Missing and Murdered Women

Tuesday, September 25

Retired Highway of Tears investigator in awe of DNA science that tracked suspected killer

BY MIKE HAGER, VANCOUVER SUN SEPTEMBER 25, 2012 10:17 PM

Bobby Jack Fowler is shown in a 1995 Oregon police mug shot.

Photograph by: Vancouver Sun, Handout

Investigators knew to secure the scene for evidence when they found Colleen Rae MacMillen’s body on a logging road about 25 kilometres south of 100 Mile House about a month after she went missing in 1974. They bagged the 16-year-old’s clothes, which were found in the bushes nearby, and sent them to the forensics lab to test for fingerprints, hair and fibres.

Retired Mountie Fred Bodnaruk, who was a staff-sergeant when he headed the investigations into the murders of MacMillen and Pamela Darlington in the early 1970s, knew his lab was “fairly immature” at the time, but he hoped they would be able to match evidence to one of the many suspects.

“It may hinge on a hair or a fibre — clothing was luckily found, and from there on we did the best we could,” he said in a phone interview. “We never even dreamed about DNA and what a tool it would be in my time.”

Bodnaruk and his team worked 15- to 18-hour days eliminating hundreds of suspects in the murder, but without DNA technology to match suspect to victim, their search ground to a halt.

“We continued and finally we just wore out every suspect we had and we couldn’t get anywhere,” he recalled from his North Vancouver home.

Still haunted by the unsolved case, Bodnaruk retired in 1977, and two boxes of evidence from the MacMillen crime scene began to collect dust in the Kamloops RCMP detachment’s evidence room.

In 1984, geneticist Sir Alec Jeffreys discovered the modern-day technique of DNA fingerprinting, whereby physical evidence can be linked to someone by examining the similarities and differences between two different DNA samples. By 1991, when Allan Legere became the first Canadian to be convicted as a result of the technique, several high-profile criminal convictions in Britain and America had already hinged on the technique.

Dr. Gail Anderson, a forensic scientist and professor at Simon Fraser University’s criminology school, said in the early ’90s the technology wasn’t advanced enough to do things like match DNA from fibres found on MacMillen’s clothes to a potential suspect.

“At that time we were using a technique called RFLP, which was absolutely phenomenal for its time, but it required something to be about the size of a dime — or maybe a little more — of bloodspot to actually be able to do anything.

“It had to be very good quality DNA that is fresh.”

As more law enforcement agencies began to use DNA fingerprinting through the 1990s, countries began instituting national databanks and requiring serious criminals to submit their DNA. MacMillen’s American killer Bobby Jack Fowler was convicted of a violent attempted rape in 1996 and soon after would have had to give his DNA to the FBI-funded national DNA databank.

Forensic scientists can now retrieve DNA from as little as nine human cells, which can be found in the tiny saliva droplets of a single breath, or from the dead skin cells rubbed off during contact with another surface. Crime scenes must now be tightly controlled so investigators don’t contaminate a potential suspect’s DNA evidence, Anderson said.

Decades after MacMillen’s murder, Bodnaruk said two RCMP investigators went back to Kamloops to collect DNA samples from her clothes. Those samples were ultimately sent to the American database and matched to Fowler.

Bodnaruk — who still ponders the cases he couldn’t solve — is thankful the technique has solved at least one of his cold cases from his career.

“It’s almost divine intervention that this clever person found DNA and made it work for police work,” he said. “Fingerprints are great, but this science is almost beyond belief.”

mhager@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/MikePHager

Jennifer Evans appointed Peel’s chief of police

Published on Tuesday September 25, 2012

San Grewal

Urban Affairs Reporter

The province’s second largest municipal police department has chosen a woman to lead its force following a string of controversies that preceded the surprise retirement of the last chief.

Former deputy chief Jennifer Evans was announced as Peel Region’s new chief of police Tuesday, replacing Mike Metcalf, who stepped down this summer.

“The community we serve expects the highest level of integrity and professionalism,” Evans said in the Region of Peel council chambers, where chair Emil Kolb introduced her to an overflow crowd.

Evans’ comments come in the wake of some recent events that have left the force scrambling to defend its integrity.

In February, Ontario Superior Court Justice Deena Baltman delivered a scathing decision in a drug case involving Peel drug and vice squad officers, who she said had told calculated lies under oath. “The police showed contempt not just for the basic rights of every accused but for the sanctity of a courtroom,” Baltman said.

Metcalf ordered an internal investigation while the officers involved remained on the payroll. Charges have not yet been laid.

Legal experts told the Star’s Betsy Powell at the time that, if officers were charged and found guilty of perjury and other offences, a number of police investigations could be considered tainted.

“I think the integrity of our officers on a daily basis is absolutely essential to community service and support,” Evans said in response to questions about the case. “We are looking into those investigations, those allegations. I take those very seriously.”

In her introductory speech, Evans addressed another thorny issue that has dogged the force for years: questions about racial profiling and a perception that the force poorly reflects the region’s diverse population within its ranks.

In 2007, after the Ontario Human Rights Commission found a Peel officer guilty of racial profiling in a shoplifting case, chief Metcalf said he was “disappointed” with the finding and challenged the Commission’s assertion that his department needed better training to avoid racial profiling.

Last year, a Peel officer publicly apologized to a resident after he alleged he had been subjected to racial profiling during an investigation.

As of December about 14 per cent of the force, including civilian staff, were members of visible minorities. Only three out of 59 senior uniformed staff were visible minorities, in a force with a total complement of 2,300. About 60 per cent of Peel Region’s residents are visible minorities, according to Statistics Canada.

Evans said during her address that the region’s diversity is its strength, and is something the police service values.

“We, the police, are so proud of that diversity,” she said, vowing to usher in “enhanced, productive relationships” with community partners. “As your chief, I will make this happen.”

Evans’ elevation to the top job is seen by many insiders as a departure from established practice, some officers said privately. A group of senior staff close to Metcalf were passed over in the selection process.

However, Evans has an impressive list of accomplishments. After joining the force in 1983, she shot up the ranks; she served in an investigations unit, was seconded to assist in the Paul Bernardo case, became a homicide detective and recently assisted the British Columbia Missing Women Commission of Inquiry.

Asked what she’ll bring to the position, Evans said: “Leaders have to take responsibility and accountability for all the actions of all the police members and they have to listen to the community.”

E-PANA Announce Significant Development and Request for Public Assistance

Mother of murdered girl honoured – Shari Greer

By Neil Corbett - Abbotsford News
Published: September 25, 2012 2:00 PM
Updated: September 25, 2012 2:14 PM

Shari Greer is a woman who is too familiar with grief. For helping others cope with the death of their loved ones, she was honoured by the group Canadian Parents of Murdered Children and Survivors of Homicide on Thursday.

Greer is the mother of Kathryn-Mary Herbert, an 11-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered while walking to her home on Ross Road in Abbotsford in 1975. The case was never solved. It has been high-profile over the years, and highlighted in many cold case media reports and documentaries.

Less well-known is that Greer lost two other children – her son Donnie drowned in a gravel pit near the Abbotsford airport a year before Kathryn-Mary was taken. Her son William, or Butch, died by suicide. He had feelings of guilt for not driving his sister home the night she was abducted, and felt he failed her by not solving her murder.

Christopher Ducharme, founder of the B.C. Victims of Homicide, presented Greer with a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Award, on behalf of the Canadian Parents group.

She was nominated for the award by a retired police officer who worked on Kathryn-Mary’s case. He became familiar with her cause – justice for her daughter, and creating a safe and supportive environment for anyone who is bereaved by the loss of a loved one.

His nomination says she displayed limitless courage in challenging the police to pursue the 1975 murder investigation and hold them accountable.

Greer has tried to keep the investigation ongoing.

It is considered a cold case, with police needing new evidence to move it forward. Early this year, Greer was at a press conference to announce a $10,000 reward for new evidence leading to a suspect. For the bereaved mother, the case is still in the forefront of her thoughts, and she is frustrated with investigators.

“One inspector said, ‘This case will never be solved.’ If that’s their attitude, are they working on it?”

She has also hosted grief support retreats for the last decade at her home in Chilliwack.

Ducharme said these retreats show Greer’s understanding of the unique suffering of people who lose a loved one to homicide.

“When people speak out about their story, sharing and talking, that is the most healing process.”

Greer helps people share their suffering.

“I am available to anyone,” she said. “I try. I don’t have all the answers.”

Greer explained that her summer grief retreats see people camp on her property beside the Chilliwack River, or stay in a hotel. Last year she had 15 visitors, but in the past there have been over 100.

“Everyone knows they can come and talk about their loss and longing and aching, and not worry about someone turning away or trying to shut them down.”

She said many people will tell bereaved friends and family members to put their loss in their past, and get on with life.

She said the family of homicide victims can find that impossible.

“There’s no such thing as closure – closure does not exist. But over the years, you develop coping skills,” she said. “You never let go of it.”

There are also good times over the weekend retreats, Greer noted.

Ducharme said the award was to “commend her for her support for other families that are bereaved.”

He found Greer very emotional in receiving the Queen’s award.

“She was very appreciative and humbled.”

Cold Case Timeline

On Sept. 24, 1975, Kathryn-Mary went to the home of her friend, Corrie Premack, at 2089 Peardonville Rd., and stayed for a spaghetti dinner.
Corrie and her sister Connie walked Kathryn-Mary home, accompanied by Bradley McCullough. At the junction of Townline and Peardonville, the sisters turned back. Bradley doubled Kathryn-Mary on his bike to the corner of Townline and Marshall, and then left her to walk approximately 300 metres to her house at 31215 King Rd.
A couple driving past saw the pair talking, and as they continued they saw a parked older-model white vehicle with a lone male occupant. They took notice of the car, because there had been gas thefts in the neighbourhood. It was parked on the route between Kathryn-Mary’s last known location and her home.
Kathryn-Mary never made it home, and at 10:52 p.m. her mother reported her missing to police.
Two months later her body was discovered under a pile of old plywood and boards on Matsqui First Nations land.
An autopsy revealed she had been killed by a skull fracture, and she also had a broken jaw.
The case was linked to similar cases – the 1976 murder of 15-year-old Theresa Hildebrandt of Abbotsford, and the 1978 death of Monica Jack in Merritt.
Police had a person of interest in the case – a convicted sex offender who did jail time both before and after the murder of Kathryn-Mary. He dated a girl who had been living with the Herberts, had visited the house, and knew Kathryn-Mary. He was circumstantially linked to the murders of Hildebrant and Jack.
In August 1996, at the urging of Kathryn-Mary’s mother, the body was exhumed for a more detailed autopsy, using more modern forensic methods.
In the early 1990s, files for the case went missing, including two letters that were sent to Kathryn-Mary in the early 1980s, after her death, and which had been submitted for handwriting analysis.

Anyone with information is asked to call 1-877-543-4822 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Link: http://www.abbynews.com/news/171234111.html#

Bobby Jack Fowler, dead U.S. sex offender, linked to three B.C. ‘Highway of Tears’ murders

BY LORI CULBERT, VANCOUVER SUN SEPTEMBER 25, 2012 2:04 PM

Shawn MacMillen, brother of murder victim Colleen MacMillen, pauses for a moment as RCMP Insp. Gary Shinkaruk, left, looks on during a news conference in Surrey, B.C., Tuesday, September 25, 2012. RCMP say they believe a deceased Oregon inmate is responsible for at least one of the murders along British Columbia's so-called Highway of Tears.

Photograph by: Jonathan Hayward, THE CANADIAN PRESS

The RCMP say a suspected American serial killer is responsible for the death of at least one woman, and possibly more, killed along the Highway of Tears in northern and central B.C. nearly 40 years ago.

At a news conference this morning, RCMP investigators confirmed they have linked slain teenager Colleen MacMillen through DNA testing to Bobby Jack Fowler.

The Oregon man, convicted of kidnapping, attempted rape and assault is linked to the deaths of four teenagers in the U.S., according to the district attorney's office in Lincoln County.

RCMP sent a male DNA sample obtained from MacMillen's body to the lab for more modern DNA testing earlier this year, and the details were sent to Interpol police agencies.

In May, Oregon police indicated it matched Fowler.

"Fowler is responsible for 16-year-old Colleen MacMillen's murder," Insp. Gary Shinkaruk said.

Click here to see more photos related to this story

Fowler was convicted in 1996, after an incident at a motel in which a woman escaped from Fowler by jumping, unclothed and with a rope tied around her ankle, out of a second-story window, said district attorney Rob Bovett.

He was sentenced to 16 years in prison and died there at age 66 of lung cancer.

At the time that MacMillen was killed in 1974, Fowler worked at a Prince George roofing outfit called Happy's Roofing, a company which no longer exists.

Shinkaruk said Fowler was transient and travelled between U.S. states and countries, sometimes in a single day, working odd jobs in areas like roofing and general labour.

"He stayed and lived in motels or rented, and liked old cars that he drove until they quit," he said. "He frequented bars and restaurants and was violent toward men and women and picked up hitchhikers."

Fowler has been eliminated in eight of the Highway of Tears files, which includes victims who vanished from B.C. highways 16, 97 and 5 between 1969 and 2006.

He remains a person of interest in the rest, in particular that of Gale Weys and Pamela Darlington.

Police have long said that Weys, last seen in Clearwater in 1973, and Darlington, last seen in Kamloops in 1973, could be linked to the MacMillen case.

Police said "similar circumstances" connected the three cases, and added Fowler had a car similar to one believed involved in one of the MacMillen. Weys and Darlington cases.

However, while Fowler is a "strong suspect" in the Weys and Darlington cases, police don't have the DNA evidence to concretely link him to those cases. Police are appealing to anyone in BC, the rest of Canada and the US who may have worked or been friends with Fowler, so they can track his movements and possibly collect more evidence for any unsolved murders.

Earlier at the news conference, RCMP Staff Sgt. Wayne Clary said police don't believe one killer is responsible for all 18 cases.

He said police have "strong suspects" in three or four of the victims, but don't believe any of those are linked to the other girls and women.

They continue to investigate a killer or killers for the other files as well.

The Highway of Tears investigation, dubbed Project E-Pana, has 50 full-time staff, including investigators, forensic experts and support staff, he said.

The project has several investigators based in Prince George.

He said investigators continue to speak to police departments outside BC in relation to "persons of interest" in this case.

Clary, who headed the Robert Pickton missing women case said the Highway of Tears cases is one of the biggest and most complicated in B.C. history.

"This is huge. This is tough. We have people who are deceased. We have witnesses who are deceased. We have people who we believe may be responsible who are deceased," he said.

Fighting back tears, MacMillen's brother Shawn thanked police at the news conference.

"We are simply stunned and very grateful for their hard work," he said.

Shawn said it frustrating that Fowler will never face a trial, but added the family is comforted by the fact he died in prison in 2006 and "can't hurt anyone else."

He said Colleen was an innocent "sweet kid" and that there were no words to express how terribly she was wronged.

MacMillen disappeared on Aug. 9, 1974 after deciding to hitchhike to her girlfriend's house in the town of Lac La Hache, about six kilometres from where she lived. She never arrived.

The frantic family had no answers until one month later when her body was found beside a logging road about 25 kilometres south of 100 Mile House.

Weys, 19, was last seen on Oct. 19, 1973 in Clearwater, B.C. She was believed to be hitchhiking to Kamloops. Her body was found April 6, 1974 off the Yellowhead Highway.

The nude body of Darlington, also 19, was found at the edge of the Thompson River in 1973 with bite marks on her body.

Project E-Pana began in the fall of 2005 when the Unsolved Homicide Unit was tasked with reviewing three homicide cases — those of Alishia Germaine, Roxanne Thiara and Ramona Wilson — in which behavioural sciences experts, known as profilers, had found some commonalities.

The investigation involved as many as 75 people, including retired homicide detectives working on contract.

At the end of 2009 RCMP Staff Sgt. Bruce Hulan, the officer in charge of B.C.'s Unsolved Homicide Unit and team commander of Project E-Pana, told The Sun that it could take investigators five years to winnow down a list of up to 5,000 possible suspects.

Investigators have previously considered American suspects in the homicides, even probing links to infamous serial killer, and one-time Seattle resident, Ted Bundy, who had been known to visit Canada.

E-Pana by the numbers:

— 726 boxes of evidence to that was thoroughly search for the 10 cases

— 1,413 persons of interest investigated, and almost 90 per cent have been eliminated as suspects

— 750 DNA samples collected

— 100 plus polygraph tests conducted

— 2,500 people interviewed

— 17,984 investigative inquiries to pursue: 75 per cent of those have been done.

Click here to see photos of women missing and murdered on Highway of Tears

Click here to see more photos related to this story