Mother breaks silence after son’s death
The mother of a local war veteran who was found dead in Canada nearly six weeks ago is planning to break her silence on the details of the investigation into her sons untimely and suspicious death. Janice Kraynak, a Uniontown resident who has been recently living in New Jersey for work-related reasons, said Wednesday that she is prepared to issue “new and pertinent” information regarding the death of her son, Mark Kraynak, 23, at a press conference scheduled for today in Uniontown.
While Kraynak would not divulge the new information regarding Kraynak’s death, she did note that Canadian authorities did not properly examine the information, furthering swirling speculation by local family and friends as well as some international agencies, that the investigation was not handled properly.
“I am not going to accept that this was an accident,” Kraynak said of the official determination of Canadian authorities. “I will fight until my dying day to prove otherwise and find the truth about my son’s death.”
After Canadian officials released a theory calling Kraynak’s death accidental, family friends of Kraynak as well as his mother expressed their concern that the investigation did not uncover the real story behind the 23-year-old’s death.
Kraynak’s body was found Sept. 1 at the bottom of the rock quarry along with the body of Steven Wright, 20, of Guernville, Calif. behind a local nighttime hotspot, the Red Lite, outside of Montreal in the city of Laval.
An extensive, 10-day search ensued following Kraynak’s disappearance in late August, led by Montreal police.
Kraynak had last been seen around 3 a.m. on Aug. 22 outside the Red Lite in Montreal with Wright, his traveling companion for the trip.
After Kraynak and Wright were missing for 10 days, investigators were able to trace a cell phone transmitter from Kraynak’s phone to near the Red Lite, where the bodies were found by search teams and police helicopters at the bottom of the cliff.
Earlier this month Canadian officials released a statement that purported some family members of Kraynak and Wright believed a surveillance video obtained by Canadian authorities appeared to show the two men running from a taxi and being pursued by the driver.
Police theorized the men didn’t pay their $40 fare for the cab ride.
Guy Lajeunesse, a police spokesman for the city of Laval, near Montreal, where the deaths occurred, said the surveillance video taken outside the Red Lite nightclub, the bar Kraynak and Wright were headed to the night they disappeared, revealed that the two men never entered the club and speculated the two entered the quarry to flee the cab fare.
But Kraynak’s mother said her son would not run from a bill and also added that several key issues surround the case, including the information she intends to release today, were not thoroughly investigated.
Family friend Betsy Hanzes also said other information in the investigation has not been given due diligence, including a 3:30 a.m. phone call from Kraynak’s cell phone that has yet to be explained.
Kraynak and Wright were supposed to return to the United States the day they went missing, after spending a few months working for French Connection Francaise (FCF), a modeling agency owned by Stephan Sirard, which also functions as a pornography-recruiting agency based in California.
“This man (Sirard) is a master manipulator,” Hanzes said in an interview last week. “Mark totally put his trust in him. He thought this was a legitimate modeling agency.”
Sirard, the owner of the California-based scouting company, was accompanying both men in Montreal at the time of the incident and offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to their discovery.
Hanzes said Kraynak went to Toronto for that final visit in August at the behest of Sirard who told the men the trip was to celebrate a successful summer.
“He (Kraynak) thought he could tie up any loose ends and be done with it. He never got that opportunity. I think he was set up. I don’t think it was a real taxi even. He was doomed from the minute he left.”
“This death is not accidental,” Hanzes said. “He was running for his life.”
Kraynak and Wright were two of six Americans that obtained 90-day permits to work as exotic dancers at a Toronto male strip club called Remington’s, according to Gregory Carlin, director of the Irish Anti-Trafficking Coalition (IATC), who alleges the permits were part of a larger government scheme.
“Given the probable history associated with this scheme, the Canadian government would want this to just go away,” Carlin said of the suspicious deaths. “This is not the first time people have been tricked. These boys were basically recruited and there is no way that Mr. Kraynak had any idea what he would be getting involved in.”
And Carlin said he does not support the theories about the deaths coming from Laval police.
“We have particular problems with the police account in this case,” Carlin added concerning the Laval assumption. “We have people on the ground investigating and we will have further details soon. Speculation and guess work is all this family has gotten.”
Kraynak was a 2000 graduate of Laurel Highlands High School and had been attending classes at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus. He returned home from the war in Iraq just a year ago after being injured in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division for which he received a Purple Heart.