AB - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, July 17, 2002

Police say highway is only link between missing women

Search for hitchhiking student Nicole Hoar called off

OFFICERS across the north joined the Nicole Hoar investigation but po- lice continue to downplay any link to the unsolved cases involving missing or murdered women along what some have dubbed the Highway of Tears.

An extensive, four-day ground and air search for the missing 25-year-old treeplanter was called off early last week.

More than 300 volun- teers and search and res- cue teams from north- western communities had scoured the Highway 16 area.

Hoar, a University of Victoria honours student, was last secn heading west from Prince George on June 21.

Her co-workers told po- lice she was hitchhiking to Smithers to see her sister and attend the Midsummer Music Festival.

She was reported mis- sing July 2 when she failed to show up for work.

Twelve officers in Prince George are working on the case in conjunction with several detachments between Prince George and Prince Rupert, Cst, Mike Herchuck said.

This latest disappear- ance has renewed interest in a handful of unsolved cases involving young aboriginal women who went missing in the early to mid-1990s.

Herchuck said invest- igaters are aware of the other women, but are trea- ting them all as separate cases, he said.

“Find a 900-km stretch of highway anywhere in the country that doesn’t have a missing person at- tached to it, or a victim of foul play,” Herchuck said.

“They are all female and they were all at, or near,, Highway 16 at the time ‘of their disappear- ance. ‘That is the only common denominator.”

Herchuck said the five outstanding cases were re- cently the subject of a 10- month information review that specifically looked for a link,

“If it’s there, we can't see it, or the right informa- tion has not yet come to light,” he said.

Investigators met with profilers and violent crime experts in 1994 to go over the Highway 16 cases in Prince Gearge.

The Historical Homi- cide Unit has also dealt with the Highway 16 cases several years ago. That unit recently lost 14 of its 19 members to the Robert Pickton pig farm invest- igation in Vancouver.

Delphine Nikal was hitchhiking home to Tel- kwa when she went mis- sing June 13, 1990. She was 16 at the time, and has never been found.

Ramona Wilson was 15 when she went missing June 11, 1994. She was last seen hitchhiking to Moricetown.

Her body was disco- vered on April 9, 1995, near the Smithers airport,

Two 15-year-old girls disappeared from the Prince George area, Rox-

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anne Thiara, found dead outside of Burns Lake Aug. 17, 1994, and Alishia Ger- maine, who was found dead Dec, 9, 1994.

Terrace’s Lana Derrick, a 19-year-old Northwest Community College stu- dent, vanished on Oct. 7, 1995 after an evening out with friends.

It's thought she was last seen at a gas station in Thornhill, but composite drawings of possible sus- pects were eventually dis- carded as leads.

Families and leaders in the aboriginal communily, frustrated by lack of progr- ess, held a rally in Terrace in September 1998.

Meanwhile, Nicole Hoar’s family and friends have vowed to continue the search.

As well, the Hudson’s Bay Company has offered a $25,000 reward for any information leading to her discovery.

She was last seen wear-

SEARCHERS scoured Hwy 16 in an effort to find clues to the whereabouts of Nicole Hoar.

ing beige capri pants and a long sleeve red sports shirt with the name Ravens on it. It had a white and yel- low collar.

She was also carrying a large purple and black backpack, and an olive green shoulder bag with an orange appliqued dragon.

Police are asking any- one with information to call the Crimestoppers hotline at 1-800-222-8477 or their local detachment.

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