Investigators with Project E-PANA are being praised today for helping solve the first of the series of 18 cases of murdered and missing women along three B.C. highways.
U.S. convict Bobby Jack Fowler was found responsible for murdering 16-year-old Colleen MacMillen, who went missing on Highway 97 in August of 1974.
However, he is also a person of interest in ten out of 18 remaining cases.
Fowler has no criminal record in Canada, and his connection to MacMillen’s murder was only possible after E-PANA investigators requested a re-examination of MacMillen’s profile this year.
But what is Project E-PANA and what role does it play in the investigation of the infamous “Highway of Tears” cases?
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Project E-PANA began in the fall of 2005. The Task Force was created as a result of the R.C.M.P. ordering the review and investigation of a series of unsolved murders with links to Highway 16.
The goal of the Task Force is to determine if a serial killer, or killers, is responsible for murdering young women travelling along major highways in B.C.
The project consists of 18 cases, involving 13 murders and 5 missing women. There are approximately 50 investigators and support staff working on the project.
The cases range in date from 1969 to 2006 and involve women and girls who were involved in activity like hitch hiking and were last seen or were found within a mile from three B.C. highways – Hwy 16, Hwy 5, and Hwy 97.
PANA is an Inuit word for the spirit goddess that looks after the souls just before they go to heaven and are reincarnated. It was the investigators on the file who chose the name.
In 2006, the Task Force took ownership of the nine investigations. In 2007, that number doubled from nine to eighteen.
The specifications of the project have also evolved – victims had to be female, either be involved in hitchhiking or other high risk behaviour, and be last seen or their body found within a mile or so from three B.C. highways (5, 16 and 97).
If you have any information about the any of the investigations, you are asked to call the E-PANA Tip Line at 1-877-543-4822 or CrimeStoppers.
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