May 18, 2007 By Josh Krysak 5 min read

A man police believe could have been the driver of a taxi cab linked to the death of a local war veteran was found dead in his apartment in Montreal, Canada, of an apparent suicide. According to Natalie Lorrain, a constable at the Laval Police Department, investigators are not certain it was the same cab driver, but officials are exploring several leads in the suicide which point toward that conclusion.

“Apparently this man had confided in another person that he was the driver the night of the men’s deaths,” Lorrain said Thursday, noting that the department is investigating the potential link to the Kraynak case. “That person came forward with the information.” Lorrain said.

Police have not identified the man who came forward with the information. She said he made an anonymous call to a local news outlet in Montreal and reported the connection.

The suicide appears to be linked to the deaths of Mark Kraynak, 23, of Uniontown and Steven Wright, 20, of Guernville, Calif., in August 2005.

The men’s bodies were found in a rock quarry behind the Red Lite After Hours Discotheque in Laval, a city outside Montreal, on Sept. 1, 2005.

An extensive, 10-day search had ensued following the Penn State University student’s disappearance in late August.

Laval authorities concluded that Mark Kraynak and Wright were likely running from their $40 cab fare when they fell to their deaths in the quarry.

The night of their disappearance, surveillance videos showed the men leaving the Vatican nightclub in the early hours of Aug. 22 and later arriving in an what appeared to be a taxi at the Red Lite, according to Kraynak’s mother, Janice Kraynak.

One surveillance video obtained by Laval police shows Mark Kraynak exit the car outside the Red Lite and run down an access road toward the rock quarry followed closely by Wright and also shows the car chase them down the road.

A few minutes later, the car re-emerges from the road and leaves the area.

“Regardless of what happened, I saw them being chased on that video and that person driving that car could be charged with something,” Janice Kraynak, said in a March interview.

Laval authorities have not been able to track down the taxicab driver who took the men to the Red Lite, which they never entered, and concluded that the men were running from their $40 cab fare when they fell into the quarry.

However, Janice Kraynak and a host of Internet-based theorists have raised concerns that the Laval “fare-cheat” theory is unfounded because the cab driver never has been identified and the men had enough money on them when their bodies were found to pay for the cab fare.

In January 2006, then-chief investigator Guy Lajeunesse said Laval police had considerably narrowed their search for the cab driver, but to date never have revealed those findings. Last March, Lajeunesse said that there was “no doubt” that investigators’ fare-cheat theory is correct and closed the case.

Lajeunesse has since left the police department, Lorrain said.

Mark Kraynak and Wright were supposed to return to the United States the day they went missing after spending a few months working as models for the French Connection Franchaise (FCF), a pornography-recruiting agency in Toronto.

They were two of six Americans who obtained 90-day permits to work as exotic dancers at a Toronto male strip club called Remington’s.

Lorrain said Thursday that the case has not been reopened despite the potential new evidence.

“This case is closed,” Lorrain said. “It is not going to be reopened yet because there is no reason to.”

Lorrain refused to divulge details about the suicide including the identity of the victim, the exact location and the exact time. She did say that the man’s body was discovered “over the weekend in Montreal.”

Additionally, a Montreal police spokeswoman refused to comment on the suicide and said that all pertinent information had been turned over to the Laval authorities for further investigation.

Officials also declined to comment on reports that several newspaper articles pertaining to the men’s deaths were discovered in room where the man’s body was found.

The new twist in the case comes at the same time the Canadian government appears to have passed new legislation to crack down on the permitting scheme that allowed the men into the country.

According to Reuters news service, Canada will begin denying work permits to foreign strippers to prevent abuse and to tighten enforcement of human trafficking, Immigration Minister Diane Finley said Wednesday.

Officials said that laws will be changed to allow immigration officers the ability to deny work permits to foreign strippers if they believe there is a possibility of sexual exploitation.

Following the men’s deaths, Irish Anti-Trafficking Coalition (IATC) Director Gregory Carlin helped spearhead concerns about lax controls for Canadian worker permits in regard to the case as well as the suspicious nature of the men’s deaths and the investigation into their deaths.

Speculation about the permits issued to Kraynak and Wright to work outside the country has surrounded their deaths.

Carlin has alleged that the permits were part of a larger government scheme and has petitioned the Canadian government for years trying to force them to tighten restrictions for work permits granted to foreign workers.

Janice Kraynak said Thursday that her only concern is discovering what happened to her son, noting that despite the case being closed by authorities, she has still never seen the autopsy report and never even identified her son’s body – two things she said have left her searching for answers.

“I think they need to reopen this case and investigate whether this man who committed suicide was the driver and whether his death as a suicide at all,” Kraynak said. “I want to know what happened to my son.”