Highway of Tears

Highway 16 is locally known as the Highway of Tears and relates to a series of unsolved murders and disappearances of young women. The road runs between Prince George and Prince Rupert in British Columbia, Canada. 19 victims have been identified but if the range is expanded it could be up to 40 cases but I will be sticking in the 19 case boundary.

In 2005 the RCMP launched E-Pana focusing on some of the unsolved murders and disappearances of female children and young women along Highway 16. They sought to discover if there was a single serial killer or multitudes of murders.

In 2009 the police were looking for the remains of Nicole Hoar as she went missing in 2002, they were also looking for other women at the property too. The whole thing was part of the ongoing missing/dead in the area. 25th September 2012 and as part of the ongoing investigations they reported that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police linked the death of Gale Weys and Pamela Darlington to a deceased US criminal, Bobby Jack Fowler. There are said to be other persons of interest in cases but to the age of some of them and lack of evidence they are not expecting charges to be made.

The cases have come under fire from the media and locals as there is a consensus amongst some parties that half are First Nation and that until Nicole Hoar there didn’t seem so much interest. Nicole was white Caucasian and seemingly was the catalyst for finally forming a link and actual case basis forming for them all.

I feel like the best way I can give up the sheer scale/concern about this is to simply list some of those victims…

The homicides are:

• 1969, Gloria Moody found in the woods. She was 26 years old.
• 1970, Micheline Pare was last seen on highway 30 after two women dropped her off. She was 18 years old.
• 1973, Gale Weys. Bobby Jack Fowler is the prime suspect, her body was found in a ditch. She was 19 years old.
• 1973, Pamela Darlington, Bobby Jack Fowler is the prime suspect, her body was found the day after she went missing. She was 19 years old.
• 1974, Monica Ignas, she went missing on her way home from school. She was found in 1975 and had been strangled. She was 14 years old.
• 1974, Colleen MacMillan was last seen near her friends house. Her body had the traces of Booby Jack Fowler on them. She was 16 years old.
• 1976, Coreen Thomas, aged 21 days from giving birth she was struck by Richard Redekop’s truck. He was convicted originally but then charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence.
• 1978 Mary Jane Hill, 31 years hold, Prince Rupert area and found nude along highway 16; cause of death recorded as bronchitis and bronchopneumonia as a result of manslaughter.
• 1981, Maureen Mosie’s body was found the next day by a dog-walker. She was 33 years old.
• 1989, Alberta Williams, her body was found after she had been strangled and sexually assaulted. She was 24 years old.
• 1990, Kimberly Dumais, tiny infant who died after a fire with four people inside. Law enforcement determined the blaze was set on purpose. An anonymous letter claimed responsibility. Other victims were Helga Rochon, Sherri Rochon and Pauline Rochon.
• 1994, Ramona Wilson’s remains were found in 1995. She was 16 years old.
• 1994, Ramona Thiara was working as a prostitute and told a friend that she was going with a customer. She was 15 years old.
• 1994, Alishia ‘Leah’ Germaine was found murdered 9th December, stabbed to death. She was 15 years old.
• 1999, Monica McKay murdered, last seen by friends 31^st December 1999, her body was left by a dumpster.
• 2001 Ada Elaine Brown, the family believe she was assaulted and killed by a man she knew. No charges were raised.
• 2004 Kayla Rose McKay, murdered near Prince Rupert unable to determine if she was murdered or it was suicide.
• 2004 Melanie Dawn Brown, 31 years old in the Prince George area and was found dead in a basement, gunshot wound.
• 2006, Aielah Saric Auger was found dead in a ditch after going missing. She was 14 years old.
• 2013 Tara Lee Ann Williams, 40 years old and found dead alongside Blaine Albert Barfoot police asking for anyone with information to come forwards.
• 2017 Robert (Robin) Marie Sims, 65 years old and RCMP report her own vehicle was used in her murder.
• 2020 Casandra Kale, 28 years old and police noted a dead woman in car with two other occupants. Police believe all three related to one another and foul play has not been ruled out.
• 2023, Chelsey Amanda Quaw, 29 years old, her remains where found 7^th November 2023 in a wooded area on the community’s territory.

Missing people are:

• 1970-1979, Tracey Clifton, went missing last seen Prince Rupert area walking Highway 16 after an argument with her mother.
• 1970, Helen Claire Frost, Prince George area and was reported missing after 2 days thinking she was at a friends house.
• 1983, Shelly-Ann Bascu went missing, near the Athasbasca river, personal items with blood drops matching her DNA were found. She was 16 at the time.
• 1989, Doreen Jack, 26rs old and last seen around Prince Rupert. Family went missing after taking a job with daycare.
• 1989 Cecillia Anna Nikal, 1989 she also had a cousin who was murdered a few years after she went missing.
• 1990, Delphine Nickal went missing in 13th June, she was hitchhiking east from the town of Smithers, she was 15 years old at the time.
• 1995, Lana Derrick was last seen in October that year. Fowler was in jail by then and so could not have been convicted for the crime. She was 19 years old.
• 2004 Margeret Nooski, 89 years old and missing from Fraser Lake, this poor lady was suffering from dementia and struggled to walk. RCMP think she may have got lost trying to get to Prince George.
• 2005, Tamara Chipman went missing when she was 25 years old.
• 2005 Mary Madaline George, from the Prince George area, she was last seen walking towards a clinic in Prince George.
• 2005 Tamara Lynn Chapman, 22 years old and went missing, search efforts from her family was not successful.
• 2007 Bonnie Marie Joseph, 32 years old and was due in court but never showed up. Her ID and belongings were found by a lake.
• Beverly Warbrick, went missing from 2100 block of Oak Street in Prince George.
• 2011, Madison Scott vanished near the road after going to a party. Her tent and truck were located but she is still missing. madisonscott.ca
• 2014 Anita Florence Thorne, 49 years old and reported missing, they found her car, with purse inside and unlocked.
• 2017 Frances Brown, 53 years old and went missing, last seen out picking mushrooms and police launched a large search. She is deaf in one ear.

Dragsholm Castle

Located in Zealand, Denmark there has been a building on the site for about 800 years. Today it is a hotel and restaurant facility. During the middle ages it went from a palace to a fortified castle and during the reformation it was passed to the crown. From 1536 to 1664 it was used as a prison, for the noble class and ecclesiastical powers then in 1694 Dragsholme Castle was rebuilt as its current baroque style. In 1932 the family line became extinct.

A famous ghost there is James Hepburn, 4^th Earl of Bothwell, he had married Anna Tronds, and then he said he was poor, once they settled, she would need to sell her possessions. Anna had a very unhappy time with him. In 1566 he married Jean Gordon but they divorced 7^th May 1567. 8 days later he married Mary, Queen of Scots.

In February 1567 he was one of the people accused of murdering Lord Darnley, the queens consort. He was acquitted of this and then went on to marry Mary. Mary was no longer on the throne not long after this and with the change in politics he made an attempt to flee to Denmark hoping to get support so she could get back on the throne. He was caught off the coast of Norway and was remanded in prison. Here Anna sued him for abandonment and the return of her dowry.

Bothwell would have got released as he handed Anna his ship, but King Frederick heard of Lord Darnley’s murder and he was instead sent to the notorious Dragsholme Castle. The appalling conditions let to his eventual insanity, a pillar that he was chained to is still there, a grove in the floor shows where he spent the last ten years of his life and then ultimately died.

Digital StillCamera

By Bococo - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19439571

Nightclub Tragedies – Tragedies.

When I was younger I was a frequent attendee of Rock City in Nottingham, England and other clubs however I had to admit had I known about these… I probably would have thought twice!

1. Lame Horse (Khromaya Loshad, Perm, Russia) fire club, this occurred 5th December 2009 and claimed over 150 lives with more than 160 injured. People inside were caught in a death trap because of a performance artist using cold-flame pyrotechnics when a spark ignited the plastic covering on the ceiling. Initially they asked the guests to leave and it seemed to be calmly working until the wooden decorations went up in smoke, a set of double doors had been locked and people inevitably succumbed to the smoke and burns.

   Inevitably a lengthy trial took place, if you are interested you could read up more online. If you are strong of stomach you can find snippets about it online. People from the club tried to go in and assist others, there were some left outside in the cold Russian weather for over an hour and medical services turned up 5 minutes after it began. They were overwhelmed when they did turn up due to the sheer volume of living and dead. The outcome? The club was dangerous and the safety requirements were not met, yes there were guilty verdicts but that doesn’t bring back the people that died or remove the scars from the injured.

2. Kiss Nightclub Fire, this happened 27^th January 2013 in Santa Maria, Rio Grande Sul, in Brazil and there was a fire that killed 242 people. Two bands were to play that night and early that morning a fire broke out, the panic caused a stampeded, with a lack of exit signs and emergency exits said to be a contributing factor to the number of deaths. The illegal use of outdoor fireworks as pyrotechnics are said to have been the cause.

   The owner of the club tried to blame others who he had commissioned to ensure regulations were met but it was overcrowded and they were not, and then to make matters worse by this time the death toll had crept up to 235 and by April 2^nd two ban members were charged with manslaughter.

3. República Cromañón nightclub fire, this occurred in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 30^th December 2004 and killed 194 people. It was said that the club had still been issued a permit despite lacking basic fire safety measures, down to the simplest things like fire extinguishers. Again the fire was said to have started over a pyrotechnic flare that ignited foam in the ceiling. There were 3000 or so people in the club and despite the owner and band’s singer saying not to use them someone in the crow seemed to have done so anyway.

   Four of the six doors (some fire exits) were chained shut to stop people trying to get in without tickets. Many died from inhaling poisonous gasses and carbon monoxide. The police are still said to be looking for the person that started the fire, with the flare, though I suspect this will not occur, for all we know they are a victim themselves. The Mayor was was suspended at the time and Mayor Ibarra was removed from office. Again that doesn’t bring these people back, and simple precautions might well have saved many.

4. Santika Club Fire – 1^st January 2009, in Watthana, Bangkok, Thailand new Years celebrations were in high swing. 66 people were killed and another 222 were injured but no official cause has been found. Those there suggested that outdoor fireworks hit the roof, or sparklers indoors ignited inside… some also suggest an electrical explosion and others stated that they saw no pyrotechnics inside.

   There was only one main exit, an additional one was there for private use for the staff and a third had been locked to prevent robberies.

   Again the clubs safety standards were sub-parr and the aftermath was that 19 hospitals took in the injured, 29 of the 61 were immediately identified and the bodies of the dead were wrapped in white cloth and laid out in the car park. It took up to a week to identify some of the bodies and again the owner was brought up for charges. He was also charged with under-age admittance as one of the dead was a 17 year old student.

5. Gothenburg discotheque – the fire was started by arson, it was a deliberate act of terrorism against youths in the club at Gothenburg, Sweden with 375 youths inside, 63 perished and a further 200 or so were injured. The fire was started in the stairway that fed to the emergency exit and many leapt from the height to escape the flames and take their chances.

   The fire was stated by four teenagers aged 17-19 who were denied entry to the building. They were convicted, the youngest of the four was argued to have been less involved but the prosecution provided sufficient evidence that the four of them had plotted it together. There is a memorial for the victims. It was a terrible tragedy for all involved, caused by four people intent on damaging others.

6. Top Storey Club – Bolton, Manchester May 1961, causing the deaths of 19 people. It was on the top floors of an old mill warehouse building, The club was opened in 1960 by Stanley Wilcock who rented it, the maximum occupancy was about 200 and when the owners found an advertisement about it being a nightclub they were concerned it was unsuitable for that purpose. They went to the see the renting parties – Wilson and Sorrensen, they were told that the club had to stop and they would have to vacate by 24^th June.

   The night of the fire it was quiet with 20-25 people inside, less than half an hour after the visit the manager, Bill Bohannan, could smell smoke and could see smoke coming from under the stairs of the workshop to the club. The door was the only means of escape and some of the customers took to making a jump for it.

   Three minutes after the start the brigade was there but could not enter due to the intense fire. The blaze took 2.5 hours to bring under control and a fireman on scene described it as horrific, 14 people lay dead in the club, 5 died from jump injuries and around 2 or 3 were thought to have survived. The blaze was more intense due to the highly flammable solvents and paints used in the below furniture workshop. An open verdict was recorded by the coroner. The result was a change in the Licensing Act 1961 which meant Fire Brigades had to be inspected and regulations passed before the license would be issued.

So what did I take from this? Indoor pyrotechnics are probably best not existing, then again as a victim of being caught in a fire I take this as possibly a stern approach. I don’t even like the fact fireworks are sold without license. I would also suggest that if you look around a club and you think “man this place looks old and out of touch” you might consider leaving or keeping an eye on the exits…

 

Fortunately for me the last time I was at a nightclub the only thing on fire was the music! I mean sorry about the poor quality of the photo but it was an excuse to post this. I love The Hu and they are amazing live! 

Black Dahlia

Elizabeth Short was an American woman who was murdered January, 1947 at 22 years old. Short was born in Boston, USA, on 29th July 1924. Her father lost most of his money in 1929 when the stock market collapsed. In 1930 he parked his car on a bridge and it was presumed that he had committed suicide, only years later he was found alive and kicking in California. Model father!

At 19 years old she had reconnected and went to live with her father, they moved to Los Angeles in 1943. She left after an argument and somehow ended up at Santa Barbara, where she was arrested for underage drinking. She ended up in Florida and met Major Matthew Michael Gordon, Jnr. She told her friends he had written to her to propose marriage while he was recovering from injuries in a place crash whilst serving in India. She accepted the offer but he died in a second crash 10th August 1945. Short then came back to Los Angeles July 1946. She spent the last six months around southern California, mostly L.A.

15th January 1947, the naked body of Short was found in two pieces on a vacant lot in Leimet Park. A local resident, Betty Bersinger, found her as she was walking with her three-year-old daughter. Originally she thought it was a mannequin, when she realized it was a corpse she fled to call the police.

Short’s body had been washed by the killer, it was drained of blood and her mouth had been slashed from lips to ears. Her body showed horrific signed of violence and the cause of death was eventually determined as hemorrhaging from the lacerations to her face and shock due to the blows on her head.

A reporter from the Los Angeles Examiner got hold of her mother, they told her that Short had won a beauty competition to get information on her private life. Once the press had as much as they needed they told her about her daughters murder. The papers offered to fly her out, to stop her getting to police and other press with the idea of getting exclusive content being more important than the truth and solving a murder. It was the press that created the image of the prowling Black Dahlia, this adventuress woman that got herself into trouble and murdered.

Over the years more than 50 men and women have tried to confess to the murder. Short was finally buried and her mother moved to be closer to where her daughter was laid to rest. There were other rumours at the time suggesting she was pregnant but there is nothing in any casework to state this. Her unresolved murder is regularly revisited and has been made into t.v documentaries, a book and a film.

Timesuck NSFW on the case.

 

Elizabeth Short in 1946. 

Bone Collector

In July 2007 in Magliana, Rome a strange criminal case emerged. Magliana was an area of some run down places along with poorly maintained roads. Landlords would ask for obscene and unimaginable rent rates and residents felt forced into action; this included forming barricades to stop the police evicting tenants.

Police were called out to a blaze on a waste-ground there, they found a skeleton, wallet and the keys that belonged to a pensioner, Libero Ricci, who went missing in November 2003.

Initially it seemed he’d been the victim of a mugging, but clothes found nearby were not his, the relatives said they were not his clothes at any rate. The remains were investigated further and a pathologist confirmed that they could not be his, the case became more complex. The bones were from three woman and two men aged between 25 and 55 years old. Each had died over a 20 year period from the 1980’s up until 2006.

The woman’s skull DNA suggested a relative of Ricci and it was not possible to confirm a method of death. What is known are that five people were placed together as one skeleton, the bodies were from a 20 year period and there is no way to know how they all came together.

The T.V show ‘Chi La Visto’ showed the bones and asked for any information and assistance in finding the people involved. Since then there appears to be no further news.

(article in Italian) https://roma.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/19_aprile_24/giallo-pensionato-scomparso-collezionista-ossa-cercate-tevere-gli-altri-delitti-eed9c7d8-6069-11e9-b055-81271c93d411.shtml

Skeleton made of ‘five perfect bodies’