CANADA Canada - Victoria Crow Shoe, 43, Lethbridge, AB, 26 Aug 2015

[Snowglobe]

The highway of tears is not an aboriginal issue. A man from the US is responsible for some of the murders, and there's nothing to suggest that he targeted women because of race. Instead, victims along Hwy 16 became victims because they were hitch hiking, or in the wrong place at the wrong time. The race of the victims varies.

https://cupcakesandhoodies.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/missing-women-highway-of-tears-news.jpg

That said, I hope that the investigation into Victoria's murder is thorough, and that it is not treated as a low priority investigation because the victim was not reported missing for two weeks, that she was unemployed, or because of lifestyle.

I posted on another thread about a man who was allowed to plead guilty to lower charges of manslaughter in the death of a woman he selected because he wanted someone who "wouldn't be missed". IMO, that sure sounds like premeditation of murder, which was the original charge against him. The woman was not aboriginal, but she was a sex worker and drug user.

Remembering the Nicole Hoar case on the Highway of Tears, some people in the area at the time stated that they thought Nicole's disappearance got more attention than the other cases because she was white. That was their impression, but it's complex. There are many factors, like socioeconomic ones. Nicole's family and friends organized and lobbied on her behalf.

Some at the time hoped Nicole's death could bring attention to all the missing and murdered women along that stretch of road.

http://www.missingpeople.net/vanished-somewhere_along_the_highway_of_tears-july_14,_2002.htm

Victoria's story needs to be known. Was her death in any way related to the other three deaths in five days that rocked the communities of Pincher Creek and Crowsnest Pass?

As someone lamented in expletive on a news site, what on earth is going on in this area? As far as I can tell, this many murders in such a short time is unprecedented.

Let's hope there are answers for Victoria and her family. Unfortunately, the murders of Peter Sopow and Lorraine McNab near Pincher Creek are still unsolved, nearly two decades later. A POI from Cowley was identified in that case, but the case went cold. Somebody knows something. Were any firearms reported missing around the time of Victoria's death? Maybe it's time to head over to the Chin Reservoir for a look around. Could a helicopter search find weapons from the air?

 

[Snowglobe]

A man in Ontario has started a petition about Victoria. It reads, "This must stop."

https://www.change.org/p/pm-stephen...d-murdered-indigenous-women-matter/u/13440496

So, yes. The distant drums are beating, as you say.

Various families in the Crowsnest Pass are speaking out about the murders of their loved ones, giving interviews to the press and using social media to keep their views known, and the story in the public eye.

Even Hanne Meketech has friends who have been interviewed. But who is speaking out about Victoria's murder?

I have not seen one newspaper or TV interview about her. It's almost as if she didn't exist, and yet she has family in the Crowsnest Pass, too. This is a media bias. For whatever reason, the local news outlets aren't interested. Why?

All it would take is one reporter from the CNP to take a pen and paper and go interview the people who knew her in Blairmore and Bellevue, Coleman, etc. Her mother and grandmother lived in the area, too, apparently. They have names. How much easier can
It get? This story is handed to them on a platter. And yet, they do nothing. They are not interested. Story closed. Shame on them!

https://m.facebook.com/CTVLethbridge/photos/a.590978544291529.1073741825.261959060526814/982151685174211/?type=3&source=48

If this continues, maybe one of us will have to go do their job for them.

 

[Snowglobe]

Stories about forgotten people on the fringes of society are the kind that win journalism awards. Victoria didn't come from a well-respected family that were prominent in the CNP, or so it seems. Nobody in the CNP is talking about her. Nobody is approaching the media to grant interviews. There is no verbal sparring on social media, in harsh contrast to the other stories in the news. What if Victoria's murder is found to be related to the other three murders? Talk about marginalization.

People care about a vulnerable child and the father who protected her. People care about a vulnerable elderly woman living on her own, who was killed in her own home. But wasn't Victoria vulnerable, too? Like little Hailey, Victoria was dumped unceremoniously like a piece of garbage.

She should matter, too.

ETA:

Did something like this happen to Victoria Crow Shoe?


http://www.calgarysun.com/2015/10/06/woman-abducted-outside-calgary-bar-sexually-assaulted-by-three-men
[url]http://globalnews.ca/news/2261348/woman-sexually-assaulted-by-3-men-after-abduction-outside-calgary-bar/
[/URL]
The alleged victim was in her 40s. The men who assaulted her were in their 20s to 50s.

 

[spinnaweb]

Thanks, Dotr.

 

[dotr]

Thanks, Dotr.

Actually almost forgot about thread started last year about river dragging!
One body was found within 15 minutes of searching.


http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...es-of-missing-persons&p=12104367#post12104367
"Edmonton LE,& Firefighters, drag Sask. River in search for bodies of missing persons."

Just posted this video there, it does not only pertain to missing women from Manitoba..

[video=youtube;K8iDzIQW0XE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8iDzIQW0XE[/video]

 

[Snowglobe]

The CNP passed a curfew bylaw in 2010 in response to public concerns about vandalism in the area. These were only two of the reported incidents:

http://passherald.ca/archives/090609/index1.htm

What do vandals do when they grow up?

http://www.calgaryherald.com/travel/road+users+campers+causing+damage+Castle+area/7429497/story.html

I hope that those who have cabins and outbuildings in the CNP/Pincher Creek area will take time to inspect them for break-ins and damage. I hope the people who park their trailers and motorhomes in the Castle Wilderness Area will take the time to inspect them, and report anything askew to the RCMP. I hope hunters will keep their eyes open for discarded items, like clothing, when they're out this fall.

A local group called the Quad Squad blames the Castle problem on outsiders. I hope the don't inadvertently destroy evidence or clean up a crime scene. We don't know if anything found off the beaten track will provide clues about what happened to Victoria, or useful evidence in any of the other recent murders.

 

[Portabella]

Can someone please give me a super fast education. I am not used to the terms describing people (First Nation, Aborigines, or Asian) I thought Aborignes were Australian? Asian were from Asia...and First Nation I have no idea. Not meaning to sound so dumb here, but really want to understand as I am reading along....Thank you

 

[bornofposeidon]

Can someone please give me a super fast education. I am not used to the terms describing people (First Nation, Aborigines, or Asian) I thought Aborignes were Australian? Asian were from Asia...and First Nation I have no idea. Not meaning to sound so dumb here, but really want to understand as I am reading along....Thank you

Here's a wiki on how the term First Nations is used in Canada. As with most labels, this one is generalized and some people may prefer to be labeled as something different.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Nations

 

[Clouddippingdown]

A man in Ontario has started a petition about Victoria. It reads, "This must stop."

https://www.change.org/p/pm-stephen...d-murdered-indigenous-women-matter/u/13440496

So, yes. The distant drums are beating, as you say.

Various families in the Crowsnest Pass are speaking out about the murders of their loved ones, giving interviews to the press and using social media to keep their views known, and the story in the public eye.

Even Hanne Meketech has friends who have been interviewed. But who is speaking out about Victoria's murder?

I have not seen one newspaper or TV interview about her. It's almost as if she didn't exist, and yet she has family in the Crowsnest Pass, too. This is a media bias. For whatever reason, the local news outlets aren't interested. Why?

All it would take is one reporter from the CNP to take a pen and paper and go interview the people who knew her in Blairmore and Bellevue, Coleman, etc. Her mother and grandmother lived in the area, too, apparently. They have names. How much easier can
It get? This story is handed to them on a platter. And yet, they do nothing. They are not interested. Story closed. Shame on them!

https://m.facebook.com/CTVLethbridg...59060526814/982151685174211/?type=3&source=48

If this continues, maybe one of us will have to go do their job for them.

I agree and maybe LE or media or both want it to go unnoticed as much as possible because of the proximity and timing and the way in which it could tie in to the CNP murders with a backlash to so many other Aboriginal women's murder's that have been stamped SK in Alberta and B.C. Victoria may be the key that unlocks the safe and if that safe is unlocked then the people may see how a lack of enthusiasm over any one of many murdered First Nation's women who have been stamped "SK" can lead to the savage abduction and murder of a 2 year old baby girl. Why is it so hard to believe that DS had an accomplice when the evidence may be laying in the water just down the road at a dam? Maybe it's the accomplice that want's to be caught. Maybe he realizes that the best thing left in his life given his time left to live is his claim to fame. Maybe he's desperate to be caught so that he can be recognized at being the best. There's always another angle to look at it from. JMO

Desperation speaks.... and the CNP murders have desperation written all over them.

 

[spinnaweb]

Not a word for Hanne either. No obituary. No write up. Peace for all of them.

 

[Snowglobe]

Not a word for Hanne either. No obituary. No write up. Peace for all of them.

Hanne got this:

http://passherald.ca/archives/150909/index8.htm

No funeral yet, although someone is fundraising for one.

 

[Tulessa]

Can someone please give me a super fast education. I am not used to the terms describing people (First Nation, Aborigines, or Asian) I thought Aborignes were Australian? Asian were from Asia...and First Nation I have no idea. Not meaning to sound so dumb here, but really want to understand as I am reading along....Thank you

Aboriginal
http://www41.statcan.gc.ca/2007/10000/ceb10000_003-eng.htm

Asian
http://news.sciencemag.org/archaeol...-native-americans-were-mix-asian-and-european

First Nation
https://www.google.com/webhp?source...2&ie=UTF-8#q=who is the first nations people?

 

[Tulessa]

What has been done to identify what happened to Victoria? We know what was done to find Hailey, but she is a 2 year old who was discovered missing almost 24 hours after her father was murdered.

Victoria's body surfaced in a reservoir, was discovered by a fisherman, and what has been done since? I've always been skeptical that the murder of an aboriginal woman is treated differently than that of a woman of another race (aboriginal is Asian), and I understand that police react more slowly when the disappearance is reported long after the victim was last seen, but in this case the discovery of the body coincided with learning the name of the victim. That is, her body was discovered fairly quickly (contrary to the numerous missing aboriginal women in Canada).

What are police doing ... other than asking acquaintances for more information about when she was last seen? That's certainly one avenue to pursue, but what about a dive team to search the lake? Apparently she was last seen on August 31 by acquaintances. Where was she seen? Was it a bar? Have police asked people who were in that bar that night to come forward? Was she last seen at a party? at work? at dinner? Where did the acquaintances last see her and why haven't police asked the public for information about that time and location?

Although she was found two weeks after she was last seen on August 31, was any CCTV footage requested or retained from the last place where she was seen by acquaintances, and the route from that location West towards the Oldman Dam?

Hi otto. Our people are trying to make a difference, but at least it's a start. A lot of people are skeptical, but you really can't blame them. Here's a new law that passed in 2013, I think was year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...-protect-native-american-women-from-violence/

 

[Snowglobe]

The Happy Face killer lived in Elkford, B.C. and worked at the Fording Coal mine in the early 80s. He left the area in 1983, but he had friends that he worked and partied with. There have never been any rapes or murders from that time attributed to him in the Crowsnest Pass or Pincher Creek area, but was anyone looking for him in unsolved crimes there?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Hunter_Jesperson

The people in this area seem to have an insider/outsider mentality. Now one of their own stands accused of the murder of a little two-year-old and her father. Two other murders are being investigated as possibly connected. Can they ever again believe that danger only comes from strangers, or that bad things only happen to outsiders? Will they stop to consider that what happens to society's most vulnerable happens to us all?

FWIW, Jesperson became a trucker after he was fired from the mine for theft. His route was Lethbridge to Calgary.

http://blogs.theprovince.com/2010/10/07/happy-face-killer-cold-blooded-self-pity/

 

[Snowglobe]

There are details here that I hadn't read before, like the vehicle seen in Lundbreck.

http://www.country95.fm/mobile/news.asp?ID=7835

A search of nearby waterways also took place, presumably including the Oldman Reservoir.

A suspect is known, but still hasn't been charged after all these years. That person would be aging, but must have been strong. He dragged two people into a horse trailer, one of whom was a tall RCMP officer. Was the killer a rancher or some other occupation that requires physical strength? Or did he have help? It's hard to imagine that a group of people would have remained silent all this time, or that this person never became violent again.

 

[otto]

Hi otto. Our people are trying to make a difference, but at least it's a start. A lot of people are skeptical, but you really can't blame them. Here's a new law that passed in 2013, I think was year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...-protect-native-american-women-from-violence/

I vaguely remember a study that was done roughly 7-10 years ago about missing/murdered First Nation women, but I can't find the report. Searches repeatedly bring up more recent requests for another study. My understanding is that there are several reasons that First Nation women are victimized, some of which are high risk lifestyle, and community/family violence. In a country like Canada, which is a mosaic of global nationalities and races, it's difficult to believe that murderers specifically seek out First Nation (race Asian; link) women. There are so many women of other nationalities that could easily be confused - in terms of physical characteristics - as First Nation, and there are so many First Nation women who are only 1/8 North American Indian; who do not have physical characteristics that easily communicate race. How can it be said that a murderer can easily identify and specifically target First Nation women when they are not, in my opinion, an easily identifiable group? There has to be another reason that the ratio of First Nation women who are murdered/missing is 2.5 times higher than women of all other race and nationality.

What I'm wondering at this time is not whether First Nation women are specifically targeted (which doesn't really make sense), but whether the response to a missing/murdered First Nation woman is handled differently by investigators. Too often, police reports are made too late, if at all - as we saw with the murder of Victoria Crowshoe. Victoria was not reported missing. Instead, two days after her body was found and more than two weeks after she was last seen, the family provided her name to police. That unintentionally, and incorrectly, communicates that family and friends don't really care enough about the person to notice that something is wrong.

Do police look at her murder as most likely committed by someone she knew - perhaps a result of alcohol abuse and high risk lifestyle, or do they take a broader perspective and question whether a serial murderer is at work targeting vulnerable women? If the latter, that requires the belief that more First Nation women, than non-First Nation women, have a lifestyle that makes them more vulnerable (like the pig farmer who targeted prostitutes because they were vulnerable and not likely to be noticed missing for some time).

I think the Canadian government has recognized that the problem is a social/societal problem, and that change must begin from within the First Nation community. Many programs and studies have been financed (billions of dollars) by the Canadian government to create change from within. I can understand the government's position in stating that another study will not produce a different result. That is, another study will most likely produce the same result: that the problems start in the First Nation Community and the solution has to start in the First Nation community.

Getting back to the topic of the murder of Victoria Crowshoe, if her murder was committed by someone from the First Nation community, it will probably remain unsolved for a long time. Another known factor is that First Nation communities do not trust police, so when one of their community is murdered, no one wants to provide information. If Victoria was murdered by a random murderer, then I would hope that those who were last with her have provided a full accounting of where she was, who she was with, and that they are able to look past their distrust of police to ensure that a serial murderer is not allowed to continue victimizing vulnerable women.

 

[dotr]

Interesting and balanced article.

http://mediasmarts.ca/diversity-med...trayals-missing-and-murdered-aboriginal-women

"Media Portrayals of Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women
Aboriginal People, Diversity in Media, Journalism & News, Stereotyping

It is called the “Highway of Tears”: an 800 kilometer stretch of highway in British Columbia where more than a dozen young women have disappeared since 1994. The same thing had happened before in the same place – almost twenty young women disappeared or were killed there between the late Sixties and the early Eighties – but until recently these crimes have received little media attention, perhaps because the majority of victims have been Aboriginal women."

 

[otto]

Interesting and balanced article.

http://mediasmarts.ca/diversity-med...trayals-missing-and-murdered-aboriginal-women

"Media Portrayals of Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women
Aboriginal People, Diversity in Media, Journalism & News, Stereotyping

It is called the “Highway of Tears”: an 800 kilometer stretch of highway in British Columbia where more than a dozen young women have disappeared since 1994. The same thing had happened before in the same place – almost twenty young women disappeared or were killed there between the late Sixties and the early Eighties – but until recently these crimes have received little media attention, perhaps because the majority of victims have been Aboriginal women."

The same problem occurred with the missing/murdered prostitutes in Vancouver (pig farmer). They were targeted because they were easy victims - women who voluntarily accompanied a serial murderer, and the media paid little attention to them for years - perhaps because they were not reported missing in a timely manner, and they had lifestyles where it was unknown whether they had been murdered or voluntarily moved to another location. The media treated the missing/aboriginal women on the Highway of Tears, and the missing/murdered prostitutes in Vancouver, the same, which is a counter-argument to the belief that media and investigators ignore missing/murdered aboriginal women. It seems that media does not report on women who are reported missing long after they were last seen, as there's really nothing to report. It's not news that someone vanished weeks or months earlier and no one knows why.

What made a difference in both cases is the realization that so many women had vanished in each of the locations. In Vancouver, there has been an investigation and conviction. In the Highway of Tears, some of the murders are solved and it is known that the perpetrator (deceased) did not select victims on the basis of race. He selected victims on the basis of vulnerability. Again, if 8 Highway of Tears victims are not aboriginal, and another 8 are, this suggests that a disproportionate number of women who live vulnerable lifestyles are aboriginal. Several of the non-aboriginal women were hitch-hiking, as were several of the aboriginal women. That is what made them vulnerable, not their race. The approach from the Canadian government is that a societal change needs to come from within the aboriginal community, which makes sense if a high percentage of aboriginal women choose high risk lifestyles.

I wish we knew more about Victoria Crowshoe's life. Was she a victim who was walking home from work, or in her home, when she was abducted, driven to a remote location, and murdered? Was she hitchhiking? Was she with friends at the Windy Point picnic area and an altercation resulted in her death? It seems like there isn't even a starting point when trying to understand her murder.

 

[Snowglobe]

And look where John Martin Crawford found his first known victim: Lethbridge.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Martin_Crawford

One thing I've found interesting is that people with certain ancestry can sometimes pick out other people with that heritage, long after the physical features cease to be apparent to others. I'm thinking of a 1/16th Metis person I know who is about as white as you can get, but was pegged as Metis by two of his coworkers. I found that quite remarkable.

Now the thing is that DS picked out a Metis person's house to do a B&E, allegedly. Was it just opportunism, or was this intentional? If it was intentional, then this should be considered in light of subsequent crimes. The only person who knows if they're targeting another person based on race alone is the person committing those crimes. Such people aren't always truthful.

 

[Snowglobe]

Crawford's first known victim had family in Brocket.

http://www.danielnpaul.com/SerialKiller-JohnMartinCrawford.html