Beamount mom of Ryan Shtuka releases book on son’s disappearance at B.C. ski resort

Heather Shtuka’s book 'Missing from Me' details before and after her 20-year-old son Ryan Shtuka vanished in Sun Peaks, B.C. in February 2018. 

A Beaumont mom whose son went missing from a B.C. ski resort four-and-a-half years ago is overwhelmed by support she’s been shown, after her book hit number 13 on Amazon’s bestsellers’ list and topped the charts in multiple categories.

Heather Shtuka’s son Ryan Shtuka was 20 when he was last seen leaving a party in Sun Peaks, B.C., near Kamloops on Feb. 17, 2018.

Her book, Missing from Me, tells the story of his disappearance, but it starts with happy memories of times before the tragedy.

“To me, that was probably the hardest part of the book, just because how do you make something that is so normal and ordinary to you and make it so that readers want to read it?” Shtuka said.

The second part of the book is partially based on blog posts Shtuka began writing three days after Ryan disappeared.

“Everything is in real time. It gives readers insight into what I was feeling — remembering memories, collecting stories from his friends and people that knew him,” she said.

Shtuka said she felt utterly lost when search and rescue crews stopped looking after just a day.

“There was no direction in which we could rely on to be able to get the search.