Oct 14, 2005 By Josh Krysak 7 min read

When Janice Kraynak described her son, her lips trembled. “He was my sunshine,” she said, to the gaggle of reporters who had gathered at the Uniontown Holiday Inn. “Something terrible happened to my son.”

Thursday Kraynak met with reporters to discuss the investigation into the death of her son, Mark Kraynak, 23, including suspicious emails received by the war veteran turned model prior to his death, and to plead with U.S. government officials and Canadian authorities to help her find answers.

“I need our government to get involved,” Kraynak said. “I just know my son is dead and I want answers.”

On Oct. 3 Canadian officials released a theory calling Mark’s death accidental, but Kraynak and other family members and friends 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 along with the body of Steven Wright, 20, of Guernville, Calif., at the bottom of the rock quarry 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.

Kraynak and Wright were missing for 10 days before 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.

Canadian officials released a statement following a month-long investigation into the incident that purported a surveillance video obtained by 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, speculated the two entered the quarry behind the club to flee the cab fare.

“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.”

On Aug. 5 Mark received an email from Jerry Goldberg, a representative from Sharpshooter Studios in California to review a script and particularly to review the role of Todd.

The title of the script was “Dead Boyz Don’t Cry,” and Kraynak said Todd’s character is murdered, a coincidence Mark’s mother said she will not let slide.

In the script it depicts a male model, Todd, who is murdered with an axe and thrown in a ditch after he is threatened not to reveal a sex scandal within the modeling agency.

Kraynak said the 105-page document described sexual abuse of the victim and also detailed the relationship between a modeling agency and Todd’s character.

Kraynak said the similarities to what befell her son are too close to ignore.

“I really believe that my son died by an axe,” Kraynak said. “It made me physically ill.”

She said during the investigation, she found the email among Mark’s belongs on Aug. 28, three days before his body was discovered in Laval. He had printed the script at the home of a friend in Uniontown after returning to the states for a family reunion in July, just before departing in early August for Canada.

Thursday, Goldberg responded to Kraynak’s call for an investigation into the script.

“We sympathize with Mrs. Kraynak’s loss and understand her grief,” Goldberg said. “Her son was one of dozens of actors briefly considered for a role in a film we have been developing for five years. He was proposed to us by his theatrical agent and our entire communication with him consisted of one e-mail and one phone conversation. We ultimately chose another actor for the role.”

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.

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.

According to Kraynak, her son and Wright along with Sirard and another model Deric Manzi toured Montreal during the day prior to his disappearance.

Kraynak said Thursday that Mark told the group he didn’t want to hit the clubs that evening, suggesting the four take in a movie, “The 40 Year Old Virgin” following dinner.

Instead, Manzi, Kraynak and Wright spent the evening at Club Vatican in Toronto where bank records have indicated Mark spent about $133 American dollars before giving a $200 tip to a female waitress and then departing the club, his mother revealed.

Manzi left before the other two models to go to a Burger King nearby.

Kraynak said video of her son departing the building showed him lucid and in control, shaking hands with the bouncer as he and Wright exited the building, combating early theories that he may have been intoxicated and fallen into the quarry.

Kraynak said her son had about 34 American dollars and $34 Canadian dollars on him when the bodies were found and added that Wright had about $100. Both men also had credit cards, providing more evidence to contradict the theory the men ran from their fare.

Kraynak, who works as a property tax evaluator in New Jersey, said she is exploring legal options as well as considering hiring a private investigator to investigate the case.

Kraynak said she has received conflicting information from Goldberg, the man indicated in the script email and Sirard, with Goldberg claiming he works with Sirard often and Sirard claiming he does not know Goldberg.

“In my opinion, the industry is behind this in some way,” Kraynak said. She said she was asked to “sit on” the script and other information as the investigation was ongoing, but now is bringing the info forward to try and get some help.

Sirard denied telling Kraynak that he did not know Goldberg, admitting that his agency was in contact with Sharpshooter Studios in regards to the proposed film.

Kraynak said her son was originally recruited by Edge Models USA and hoped initially to be a fashion magazine model.

“He really had a dream to be a model and there is nothing wrong with that,” Kraynak said Thursday.

Kraynak said Mark had a contract through FCF that lasted through 2006.

“It is my opinion that Sirard and Manzi know more,” Kraynak said, requesting the two be subject to a lie detector test, something she alleges was promised by Canadian investigators.

“In my heart I know I have nothing to do with this,” Sirard said Thursday. “It hurts me and its shocking.”

According to the FCF owner, Kraynak knew exactly what he was getting into when he signed on with the agency, a fact that his mother is reticent to admit.

I have no criminal record and operate a legitimate licensed business. I am not a monster and crook as I have been portrayed.”

Kraynak said she has also yet to receive copies of Kraynak’s cell phone records, which indicate Mark placed a call at 3:21 a.m. and received a call at 3:32 a.m., just as he was running from the cab.

And Kraynak said that she has also led police to investigate the owner of the yacht club in Canada where Mark was employed over the summer after he behaved suspiciously following the disappearance.

While she would not release the man’s name, Kraynak said the man contacted her with information about Mark and noted that he is a “prominent” person who “appeared to know they were dead before their bodies were found.”

She said, to her knowledge, police have not followed the lead.

Now Kraynak said communication with the investigators have recently broken down, noting that she called Canadian authorities Oct. 3 after hearing about a possible lead on the alleged cab driver.

She said that was the last she heard from them.