn't been found. So there's going to be a lot of assumptions thrown around. Maybe something happened at the party. Maybe there was a fight, maybe there was right. You just could add many different things. Well, yeah, because nothing has been found yet that takes anything off the table, right? And until that starts to happen, people can speculate about just about anything. Kamloops RCMP Cpl. Jody Shockey told CBC When somebody goes missing until there is a definite conclusion as to where the body is, then it's an open investigation. OK, that makes sense. I don't have any issue with that statement. Many people were posting their theories about what happened to Ryan on Heather's Facebook page or sending her messages. Ryan's former roommate, Chris Feeney, told Paek News magazine he received death threats, threats to turn him into the police or messages from people claiming they had a video of him doing something wrong. And why is it that we live in a world now where people seem to really enjoy doing this type of stuff? Whether it's messing with the family, messing with friends, people close to the person who has either gone missing or has been murdered. It never fails. These things pop up. I don't know how you look in the mirror and feel good about yourself doing things like this. No, I don't either. But did you just say mirror like Mirror Mirror on the wall like a like like with the almost Boston accent? Well, I do have some Boston in me. Yeah, you do. But I'm with you, man. I don't know how you live with yourself. I think if I did something like that, my conscience would just eat me alive. Jeanne Strong, editor of The Sun Peeks and Opinions, said she read theories about sex trafficking, the drug trade, an animal attack and even aliens. Well, you're that high up in the Sky Mountains wilderness where aliens like to find their victims Bigfoot Sasquatch. No, I mean, I mean, I'm sure the rumors were all over the place from plausible to, you know, pretty far out there. Yeah, they kind of are all over. She also said that young workers at the resort were afraid, and some of them didn't want to walk home alone at night that I believe I can see that after something like this. And you have no knowledge of what happened to Ryan. I would probably not want to walk home myself, either. It would be scary. Months after Ryan's disappearance, another tipster submitted potentially relevant information. A man named Jim Reid, who was staying with friends in the village, told CBC that he heard something outside on the night of Ryan's disappearance. He said, I heard a guy's voice and it was Matt. The man reportedly yelled, Get in the car, get in the f**king car. So Reid reported what he heard to the police. They called him back several times, but he hadn't heard anything else, according to CBC. However, it's important to note that Reid lived 20 minutes away from the party and in the opposite direction of where Ryan lived. But do we know that Ryan headed back to where he lived? And I don't. I don't know that we know that now, Heather told Pete News magazine. No evidence puts Ryan there. Everything puts him down in Murphy. Retired RCMP investigator Brian Smith believed that Ryan may have been killed like many others. He initially thought Ryan got lost on his walk home, but he spoke to one of Ryan's friends and changed his mind. Smith told CBC the friends seemed to be very nervous and very afraid for himself, which was unusual to me. My gut told me that this was most likely a homicide, not just a missing person. He shared this with the RCMP, but the police said they did extensive interviews with everyone involved and did not believe there was foul play in Ryan's case. But I don't think you could rule it out. No, I don't think you can rule it out. But he did say, you know it was his gut, right, telling him this now he probably has a pretty good gut, you know? Retired investigator gets a feeling. Are they always right? No. But was it just the fact that this friend was nervous? OK? Are most people nervous when they're talking to investigators? Or yeah, maybe. I mean, maybe. I mean, here's another possibility, right? Is that Ryan, left, headed to the pizza place. He's walking on the road. Some one of these partygoers were drunk or had whatever the drug of the night was in their system. Maybe didn't realize Ryan was on the road, hit Ryan. It went bad and had to do something with his body. Yeah, no, it's it's not out of the realm of possibility. Heather Stuka told CBC that she didn't think Ryan died from violence, saying he's not confrontational. He's not an insider. He's not one of those people that would go out of his way to start something. He was a great, funny, loyal guy, sarcastic and great with his friends, and I'm sure all of that is true. What's she say? But here's my thought. You don't have to be confrontational. You don't have to instigate anything. No, to be the victim of either an accident, like you said, and then someone tried to cover it up or someone just deciding that they wanted to do harm to you. We know there's a lot of bad individuals out there. Yeah. More time passed in the search efforts continued, but no one was able to find Ryan's body or any other evidence in Sun Peaks in 2019. A short documentary titled Peaks and Valleys The Search for Ryan Stuka was released on YouTube. The individuals who appeared in the documentary discuss the most common theories about what happened to run Jean Strong from The Sun Peaks. Independent News said that one theory among residents of Sun Peaks is that Ryan was drunk or high and wandered into the woods. They believed his body will be found one day. It's a pretty good theory. Thinking that he walked out of the party took one of the trails thinking that would take him home, but instead it took him deeper into the woods, got confused, didn't know where he was, and unfortunately, he succumbed to the elements. Yeah, it happens. I mean, we're talking about very, very nasty cold weather. Hypothermia would set in very, very quickly if he walked out, not dressed appropriately for that type of weather. Other residents believe Ryan is no longer in sun peaks because no evidence of his presence has been found, such as clothing, bones, personal belongings or human remains. I get what they're saying, but we've covered many cases where the area was searched professionally and by the family, and it was years, many years later that somebody stumbled across either bones or clothing that was missed by the initial searches. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you can you can make a case for both. Now, several Sun Peaks residents believe, kind of like what you alluded to, Gibbs, that Ryan was walking to the village and was hit by a drunk driver who then moved his body somewhere else. I think that's a really good theory. It's a real possibility. Yeah. The streets of the village are very dark at night, which would make it difficult to see someone walking on the road. Jean Strong said in her appearance on the show Never seen again. It wouldn't have been the first case of someone in the village being hit by a drunk driver while they were walking home at night. It's quite a rural area. People feel comfortable that there's very little police presence and people are partying and we know people were partying that night. And how many movies have we seen where something like this would happen and they don't want it to ruin their life, so they end up doing something with the body. However, according to Alan Dobler from the Kamloops Search and Rescue, there was a trail leading from town to Ryan's house, meaning he wouldn't have had to walk on the road in order to get to the roadway. He would have had to walk past his house. Hubler questioned why he would do this, but there again, they're working on the assumption that he was headed home. What if he went to the pizza place? Is there a trail leading to the pizza place? Or would he have had to have walked along a road? And if he was drunk, any rationale has to be kind of tossed out of the window? Yeah, it's possible he could have taken the wrong trail. Like you've said, the traffic camera closest to Ryan's home was not working that night, which makes it impossible to prove or disprove this theory. None of the cameras were working, it sounds. Apparently not. So we can't prove that he was at the pizza place other than there was an eyewitness who said they thought he was there. We can't prove that he was walking home. Now, additionally, there was no evidence of a hit and run, such as blood, clothing or other debris. No one saw a damaged car or anything else suspicious in the days after Ryan's disappearance. But I don't know if you would always have that. I don't know either, especially with that amount of snow coming down. It could have it up any type of blood. And then when it melted, it would have been there, washed away. And I mean, when you just go around daily, are you looking for cars that are, you know, have a dent in the front? Or if you see one, do you automatically assume that they've hit someone? And if you did hit somebody with your car, are you really going to leave it right there to drive it around? No, you're going to park it in the garage and and leave it there forever, probably. Or take it somewhere at night and have it crashed. Others have speculated that Ryan overdosed or had an accident at the party in the. People who were there tried to cover it up. However, as we mentioned previously, the police spoke with the people who attended the party and determined they weren't involved. As far as the public know, so again, we can talk about all these different theories and the police can say, Well, you know, we interviewed everyone there. We don't think anyone was involved. But how can they know that for sure. I don't think you can ever know well, unless someone had confessed to it right or admitted to something in 2020. Heather Stuka told CBC that the RCMP still receive some tips, but nothing had led to Ryan's recovery so far. That year, CBC reported on six men who went missing in the same region of the southern interior of British Columbia, the police said. There were no links in the cases, but the men's families thought the disappearances and deaths could be related. Of the six men, two were found dead. On October nine, 2017, 48 year old Luke Neville went missing near his home in Spence's Bridge, British Columbia. The next day, his burned out van was found on a Forest Service road 20 kilometres out of town. Thirty two year old Ben Tiner was last seen on January 26, 2019. Tyner was a cowboy and went missing from the Merritt area while he was out looking for cattle. His horse was found two days later on a Forest Service road. On July 17, 2019, two men, 38 year old Ryan Provincia and 37 year old Ben Scott were last seen alive in their white Jeep Cherokee. Their vehicle was found four days later in a wooded area near Logan Lake. Their bodies were found a month later in a rural area north of Spence's bridge. The RCMP believed there was criminal behavior associated with this case. Their cause of death is not public knowledge. On Nov. 17, 2019, 26 six year old Marshall Eliza went missing. His burned out truck was found on a Forest Service road near Darcy, British Columbia, on November 23rd. He has not been found, so these are interesting cases Gibbs to look at in their own right now, whether they're related to the disappearance of Ryan stucco, you know, we can talk about that, but there are some real similarities. Yeah, in some of these cases, you know, two of these men had burned out vehicles that were found on Forest Service roads. That's pretty strange. It is strange it two vehicles were burned out on forest service roads and then the people went missing. And then you have Ben Tanner's horse found on a Forest Service road. There's also a tie in with Luke Narvel and then the two men, Ryan and Ben, either living in Spence's Bridge, British Columbia or their bodies being found there. I don't know. You can say these are all independent, but there are some similarities, but I don't know if you can really time back to Ryan. Yeah, I don't know how we do that, but I think some of these might be connected to each other. In May 2021, the RCMP return to Sun Peaks to look for information about Ryan's disappearance. Constable Krystal Evelyn told radio in L. The investigation has been ongoing, and part of that investigation is to review things that have been collected and also have a look at any new information that's coming in and reviewing some of that information. There are some areas that they would like to reexamine and some new areas they'd like to search as well. We still are always collecting information. We don't know what happened to Ryan, and that's part of what we're trying to figure out. OK, unfortunately, there's really nothing earth shattering there, right? I mean, that seems like a quote that you would hear from any police official anywhere in the world about a missing persons case. We're still reviewing things. If any new tips come in, we look into them. There's there's new areas that we that we want to search very generic. It is unfortunately pretty generic. Five years have passed since Ryan disappeared, and his remains still have not been found. His family and friends have made extensive efforts to keep his case in the public eye. For example, at the beginning of 2023, Ryan's friend, London Cramer, started a petition to have Sun Peaks resort name a ski run. After Ryan Heather has become an advocate for other families with missing loved ones, she also wrote a book about Ryan's case. Titled Missing from Me What's Good, because maybe what she's doing is helping these other individuals, but also helping her. Well, I think a lot of that stuff can be therapeutic and beneficial to other families at the same time, because who would know what another family with a missing loved one needs or is going through then the mother of a missing son? Right? Heather started the Free Bird project with Tammy Neron and Kate Sinclair, two women who have had family members go missing the free bird project provide support and resources to families with missing loved ones. Brian's Facebook has over 34000 members within this group. Five women formed a group called the Unicorns. They promote the Facebook page and help with searches and fundraising. I mean, all of this stuff is amazing. It is. It's awesome. Indigo Johnson, a member of this group, wrote a children's book titled The Kindness Quilt, which features a green dinosaur and discusses Ryan's story in the back of the book. Recently, the unicorns collaborated to create a 3D printed green dinosaur called the Stuka Sauce Nice, which serves an important purpose. The Green Dinosaur was chosen because Ryan loved dinosaurs as a little boy. People can order them and put them anywhere in the world. Those who find it can scan a QR code to learn about Ryan's case. These dinosaurs have been found in countries as far as South Africa and New Zealand. What a great idea of this is amazing. I've never heard of anything like this. You can get to Stuka sources for free by visiting the Facebook page called Missing Range Duka. The proceeds from the sale of additional dinosaurs go to the Free Bird project and a memorial for Ryan and Son Peaks. So, you know, let's take a step back here, Gibbs. Think about the time where we were growing up. Yeah, you remember the milk carton? Of course. You know, every time you go to pour yourself some cereal, there would be at least one, if not more, missing children with their information and and all of that. Now, I don't know how many people sat there and studied those. Now we've got these dinosaurs with a QR code that you can scan and learn all about Brian's story. Amazing. It is amazing. Anything to get the awareness out there. At the time of his disappearance, Ryan was 20 years old. He's six foot tall, one hundred and eighty pounds and is described as having a lean build, blond hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing dark jeans, a gray and white shirt, a blue coat and a burgundy ball cap. There is currently a $15000 reward for information about Ryan's disappearance. If you have any information about Ryan's disappearance, you can contact the Kamloops RCMP at one two five zero eight two eight 3000 or Crime Stoppers at one 800 222 eight four seven seven. So as we wrap up this episode, Gibbs, there are a lot of things that stand out to me here, and I think first and foremost is just the lack of information, concrete information. Some of that results from the fact that numerous cameras weren't working in locations where Ryan might have been that night. It's very unfortunate. It is because as we discussed, those cameras could have provided invaluable information as to, at the very least, which way he came from which way he was going when he left things like that. There's been a lot of theories put forth in this case. We talked about quite a few of them, and they range from having to do with drugs to sex trafficking to, you know, wandering out and getting caught in the elements to being hit by maybe a drunk driver and someone covering that up. The problem that I have is I don't know how you take any of them and discount them at this point in time when as far as we know, there's no information to say this couldn't have happened. I might discount the alien theory, right? But other than that, I I think there's a lot of things that that could have happened. I think somebody out there knows something, right? Unless he wandered off on his own, but maybe somebody saw him wandering off and they could come forward and say, I saw him wandering off. But outside of that? I definitely think somebody would have seen him leave the party. Maybe they somebody knows that maybe somebody did hit him with the car. You know, when he talked about it and they just don't want to come forward. Maybe somebody knows something about some of the other possibilities and just hasn't come forward yet. I mean, it's still fairly new case five years, and maybe these individuals are just a little too shy about raising it up. Yeah. You know, normally we say someone out there knows something. And I think by and large, that's true for the most part. But there is a scenario and you just kind of mentioned it here where he leaves the party. No one really pays attention to it. They don't really see him or remember it. And he just walks the wrong way. Yeah. Is disoriented, not really sure where he is and succumbs to the elements rather quickly. Now, how far could he have made it in that type of cold with what he was wearing that I can't answer? It does come back to, you know, the question that many people have raised, which is if that's what happened, why was his body not found or why weren't at least some pieces of his clothing found? Those are valid question. Very valid. The one thing that that you would have to say is there's a lot of mystery here. It could be a very simple explanation as to what happened to Ryan. But at this point, there's a lot of mystery. Yeah, and I really hope his family gets answers. Yeah, me too. Me too. Sooner than later. But that's it for our episode on the disappearance of Ryan Stuka. We got some voicemails gives. You wanna check those out? Yes, sir. Hi, my baby. This is A. From the Chicago area, and I wanted to tell you I was listening to the Elizabeth Salgado case today, and I am the youngest of five girls. And let me tell you, it is not fun. We didn't have a lot of money growing up, so there were tons of hand-me-down clothes, which when the oldest one is 12 years older than you and the next one up is five years older than you. Let me tell you, the clothes were way out of sale before they got to me. And we also if on the rare occasions we went out like to McDonald's, we had to share a small fry. And I believe we also had to share burgers, but not counting on that. We never got drinks. And if we were eating at home, it was a can of condensed Campbell's soup that was watered down a lot. So you might get a chunk of chicken in there or a noodle or two. So be happy that you were one of a couple or a single a single in your family. And I look forward to listening to you guys every week. Keep your own time ticking and have a great week. Bye. That doesn't sound like a lot of fun. I'm not going to share my McDonald's french fries with anybody, especially a small. Yeah, not that many in the aisle. Now I feel guilty for being an only child because I got like a full happy meal. You probably got two happy meals. I was a little robust. Let's put it that way as a child. Leave it at that and leave it at that. And then I thinned out. And then I came back around. It's kind of been a journey. It's kind of how it works, you know, full circle, full circle. But now we appreciate the voicemail very much. Do fight to keep this as short as possible. You guys are my very first tight ends to find out about all the time our family finally feels that started to have a couple of minutes ago, but I stick to one between the two. So now that I've been up all night and go back to how fast it gets up on the one behind on, I just want to thank you guys because you really helped me through a time where I had a newborn hour to stay in her hospital for months, and that hospital was an hour away, going and coming. So I went to a lot of episodes really fast and got to you guys. Just thank you for all that you do for everyone and your take on these crises are better than some of the shows they have to listen to and hard. So thanks again. And I know you are a walking out, but I just got to say Roll, tiger roll. All right. Look, you guys. But thank you to all Typekit. I love it. Thank you for the voicemail and five months. That would be tough. It would be really tough and obviously. There were some issues. Yeah, be in there five months, but hopefully everything's OK now and and we're glad. We're always glad that the podcast can get anybody through anything. You know, if it makes you laugh, if it makes you just feel like you don't have to think about something that's going on. Forget for a little bit. Yeah, yeah. You know, that makes us feel wonderful. We're glad to be on that commute with you. Yeah, absolutely. All right, buddy. That is it. Yeah. For another episode of True Crime all the time unsolved. So for Mike and give me. Stay safe and keep your own time ticking. See what hit blockbusters are streaming free this month during Popcorn Summer movies on Pluto TV. Watch Django Unchained or Transformers Dark of the Moon for an action packed evening or The Truman Show and School of Rock for a good laugh minute. The whole family. Plus, Pluto TV has thousands of other free movies available on live and on demand. Download Pluto TV on all your favorite devices for free and start streaming now. Hey, can listeners, we know you're always looking for a great new true crime podcast, maybe one that you haven't listened to for a while. One that's coming out with the new season or one you've never tried. We wanted to let you know that wonder is shocking. True Crime Podcast. Over My Dead Body is back for a fourth season gone hunting. The new season covers the story of Mike Williams. It was Mike's sixth wedding anniversary when he set off on a hunting trip into the gator infested swamps of North Florida. He figured he'd be back in time to take his wife Denise out to celebrate, but he never came back. Friends and loved ones feared he met his fate through bad luck and a group of hungry alligators leaving his young family behind. Except that's not what happened at all. And after 17 years, a kidnapping and the uncovering of a secret love triangle, the truth would finally be revealed. Enjoy over my dead body. Gone hunting on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts, you can binge all episodes of Over My Dead Body early and add free on Wondery. Plus, get started with your free trial at Wondery.com/. 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