Searching for a stranger: Dozens of people brought in by bus to look for Ryan Shtuka

SUN PEAKS – It's been nearly 10 weeks since Ryan Shtuka went missing in the Sun Peaks area after leaving a house party on Burfield Drive, but volunteers are still showing up in droves hoping to find any sign of him.

His parents Heather and Scott Shtuka have left their home in Beaumont, Alta. in order to search for their son, who went missing in the early morning hours of Feb. 17. This weekend, they got plenty of help in their search.

A bus took roughly 53 people from Edmonton and Red Deer to Sun Peaks in order to help search for Shtuka. He turned 21 on March 17, exactly one month after he went missing.

"I would say 70 per cent of them we had never met before," Heather says.

One woman told the family it was the one thing she wanted to do on her birthday, so she and her husband came to help volunteer in the ski resort town just outside of Kamloops.

"This is how she wanted to do it, to give back and do something for somebody else," Heather says.

Since Shtuka went missing, Heather says roughly 570 new people have come to volunteer in the family's search efforts, which are still being hampered by the amount of snow still on the ground.

"Realistically I know that the snow is melting now and things will happen maybe a little bit quicker… but we knew finding him is going to be like finding a needle in a hay stack," she says.

Even with the extra hands on deck this weekend, about 75 volunteers total, the search for Shtuka still came up empty. This comes just over one week since a new timeline led to an expanded search area for Shtuka.

"There really isn’t any clues, I wish there were," Heather says. "When we moved to the new location and were searching, it just gave us 19 million ways he could have gone.”

The search was originally focused on the Burfield Drive area, which is the last place Shtuka's friends saw him when leaving a house party. He lived a short distance away from the party and ground crews have consistently searched in that area since the day he was reported missing.

But when a newly established timeline led to the possibility Shtuka was in a different part of Sun Peaks, perhaps heading into the village, Heather says there were endless possibilities.

The Shtuka's have consistently had good numbers of volunteers, and even today, Heather says 12 people came to help search. But with plenty of snow still blanketing the area, and even a small snow storm on the weekend, the family is waiting for the big melt. Heather says Sun Peaks is like a "snowglobe" because just when things start calming down and looking up, another snowfall makes things more difficult.

Heather and Scott have two daughters back in Beaumont who have been managing everything since their parents came to Sun Peaks.

"My oldest, I guess I never knew how strong and capable she was," Heather says. "When we're done here, Ryan won't need me anymore. I feel like it’s the only way to honour him, to do this."

She says they have to keep doing this and see it through, if not for themselves, for the next parents who have to search for their missing child.

"I know that will honour him. The fact is Ryan has touched so many people," Heather says. "It is an honour as his mom to know he's still making an impact… I need to be here for him, and then I’ll go home."

Heather adds their family is fortunate everything people have done to help them out has let them stay in Sun Peaks and search for their son.

The Shtuka's are looking for volunteers every day of the week, and since this week is "Superhero Week", another bus has been organized to help bring people to search for Shtuka. You can find more information about that search here.

For more of our coverage on Ryan Shtuka, go here.

To learn more about search efforts and how you can help, you can go here or check out the Missing: Ryan Shtuka Facebook page.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Ashley Legassic or call 250-319-7494 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.