RYAN SHTUKA

COLD OPEN

Sun Peaks is the kind of place where nothing feels anonymous. With a permanent population of around 600 people, everyone knows everyone… or at least recognizes them. During ski season, the town fills up. Workers arrive from across Canada and beyond. Tourists come for the snow. But even at its busiest, Sun Peaks still feels small – contained, isolated.

The resort sits about 60 kilometers outside the city of Kamloops, tucked into the mountains in a way that makes it feel separate from the rest of the world. People who spend a winter here often describe it as living in a bubble. A winter wonderland where people work hard, play hard, and look out for each other.

It’s the kind of place built on routines – where coworkers become friends, nights out are familiar, and walks home are short. It’s widely considered safe. Tragic things aren’t supposed to happen here.

But in February 2018, something tragic happened in Sun Peaks.

A 20-year-old man finished his shift at the resort. He went out with friends, and started the short walk home he had taken before. But he never arrived. Eight years later, no sign of him has ever been recovered. 

This is the disappearance of Ryan Shtuka.

I’m Madison McGhee, and this is Frozen Files.

CHAPTER 1: The Night That Didn’t End

On February 16, 2018, Ryan Shtuka finished his shift in the lift department at Sun Peaks Resort in British Columbia. He was 20 years old, and this was his routine – work, home, friends, and the steady rhythm of resort life during ski season. He clocked out at 7:00 pm and headed back to the cabin he shared with his roommates.

Later that night, Ryan went out with friends from the house. They started at Masa’s Bar + Grill, then moved on to Bottoms for a silent disco. Everyone there wore headphones, switching between DJs playing on different channels. It was social, contained, and familiar – the kind of night that doesn’t feel risky or unpredictable.

After leaving the bar, the group walked to a house party on Burfield Drive inside the Sun Peaks Resort. The house was only a few minutes away from Ryan’s cabin.

According to Ryan’s roommate Chris, the party was relatively small – mostly resort employees and regular skiers. Others estimated there were less than 50 people there. Ryan’s mom, Heather, later believed Ryan had likely had been drinking that night, either at the pub or at the party. Ryan was known to drink socially, but always with people he knew.

One roommate, Maxwell, was tired and decided to head home. Another, James, had already left earlier. Not long after, Chris and Kristin were also ready to leave, along with one other person. Before they left, Ryan was seen standing up. It appeared he was putting on his shoes and pulling on his blue coat, as if preparing to leave with them.

But no one actually asked Ryan if he was heading home.

That moment – Ryan standing up at the party – is the last confirmed sighting of him.

CHAPTER 2: Ten Minutes

At some point after that, Ryan left the house on Burfield Drive, though no one knows exactly when. The walk back to his cabin was routine. Ryan had taken that route before – many times. It was only a distance of roughly 300 meters, less than a thousand feet. It should have taken him about 10 to 15 minutes. But that night, conditions were severe.

Around 2:00 am, temperatures were around negative 20 degrees Celsius, or negative 4 degrees Fahrenheit, and still dropping. Snow had already started to fall, with more expected through the morning.

Ryan never made it home that night.

When his roommates woke up in the morning, Ryan wasn’t there. At first, it didn’t set off any alarms. Ryan had an 11:00 a.m. shift, and they assumed he’d already left for work. But he didn’t show up.

That afternoon, Ryan’s supervisor reached out to one of the roommates. It was a busy day at the resort, and they were hoping Ryan would arrive soon. The roommates were sure that he would. Ryan had never missed work before.

Hours passed. Ryan still didn’t show. After the shift ended, the supervisor texted Ryan’s roommate again. This time, the tone had changed. So had the concern. The roommates tried calling Ryan. They sent texts. There was no response.

None of this made sense.

As they looked around the cabin, they noticed something else that quickly shifted the situation. Ryan’s work boots were still there, so was his ski card. It was now clear he’d never gone to work that morning.

The roommates began trying to piece things together. They posted in a local Facebook group asking if anyone had seen Ryan. They reached out to people who had been at the party. They reviewed security footage in the area, hoping to spot him walking home.

There was nothing. Ryan didn’t appear on any footage. No one had seen him.

CHAPTER 3: When He Didn’t Show Up

Eventually, they called the local hospital and were advised to contact the police. Ryan was officially reported missing at approximately 8:47 pm. Because Sun Peaks is such a small resort community, police in nearby Kamloops responded. Officers arrived at the house around midnight, and a missing person report was filed.

One of the roommates also contacted Ryan’s mother, Heather Shtuka, who was nine hours away in Beaumont, Alberta, with Ryan’s dad, Scott.

Both of Ryan’s parents felt right away that something was wrong. Ryan didn’t miss work. He didn’t disappear without telling someone. They called police themselves to confirm that Ryan had, in fact, been reported missing.

As soon as they hung up, Heather and Scott got in the car and started driving to Sun Peaks.

During the drive, Heather checked her phone and realized that the text message she had sent Ryan earlier that morning, that said “Good morning, Lovebug” had not been delivered. Her fear deepened.

Later, Heather described the drive to Sun Peaks was “the longest and the shortest drive I think I’ve ever had.” She said Scott pulled over every 15 minutes, just so they could breathe.

She told us, “I think we just couldn’t believe that in a blink of an eye, everything that we had, everything that we loved, everything that we cared about, was all changed.”

From here, the situation escalates quickly.

Because by the time Ryan’s parents arrived in Sun Peaks, the search for their son was already beginning – and the conditions were working against everyone involved.

CHAPTER 4: Before He Was Missing

Ryan John Marcus Shtuka was born on March 17, 1997, to parents Heather and Scott. He grew up in Beaumont, Alberta, with his two younger sisters, Jordyn and Julianna.

From a young age, Ryan stood out. He was talkative, curious. He was always asking a lot of questions. Heather, who we worked with on this episode, referred to him as precocious.

Ryan spent much of his childhood outside. He was always outdoors, always moving, always exploring. He gravitated toward things that captured his imagination – dinosaurs, superheroes, Beyblades, and trading cards like Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh.

Ryan wasn’t confrontational. He didn’t start fights. Heather described him as “great, funny, a loyal guy, sarcastic, and great with his friends.” She also said he liked to tease – but never in a cruel way. At his core, he was very kind.

As Ryan got older, his relationship with his parents shifted in natural ways. Heather said he began to drift, the way many teenagers do. He tested boundaries. He challenged his parents, more often Scott than her, since Heather was the disciplinarian. But even at the height of his teenage angst, Ryan still went to his parents when he needed help or advice.

Looking back, Heather said their kids were easy to raise. She said, “We never had any problems with any of our kids growing up. They were never disrespectful. We never had curfew. We never really grounded them. They didn’t get into trouble.”

Ryan graduated from high school in the spring of 2015. Heather said she didn’t think Ryan had a clear idea of what he wanted to do next. She knew he was smart and capable enough to do whatever he wanted – he just didn’t yet know what that was.

Ryan went to university for a year, but he still didn’t feel settled. After that, he went to work for his dad’s construction company. He continued living with his parents and regularly turned to them for guidance. Heather reassured him often that she and Scott were his biggest champions. She would tell him not to rush figuring things out. They would always help him.

And in many ways, Sun Peaks was supposed to be part of that figuring-it-out phase – a way to make money, find independence, and prepare for the next season of life. No one thought it would be the place his life would end.

CHAPTER 5: A Season Meant to Be Temporary

In late 2017, Ryan decided he wanted to move to Sun Peaks, British Columbia, with his friend James. The plan was simple: work at the resort, snowboard as much as possible, and head home in the spring.

The seasonal job would last from early December through April 1. Ryan knew he could stay a few extra weeks if he wanted, then return home to Alberta on April 17 or 18. Once back in Beaumont, he planned to return to working for his dad’s construction company.

The plan made sense. Ryan liked snowboarding, and this job would allow him to do it almost every day.

Heather said Ryan was nervous to tell his parents he was leaving. She believes he may have worried they wouldn’t understand, or that he might disappoint them. As the oldest child, he was the first to leave home. It wasn’t a decision he took lightly.

But Heather and Scott encouraged him to go. The move was temporary – just a few months over the winter season. Ryan was 20 years old and this felt like the right moment to try something on his own without making a permanent change.

On December 1, Ryan packed up his car. Before leaving, he hugged his parents and kissed them on the cheeks. Heather remembers him feeling a bit anxious.

It was the last time they ever saw him.

Ryan made the nine-hour drive from Beaumont to Sun Peaks and moved into a cabin at the resort with his friend James and four other people.

Ryan was assigned to work in the lift department. He settled in quickly. One of his coworkers described him as “a really good guy, really genuine and confident.” She said everyone liked him, and specifically noted that Ryan didn’t have enemies.

He enjoyed his job at Sun Peaks. Ryan made sure to stay in touch with his family back in Beaumont. In January, he texted his dad to say he had gone snowboarding 36 days in a row. He also shared with him that he landed his first backflip.

Ryan was thriving. He was settled into the season and making plans for the future. His family was set to visit at the end of February, and everyone was looking forward to it. 

That visit would never happen. Instead when Heather and Scott would make the trip to Sun Peaks, it would be under entirely different circumstances – not to visit with their son, but to search for him. 

CHAPTER 6: Vanished Between Two Doors

In the immediate aftermath of Ryan’s disappearance, the police and Ryan’s family were desperate to find Ryan. Everyone was racing against time and there was a real sense of urgency. Temperatures were dangerously low, snow was continuing to fall, and there was real concern that Ryan could have been injured, trapped, or exposed to the elements – any of which could quickly become fatal.

What made the situation even more alarming was how unprepared Ryan was for the conditions. That night, he was wearing dark jeans, a white and gray t-shirt, a navy blue jacket, gray Vans shoes, and a burgundy baseball hat with the logo of the Nor-Wester Athletic Association – a rugby club he had once been part of. It wasn’t clothing meant for being outside in subzero temperatures for long.

Investigators began trying to reconstruct Ryan’s final movements after he left the house party. They interviewed people who had been at the party, asking if Ryan had told anyone where he was going or what his plans were. None of them knew where Ryan went after he left. Everyone assumed he was walking home. 

Police checked his cell phone, social media accounts, and bank records. None had been used since he was last seen. His phone pinged in Sun Peaks at around 3:00 am, but aside from that, there were no digital signs of movement. There was also no indication that Ryan had left the resort town at all.

Because of that, search efforts immediately concentrated around the home on Burfield. Investigators focused on a central theory – that Ryan, possibly intoxicated, had wandered off the path and got lost on his way home. 

But the layout of Sun Peaks complicated things. From the house party, Ryan could have gone left. He could have gone right. He could have walked behind the house. Each way would get him to his cabin. Many of the paths led into wooded areas and open wilderness. There wasn’t a single obvious route – there were several, and each one opened into more terrain. 

Police dogs from Kamloops were brought in and deployed near the house. Investigators hoped they could pick up Ryan’s scent and establish a direction of travel. They didn’t find one.

CHAPTER 7: The Snow Swallowed Everything

With no sign of Ryan, the search expanded quickly. What began as a local response became a full-scale operation. Three separate command centers were established to coordinate efforts across the resort and surrounding areas.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Kamloops Search and Rescue deployed every tool available to them. Snowmobiles moved through the village and into surrounding trails. Helicopters and drones equipped with infrared cameras scanned from above. Infrared technology was also used to search for footprints buried beneath fresh snowfall.

The infrared imaging revealed several trails that searchers had not been able to locate on foot. Those areas were checked thoroughly.

Searchers turned their attention to the snow itself. They dug through snowbanks, looking for any sign of Ryan or his belongings. Volunteers probed the snow with poles, feeling for anything buried underneath the surface.

Ryan’s father, Scott, dug holes in the snow around Ryan’s cabin. He also used an excavator to move large piles of snow, continuing the search wherever possible.

Police asked residents to check their vehicles and outbuildings, considering the possibility that Ryan may have entered a car or structure to escape the cold and become trapped. They also asked people to review security footage, dash cameras, and trail cameras for anyone who might resemble Ryan.

Searchers went door to door throughout the village. The entire community mobilized – desperate to find Ryan. But there was no sign of him anywhere.

By the evening of February 18, the very next day after Ryan was last seen, Kamloops Search and Rescue announced that they had completed all the tasks required of them for a search of this kind. 

Officials explained that if Ryan was still in Sun Peaks, they believed he was no longer alive. They had found no clothing, no belongings, and no indication of where he had gone.

There was nothing more they could do until the snow melted or a new lead emerged. And with that, their official search was suspended.

After that, Ryan’s family and friends began organizing their own efforts to bring Ryan home. While the RCMP did continue investigating, Heather said the family was given little guidance on how to move forward. They were left to search for Ryan on their own – an expectation that feels deeply unfair.

Scott and Heather relocated to Sun Peaks and established a command center. Their two daughters remained in Beaumont, traveling back and forth as needed. 

It was an impossible situation – two parents having to search for their oldest child while their teenagers were nine hours away at home. It’s difficult to fathom the weight of that reality. But it also reveals something important – how far families will go, and how much they will endure, when the systems that are meant to help them reach their limits.

CHAPTER 8: Waiting for the Melt

The searches for Ryan were grueling. Teams were working through massive amounts of snow, knowing there was no way to rule anything out until it melted. Until then, there was always the possibility that Ryan had been buried beneath it. Still, they were dedicated to keeping up the search. 

Heather told the media at the time, “Scott and I will stay until the last bit of snow has left. At this point in time we will put our lives on hold if only for a little bit to focus on Ryan and to make sure he can come home with us. We will wait until there is a 100 percent sign that he is not here at Sun Peaks and then we can go home. We won’t leave until he comes with us.”

On February 23, one week after Ryan disappeared, there was still no sign of him. Heather told the media that she tried to remain strong during the day. At night, she admitted, it was more difficult. Another night passed without answers.

Heather said she did not believe Ryan had left town voluntarily. She described that possibility as “so out of character for him.” At the same time, she said she did not know whether Ryan was alive or dead. She said, “I'm his mother. I keep thinking … if he's no longer here, would I not feel that? But I don't. I wish I knew."

As the days passed, the community continued to rally around the Shtuka family. Hundreds of volunteers would show up to search Sun Peaks every day. Thousands of dollars in donations were raised, which helped to cover lost income, travel, signs, billboards, flyers, equipment rentals, private investigators – anything that might help keep the search going. 

The support didn’t bring answers, but it did bring some relief  off Heather and Scott’s shoulders. Heather said, “It makes me proud and I find comfort in knowing that Ryan has spent his last three months in such an amazing community.” But even with that support, the reality remained unchanged. Ryan was still missing.

When someone you love goes missing, the world doesn’t stop – but yours does. And in that space, community support becomes everything. It doesn’t fix the pain. It doesn’t answer the questions. But it keeps you standing when your legs don’t work anymore.

When people show up, when they search, donate, cook meals, print flyers, share posts – it tells you something really important: that your loved one matters to someone, that their disappearance isn’t invisible, that you’re not screaming into a void by yourself.

As a family member, that support becomes oxygen. It gives you permission to keep going when you’re exhausted. Things can get very dark when you don’t know what you’re hoping for anymore. Community support reminds you that even when the system slows down or steps back, there are people who refuse to forget.

That’s what I hear in Heather’s words – pride. gratitude. comfort. The outcome may not have been changed by people showing up, but knowing that Ryan was surrounded by people who cared enough to carry some of the weight made his family feel a unique sense of comfort.

No family should ever have to do this alone, and yet, so many of them do.

CHAPTER 9: The Shtukasaurus

As the search continued, Ryan’s friends and family created a logo for their missing person flyers and clothing. It featured a green dinosaur inside a green heart. 

Ryan loved dinosaurs as a child. He liked to play a game where one person would describe a dinosaur species and the other would guess which one it was. His interest became so intense that his parents eventually started studying paleontology themselves, just to keep up.

Over time, the dinosaur took on a name – the “Shtukasaurus.”

A 3D printed model of the Shtukasaurus was created and distributed as part of the search effort. Each dinosaur includes a laminated tag, a QR code that links to the Missing: Ryan Shtuka Facebook page, and a poem printed on the back. It reads:

“You found a Shtukasaurus.
My name is Ryan Shtuka – I am a Shtukasaurus.
I’m a curious type and so love adventures of course.
I’m traveling the world with my story to tell,
of how loved I am and so missed as well.
Pick me up and handle with care,
Take a picture with me anywhere!
You can take me home or leave me right here,
All I ask is your picture you’ll share!
Just one more thing before we say goodbye,
Kindness is something in which I believe,
It is how we get by.
Please do something kind for a soul you don’t know,
Random Acts of Kindness will help the love grow.”

Thousands of the dinosaurs were made and distributed around the world. People started posting photos wherever they took their dinosaurs – on trips, to landmarks, doing daily tasks. Some people left them behind for others to find. And this is still happening today. Eight years later.

Heather said she likes seeing where the dinosaurs ended up. As of 2025, they have traveled to 86 countries and the QR code has been scanned more than 10,000 times.

Heather told us, “But what I think I love and we love most as a family is, I’d like to think that if Ryan were here, that he would have at least have had the opportunity, whether he would have taken it or not, to visit these places all over the world, have these experiences and meet these amazing people. And so in his absence, the dinosaur does that, and then we sort of live vicariously through that. And we get excited to see where it goes next.”

In a case defined by absence, the Shtukasaurus became a way to keep Ryan and his memory present.

CHAPTER 10: The Timeline Breaks

As the search continued, Scott and Heather remained in Sun Peaks for months. Their daughters continued traveling back and forth between Beaumont and the resort.

During that time, the family followed up on tips that came in. One tip came from someone who had been at the party. That person shared a text message suggesting Ryan may have left around 1:40 am, rather than 2:10.

Another individual came forward saying they saw someone matching Ryan’s description around 1:55 am. The person reported seeing him walking on Fairways Drive toward Eagle Court – an area closer to the village’s downtown core

That tip had initially been dismissed because it didn’t align with the 2:10 am timeline, but once it became clear that Ryan may have left earlier, investigators revisited the information.

Heather said it would have been unusual for Ryan to be walking toward downtown at that hour. However, she said it was possible he may have been heading to Mountain High Pizza, which was open until 2:00 am.

With these developments, searchers shifted their focus to the area between Burfield Drive and Fairways Drive expanding the scope of where Ryan could have gone. As spring arrived and the snow began to melt, areas were searched again. From here, the questions only multiplied. Because the snow had melted, but Ryan still wasn’t found.

CHAPTER 11: A Voice in the Dark

Tips kept coming in and in May, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police shared that a man named Jim had come forward. Jim told investigators that on the night Ryan disappeared, he heard what sounded like an angry or possibly violent interaction near the area where the house party had taken place. He reported hearing a man yell, “Get in the car. Get in the fucking car.”

Jim relayed what he heard to the police and spoke with them multiple times. According to Heather, it was determined that Jim had actually been a significant distance from the party. She said she wasn’t sure what he heard had anything to do with Ryan.

Also in May, Heather revealed publicly that Ryan’s cell phone had pinged at 3:00 am on February 17. The ping placed the phone in Sun Peaks, but the exact location was unknown.

To Heather, this confirmed what she already believed: Ryan was still in Sun Peaks after leaving the party. She acknowledged that many people questioned that conclusion, especially after the snow melted and repeated searches turned up nothing.

Around this time, several months after being away from their home in Beaumont, Heather began speaking more openly about the strain of being away from home. She said the family had missed important moments with their daughters – including preparations for their oldest daughter’s high school graduation.

Heather told the media, “I think people forget, like we’ve been here 10 weeks and we still haven’t found Ryan, that the grief doesn’t actually start for us until that moment happens.” She went on to say, “It seems unreal, like we’re in this nether place, like we can’t quite feel grief and we can’t quite feel hope.”

Scott said the experience felt like the movie Groundhog Day. Each day followed the same pattern – waking up, searching for Ryan, and going to sleep.

Eventually, Heather acknowledged that if Ryan wasn’t found soon, she and Scott would have to talk about going home. “Our kids need us,” she said. “I think Ryan will understand.” 

And that decision – whether to stay or leave – is a painful decision families in this position are forced to make. When you are forced to choose between continuing the search and returning to the rest of their lives, there is no easy option.

There’s this constant tension – between being present for the people who still need you and feeling like you’re abandoning the person you’re advocating for. You wake up every day asking yourself the same impossible question: Am I doing enough?

When you’re a family member, searching for answers becomes your full-time job. And yet, you’re still a parent, a sibling, a partner – someone with responsibilities that don’t disappear just because the worst thing imaginable has happened.

Leaving – whether it’s physically leaving a place like Sun Peaks or emotionally stepping back from the search – can feel like betrayal. Even when you know, logically, that you can’t stay frozen in one moment forever.

What Heather says here resonates deeply. That feeling of being suspended – unable to fully grieve, unable to fully hope – is something so many families live with for years. You’re constantly balancing two lives: the one that existed before, and the one shaped entirely by unanswered questions.

And no matter what choice you make – staying or going – you carry guilt with you. Because when someone you love is missing, every decision feels like the wrong one.

CHAPTER 12: Living in the In-Between

At the end of May, Heather told Sun Peaks News that she and Scott were returning home. She said she still believed Ryan was in Sun Peaks, but their best chance of finding him had passed as spring deepened and undergrowth began to thicken..

Searches would continue, but they needed to be back with their daughters. The plan was to return in a few weeks for another organized search, then continue coming back monthly—until the snow fell again.

By February 2019, one year had passed since Ryan disappeared. The RCMP told the media they had no new leads and were not releasing additional information.  By that point, they had followed up on more than 300 tips and reported sightings. None of the tips led anywhere. The police said there was no evidence to suggest Ryan had met with foul play. At the same time, no evidence had been found at all.

Ryan’s roommate Chris spoke publicly about the uncertainty surrounding Ryan’s disappearance. He said, “I have absolutely no idea (what happened to him). All I know is that I don’t believe he would’ve gone anywhere with people he didn’t know. I don’t believe he would’ve 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.”

Chris also addressed questions that had started circulating – about his decision to leave the party without Ryan. Chris said it wasn’t something he thought about at the time. He believed that if Ryan had wanted to leave with them, he would have said something. He would have asked them to wait.

A year in, that moment – the decision to walk out the door without Ryan – had already begun to harden into something else: a moment no one could rewind.

CHAPTER 13: Theories That Don’t Hold

By this time, theories began to circulate about what happened to Ryan – some speculative, some persistent, and many painful for the family to hear. 

One theory suggested Ryan may have been struck by a drunk driver, and that the driver panicked and concealed his body. Heather said she doesn’t fully believe this. She said there should have been evidence, or that in a town that small, someone would have heard or seen something.

Another theory suggested Ryan overdosed at the party and that other partygoers panicked and moved his body. Heather does not believe this either. She said Ryan only used recreational drugs lightly, if at all, and nothing he used would explain an overdose.

Heather also pointed out that if something had happened to Ryan at the party, it wouldn’t make sense for more people to have been allowed inside after he left, and people were continuing to flow in after Ryan started his walk home. 

Heather said it also didn’t make sense that no one would call for help. There was a clear policy at the ski lodge: if someone overdosed, volunteer firefighters were to be called immediately. No one would lose their job for doing so. There has never been any indication that Ryan overdosed. And no one from the party has ever suggested that he did.

Heather told us there are two theories that upset her the most – because Ryan isn’t here to defend himself against them.

The first was that Ryan was a major drug dealer and was killed because of it. Heather said that there was no evidence he was involved in dealing drugs. For that theory to be true, Ryan would have had to enter the drug scene in Sun Peaks and rise quickly in a matter of weeks. It didn’t make any sense at all. 

The second theory was that Ryan owed a large drug debt. Heather said Ryan’s bank records don’t support that. There was a normal amount of money moving in and out of his account, and he had money when he disappeared. There was no indication he was in debt, and no evidence suggesting he couldn’t have paid one if it existed.

There are other theories, but at the end of the day, the Shtukas don’t know what happened to Ryan. Heather told us, “Our theories change based on the day and how we are feeling. The reality is we just don’t know. But we stick to the facts we do know. We search and stay in Sun Peaks because no other evidence has been brought forward to let us believe anything different.”

One of the most overlooked parts of cases like this is how public theories land on the families left behind.

I understand why people speculate. When there are no answers, the human brain wants to fill in the gaps. The problem is that those theories don’t stay abstract. They attach themselves to real people – people who are already carrying more than anyone should have to.

For families, every theory becomes something else to absorb, something else to defend against, something else to quietly correct, over and over again. And some of those narratives don’t just question what happened – they question who the missing person was.

That kind of speculation can reshape a loved one into a caricature. It can turn a son or a brother into a rumor. And the person who’s gone isn’t here to push back. So families are left doing the defending on their behalf.

What often gets lost is that theories don’t exist in a vacuum. They follow families into their daily lives, into their grief, into their memories. And when those theories ignore the facts – or the humanity of the person at the center – they don’t help solve anything. They just create more damage.

The most respectful thing we can do, especially when we don’t know the truth, is stay grounded in what is known – and remember that behind every case is a family still living with the consequences.

CHAPTER 14: Still No Trace

As years passed with no sign of Ryan, his family kept going back to Sun Peaks to search. They also did everything they could to keep Ryan’s story alive – to make sure he was never forgotten. 

In 2022, Heather published a book, Missing From Me, about Ryan’s life and her grief after his disappearance. She also started Free Bird Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to creating an online hub of information and resources on missing people in Canada.

Then, in late 2025, she released a children’s book titled Let’s Talk About Dinosaurs, about a curious little boy named Ryan, his big dinosaur heart, and the everyday moments that bring families closer together.

Today, Heather and Scott continue traveling to Sun Peaks and searching for Ryan. They maintain a working relationship with the RCMP, and the investigation remains open.

Heather said, “Until I am dust and I am dirt I will never stop searching. And even then my soul will yearn to find Ryan wherever he is.”

If you have information about Ryan’s disappearance, you’re asked to contact Kamloops Rural RCMP at 250-314-1800 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Ryan Shtuka was not a mystery when he disappeared. He was a son, a brother, a friend, and a young man just started to catch momentum. He was working, snowboarding, making plans, and staying connected to the people who loved him.

He was 20 years old. He had just begun a season meant to be temporary – one chapter before returning home to Beaumont. Instead, that chapter remains unfinished.

Finding Ryan means something because his story does not end with unanswered questions. His family deserves to know what happened to him. They deserve the chance to bring him home – to lay him to rest, or to bring him home in whatever way the truth allows.

CREDITS:

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Thanks for listening to Frozen Files a Yes! Podcast
Recorded in Los Angeles at KeyFrame Studios
This episode was produced, written, hosted, and edited by Madison McGhee
Produced by Nick Baudille
Produced, written, and researched by Haley Gray
Production design by Stephen Hauser
Creative direction by AJ Christianson

All additional sources are linked in the show notes.