They are now calling it the “Highway of Tears.
Tourists and others might want to bypass the 827-mile stretch of Highway 16 in British Columbia’s Rocky Mountains where so many women have disappeared it has acquired that new name.
The latest victim: a 20-year-old woman who disappeared from a popular camping spot on a lake near the highway. She left her tent and truck behind.
“The whole town is still in complete shock and no one knows what to think,” says a local reporter.
Over the last three decades, 18 women have gone missing on the highway, according to police. Local aboriginal leaders say the true number is closer to 43, reports Newser.
“Many of the victims have been aboriginal, but it was a white woman, Nicole Hoar, who went missing in 2002 that really set off the media and spurred talk of a serial killer—or killers,” says Newser.
“Whether it is one person or whether it is a few individuals, it is really open to speculation,” says a director for the Missing Women Commission. “It could just be that some sick people up there realize that women hitchhiking alone are easy pickings."
By David Wilkening
