Huge development in BC’s “Highway of Tears” Investigation
Posted Sep 24, 2012 9:21 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Investigators issue a big plea for help in a major development in the case of 18 missing or murdered women along BC’s “Highway of Tears”. RCMP will announce significant development into case Tuesday.
It was more than a decade ago but Sally Gibson remember’s when her niece went missing like it was yesterday. Lana Derick who was 19 at the time went missing on October 7, 1995, after a party in Terrace.
“We just kept searching even after police told us to go home and just wait for them to call us when she first disappeared, we just kept on going,” says Gibson.
She says the passing of time doesn’t make it any easier.
“We’re just living day by day, hoping we hear something…anything, that’s our hope, that’s always been our hope…and that’s all we’ve ever maintained is that she’s missing,” adds Gibson.
Gibson keeps in touch with RCMP every year to see if there are any updates on Derick who is one of the 18 missing or murdered women near the Highway of Tears.
She’s waiting anxiously to hear what police will reveal tomorrow in Surrey.
RCMP say they have a significant development in the Highway of Tears investigation that involves the deaths and disappearances of women from 1969 to 2006.
Police haven’t confirmed this but media reports suggest a U.S. man was responsible for the 1974 killing of Colleen MacMillen, one of the victims.
CBC reports Bobby Jack Fowler, of Oregon, who is now dead is linked to the 16-year-old’s death.
David Eby with the BC Civil Liberties hopes this will bring relief to families.
“the communities in the north along the highway really spend a lot of time worrying and wondering about this case, wanting information from the RCMP, wanting to know what’s happening, and so if there is a significant development, that could only be good news,” says Eby.
“I hope the RCMP understand how much the family and friends of the missing women are just so keen on hearing anything new,,,I hope they’ve had a breakthrough this case is very important to these communities,” explains Eby.
Police will be pleading for help from people in this province, as well as others across the country and even south of the border.
The force also says families affected by the case have been told.
Mounties will make the announcement tomorrow in Surrey around noon, and in Kamloops and Prince George on Wednesday.
