Missing and Murdered Women: British Columbia Highway 16

Showing posts with label British Columbia Highway 16. Show all posts

Sunday, March 7

Hunt to determine if a serial killer is preying on females along B.C. highways

The official list of missing or murdered young women on B.C. and Alberta highways contains 18 names. But many more victims may have left anguished families behind.

By LORI CULBERT and NEAL HALL, VANCOUVER SUN

March 7, 2010

RCMP Staff Sgt. Bruce Hulan stands along the long row of "highway of tears" documents, some that go back 40 years in Surrey, December 10, 2009.

Photograph by: Bill Keay , Vancouver Sun

In their hunt to determine whether a serial killer is preying on girls and women along B.C. roadways, investigators have identified 2,000 “persons of interest” in the so-called Highway of Tears investigation.

Project E-Pana, the joint RCMP-Vancouver police unit probing missing and murdered women along B.C. highways, previously has been tight-lipped about the high-profile investigation.

In his first extensive media interview, team commander Staff Sgt. Bruce Hulan has revealed new details to The Vancouver Sun about a case that has generated much emotion and debate across this province.

Until now, it has not been clear what criteria the RCMP used to draw up its list of 18 “Highway of Tears” victims, how they chose the geographical scope of their project, and what headway has been made on possible suspects — including a person of interest targeted during a mysterious search this summer of a Prince George property.

E-Pana began in 2005 with a review of three unsolved 1994 murders along northern B.C.’s Highway 16, but would soon expand its scope.

“We started doing the review but very early into it we recognized that, if we are looking for this serial killer, we’ll have to broaden our scope and have a look at other files,” Hulan said this week.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to say [whether there is a serial killer at play] until we’re at the point where we are satisfied that we have been successful in solving or charging in all 18 of the files, or the majority, or having determined what the circumstances were that led to the murders.”

To zero in on a suspect or suspects police examined 619 unsolved files of violence against women along three highways, including murders and missing person cases, as well as sexual assaults and attempted sex assaults. A half dozen of the cases are in the Hinton area of Alberta, while the majority are from B.C.

That file review, which wrapped up earlier this year, identified the 18 cases of missing and murdered women included on the official police list, as well as an additional 16 sex-crime cases that appeared very similar because the women were targeted on specific highways.

“Our purpose in reviewing the [sex crimes] files is to identify elements common to our homicide cases which may assist us in identifying the person responsible,” said RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Annie Linteau, who attended The Sun’s interview with Hulan.

Victims’ families and women’s advocates argue the official list should be much longer than 18 names, suggesting up to twice that number of girls and women have met similar violence in northern and central B.C. over the past 40 years.

A Vancouver Sun investigation has uncovered 13 other victims who went missing or were murdered near a major roadway in B.C. or Alberta, who appear to be similar to the 18 on the official list and, in some cases, had been linked in the past to the “highway murders” by previous police investigations. The stories of these additional cases will be told in our series “The Vanishing Point” over the next five days.

In some of the additional cases identified by The Sun, Hulan argued the victims don’t meet the criteria the RCMP set for inclusion on the list. Victims must be female and match at least one of the two following scenarios: they were involved in a high-risk activity such as hitchhiking or the sex trade, or they were last seen — or their body was found — within a mile or so from three specific B.C. highways.

Hulan conceded other victims might potentially be linked to one or more of the women on the official list, but he added the RCMP had to make its investigation manageable, so it focused on a certain geographical area.

“There are other investigations out there that, when you look at them, would cause you to be concerned whether there are connections between them, but as I said before, we are constrained by resources,” Hulan said. “We couldn’t look at the entire province.”

The cases that are on the official list span Highway 16 from Prince Rupert all the way to Hinton, Alberta; Highway 97 from Prince George to Kamloops, and Highway 5, which includes Merritt.

In addition to the 2,000 persons of interest identified in the cases reviewed by police, there is a secondary list of 5,000 people whose names surfaced in the files for various reasons. There have been common names in some files, Hulan said.

“With anyone identified in the files as a person of interest we do a background check and analysis on them, their criminal history, and when they were in and out of custody, and if they had the opportunity or not to commit the homicide.”

None of the 2,000 persons of interest has been identified, but in August police said a previous owner of a Prince George-area property they were searching was a person of interest in the disappearance of Highway of Tears victim Nicole Hoar. Convicted murderer Leland Switzer, who has been in jail since 2005, previously owned the property.

While Hulan wouldn’t confirm Switzer as a person of interest, he revealed evidence was seized from the property and from a vehicle found at a nearby dump. The evidence is being analysed for DNA and undergoing other testing.

E-Pana has also sent evidence recovered during the historical homicides to modern-day labs, which in some cases has created new leads and in other cases has ruled out past suspects.

It is often inaccurately reported that Nicole Hoar was the only non-native person on the Highway of Tears list, but The Sun has determined eight of the 18 women and girls are non-native. Hulan estimated the list was half native and half non-native.

“These victims weren’t targeted because they were white or native or any other race, for that matter.

“They are victims because ... they were engaged in high-risk activity,” he said.

Many of the relatives of women on the list cringe at the description of their loved ones doing something high-risk, arguing some were just walking or cycling on a highway, or were hitchhiking in the 1970s, when it was a commonplace activity.

The $6-million E-Pana investigation, which employs 60 people — including 17 RCMP and two Vancouver officers, as well as civilians and retired police officers — is not investigating all 18 files at once.

“We prioritized files based on the risk of losing evidence and the potential threats to the public” he said.

Hulan said it is possible detectives could provide some future answers for the families, but given that some files are four decades old, the perpetrators may no longer be alive.

“Is it likely we will be able to charge on all 18 of them? I’m doubtful about that.”

For some relatives such as Kevin MacMillen, whose sister was killed near 100 Mile House in 1974, being included on the Highway of Tears list has meant hope that the case is getting new attention.

“It was a great relief,” said MacMillen, who said he has always suspected the person who murdered Colleen had killed again, either before or after.

Brenda Wilson doesn’t like her sister Ramona’s name being on the list because of the negative connotations that her sister was doing something wrong the day she vanished from Smithers in 1994.

“I think if there’s any justice that we receive it would be in finding answers to who did this to Ramona and why, and how can we prevent it from happening again, and just to see a change in the ways things are done with the investigation, and [police] having better relationships with families,” Brenda said in a recent interview.

lculbert@vancouversun.com; nhall@vancouversun.com

Wednesday, February 10

Federal Liberals call for Highway of Tears national investigation

Published: February 09, 2010 11:00 PM

The federal Liberal Party is calling for a national inquiry into the missing and murdered women along Highway 16, also referred to as the Highway of Tears.

Anita Neville, the Liberals’ critic on the status of women, was in Prince George Friday to meet with groups and families of victims regarding the murders and disappearances.

“My leader, Michael Ignatieff, has made it clear when we’re elected we would make a call for a national investigation,” Neville said. “The Native Women’s Association of Canada has identified 520 aboriginal women who are missing or murdered (since 1970). If a planeload of 520 people went down, you could be sure there would be a national investigation.”

Currently the provincial E-PANA police task force is investigating 18 women and girls missing or murdered along B.C.’s highways. Of those 10 cases are from the stretch of Highway 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert.

“Certainly the provincial governments are responding, and that is good, but everyone is responding in a different way,” Neville said. “It’s a national tragedy. It’s a national stain. (But) there is not a comprehensive, coordinated strategy... led by the federal government.”

There are multiple models a national investigation could be based on, such as the investigation in the Air India bombing, which could be drawn on, she added.

“I don’t know exactly what that looks like,” Neville said. “(But) I think what would be required is to meet with a whole range of stakeholders.”

Neville said she has raised the issue several times with the Department of Justice, but receive little response.

Project E-PANA spokeswoman Corp. Annie Linteau said it’s difficult to say if a national investigation or inquiry would be beneficial to the investigation.

“The RCMP is always supportive of any public forum. (But) an inquiry would not be helpful at this time,” Linteau said. “We’re conducting an active investigation... and we are not in a position to disclose our evidence in a public forum.”

Currently 69 officers and civilian staff are dedicated to Project E-PANA.

Additional resources are dedicated to cases of missing and murdered women through Project Evenhanded in Vancouver, Project KARE in and around Edmonton and Manitoba’s missing person/cold case project, Linteau said.

Linteau said without knowing the details of what a national investigation would look like, it’s hard to determine if it would benefit the investigations.

Cariboo-Prince George MP Dick Harris said he is confident in the current police investigations into the cases.

“We have a coordinated investigation between four provinces now, all along Highway 16 from Manitoba to Prince Rupert,” Harris said. “A national investigation has a good sound to it, but what would it achieve?”

Harris said he believes the call for a national investigation is about politics, not solving cases.

“This is a tragedy. This is not something to politicize,” he said. “If she’s using this issue for political reasons, I’m saddened by that.”

http://bit.ly/bLgKyF

Highway of Tears

http://www.highwayoftears.ca/

Monday, February 1

Police seeking two men in teen girl’s murder

RCMP Corp. Annie Linteau holds up two photos of 14-year-old

Aielah Saric-Auger at the last place she was seen alive: the

2100 block of Quince Street.

Arthur WILLIAMS/Free Press

By Arthur Williams - Prince George Free Press

Published: February 01, 2010 3:00 PM
Updated: February 01, 2010 3:38 PM

On Wednesday it will have been four years since the last known sighting of 14-year-old Aielah Saric-Auger while she was alive.

Project E-PANA, a special police task force investigating cases of missing and murdered women along Highway 16, is appealing to the public for any information about two males who were seen talking to Aielah the night she disappeared.

On Feb. 2, 2006 Aielah left her family home to go and visit friends, Cpl. Annie Linteau said. On Feb. 10, her body was found in a ditch next to Highway 16 near the Tabor Mountain turnoff, 22 km east of Prince George.

The last known sighting of Aielah was between 12:30 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Feb. 3, in the 2100 block of Quince Street.

"She was seen walking northbound. A witness saw that two males attempted to engage her in conversation," Linteau said. "We invite these males to come and talk to us. We'd like to find out what the conversation was about; if they have any information. Did she give any indication where she was going?"

Aielah was wearing a miniskirt and dark jacket at the time of her disappearance. No description of the males is available, Linteau said.

The investigation team has received 1,300 tips and interviewed 400 people in B.C. and Alberta regarding the case, RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Annie Linteau said. However, police have not been able to identify the two males who spoke to Aielah that night.

Police believe all three were walking at the time of the incident. RCMP do not know what Aielah was walking alone in that neighbourhood at that time of night, Linteau said.

"We have no indication that Aielah was involved in high-risk activity," Linteau said.

Anyone with any information which could lead to the identification of these two males, or about the whereabouts of Aielah after Feb. 2, is urged to call the B.C. Unsolved Homicide hotline at 1-877-543-4822 or Crime Stoppers at 1-888-222-TIPS(8477).

"We're talking about the murder of a 14-year-old girl," Linteau said. "No tip is to small."

Find this article at:
http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/83295522.html

Monday, December 14

Missing and Murdered Women along the Highway of Tears – reporter Lori Culbert will host a live chat at noon on Tuesday, December 15.

Deputy Managing Editor Paul Bucci and reporter Lori Culbert will host a live chat at noon on Tuesday, December 15. In the meantime, you can post questions for Lori in advance or discuss the case and your memories of the women and girls who vanished along B.C. and Alberta highways below.

VANISHING POINT
Women Missing or Murdered
A Five-Part Investigative series

A Vancouver Sun investigation tells the full story, for the first time, of the Highway of Tears victims and raises questions about other similar unsolved cases.

VANISHING POINT - The Vancouver Sun

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/vanished/chatroom/index.html

Friday, December 11

How the Vanishing Point series developed

December 11, 2009

Many women have vanished or been found murdered along the highways of B.C. and Alberta over the past 40 years.

Photograph by: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun

For the first time, a Vancouver Sun investigation reveals the full story behind the Highway of Tears victims and raises questions about other similar unsolved cases in B.C. and Alberta.

The cases date back to the murder of Gloria Levina Moody in 1969 and end with the murder of a 14-year-old Prince George high school student in 2006. The youngest victim to meet violence along the province's highway was 12.

Neal Hall has covered many high-profile cases for the Vancouver Sun, including the court proceedings in the Clifford Olson case. He teamed up with Lori Culbert on the Robert Pickton case and has been reporting on the Highway of Tears since the beginning.

Hall and Culbert joined forces for the Vancouver Sun's investigative series on the missing and murdered women along the highways of B.C. and Alberta. Culbert recently travelled to northern B.C. with photographer Ian Smith for the series.

http://www.vancouversun.com/Vanishing+Point+series+developed/2280893/story.html

Quesnel parents wonder if daughter’s unsolved murder linked to Highway 97

By LORI CULBERT, Vancouver Sun

December 11, 2009

Paula and Jim Braem's daughter, Deena, was 16 when she went missing in 1999 from Quesnel. She was found murdered two and a half months later.

Photograph by: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun

QUESNEL — It was Friday, September 24, 1999, and Deena Braem planned to celebrate her 17th birthday that weekend with her high-school friends in Quesnel.

Her father, Jim Braem, knew Deena would stay over at a friend's house, instead of returning home. His last words to his daughter were for her to enjoy her night out.

"That was the last time I saw her alive. I remember saying, 'Happy birthday. Have a good time, beautiful.' I remember seeing her hair flipping around with her backpack on her back," he recalled. The memory is still difficult.

When Deena didn't come home that Saturday, her parents thought it was unusual. She hadn't even phoned to ask for some more money.

By Sunday they began to worry, especially when one of their daughter's best friends called to speak to Deena - she should have been with her.

However, the Braems were certain that by Monday - Deena's actual birthday - they would hear from their daughter. At 10 a.m. that day, Jim phoned the school, only to learn his daughter hadn't shown up for class. He met the bus after school, and discovered none of Deena's friends had seen her that day either.

There would be no birthday celebration in the Braem house that night.

"Instead, we reported her missing on her 17th birthday," Jim said during a recent interview.

When they drove home from the police station that evening, Jim and Paula noticed their daughter's shoes weren't in their regular spot by the front door. They were overcome by an intense sense of loss, one that still haunts them today.

"I never went back to work after Monday, for a whole year," said Jim, who is employed at a local mill.

"I died," his wife Paula added bluntly, her eyes red with emotion.

Police searched the local area. Jim drove his truck to Prince George and back, but didn't even know what he was looking for.

"There's not much else you can do. You really find out how much control you have over your life at times like that. You think you are in control of your destiny, but you're not," he said.

Deena was a typical teenager with a stubborn streak and a mind of her own. She was learning to drive. She was starting to focus more on school, as she planned to moved to Victoria once she graduated. She wrote in her journal that she would like to become an actress.

She had a horse on her parent's property near Bouchie Lake on the northwest outskirts of Quesnel, a city of 10,000 people on Highway 97.

Cpl. Ray Kinloch of the Quesnel RCMP said Deena had been with a group of friends at a four-by-four track southeast of the city earlier in the evening. They then went to another party on the west end of town but Deena didn't want to stay, and decided to hitchhike home despite the pouring rain outside.

A friend she was out with that night, but who stayed at the party, last saw Deena hitchhiking about 4 a.m. Saturday morning on North Fraser Drive, which runs parallel to the Fraser River. People working the early shift at the local mill also saw her standing on the side of the road.

Deena usually phoned her parents for a lift but this time she didn't. She was less than 10 km from home.

Investigators asked the Braems if Deena might have run away, a suggestion Jim rejected outright. He didn't know where his daughter was, but he held out some hope that they would find her.

Paula was less certain their daughter was still alive. "It just wasn't like her. Everything from that Saturday on just didn't feel right," she said.

Unfortunately, Paula's worst fears were proven true.

On Dec. 10, 1999 - two and a half months after Deena disappeared - a hunter stumbled upon human remains buried under a pile of brush in a wooden area near Pinnacles Park. It is about "two miles as the crow flies" between the spot where Deena was last seen and where her body was found, Jim said, but about an eight-mile drive.

Residents in Quesnel raised reward money, and Paula was sure somebody in the community would provide some crucial evidence to police.

"I would have thought someone would have been arrested in a year. But it's been 10 years," she said. "It's exhausting. It takes your life away."

The lack of answers is so consuming, Jim said, that he starts to think of everyone he sees as a possible guilty person.

Jim is frustrated that the police search of the area stopped 50 feet short of where his daughter's body was lying because officers left the area to pursue a new tip. Had they found her months earlier, would there have been more evidence to lead to an arrest? It is those unanswerable questions that haunt Jim, who has not been entirely pleased with the police investigation into his daughter's death.

"People say you get closure," Jim said. "The only thing you get closure on is a door. Every day that goes by it gets worse, it just gets worse in a different way. It's like a bigger bag that you keep dragging around."

Deena's name was informally associated for a long time with the Highway of Tears case, as she was frequently mentioned in media stories about the unsolved cases of highway murders in northern B.C. But she was not included in the official list when the RCMP expanded it in 2007.

At first, the Braems weren't sure Deena's case was similar enough to the others, as she disappeared from a secondary road. But they now wonder about the possibility their daughter was picked up by one of the logging trucks working in that area.

The road Deena was standing on runs parallel to Highway 97 but the two routes are separated by the Fraser River; it is a several-kilometre drive back into Quesnel to get back onto Highway 97, which runs from Prince George to Kamloops.

"I can't rule that out anymore," Jim said of the possibility his daughter's case belongs on the Highway of Tears list.

At least adding Deena's name to the list, Paula said, could give the case more attention and jog someone's memory.

E-Pana, the RCMP unit investigating the Highway of Tears cases, said Deena was not included on the list because of "geography." Although her case met two pieces of criteria - she was female and involved in a high-risk activity like hitchhiking - she did not meet the third criteria: when she was last seen, she was more than a mile from a major highway.

Kinloch said the Quesnel RCMP is still actively investigating the case, but noted there have been no new solid leads in recent years. And Deena's body was very decomposed, so some evidence - such as whether she was sexually assaulted - was lost.

Police continue to search for the backpack Deena was carrying that night and to appeal for new tips.

"I firmly believe that there are people out there that know exactly what happened to Deena Braem, and it's just a matter of time here before they open their mouths and confess to friends and relatives," Kinloch said.

"As to whether it's a local person who is responsible, I don't know. It could be someone from outside the area, it's just a matter of time before that person speaks."

Officers are also still trying to find two young men wearing hoodies who were seen walking along North Fraser Drive the same time Deena was hitchhiking on the road. "They are persons of interest. We'd be interested in knowing who they are and what they know," Kinloch said.

"It's just tragic that [the Braems] don't know what happened to their daughter. I sure wish I could help them out."

Still, even if a killer is caught that won't bring justice, Jim said, it will just "take a little bit off our mind."

"And it won't bring Deena back," Paula added.

lculbert@vancouversun.com

Cloak of mystery still surrounds Virginia Sampare’s disappearance

By Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun

December 11, 2009

Siblings Roddy and Winnie Sampare hold a photograph of their sister Virginia Sampare.

Photograph by: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun

GITSEGUKLA — On October 14, 1971, teenager Virginia Sampare and her cousin Alvin were hanging out near an old bridge on Highway 16, outside their home town of Gitsegukla.

The day was cool, so Alvin hopped on his bicycle to go home and get a jacket. He told Virginia he'd return shortly.

On his way back, as he cycled toward the highway, he heard a pickup door close; by the time he reached the road, Virginia was nowhere in sight.

She has never been seen again.

That is all that her brother and sister, Winnie and Roddy Sampare, have been able to piece together about the mysterious disappearance of their younger sibling nearly four decades ago.

"It was just so strange how she disappeared. Everyone looked and they didn't find anything. Not a piece of clothing," Winnie said in a recent interview in Gitsegukla, a native community between Terrace and Smithers.

"It still feels like it just happened yesterday."

According to brief stories in The Vancouver Sun in 1971, RCMP officers, civil defence personnel and local residents began searching the dense bush around the village about a week after Virginia vanished.

No trace of the pretty teenager with the delicately chiselled features and almond-shaped brown eyes was found.

After eight days, the effort was called off.

Her brother Roddy, who was then 23, helped with the official search, and also combed the local river and nearby mountains.

"I think the whole community took part in that search. There were people cooking, and others in the bush," Roddy recalled. "They came up with nothing."

Virginia was born in 1953, one of six kids in her family. She was a quiet girl who loved to sing teasing songs to her sisters, Winnie recalled. She worked at a cannery.

Winnie said her sister would usually let someone know her plans, and it would have been out of character for her to run away.

Sampare's file was re-opened in 2001. New Hazelton RCMP Cpl. Don Wrigglesworth re-interviewed her family and some witnesses, and gathered samples to create a DNA profile for the missing woman.

Wrigglesworth noted that Virginia vanished after the sudden disappearance of her boyfriend, and before his body was found drowned in the Skeena River. Virginia was upset that cold day and had left the house without a jacket.

"No one knows where she went or what she did: If she committed suicide. If she relocated herself back to Vancouver. She's had no contact with anyone," Wrigglesworth said. "There is speculation of wrong-doing, but no proof."

Virginia was depressed at the time by the disappearance of her boyfriend, Roddy concurred, but he doesn't believe his sister committed suicide. "My mom and dad were always preaching we couldn't do anything to harm ourselves."

The Sampares feel someone must know something about their sister, and are begging that person to come forward. "We just keep hoping and praying she's alive," Winnie said.

They believe adding Virginia to the official Highway of Tears list could bring a break in the case and possibly generate some new tips. "We asked the police when we went to Prince George, and we didn't get any response," Roddy said.

Sampare's file meets two of the three pieces of criteria required for an unsolved case to be put on the Highway of Tears list: She is female and she was last seen within a mile of the highway.

However, Staff Sgt. Bruce Hulan, who runs the E-Pana investigation which is looking into the Highway of Tears cases, said foul play had to be confirmed in a case before it was considered for the official list.

In five of the 18 cases on the list no body has been found but, Hulan said, in each of those files investigators are convinced the victim was murdered.

Roddy Sampare said he was pleased with the initial police response to his sister's disappearance, but he remains frustrated that he doesn't have more answers. He is determined to keep searching.

In recent years, the RCMP collected DNA from Virginia's family members, in the off chance they might find evidence of her on Port Coquitlam serial killer Robert (Willie) Pickton's farm.

Roddy hopes the expansion of DNA science will lead to answers for his family. "That is the biggest thing I keep hoping with the new technology that is out there now," Roddy said.

Virginia's disappearance hit their parents hard, Roddy said.

When their mother was dying in 2001, she kept thinking Virginia would visit her on her death bed. Their father is haunted by his daughter's ghost, often thinking that he's caught a glimpse of her or had a conversation with her.

When Roddy and other family members visit Vancouver, they search the sea of faces for a middle-aged woman who resembles Virginia, or a younger woman who could be her daughter.

"It would be nice for us to have closure. If she's alive it would be nice to see her again. And if she's gone, it would be nice to put her to rest and have a feast and put a marker up."

lculbert@vancouversun.com

http://www.vancouversun.com/Cloak+mystery+still+surrounds+Virginia+Sampare+disappearance/2330765/story.html

Daughter searches for answers in mother’s 1978 murder

By Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun

December 11, 2009

Vicki Hill in front of a picture of her mother Mary Jane Hill when she was three years old.

Photograph by: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun

PRINCE RUPERT — Vicki Hill was just six-months old when her mother was found dead along Highway 16.

Thirty years later, the case remains unsolved.

Vicki, now 32, is now trying to piece together what she can about the mother she never knew.

Three decades after her mother's death, Vicki tracked down a copy of her mother's death certificate at a Prince Rupert funeral home. It notes Mary Jane Hill died on Highway 16 on March 26, 1978 at the age of 31.

In 2004, a victims' services worker helped Vicki get a copy of the findings of a coroner's inquest into her mothers death.

The five jurors ruled the cause of death for Mary Jane, whose body was found 21 km east of Prince Rupert, was bronchitis and bronchopneumonia.

But the one-page document eerily adds: "We then find that the death of Mary Jane Hill as a result of manslaughter."

There are no further details. Vicki believes that someone left her mother on the highway to die.

Mary Jane was buried in an unmarked grave in a Prince Rupert cemetery. With the help of a caring outreach worker, Vicki has uncovered the coordinates of the plot. She must now find the exact location of the piece of grass under which her mother's remains lie.

"I would say this is a puzzle that I'm on, and there's pieces I don't have. But they are all the pieces I could find of her," Vicki said during a recent interview.

She wore a community event T-shirt that reads "Take Back the Highway" on the front and "There's a killer on the highway" on the back.

Although Vicki's mother was found dead along Highway 16, her name has not been added to the Highway of Tears list.

Vicki doesn't know why. She is frustrated by the Prince Rupert RCMP investigation that, in three decades, has produced no answers.

About two years ago a support worker helped Vicki contact Tony Romeyn, a Prince George businessman who runs a website dedicated to the Highway of Tears case. Romeyn added a photo and story about Mary Jane to his memorial page.

Mary Jane's file meets two of the three pieces of criteria required for an unsolved case to be put on the Highway of Tears list: She is female and she was last seen or her body was found within a mile of the highway.

However, Staff Sgt. Bruce Hulan, who runs the E-Pana investigation that is looking into the Highway of Tears cases, says the uncertainty of foul play eliminates this file a candidate for the official list.

While the coroner's jury concluded Mary Jane died of manslaughter, the autopsy results, Hulan said, leaned more towards death by natural causes.

He added that the original investigators could not determine how Mary Jane got to the spot on the highway where her body was found.

Vicki hopes to find one of the coroner's jurors, who she understands is still living in Prince Rupert, to find out if he remembers more information.

"The RCMP, I don't think myself, they are really looking into these old cases," she said quietly. "I'm quite sure they will find something along the line if they look into it. I want to find out where is my mom's evidence? . Where are her clothes? Was anything done? I'm sure she would have fought. Where is the DNA, the blood samples?"

Vicki remains disappointed by what she perceives as a lack of interest by politicians, native leaders, the public and the media in her mother's file and those of other unsolved cases in northern BC.

"I think it is important that there should be more attention to all these women who are gone, because I know what it's like to lose a loved one. Because I know the pain," said Vicki, who was born in Prince Rupert and was raised by her father's family after her mother's death.

In one of a handful of photos that Vicki has, her mother Mary Jane, a Nisga'a, stands on the government dock in Kinkolithis. She is smartly dressed in stylish clothes, wearing glasses and a short haircut that was popular in the 1960s.

During Vicki's childhood, including some unhappy years in the native town of Gitsegukla, she was not told much about her mother. Then, when she was in her early 20s, an uncle finally told her that he and her mother attended a concert on the evening she disappeared, and that he turned around and she was gone.

"They said I looked like her. She loved to play sports," Vicki said.

"Growing up without her was really hard. Especially around this time of year. I never even got to see her," added Vicki, the mother of two children, Erik, 12, and Zoey, 7. "It's not fair.... I just wish she was here to see my kids."

Hill is determined to soldier on in her search for answers, out of respect for her mother and the other missing and murdered women from Northern BC.

"I want justice. And more awareness of all the missing and murdered women. They are all human. They all had heart beats."

lculbert@vancouversun.com

http://www.vancouversun.com/Daughter+searches+answers+mother+1978+murder/2330781/story.html

Advocates share tears and stories about unsolved cases

By Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun

December 11, 2009

Gladys Radek (right) and Bernie Williams, organizers of the Walk4Justice, stop at the last place Radek's niece Tamara Chipman, 22, was seen.

Photograph by: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun

Gladys Radek and Bernie Williams are the founders of Walk4Justice, an annual long-distance walk to demand a public inquiry into the unsolved cases of missing and murdered women from northern BC.

Besides being a native activist, Radek has a deeply personal connection to the story: Her niece, Tamara Chipman, who was last seen on Sept. 21, 2005, is one of the 18 victims on the RCMP's Highway of Tears list.

Williams' activism around the plight of murdered and missing women in B.C. began on Vancouver's downtown eastside after several women she knew were linked to disappearances linked to Robert (Willie) Pickton.

Radek and Williams traveled with the Vancouver Sun team to northern B.C. in November, to introduce us to families they have met along that route and to share their personal experiences of Highways 16 and 97.

One of our first stops was on the outskirts of Prince Rupert, where a pair of running shoes Williams wore on a walk for justice lie in a ditch, marking the spot where Chipman was last seen.

Later the next day, as we drove by Moricetown, a native community north of Smithers, we stopped to view a billboard bearing the photos of three missing local young women: Radek's niece Chipman, and missing cousins Delphine and Cecilia Nikal.

Radek was emotional as she gazed at the billboard, struck by the youth of these missing women, many of whom never had the opportunity to become mothers; others that left motherless children behind.

Chipman had a toddler son, Jaden, who is now growing up without his mother.

It was an emotional 835 km journey for both women. The trip took us to Prince Rupert, Terrace, Gitwangak, Gitsegukla, Smithers and Prince George along Highway 16, before we turned south along Highway 97 to Quesnel.

Radek and Williams shared tears and stories about good times and bad, about their troubled childhoods and determined adult years - and they shared a steely reserve to keep fighting for justice in these cases.

lculbert@vancouversun.com

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Advocates+share+tears+stories+about+unsolved+cases/2330674/story.html

Friday, October 16

Frost still missing after 39 years

Written by Frank Peebles
Citizen staff
Thursday, 15 October 2009

Helen Frost is still missing and still loved by her family, 39 years after she disappeared from Prince George.

Tuesday was the anniversary of her disappearance in 1970 and on Saturday she would have been 57. Her parents in Nanaimo still hope for the day Frost walks through their door and sister Sandy Barnet, now living in the Lower Mainland, still remembers when the two were living with a friend on Queensway when Frost didn't come home one day.

"She left in the evening. I didn't contact the police until two days later, because I didn't know what was going on until then, and there was nothing done in the media, no posters put up, zero. That's just the way it was done back then," Barnet told The Citizen. "And being young myself back then, I didn't know there was any way to push. We just went ourselves out looking. The police back then didn't do anything. Maybe they (police) discuss it, but there doesn't seem to be any new rocks to turn over."

Barnet wonders why Frost was never put on the Highway of Tears list like other missing women from around the region, dating back to about the same time.

On the other hand, she has no evidence Frost met with foul play, and on two occasions in the 1970s - once in Nanaimo and once in Cranbrook - good friends believed they sighted the missing girl, but these were not confirmed.

"To be clear, this investigation has never ceased, it has always been something we have worked on, but sometimes we get new directions to go in, so we would like to bring this to public attention again," said Prince George RCMP spokesman Const. Gary Godwin.

Frost was a troubled girl, said Barnet. The two sisters lived together with a friend in a Prince George apartment. The friend had a baby, and Frost had recently given birth to a child that she gave up for adoption in May of that year. However, the family ties were strong, there was a support network that was in place, and Barnet said it still is.

"My parents and I are on excellent terms; they were on good terms with us then, too, we lucked out on the draw and have great parents," she said. "They were in Nanaimo, and they're in the same house to this day. Us girls had some rebellion going on as teenagers but nothing out of the ordinary, but that was over, we were on our own by then. Helen was 17, I was 19."

Anyone who knows anything about the activities of Helen Frost in October, 1970, or her whereabouts is asked to call Prince George RCMP at 250-561-3300, or give the information anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS / www.pgcrimestoppers.bc.ca

http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/20091015999910325/local/news/frost-still-missing-after-39-years.html

Friday, August 28

Murder and racism along the Highway of Tears

By Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun columnist
August 28, 2009 9:01 PM

With the news that RCMP were searching a property near Prince George for the remains of Nicole Hoar, there was in that grisly development in the Highway of Tears investigation something that remained unsaid.

Hoar was an anomaly. She was white.

Of the nine females originally listed by the RCMP as missing along Highway 16 — a list, in retrospect, that now seems laughably small — Hoar was the sole Caucasian, an Alberta girl who was working as a tree planter in the Prince George area. She was also, at 25, the eldest of the nine.

The other eight were aboriginal.

Of those eight, four were 15.

When the RCMP expanded the investigation’s area of interest (reacting, perhaps, to the insistence in the aboriginal community that many more women were missing), the force began looking at similar cases as far afield as Alberta and far northern B.C. Another nine names were added to the list in October 2007, bringing the total to 18.

Aileah Saric-Auger, a high school student from Prince George, became the youngest victim on the revised list, and the most recent. Aileah was 14, and had gone missing in February 2006. Her body was found eight days later in a ditch along Highway 16.

The revised list also expanded the investigation’s time span. The oldest case now went all the way back to 1969 — Gloria Moody, found dead in Williams Lake. Forty years would seem to test the limit of “cold case,” in that the chances of some kind of resolution are now positively frigid. It is this growing distance between crime and the possibility of punishment that is not only a source of frustration for the aboriginal community, but evidence to that community of systemic racism.

In the database of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, there are 520 “known” cases of native women going missing or being murdered, and half of those cases have happened since 2000.

B.C. has the distinction of leading all provinces by a wide margin, with 137.

These murders and disappearances have been going on for decades, however, including in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and critics have charged that investigations into them lapsed because of meagre police resources or, worse, the disinterest of society at large to pursue them. Put more bluntly, racism.

“When I reported my sister missing,” said Lucy Glaim, of Smithers, who was once the youth justice worker for the Wet’sewet’en Unlocking Aboriginal Justice program, “[the RCMP officer] just said something like, ‘She’s just found a party or something, so give her a couple of days.’”

Those couple of days turned into an eternity: Glaim’s sister, Delphine Nikal, disappeared on the morning of June 14, 1990, while hitchhiking from Smithers to a friend’s house in nearby Telkwa. She was never seen again. Glaim had reported her missing the following morning. Delphine was 16.

Glaim’s niece, Cicilia Anne Nikal, had also disappeared a year earlier, and was last seen in Smithers near Highway 16. But her name was not included on the list of 18 because RCMP maintain she was reported missing in Vancouver.

That scenario was contradicted in the 2006 report that came out of the Highway of Tears Symposium in Prince George. The symposium came about because the case file had reached such a critical mass of numbers that it could no longer be ignored. Police, government and media were forced to take notice. It was in that report that Cicilia Anne’s name was included, and that she was “last seen in Smithers near Highway 16.”

There was also this remarkable paragraph in the report’s preamble:

“There is much community speculation and debate on the exact number of women that have disappeared along Highway 16. . . . Many are saying the number of missing women, combined with the number of confirmed murdered women, exceeds 30.”

It then goes on to say that “the exact number of missing women has yet to be determined.”

The exact number? More than 30? The unintended dispassion of those passages screams out at the reader. If there was the possibility of 30 or more women going missing in, say, Dunbar, there wouldn’t be a polite “debate” about numbers. There wouldn’t be a symposium 40 years down the road. There would be immediate wholesale alarm.

Some 33 recommendations came out of that report, some of which have been implemented and some not. A key one — the creation of a shuttle bus service between communities along the highway to remove the need for poor aboriginal women to resort to hitchhiking — has not been realized. Hitchhiking remains common. But one recommendation that did see fruition was the creation of a coordinator for the Highway to Tears program. The coordinator was to act as a liaison between police, affected families and government.

Mavis Erickson, of the Carrier Sekani Family Services in Prince George, is the present coordinator. She is concentrating her efforts, she said, on getting the provincial government to hold an inquiry into the investigations. She has a meeting with Attorney-General Mike de Jong in October.

“It’s been 40 years, and we haven’t had an arrest,” Erickson said. “Many times, we talk to families of women who have been murdered or who have gone missing, and they don’t know what’s going in on the investigations.

“Hopefully, [an inquiry] will answer some questions.”

pmcmartin@vancouversun.com, 604-605-2905

Highway of Tears

RCMP step up investigation into 18 dead or missing women along Highway 16 in northern B.C.

Thursday, July 23

Remembering 'just another junkie'

Canice Leung
24 July 2009 05:43

Sarah Jean de Vries. It’s not a name I knew before seeing filmmaker Janis Cole’s video installation, Remember Their Names, at a Toronto gallery, but I’d now be hard-pressed to forget it.

Her missing poster, case No. 98-88486, reads like this: Known prostitute and drug user; black, white, Aboriginal, Mexican Native heritage; age 28; last seen at Princess and Hastings streets on April 14, 1998.

She is one of 27 dead women Robert Pickton faces murder charges for; one of 68 women, Indians, junkies and whores, missing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Not a week into her disappearance, friends and family postered and pushed police to act — not just for Sarah, but for dozens who had disappeared since the 1980s.

That inaction is Cole’s constant theme. A screen flashes quotes from police: “We’ve done as much as we could.” “We’re in no way saying there is a serial killer ... (or) the women are dead.”

The installation loops footage of Sarah shooting up. “There’s three ways you can go: Jail; dead; or end up a lifer down here,” she says.

In a 1999 Seattle Times article, Sereena Abotsway echoed Sarah’s despair, saying she feared for her safety. She joined community marches to call for police action as women disappeared. Two years later, she, too, went missing, one of six women Pickton was convicted of killing in 2007.

This is Canada’s collective shame, ignoring women like Sarah and Sereena, who felt fear and vulnerability with urgency, who asked for (and gave) help, but received none.

It’s a tired cry for a static situation: Why has nothing been done? Since 1969, 18 women have disappeared or been murdered on Highway 16, the Highway of Tears, in northern B.C. Last fall, best friends Maisy Odjick and Shannon Alexander disappeared from the Kitigan Zibi reserve north of Ottawa without even their wallets, but for months police maintained the teens had simply run away.

“No one cares, we are just junkie scum. Yet if we had been somebody important and our daughter had gone missing,” Sarah wrote, presciently, before her disappearance, “no stone unturned, no rock or cranny would be left unsearched.”

metro canada

Remembering 'just another junkie'

A new exhibition to remember the missing women of Vancouver at Trinity Square Video. Please see web links.

http://www.trinitysquarevideo.com/exhibition.php?id=36

http://www.rememberoursisterseverywhere.com/events/remember-their-names

http://missingwomen.blogspot.com/2009/06/remember-their-names.html

http://imagearts.ryerson.ca/documentarynow/artists/Janis_Cole.html