The Thread

Hi, Park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Dylia DeAmbra. And the case I'm going to share with you today is its own incident. It's about a man named Daniel Ryock. And his story, in many ways, is a bit of a continuation of last week's episode, The Wilderness. Daniel's case isn't just eerily similar to the mysterious disappearance of Marshal Iwasa. It has apparent overlaps. So much so, you can't cover one case without covering the other. To give you a quick reminder of the region I'll be talking about, today's story takes place near the Greater Pemberton Area and the District of Squamish in British Columbia, Canada. It's a landscape known for its rugged beauty and mountainous terrain. In the fall of 2019, 29-year-old Daniel disappeared into this region, never to be seen or heard from again. The mystery of what happened to him has now spanned several years, and those who knew him well are doing everything they can to keep attention on his case. And that includes one of his cousins who's a big fan of this podcast. She's part of a growing number of people who suspect the story of what really happened to Daniel might be connected to something much bigger and more dangerous than the wilds of British Columbia. This is Park Predators. [Music] On Tuesday, January 7, 2020, a woman named Sonia Addis was at work when she got on social media and saw a post that stated her cousin, 29-year-old Daniel Ryach, was missing. The information was shocking. She'd been pretty busy with her own family and kids over the holidays and briefly remembered her father Robert mentioning that Daniel hadn't been seen for a while. But she'd sort of forgotten about that comment until she was staring at the online post that said he was missing. So right away, she called her dad who told her he'd just filed a missing persons report with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Squamish. Daniel had a rough life growing up, and when he was 10 years old, Sonia's parents, the Peterson's, adopted him. He'd grown up in their house holding gotten so close with his cousins that Sonia told me she sometimes refers to him as her brother. But for the sake of clarity in this episode, we'll stick with the term cousin. Anyway, her father Robert had first noticed Daniel was absent about a month prior in early December 2019. Sonia told me that one of her uncles who lived in Ontario had died around that time, and her dad had phoned out there to be with family and help with arrangements. After being in Ontario for a few days, though Robert had told his wife that he hadn't heard from Daniel in a while and thought it would be good for someone to get a hold of him to inform him of the recent death in the family. He also said someone should buy him a plane ticket so he could attend the funeral. But pinning down where Daniel was living at that time proved difficult for his relatives, because he'd been sort of in between places after separating from the mother of his two kids and returned to substance use. Robert eventually got a hold of Daniel's former partner, and she told him that she hadn't seen Daniel in a while. So with no luck there, Robert then went down a list of some of Daniel's close associates and friends, but none of those folks had seen him recently either. Robert was determined to get some answers, though, so he went as far as contacting Daniel's current parole officer to see when they last laid eyes on Daniel. But his nephew's usual parole officer was out that week, and the person filling in for them wouldn't give Robert any information. Like, whatsoever. So after that, Robert gave up on his quest for the time being, and figured Daniel was probably just somewhere in the area and would pop up eventually. Shortly before Christmas, though, Robert returned to British Columbia from Ontario, and once again grew curious about where Daniel was, and why no one had seemed to have bumped into him. To get to the bottom of the mystery, Robert visited Totem Hall on the Squamish Territory, which is where Sonya told me the members of the Squamish Nation and community had quoted their offices. Totem Hall was also where Daniel, as a member, would regularly go pick up funds that the nation issued to its members. He was due to a Christmas bonus check, so Robert assumed the woman in the office at Totem Hall who gave out those checks might have remembered him coming by. When he asked the clerk if she'd seen Daniel recently, she indicated that she thought she had. Sonya told me this woman said she'd spotted Daniel the week prior. She said he'd been with his ex-girlfriend and their two kids to pick up his bonus check. So, that information seemed to put Robert's mind at ease, because it indicated Daniel had been around. However, he still thought it was weird that it was getting closer and closer to the holiday, and his nephew had not at least dropped by. Daniel was super close with his adoptive family, and according to Sonya, it was really unusual that no one had heard from him. Robert's suspicion that something was amiss grew even stronger when New Year's Day passed, and Daniel had still not come around. So, on January 7th, when Daniel was officially reported missing, most everyone in his immediate family experienced a sense of panic and felt in their guts that something was very wrong. Sonya told me that she and her dad discussed the alleged sighting of Daniel from before Christmas by the woman who worked at Totem Hall, but Daniel's family realized that woman likely was mistaken, because, turns out, Daniel's ex-girlfriend's current partner looked very similar to him. So, the family assumed that the whole account was likely a case of mistaken identity, which made sense considering the fact that Daniel and his ex had broken up. Why would he have been with her and their kids? Not to mention, his ex had already told Robert she hadn't seen Daniel as of late. Anyway, once he was listed in the police's system as a missing person, the description that went out for Daniel stated he was five feet nine inches tall, had brown hair and brown eyes, and weighed about 150 pounds. Because so much time had passed by the time he was reported missing, investigators with the RCMP tried to play ketchup, and determined the last time anyone had actually seen or heard from him. According to news coverage on this case and my interview with his cousin, Daniel was last seen alive around 1am on Tuesday, November 26, 2019 in Squamish. One of his aunts named Katrina reported he'd come by her home in the wee hours of the morning to ask how she was doing, and inform her that he'd recently gotten married to her dog, which was a statement that reportedly made Katrina feel unsettled. Daniel also claimed he'd been fighting with a friend by a nearby river, and it seems because of his odd statements and the fact that it was the middle of the night, his aunt asked him to leave, but before sending him away she offered to give him a jacket. However, as she went to retrieve the coat, Daniel wandered off onto a trail behind her house and disappeared into the woods. That was reportedly the last time anyone saw him. And according to coverage by North Shore News, when he left, he was headed in the direction of where an adjacent road named Lewis Drive ran behind the woods, abutted to Katrina's property. That same day around 2.20pm, another relative who lived close to Katrina discovered Daniel's 2004 Black Honda Civic, abandoned in their driveway. Daniel's cousin told me she's heard two different stories about how that car looked when it was found. One version is that the ignition was running, and one of the doors was open, and Daniel's cell phone was sitting inside. But in another version of the story, she's heard that the engine wasn't idling, so that detail is unclear. But either way, after it was reported as abandoned, a tow company came and took it away and kept it at an impound lot. It was reportedly still being housed in that lot two months later when authorities began the missing persons investigation for Daniel in early January. Shortly after he was reported missing, the RCMP, accompanied by a search and rescue dog, organized a formal search in Squamish. Unfortunately, though, no sign of Daniel turned up. A few days later, on January 20, 2020, volunteers and relatives joined police in search and rescue personnel for an additional search. Sonya told me that going into that effort, authorities instructed folks to check for signs of an animal attack, because, according to officials, Cougars known to be in the area had a habit of taking whatever they attacked up into the trees. So, the search for Daniel that time around seemed to cover the terrain literally top to bottom, and it wasn't an easy task by any means. His cousin told me that search crews and volunteers had to trudge through deep snow pretty much the entire time. Because the situation was so surreal, it seems members of the Peterson family now saw a lot of what had been going on with Daniel in the time leading up to his disappearance through an entirely new lens. His cousin told me that her dad, Robert, recalled a phone conversation he'd had with his nephew the day prior to his disappearance, that, at the time, felt strange. But now, the interaction seemed like it could possibly be an important clue. Before 10am on the morning of November 25th, this would have been a day or so before Daniel vanished. His uncle Robert received a call from him from a random phone number in which Daniel was talking oddly and seemed confused. His cousin said that he'd apparently been found standing and kneeling on the ground praying in the middle of a road wearing inappropriate clothing for cold weather. He'd eventually wandered onto a nearby ranch and asked a worker there if he could use their phone to call Robert, which explains why Robert received the call from a random phone number. Anyway, when Robert answered Daniel asked him how everyone was, and Robert responded that everyone was fine. But as their conversation continued, Daniel made a statement that he was "just living in a completely different timeline." And then, according to what Robert told Sonia, Daniel just began babbling. Eventually the ranch worker took his phone back and asked Robert if he should call the police to come get Daniel. Robert told the worker that was probably going to be the best option, and so shortly after that officers with Squamish RCMP detained Daniel and took him to jail. He was released a few hours later around 5pm. RCMP detectives working his missing persons case confirmed a few sightings of him after that release. Surveillance video from a Tim Horton's coffee shop in Squamish showed him visiting that establishment around 6pm. In the footage, he's seen wearing a blue brown and tan long sleeve plaid shirt with buttons down the front. He also had on dark colored suspenders, black pants, and black shoes with white trim on the soles. His left shoe had a white shoelace in it, and the right foot had a black shoelace in it. According to my interview with his cousin and the available news coverage on this case, after leaving the coffee shop, Daniel was reportedly spotted at a Walmart in Squamish at 6.46pm, and then he went back to the Tim Horton's where he got a ride from a friend to the upper Squamish area. It seems the next time he was accounted for was when he showed up to his aunt's house around 1am on the 26th. But even with those bits and pieces of information, there are a lot of gaps in his timeline leading up to his disappearance. And it's in those missing hours that one has to wonder who he interacted with. Where was he? Another question that had to be asked was did anyone dislike Daniel enough to want him to disappear? Did he have beef with a person or people who he might have rubbed the wrong way? His cousin told me that's a possibility. His life in the years and months leading up to his disappearance had been a bit of a roller coaster. Sonya told me that some months he'd be fine. He'd been in recovery from a substance use disorder, had a relationship with his young kids, and all seemed good with his ex-girlfriend. But then, after they'd broken up for good, he'd returned to substance use, lost custody of his kids, and his life spiraled. There had also been several strange incidents where Daniel had shown up with mysterious injuries or displayed behavior that indicated he was under the influence of illicit substances, or was experiencing mental health complications. For example, several months before he vanished, his uncle Robert had taken him to the hospital to have surgery on his hand. Daniel claimed he'd punched a door and that's how he got the injury, but his cousin and her family suspected someone had purposely smashed it in retaliation for something. They never got the full story, but regardless, Sonya said Daniel's hand was literally shattered to the point where it needed to be operated on. However, about 20 minutes after her dad dropped him off at the hospital, Daniel called and asked to be picked up. He never got the surgery because he'd expressed his trust in the hospital staff and seemed to think they would be listening to him. Within a few weeks of that incident, Robert and Sonya's brother were at home when Daniel just showed up in the middle of the night and kicked in their back door. When the relatives found him, he was standing still, staring into the residence, appearing to be, as his cousin described it, kind of a little bit crazed. Robert called the police and it was quickly discovered that Daniel had used an axe to break into a neighbor's home right before showing up at the Peterson's back door step. His cousin told me she believes Daniel might have been arrested for that incident, but she can't remember for sure because the neighbors he scared were really good friends of their family. And they were hesitant at one point to press charges because they knew the struggles that Daniel was going through. After that, the Peterson family's relationship with Daniel grew strained because they all suspected he was using methamphetamine. Sonya's parents wanted to protect themselves from his unpredictable behavior and Sonya herself regrettably began ignoring Daniel's messages, all the way up until he disappeared. She told me she'd heard some rumors prior to Daniel going missing that he might have had problems with one particular man or a group of people who were suspected of being the ones who'd injured his hand several months prior. And allegedly, this hand-creshing incident was retaliation for Daniel stealing something from someone. She was hesitant to go into further detail with me about this subject for fear of her own safety, even to this day. But she did explain for context, though, that due to Daniel's recent pattern of behaviors, he had the ability to irritate people quite easily. She told me that he might have been on some people's bad side. However, he wasn't known to be experiencing suicidal thoughts. But even with that perspective considered, the possibilities of what could have happened to him were seemingly endless. By mid-January, though, when authorities were deep in the throes of searching for him and the missing person's investigation, officials came out in voice that they didn't think Daniel's disappearance was criminal in nature. A sergeant with the RCMP told the press, "Squamish RCMP along with the Sea to Sky General Investigations Unit has been investigating all leads and avenues to locate Daniel, and at this stage, there is no evidence of foul play. We are doing all we can to bring Daniel home, but each day that passes brings a growing concern for his well-being." And look, based on what's known about Daniel's life, there were a lot of reasons for people to be concerned about him on a number of different levels. It seems a lot of his struggles stemmed from traumatic events in his childhood. You see, his mother, April Ryach, was just 14 years old when he was born. She suffered from addiction, and according to what Daniel's cousin told me, April initially decided she wanted someone to adopt her son. However, her relatives who were in the Squamish Nation wanted to raise Daniel there, so the adoption was called off and he went to live with family members in British Columbia. He spent most of his life never knowing who his biological father was, and because of his mom's substance use disorder, his relationship with her was strained as well. Sometimes he'd spend time with her in Vancouver's East Side, but his cousin told me the conditions of those visits weren't the best. She said that as an adult, Daniel would often talk about how prominent his mother's substance use was during his childhood. The mother-in-son story was actually the centerpiece of a national film board of Canada documentary titled "Through a Blue Lens," which explored the lives of several people who suffered from substance use disorders. The doc was released in 1999, 20 years before Daniel vanished. Part of the film followed his mom April as she navigated her substance use disorder, heart complications due to drug use, and her repeated attempts to achieve stable recovery. She tried at least five different times to stop substance use, but unfortunately, about a year after the documentary's release, she was murdered at the age of 25 by a man she'd been living with, who suspected she'd stolen rent money from him. On Christmas Day 2000, her body was found in a rooming house in Vancouver's downtown East Side. However, an article by Mary Frances Hill for the West Ender stated she was located in an actual dumpster. Daniel, who was just 10 years old at the time, had been waiting for a visit from his mom for the holidays. The filmmakers who produced the first documentary ended up releasing a follow-up film updating viewers on April's tragic death, as well as where the other subjects were who'd been followed during the first film. After April's murder, the Addis family adopted Daniel and he was raised in an environment that his cousin described as much more stable and nurturing for him. He grew up to become a successful high school football player and was described as an extrovert who was warm, kind, thoughtful, and very personable. Sadly, according to what his cousin told me, he began to use alcohol in his teenage years. She explained he would regularly be taken into custody and held until he sobered up. As a young man, he discovered who his biological father was and gone to spend time with him, but ultimately his cousin said that Daniel returned to her family and expressed that, though it was cool to finally know who his dad was and be able to meet him, he felt in his heart that his uncle Robert and Robert's wife were his true parents. As a young man, Daniel had foregone pursuing higher education and instead worked in construction or held manual labor jobs to make a living. It was around this time that the Peterson family suspected he began using illicit substances because his behavior had changed. At some point, his cousin said that Daniel experienced as she put it, a mental breakdown. He abruptly abandoned the basement apartment he was staying in, left British Columbia, and traveled on a bus toward Ontario. While in Rao, he got into a fight with the bus driver and ended up fleeing into some woods where he subsequently broke into a cabin and was later arrested. After spending time in a Winnipeg jail for that incident, he lived with relatives in Ontario for a few years before returning to Squamish. His life seemed to take a turn for the better though after that when his first child was born. His cousin told me Daniel loved being a father and having a kid literally changed his whole life. For a while, he seemed to be on the right track. He attended family gatherings with the mother of his children and everything was good. However, in time, he stopped showing up to scheduled visits with his kids, and after he and his estranged girlfriend broke up, that's when things sort of fell apart again for him. According to his cousin, some searchers thought it was possible that Daniel's disappearance meant he'd gone to live in Vancouver's east side, where his mother April had been killed, but when police and volunteers visited that area of the city and asked around about him, no one claimed to have seen him. And obviously, Daniel himself wasn't there. So that theory fizzled out pretty quickly. In mid-February 2020, Daniel's relatives from the Squamish Nation took another approach to search for him. Daniel's relatives from his mom's side of the family, who were members of the Squamish Nation held a ceremony near where he'd last been seen. One or two people in that group called on the spirits of their ancestors to help pinpoint where Daniel was. Members of the RCMP were supportive of the idea and even attended the ceremony. One of Daniel's aunts told the press that even though he hadn't been found, his family believed the circumstances of his disappearance were highly suspicious. And they thought it was possible he'd been a victim of foul play. Later on, expressed that by doing the ceremony, they would be able to learn if he was dead or alive because his spirit would either be present in the spirit world, or it wouldn't be. His cousin, who spoke with me for this episode, attended the ceremony and described it as intense. She said the leaders that were brought in are purported to have the ability to communicate with spirits in another realm. There was dancing, adornments like wooden masks, and ultimately the leaders led participants on a run into the woods and to a river where they stopped at a rock. They claimed the rock was the last object Daniel had touched, and the leaders ending near the river seemed to imply that Daniel might have gone into the water and died. But his cousin told me that wasn't explicitly stated. She said she'd heard rumors that Daniel died by suicide in the waterway, but that's never been proven since his body has not been found. And that's not for lack of trying, by the way. According to an article by the Squamish Chief, the RCMP and other entities scoured waterways in the Squamish area for signs of Daniel. But nothing ever surfaced. Father's days, anniversaries, and birthdays have all passed, and a spokesperson for Daniel's family at one point mentioned that those milestones were especially difficult to celebrate without him. Relatives like his cousin established the Facebook group Daniel Ryok, Missing, which now has more than 1,800 members. But it seems that chatter online is where people familiar with Daniel's case began to make connections between what happened to him and the disappearance of Marshall Iwasa. Now to be clear, Marshall vanished on November 18, 2019 from Lethbridge, Alberta. But his GMC pickup truck was discovered a few days later on November 23, burned up near the Brian Wattington Hut Trailhead north of Pemberton, British Columbia. And if you remember from listening to Marshall's episode, there were a number of items discovered around his truck that his family said they didn't recognize as belonging to him. Well, what I didn't tell you in my episode about Marshall's case is that according to his sister page, one of those items was a cooler that had a name written on it in marker, and that name just so happens to be the name of one of Daniel Ryok's cousins on his mom's side of the family. A cousin, whose name is fairly prominent and well-known by members of the Squamish Nation. Page Marshall's sister told me in our interview that someone posted about the cooler on the Facebook page they'd created for her brother's case. And as far as she's aware, law enforcement officials involved in Marshall's missing persons investigation have reportedly looked into the lead. But what's come from that line of inquiry is unclear. For in Daniel's camp, his cousin, Sonia, told me that as far as she knows, the RCMP in Daniel's case is aware of the potential overlap, too, but she doesn't know how serious investigators are looking into it. She told me that in addition to the cooler with the name on it being with Marshall's truck, there were also a pair of overalls and tools suspected to have belonged to Daniel there. She took it upon herself to connect with Page directly, and after they spoke and reviewed the photos that the hikers who discovered this stuff around Marshall's burn vehicle had taken. Sonia saw for herself what all had been found, and it seemed really weird to her. She told me straight up the whole thing is very strange and suspicious. She explained that once Daniel's cousin's name got put out there online, that guy became defensive because he swore he wasn't involved in what happened to Marshall, and he wasn't present when Marshall's truck was burned. Sonia personally doesn't know what to think about this. She doesn't necessarily believe the guy whose name was written on the cooler was truly involved in Marshall's disappearance or upsetting the truck on fire. But it's just really odd and she can't make heads or tails of it. She told me that Daniel did have a habit of borrowing things from family members and not returning them, but she doesn't know if that's the situation with this cooler or not. If that was the case, though, and the cousin is not involved, it still doesn't answer the question of how or why the cooler ended up with Marshall I was's truck. A person who reportedly had zero-known connections to Daniel. As far as everyone who knows these two guys is concerned, they didn't know when another or have the same friends. Marshall lived in Calgary, Alberta and was last seen at his storage unit not far from where his mom Tammy lived in Lethbridge. Daniel was living some 14 hours west of there in British Columbia. He disappeared two days after Marshall's vehicle was discovered. But I think it's because of the fact that Marshall's truck was found so close to where Daniel disappeared around the same time he vanished, that it's hard to chalk that up to coincidence. And when you take into account the name on the cooler seems to loosely link the two cases, plus the fact that both men were about the same age and had similar lines of work. Well, one can't help but wonder if maybe their cases are connected somehow. But playing devil's advocate, let's just say that the name on the cooler found with Marshall's truck is some other person who isn't Daniel's cousin, but just has the same name. The question still is, who is that guy and how did his cooler end up with Marshall's burned pickup? What does it mean? When I interviewed Daniel's cousin, Sonya, she told me something she's never shared before with anyone, which is that after Daniel disappeared, one of her good friends who was also friends with Daniel told her that she'd been texting with him on the night of November 17th. The same night, Marshall went to his mom's in Lethbridge and then subsequently disappeared. According to this friend, Daniel abruptly ghosted their text conversation on that date, and he didn't respond to her until about 20 hours later. Sonya said her friend claimed to have tried a bunch of times to see what was up and why Daniel wasn't responding. But all she got was radio silence. Then when he did finally return to their text conversation, he typed that he was fine, it was just kind of a weird or tough time for him because something really weird had just happened. Now, I don't want to read too much into that claim because the info is coming second-hand from Sonya, but you can see why she thinks it could be important. She told me that from everything she's gathered, Daniel had been experiencing mental health complications right before he disappeared. And she knows that exact time frame coincides with when Marshall vanished and his vehicle was found. Her theory, which is just her opinion, is that maybe Daniel was involved in what happened to Marshall, but not necessarily as a willing participant. She told me she suspects Daniel could have owed drug debts to whoever burned Marshall's truck and as a way to repay those debts, he'd participated in whatever went down with Marshall. Then after the fact because Daniel was experiencing mental health complications, the people who'd involved him could have deemed him a liability. So they might have made him disappear too, wrongly believing that no one would miss him. She told me she's heard rumors from people who've said that they'd seen Daniel and Marshall together prior to when Marshall's truck was found on November 23rd, but law enforcement has never said if they've determined any of those reports or rumors are legit. That being said, I did find a program on YouTube published in 2023 called Barely Social, which released a segment titled The Pemberton Incident, An Unsolved Mystery. That video dove into a pretty interesting account of an alleged sighting of Daniel and Marshall together right before they both vanished. According to that video, at some point in 2020, the RCMP became aware of a tip which claimed that in November 2019, Marshall and Daniel had been seen together at a pub in Squamish called That Irish Place. The person who reported this information alleged that while he was in the pub, he saw both men in the company of another guy who seemed scary. The witness said that he saw the trio drinking some beer and then Daniel got up to go outside and have a smoke. The witness claimed he'd talked with Daniel while smoking with him, and then he watched Daniel walk over to an idling pickup truck that was similar in appearance to a GMC Sierra with Alberta plates on it, which was a match for the kind of vehicle Marshall drove. Anyway, according to this tipster, he claimed that when he'd seen Marshall and Daniel in the pub, they both appeared fairly distressed. In a now-deleted Facebook post to Sonya, Daniel's cousin, this witness expounded even more on the sort of play-by-play of what he says he saw that night. He alleged that while talking and smoking with Daniel outside the pub, he'd asked Daniel who was in the idling pickup truck. up truck, and Daniel simply responded, quote, "I think that guy is going to kill us," end quote. Then not long after that conversation ended, and Daniel walked away, the witness claimed he saw Marshall walk back into the pub and unsuccessfully attempted to get cash out of an ATM three times. According to this tipster, he provided a statement to the RCMP about all this, but what the agency did with that information is something only investigators know. If you remember from Marshall's episode, though, his family said his financial activity stopped before he vanished, so I would think if he did try to use the ATM at that Irish place, like the witness from the bar claimed. Those three failed attempts would have shown up on his bank records. Maybe they did, and the RCMP knows that, but just hasn't shared that info publicly. Or maybe the attempts didn't happen, and the RCMP has used that to debunk the witness from the pub's claims. It's impossible to know since we're not on the inside of the investigation. So, are these two missing men's cases connected? The answer is, I don't know. It sure seems possible, and I could go down all the rabbit holes and speculate all day. But the fact is, Daniel and Marshall are still missing, and need to be found. There are so many questions in both cases that remain unanswered. I for one think that if the right people were to come forward, law enforcement would have a much better chance at piecing together both puzzles, either as linked or separate incidents. So listen up to all my Canadian listeners, especially if you live in the locations where these two men disappeared. I'm talking specifically to my people in Calgary, Lethbridge, Pemberton, Squamish. If you have any information regarding Daniel's disappearance, contact the Squamish RCMP at 604-892-6100. Also call crime stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. You can remain anonymous. And if you have information about Marshall Iwas's disappearance, get in touch with Lethbridge Police Services at 403-328-4444 or via crime stoppers. Their number again is 1-800-222-8477. Park Predators is an audio chuck production. You can view a list of all the source material for this episode on our website, parkpredators.com. And you can also follow park predators on Instagram @ParkPredators. I think Chuck would approve.