Highway of Tears

The Highway of tears is a 720 km stretch of highway between Prince George and Prince Rupert. Many girls, mostly first nations, have gone missing or murdered while hitchhiking at night along this road. This has not gotten very much media coverage in the last few years even though the latest cases were only 3 years ago. I had never heard of these tragedies before so it shows how downplayed this fiasco is. Most girls who go missing get hours and hours of media coverage, but these several young women get close to none.

The RCMP on Thursday doubled the list of women who have gone missing on a notorious British Columbia road known as the “Highway of Tears.”

Until now police believed nine young women died or went missing along Highway 16, a road which stretches from Prince Rupert to Prince George.

But police now believe the number is actually 18.

The first name on the list is Gloria Moody. Moody was killed in Williams Lake in 1969. Over the next four decades, police say there have been 17 other victims on the highway.

The crimes have left residents who travel and live in towns along the highway fearing for their safety.

One resident told CTV News in Vancouver that “It’s very frightening that a predator could be out there for that length of time preying on these women without anyone standing in the way.”

There has long been fear and suspicion that a serial killer is behind the murders and missing women.

RCMP Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre doesn’t believe one person killed all of these women. But he said police are open to “any, any possibility.”

All of the victims were young and many of them were Aboriginal. Some were hitchhiking along the highway. Travellers along the highway say they’re afraid to pick up any hitchhikers, no matter how young. They say they’re torn between wanting to keep hitchhikers safe and their own safety because they don’t know who may be wanting a ride.

The investigation has long been criticized. Protests have been held accusing police of not doing enough, and aboriginal groups have complained more young women have gone missing on Highway 16 then investigators were admitting.

Police say they weren’t pressured to change the list because of criticism from the community. They note that the new names were added after more than 200 files were reviewed.

Police will not reveal if they have any suspects. They have said they are not releasing all of the information that they have.

“There are things we know that we don’t want the the persons or person responsible to know. I can tell you we know a lot more than we did a year ago,” said Lemaitre.

But 38 years after Moody’s body was found they have made no arrest.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071012/highway_oftears_071012/20071012/

Who are these young women who never got a chance?

• The first was Monica Ignas who was a 15 year old who went missing December 13 1974 and later found lying dead in a gravel pit.
• A 24 year old named Alberta Williams went missing in 1988 and was found dead a month after disappearing.
• Ramona Wilson, 15, was hitchhiking on June 11 1994 and her body was found near the Smither’s airport a year after.
• 5 months after Wilson went missing another 15 year old, Roxanne Thira, went missing and her body was found near Burns Lake.
• December 9 1994, Alisha Germaine, 15, was murdered.
• Six months later, Delphine Nikal, a 16 year old from Telkwa, disappears between her house and Smithers and has yet to be found.
• Lana Derrick, 19, went missing while walking down Terrace in October of 1995 and hasn’t been heard from since.
• Seven years went by incident free until Nicole Hoar, the first caucasian woman, disappeared on June 21, 2002 and was never seen again.
• September 22 2005, Tara Chipman, 22, went missing somewhere between Terrace and Prince Rupert.
• Crystal Lee Okimaw, 24, mysteriously vanished from Prince George on January 16 2006.
• 14 year old Aielah Saric-Auger was found dead just off of Prince George on February 2 2006.

http://www.bcnorth.ca/magazine/pages/Debi/tears/tears1.htm

These young women were someone’s daughters, friends, girlfriends, peers, employees, and students. In one split second someone made them just a memory. They never threatened or harmed this person, but still were reduced to nothing more then an adrenaline rush. These murders and disappearances should be put on high priority and the police should do everything in their power to bring these girls lives to justice. We owe it to them.

April 30, 2009. Uncategorized.