Search for missing Sun Peaks man passes 2-week mark

Mar 4, 2018 | 1:19 PM

KAMLOOPS — The mother of missing Sun Peaks man 20 year old Ryan Shtuka is once again putting out the call for volunteers to help find her son.

Heather’s son Ryan was last seen in the early morning hours of Saturday, February 17, after a house party on Burfield Drive.

It’s believed he left the party to walk home just a short distance away around 2:10 in the morning. But despite the ongoing search, there is still no sign of him.

“We are going on 16 days searching. We started off and we thought we knew what we had to do but we’re not experts, we have no experience in search and rescue,” Heather says.

“These sort of environmental conditions where you think you know what you’re supposed to be doing at the very beginning but we didn’t really have a lot of direction. Every day we seem to learn something different or more and now we’re at the point where we are taking things section by section, trying to go one person deep and taking it from the top to the bottom and doing that same circle again from where he was to where he should have ended up.”

And because the process is so thorough they could use as many volunteers as they can get.

“As a mother I want the whole place flowing with volunteers. I recognize that we are so many days in and that there is a possibilty that we could be here a lot longer…but I just want everybody here so that we can find him today.”

Heather says the best way to help is to reach out via their Facebook page: MISSING: RYAN SHTUKA.

She adds she still believes there’s no evidence to suggest Ryan has left the community.

“I still believe that he is in this community. It’s a hard thing to believe because if I believe that he’s out in the elements and that chances of survival are next to none. So, I’m a realist that other things could have happened.”

As for how the family is holding up, she says “its’ moment to moment” but that the family has gained great strength from their family and friends in Alberta, the volunteers, and the Sun Peaks community.

Shtuka is described as white, six feet tall, 180 pounds with blonde hair and brown eyes. He was wearing dark jeans, a grey/white shirt, a blue coat, and a burgundy ball cap when last seen.

A $5,000 reward is now being offered for any information leading to his whereabouts.

Anyone with any information is asked to call Kamloops RCMP at (250) 828-3000.