Highway Of Tears Essay Topics

Madison Carlton
Mrs. Luther
English II
13 February 2017
The Highway of Tears
Along the highway 16 just outside of Canada everybody cried and many died. Over 40 women were hunted and killed along the highway in Canada. The Highway of Tears is one of the most tragic unsolved murders this nation have seen because there have been over 40 murders that have gone unsolved since 1969.
Ever since 1969 there have been over 40 cases of missing and murdered women along Highway 16 now known as the “Highway of Tears”. In 1969 the first woman went missing. All of the women that were taken were hitchhiking or walking along the highway. “I identify the messages used by the province that target Indigenous women and attempt to construct hitchhiking as a contentious form mobility” (Morton 301). Hitchhiking was not always known as a dangerous act. It was just another way to get from point A to point B, but with the new era of crazy people it has become much more dangerous. “Hitchhiking is a form of contentious mobility because it functions in a different way than the independence of automobility” (Morton 301).
One of the first victims was Gloria Moody ashe was from the Williams Lake area and was found dead along highway 97 in October 1969. “Gloria's body was found 10km from Williams Lake

on a cattle trail by two hunters. She had been stripped naked, sexually assaulted, beaten, and bled to death from her injuries” (“Unsolved Murder of Gloria”). Many of the other victims were also found stripped of their clothes and sexually assaulted. Gloria Moody played an important role in the Highway of Tears murders because she was the first case to be classified as an actual homicide (“Unsolved Murder of Gloria”).
Another important victim was Colleen MacMillen. She was 16 and had left home to hitch hike to a friends. Her remains were found within a month of her disappearance. Colleen MacMillen remains had traces of Bobby Jack Fowler’s DNA. Bobby Jack Fowler had been convicted “for rape, kidnapping and attempted rape in Newport, Oregon” (Blanco).
Bobby Jack Fowler is also a suspect in 16 other murders in British Columbia and Oregon. Fowler spent a lot of time in prison on many different chargers. He was charged in Texas for murdering a man and woman, but only convicted for discharging a firearm within city limits. Fowler spent time in a Tennessee prison for sexual assault and attempted murder. He like to travel in beat up old cars and pick up hitchhikers, he spent most of his time in bars and motels trying to attract women. “Fowler believed that women he came into contact with hitchhiking and in bars wanted to be sexually assaulted” (Blanco). “Bobby Jack Fowler died of lung cancer in an Oregon penitentiary in 2006 while serving a 16-year sentence for kidnapping, assault and attempted rape” (“Police”).
Jerry Baker is another suspect in the Highway of Tears murders.

A woman came to the police station and told the officer that someone had tried to kidnap them and that they had written down the license plate number. When the police station ran the plates they found that the car belonged to Jerry Baker. Baker had been charged with multiple sexual assault cases. Baker has been a suspect in many cases in the Highway of Tears murders. He was thought to be involved with the murders of Colleen MacMillen 1969, Pamela Darlington 1973, Gail Ann Weys 1974, and Norma Tashoots 1989. “Is he responsible for four or five (murders) or one? I don’t know,” Leibel said of Baker” (“Unsolved Murders /

Missing”).
Only one of the murderers has been convicted of killing four of the women. “Cody Legebokoff was arrested Nov. 27, 2010, when an RCMP officer checked a suspicious vehicle that had pulled onto the highway from an unused logging road” (“Court”). Legebokoff was charged with four accounts of first degree murder in the deaths of women who have disappeared between 2009 and 2010.
The police forces in charge of attempting to solve the HIghway of Tears murders were unsuccessful for the most part and many people were getting restless. “There has been criticism levelled at police and RCMP over the years for failing to solve the majority of the highway homicide cases including those of the 18 girls and women on the Highway of Tears victims’ list.” (“Unsolved Murders / Missing”). “The Royal Canadian Mounted Police force says that there's 18 victims. But if you talk to the local people, they believe the number is 33, 43, perhaps even more” (Sant). To be included in these 18 murders you have to be within the certain guidelines set by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police force. The victims must be female and involved in a high risk activity such as hitchhiking or prostitution. The victims also must either go missing or found within one mile of Highway 16.