Highway of Tears A MYSTERY UNSOLVED

BY HOSH YOUSSOUFBLK 2-3

INTRODUCTION

The highway of tears is an area that stretches over 800 miles across highway 16 between Prince Rupert and Prince George and also passes through dozens of smaller communities. The transit here is really poor so it has become a large area for hitchhiking, which has lead to the death of many women. Most of the women that have been affected by this are Native women

History of the highway of tears

The true tragedy of these murders and missing persons reports in that area are that most of them go unsolved. The first disappearance happened in 1969 and the last reported attack was in 2011. The police estimated that the number of victims at around 19 while the aboriginal community believe that the number is in the mid 40’s. These numbers come from just the few cases that are reported

Victims

Most recent attack

This problem still is apparent as the most recent attack was in May 2011. Madison Scott age 20 went missing after a party, her tent and truck was found but her body/remains were never located

Searchers: Highway of Tears

Map of the Highway of Tears

Project E-PANA

In 2005 the RCMP finally decided to take action and launched a program to look into all unsolved murders that happen on highway 16 over the past 37 years. The E-PANA project has officially solved 4 murders the murder of Colleen MacMillen, Gale Weys, Pamela Darlington and 12-year-old Monica Jack. The E-PANA project is still actively investigating the unsolved murders but it is very unlikely that most of the cases will be solved

Corruption in the provincial government

Corruption in the provincial government

There are many question being asked of the provincial government. These questions are being asked due to the belief that many records on the highway of tears were destroyed, when multiple groups requested accesses to these files. These accusations surfaced when Tim Duncan a former executive assistant to Transportation Minister Todd Stone came out and said that he was told to delete files after the New Democratic party filed a freedom of information request on all records concerning this issue. Do you believe the Provencal governments hiding something

BOBBY JACK FOWLER

BOBBY JACK FOWLER

Bobby jack fowler was the first man linked to any of murders regarding the highway of tears. He was linked to three of the murders and may be connected to 4 other murders as well. RCMP believes he could have killed up to 20 people on the highway of tears his DNA was found many times but not enough evidence. Three more murders occurred well he was prison so there must be another killer on the loose as well

 

IS RACISM A FACTOR

It is suspect that not much is being done about the disappearance of the women from highway 16 due to the fact that most of the missing women were native. Many groups and activist believe that the media is giving less attention to the subject due to Native women being a minority in our country and if they happened to be white a much larger effort would given on this issue

Investing in a solution

Doing some research into this topic I notice a very simple answer on how to make highway 16 much more safe. It was quite simple invest more into transit and it look like the provincial government had the same idea The B.C. government is committing $3 million to improve public transit along B.C.'s so-called Highway of Tears. The funding comes following a recent meeting between transportation officials and First Nations leaders in the area, to address the major issue about the number of women who have gone missing or been murdered while hitchhiking Highway 16, which runs between Prince George and Prince Rupert. Personally I believe that this is a step in the right direction

Leland Vincent Switzer

Leland Vincent Switzer is a killer that been linked to the highway of tears mystery. He is currently serving a life sentence for the death of his brother. He was the subject of an RCMP investigation because they believed he was linked to the murder of Nicole Hoar. She was last seen hitchhiking to a music festival before she disappeared. The RCMP announced that he went under a polygraph test linked to her murder. No further details have been released by the RCMP on his this subject

With New Government comes new attitude

With New Government comes new attitude

The newly elected government has shown more interest into the topic of missing aboriginal women, which would also connect to more interest into the highway of tears. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged 40 million into a national inquiry on missing native and indigenous women. He promised that he would take action on a subject that was being ignored, prime to his time in office

References http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/news/highway-of-tears/

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/four-things-to-know-about-the-highway-of-tears-scandal-and-the-documents-b-c-government-allegedly-deleted

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/11/08/deleted-emails-on-bcs-highway-of-tears-reopen-old-wounds.html

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/b-c-transportation-minister-says-changes-coming-to-highway-of-tears-1.2675743