A weekend search for a missing 59-year-old failed to reveal any clue as to the whereabouts of the Semiahmoo House Society client.
But friends and supporters of Daryl Ryzak have not given up hope that he will be found.
Ryzak – who participates in SHS’ Acquired Brain Injury program – has not been seen since May 11. Last weekend, more than three dozen people scoured Green Timbers Park looking for him. It is one of his favourite places, and the last place he was known to be heading.
Sylvia Hoeree, co-ordinator of the ABI program, said Tuesday that it is “pretty emotional” not knowing where Ryzak is, particularly given his vulnerability.
“It’s really heart-wrenching,” she said.
“When somebody like that goes missing, you have to step it up a little bit, because it’s a person with a disability.”
Ryzak suffered a brain injury in a 2010 assault, and has been a regular attendee of the ABI program ever since. He is known to suffer from mental-health issues and is in need of medication.
Hoeree said Ryzak had recently talked about going to Stanley Park in Vancouver, and wonders if he perhaps headed in that direction.
“He’d been talking about it… his love for the park. He just talked about how beautiful it was.”
Police have no solid leads on Ryzak’s location, and no further searches have been planned.
Ryzak is described as a five-foot-11, 200-pound Caucasian, with greying hair, green eyes and a missing tooth on his upper right side. He was last seen wearing a blue baseball cap, jeans and a long-sleeve green shirt, and may be carrying a blue backpack containing art supplies and a fishing rod.
Hoeree said she is grateful to all those who turned out over the weekend to lend a hand. Some came simply because they were touched by the story.
“The people that came, I can’t thank them enough,” Hoeree said.
Anyone with information on Ryzak’s whereabouts is asked to call Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502 or Crime Stoppers, at 1-800-222-8477, quoting file #2013-58518.