SERIAL KILLER: Highway of Tears
Dec 16, 2019
Loren Donn Leslie was only 15 years old when police discovered her remains on a lonely logging road off Highway 16 in British Columbia. Since the late 1960s, women and girls have gone missing from the communities that surround Highway 16, or been found murdered along the desolate 450-mile stretch of road known as the Highway of Tears. Sources for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/serial-killer-highway-tears/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
hi crime junkies I'm your host Ashley flowers and I'm Brett and Brett do you know what this week is that are purple yeah but it's our birthday but it also means it's officially two years since we started this podcast so it's crime donkeys birthday too yeah it's like our anniversary I'd like I it's blowing my mind when I think about where we were two years ago I mean everyone who's listening every week I we were on tour this year which is insane
► 00:00:30oh gosh yeah it's so like thank you to everyone who's listened you know whether you found us a day ago or you've been with us for the full two years like we can't thank you enough and on that note though I mentioned touring it reminds me of something to mention so we get messages all the time asking when we're going to do live shows and when we're going to start touring and I don't think people know yeah we've been on the road since like June doing live shows across the country so we don't ever really like put it in our episodes we often just talk about art or on our website we have a
► 00:01:00events page that we update all the time we have our newsletter we have social media we have the fan club we really try and keep the show just for like the real content if you don't want to sign up for any of those things you don't want to use social media I would say never skip the pre-roll ads because if we have an announcement about a new show or merch or anything we put those in there but it's just a friendly reminder because I again I think half the world thought we were never going on tour and we've been doing it for like the last six months yeah I think like while we were in Florida someone messaged us and asked us
► 00:01:29us when we were coming to Florida and we were like we're here how do you were here oh and I on that note what we've learned from touring is where everyone thinks that I'm brunette and you're blond so that were six feet tall blowing everyone's mind right now if you don't know what we look like you can see us on Instagram crime junkie podcast and we are a mere 5 2 and 3/4 inches right right so yeah happy anniversary all that out of the way let's do what we do best let's get to the content because today I'm going to be talking about one of
► 00:02:00Canada's most notorious and deadly highways the highway of Tears
► 00:02:38I'm going to start our story late one November night in 2010 there's this rookie RCMP officer on patrol that sees this big black pickup truck racing out of this Logging Road on a desolate stretch of highway between the communities of Vanderhoof and Fort St James in British Columbia now this might not have been a suspicious site if it had happened in the middle of the day maybe but it's like nearly 10 p.m. and it's cold it's dark and late
► 00:03:08November and the truck is not only moving fast but also driving super erratically like something that just didn't seem right to this mountie so the officer who'd only been policing for like a year at that point radioed for backup and started to follow the truck now given the location he suspected that the driver might have been poaching which is like hunting animals illegally like either with or without a license or without season whatever so according to this may 2016 episode of 48 Hours called Highway of Tears
► 00:03:37tears the officer pulls over the truck and he's kind of surprised to find this 20 year old guy like basically a kid in the front seat he's even more surprised when he noticed that the young man had blood smears on his face his chin and his legs you mean on his pants Oh no so that's the other thing that stood out to this officer he could see his bare legs because this kid was wearing shorts even though the temperatures were well below freezing that night and
► 00:04:07I knew that like anyone spending any amount of time outside would have to be layered up for sure so the officer asked this kid about the blood because the more he Shining Light into the car the more blood he seemed like there was a pool of blood at his feet so the officer kind of prompts him like what were you doing were you poaching and the kid like fesses up to it immediately he's like yep I was but I wasn't poaching with a rifle he said that he and a friend had clubbed a deer to death with a
► 00:04:37a pipe wrench which what listen I don't do any poaching ever so I don't know what I'm talking about but that seems really like an odd way to do it yeah and the officer was understandably skeptical I mean like again who clubs a deer to death with a pipe wrench in the dark of night in the dead of winter in shorts like none of this is making any sense right but according to a 2018 Globe and Mail article I read the guy basically just told the officer that he was a quote redneck and that's just like what they did
► 00:05:08okay here's the thing I grew up in the sticks I kind of get this culture but I have never heard of anybody doing something like this exactly it does not feel right so the officer holds this 20 year old driver in custody at the scene on possible poaching charges under the wildlife act and he calls in the game warden now while police wait for the game warden to arrive they start searching this guy's truck they found the pipe wrench
► 00:05:37that he claimed to have used on the deer the blood is still on it they also find a knife which was covered in blood they also find on the front passenger seat a backpack and now attached to this backpack was this little stuffed toy dangling from the zipper and it didn't seem to fit to the officer like not the guys can't carry around backpacks with little stuff things on the zipper but it didn't seem to fit with who this guy was it's like self-proclaimed ear clubbing redneck in a big truck and that is it
► 00:06:08Force because it wasn't his when they opened the backpack they quickly find a wallet and in that wallet was a children's hospital card with the name of 15 year old Lauren Leslie now at first the officer isn't sure what any of this means like had it been stolen was this girl with him earlier in the night so he decides to contact Lawrence Family to see when the officer phones Lauren's home he reaches her dad Douglas Lee and the officer asked him if Lauren
► 00:06:37is home and her dad's like know why and the officer tells him that he found this ID bracelet in someone else's vehicle someone that he'd pulled over off a Logging Road on Highway 16 and he was checking to make sure that it hadn't been stolen so now knowing that Lauren isn't safe at home the officer starts to get a really bad feeling like he needs to find Lauren so he tells her dad that he's going to check things out I'm going to call you back with an update soon now when the game warden finally arrives the officer pointed him down that log
► 00:07:07road with their truck had left fresh tire marks in the snow and he said listen just follow those tracks down that road let us know what you find again thinking they're finding a deer or a moose maybe in Elka but the game warden didn't find any of those things instead those fresh tire tracks led him straight to the body of a young girl half buried in a gravel pit no signs of life and fresh blood all over the snow and according to an article in The Huffington Post her body was
► 00:07:37still warm to the touch whatever had happened to this girl had just happened now shortly after discovering who they believed to be Lauren the worst possible thing happened someone came driving up to the scene and it was her father in an interview for that same 2016 episode of 48 Hours he said when he got out of his vehicle the first person he saw was that game warden who was white as a ghost and Doug introduced himself to the officers on the scene and said that basically he was looking
► 00:08:07his daughter he wanted to know what's going on he's like listen I got your call it freaked me out I kept trying to call her phone over and over I couldn't get ahold of her and when I wasn't hearing back like I just decided to start driving on Highway 16 till I found the cops here I am what the heck is going on now police of course are really hesitant to provide any information about anything at this point there were way too many unanswered questions but what they did tell him made his stomach sink this wasn't a routine traffic stop
► 00:08:37anymore this was a homicide investigation
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► 00:10:16the body in the woods was virtually unrecognizable so even though Doug was showing them pictures of his daughter Lauren like it wasn't helping them at all so finally Doug told them if it is Lauren you'll find a small tattoo on her wrist that says grip fast Doug had the same one on his wrist it was their family motto this was the information they needed to confirm the body in the woods was in fact that of 15 year old Lauren now at this point they still had the driver in custody and they already
► 00:10:45made an arrest but now instead of poaching charges under the wildlife act he was the number one suspect in the homicide of Lauren Dawn Leslie even though they have their suspect though so many unanswered questions swirled through everyone's mind that night what brought her out there to this desolate stretch of highway in the middle of the night what happened to her in those woods who was this man in the truck and how did she know him if she knew him at all police began their investigation by learning as much about
► 00:11:15out Lauren as they could and the more they could find out about her the easier it would be to answer those questions about how she ended up in those woods with the man who her father said she probably didn't really know they learn that Lauren was a quiet but friendly 15 year old living in the small Northern British Columbia Town of Vanderhoof all of her friends described her as a super sweet girl always ready to lend a hand and help other people and the police also learned that Lauren was legally blind she actually only had 50% of her vision in one eye
► 00:11:45and none in her other and because of this she had to wear prescription glasses but all the people who knew her said that if it weren't for the glasses you would never know that she was blind now Lauren had a close circle of friends in her hometown like girls she went to school with and according to her mother she had a growing circle of friends in the nearby town of Prince George and her parents really worried about the time that their young daughters spent on the road between Vanderhoof and Prince George because what I've heard I've talked to a girl that lives in Canada and she said Prince George could be kind of of
► 00:12:15rough place but more concerning than her just being in Prince George was how she got there like she got there along highway 16 which was then and still is today infamously known as the highway of Tears now this highway of Tears is a 450-mile or 725 kilometer stretch of highway that runs from Prince George's is basically the center of the province of British Columbia to Prince Rupert which is on the western coast but between those communities you'll find like a
► 00:12:45couple of small logging towns like Vanderhoof were Lorna's from and 23 First Nations but mostly what you'll find is absolutely nothing on both sides of the roads are just dense Dark Woods there are no street lights very little traffic like it is just this stunning uninterrupted natural scenery which is incredibly isolated and remote people have said in the past this is the perfect place to commit murder and go undetected
► 00:13:15elected and the perfect place to dump a body and let nature just cover Your Tracks and that is something that is said because it's something that's been happening there for decades women have been going missing or turning up dead along highway 16 since the late 60s how many women in total well the sad truth is no one really knows how many missing and murdered women and girls are connected to the deadly Highway of Tears now officially the RCMP say that there are
► 00:13:45in official victims from 1969 to 2006 these 18 women and girls are part of the rcmp's official Highway of Tears investigation which they're calling project apana but local estimates put the number over 40 like I said earlier this is like an Infamous stretch of road and it's become so well known that if you travel the road today you'll see actually huge Billboards that read quote girls don't hitchhike on the highway of Tears killer on the
► 00:14:15the loose and quote even though people have known about the dangers that lurk on this highway for nearly 50 years women and girls are still going missing and the reason for this I feel like they're like there are a couple of reasons like the first is that a disproportionate number of victims along the highway of tears are indigenous now according to a 2016 article in the New York Times the First Nation communities in that part of British Columbia like so many others across Canada are marked with high levels of poverty incarceration and
► 00:14:45is an alcohol abuse so in many places they lack even the basic amenities like safe drinking water and public transit so that public transit piece is really important because people who live in those logging towns and First Nations along highway 16 had no access to Reliable public transportation until 2017 just two years ago so you know the question is like what do you do when you don't own a car neither do any of your friends or family there's no bus to get you to school or work and you have to run into the town to for like errands or to see doctors
► 00:15:15you would have to hitchhike right now I'm in a quick reminder like many of the cases that we talked about of missing and murdered women and girls along the highway of tears are from like the 70s 80s even 90s and you know like hitchhiking was never really encouraged but it was far more common than it is today which is not to say hitchhiking doesn't even happen anymore totally does but risky or not like when you have a job to get to because you have to feed your children like you do what you have to do and for many that meant relying on the kindness of strangers along that stretch of highway
► 00:15:45that you knew could be dangerous now lots of people theorize at least some of the women who met their end along the highway of Tears were simply like in the wrong place at the wrong time victims of crimes of opportunity they were maybe alone and vulnerable in this isolated area surrounded by woods but police also haven't ruled out the possibility that there's this serial killer or more likely serial killers that are preying on women and girls and using this long stretch of highway as their hunting ground killers
► 00:16:15like Bobby Jack Fowler Bobby Jack Fowler was an American construction worker who was known to travel extensively through the US and Canada for work always and beat up old cars and often picking up hitchhikers along the way so he had many run-ins with law enforcement as a violent sexual offender dating as far back as the late 60s but it wasn't until much later in 1995 that he was finally put away for good he had basically tied a woman up in a motel room tried to
► 00:16:45sexually assault her but somehow somehow she was able to escape like she literally jumped out of the window naked bleeding with rope tied around her ankles oh my God her testimony was enough to land Bobby Jack in prison for a 16-year sentence for attempted rape and kidnapping now it wasn't until many years later in 2012 that RCMP named Bobby Jack Fowler and official suspect in three of the highway of Tears murders they
► 00:17:15spected him when they learned that in the 1970s he'd been in Prince George British Columbia working at a local roofing company now after he was suspected DNA evidence conclusively linked him to one victim Colleen McMillan who according to the Vancouver Sun was just 16 years old when she left her Lac la hache home in August of 1974 to hitchhike to her friend's house just a short distance away now her body was found a month later near a Logging Road off of Highway 16 shortly
► 00:17:45after this police also named Bobby Jack as a suspect in the murders of Gail ways and Pamela Darlington both of whom were 19 years old and both of whom disappeared in 1973 now he's also been suspected of murdering four teenage girls in Oregon as well and you'll notice I'm saying he's a suspect not that he's been charged and there's a reason for that because Bobby Jack Fowler died in prison in 2006 so when police announced that they were naming him as a suspect in those Highway
► 00:18:15of Tears murders like he'd already been dead for six years so do they suspect him to be responsible for like all the highway of Tears murders or missing person cases know so I mean he died in 2006 and he was in prison a long time before that and while he was locked up or dead women were still going missing and being killed I think he was just one of a number of predators lurking along that stretch of road so while Bobby Jack is clearly not a viable suspect in Laura's
► 00:18:45it's murder understanding one of The Men Who preyed on women in this area could give police a better understanding of the circumstances surrounding Lawrence murder and it'll show you like kind of why her parents were so worried about her as she traveled along this highway to and from Prince George yeah I mean this highway has Decades of bad news around it exactly so as they're looking at this dangerous stretch of highway they still don't know if Lauren was killed by someone she knew or complete stranger and as it
► 00:19:15would turn out the man that they pulled over that night was in fact both
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► 00:20:17it doesn't take long for police to learn the name of the man that they pulled over that night Cody legible cough Lauren's parents believe that Lauren met Cody by chance during one of these trips that she would take to Prince George but it's also possible that they first met on a Canadian networking site called Next Topia where we know for sure he messaged her for the first time on November 1st and like so many young people especially in small communities Lauren in code we were both spending hours each online
► 00:20:47that night Lauren's friends say that she was super trusting she was very quick to develop relationships with people she met online like people trusted her they confided in her and she did the same and Cody seemed nice he was just 20 years old and by all accounts he was this popular well-liked young man just starting out on his own he was training to become a mechanic and he had a job at a car dealership in Prince George and he lived nearby and a house that he shared with three roommates all of which were women all of which were close friends it feels very
► 00:21:17be safe and he had a steady girlfriend too and she was studying to be a teacher Maclean's magazine goes on to describe him as basically this country boy with a baby face and a Bruiser spot he was like six foot two 220 pounds and this is kind of what I mean when I say Lauren both knew him and he was a stranger she felt like she knew him they talked a lot they confided in one another she felt like she knew a lot about him yeah but she only knew what he wanted her to see she wasn't
► 00:21:47here that he regularly use drugs specifically crack cocaine or that he had a minor criminal record though even if she had known she still wouldn't have truly known him or the darkness that was in his heart and really no one did according to the Vancouver Sun Cody did not have the kind of background that you might expect in like a twenty-year-old caught virtually red-handed if for a violent murder there was no dysfunction no child abuse no neglect like he came from this well-to-do family and forts
► 00:22:16st. James he had a dad that coached his hockey team like his parents were still together he had two other siblings just a really normal dude yeah okay no red flags like in his upbringing that would make you think this is who he was going to turn into so 27 days after their first exchange Lauren decides to meet this stranger who she feels she knows the two arranged to meet at a school playground near her hometown of Vanderhoof now Cody who was over the legal drinking age in Canada said that he's going to bring some alcohol and a
► 00:22:47The Huffington Post this is where she was last seen alive in that school playground and an eyewitness placed her there with a man wearing shorts which is important because remember those shorts are memorable because it's November 27th in Canada it is freezing freaking cold in Northern British Columbia now when police are kind of a piecing this together and looking at their interactions it's super clear to them that from the very beginning the two had very different ideas about how this night was
► 00:23:16going to go because in their text message history which was presented by the prosecution at trial it showed a message from Lauren that night that said quote were just hanging out right like nothing sexual and quote but Cody had other plans the only people who know for sure what happened that night our Cody and Lauren but here is what we do know for sure when Lauren's body was found off that Logging Road her shoes pants and underwear had been removed she had been sexually assaulted and
► 00:23:47had suffered massive trauma to her head and had multiple stab wounds on her neck like this was a gruesome scene it was a senseless crime but what came next turn this tragedy into something truly horrifying with Cody in custody on first-degree murder charges in the death of Laura and Lesley police began what would be a lengthy and surprising investigation investigators had a lot to review in terms of physical evidence like they had a
► 00:24:16crime scene they had the place where Lauren's body was found they had Cody's truck they had the one that he was driving that night a long with the place that he lived and of course they had Lauren's body which was sent to an expert forensic pathologist in Pennsylvania for review in addition to all of that they also had Cody and Lauren's digital records and as Maclean's magazine put it the tracks that Cody left on the internet were just as important as the tracks his truck made in the snow that night now while they're doing this like investigation and putting this
► 00:24:47This Together police were also quietly comparing what they'd found during their investigation into Lawrence murder with the dozens of Unsolved cases along the highway of tears and they found some Eerie similarities investigators found that while Cody was partying on weekends he was also a frequent user of cocaine and he would often source that cocaine through sex workers now this is how police believe Cody met 35 year old Jill's to Chinko a mother of six who is
► 00:25:16last seen on October 9 2009 now Jill was a frequent user of cocaine and was involved in the sex trade and she was reported missing later that month by concerned family and friends now any hope of Jill coming home was dashed when the woman's body was discovered half buried in a gravel pit now according to the Vancouver Sun Jill had suffered multiple blows to the face and arms and her torso now at this time Jill's remains had been found just over a year before
► 00:25:46Lauren was discovered now these victims had almost nothing in common in life but what had happened to them in death was shockingly similar and sure enough when police tested the DNA found on Jill's body against a sample from Cody they got their match you said that was like a year before hmm so Cody would have been like what 19 when he committed that murder yeah 19 years old I mean everyone knows like we tell a lot of murder stories here on crime junkie but
► 00:26:16it always rocks me when we talk about someone who is basically still a child committing these horrendous crimes I mean technically in Canada he's legally an adult you can buy alcohol at 19 in British Columbia and just 18 at the Providence next door but to be 19 and already linked to two murders is crazy but it gets even crazier remember there are dozens of Unsolved cases in and around Prince George 18 that the RCMP is actively investigating as part of that project e Panna
► 00:26:47investigators keep going and they find DNA evidence linking Cody to two more cases
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► 00:28:16Cody is linked to the murders of 35 year-old Cynthia moss and 23 year old Natasha Montgomery both who went missing in 2010 now the last time anyone saw Natasha was on August 31st 2010 she was leaving a friend's house but her DNA was found in blood stains that investigators found in Cody's apartment and they found these bloodstains on an axe that they dug out of the linen closet and in addition to that acts her DNA was
► 00:28:46also found on those pair of shorts that Cody was wearing when he was arrested by police for Lauren's murder wait are those shorts part of like a murder uniform or something well it's weird right so it makes me wonder if maybe that's why he was wearing shorts in the dead of winter like they're already a mess they're already have blood on it like in his mind might as well not ruin other clothes like if you think about it Natasha went missing at the end of August or early September which is like a much more reasonable time to be wearing sure yeah so I mean maybe it was
► 00:29:16maybe it was like a mental thing for him that was just like the thing that he wore or it could just been like convenient yeah I mean it's just bizarre now it was also in Cody's house where they found the DNA of The Other Woman Cynthia police found Cynthia's DNA on a sweater and a sock that they found in Cody's truck along with a pickaxe tool and a pair of shoes from his apartment Cynthia was last seen on September 10 2010 leaving a friend's place with a man that no one could really remember or identify at the time
► 00:29:46in a month later her body turned up in a Prince George Park naked from the waist down like Lauren and Jill and probably Natasha given the acts that they found Cynthia had died of blunt-force trauma to the head and puncture wounds at trial the prosecutor would tell the court that Cynthia had a hole in her shoulder blade her jaw and her cheek bones were broken and the injuries to her neck were probably caused by someone stomping on it oh my God now all four women though not
► 00:30:16Sasha's body has still never been found died incredibly violent deaths and based on the media coverage coming out of the local and national press it seems like people in Prince George and especially in Cody's home town of Fort St James which has just a population like 1600 like they all really struggle to make sense of how so much violence could come from such a young person against women who were again virtually strangers to him and it truly did Rock these communities now before I tell you about the trial and
► 00:30:46we're Cody is now there's like one important thing I want to address like it is impossible to tell the story about the highway of Tears without acknowledging the fact that it is overwhelmingly a story about missing and murdered indigenous women and girls like to of Cody's victims Cynthia moss and Natasha Montgomery were from First Nation families but as is the case with so many other stories that we told her on crime junkie or at least tried to tell there is so often just not enough material out
► 00:31:16out there on indigenous victims to build an entire episode like if the media didn't follow these stories to begin with but we can never find enough Source material to write a show and it was awful because I feel like the cycle just kind of continues and continues and I've said it before like we're super passionate about telling these victims stories especially victims who stories may have gone unheard otherwise and there are several cases of missing and murdered women connected to the highway 16 that have been covered extensively on local and National media but
► 00:31:46the ones who have been covered are usually young white women according to an article that I read in New York Times indigenous women and girls make up about 4% of the population in Canada but they represent 16% of all female homicide victims and an analysis done by the Globe and Mail in 2016 found that indigenous women are seven times more likely than their non-indigenous counterparts to be victims of serial killer seven times that is crazy
► 00:32:16that's incredible the RCMP count 1200 missing and murdered indigenous women and girls across Canada in the last three decades alone but other estimates put that number as high as 4,000 and here's the thing no one really knows for sure what the real number is and that is a really sad fact in and of itself and I tell you this not to downplay or devalue the tragedy of Lauren Leslie's death or the death of any other victims that we've covered on the show I just want you to know that you know we're trying to do things
► 00:32:46the crime crime junkie but it's hard and we recognize that there's a gap in the public history books and you know we'd love to do everything we can just start trying to close that we will keep trying yeah I mean we were really passionate about telling Amber to carros Case and all that's like a perfect example got exactly almost the same place yeah but like you said there's there's often not a lot for us to go off of and the best way for us to get information in cases like that is when you know like a family member reaches out and wants to help contribute to their families story yeah I mean
► 00:33:16it's a great call out like we love hearing from family members like if you have a story that you want told again this is the only way we get information is when people reach out to us or when it's been reported on so you know we we want to close the gap but we need help to do it so going back to Cody's trial the defense made a critical decision during Cody's murder trial one that I'm glad they made but I feel like we don't see very often these days they put them on the stand and they did and honestly I'm not sure
► 00:33:46why they made this decision from what I've read about this case his testimony did him like zero favors now initially Cody plead not guilty to all four murders and by the time the prosecution presented as evidence and Cody was called To The Stand he had changed his tune in his testimony he said that he was present and even involved in all four killings but that Lauren Leslie's murder had been a suicide and that the other three women were killed by a drug dealer and he just
► 00:34:16happened to be there all three times okay what's I don't mean to skip over the drug dealer thing but wasn't Lauren's cause of death like blunt-force trauma to the head and she had like multiple stab wounds there's no way she could have done that to herself listen I agree but this is what he is saying at trial he told the jury that 15 year old Lauren was quote a psycho who for no apparent reason like jump from Cody's truck ran into the darkness off a dangerous Highway and started to hit herself with a pipe
► 00:34:46wrench and stabbed herself with a knife I have never heard such a ridiculous statement you'll never hear it again because it didn't happen at the trial experts testified that either of Laurens injuries meaning that either the blunt force trauma or the stab wounds would have been fatal so there's no way physically for you to deliver like a fatal stab or a fatal blow to yourself and then continually like follow that up with the other like it's just not possible
► 00:35:16right now according to Cody though he said he did hit Lauren a quote maximum of two times to put her out of her misery now his entire testimony had to have been absolutely enraging for the victims families he told the court that he was there for the murders of Cynthia Jill and Natasha but basically just out of like a wild stroke of bad luck really because he said like I'm not the person responsible he blame the deaths on a drug dealer that he would only call
► 00:35:46X and there were two other men known only as Y and Z which is like literally the worst defense I've ever heard in my entire life it was super clear to everyone that the evidence against him was incredibly strong and in his closing arguments Cody's own lawyer asked the jury to find his client guilty of second-degree murder instead of first degree which is what the charge was and the one that he pled not guilty to but after less than 24 hours the jury was back with a verdict Cody legible
► 00:36:16yaakov was found guilty on all four counts of first-degree murder and just a few days after that the judge who presided over the case handed down the maximum sentence in Canada at the time which was four counts of first-degree murder and he got life with no chance of parole for 25 years now during sentencing the Justice who presided over the Prince George Court for nearly 25 years was visibly emotional at times during the sentencing and he told the courtroom that despite CODIS
► 00:36:46ability to take responsibility for his crimes there wasn't a single shred of reasonable doubt that he killed Lauren Natasha Cynthia and Jill and in his remarks the Justice also noted that the budget for the rcmp's investigation into these 18 missing and murdered women girls under that project a Panna had been reduced by 84% and in the courtroom during sentencing and quoted later by CBC the Justice said quote it is a mistake to limit the seriousness of
► 00:37:16of this issue and quote meaning like why are we reducing the amount of funds being put towards like such a big they're literally billboard still up it's like saying don't kite right this highway because there's a killer but we're not going to allocate fun right the problem isn't solved let's not take money away from it there are still so many women and girls and families crying out for justice now we know that Cody legible cough is responsible for at least four murders Bobby Jack Fowler was named as
► 00:37:46suspect in the deaths of three of the 18 RCMP on their official list there is a man named Gary Taylor Handlin who was just recently found guilty for the murder of a 12 year old girl named Monica Jack and this happened like 40 years ago Monica was last seen riding her bike near Nicola Lake on May 6 of 78 now her bike was recovered right away but it took 17 years before her remains were found in 1995 there was another guy who popped up over the years named Leland Switzer
► 00:38:16he was convicted of murdering his own brother and eventually they looked at him as a suspect in at least one of the disappearances though he's never been officially connected to any of the cases I believe that there have been a number of predators lurking along this stretch of lonely road and I think there could be new ones popping up every single day the highway of Tears isn't home to just one killer it's provided a secluded hunting ground for many and I'm not sure which is more terrifying I think we talked about this in the list case
► 00:38:46is it scarier that there's one guy or that we have many of them running around but police say they won't stop looking for answers in the cases of all of the missing and murdered women and girls along be seized Highway of Tears as of the time of this recording the RCMP are still running the EPA on a project and they ask that if you have any information about these cases you call their tip line at one eight seven seven five four three four eight two
► 00:39:16two
► 00:39:29we have barely scratched the surface on all of the stories we could tell about the highway of Tears we're going to include all the links on our blog for all of our sources for more information we're also going to have who to contact if you know anything about the cases so visit our website crime junkie podcast.com and be sure to follow us on Instagram at crime junkie podcast will be back next
► 00:39:49week with a brand new episode
► 00:40:18crime junkie is an audio Chuck production so what do you think Chuck do you approve