Born and raised in Jacksonville, FL, Ryan began his professional career working in the architectural field as a draftsman, moving his way up to project management before tragedy changed his career path. On October 10, 2009, Ryan's father, Cliff Backmann, was shot and killed during a robbery in what remains one of Jacksonville's 1,500+ unsolved murders.

After losing his dad, Ryan found a passion for helping others as a victim advocate, serving other families that had lost loved ones to homicide. That passion evolved as his dad's case went cold and fell further from being solved. In the constant search for justice, Ryan began educating himself on all things cold case-related. He traveled to multiple states to learn about successful cold case practices. Ryan has traveled to Washington D.C. on numerous occasions, including a trip in 2014 to speak at the National Press Club about the unknown total number of unsolved homicides in Florida and around the country. Most recently, along with other cold case advocates, Ryan spoke with advisers to both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committees recommending mandatory reporting of unsolved murders to the FBI for inclusion in the Uniform Crime Report.

In 2015, Ryan started Project: Cold Case to advocate for cold cases while linking families, information, and law enforcement. Years of working closely with Florida lawmakers and establishing relationships with law enforcement was instrumental in establishing a Florida Cold Case Advisory Commission and a statewide Cold Case Database.

Ryan has served on the Duval County Child Death Review Team, Chair for the Jacksonville Mayor's Victim Assistance Advisory Council, and completed the 2013 fall session of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Citizens' Academy. Ryan is the only survivor/advocate on the Florida Sheriffs Association Cold Case Advisory Commission and a subject matter expert in cold case advocacy for the national SAKI TTA program. Ryan also serves as a board member for the Southeastern Homicide Investigators Association and as a Regional Coordinator for the Florida Crisis Response Team. Most recently, Ryan was invited to be a member of the Vidocq Society.

Ryan regularly provides training for advocates and law enforcement as well as informational presentations to schools, universities, and civic groups. Ryan has been recognized by numerous agencies, organizations, and publications for his work involving cold case advocacy.

Project: Cold Case's mission is to serve families of unsolved homicides. This population of victims and survivors has long been glossed over. They deserve the attention, the assistance, the justice that every other victim of crime receives.

Our goal started as a simple one. Families could submit their loved one?s name and image to Project: Cold Case, and we would post it on our website. We were going to make sure that each person?s loved one would forever be remembered.

As it turned out, caring about these victims and their families was the bare minimum we could provide. Soon, Project: Cold Case was publishing Spotlight articles highlighting the life of a victim taken too soon. We were facilitating meetings between survivors and law enforcement, hoping to bridge the gap and build a trusting relationship between the two parties.

Over the years, we have learned that Project: Cold Case's role in the community continues to evolve. We are always evaluating the needs of our families and the best ways to advocate for them.

Living with an unsolved murder is a difficult weight for survivors to carry. Project: Cold Case is here to assist.