Sarah Douglas, whose partner is Marshal Iwaasa's cousin, displays missing person's posters at her Lethbridge home

By Lara Fominoff

Missing Lethbridge man’s family holds out hope for additional information

Dec 5, 2019 | 4:40 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – When Sarah Douglas visited Sun Peaks Resort with her family two months ago, one of the things she noticed first was the number of signs posted in the area about Ryan Shtuka.

The 20-year-old was last seen leaving a residence just after 2 a.m. on Feb. 17, 2018. He never showed up at work the next day. There has been no sign of him since. No cell phone activity, no bank activity…nothing. Posters and billboards are now scattered throughout the village and surrounding area, in the hope that someone will come forward with information about his disappearance.

Ryan Shtuka Missing Person’s information- Photo Courtesy Facebook

Douglas noted to her partner, Levi Iwaasa at the time, how difficult it must be for Shtuka’s mother and for the rest of his family, not knowing what happened to him.

She never thought that weeks later, her own family would be going through a similar ordeal.

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26-year-old Marshal Iwaasa was last seen in Lethbridge Nov. 17. He was a student at SAIT, she says, and was in Lethbridge for a reading break, visiting his mother and other family. He was supposed to return to Calgary, but he never arrived.

On Nov. 25, according to Whistler RCMP Sgt. Rob Knapton some hikers who were near the end of a forest service road came upon a burned-out vehicle matching the description of Iwaasa’s GMC truck. It had likely only been there for a couple of days, meaning there would be nearly one week of time that was unaccounted for.

“We did a search in the area, located some belongings; various personal items, clothing – that led us to believe that it may be a missing person from Calgary,” he said.

Officers also recovered personal documents, cell phones that had been destroyed, a laptop that was also destroyed, a path of clothes that were partially burned “as if that person may have caught on fire when the vehicle was burning.”

Knapton says RCMP also conducted several searches in the area in conjunction with Pemberton Search and Rescue, using helicopters, dogs and teams of people.

“Most recently we also brought in an underwater search team to search a creek that was nearby in the direction the clothes were going.”

However, police have no leads on why the vehicle may have ended up near Pemberton or how it ended up there. The search for Iwaasa in the area has been suspended unless some new information becomes available, but that doesn’t mean other efforts to find out what happened to Iwaasa aren’t still active, including those with Calgary Police.

Marshal Iwaasa Missing Person’s Poster

And that’s what Douglas and her family are counting on. She says the Iwaasa family is tight knit, and they don’t believe there’s anything to connect Marshal to that area of B.C.; someone must know something about how he may or may not have ended up there.

“Something like this just doesn’t make sense. It’s so confusing. It all just seems so bizarre. Somebody had to have known something along the way. His license plate will appear somewhere, it’s just a matter of getting a team of people looking at security footage. It’s not going to happen overnight.”

The Iwaasa family is hoping to trigger someone’s memory or to encourage people to look at their security footage by broadcasting Marshal’s missing person’s poster at the next couple of Calgary Flames home games. It looks promising so far, according to a Facebook post on page called “Find Marshal Iwaasa.”

“There is a VERY GOOD chance that Marshal’s missing poster will go up on the Energy Board tonight in Calgary at the FLAMES game; however, due to the military appreciation night they have planned at tonight’s game they cannot guarantee this to happen BUT the good news is that future games they will get up!
HUGE Thank you to everyone’s involvements and help with this task.”

Douglas is also hoping that the Kamloops Blazer’s organization can help by broadcasting Iwaasa’s missing person’s poster during their home games.

Iwaasa’s sister Paige, sent a statement to Lethbridge News Now from her home in Hawaii:

“I am extremely humbled by all the community support we have received. It is through community support and connections that we have been able to spread the word of Marshals disappearance throughout Alberta and BC. At this time, we are truly needing the publics continued assistance in identifying if they have seen Marshal or his truck anytime after Sunday November 17. Any tip could be the one that helps us bring Marshal home. If anyone has information, I urge them to contact their local police. Without our friends, family, and community I do not know how we could get through this difficult time. We deeply appreciate all the assistance.”

She also sent a second statement which reads, in full:

“Police have investigated Marshals accounts and I don’t believe there are any leads at this time. I don’t think there is any reason to vanish. We are very close, and I can’t imagine him doing this. Given the condition and circumstances in which his truck was found I am extremely concerned for him and feel its suspicious. Additionally, Marshal and I are very close, and we have a big family that he is also close to. I don’t believe he just chose to vanish, and I am worried about him and his safety. To my knowledge the case is still actively being investigated by RCMP, Calgary and Lethbridge and we are really hoping to spread the word to the public to get more information about his potential whereabouts.”

In the meantime, Douglas and the Iwaasa family have been putting up missing person’s posters across Lethbridge, and throughout Calgary; anywhere they can.

Anyone with information about Iwaasa’s disappearance or whereabouts is asked to contact Pemberton RCMP at (604) 894-6634 or the Calgary Police Service at (403) 266-1234.