CANADA Canada - Marshal Iwaasa, 26, Lethbridge, Alberta, burned truck found in B.C., 17 Nov 2019

[dotr]

• rbbm.
• December 2, 2019
  Family continues to hold out hope for missing Calgary man
  "CALGARY -- RCMP say they have received a number of tips on the disappearance of a Calgary man whose truck was found burned-out near Pemberton, B.C.
  
  Marshal Iwaasa was last seen Nov. 17 by family in Lethbridge, when they say he planned to return to his home in Calgary.
  
  He didn't arrive and his truck was later found burned-out on a trailhead near Pemberton, B.C. just over a week later.
  A witness who found the truck said there were items strewn all around it including two passports, three cell phones, a smashed laptop, ID cards, toiletry bags and clothing.
  
  RCMP have called the discovery of the truck and items, suspicious.
  
  Search crews and a helicopter were used this past weekend to scour the area once again, without success.
  
  Iwaasa is described as 5-foot 11 (180 centimetres) tall, about 170 pounds (77 kilograms) with brown eyes and shoulder-length hair. He also has a moustache. He was last seen wearing a green hoodie, a grey tuque, red high-top shoes and black pants.
  
  
  Family said he often wears his hair tied back or under a tuque.
  
  
  His truck was a dark blue 2009 GMC Sierra with the Alberta licence plate BLL 1099.
  
  Iwaasa's sister, Paige Fogen, said he was studying computer programming at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology."
  
  
• 
  Police are investigating and searching the area where 26-year-old Marshal Iwaasa's burned truck was found.
  
  
• 
  A truck believed to belong to Marshal Iwaasa was found near Pemberton. (Photo courtesy James Starke)
  
  
• 
  Marshal Iwaasa, 26, was reported missing by family after a truck, believed to be his, was found burned-out in Pemberton. (Calgary police)
  
  
• 
  Marshal Iwaasa was last seen by family in Lethbridge on Nov. 17. (Calgary police)
  
  
• 

 

[dotr]

Dec 3 2019
Search continues for missing man
“Yesterday marked one week since my brother Marshal Iwaasa’s truck was found burned out in Pemberton, B.C.,” says Paige Fogen, Iwaasa’s sister. “It was an extremely hard day not to have Marshal found. I miss him so much it hurts and feels like a huge piece of me is missing. We are so grateful for all the amazing support received from the community. We love Marshal so much and really want to find him and bring him home.”

Marshal is a 26-year-old man, five feet, 11 inches (180 centimetres) tall, with brown eyes, shoulder-length brown hair which is usually worn tied back, and a mustache. He was last seen wearing a green hoodie, a grey toque, red high-top shoes and black pants.

Family and friends have been sharing their thoughts and prayers for the return of Iwaasa. People describe Iwaasa as a quiet and cheerful young man who was studying at the college and enjoyed spending time with his whole family. With over a week since Iwaasa’s disappearance, family and friends still have hope for his safe return.

“Marshal Iwaasa is a family man,” writes Ryan Lee, family member. “He is my kids’ uncle, a huge part of our lives. He was in college, loved working out, and one of the most generous and kind people I have ever met. Marshal is very approachable, quiet and shy. We love you Marshy and we will find you.”

Anyone with information about Iwaasa’s disappearance or his movements since Nov. 17 is asked to call Pemberton RCMP at 604-894-6634 or the Calgary Police Service at 403-266-1234. Tips can also be submitted anonymously to Crime Stoppers through phone, 1-800-222-8477, or online at crimestoppers.ca.

 

[TatianaBarbie]

From Lethbridge, AB, to Calgary, AB, to Pemberton, BC is quite a distance--1099 km (683 miles):


خرائط ‪Google‬‏‏

 

[ttcRider]

Things I find strange about this disappearance: His laptop, xbox, 3 cell phones plus a few other items were found outside of the burnt out truck as well as his expired passport and another passport with the info torn out. Why werent these left in the truck to burn as well?? If someone stole the truck they would have taken those items to sell. There must have been 2 vehicles up there (if he didnt do this and take off in the woods) its in the middle of nowhere.

edited to add - all his things were smashed.

 

[dotr]

Also posted this article in Ryan's Ws thread..
CANADA - Canada - Ryan Shtuka, 20, Kamloops, BC, 17 Feb 2018

Dec 5 2019
https://lethbridgenewsnow.com/2019/...ly-holds-out-hope-for-additional-information/
"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."

"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.”

 

[dotr]

Dec 6 2019
Includes video.
‘Every parent’s nightmare’: Mother of missing Calgary man speaks out after RCMP search suspended
"The last time Tammy Johnson saw her son Marshal Iwaasa was on Nov. 17 when he stopped by her home in Lethbridge, Alta., to help fix her computer.

“We talked and everything was normal,” Johnson said Friday. “Nothing was out of sorts.”

Now, Johnson is handing out posters and making calls, hoping she will see her son again."
“He had to have stopped for gas,” Johnson said. “His truck had to have stopped for gas, I’ll put it that way. Someone has to have seen him.”

"Johnson said the outpouring of support from friends and total strangers has been deeply moving.

“There’s been so many volunteers that want to help. We all love him and just want him home. That’s the only thing,” she said."

 

[ttcRider]

"...a path of clothes that were partially burned “as if that person may have caught on fire when the vehicle was burning.” Do they know if the clothes belonged to Marshal?

 

[dotr]

"...a path of clothes that were partially burned “as if that person may have caught on fire when the vehicle was burning.” Do they know if the clothes belonged to Marshal?

Good question about the clothing, have not found a link so far, that describes anything beyond, "discarded clothing" although the other items found were determined to belong to Marshal. imo.
Dec 5 2019 rbbm.
RCMP suspend search for missing Calgary man near Whistler
“We’re still trying to understand where he is and what happened, and all we know is that his truck is in Pemberton. We just have no clues or sightings since he was seen in Lethbridge,” said Darmanin.

Several items belonging to Iwaasa were found in the truck and discarded clothing was located by a creek, but the search is being put on hold until it makes sense to continue, though the investigation is ongoing."
“He might be out there and he might be hurt or scared or lost, and he might not ask for help,” she added.

Iwaasa is described as five feet 11 inches tall and about 170 pounds, with brown eyes, shoulder-length brown hair that is usually worn tied back, and a moustache. Police say when he was last seen, he was wearing a green hoodie, a grey tuque, red high-top shoes and black pants.
Man follows Whistler woman, tries to force his way into home, police say
"James Starke, writing on the South Coast Touring Facebook group, said the truck "smelt very fresh" when he discovered it with a group of friends alongside "possessions thrown all over the area," including two passports, three smashed cellphones, a destroyed laptop, ID cards, toiletry bags and clothing.

"It felt like a crime scene and had a very eerie feeling," he wrote.

Speaking to CTV News Calgary this week, Iwaasa's sister, Paige Fogen, said although her brother enjoyed hiking and the outdoors, it would be "weird" if he went on a hiking trip to B.C. without telling anyone."

 

[Satchie]

How awful for his family.

From above: ... including two passports, three smashed cellphones,

I have to ask, who brings their passports (current and expired?) for a family visit 2 hours drive away? However, Lethbridge is very close to the US border, if you continued driving in the opposite direction from Calgary.

Who needs 3 cell phones? Who typically has several cellphones?

 

[ttcRider]

I had 2 cell phones at one time, one was a company work phone and then my own personal one. This was years ago when you actually got company phones, not even sure if they still do that anymore. shrug. I guess it depends on the business? wink wink.

 

[Satchie]

I had 2 cell phones at one time, one was a company work phone and then my own personal one. This was years ago when you actually got company phones, not even sure if they still do that anymore. shrug. I guess it depends on the business? wink wink.

He didn't have any kind of job, he was just a student, apparently.

A related question to the ones in my earlier post: why would anyone take the trouble to smash all 3 cellphones, plus the laptop?

Pemberton is very close to Whistler. A young Australian snowboarder disappeared and then was found dead near Whistler a few years ago. From what is known, I speculate he was possibly selling drugs. But he was just a visiting kid, not some sophisticated lifetime criminal with deep ties to the Hell's Angels, etc.
Found Deceased - Canada - Jake Kermond, 19, Whistler, BC, 26 April 2015

Dan Archbald, who was eventually found dead near Tofino, was from Squamish, about 40 min drive from Whistler. He was another clean cut family guy, maybe looking for easy money to fund his lifestyle, not the kind who would be deeply involved in a drug gang.

Many, many people make some cash on the side by being drug mules, bringing or collecting stuff at the border and driving it across the country. Even if they're dealing the drugs, they're often lured into it and set up with all they need, by whoever is their supplier. They're at the bottom of the food chain, so if they become a problem, all that needs to happens is they get beat up and told that if they don't scram, something worse will happen. They're not going to go to police.

I'm just wondering whether these cases are connected. It's not just the similarities between these young men, it's also my sense of something unusually ruthless behind the known circumstances.

Perhaps RCMP know much more than they're telling.

 

[Innana]

I haven’t read anything yet that says the three cell phones were his. Has anyone else? Just because they were found there, doesn’t mean he owned all three phones.

 

[Satchie]

I haven’t read anything yet that says the three cell phones were his. Has anyone else? Just because they were found there, doesn’t mean he owned all three phones.

I see two possibilities: Matthew burned the truck himself, or someone else stole it and burned it.

So, in what kind of scenario would there be other people's cellphones at the site?:

1. If Matthew acquired other people's cellphones (how?), and destroyed them before burning his truck and all his possessions. He then set off to start life anew, somewhere in the Canadian wilderness in winter, without his passport. Sort of like the Port Alberni teens this summer. However, there's no reason to suspect him of a crime.

2. If he, plus two other people, destroyed their cellphones, and burnt their possessions, and left in one of their vehicles, to start life anew, etc. Again, I don't think there's any reason to assume this.

3. If someone else burnt his truck and destroyed his cellphone, and at the same time decided to destoy their own cellphones because...why? I have never heard of a criminal leaving their own smashed cellphone at a crime scene. They might as well leave behind their own id, even if it is ripped into tiny pieces and set on fire. IMO criminals insinctively don't want to leave anything behind that could potentially tie them to the crime.

4. So that leaves the possibility that someone had acquired other people's cellphones, and decided to smash and burn them along with Matthew's. That's a pretty complicated scenario, but I suppose it's possible. The motive remains uncertain, but drugs are always a major reason for crime amongst young men.

 

[Blurgle]

The phones are the least confusing thing about this. He was studying programming at SAIT. That's a fairly hands-on, practical program; I wouldn't be surprised if he was building apps for Android and iOS - in which case he'd need two extra phones for testing purposes, one for each OS.

 

[Innana]

I’m from B.C and I thought of the Port Alberni teens too when I heard about the burnt truck. But like you say Satchie, there has been no crimes suspected with Marshal.

Family has stated he was a good guy and this disappearance is not related to drugs. That said, families said the same thing about Dan and Ryan who went missing in Ucluelet, B.C and it turns out that was related to cocaine smuggling. I probably wouldn’t tell my family if I decided to make some extra cash smuggling drugs.

I’m wondering if he was intercepted on his way home in Alberta. Perhaps a car jacking or other misfortune, and that individual(s) stole his truck and drove it to Pemberton.

Setting fire to the truck makes sense to destroy evidence, but leaving the phones and passports behind is a mystery. Maybe to throw police off the trail? (How I don’t know).

The other possible option is that he set fire to his own truck, left evidence to identify himself, and he walked into the woods and took his own life.

 

[Satchie]

The other possible option is that he set fire to his own truck, left evidence to identify himself, and he walked into the woods and took his own life.

Very good point, I hadn't thought of that possibility. I wonder whether he'd ever been to that Pemberton/Whistler area, and so be drawn back to it. There's plenty of places in the Rockies, much closer to Calgary, and people do choose to end it in those beautiful, wild places.

 

[RosalindaA]

John Lordan has put out a Searchlight for Marshal today :

I agree with most of the comments on this thread. This looks to me as if this is a disappearance caused either by a severe mental health issue or drugs or of course a combination of both?
It sounds like RCMP have looked at Marshal's financial records, so if he hopefully used a card to buy fuel then the payment will have a time recorded so perhaps they can then find CCTV of him and/or anyone else using his cards and in possession of his truck. They have stated they believe Marshal drove the truck to its final location so perhaps they have already done this. But cash payments will be harder to trace.
If someone else staged this scene then I suppose it would sort of fit with them wanting to send a message/make an example of the victim/destroy evidence of themselves at the scene. But it's very elaborate to destroy the truck and then smash phones and computers around the truck and leave two passports there, one with pages ripped out, the other intact. And then leave a trail of burnt clothing to a water source.
The scene suggests more to me typical paranoid behaviour, where sufferers will often be terrified of people who they believe are pursuing them and so destroy devices, possessions but not in a logical way. And with such a terrible fire it seems very likely that whoever set it could have accidentally set themselves alight which quite often happens. And unfortunately we all know here that people suffering in this way frequently end up in remote locations trying to flee from their terrors.

 

[rae100]

The sister (family spokesperson) has wrote on the Public Facebook group that Police have uncovered that Marshal was not actually enrolled in SAIT school, as his family was led to believe. It appears that the family in Lethbridge really did not know what kind of life Marshal was leading in Calgary. I believe this to be a significant piece of the puzzle - the Cops need to be looking into his life in Calgary. (FAQ | Facebook)

 

[rae100]

John Lordan has put out a Searchlight for Marshal today :

I agree with most of the comments on this thread. This looks to me as if this is a disappearance caused either by a severe mental health issue or drugs or of course a combination of both?
It sounds like RCMP have looked at Marshal's financial records, so if he hopefully used a card to buy fuel then the payment will have a time recorded so perhaps they can then find CCTV of him and/or anyone else using his cards and in possession of his truck. They have stated they believe Marshal drove the truck to its final location so perhaps they have already done this. But cash payments will be harder to trace.
If someone else staged this scene then I suppose it would sort of fit with them wanting to send a message/make an example of the victim/destroy evidence of themselves at the scene. But it's very elaborate to destroy the truck and then smash phones and computers around the truck and leave two passports there, one with pages ripped out, the other intact. And then leave a trail of burnt clothing to a water source.
The scene suggests more to me typical paranoid behaviour, where sufferers will often be terrified of people who they believe are pursuing them and so destroy devices, possessions but not in a logical way. And with such a terrible fire it seems very likely that whoever set it could have accidentally set themselves alight which quite often happens. And unfortunately we all know here that people suffering in this way frequently end up in remote locations trying to flee from their terrors.

I strongly agree - I think that this scene does suggest a paranoid pattern of behaviour.

 

[Innana]

The sister (family spokesperson) has wrote on the Public Facebook group that Police have uncovered that Marshal was not actually enrolled in SAIT school, as his family was led to believe. It appears that the family in Lethbridge really did not know what kind of life Marshal was leading in Calgary. I believe this to be a significant piece of the puzzle - the Cops need to be looking into his life in Calgary. (FAQ | Facebook)

I had just read this on their Facebook group as well.

I work as a clinical counsellor and this got me thinking more about his mindset. If he was not forthright with his family about discontinuing his studies (either voluntarily or not) my guess is that’s a big piece of the puzzle. The sister stated in the comment section of the FAQ that all SAIT can tell them is he either didn’t enroll or he withdrew sometime in the Fall 2019 semester.

Why would a person not tell their family, who they are noted to be very close with, that they were no longer in school?

I hate even thinking this, but this all leads me more and more to think he took his own life. That things got overwhelming and he went for a final visit to his mom, and then just drove off heading no where in particular except deep into the woods and ended up near Pemberton.

I really hope I’m wrong for the family’s sake, they all seem so lovely.