Ryan Shtuka
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In 2020, in a small California mountain town, five women disappeared. I found out what happened to all of them, except one. A woman known as Dia, whose estate is worth millions of dollars. I'm Lucy Sheriff. Over the past four years, I've spoken with Dia's family and friends, and I've discovered that everyone has a different version of events.

Hear the story on Where's Dear? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder.

This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.

Today I'm discussing the case of Ryan Stuka. We know the usual protocol for families of the missing: flyers, social media pages, media appearances to beg for their safe return. But what about the investigation? What do you do when your loved one seems to have vanished literally without a trace? When one minute they're at a party with dozens of people and then just gone the next?

When searches turn up nothing and leads just aren't panning out. For the parents of Ryan, it seems like they really only have two options. They can lean into the facts that aren't really leading anywhere, or they can entertain the rumors and speculation. This is the case of Ryan Stuka.

On the night of Saturday, February 17th, 2018, Heather Stuka is warm in her home in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, enjoying a glass of wine, when she gets a text that makes her and her husband Scott stop in their tracks. Their 20-year-old son Ryan is missing.

The text comes from Ryan's longtime friend and now roommate, James. Quote, End quote. Heather calls James while Scott looks up the number for the Kamloops Royal Canadian Mounted Police. End quote.

Now, it's really important to note that this area that Ryan has gone missing from is pretty new to him. Just a few months ago in December 2017, he left his hometown of Beaumont, Alberta and moved about nine and a half hours away to Sun Peaks, British Columbia to work a seasonal position at their ski resort. At just around 600 residents, Sun Peaks is a tiny town and has been described as more of a ski resort with a town attached than a fully independent town.

So, the resort is really the epicenter of everything here. Ryan's high school friend, James, the one who texted Heather, came to Sun Peaks with Ryan. Ryan spent a year in college and then worked at his dad's construction company, but he wanted to take some time for adventure.

So he and James accepted these seasonal positions at the Sun Peak Ski Resort during the winter season. Ryan loved to snowboard and figured it would be a unique opportunity to make money and have some fun. In Heather's book, Missing From Me, she explains that it would take weeks to start piecing together the events of the night Ryan went missing. But when she speaks with James on the phone that night, she gets a very brief overview of what happened.

He explains that after work, Ryan and his roommates went to a silent disco at a resort bar slash club called Bottoms. From there, they went to a house party about 10 minutes from their home. James left the party first and just walked home. When their roommates Chris and Kristen left the party, they thought Ryan was right behind them, but apparently he wasn't. James admits that he was pretty drunk that night, so when he woke up the next morning, he assumed Ryan was already at work.

But eventually, Ryan's boss texts them that night to say that Ryan never showed for his shift. So James starts calling his friends in the area to ask if they've seen Ryan. They go back to the party house. They make a post on Facebook, walk the paths that Ryan could have walked. They're calling hospitals, and eventually report him missing to the police.

Of course, James knows that this is extremely out of character for Ryan to just not show up for work, but even his roommates, whom he's only known for a few months, also agree. Heather asks James to please keep looking for Ryan while she and Scott figure out their next steps. And pretty quickly, after speaking with the Kamloops RCMP, Heather and Scott decide to make the nine-and-a-half-hour drive to Sun Peaks. During the drive, Heather's heart drops when she realizes that the text message she sent to Ryan that morning was never delivered.

It said, "Good morning, love bug." Heather would send something like this to him almost every day. And while Ryan was grown at 20 years old and she didn't expect him to be right on top of these text messages, he did usually respond. So this just adds to her anxiety as she and Scott make this drive to Sun Peaks. Heather describes this drive as both the longest and shortest drive she's ever experienced. She and Scott would pull over almost every 15 minutes just to try to catch their breath.

Heather also begins bargaining in her mind, pledging to be a better person, to live a better life, if her son could just be found safe. She also can't help but notice that as they get closer to sun peaks, the temperature was continuing to drop with every mile or kilometer, and she began wondering how long Ryan could survive if he was exposed to the harsh winter weather.

About five hours into this marathon drive, they begin to get nervous that they haven't heard from the Kamloops RCMP, and begin rationalizing that maybe they'd already found Ryan, but didn't want to notify them while they were driving. They envision being met by officers at the top of the hill to get the bad news. I mean, obviously, they're just running scenarios through their heads at this point, hoping for the best, but fearing the worst.

but they do eventually get to the top of the hill, to Sun Peaks, and no one is there to greet them. At this point, they're early for their 7am appointment to meet with the RCMP, so they go to Ryan's home first. They see his Volkswagen Jetta sitting in the driveway, covered in snow. Scott puts his hands to the window to look inside, hoping maybe Ryan was there. He

He wasn't, but all of his snowboard equipment was. Then, Heather and Scott are greeted by Ryan's roommates as they share the same fears and exhaustion. And this is really when the Stukas get a much clearer picture of what happened on the night Ryan went missing.

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Before I dive into the timeline, I think it's really important to understand Ryan's living situation. Ryan lived with five roommates in a relatively small home. In her book, Heather describes it as cramped but manageable. James and Ryan shared one room. Chris and Kristen were dating and shared the primary bedroom. Ellie and Jasmine shared the loft over the living room, and Ellie's boyfriend Ben from New Zealand was visiting and had been with them for about a month.

So really, it's a bunch of young adults living and working together, all coming and going from this house all day.

Now, the day Ryan went missing started like most other days. He worked his normal 11.30am to 7pm shift, helping resort guests get on and off tubes and pushing them down the lanes. After his shift ends, Ryan sends his very last text message. This is to James, basically just letting him know that he was on his way home. And really, everyone was waiting for Ryan to get home. So when he does, he quickly changes his clothes, grabs a bite to eat, and shotguns a beer.

After this, the group heads out to the silent disco at Bottoms, but there's a line to get in, and with temperatures dropping to about negative 20 degrees Celsius, or about negative 4 degrees Fahrenheit that night, they opted to not wait in line and instead go to the bar next door, Masa's, where their roommate Jasmine works.

It's important to note that the legal drinking age in BC is 19, so they enjoy a few beers until there's an opening at Bottoms, and they head back there. While the group was dancing to music fed through their supplied headphones, a photographer captures the last known picture of Ryan. To Heather, he looks happy and carefree with his friends. Last call was at 1am, and luckily the group's able to grab a shuttle that was headed back down the hill towards their home, avoiding a very long walk in the freezing cold.

From here, some of the group goes back home. But Ryan, James, Chris, and Kristen aren't ready to call it a night, and they head to a house party nearby. There were about 30 people at this party coming and going that night. There was, of course, a lot of drinking, and according to some reports, there were drugs being used as well.

James is the first one to leave the party. He's pretty tipsy, and accidentally heads towards a path that will get him home but is not lit, and basically impassable due to the snow. Pretty quickly, he corrects his course and makes the short walk home using a path recently built after a hit-and-run that occurred three years prior.

He says hi to his roommates and heads to bed. And this is where things get a little confusing. Not long after, at about 2.10am, Chris, Kristen, and another person from the party named Jordan get ready to leave. Now, no words are exchanged, but as they're getting up and getting ready to leave, they see Ryan stand up and it looks like he's putting on his coat. So,

So as Chris, Kristen, and Jordan leave, they assume Ryan is right behind them. But a few minutes into their walk, when they look back, Ryan isn't there. Now, they just figure that Ryan didn't leave the party like they thought, or he might have just been going a bit slower than them. But it's bitter cold outside, so they keep on to the house to warm back up. By this time, Jasmine had finished her shift at Masa's and invited some friends over, so the house is full. Chris and Kristen chat with everyone for a bit before heading to bed.

But here's the thing. No one actually recalls seeing Ryan leave the party, and people who came after his roommates left don't remember seeing him at the party at all. At this point in the story, they may not realize it yet, but Ryan is missing, and the temperature outside keeps dropping as the snow continues to fall. A little over an inch of snow fell that night, with an additional 4 to 6 inches forecasted to fall the next day.

The next morning, Ryan's supervisor texts one of his roommates. Heather says she can't remember which one exactly. They ask this roommate to check and see if maybe Ryan overslept because he didn't show for his shift. In Missing From Me, Heather explains that Ryan was often late to work, despite being on resort property. He would usually show up a bit early to take the last run on his snowboard before clocking in for his shift, typically a few minutes late. So being late wasn't a huge cause for concern for his supervisor.

When his roommate checks, Ryan isn't in his room, and his bed was messy as usual, making it pretty impossible to tell if he slept in it the night before. So they figure that Ryan was probably stuck on a chairlift or just late going down the run.

But then, around 7pm, Ryan's supervisor reaches back out to say that Ryan missed his entire shift. This is when his roommates really begin to worry. While Ryan was often late, he would never just not show up to work without calling in. This is also when they notice that Ryan's employee pass and work boots were still in the corner. From here, they begin making calls, visit the party house, call hospitals, and finally, the police.

After Heather and Scott are filled in, they meet with the RCMP. They all gathered at the fire hall where they were greeted by several officers and canine units who had been out searching for Ryan all night. The official command center was eventually set up at the ski patrol by the ski hall. Heather and Scott are ushered to a separate room and interviewed about Ryan and his life. After speaking to Heather and Scott, the senior case manager told them very bluntly, "...based on the amount of alcohol he may have consumed,"

The time that has passed and the freezing temperatures, the likelihood of finding your son alive is slim to none. End quote. Obviously, this is a huge blow, but not entirely unexpected. That's been their greatest fear all along, the elements. Soon after, Ryan's roommates, James, Chris, and Kristen show up to help with the search, as do a slew of volunteers from the community.

Heather and Scott are instructed to stay at the command post. Heather describes these moments in her book, saying that every creak of the floor was met with anticipation that they'd get news about Ryan. After all, while the odds of finding him alive seemed bleak, it did appear to be an open-and-shut case. Ryan was likely pretty drunk, maybe on some type of drug, and could have very easily made a wrong turn or fell and succumbed to the harsh elements.

Of course, they retraced Ryan's likely steps home, and it took the search team about 18 minutes, though they anticipate it would have taken Ryan closer to 10 or 15 minutes. But there was no sign of him. Investigators spoke to people from the party. They checked Ryan's cell phone, social media, and bank account. There was no activity after he went missing.

At this point, the RCMP is really focusing their search on this three to four block area near the house party on Burfield Drive. They say that the heavy snowfall made things complicated. The snow was deep and soft, and they were concerned that Ryan might have been trapped or injured somewhere, but they continued to search.

The RCMP and Kamloops Search and Rescue used canine units, drones with infrared cameras, snowmobiles, and helicopters to look for Ryan. The infrared technology did help them find some trails that they couldn't see on foot, but there was still no sign of Ryan. They also focused on digging into the snow to check if Ryan or any of his belongings might be buried under it. Scott even dug holes in the snow around Ryan's home and used an excavator to move large snow piles in the search.

After searching the most obvious areas for Ryan, they had to start thinking outside of the box. Maybe Ryan went inside a building or a car to escape the snow.

The RCMP then asked the public to check their vehicles and outbuildings for any sign of Ryan. And they also requested that residents in the area look at their security, dash, and trail cam footage. Searchers even went door to door in the village asking for dash cam footage and inquiring if anyone had seen Ryan. If Ryan was seen in this footage, it has not been released to the public.

By the night of February 18th, the Kamloops search and rescue teams had done all they could to help search for Ryan. And they say very bluntly that there's not much more they can do until the snow has melted, or they have a lead from the RCMP. At this point, the official, physical searches for Ryan were over.

But Heather and Scott weren't giving up. They moved to Sun Peaks to search for Ryan while their two teenage daughters stayed behind in Beaumont. They stayed for 14 weeks. And Heather told me that the community of Sun Peaks really rallied around them and became like a new family. They volunteered, went on purposeful walks to keep an eye out for Ryan. Heather and Scott spent time in their homes having meals together. Sun Peaks just really embraced them. And Heather was kind enough to speak to me for this episode.

Here she is to further explain how the community embraced her family. I felt the most safe and loved in Sun Peaks than I felt anywhere else, just because Sun

I arrived at the same time they sort of learned about it. And we, they watched me as I crawled out of that fetal position to kind of go to the sitting position to then, you know, walking around the village and they, they saw a laugh and I never felt judgment from them. I felt like the natural transition of grief was, was there for them to see and they supported it all the way through.

On February 26th, 10 days after Ryan's disappearance, a $5,000 reward was offered for information that could help locate him. Not long after, the reward was increased to $15,000. Round searches continued every day, and posters, banners, and billboards with Ryan's picture were put up all around Sun Peaks and the surrounding areas. Now, Heather and Scott also begin to think outside the box to help Ryan.

Heather creates a social media campaign with a Facebook group and an Instagram account. And this catches fire and leads to hundreds of volunteers joining from all over to help search for Ryan.

Ryan's loved ones also designed a logo for missing persons flyers and clothing, which later became the mascot for the search efforts to find Ryan. The logo's this green dinosaur inside of a green heart, and is very affectionately referred to as the Stuchasaurus. Dinosaurs were Ryan's favorite as a kid. He loved those movies The Land Before Time. His parents even had to learn about paleontology to keep up with his passion.

But just as the RCMP and Heather and Scott felt like they were exhausting all possible avenues of finding Ryan, a new tip comes in that could change everything.

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In early April, the Sunpakes News reported that someone at the house party told police that they'd recently found a text message suggesting that Ryan might have left around 1.40 a.m. instead of 2.10 a.m. Now, while this 30-minute difference doesn't seem like it would change much in Ryan's case, what it does is prompt investigators to revisit a previously dismissed tip that would now correlate with the new timeline.

See, a few days after Ryan went missing, a witness came forward to say that they saw someone who looked like Ryan walking on Fairways Drive toward Eagle Court, the village's downtown area, at around 1.55 a.m. But this tip was initially dismissed because it didn't match with the original 2.10 a.m. timeline.

Heather told Sunpeak's News that she found it odd that Ryan was headed downtown that late, especially because it's about a 30-minute walk from the house where the party was at. But she said that she did think it was possible he could have been going to a place called Mountain High Pizza, which was open until 2 a.m.,

I mean, to me, it does make sense, especially if Ryan was intoxicated and hungry. He sets out on this 30-minute walk to get his pizza, and obviously we don't know what, but something happens. Speculation aside, with these new details, the search team start focusing on the area between the party house and the downtown area by the pizza shop. But there was still no sign of Ryan.

They're back at square one, now basically just waiting for the snow to melt. And of course, it finally does around May, and the search teams get back to work. They retrace every possible route Ryan may have taken to get back home or to the downtown area. They're just hoping to find something, anything really. The red hat, his phone, his keys, any trace of Ryan. But there's absolutely nothing.

This is obviously another huge blow for Ryan's family. But just as they begin to process what this possibly means for Ryan's case, police get a new lead that opens the case up to a very new and terrifying possibility. That same month, the RCMP told Kamloops this week that a man named Jim had come forward with information. He

He reported hearing what sounds like an angry or violent exchange by the party house at around the time Ryan went missing. Jim says he heard a man's voice angrily saying, quote, get in the car, get in the fucking car, end quote.

Jim pretty much went to the RCMP immediately with this information, but his tip didn't seem to lead anywhere. The RCMP said that even with Jim's tip, they still don't have any evidence of foul play in Ryan's case. And again, while this whole story is extremely shocking, it just doesn't really lead anywhere.

But May was a busy month for Ryan's case, because around this same time, Heather told the Sun Peaks News that Ryan's cell phone pinged at 3am on February 17th in Sun Peaks. We don't know the exact location, but she believed that this was proof that Ryan was still in town. At this point, Scott says that this whole experience felt like the movie Groundhog Day. They'd wake up, search for Ryan, go to sleep, and do it all over again.

And at this point, they had to think about going home. After all, they have two kids back there who need their parents too. By the end of May, Heather told the Sunpeak News that she and Scott were officially going back home. They felt like the best time to find Ryan had passed. The undergrowth was thickening, which would make it way harder to spot Ryan or any of his belongings.

But they weren't giving up. Heather said that daily searches with local volunteers would continue, and she and Scott planned to return for more searches a few weeks later, and keep coming back each month until snowfall.

By the one-year anniversary of Ryan going missing, the RCMP announced that despite following up on over 300 tips and sightings, including one where someone thought they saw Ryan working as a lifeguard, none panned out, and they made it clear that they still did not believe foul play was a factor in Ryan's disappearance.

Ryan's roommate Chris shared with the Sun Peak News, "...I have absolutely no idea what happened to him. All I know is that I don't believe he would have gone anywhere with people he didn't know. I don't believe he would have wandered off into the woods, or was drunk enough to wander off without knowing where he was. And I know for a fact he was young, fit, and experienced in cold weather."

Ryan's case is pretty well known, and we know that with more media comes more speculation, and oftentimes some pretty harsh comments. It's really just a numbers game. The more eyes on a case, the more opinions you get. You have to take the good with the bad. Chris says that a lot of people have questioned his decision to leave the party without Ryan, and he explains that he didn't think about it at the time. He thought that if Ryan wanted to leave with them, he would

he would have told them to wait for him while he got ready to go. I mean, hindsight is 20-20. And while I'm sure Chris wishes he'd done things differently now, chastising him really doesn't do anything to help Ryan. And I will say that there doesn't appear to be any credible reason to suspect that any of Ryan's roommates were involved in his disappearance.

But the searches for Ryan continued. In May 2019, drones were used to search Sun Peaks from a different perspective. They were specifically looking for the red hat Ryan was wearing when he disappeared. But try as they might, nothing was found. By the three-year anniversary, the Kamloops RCMP informed CBC that they'd still been receiving tips and investigated each one. They said the fact that there were few answers was concerning.

Reporter Jean Strong told CBC that no matter how much time had passed, the thought of Ryan was in the back of every Sun Peaks resident's mind.

It's been a very hard few years for Heather and Scott. Having a loved one that's missing is a club no one wants to be in. But like we see so often in these cases, their experience inspires them to help others. In 2021, Heather joined forces with other families of missing persons to create the Freebird Project, a non-profit organization aiming to establish an online hub for information and resources about missing people in Canada.

We started that with another amazing family that was experiencing their own loss of their brother, Dominic Neron. So Tammy Neron and Kate Sinclair were two, they're two incredible individuals that had been part of a search for their brother. And,

10 months after Dominic had gone missing in a plane crash, they were able to recover the plane and then have some closure. And during that period of time, we had a lot of conversations. They were providing some support and resources on how to do aerial searches along with, you know, getting drones to come in to do work. So we started when we came home, like how can we best support

create this legacy for both Dominic and Ryan. And it seemed that if we could offer support to other families going through similar situations that we would do so. And so we, we work as much with families as we can. You know, I've, I've been in contact with two families recently that are going through their own journey. And if I can,

provide some support at the onslaught when, when everything is so overwhelming and there's this, this feels like this desperate, urgent need. And I can help you navigate through some of those things that we had to go through alone. Then I find it like, what an honor to do. So if I, it's a privilege to be able to do that. This is Jessica Knoll host of the new series back in crime.

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In a scene described by one investigator as reminiscent of a weird religious rite, five persons, including actress Sharon Tate, were found dead at the home of Miss Tate and her husband, screen director Roman Poliansky. But what if we were to turn back the hands of time and relive these events as they unfolded? Follow along each week as we take a fresh look at crimes from the past. Back in Crime is available now.

Of course, in addition to the Free Bird Project, Ryan's family continued to work for him. In March 2022, on Ryan's 25th birthday, a forensic artist created an age-progressed sketch of Ryan. The RCMP also gave an update, stating that the investigation into Ryan's disappearance would remain open until he's found. So, what happened to Ryan Stuka?

At this point, there are many theories. Some have speculated that he could have been hit by a drunk driver, and the driver hit Ryan's body out of fear. Gene Strong, former Sun Peaks news reporter, said that there were other cases in Sun Peaks where pedestrians were hit by drunk drivers late at night, and

And we know that the path James took from the party that night was created specifically after a hit-and-run accident. But Jean also makes a good point in saying that there were no reports of a damaged car, blood on the ground, or any signs of a car accident when Ryan went missing. Again, Sun Peaks is a teeny tiny town. It seems like if someone saw anything like this, news would get around. But you never know.

Another theory was that Ryan overdosed at the party, and someone or multiple people there hid his body. Heather and Scott have their own theory, and it's way less sensational. They believe that Ryan died after leaving the party. Heather suggested that he might have fallen into a snowbank, and snow plows then covered him with more snow, trapping him.

When I speak with families or loved ones close to these cases, I always like to ask if there's any misinformation out there that they'd like to clear up. And there usually is. Here's what Heather said about that. I always find it interesting, you know, because there's so much information that's come out. And a lot of it goes to...

You know, I always commend people when they're passionate and engaged. That's what you want for any of your members of your community or your Facebook groups, for them to be passionate and engaged in the cause. But what happens from that is sometimes that the misinformation happens and then people will continue to think that there's something outside of that. We have been very transparent from the beginning. There's nothing that I know about Ryan's case,

that you also do not have access to. So whether I've posted it, whether I've said it, it may not all be in one area, but I have never not said anything. And I don't know if I did that. I certainly didn't plan to be that transparent. It's just that's what we were and we've just continued ongoing. And

And sometimes it's difficult when people come on and say, oh, so yeah, the roommate that he was best friends with left without warning and went back to Australia. Well, that's not true. You know, they have a return ticket. That's what the requirement is. In order to enter Canada, you actually have to have a return ticket to go back. And so those are some of the requirements.

the federal regulations that happened with that. So this person had gone, they had gone to the police, they gave their statement and said, if you need me to stay, I can change my flight. They said, there's no reason why. So stuff like that is irritating because I know that's not the true. When you spin it, you make it sound so sinister. And

And I'm not saying that there's not cause to think suspiciously or through analytical lens at some of the information. I just sit there and go, it might not be as accurate as you think. So when you hang on to something and you make it into a truth that is not necessarily true. The other one I think that I find the most difficult is when people are like, well, I

He was at the party and then this, we heard in the car, someone said, get in the car, get in the effing car late at night. Oh my God. How, how did they not, how did they miss that? How does that not cause concern? I'm not saying it doesn't. It was certainly reported to the, the RCMP within a day after this person had heard it. But I will say that,

That person did exactly what they were supposed to do. They were community minded. They were civic minded. They did their due diligence. They contacted the police with their information. It could have a lot of relevancy and it could have none. It's been investigated. There's nothing further that we can go to. But what I would say is that the information when it was presented makes it sound so much more than it was before.

But we had been there for four months. When this information came out the following November, I had never heard of that story.

We talk to every local. We know them. We go and sit and have dinners at their house. We go into their establishments. We feel very connected. We've gone to fundraisers for other organizations up there. So I felt like we had a really good pulse of what was happening within that community. And I never heard that story. That doesn't mean it's not true. Obviously, it was. But how much weight do we give it?

So we hadn't heard about that. That was a surprise to us. But the way that it was presented almost made it sound like, you know, where the house was, that's right outside of there. That's what they heard. It actually wasn't. It was a 25 minute walk away from where Ryan was and where he should have been. Not to say he he couldn't have gone there, that this couldn't have happened, that this is not related to Ryan.

but people put such weight on it. There's no other person in that entire vicinity that will, that is able to say, Hey, I heard that, that too. There's only one person that was able to say they heard something. We've also heard from other members of the community that said, well, we were outside smoking that night in the same area, never heard this at all, never heard anything. So again,

Like, how much weight do you put on it? How much value do you put on it? I don't know. That's not my job. That's an investigator's job. But that's a misinformation that it played such a heavy part in what happened to Ryan.

Obviously, we don't know what happened to Ryan Stuka, but his parents still travel to Sun Peaks to continue their searches. They mark searched areas with green ribbons tied to trees. And in late October 2023, they announced a new reward, now up to $25,000. Of course, I asked Heather where the case is today and how we can help.

So six years later, I, I, I would say that we feel like we're still at ground zero. So no information has come forward. There has been tons of tips. Um, there has been lots of, there's been reviews of the, of the case. It is actually not just, um, the rural detachment. Um, they have sent it, it's gone to, um, city divisions. It's gone to major crime units. So this, um,

This file is very comprehensive and has been looked over by numerous people and reviewed by numerous people. So they're still very accountable to us. We still get regular updates.

there's that level of respect that comes when we need something that they get back to us right away, even if we pass on information or know that somebody else has. They're very accountable to us. And so we're lucky in that regard. I know that not everybody has the same experiences. But in our particular case, we've been satisfied with the level of service that has been provided for Ryan.

So no new information. Still sitting there. Ryan's still considered a missing person. There's nothing that leads investigators to think that it's suspicious in nature or foul play. That doesn't mean that it's not case, but there's nothing that leads them there. So we continue to do the same thing. For people that are coming in, listening to Ryan's story, reading about Ryan's story is really important to us.

One of the things that we always say, share the story. A great way to do that is through, we have these 3D dinosaurs called Stuchasauruses that were created by a group of women that I had not known before Ryan's disappearance. And then they've become such a family to us. I call them the unicorns because they're like mythical creatures that you never expect people to be so amazing and want to help in such an amazing way. So they're my unicorns. And I'm

one of the unicorns created this 3d dinosaur, which again was a love of Ryan's when he was a child. And,

and with it, it has a QR code and it has a little story about Ryan obviously being missing, but on the backside, it has this poem that talks about kindness and to, to look around in your area. And so people purchase them, they're $5 and you know, they'll purchase them and then they'll send them out either. They'll take them on vacation when they go or they'll take them to whatever they're doing, whether it's a coffee shop or a,

Sometimes they'll leave them. Sometimes they'll keep them with them as their journey. And it raises awareness for one, but I think,

two parts for that. For one, I love it because I would imagine that, um, if Ryan were here and had the opportunity to go to some of these amazing places that he would, he would see the world in a, in a different, in a different way. He'd have a chance to meet incredible people and experiencing some life altering, um, adventures.

adventures. And so as his mother, of course, I'm thrilled. And I take such joy in watching the journeys wherever they go. The other part, which is the more important part, besides the sharing and spreading awareness, is that I think what it does is it makes people look around in their community and think, how else can I provide kindness to

Is there a family that's experiencing a loss or missing child like Ryan? Do they need support? Is there something that I can do? Maybe it's looking around and seeing your neighbor requiring something. And what it does is refocus our minds on doing something that's kind. And I think in this world right now, it feels like kindness is in short supply.

This brings me right to our call to action. With this new reward available, it's important that we share Ryan's missing person poster.

And of course, if you're looking for more ways to support the family, you can join the Facebook group, Missing Ryan Stuka, and follow the Instagram account at findryanstuka. And if you feel so compelled, you can get yourself a Stukasaurus and help spread the word about Ryan. I got a box of them to share on my travels, and just left one in New Hampshire and Georgia. Because as you guys know, I fully believe there is always hope.

As a reminder, 20-year-old Ryan Stuka was last seen in the early morning hours of February 17th, 2018, at a house party on Burrfield Drive in Sun Peaks, British Columbia, Canada. He was wearing dark grey jeans, a white and grey shirt, a blue jacket, and a burgundy hat with the logo of a rugby club he was a part of, the Norwester Athletic Association. Ryan has blonde hair, brown eyes, is 6 feet tall, and weighs 180 pounds.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Kamloops Rural RCMP at 250-314-1800 or Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-8477. But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.

Voices for Justice is hosted and produced by me, Sarah Turney, and is a Voices for Justice media original. This episode contains writing and research assistance by Haley Gray. If you love what we do here, please don't forget to follow, rate, and review the show on your podcast player. It's an easy and free way to help us and help more people find these cases in need of justice. Welcome to the Secret After Show. Our emotional support puppies are in the room.

And let's talk about Ryan's case. This is another one of those cases, you guys, where he's just gone without a trace. Which feels so weird to say because I don't ever feel like that's really the case. Like, how does someone actually just vanish into thin air with no evidence? But it feels that way in this case. I mean, people don't know when he left the party. Nobody remembers him leaving.

but then the people who were there later don't remember him being there at all. I don't know. This is a hard one. I do want to give like a shout out to the Sun Peaks community for the way that they really seem to have rallied around this family. That doesn't always happen, and I think that that's really amazing, and I just want to give them some accolades for that.

I also do want to point you guys one more time to Heather's book, Missing From Me. It's no secret that I really like when families tell their own stories. So if you want to hear everything in really great extreme detail, go buy Heather's book. I think it's really fantastic. And of course, I'll have a link to that in our show notes. Now on to what's going on with me. Well, a lot is going on with me. As you guys might have seen,

I took last week off for a little rest. Oh my goodness, I needed some rest. I actually spoke to my dad for the first time in five years, and I have about two hours of audio that I don't know what I'm going to do with, to be totally honest. I'm split between, like, I want you guys to hear it because...

This is probably, no, I know, it's the first conversation where I came ready with questions, which is kind of crazy to think about and to say, but all those other times I talked to my dad, I didn't really have anything planned out because I think it's such a

and really scary thing to do. I usually just kind of did it in the moment. You know, that last call, that's the first episode of Voices for Justice season one. I was just like, I'm going to do it. I'm going to call him. And I like pressed dial and didn't have anything in mind other than asking him to go on ABC 2020. And when I met with him in 2017, of course, you know, I called him before and we planned to meet. I did have time to prepare, but I didn't. I just...

I thought I'd go there and have a conversation with him. So this time, for the first time ever, I came with a long list of questions. And not only that, I came with his own statements. You know, he's made this case that I need to rely on my memory. I didn't see anything and I didn't hear anything, which is true. I was 12. I saw very little.

and remember even less, unfortunately. So I came prepared with a list of questions and his own statements. And it was really different. Really, really different this time. Like I said, I don't know what I'm going to do with that because on one hand, that's what he wants.

He wants more attention and he wants this whole conversation to come out. I think that he thinks it proves some type of point. You know, he keeps saying that I was brainwashed by the police and there's this agenda with American police to turn families against each other in cases of the missing, which obviously I think is bullshit. But I did release a clip on social media that I want to play for you here.

Um, so I'll do that now. You were manipulated so badly, Sarah. I mean, you know. Do you think Alyssa was afraid of you? No, not that you guys keep saying she was. Cause you told me before that you don't remember fear in Alyssa's eyes, but you remember defiance. So you don't think Alyssa was afraid of you? You don't know. You don't even, Sarah, I'm amazed that you even spent the time you did with Alyssa. Who's the one that talked you to get on the roof and jump off that roof?

Was that your fearsome, I'm scared to death, Alyssa? Alyssa wasn't afraid of hardly anything, Sarah. Okay, so in that same letter dated May 27th, do you recall writing to Alyssa your words, quote, I am so sorry you were afraid of me, end quote. That had to do with Alyssa telling people, you know, I'm afraid my dad's going to kill me, which is every statement that you made, everybody else makes. Right there, you just said it. Oh, there you go, Sarah. You just said it. Ear spot, guys, ear mark that one. Come on, Sarah, no.

What is wrong? Is your career that important that you're going to manipulate this into a lie? You've destroyed your own family. You're helping destroy. That is just the tip of this iceberg. And like I said, I don't know what I'm going to do, but there is more to come. I am finishing Alyssa's story, so stay tuned.

Now on to our segment of hope. And this is right in my backyard. This is also published by Brianna Whitney of AZ Family, who is a fantastic journalist who cares a lot. I always like to highlight really cool journalists. So shout out to Brianna Whitney. I love you. You're amazing. And this is from her. So again, this is from azfamily.com and the headline reads, quote,

Arrest made in 2005 cold case murder of baby found at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. End quote.

Um, obviously that is really, really dark and, and hard. Um, but let's go on to learn more about this. The article reads, quote, "...the victim became known as Baby Skyler, and the desperate search to find the person who killed her went on for nearly 20 years until now. DNA and genealogy led Phoenix detectives to 51-year-old Annie Anderson in Washington."

who is now facing first-degree murder charges and will be extradited back to Arizona. Now, in the article, it explains that basically she wasn't a suspect at the time, but was later identified, quote, after investigators approached someone related to Skyler and asked for a one-time use to test that person's DNA, end quote. Apparently, you know, law enforcement is declining to elaborate on how this person was related to Skyler. I don't think that's super important.

What is important is that when they confronted her, she confessed. However, they are not releasing that to the media, which I know people want to know, but I think this baby also has a right to privacy. I don't think that people need to know those gruesome details. I don't know. Come for me. I don't care. I'm just glad that there's some type of resolution, and obviously this is just a baby, a newborn baby, and how does that baby feel justice in any way?

I don't know. But it makes the segment of hope, obviously, because it's finally solved. One more cold case off the books, one more cold case solved, one more terrible person off the streets. It's also another win for DNA technology, which appears to be solving cases left and right these days. And if that doesn't give us hope, I don't know what does. But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.