Highway of Tears Probe Hit By Budget Cuts
Prince George, B.C.- 250News has learned, the recent news of a budget cut to RCMP operations in B.C., will have an impact on E-PANA, the investigation of 18 missing and murdered women along highways 16 and 97.
RCMP Inspector Ed Boettcher confirms the $4.2 million dollar provincial budget cut includes “a $1.4 million cut to the Major Crimes Section – primarily the Special Projects/Unsolved Homicide/Missing Persons program, which includes 13 investigators – 6 within Project E-PANA.”
The RCMP says despite the cut, E-PANA remains a priority investigation “and investigative efforts are active and on-going.” The statement issued to 250News goes on to say “We remain committed to the investigation and victim's families in determining what happened to their loved ones.”
The RCMP add that the E-PANA investigative team has been fluid in that its size has changed as needed over the years to deal with various tasks and tips. “At its peak there were roughly 70 investigators working on the project along with support staff. That number has dropped to about 12 investigators (members) and support staff who are fully dedicated to the investigation” reads the statement issued to 250News.
That statement also expresses confidence in the current resources on this file “ While the number of investigators has scaled down, we have the resources necessary to deal with the investigative needs at this time from interviews to forensic analysis. Additional efforts with respect to education and prevention campaigns are also underway, especially in North District, and they have not been impacted by the budget reduction.”
The RCMP say E-PANA continues to investigate possible suspects or persons of interest and has the capacity to expand and respond as needed.
E-PANA first started in late 2005 and initially focused on three unsolved homicides: Ramona Wilson, Alishia Germaine and Roxanne Thiara. Further analysis would add 6 other files which all had Highway 16 as a common denominator and then when the search grid was expanded to highways 5 and 97, another nine cases would find themselves under the E-PANA umbrella.
There have been no arrests in the cases, however, in September of 2012, investigators announced they believed a deceased inmate in the U.S., Bobby Jack Fowler, was responsible for the murder of Colleen McMillen near Lac La Hache in 1974. Fowler was also suspected of being responsible for the deaths of Gail Weys and Pamela Darlington. Both young women had been murdered in the fall of 1973. Weys’ body was discovered along Highway 5 nearly six months after she disappeared, while Darlington’s was discovered in Kamloops at Pioneer Park the day after she went missing .
Fowler had died of cancer while serving a 16 year sentence for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman in Oregon.
Investigators had also conducted a search for possible forensic evidence at a property west of Prince George in connection with the disappearance of tree planter Nicole Hoar. Investigators came away from that search with nothing that would lead to any charges against anyone.
Although the budget cuts will impact E-PANA , the RCMP are still hopeful someone will come forward and give them that piece of the puzzle that will help them solve the other 15 cases in the E-PANA portfolio “We once again encourage anyone with any information to please call Tip Line 1-877-543-4822.”
Comments
Yet there is money for the winter games , like get real .
This is so wrong. If there is enough public outcry, perhaps the funding can be restored. I will be there to protest if a rally happens.
Dont mix up your municipal, provincial, and federal politics Fedup
SEVERE cuts to major crimes, well we should see an increase in major/petty crimes. THE criminal activity should flourish now that the actual people doing the footwork and investigations has been drastically reduced. SOMETIMES I wonder where politicians get there priorities.
Stop hitchhiking. Problem solved.
This is bad..but I agree %100 with JB. Don’t be a victim..
In spite of the name “Highway of Tears”, as far as I can see there is no clear association with hitchhiking. Of course it is wise for young women not to hitchhike alone, but we really don’t have any good reason to believe that women will be safe so long as they don’t hitchhike.
In any case, the priorities for policing are wrong. More money and effort should go into violent crime and we should stop wasting money on the War on Drugs.
Make pot legal…will save tens of millions on law enforcement, jail and court costs plus the money from taxation. Then would be funds for these needed programs .
Many thanks to the police officer that caught the young man going through our courts right now. Could have been a long list of missing girls by now.
I agree with P Val. We spend way to much money chasing the guy with a joint or two.
Drugs and alcohol are no laughing matter. They cost us way more than you can emagine.
Part 1 of a solution is, “don’t do that.”
Part deux is to actually make a viable suggestion.
So, don’t hitch hike, OK then.
How does a person without the resources travel as needed?
If one is a “never been employed” and comes from a financially poor environment, how do they buy or rent a vehicle, or even pay a bus fare?
Could we have traveling doctors in the remote towns and villages?
Could Save-on and Shoppers Pharmacy have a grocery supply route?
I know, let’s have the Income Assistance workers travel to their client’s.
Could we have a portable Government access office in a modified bus or tractor trailer?
Of course, we would also need a traveling LCBBC unit.
Drugs and alcohol are a problem, but prohibition has proven to be a poor solution and has horrible side effects, including vast expenditures on law enforcement, courts, and prisons, crime committed by people in need of funds for their addictions, financing for organized crime and terrorism, and damage to civil liberties and the militarization of the police. The game is not worth the candle.
Exactly Loki.
So to summarize:
Don’t hitchhike. Figure out other options. Problem solved.
Ah yes, empathy, compassion, considering another’s situation, failing to see a different perspective, giving back to the community, helping another human.
It is good to be Canadian.
So Loki, you’re offering rides? That is awfully generous of you.
I have, I do, and I will in the future.
I also use situational awareness to help those in need that I am able to, as often is reasonably possible.
I have purchased meals, and gave an occasional smoke, and even provided a safe place to sleep.
Of course, I am not well off financially, and sometimes I have suffered for it. I do what I can as often as I can.
I bolieve that in a successful free society, every member:
Must Be self sufficient as much as possible
Must be able to and actually do provide care for someone that cannot do so for themselves such as an invalid, or a child
Must Give back to the community
Today you may be healthy, strong vibrant and self-supporting. What happens when you break your back during recreational activities, or get a serious illness. There is no insurance for that, and these are some of the reasons some people have become destitute. There are of course a myriad of reasons for people to need help.
Since the close of the 19th century, we have become a society of entitled isolationists, rather than a society that pulls together and looks after those that are unable to look after themselves.
Seeing as you like to engage me, your turn.
What age would you supporters of dope let your kids get stoned? Is it okay to drive stoned? Cannabis in no more benign to your health than alcohol. Is sucking that shit into your lungs healthy? Why should the taxpayer pay for your lifestyle? Why get stoned in the first place?
Loki: “There is no insurance for that, and these are some of the reasons some people have become destitute. There are of course a myriad of reasons for people to need help.”
…and then there are the lazy, unmotivated, entitled people who expect the world to be handed to them. I have no time for those types. Give the help to the people who truly need it.
Also to clarify, it was you who engaged me in this thread.
In addition to E-PANA and major crimes, it looks like the cuts will also impact programs that focus on anti-gang activities. So that’s more bad news for PG, a city with a recent history of organized crime related issues.
It sure seems like a bizarre place to go looking for budget savings.
NMG: “It sure seems like a bizarre place to go looking for budget savings.”
It was done primarily for political reasons, where the RCMP felt it would get the most attention.
Seamut@I don’t see anyone here supporting driving stoned anymore. Those of us who support legalization of drugs do not support excessive or inappropriate drug use. We just consider the problems caused by drugs to dealt with better as social and medical problems than by making possession a crime, which is, and has been for decades, the approach to alcohol.
Interesting how this news article is about the Liberal government cutting $4.2 Million dollars from the RCMP, and specifically cutting back on Highway of Tears investigators.
Yet the discussion almost immediately goes to victim blaming; “Don’t Hitchhike then”!
Anything to shift the discussion towards something other then the Libs cutting important services right?
A Murdered and Missing Womens report, released in December 2012 by Commissioner Wally Oppal, included more than 60 recommendations. Oppal’s report also contained several recommendations to address the so-called Highway of Tears, a stretch of highway in the province’s north where at least 18 women and girls have been murdered or have disappeared. Despite publicly claiming it was busy consulting on the issue, as of early May, the government had held only one meeting with local governments in the previous year and a half.
On Friday, Clark insisted the government had made “significant” progress on the Oppal report, though she declined to provide any examples, instead leaving that for an updated status report expected in the coming months. ~ The Province, June 13, 2014
So does anyone remember any of the Murdered and Missing Women Commission Reports sixty recommendations calling for a reduction in the number of RCMP staff investigating those murders and disappearances? This is nothing short of a Liberal Government betrayal of these murder and missing women, their families, and the Commissions hard work.
Reducing the number of RCMP investigators who are looking to apprehend predators that enact the most violent and despicable acts on mostly Aboriginal women/girls, while at the same time pledging to end violence against Aboriginal women and girls seems a bit two-faced and hypocritical.
http://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/1065921/premier-christy-clark-pledges-to-end-violence-against-aboriginal-women-and-girls/
Thanks for showing us what a two-faced person looks like Christy:
http://tinyurl.com/mkjqd42
Peeps: “Yet the discussion almost immediately goes to victim blaming; “Don’t Hitchhike then”!
I didn’t know common sense was ‘victim blaming’.
Peeps, less than half of the missing women were ‘believed’ to have hitchhiked some time before their disappearance, at least 7 are 100s of km away from highway 16 corridor.
Libs don’t select where the funding is to be spent, that is up to the RCMP to prioritize their funding.
Seems like they are making some headway as Bobby Fowler is suspect in at least 4 of them, Cody Legebokov one or two more.
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