On the fifth anniversary of the disappearance of Tamara Chipman, one of many women to go missing along B.C.’s “Highway of Tears, Canada,” police are pleading for help from the public.
Tamara Chipman, 22, was last seen on Sept. 21, 2005, five kilometres east of Prince Rupert. She was hitchhiking to Terrace along Highway 16 — on a stretch of road nicknamed for the girls and women who have vanished there since 1969.
She had recently shaved her head, but was known to wear red, blond, and brunette wigs. She may have been wearing a light jacket and jeans.
Tamara was reported missing almost two months later by her father. In 2008, Chipman’s file was turned over to the RCMP’s E-PANA project investigating murders and disappearances along the 500-kilometre stretch of highway between Prince George and Prince Rupert.
RCMP Staff-Sgt. Bruce Hulan is the officer in charge of B.C.’s Unsolved Homicide Unit and team commander of Project E-Pana, which is conducting a homicide investigations of at least 18 girls and women who disappeared or were found murdered along major highways in northern B.C. The Unit has 18 files under investigation but according to a variety of sources such as Amnesty International, the number of women missing and found murdered reaches over thirty.
Since 1969, at least 18 women, many of them aboriginal, have been killed or suspiciously disappeared along the 800-kilometre (500-mile) section of highway between Prince George and Prince Rupert. By October 2007, Project E-Pana, an investigation by the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) examining the similarities between these murders and disappearances determined that at least 18 of them show enough similarities to be linked. Police now believe that Chipman was the victim of foul play, but say they need information from the public to solve the case.
Anyone who may know something about Tamara Chipman’s disappearance is asked to call the provincial unsolved homicide tip line at 1-877-543-4822 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. The article is here.
[…] Tamara Chipman, 22, was last seen on Sept. 21, 2005, five kilometres east of Prince Rupert. She was hitchhiking to Terrace along Highway 16 — on a stretch of road nicknamed for the girls and women who have vanished there since 1969. […]