The parents of Ryan Shtuka are renewing a plea today to search for their missing son.
Sunday will mark a year since Shtuka disappeared at Sun Peaks, and his mother Heather says the situation is “a nightmare that doesn’t end.”
“We never expected that this would be our lives for this last year, and as much as I think about how sorry I feel for myself it really isn’t about me. It’s the fact that Ryan’s not living the life that he’s supposed to be living, he’s not where he’s supposed to be and I don’t know exactly how it is we’re going to find him. It’s a roller coaster of tragedy,” Heather said while speaking on the NL Morning News.
“As a mother I’m always going to hope, but reality was pretty present when you look at the situation with the amount of snow that was up here at the time… The vast terrain that we had to search. We had hope, we thought for sure he could’ve been anywhere. And as time goes by, you recognize that there may be other scenarios that are present.”
The Beaumont, Alta. native Ryan vanished on Feb. 17 of last year in Sun Peaks, sometime after leaving a house party. He was 20 years old at the time.
Heather points out Ryan’s file remains a priority with police.
“At this point in time when we have those conversations with the RCMP, and we have them quite regularly, he is a priority. We are working on it, we don’t have anything yet to suggest foul play. He’s still considered a missing person.”