Another Serial Killer Operating in Canada?
September 04, 2009
Right on the heels of the Robert Pickton case, likely the worst serial killer in Canadian history, it appears that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have another such anomaly of nature on their hands, this time possibly a trucker who is traveling Alberta's highways and truck stops, plucking prostitutes off the province's streets as he goes about his daily routine of driving a big rig for a living. The theory of truck driving serial killers is a problem that the FBI in the U.S. has been closely examining for quite some time now, with that federal law enforcement agency having recently launched its Highway Serial Killings Initiative that has so far resulted in the arrests of 10 people in connection with 30 killings and the creation of a 500 victim database whose bodies have turned up on or near major U.S. trucking routes that literally stretch across the country. Their database also has produced a list of an additional 200 suspects that the FBI is investigating, leaving many people in Canada wondering if the RCMP will follow the FBI's lead and create their own similar initiative. Naturally, the FBI's initiative has attracted the attention of Canadian activists, particularly in Western Canada, many of whom are still hounding the Vancouver Police Department over their less than satisfactory handling of the Pickton case. Many of the victims that have been found along Canada's highways seem to fit the same type of profile as those in the U.S. who have disappeared or whose bodies have been found.
It is no secret that prostitutes frequently choose truck stops to ply their trade, selling sex to truck drivers who are often away from home and on the road for days to weeks at a time. Sometimes they will even trade sex for a ride to another location.
"It happens all the time," said one Canadian woman, who declined to be identified for safety reasons. "Last summer I met a girl who'd hitched a ride to Edmonton from Texas. She worked here until it was too cold, then she said, 'screw it,' and found a trucker willing to take her back south again. Anything could have happened."
According to RCMP spokesman Corporal Wayne Oakes, the police in Alberta have become particularly concerned about the deaths and disappearances in the high-risk lifestyles of people engaging in the world's oldest profession, and as such have been carefully studying the FBI's Highway Serial Killings Initiative. Project KARE, an investigational unit created in 2003 to examine with the highest priority the deaths and disappearances of high-risk missing persons, many of whom have been found in and around the City of Edmonton and the surrounding rural areas, routinely shares information and techniques with law enforcement agencies across North America, Oakes said.
"The whole purpose is to identify any linkages or commonalities," he said. So far, however, the Project KARE efforts have turned up few, "if any, linkages" with the trucking cases being looked at in the U.S.
So far, according to a private detective investigating the disappearances and discoveries of bodies along northern British Columbia's so-called "Highway of Tears," recently said that all they really have at this point is a lot of speculation that a trucker could be involved in nine cases that have come to light in that area, some of which he is investigating. However, there simply has not been much, if any, evidence found to back up such a theory.
"In my opinion," said the private detective, Ray Machalko, "half of the original nine were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Nicole Hoar, from Red Deer, was working as a tree planter when she vanished from that area in June 2002 while hitchhiking to visit her sister, and is one of the victims whose case is being carefully examined. Nicole's father said that he was not surprised at the links being connected to the trucking industry in the U.S., but that theory doesn't appear to apply in his daughter's case. Just how many of those cases do provide "linkages" to the cases in the U.S. remains to be seen.
So the question remains—is a serial killer trolling for victims along Alberta's highways and truck stops? Only time, it seems, will tell.
"I wouldn't be surprised," said one prostitute from Edmonton. "They'd have the perfect opportunity. They can come into town and be long gone before anyone's even missed."
Related Links:
Bizarre Crime of the Week: Serial Killers
Photo Credit: Getty
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission from Discovery Communications. All quotes must include a link back.
Comments