American Gay Club Dancers Deaths 'Accidental'

[movieguy]

American Gay Club Dancers Deaths 'Accidental'

by Jean-Pierre O'Brien 365Gay.com Montreal Bureau

Posted: October 5, 2005 12:01 am ET

(Montreal, Quebec) The deaths of two American male exotic dancers whose bodies were found in a suburban Montreal quarry have been ruled accidental.

Police say the pair likely fell to their deaths in the darkness fleeing a cab after avoiding paying the fare.

Steve Wright, a native of Guerneville, in northern California, and Mark Kraynak of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, had been performing at Remington's a gay strip club in Toronto and decided to visit Montreal with their agent and a friend before returning home.

The pair left their Montreal hotel early August 22 and Kraynack called one of the other two friends from a taxi to say they were going to an after-hours club in suburban Laval.

That is the last anyone heard from them.

Their bodies were found last month in a Laval quarry. (story) The quarry is located near the club.

Autopsies revealed no trace of knife or bullet wounds or signs of violence.

A Laval police spokesperson said that tape from a video surveillance camera outside the club showed Kraynack and Wright jumping out of the cab and running with the driver in pursuit. Police are still looking to question the taxi driver.

The men apparently jumped the fence surrounding the quarry but did not realize it was a shear drop of 50-feet. Warning signs on the fence were in French only, a language neither man spoke.

The men's disappearance sparked a two week search for the pair. Both men were believed to be making about $1,000 a night dancing in Toronto but their bank accounts were not touched since the two went missing, adding to the mystery.

Wright's cell phone was still in their hotel room, along with the men's clothing, passports and personal papers.

Kraynak had served with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq until early last year. He received a Purple Heart for injuries received in Iraq.

With ambitions of becoming a high-fashion model while he was still stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., he signed up with the Atlanta office of the French Connection Francaise/FCP modeling agency.

But, soon Kraynak became involved with the p*** industry.

"He was polite, soft-spoken, and sometimes uncomfortable in the strip club,'' an employee at Remington's said last week.

Wright was considered by other dancers to be "a party boy". He liked the life that the money from stripping provided.

Unlike Kraynak, Wright enjoyed his work as a gay stripper.

Kraynak's mother said she does not accept the police account, although she has been shown the video. Janice Kraynak said that she believes there is more to her son's death.

She said that there was money in his pocket; he had money in the bank; an automatic teller card and credit cards.

"I have reason to believe my son was being threatened at the time," she said. "To me, he was running for his life. That's what it looks like to me."

©365Gay.com 2005

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