A deceased U.S. convict was responsible for at least one of the murders that took place on a lonely stretch of road in northern B.C. dubbed the Highway of Tears, RCMP officers announced Tuesday.
Now police are seeking help from the public in an effort to discover whether Bobby Jack Fowler can be linked to others deaths.
Fowler’s DNA was found on the body of 16-year-old Colleen MacMillan, who disappeared in 1974 along Highway 97 near Lac La Hache, south of Prince George, while hitchhiking to visit friends.
The DNA, which was recently resubmitted to Interpol by E-PANA investigators, resulted in the oldest DNA match in Interpol’s history.
Macmillan’s death is one of 18 cases in B.C.’s notorious Highway of Tears murders—women who were murdered or went missing along an isolated 724-kilometre stretch between Prince George and Prince Rupert, many while hitchhiking, between 1969 and 2006.
Police say Fowler is a possible suspect in as many as 10 of the remaining 18 cold cases, and is a strong suspect in the deaths of at least two—Gale Weys and Pamela Darlington—both killed in 1973.
Fowler was very transient, travelling across the U.S. for much of his life, doing roofing work and odd jobs. He is also known to have worked in the Prince George area in 1974 for a roofing company called Happy’s Roofing, which is no longer in business.
“We believe there are people out there who employed Fowler, worked with him, socialized with him, or even waited on him while he was in B.C.,” said Gary Shinkaruk, the officer in charge of the B.C. RCMP’s major crimes special projects unit.
Police believe that with help from the public, they can piece together a timeline and find more information about Fowler’s time in Canada, which could lead to more evidence in the murders.
“We are asking the public to think back to the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s and your own memories of that time period. Then have a look at his photos and call us with any information you have about him.”
Fowler has an extensive violent and criminal history with convictions in several U.S. states for crimes including attempted murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, sexual assault, arson, kidnapping, and firearms offences.
Fowler’s last conviction was in Newport, Oregon, in 1995, for a violent attack against a woman who jumped from a second-storey hotel room to escape him. After serving 10 years, he died of cancer in prison in 2006 at the age of 66.
“It has been a long wait for answers and although it is a somewhat unsatisfactory result, because this individual won’t have to stand trial for what he did, we are comforted by the fact that he was in prison when he died and he can’t hurt anyone else,” said Shawn Macmillan, brother of Colleen Macmillan.
“Colleen was a lovely, sweet, innocent, 16-year-old kid. There are still no words in the world to express how terribly she was wronged. For those remaining families whose daughters, sisters, are also victims, we hope this means they may yet have their own answers.”
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