2 years after Matthew Kustra's disappearance, family still seeks answers
It has been an agonizing two years for Janice Kronen-Kustra.
Her only son, Matthew Kustra, disappeared Sept. 4, 2014 from at PJ's Pub on St. Jacques Street in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.
She hasn't heard from him since.
Police consider it a missing persons case. But Kronen-Kustra fears the worst.
"I've never slept through the night for two years," said in an interview at her office in Vancouver. "It's always on my mind."
Though she lives in British Columbia, Kronen-Kustra says she and her son texted every day up until the day he disappeared.
Most of the time, it was to share with her the milestones in the life of his young daughter.
"He'd tell me all the new things she did. He'd tell me, 'Oh, she's talking now. She's saying mama, dada,'" she said.
"And when I get on the train now and I look down at my phone, I can't text him anymore."
Matthew's wife, who is now raising their four-year-old daughter alone, is so heartbroken she can barely talk about it, Kronen-Kustra said.
Troubles with a bar
On Father's Day, Matthew's wife and daughter put messages on balloons, and released them into the sky.
"He's got a little daughter that's growing up now without her father," said Kronen-Kustra.
"And what do we tell her? Oh well, you know. Daddy just disappeared into thin air."
The night he disappeared from P.J.'s, Matthew told his friends he would be back in 20 minutes.
He was never seen or heard from again.
"Someone had to see something," Kronen-Kustra said.
"And that's the hard part. Because someone saw something and no one is talking."
Kronen-Kustra said her son inherited a large sum of money and put much of it into a bar that used to be on Sherbrooke in NDG, called Liquid Lounge.
"He said I'm only 27 and already I'm a co-owner," Kronen-Kustra recalled.
"He was quite excited. He said when you come to Montreal you can come and see it. But that never did come about."
In her view, Matthew was young and naive and never had his name put on the paperwork.
The bar has since lost its licence and was shut down after a series of troubling incidents.
According to the liquor board's decision, there were two attempted murders there last year, as well as an attempted arson, and a robbery and beating.
During one police visit to Liquid Lounge, officers found a small amount of cocaine on the floor, and say they recognized two suspected drug dealers.
Police 'looking into every hypothesis'
Police are still investigating Kustra's disappearance.
"We're looking into every hypothesis," said Montreal police spokesman Const. Jean-Pierre Brabant, who says the case is being treated as a missing persons investigation.
"We're looking at all the clues we got, to understand the circumstances of his disappearance. But we're still trying to know if a criminal act was committed."
Kronen-Kustra says her family is still looking for answers.
"Every time they find a body or find remains, we hold our breath and think. 'oh my god, hope it's not him.' And in one way, we do, because we have no closure. And it's very hard to go on this way," she says.
"We have no closure, we have no answers. We have nothing."
The family will send off balloons again on the second anniversary of his disappearance, this Sunday.
Anyone with information can contact police anonymously at 514-393-1133.
