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My own personal opinion, I can say this. We know Danny loves his children passionately and would do anything for his kids. We know that we spoke to him the day that he went missing.

He was not unhappy. We know that. Danny is, we don't believe in suicidal or suicidal. We don't believe that for a second. That's something we discounted right away and despite the fact that everyone else seems to be on board with us. He was a confident man. Yes, he had some problems. But he was a very, very confident man and he knew. And he knew the people he loved and knew the people loved him. So we don't know.

On November 25, 2019, 29-year-old Daniel Ryak was in the custody of the Royal Canadian-melted police in Squamish, British Columbia. For the majority of the day after they picked him up walking along a rural road, in temperatures just barely above freezing. He wasn't dressed for the weather. He didn't have a jacket on, only a t-shirt.

Daniel called his uncle, but something didn't seem right. His demeanor was off. He was in the midst of a crisis. And the police as well as Daniel's family were concerned. But they couldn't hold him. And that evening he was released from custody. 12 hours later he'd vanish into the dark of night, walking off into the darkness of another road in a rural part of the Squamish Valley. Never to be seen again.

I'm Marissa and from Wondery, this is episode 352 of the Vanished. Daniel Ryak's story.

Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wondery's podcast business wars. In our latest series, two visionary automakers each believe they can beat Detroit and build America's favorite cars.

Listen to business wars on Amazon music or wherever you get your podcasts. Daniel Ryak had not gotten an easy start to life. When Daniel was just 10 years old, Daniel was a great man.

Daniel was just 10 years old. His mother April was tragically murdered on Christmas Day in a heinous crime with little motive. But even before that, Daniel's life had been choppy.

He was often between relatives' houses, seeing and living with his mom intermittently and without any idea of who or where his father was.

We spoke to several family members for Daniel's story and started with his cousin Sonia, who he considered a sibling and they referred to each other as brother and sister. Sonia told us what the early history of Daniel's life was like.

So my dad's brother Bill, he's from Ontario. He came out here and he met Daniel's grandmother, Kathy, and they had a daughter together April. And so April is actually my first cousin. Daddy's mom is my first cousin.

She got pregnant with Daniel 14 gave birth to him back in Ontario where her dad is where my uncle is and then came back to BC with him. And she ended up on the east side of Vancouver, which is pretty much a skid row. She ended up into the drugs.

And then Danny was raised by family members from his indigenous side from the Squamish Nation. April ended up back on the east side. And then we met Daniel a few times throughout, you know, the first eight, nine years of his life, but not too often because he was usually with the other side of the family and April was on the east side.

And then April ended up getting murdered, but she was trying to sort of make her life better. She was trying to get off skid row and unfortunately she was murdered and put in a dumpster.

And after she was found, there were a number of funerals. There was a funeral downtown Vancouver. There was a funeral with the Squamish Nation as well. And then Danny at the time was in foster care.

And we started having him over for visits, like as soon as that happened, we start having him over for visits. He was 10 at the time. And then the visits turned into a sort of week long stays. And then eventually my parents ended up taking him in to raise as their own that same year.

So he was 10. So he basically was raised by my parents from the age of 10 until he graduated high school. He was very intelligent, really, really smart.

He went through a lot in his early childhood. And of course losing your mom and he didn't know who his dad was at the time. He handled it really well when he was younger.

He was very musical as well. My dad's best friend ended up making him a guitar. And he started guitar lessons and he was extremely talented with the guitar. So very musical, very intelligent.

April was only a teen herself when she gave birth to Daniel. And though we don't know much of her own history, we do know that she ended up dependent on drugs and without a stable place to live.

April's uncle Rob and his wife ended up taking Daniel in at first just temporarily, but he quickly became part of their nuclear family.

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