CANADA Canada - Barbara Statt, 17, North Vancouver, 29 July 1973

26 July 1973 - Barbara Joan Statt, 17, last seen hitchhiking in Vancouver, BC

29 July 1973 - Statt's body found on the side of a mountain in Northern Vancouver, BC

Statt had been sexually assaulted and bludgeoned with rocks.

Friends reported that before her death, Statt told them she'd met a new male friend, a "creepy man that lives in a car".

Statt's murder was investigated as one of several homicides in interior British Columbia, on Highway 5 in 1973. Three other victims also were young female hitchhikers murdered by a man Staff Sgt Fred Bodnaruk of the North Vancouver RCMP described as a "murdering psychopath that would hit and run". In addition to Barbara Statt, at least two of the victims had been sexually assaulted.

6 April 1973 -- Gail Weys, 19, decomposed body found in a ditch near Clearwater

26 May 1973 -- Unidentified female, nude hacked body found inside the west boundary of Jasper National Park

6 November 1973 -- Pamela Lorraine Darlington, 19, found face down in shallow water on the edge of the Thompson River in Darlington.

The women were of similar height and build; two had auburn hair. The unidentified woman's spine had been cut near the waist, and her body placed in plastic trash bags.

Mounties look for Sadist
The Montreal Gazette
28 June 1974

Thank you mods for creating this thread.

A few weeks ago I posted in the thread about Lora Jean Dugan because I've been blogging about her murder as I work on a book, and I've been pursuing a theory that Harvey Louis Carignan is responsible for her murder. The research in that case has led me to uncover some things about Barbara Joan Statt's murder that so strongly correlate with Harvey Carignan that I have sent letters to the RCMP in BC and to the CBC as well.

Barbara Joan Statt's murder has been cold 43 years. At one time, people tried to blame her murder on serial killer Paul Cecil Gillis. However, a story from the Prince George Citizen, August 20th, 1974 states the Ontario Provincial Police found no connection to Gillis. Nevertheless, at least one author pinned the crime on Gillis -- Lee Mellor is his book Cold North Killers.

I believe Harvey Carignan is actually responsible for her murder, and here's why:

• Barbara Joan Statt disappeared from Vancouver. Harvey Carignan lived in Seattle at the time and had relatives in Vancouver. He frequently traveled to Vancouver, as detailed in Ann Rule's book The Want-Ad Killer.
• Harvey Carignan was known to attack hitchhikers. Barbara Joan Statt was last seen hitchhiking.
• Barbara was bludgeoned to death. This was Harvey's MO
• Staff Sgt Fred Bodnarchuk (also spelled Bodnaruk in a few articles) was quoted in the Prince George Citizen on July 12, 1974 as saying "In the case of the Statt Girl, authorities found she had been sexually assaulted with a branch from a tree." Harvey Carignan soon moved to Minnesota, and one year later, his girlfriend was found dead. She had been bludgeoned and sexually assaulted with a tree branch.
• After Harvey Carignan was arrested, maps belonging to him were discovered on which he had circled over 200 areas of North America. One of the areas circled was the same Vancouver neighborhood where Barbara Joan Statt was abducted.

I think it is also possible that Harvey was responsible for the deaths of:

• Gloria (Levina) Moody, October 25th, 1969. Gloria disappeared from Williams Lake, BC and is considered one of the earliest Highway of Tears murders in BC
• Micheline Pare, mid-July, 1970. Vanished while hitchhiking along Highway 20 near Hudson's Hope.
• Pamela Lorraine Darlington and Gale Weys, even though Bobby Jack Fowler was suspected of those crimes.
• Possibly, Robin Gates, July 7th, 1974, disappeared while hitchhiking near Coquitlam, BC. Suspect in a red and white van gave her a ride and was later questioned but not named. Another suspect in a green van was polygraphed and cleared.

I'll report back if I hear anything from the RCMP.

This is not a mystery. Gillis was convicted and sentenced.

I've been out of the cold case game for awhile now, but I was considering the possibility that Gillis is not really the guy. Gillis CONFESSED. He was caught after attacking another girl, and he was given a deal to travel back to Vancouver and plead guilty to Statt and another murder. If I had access to the Canadian court records, I would be interested to see what it is he confessed to, what he actually said, and what he was offered in exchange for his confession.

Unfortunately, the authorities are not usually eager to open "solved" cases or assist in any effort to ask questions about them.

Barbara Joan Statt
Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on 4 March 1956 to Reginald Frederick Statt. Barbara Joan Statt passed away on 29 July 1973 in North Vancouver, Canada.

LINK:

https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/barbara-joan-statt-24-d8qslc

I'm researching a number of cases in the Vancouver area specifically Port Coquitlam (PoCo). There's a long history of killings up to and beyond the "Pickton" farm. I'm a former resident of the area and am researching the death of Robin Gates in 1974.