The family of Ryan Shtuka will be back in Sun Peaks from tomorrow until Thursday to once again look for the missing Alberta native.

Speaking to NL News, Ryan’s mother, Heather, says it will be a low key affair because of COVID-19 restrictions.

“There is a personal responsibility that we have not only to the community but to ourselves. It is not the time to create events and have tons of people come up,” she said.

“We’ll stay with our small groups, whatever the restrictions allow, and just look at where we’re going to do it and set up a plan for what’s going to go forward for us.”

It will be the first time that the family has been able to search the Sun Peaks area since last August. This latest search comes two weeks after the RCMP were up in the area for what was the first organized search for Ryan in three years. Since Ryan’s disappearance, the Shtuka family has often made trips to Sun Peaks to try and looks for clues.

“When we came [in October], it snowed. So that made searching difficult,” Heather said. “We really haven’t searched since last August. This just gives us an opportunity for Scott and I take what we have learned and to look at what are high priorities.”

She notes they will not be searching the areas that police searched. Police, at the time, walked the family through what had been done.

“That was eye opening and great for us because now we can cross that off the list and say, ‘okay, let’s look methodically at how we are going to conduct our searches,'” Heather added.

“‘Are we just going to go onto the tail end of that search or are we going head to a different direction?’ That’s really what we are going to be doing when we come up.”

Ryan Shtuka was last seen leaving a house party on Burfield Drive in Sun Peaks three years ago on February 17, 2018.

And Heather is continuing to ask people in the community to keep an eye out for anything that could lead investigators to her son.

“We’re not CSI investigators. We’re not asking people to go and say, ‘okay, this is evidence’ or anything along those lines, but the items that Ryan was wearing or had on him – his wallet, his keys, his phone – if somebody comes across it, that gives us a good starting point,” she added.

Anybody with information is urged to contact either Kamloops RCMP at or Crime Stoppers.