2 American Strippers DISAPPEAR in Montreal - What Happened ???

[bootdad]

Adult Models Missing Without a Trace in Montreal

By Matt O'Conner

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

 

MONTREAL — Two male exotic dancers, one of whom has performed in adult films, have been missing since Aug. 22.

 

Steve Wright and Mark Kraynak, both Americans employed by Edge Models, the Canadian arm of San Francisco-based FCF Agency, were last heard from as they traveled in a taxi cab to meet a friend at an after-hours club.

 

The pair had been partying earlier in the night with friend Deric Manzi and FCF President and CEO Stephan Sirard. At one point during the night, Wright and Kraynak got separated from Manzi and Sirard.

 

Manzi told police he received a phone call from Kraynak at 3:15 a.m. saying they were on their way to Club Red Light. Manzi waited outside the club, but said his friends never arrived. Surveillance footage showed no evidence that they ever made it to the club.

 

Sirard told XBiz that Manzi said his friends sounded happy when they spoke. They gave no indication that they were in any danger or were upset with anyone in any way.

 

"We were feeling pretty good, but nobody was falling down drunk or anything," Manzi told a Montreal newspaper. “We all handle our alcohol well and don't overdo it. We don't do drugs.”

 

When Wright and Kraynak failed to turn up the following morning, Sirard and Manzi reported them missing. Police immediately went to their hotel room, where they found the mens’ passports, clothes and other personal items, including Wright’s cellphone.

 

There was hope that police could use a global-positioning feature on Kranyak’s cellphone to locate the men, but the phone was turned off. Wright’s family has asked the U.S. State Department for help in convincing Verizon Wireless to hand over the records for Kraynak’s cellphone activity on the night he and Wright went missing.

 

The case has since become the No. 1 news story in Canada, and Sirard told XBix that the entire Major Crimes Division of the Montreal Police Department has been called onto the case.

 

"There are 14 detectives working 24 hours a day on this case, but that was just in the last day," he said. "They don't want to upset tourist. There's lots of politics involved."

 

The city also has set up a tip line. Unfortunately, Sirard said that it appears a prankster led police on a wild goose chase on the night of Aug. 30, claiming he saw bodies in a park. Police dispatched 20 cars and a helicopter to the park but the search turned up nothing.

 

Given the amount of time that has passed, Sirard said he fears the worst. "My gut feeling is that something bad happened," Sirard said.

 

Kraynak served in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq and Wright was very open and vocal about his work in adult entertainment, often introducing himself as Trevor (his stage name) and adding, “I’m a porn star.”

 

Sirard said he fears that Kraynak’s military service and Wright’s openness about his profession could have led to trouble with one of the city’s Arab cab drivers.

 

Police have put out word that they are searching for the taxi driver who picked up Wright and Kraynak. They say the city has upwards of 30,000 cab drivers.

 

Sirard, who said his agency represents around 1,200 models at offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Montreal, also has offered a $5,000 reward for any information that might help police locate the missing men.

 

In a bizarre twist, it was Sirard’s agency that represented adult actress Taylor Summers, who was murdered last year by a photographer following a bondage photo shoot. Summers' real name was Natel King.

 

Kraynak and Wright had both been dancing at Remington’s, a gay strip club in Toronto, where they reportedly made between $750 and $1,000 a night.

 

The loss of three clients and, more importantly, three friends, in the span of a year has taken a toll on Sirard, he told XBiz.

 

"I'm very upset that the media is focusing on the fact that they [Wright and Kraynak] work in the industry. Yes, they do, but they were on vacation when this happened and it has nothing to do with their work," he said.

[Guest VanBCGuy]

Evidently they are still missing. I googled their names and stories about their disappearance appeared, but none about them being found.

[JT Brooklyn]

Following this story it seems if they donot Locate the last person to see them "The Cab Driver"..They really are going to have a hard time with this. Especially since none of the Girl's they "Talked Up" apparently left the Club with them! I hope for the sake of Family and Friend's there is Closure at some point in time. :+

[Luv2play]

There are radio reports in Montreal at noon today that human remains have been found following a tip received by police. The site is near a quarry in Laval, the city where the two models were going to an afterhours bar when they left Montreal. It was also reported that the police were heading to where the parents of one of the lads were, the other parents having flown out of Montreal this morning.

 

It thus looks like the lads came to a grisly end, although this has yet to be confirmed by police. We should know later today or tomorrow.

 

At this time, no motive has been put forward as to why these guys appeared to have been murdered. :-(

[Karl-G]

From the Montreal "Globe and Mail" on-line

 

Male stripper duo missing

Disappearance of members of U.S. troupe 'worrisome,' Montreal police concedeBy INGRID PERITZ

 

Thursday, September 1, 2005 Page A6

 

MONTREAL -- Tall, buff and brawny, Mark Kraynak and Steve Wright made headlines this summer when their troupe of American male strippers fought to get work permits to perform in Canada.

 

The pair are back in the news this week for different -- and darker --reasons.

 

After winning their Canadian permits and completing a summer of stripping in Toronto, the men came to Montreal last month for some end-of-season fun. They went to a downtown nightclub 11 days ago, left soon after the 3 a.m. closing time and have not been seen since.

 

The case has put heat on police in Montreal -- a thriving tourist destination for U.S. college students -- and authorities yesterday transferred the file to the major-crimes squad, which handles homicide.

 

Parents and siblings of the two men also travelled to Montreal to seek the public's help in the search.

 

"Something sinister has happened. That is my feeling, my mother's instinct," Janice Kraynak, Mark's mother, said yesterday.

 

What has stumped parents and police alike is how two robust American men could vanish together without any apparent trace. Mr. Kraynak, a 23-year-old from Pennsylvania, was a veteran of the war in Iraq who won a Purple Heart after suffering a shrapnel wound from a detonated grenade. Mr. Wright, a 20-year-old from California, was a fastidious fitness buff and body builder.

 

Both are over six feet tall.

 

"Obviously, it's unusual when you have two healthy young men go missing," officer Robert Mansueto of the Montreal police said yesterday. "They're not anywhere to be seen.

 

"We've run down all the leads we've come across, and unfortunately, we have nothing new. Our hope is to find them safe and sound, but realistically, when we haven't had a sign of life from them, it becomes worrisome."

 

The last known person to have spoken to the men is Deric Manzi, another American in the group of male entertainers contracted to perform this summer at Remington's club in Toronto.

 

The day before the two disappeared, Mr. Manzi went on a tourist outing with them in Montreal. They went sightseeing in Old Montreal, took a horse carriage ride, visited Notre-Dame Basilica and gambled at a Montreal casino. Then, at night, at the suggestion of a pair of waitresses they met, they headed to a spot called Club Vatican on Crescent Street, a nightclub area popular with visiting U.S. students.

 

"We were all drinking, having a good time, dancing and talking to girls -- a normal guys night out," Mr. Manzi, 25, said in an interview yesterday. "We were all in a very good mood."

 

The pair had some beer and drinks, but no drugs, Mr. Manzi said. At the 3 a.m. closing, Mr. Manzi left to go to a Burger King across the street for something to eat. While in line, he got a call from Mr. Wright on his cellphone, who told him he and Mr. Kraynak were in a taxi on their way to an after-hours club in Laval, north of Montreal.

 

Mr. Manzi never spoke to them again. The pair never made it to the nightclub -- police screened videotape at the club entrance. Their credit cards have not been used, and their passports were left in their hotel room.

 

Mr. Manzi said Montreal police investigators grilled him for three hours, and he has offered to take a polygraph test. So has Stephan Sirard, whose French Connection Française "adult modelling" agency had contracted the two men.

 

Mr. Kraynak and Mr. Wright were among six men known as the Backstreet Boys of the adult entertainment industry; they made news in June when the Canadian government refused to issue work permits to them because Canada's controversial exotic-dancer program had been suspended.

 

The government relented, and the two were hired for modelling and stripping in Toronto, where they could earn from $750 to $1,000 (U.S.) a night performing alternately for male and female audiences, Mr. Sirard said. He said Mr. Wright also performed in pornographic films.

 

Mr. Sirard said that even though the men obtained work permits from Canada, the latest twist will probably put an end to the program.

 

The parents of the missing men said that despite their jobs, their sons had mainstream dreams.

 

Mr. Kraynak, who has a girlfriend back home, was to begin studying business administration in university, and his parents said he was uncomfortable with the work he was doing in Canada. Both men were in regular contact with their parents before their disappearance.

 

A $10,000 (U.S.) reward has been offered for information about them.

 

"I will be here until I find my son," Ms. Kraynak said. "I will not leave Canada without him."