Missing 14-year-old's body found near Prince George
The body of missing 14-year-old Aielah Katherina Saric has been found near Highway 16 near Prince George, a region that has been plagued by disappearances and murders of young women over the past 15 years.
The body of missing 14-year-old Aielah Katherina Saric has been found near Highway 16 near Prince George, a region that has been plagued by disappearances and murders of young women over the past 15 years.
"It just seems too coincidental that all this is going on," said Tom Chipman, whose own daughter, 22-year-old Tamara Chipman of Terrace, was last seen hitchhiking along the same highway in September 2005.
The remains of Cynthia Frances Maas, 35, were found in L.C. Gunn Park on Oct. 8.
Maas was last seen Sept. 10 in the area of Juniper Street and 19 Avenue. She was reported missing by family members and friends on Sept. 23 after she failed to check in with them.
Because Maas's body was found in the vicinity of the so-called Highway of Tears, the 800-kilometre stretch of Highway 16 that runs between Prince George and Prince Rupert, it has renewed calls for greater vigilance in the area.
Darlington, 19, was last seen alive Nov. 6, 1973, at the David Thompson Pub in the company of a man with messy blond hair.
Her body was found the next day by Frank Almond Sr. and his son Frank, who spotted her body at the edge of their property where it bordered Pioneer Park.
RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Annie Linteau said investigators continue to believe someone knows something. They urge anyone who thinks they know anything at all - no matter how small - to come forward.
Keith Hildebrand, the commander of the Quesnel detachment until he retired last year, also finds it frustrating that he could never find the solution to the murder of Deena Braem, 16, who was last seen alive hitchhiking on Sept. 25, 1999. Her body was recovered three months later, on Dec. 10, northwest of Quesnel near Pinnacles Provincial Park.
Hildebrand said the unsolved murder file was already gathering dust when he arrived as detachment commander. He oversaw the Braem investigation and brought in detectives with the Surrey-based Integrated Homicide Investigation Team. They thoroughly went through the file and tried to find any tips that were not probed.
“We had some good leads but they ended in another dead end,” explained the 58-year-old retired officer, who now runs the community policing office in Quesnel.
“They are investigating tips,” he added about the state of the current investigation.
Hildebrand estimated that over the years, more than $1 million has been spent investigating Braem’s murder.
It was frustrating for him, when he retired in 2008, that the case remained unsolved.
“It bugs me the most of all my [36] years of service. It was like a loose end you leave behind,” Hildebrand said.
“Usually, when I took on a file, it had a good result to it,” he added.
“It was a frustrating investigation for everybody, including her parents,” he recalls. “It still bothers me.”