Highway of Tears article w/crimemap

[KarlK]

The Trans-Canada highway running through the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia had a similar series of killings in the 1970's and early 1980's. The killer(s) in these cases didn't seem to care about the victim's race. These murders remain unsolved:

http://www.crimezzz.net/serialkillers/C/CANADA_HIGHWAY_murders.php

I've always wondered why that area (Oregon/Washington state/British Columbia) had so many serial killing episodes involving sex-related murders. Considering population density it has to be by far the most dangerous area in North America for women to hitchhike or live off prostitution.

 

[Rle7]

I've always wondered why that area (Oregon/Washington state/British Columbia) had so many serial killing episodes involving sex-related murders. Considering population density it has to be by far the most dangerous area in North America for women to hitchhike or live off prostitution.

I think it has a lot to do with a patrolling a large expanse of land with sparse population in the case of northern British Columbia. A small tax base limits how many detectives you can put on a case. For the Green River murders, the state legislature decided lives weren't worth the money and pulled funding from the task force in Washington, allowing the killer to continuing his spree. I've worked with Fish and Wildlife Protection in Alaska, and that can be challenging. I've been over a thousand miles away from the home base. There's not enough money to patrol that large an expanse properly. I assume its the same for northern British Columbia.

 

[KarlK]

I think it has a lot to do with a patrolling a large expanse of land with sparse population in the case of northern British Columbia. A small tax base limits how many detectives you can put on a case. For the Green River murders, the state legislature decided lives weren't worth the money and pulled funding from the task force in Washington, allowing the killer to continuing his spree. I've worked with Fish and Wildlife Protection in Alaska, and that can be challenging. I've been over a thousand miles away from the home base. There's not enough money to patrol that large an expanse properly. I assume its the same for northern British Columbia.

Yes, I imagine that the situation is similar in Alaska and northern British Columbia. But most serial killings have occured in the relatively small and relatively densily populated area comprising the cities of Seattle and Vancouver (Canada) and while some victims there were Native women they did not appear to have been specifically targeted on a race basis.

In fact unlike the Highway of Tears case(s) where racial bias may have played a role, the vast majority of victims in southern BC/northern Washington were white women and as far as I know all the serial killers caught there were white men, including the man who's presently on trial in Vancouver for an impressive series of sex-murders (I think Seattle PD would also like to have a word with him concerning unsolved cases there).

I'm wondering if there wouldn't be some sociological factor specific to the area that could help to explain the phenomenon but I don't really have the knowledge required to pursue this to any depth.

 

[Rle7]

The top cop in the Highway of Tears cases is coming to northern B.C. Friday to

meet with the families of the many missing and murdered women.

RCMP Supt. Leon Van De Walle will also talk with the governing body working to implement the recommendations of the Highway of Tears report.

Van De Walle, who is in charge of the E-Division major crime section and the lead investigator in the Highway of Tears disappearances and murders, will be in Smithers on Friday, according to meeting organizers.

"I find it hopeful," said Lucy Glaim, whose sister Delphine Nikal and cousin Cecilia Nikal are both among the missing. She said she has some blunt questions for Van De Walle.

"My sister's case in particular has been put on hold due to budget constraints," Glaim said. "I'm hoping to get some answers about that excuse. I was told that two years ago by one of the investigators, and there have been so many of them. I've been told they even think they know where her body is, but they can't afford the backhoe, so it has been put on hold. I definitely want to discuss that with Mr. Van De Walle."

http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/news/current/n_empty.php?sid=1416367

 

[Rle7]

Psychic Norm Pratt is probing the disappearance of a Red Deer woman on B.C.'s infamous Highway of Tears.

But if he has any ideas on the whereabouts of Nicole Hoar, he's not sharing them publicly - not yet, anyway.

Pratt, who likes to refer to himself as a "spiritual intuitive," says he's leery about going public for several reasons, including the fact that the RCMP are still investigating.

The 47-year-old Pratt, who in 2005 helped police recover a woman's remains near his hometown of Nelson, B.C., will only speak in general terms about the stretch of highway that has become a Bermuda Triangle for hitchhikers. "In the Highway of Tears, there are far more missing people than is reported or that are officially recognized," he told the Sun yesterday, adding he has visited the Highway of Tears twice.

"There is a serial killer, but some (victims) were killed by people they knew."

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2007/03/09/3719687-sun.html

 

[Rle7]

Plans are underway for a second Highway of Tears Symposium, The Citizen has learned.

This week marks the one year anniversary of the first Highway of Tears Symposium that opened unprecedented dialogue on the issue of the young women murdered and missing along Highway 16 West. The first symposium brought together families of the many victims, the highest level of RCMP in the province, several provincial cabinet ministers, hundreds of advocates and social workers from across the north, and many others who wanted to learn from the passionate discussion that ensued.

One of the results of the first symposium was the Highway of Tears Report, a document that lists a number of recommendations compiled during the symposium. They are designed to advance the investigations into the unsolved cases of murder and disappearance, to prevent more victims, and to tunnel through the mountains of cultural impasse between aboriginal and mainstream communities in Northern B.C.

"A second symposium is really important. It is a long stretch of highway and keeping everyone involved is difficult," said Lisa Krebs, the Highway of Tears Initiative co-ordinator hired to foster the implementation of the recommendations. "The community forums that are happening, that is great, and just having the Highway of Tears Report is great, but what happens after it? There needs to be a way to keep advancing, and a second symposium is the way to bring everyone together again to talk about their parts and what the commitments are for the next year."

http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/news/current/n_empty.php?sid=1396554

 

[Rle7]

RCMP say the two men recently arrested and charged with the murder of a 14 year old Abbotsford girl, are not, being investigated in connection with any of the deaths or disappearances along the so called Highway of Tears.

“We don’t have any information that would lead us to believe there is any connection” says Corporal Dale Carr, “However, if someone came forward, we would pursue that avenue”.

Police continue to investigate the disappearances and deaths of eleven young women along Highway 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert.

54 year old Jessie Blue West, currently of Victoria, and his 22 year old son Dustin Moir of the Lower Mainland ( in the photos at left) are charged in connection with the death of 14 year old Chelsey Acorn. Her remains were discovered near Hope in April of 2006. She had been reported missing from an Abbotsford foster home in June of 2005.

http://www.opinion250.com/blog/view/5339/3/two++not++linked++to+highway+of+tears

 

[Rle7]

Surrey private investigator Ray Michalko returned today to Northwest B.C. to follow up on more tips into the missing and murdered women along Hwy 16, dubbed the Highway of Tears.

In particular, he is looking more closely at the cases of Ramona Wilson and Nicole Hoar.

Wilson disappeared in June 1994 and her body was discovered near Smithers in April 1995. Hoar was last seen hitchhiking on Hwy 16 near Gauthier Road in Prince George just a few blocks from where Alisha Germaine’s body was found in 1994.

In September, thinking the connection between Hoar and Germaine was significant, Michalko circulated flyers in that P.G. neighbourhood. Resulting tips have led him to Fort St. John.

http://www.pgfreepress.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=26&cat=23&id=961921&more=

 

[Rle7]

IT HAS been one year since the Highway of Tears symposium in Prince George. We have shed many tears. We may shed more yet but we are not much nearer to a resolution. This is not to say that good things have not been done.

A movie has been made, awareness grows, police investigations widen and continue, stickers abound. They proclaim, “Hitchhiking: it ain’t worth the risk, sister.” Of all our attempts to resolve the issue, I think I have the greatest problem with the stickers.

Has no one noticed that the victims are young, mostly aboriginal and mainly poor?

Few people hitch for pleasure. They hitchhike because they are poor.

They need to travel from one place to another and they don’t have a car and can’t afford the bus. Telling them not to hitchhike is telling them they cannot travel, a message likely to fall on deaf ears.

In another part of the province, we are just beginning our long examination of Robert Pickton and the deaths of at least six women. The women were put in harm’s way by a social policy on welfare that completely ignored their desperate circumstances.

They did not choose to be poor. Prostitution was not their career of choice. Our welfare system keeps people so poor that many cannot dig themselves out of a hole that deep.

Some self-medicate with drugs or alcohol to mask the hopelessness of their situations. Their addiction digs the hole deeper. The prostitution they engage in to support their habit makes that hole deeper.

These women would be with us today if we had a system of social support that cared about each person’s welfare. They did not choose to be on the street. We put them there. What links death on a pig farm to death on a lonely highway? Poverty.

The mother of Ramona Wilson, one of the young women who disappeared, spoke on CBC Radio recently. Talking of her daughter, she said, “She wasn’t doing anything wrong when she disappeared.” And she wasn’t. She just needed a ride. Maybe the resolution is simple – give a person a ride.

The longer a person stands by the roadside, the greater the risk. Think of the number of good-hearted citizens that probably drive by a hitchhiker before one actually stops. Let’s increase that number. Let’s do it in memory of the young women who have disappeared from our lives. Let’s do it so that no more mothers grieve.

Let’s do it because most of us have daughters or sisters and would hope that someone would stop for them if they were on the road, someone safe. Be that safe person. Safe people, working together, create a safe community.

http://www.terracestandard.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=33&cat=48&id=870203&more=

 

[Ranter]

Encouraging people to pick up hitch-hikers is the worst possible thing someone could do. The more "good hearted people" who pick up hitch-hikers, the more likely people are going to hitch-hike, and the more likely they are going to feel safe doing so. This will only increase the number of potential targets for a predatorial serial killer.

I remember travelling from Winnipeg to southern and central Alberta in 1980 as a ten-year-old with my parents. The Trans-Canada highway and Yellowhead Route were absolutely teeming with hitch-hikers. They would hold up signs saying "Calgary Please" or "Vancouver Please", etc... Not surprisingly, this was at the tail end of when the Canada Highway Murders were happening (1973 - 1981). It wasn't until the early 80's, when the term "serial killer" entered the public lexicon, that it finally became ingrained in people's minds that hitch-hiking was an inherently dangerous activity.

The last thing we need is a return to that naive time, when hitch-hiking was considered a normal mode of transportation for the young and penniless. It is simply too dangerous. It is not even safe for men -- for women, it is deadly. The woman who wrote the above article was no doubt well-meaning, but in my opinion, terribly misquided in her advice.

 

[Rle7]

Private investigator Ray Michalko will be at the corner of Highway 16 West and Norman Lake Road Saturday at 9 a.m. A group of concerned citizens is expected to join him and search a wooded area in that vicinity for evidence in one of the Highway of Tears mysteries.

"As people arrive we will organize into groups and head out," Michalko said. "When we all get together we will talk about where we will search, how we will arrange ourselves, a closing point for the search, all of that."

Michalko will not say to which Highway of Tears victim this search pertains. He put out the call for volunteers based on tips he has received during his own private inquest into at least four of the Highway of Tears cases. Those tips led him to believe a search in this spot would be worthwhile.

"I've had lots of calls from different groups of people," Michalko said. "I could see 100 people showing up to help but I don't know if that will happen. I would be happy with 25 or 30."

http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=71769&Itemid=26

 

[Rle7]

Private investigator Ray Michalko said the search of a wilderness area down the Norman Lake Road ended without the result he had hoped for.

Still, he told The Citizen, he has reason for optimism going forward.

"Information came to me even while we were out there on the search," he said. "There are people out there who know what happened, we just have to find those people. It is about knocking on the right door at the right time."

http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=72895&Itemid=239

 

[Rle7]

With his thatch of silver hair and relaxed manner, Ray Michalko could be just another grandfather as he opens a folder and slides a pair of photographs across the table in a busy Tim Hortons, near the Guildford Mall, in Surrey.

But Mr. Michalko is not sharing pictures of a beloved grandchild, as might fit the scene where friends are meeting over coffee and Timbits on a weekday morning. Instead, under the stark heading "Murdered & Missing," he has offered a sheet of paper with head and shoulder shots of two young women he has never known. They both vanished in Prince George and their cases, in which he now has a burning interest, remain among the most troubling unsolved crimes in British Columbia's history.

"I've got three kids of my own and I just can't imagine losing any of them like this and just not knowing what happened," says the former RCMP officer, turned realtor, turned private investigator, who at age 59 has taken on a string of murders that has confounded police for decades.

Alisha Germaine, a 15-year-old with a pageboy haircut who was photographed looking coyly at the camera, was found murdered near an elementary school on Leslie Road in Prince George, in December, 1994. She was last seen alive on a sidewalk downtown.

Nicole Hoar, a vibrant young tree planter with an open and joyous smile that seems to radiate happiness, was last seen in June, 2002, on the outskirts of the city, just a short distance from Leslie Road, hitchhiking west on Highway 16.

Both of them are on a list of 12 names of young women who disappeared on, or whose bodies were found along Yellowhead Highway 16, the so-called Highway of Tears, that cuts for 724 kilometres across northern B.C. between Prince George and Prince Rupert. Seven of the missing women were never found. All are presumed dead.

Mr. Michalko put Ms. Germaine and Ms. Hoar on a poster together because they were last seen so close together. He had the flyer delivered to every house in the area.

"If you know anything at all ... please do the right thing. Call Ray," it says.

"I think it's somebody in that area, or somebody who visits that area," he says.

It's just one of the approaches he has taken. He's also had posters put up in every prison in B.C., figuring who better to know a killer than a criminal.

Asked if he's doing the investigation because he thinks the RCMP are falling down on the job, Mr. Michalko smiles and says he's not interested in bashing the police.

"But 12 murders? All of them unsolved? There's got to be something wrong with that picture," Mr. Michalko says. He acknowledges that it seems unlikely he can break a case that has stumped the RCMP, but he just keeps plugging away, persuaded that an old guy with a friendly manner and a firm handshake can learn things the police with all their formidable investigative powers cannot.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv...DETECTIVE22/TPStory/National/?pageRequested=1

 

[Alta]

A B.C. woman has begun a healing walk along the so-called "highway of tears."
Audrey Auger plans to walk 800 kilometres from Prince Rupert to Prince George in memory of her daughter, who was murdered last year. Auger is the mother of Aielah Saric-Auger whose body was found near Prince George in February 2006, two weeks after she went missing from her home.

http://tinyurl.com/2fzbp3

 

[Rle7]

A B.C. woman has begun a healing walk along the so-called "highway of tears."
Audrey Auger plans to walk 800 kilometres from Prince Rupert to Prince George in memory of her daughter, who was murdered last year. Auger is the mother of Aielah Saric-Auger whose body was found near Prince George in February 2006, two weeks after she went missing from her home.

http://tinyurl.com/2fzbp3

She had to discontinue her walk because of lack of support and it's the height of bear season:

Bears and a lack of support have stopped a grieving mother who is walking the Highway of Tears in a bid to find healing following the loss of her teenaged daughter last year.

Audrey Auger, mother of Aielah Saric-Auger, whose body was found 15 kilometres east of Prince George in February 2006 along Highway 16, has returned to Prince Rupert after several signs of bears, a lack of a proper support vehicle, food and supplies prevented her from continuing.

"We got to about one-half hour (by vehicle) west of Terrace where we found ourselves in real bear country between mountains and a river," said Auger, who began her walk July 1. "It's just too dangerous to take a chance on getting in between a mother and her cubs. We're not ready to wrestle bears, so safety comes first," said Auger, who was walking with 15-year-old Pierre Johns (Aielah's closest friend) and her 17-year-old daughter, Kyla.

Ironically, Auger said they had no choice but to hitchhike back to Prince Rupert, where they are staying at the Salvation Army. At least seven women have disappeared along the highway between Prince Rupert and Prince George, most while hitchhiking.

http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=94876&Itemid=254

 

[Rle7]

The mother and sister of Aielah Saric-Auger – the 14-year-old Prince George girl whose body was found on Highway 16 near the Tabor Mountain turnoff east of Prince George in February 2006 – are embarking on a 760 km spiritual healing walk from Prince George to Gift Lake Metis Settlement in Alberta where Saric-Auger’s body is interred.

Audrey Auger and her daughter Kyla will begin their trek on Aug. 1 and plan to finish by the end of September or mid-October.

“When I buried my daughter, I buried myself... I need to find myself and this is where I shall start my journey,” Auger wrote in a press release.

“Now I find myself facing the most difficult time in admitting that my little girl is really gone, and I must start healing somewhere. So that’s why I have chosen the highway as my healing journey in life.”

Saric-Auger was the latest young woman to disappear or be murdered along Highway 16 – dubbed the Highway of Tears.

“It’s an honour to walk in dedication and remembrance of our missing and lost young women and therefore this healing walk is not only to find myself, but also to give awareness to the communities along the highways and nation wide.”

The pair’s route will take them along Highway 97 to Dawson Creek, B.C., then on Highway 49 to High Prairie, Alta. before following Highway 2 and Highway 750 to Gift Lake. They will be camping on the side of the road as they walk.

http://www.pgfreepress.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=26&cat=23&id=1033765&more=0

 

[Rle7]

Audrey Auger and her daughter, Kyla, started their 760 km healing walk from east of Prince George to the Gift Lake Metis Settlement in Alberta last week.

Their walk began Wednesday on Highway 16 East near the Tabor Mountain turn off where 14-year-old Aielah Saric-Auger’s body was found in February 2006. Saric-Auger was Auger’s daughter and Kyla’s sister, and is the most recent Highway of Tears victim.

The walkers planned to leave on Aug. 1, but couldn’t find sufficient support for food, a support vehicle and gas. It is their second attempt at a healing walk. The first, from Prince Rupert to Prince George, fell apart last year because of lack of support.

“It’s going to be tough. We’ve already seen the first part of our challenges,” Auger said. “[But] I really think the Creator changed our pace. That’s where we had to start, where my daughter was found. It’s like we’re carrying her home ourselves.”

http://www.pgfreepress.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=26&cat=23&id=1048975&more=0

 

[Rle7]

Highway Of Tears Benefit

Thursday, October 4
Doors 7pm. Show time 8pm
$20 in advance or at the door​

​

​

Homebound Films Inc., member of Women in Film and Video Vancouver will team up with Jamie Thomson’s All-Star Band, Sister Says, and Bitterly Devine for a night of live entertainment at The Yale to benefitthe Highway of Tears Trust.

The Highway of Tears Trust was created in order to finance the efforts of Ray Michalko, local Private Investigator in his pursuit for justice and closure for the victims of the Highway of Tears and their families. Michalko is dedicated to solving the Yellowhead Highway 16 West (that runs between Prince George and Prince Rupert, BC) missing and murdered women cases. Information on any of the missing person cases should be reported to Michalko at 604-831-5585 or by email at vpi@telusmail.net.

http://www.theyale.ca/events2.cfm

 

[Rle7]

RCMP have expanded their investigation of women who have been murdered or disappeared along B.C.'s so-called Highway of Tears to 18, adding nine more names to the list.

RCMP told a news conference Friday they are conducting an extensive review into 13 deaths and five disappearances connected to the highway that runs about 800 kilometres between here and Prince Rupert on the north coast.

The cases involves women, most of them First Nations, from the B.C. Interior and one women from Hinton, Alta., and date back to 1969.

RCMP said the review will include a three-phase process with geographic and criminal profilers from their major crimes section.

Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre said police still don't know if one person or more people are responsible for the deaths.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/071012/national/highway_of_tears

 

[Alta]

The list of names including the ones we already knew and the 9 newly added ones.

- Gloria Moody - Homicide, Williams Lake; 1969
- Micheline Pare - Homicide, Hudson's Hope; 1970
- Gale Weys - Homicide, Clearwater; 1973
- Pamela Darlington - Homicide, Kamloops; 1973
- Monica Ignas - Homicide, Terrace; 1974
- Colleen MacMillen - Homicide, 100 Mile House; 1974
- Monica Jack - Homicide, Merritt; 1978
- Maureen Mosie - Homicide, Kamloops; 1981
- Shelly-ann Bascu - Missing, Hinton, Alta.; 1983
- Alberta Williams - Homicide, Prince Rupert; 1989
- Delphine Nikal - Missing, Smithers; 1990
- Ramona Wilson - Homicide, Smithers; 1994
- Roxanne Thiara - Homicide, Burns Lake; 1994
- Alishia Germaine - Homicide, Prince George; 1994
- Lana Derrick - Missing, Terrace; 1995
- Nicole Hoar - Missing, Prince George; 2002
- Tamara Chipman - Missing, Prince Rupert; 2005
- Aielah Saric Auger - Homicide, Prince George; 2006

http://tinyurl.com/2q3kty