Global Issues

Canada – Highway of Tears

Highway 16 – Prince Rupert to Prince George, B.C.

• 18 girls and women missing or were murdered since 1969 along the so-called Highway of Tears in B.C.

• Victims were either last seen or found dead along Highway 16 from Prince Rupert, B.C. to Hinton, Alta., Highway 97 from Prince George, B.C. to Kamloops, B.C.; and Highway 5, including Merritt, B.C.

• Police cautious about using the term “serial killer,” saying that can only be determined after any arrests are made.

• In 2011 Cody Alan Legebokoff of Prince George faces four counts of first-degree murder. Police say his alleged crimes not connected to Highway of Tears.

• In September 2012, an INTERPOL DNA match linked the death of Highway of Tears’ victim Colleen MacMillen, 16, to American convict Bobby Jack Fowler, who died in a U.S. prison in 2006. MacMillen was found dead on a B.C. Interior logging road in 1974. RCMP said Fowler was a person of interest in 10 of the Canadian cases. He was also a suspect in five unsolved Oregon murders.

Advocacy:

• Walk4Justice began in Prince George to raise awareness and demand justice, closure, equality and accountability  for the  missing and murdered women and their families across Canada.

• highway of tears.com

• National Day of Action and Remembrance of Violence Against Women.

• BC Coalition of Women’s Centres

• Save Our Daughters Coalition

• Highway of Tears Symposium

Sources: Vancouver Sun, Nov. 6, 2010; Prince George Citizen May 06, 2012, CBC News, May 27, 2010; RCMP; Associated Press, Compiled by J. Hainsworth