Police admit investigation has stalled in cold- case Highway of Tears deaths
But man who died in U. S. prison still ‘ strong suspect’
One year after pleading for tips from the public, RCMP says it received no evidence to tie a convicted U. S. criminal to more than one of the 18 unsolved Highway of Tears missing and murdered women files.
The RCMP E- Pana team, which is investigating the high- profile cold case, announced with much fanfare last September that historic DNA had linked 1974 murder victim Colleen MacMillen to Bobby Jack Fowler, who died in a U. S. prison in 2006.
Two other victims, Gale Weys and Pamela Darlington, who also disappeared around the same time and place as MacMillen, could not be tied by DNA to Fowler, but police hoped tips from the public could provide other links.
Although police received 300 tips during the past year, none cracked open the other cases.
“We think he’s the right guy for Darlington and Weys and we wanted more information relative to that but we didn’t get it,” said RCMP Staff Sgt. Wayne Clary, who leads the task force.
“We are looking back several years, and as more time goes on, whatever was there is going to disappear … It is frustrating,” he said, adding Fowler is still considered a “strong suspect.”
“We know he travelled, we know he picked up hitchhikers, we know he picked up girls in bars, and in the ’ 70s he was younger and quite active.”
RCMP still believes someone — especially residents of the Prince George-Kamloops corridor — has information that can help investigators.
Fowler worked at a Prince George roofing company in 1974, but police have not received new information that puts him in Canada after that.
Fowler was a drifter who picked up odd jobs, lived in motels and travelled long distances, mostly through the U. S., in old cars. He was an alcoholic and drug user who was rough with women and men, picked up hitchhikers, and often went to bars and restaurants.
The Oregon man died while serving a sentence for kidnapping, attempted rape and assault.
MacMillen, 16, left her Lac La Hache home to hitchhike just a few kilometres to her friend’s house in 1974. Her body was found one month later beside a logging road south of 100 Mile House.
Weys, 19, disappeared in October 1973 when she left the service station where she worked in Clearwater to hitchhike to her parents’ house in Kamloops. Her body was found six months later south of Clearwater.
A month after Weys disappeared, Darlington, 19, of Kamloops vanished while hitchhiking to a local bar. The next day, her body was found in the Thompson River in Kamloops.
Project E- Pana is investigating the so- called Highway of Tears case: the murders and disappearances of 18 girls and women along Highways 16, 97 and 5 in B. C., between 1969 and 2006.
Last year, Oregon police had a new look at Fowler and said he was a suspect in the murders of four young women — aged 16 to 19 — in 1992 and 1995. But U. S. officials said Wednesday it now appears he is not responsible for those unsolved crimes.