Solving The Highway Of Tears Is Not As Easy As An Episode Of CSI
Friday, August 16, 2013 @ 3:45 AM
When you think of the highway of tears and the investigation that has taken place in relation to the many missing and murdered women, you might think CSI, Criminal Minds or some other sort of TV show in which the bad guys always get caught and face the music.
In reality it doesn’t work that way and the recent revelation that another serial killer has travelled through our area bears witness to that.
Israel Keyes , was found to have killed at least 11 people in the USA ,we don’t know whether he did the same in Canada. He committed suicide in an Alaskan jail before anyone could get him to connect all the dots.
We did find out, after the fact, that another American, Bobby Fowler was responsible for two and perhaps three murders in BC. Now you might want to ask , how come we didn’t arrest him?
Well may I repeat normal police work is not CSI , Fowler got into the country without even his own police agencies knowing he was a threat. Serial killers tend to work alone and if they don’t talk , who does? They also cover a lot of ground. Fowler all across the US and in Canada as well. Keyes was known to have spent some time in Montreal , he also travelled to Mexico and Belize. This is not an easy task on the part of police agencies and in spite of the fact that you might have a good idea who did the crime, you have to be sure, damn sure before you arrest them. It isn’t at all like the movies where the guy comes clean and spills his guts.
Now to our own region. Could Keyes have spent some time here? Indeed he may have , and DNA will help to identify him. Keep in mind however it has been known for some time that there are more suspects in the Highway of Tears than these two men. The police have a very good idea who is resonsible for some of the Highway of Tears cases, but, you need a body and you need some serious proof before you go knocking on the door.
In the movies they sneak into the home while the culprit is out and find some evidence . In real life that would be a search without a warrant and there are serious consequences for conducting ones self in that manner.
Staff Sergeant Wayne Clary put it well the other day when he said there are lots of suspects in the highway of tears. He also said that if you live a certain high risk life style, such as being a sex trade worker or hitchhiking, there are dangers associated with those behaviours.
Somewhere along the line we have to take at least some responsibility for what we do.
I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.
Comments
Nothing is as easy as fiction … ;-)
But then again, the Law and Order cases are typically rooted in real cases, just shortened down to one hour segments.
So, to follow a serial killer, one really needs a serial TV program to do it justice. ;-)
Did I read that right? Women have “some responsibility” for being murdered? Wow.
“Did I read that right? Women have “some responsibility” for being murdered?”
No, they bear some responsibility for staying in a high risk lifestyle, they don’t call it high risk for nothing. Most teens figure they are invincible, and a majority go through to the age where they look back and think “can’t believe i didn’t die doing that” but unfortunately the unlucky few do not get to reflect on the past.
Just went by two more hitchhikers at different points on the highway today, and I don’t doubt the sex trade is still going on full swing in PG so the message is not filtering down to those who need it, or they just don’t care
Race car drivers bear some responsibility for being injured or killed during a race.
People who smoke bear some responsibility for getting various lung diseases.
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So, you asked whether you read that right that “Women have “some responsibility” for being murdered?”
To answer you, no you did not read that right. It actually does not say that in the report. Read it again.
If you think that it is implied in the report, I think you got the wrong interpretation.
It says verbatim: “if you live a certain high risk life style, such as being a sex trade worker or hitchhiking, there are dangers associated with those.”
In fact, those dangers exist no matter what gender, although, it tends to affect women more than men.
One of those high risk lifestyles actually would include picking up hitchhikers. There have been several occasions when people have been found in their car in fields, robbed and killed, likely from hitchhikers.
Flying float planes in the Tofino area also seems to be a higher risk lifestyle than most.
An interesting view on the dangers versus safety of hitchhiking in the USA on a travel site.
http://wandrlymagazine.com/article/roadtrips/hitchhiking
â¢From 1979 to 2009, there were 675 reported victims of sexual assault and murder along Interstate Highways1.
â¢The FBI reports that âover 500â³ of those were murders. Not a very specific number, but that puts the number of sexual assaults that didnât end in the loss of life at somewhere around 175.
â¢The Interstate accommodates 24% of the nationâs road travel2.
â¢So if we multiply that out, and assume these types of crimes take equal place along both the Interstates and, proportionally, all other highways, we get 2,700 estimated victims of crimes of this nature.
â¢For that period, the average annual population of the United States was 303,366,667â¦
â¢â¦which equates to a 0.0000089% chance of being raped or killed and then being left on the side of an Interstate Highway.
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The main thing I find wrong with that is that hitchhiking is likely more common on state and local roads than interstate roads. The reason why may be because stats are easy to keep for controlled interstate highways while they may be confounded by many other variables on more local roads.
Still, it makes one want to ask what are the stats for hitchhikers killing and hitchhikers getting killed along ALL highways and even city roads broken down by the type of roads.
We likely do not have such stats.
If we do not, how do we know how dangerous hitchhiking actually is versus living in a dangerous part of town, for instance.
Another interesting read – What Killed Hitchhiking?
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6576347/ns/travel-road_trips/t/what-killed-hitchhiking
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