The Highway Of Tears: The Epidemic Of Heinous Crimes

Heinous crimes are committed on a daily basis. Investigation and manpower of these crimes are often determined by the victims race or socioeconomic status. The Highway of Tears, also known as British Columbia’s highway 16, is an example of this argument. This lonely 837-mile route has struck terror into the hearts of millions. The hundreds of miles of asphalt has many breathtaking lake views and a snowy mountain backdrop. Slicing east-west through British Columbia, winding through dashing mill towns with a wilderness that seems as if it has not been touched since the dawn of time. Highway 16 has beautiful scenery, but the evil behind the 837 mile route makes the highway uninviting. The grim history behind the highway of tears dates all the

Many women hitchhiked to their destinations and no one ever had any concerns. October of 1973, Gale Weys disappeared while hitchhiking from Clearwater to Kamloops. Her body was soon discovered in a ditch on Highway 5. Just a month later, Pamela Darlington vanished while hitchhiking to a local bar and was brutally murdered. Bobby Jack Fowler was a prime suspect of these two homicides, along with the murder of fourteen year old Monica Ingas who was believed to be walking home from school and sixteen year old Colleen MacMillan who had both been killed in 1974 (Missing and Murdered 1). Thirty eight years later, Fowler’s DNA was found on Colleen’s blouse in 2012. He was not imprisoned until 1996. Bobby Jack Fowler died while serving a sixteen year sentence at the Snake River Correctional Institute in 2006 from lung cancer (True Crime Diary

Her fate was unknown for seventeen years. In 1995, forestry workers found skeletal remains located off of a logging road 20km from where her bike was found. DNA and dental records confirmed her identity. Between the years of 1981 and 1990 Maureen Mosie and Alberta Williams were both murdered and their bodies were discovered. Unfortunately for the families of Shelly-Ann Bascu and Delphine Nikal the sixteen year old girls are still missing and are still yet to be found (Missing and Murdered 1). The killings escalated in 1994, when three 15-year old Inuit girls were brutally murdered in a six month time period (Highway of Hell 4). Lana Derrick went missing in 1995, Fowler was not a suspect for her disappearance even though investigators highly believed he was the man who committed most of the earlier