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In February 2025, 22-year-old Liam Toman set out on a Canadian ski trip with two of his close friends, looking forward to a few days out in the fresh snow with good company & a break from the routine of everyday life. Although it was the kind of trip that thousands of young adults take every winter, somewhere along the way, something went terribly wrong.
Somehow, in a village that was filled with people & cameras, Liam vanished within the freezing conditions of the Canadian wilderness where each passing hour made the search that much more terrifying & urgent. Had he somehow wandered off course & gotten lost or had someone done something to him? These are questions that torment his family on a daily basis while they’re left with an emptiness in their hearts since he disappeared.
Liam Toman was described as an incredibly social, calm, steady person who could easily fit into any room. He was said to be a chill person who friends & family could spend time next to without feeling the need to fill the space with unnecessary chatter.
Liam came from a big family where activity was a constant. He loved McDonalds, sushi & a good steak cooked on the grill. He was exceptionally handy & able to fix most anything with wires & a power button. He was happiest when doing the simple things in life alongside the people he loved.
At 22-years-old he had just graduated from Niagara College with an engineering electronics degree. Since he was still figuring out his career path, while he worked at a resort near Balsam Lake in Ontario in the meantime, he figured a quick ski trip away with his friends would be an absolute blast.
On Friday, January 31, 2025, Liam & his two friends, Kyle Warnock & Colin Lemmings, hit the road & made the 5 ½ hour drive northeast from their home in Whitby, Ontario to Mont-Tremblant, one of Quebec’s top tourist destinations within the Laurentian Mountains.
As they rounded the last bend of their journey, it was immediately clear that the drive had been well worth it. According to Colin, everything just opened up & they were able to see the slope of the mountainside with all the cabins dotting along the side. Since it was very different from their own landscape, it was something special to see.
The trio checked into their hotel, the Tour des Voyageurs II to drop their bags & ease into their weekend away after the long drive. They were excited to hit the slopes on Saturday as Liam was eager to try out his brand new skis, something he recorded a video of as he proudly held them up.
On Saturday morning, February 1, 2025, after they layered their bodies against the bitter cold with jackets & ski pants, they headed straight to the slopes to ski the day away. While they were out, they took a slew of photos to document their trip as they took in the lively energy of the village that resembled something straight out of a winter postcard. There were people milling about, music drifting from the various bars & fun vibe all around them.
That evening the trio had dinner at a pizzeria followed by a few drinks at a bar called Lucille’s. It was a bone-chillingly frigid night with temperatures hovering right around -25℃/-13℉. Just after 11 pm, Colin, tired from a full day out on the slopes, was ready for bed so he headed back to the hotel leaving Kyle & Liam to join club-goers at Le P’tit Caribou.
Before heading over to the club, Kyle & Liam stopped into The Central for a couple of drinks & then headed over to Le P’tit Caribou at about midnight. Le P’tit Caribou is a place that gets very busy on weekends with people standing shoulder-to-shoulder as the music blares while colorful lights flash. According to Kyle, after having a couple more drinks there, he & Liam eventually got separated amongst the throngs of dancers.
Shortly after 2 am, as the crowds began to thin down, Kyle hadn’t seen Liam for about an hour so he texted him at 2:19 am to figure out where he was. Not getting a response, he figured that Liam had likely made his way back to the hotel, so he decided to call it a night & head back himself.
After Kyle woke up on Sunday morning at about 8 am & realized that Liam wasn’t in the room, he immediately sent him a text asking him where he was. Although he didn’t immediately respond, Kyle & Colin weren’t too worried at this point & just assumed that their friend had likely met someone the night before & went back to their place.
After they headed out to ski, they began calling Liam every hour, but when a couple of hours passed without word back from Liam, they increased their calls to twice an hour. After about 20 unanswered phone calls, they couldn’t shake the feeling that something must be wrong.
When they were back at the room at about 4 pm, they saw that Liam wasn’t there & it didn’t appear that he had come back while they were out on the slopes. As they sat at a restaurant eating dinner that evening, they could no longer rationalize their friend’s absence with a reasonable explanation. This was when they decided to reach out to Liam’s stepbrother, Ryan, who contacted his parents, his dad, Chris Toman, his step-mom, Laura Toman & his mom, Kathleen Toman.
Chris recalls his phone ringing just before 6 pm that Sunday evening. After hearing that Kyle & Colin hadn’t heard from or seen his son in about 13 hours, he knew they needed to get in touch with the Sûreté du Québec (the SQ), Quebec’s provincial police force, as well as the resort.
When Kathleen’s phone began buzzing & she saw that her ex-husband was calling her rather than texting her as he normally does, her heart sank & she immediately knew that something must be wrong. Her son was normally in frequent contact with the family, texting & sending photos, but when Kathleen hadn’t heard from her son on Sunday, she just assumed he was busy on the slopes.
While Chris, Laura & Kathleen slowly made their way to the resort throughout the night in a terrible snow storm, their minds had the time to endlessly loop around with potential scenarios as to where Liam could be. Seeing the snow pour down from the sky, they were terrified to think that he could be out there alone, in the cold.
As they drove, Kyle & Colin went straight to the front desk of the hotel to fill out a missing person’s report.
When the family arrived at 4 am, both Laura & Kathleen had a strong sense that Liam wasn’t there, somewhere out in the snow. They each believed that something had happened to him & someone may have covered it up. Maybe he had been hit by a car or had gotten into an altercation with someone, however, nothing has ever come to light that this theory was accurate.
Kathleen came to learn that Liam had left the club at 3 am after he’d gotten kicked out. Security footage showed Liam finishing a beer & playfully grabbing an empty glass off the bar. A bouncer then grabbed him by the neck & escorted him outside.
Once outside the club, Liam walked past two men who were fighting & said something to him that made them laugh as he spoke to them in English rather than the predominately French-speaking area.
Based on surveillance video, he headed down the main path toward his hotel, a walk that should have taken about three minutes. He was dressed appropriately for the weather, wearing a ski jacket, a hat, gloves as well as lined pants. He could be seen walking in a controlled manner, giving the appearance that he knew where he was going. He wasn’t stumbling & didn’t appear intoxicated.
Just before he reached his hotel, Liam could be seen talking to a couple of people as he pointed in the direction of where he was staying. However, rather than going in through the front entrance, he walked along the left side of the building where the camera eventually lost sight of him. There is no footage of him entering the hotel. One area across the road picked up an image of a shadow, but it couldn’t be confirmed that it was Liam. It wouldn’t have been a natural path for someone to take since it was a tight space near the loading dock.
During this time, no doubt meaning to send a message to Kyle, he accidentally texted his dad at 3:16 am, something to the effect of, Yo, meet me outside. After he sent this text, he called Kyle, who hadn’t answered since he was already asleep in the hotel room by this time.
Kathleen believes that her son was likely planning on heading somewhere else & had wanted Kyle to come with him.
The shadow that was picked up on surveillance had been moving in the direction of the privately owned chalet condos was potentially Liam going to meet up with people he’d met at the club for an afterparty. Investigators sent emails to the owners of these condos, they also knocked on the doors & distributed flyers with Liam’s image & information so that if someone saw or heard something, they might come forward with information that could lead to his whereabouts.
For the next twelve days, searches for Liam were conducted on foot, horseback, ATV & snowmobile while dogs helped on the ground & helicopters flew overhead. One Mont-Tremblant resident recalls the helicopters flying so low that it almost felt like they were in her living room. She, like many, felt compelled to step in & help with the search after hearing about Liam’s disappearance.
Although she was terrified, desperate & devastated by her son’s disappearance, Kathleen also felt touched by the community’s support, something that strengthened her faith in humanity.
Investigators spoke with Liam’s closest friends to determine if he had been struggling with anything or hiding a potential issue, such as depression or drug use. His best friend since elementary school, Shireen Khamissa, indicated that he never did nor discussed using drugs & he had been very much mentally sound. In the days before he vanished, his mood had been very upbeat & happy since he had been so excited to go on this ski trip with his two friends.
Kathleen also combed through her son’s belongings to see if you could find any clues that something may have been going on in Liam’s life before he vanished. He’d been proud of himself for finishing college & he was looking forward to many things in life from as small as playing golf with his buddies to as big as starting his career. There was nothing whatsoever to suggest that he had been hiding a secret part of his life.
When Liam’s friend Shireen reached out to the ski resort where he’d been staying on February 6, four days after he vanished, she hoped they would post something about him to raise awareness in his case. However, they refused. When she touched back with them three days later after she’d created a poster, once again, they refused to share it. Each & every time she reached out to them, they continued to refuse any help, something that led her to believe that they only wanted to be portrayed as a fun place to get away to ski rather than a place where bad things could happen.
After a resident painted a rock in town with Liam’s name as well as a cement block along the ski lifts, these things were painted over. It was her opinion that the resort was staying quiet from fear of losing customers.
On top of that, the Tremblant Resort Association, one of the bodies that manage the resort, sent emails to local businesses, requesting that they avoid discussing Liam’s disappearance with their clientele. Some of the shop’s employees were shocked by this since they knew that the more his information was spread among the tourists, the more likely Liam might be found.
Kathleen continued to do her own legwork in her son’s investigation, asking residents for surveillance videos to better understand Liam’s path after he left the club. She also got in touch with a manager of Marriott’s Residence Inn that may have known someone who had spoken with Liam on the evening he vanished.
According to Chris, while Liam had been at L P’tit Caribou on the night he vanished, he spoke with a local man’s fiance & the man later confronted him about his interaction with her, footage that was captured on the club’s surveillance. This made his family wonder if he’d gotten someone mad enough to do something terrible.
The man in the footage with Liam was Oliver Boivin, a manager at Central Tapas & Nightclub. After he’d gotten off from work that night, he had met up with his fiance & his friends at the club. When questioned about his interaction with Liam at the bar, he indicated that he told Liam that all of the girls he was talking with had boyfriends, fiances, husbands & children. If he was in search of someone to hook up with, they weren’t the right choice. Oliver indicated that there was nothing hostile about their interaction & Liam had been very cool; they did a fist bump & then they just chatted at the bar.
When Oliver & his friends left the bar that night, Liam had still been there. He’s since met Kathleen & he encourages his employees to wear the bracelet that brings attention to Liam’s case.
On March 22, 2025, 48 days after Liam went missing, when the snow began to thaw, a resort employee found Liam’s wallet not far down the path from where the shadow had been seen on surveillance. Prior to this point, many people felt that the most logical explanation was that Liam had gotten lost after leaving the club & died of hypothermia. However, after his wallet was found, Kathleen began to think that something criminal happened to her son.
It’s also Chris’ opinion that someone else was involved in whatever happened to their son, whether an accident or something that escalated, such as a robbery or a disagreement.
Although his ID & hotel key card was in his wallet, the cash that he carried was gone. This prompted investigators to comb over the nearby surrounding wetland, but there was no further sign of Liam.
Despite the fact that Liam often utilized his phone to communicate with loved ones, after 3:17 am, his phone was never used again & it’s never been found.
When his family found his iPad & his sister figured out his passcode, they were able to determine that his phone was last pinging near the side of his hotel. Investigators determined that his battery had been charged until 6:24 pm on Sunday, February 2, about 15 hours after he sent his last text when his phone last pinged to the tower overlooking the village.
As was the case with his phone, after he vanished, there was no further activity on Liam’s social media or his bank accounts.
In June 2025, four months after his disappearance, Kathleen was back in Mont-Tremblant to touch base with investigators on any updates in the case. They indicated that they were looking into a car that was seen on surveillance in the timeframe that her son vanished. The white car was seen driving late at night & they were working toward enhancing the footage.
In September 2025, seven months after he vanished, investigators shared some of the surveillance video that painted a clearer picture of what happened that night. As he left the club, Liam held his phone to his ear & as he walked past the bar, Le Central, he transferred his phone to his pocket, likely just after he tried calling Kyle, who was already asleep.
At 3:19 am, he could be seen near his hotel, speaking with people who were just out of the range of the camera from a restaurant terrace. After he pointed, he walked in that direction which led to the back of his hotel, the last clear sighting of him.
Investigators tracked down the seasonal workers Liam had been speaking with in the footage, Hugo Fournier & Guillaume Strub. They indicated that they were also coming from L P’tit Caribou & had met Liam near the entrance of the hotel. Since it was a bitterly cold night & someone had taken Hugo’s coat while they were at the club, they were trying to quickly get to the garage so they could warm up.
They went on to tell investigators that Liam called out to them from behind, but although they recalled speaking with someone that night, they weren’t able to recall any details of their conversation since their interaction had been minimal. They didn’t recall anything urgent about the situation or what Liam had been pointing at, but they went on to say that had something worrisome been going on, they would have stepped in to help.
Heather Shtuka is another mother that has been able to empathize with Kathleen’s pain since it’s a heartache as seven years before Liam vanished, her own son disappeared from Sun Peaks, British Columbia, a ski resort on the other side of the country, a 43 hour drive west of Mont-Tremblant. Ryan Shtuka vanished only one month before his 21st birthday on Saturday, February 17, 2018.
At the time, Ryan had moved out of his parent’s suburban Edmonton home & had been working as an operator on the tubing hill, pushing visitors down the ski hills on their tubes. After he finished working his shift on that Saturday night, he came back home before going back out with a group of friends to a couple of bars in the village. After the bars closed, the group headed to a party on Burfield Drive not far from where he was living.
Ryan was last seen at a house along this street when there was about 14 feet of snow on the ground. It’s unclear what direction he walked home that night when he vanished, but it was only a short distance away. Not only had snow been falling, but it was a bitterly cold night with temperatures at about -26 ℃/-15 ℉. Sadly, after years & years of searching, there have been no clues & no sign of Ryan.
Because his case was so similar to Liam’s, many theories have swirled around as to what may have happened to the young men. Unlike in Liam’s case, Heather never felt like the Sun Peaks Resort tried to silence her son’s disappearance for fear of negative publicity.
When the snow began to melt as summer arrived, investigators once again combed over the area in search of Liam, but there was still no sign of him & the driver of the white car seen on surveillance has not been identified.
The Mont-Tremblant Resort has since become more cooperative with Liam’s family & have met with them & launched a new awareness campaign across the resort.
The one year anniversary of Liam’s disappearance has come & gone & yet there is still no sign of him. It’s hard to imagine how what should have been a quick, fun winter getaway with friends ended in such devastation. How can a person vanish without a single trace in the midst of a bustling ski resort with so many people & so much activity?
Since thorough searches were completed, saturating the landscape surrounding the area of where Liam disappeared, death from exposure is unlikely. Surveillance footage captured of Liam leaving the club also supports this being unlikely as he walked with purpose, giving the appearance that he knew exactly where he was going. Although he’d been out drinking, he didn’t appear to be stumbling or intoxicated & it’s not likely that he got so turned around that he wandered into a place so far off that searches were unable to find him. Not to mention, the money from his discarded wallet had also been taken.
Because there has been no trace of Liam living anywhere else, voluntary disappearance is also highly unlikely. This suggests that someone else was responsible for whatever happened to him. The fact that his phone remained active & powered on until 6:24 pm, 15 hours after he sent his last text, could mean that whoever was involved waited until that time before getting rid of it.
During his time out that night, he interacted with others & had even been physically removed from the club. Before this time, he’d approached women in the club who were in relationships & interacted with two men outside who had been fighting. Something may have escalated, perhaps a robbery gone wrong.
Before he walked out of the club to make his way along the snowy streets back to his hotel, Liam had been a beloved son, a brother & a friend. He was a peaceful young man who loved the simple things in life; spending time with the people he loved. His family are left to only imagine where he could be & what could have happened to him, leaving them with an endless pain in their hearts.
Someone out there likely knows what happened to Liam & sometimes, the smallest detail that might not seem important at all could be the missing piece that investigators need. Kathleen has not given up hope in finding her son. She’s asking for anyone who was at the resort in February 2025 to look through their photos noting even the smallest background detail.
Anyone with information about Liam’s whereabouts are asked to please contact the SQ’s information line at 1-800-659-4264. A $50,000 reward is being offered for any information leading to Liam’s whereabouts.
References:
- YouTube: the fifth estate: He vanished from a ski resort. His wallet is one of few clues
- CBC News: ‘We are just at a loss’: Family searches for answers a year after son’s disappearance at Quebec ski resort
- CFJC Today: Into thin air – Ryan Shtuka missing ski resort employee’s family steadfast in push to find their son
- Liam Gabriel Toman
- Medium: He was minutes from his hotel.. Then vanished
- True Crime Society: Lost in the snow – where is Liam Toman?
- YouTube: Bad Things: True Crime: He walked out on CCTV & was never found – what most likely happened to Liam Toman
