Families yearn
for closure as the police search continues
Investigation
focuses on Nicole Hoar but 17 others
vanished
By Laura Stone,
The Province August 30, 2009
Along the Highway of Tears, the
possibility of one family's closure bleeds
into the minds of 17 others.
Nicole Hoar, a 25-year-old tree-planter
from Alberta, went missing from Highway 16
near Prince George over seven years ago. On
Friday, police said they were looking for
her remains on a two-hectare property in
Isle Pierre, about 30 km northwest of the
city.
"It's been so frustrating, not knowing
what has happened to these girls," said
Matilda Wilson, whose 15-year-old daughter
Ramona went missing from the Highway of
Tears -- a 700-kilometre stretch from Prince
George to Prince Rupert -- on June 11, 1994.
Ramona's remains were found April 1995
near the Smithers Airport.
"The closure, that's one thing -- I won't
say it's good, but it's very important for
families. Although it hurts," she said.
"It's your baby. It's your daughter."
Nicole is one of five women still
classified by the RCMP as missing. None of
the five missing cases or 13 known murders
have been solved.
The Highway of Tears was given the
nickname because of the number of women who
have gone missing from the area since 1969.
Some groups put the total much higher.
Nicole, a popular student and artist, was
working in B.C. as a tree planter the summer
of her disappearance. She was headed to
Smithers to surprise her sister and attend a
music festival there, when she disappeared
on June 21, 2002. Like many other missing
women, she was hitcRating 2 iking.
Her parents, Jack and Barb Hoar, released
a statement through the RCMP on Friday
saying they are aware of the property search
on Pinewood Road.
Police have said a former property owner
is a "person of interest" in the case,
although they have not specified whom. One
former owner, Leland Switzer, is serving a
25-year sentence for the murder of his
brother, which occurred two days after
Nicole went missing.
"We are supportive of the police
investigation and hoping it may further
their investigation into the case of our
missing daughter," read the statement.
"Our thoughts continue to be with Nicole.
Nicole is just one of many missing persons
in that area and our thoughts continue to be
with their families as well."
In 2004, Jack Hoar told The Province that
police were compiling a database to
cross-link cases and look at the possibility
of a serial killer.
Police have never said publicly how many
people they've suspected in the missing and
murdered cases along the highway.
"You have to keep working. You try to
accept Nicole isn't coming home, but you
never give up hope," said Jack Hoar in 2004.
But hope, some say, now lies only in
accountability.
"Maybe if someone finally got charged, it
would get the momentum going and a few more
of these cases would get solved," said
private investigator Ray Michalko, who's
worked on the Highway of Tears investigation
independently since 2006.
"I've talked to quite a few of the
families and it's really rough on them," he
said. "Everybody wants their loved one's
case solved, but I think all of them would
be happy to have any case solved, just
because it's about time."
Nicole's case also presents an anomaly
along the highway -- she is the only
non-aboriginal to go missing.
A report based on the 2006 Highway of
Tears symposium, organized by the Union of
B.C. Indian Chiefs and attended by some 500
people, found that Nicole's disappearance
made the issue of missing women more widely
known.
"Of most importance, the media and the
general public became aware that Nicole
Hoar's disappearance was not an isolated
incident," read the report.
The B.C. Assembly of First Nations, First
Nations Summit and the Union of B.C. Indian
Chiefs also released a statement expressing
condolences to the Hoar family.
"This search of this rural property
reminds us all of their ongoing loss, pain
and hope for closure," said Grand Chief
Edward John of the First Nations Summit Task
Group. The group also asked for more
resources, a co-ordinated search and an
inquiry into missing and murdered women,
which is echoed by North Coast MLA Gary
Coons.
But some family members ask that only one
mystery be solved this time around.
"I just hope and pray that there's only
the one set of human remains there," said
Gladys Radek, whose niece Tamara Chipman
went missing from Prince George in 2005.
"I don't want it to be another Robert
Pickton. It's too many."
And others mourn with the Hoar family
from afar.
Mary Beaubian's sister, Delphine Nikal,
has been missing from Smithers since 1990.
"I can feel their pain right now," she
said. "It just opens up old wounds."
lstone@theprovince.com
© Copyright (c) The Province
RCMP seek man who may have information
on Nicole Hoar's disappearance
RCMP are seeking the public's help to
identify a man who may have information on the
2002 disappearance of Nicole Hoar.
A 2002 description of the white male
had him in his mid-50s, a smoker, with black
shoulder-length hair, a skinny face with sunken
eyes behind thin glasses, a scruffy appearance
and a "pronounced jagged scar on the left side
of the neck," RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Annie
Linteau said in a news release.
"We do not have information at this
time to suggest that he is a suspect in the
disappearance of Nicole Hoar," Linteau said.
Meanwhile, police have expanded their
search for evidence in the disappearance to a
second site, thanks to tips from the public.
Investigators have fielded more than
100 tips from the public, some of which prompted
investigators to look at an unauthorized dumping
ground, Linteau said.
Police don't expect to find human
remains at the second location, she added, but
will be seizing an abandoned vehicle at the site
which will be subject to a detailed forensic
examination. Officers will also be on the
lookout for any discarded items that may be of
interest to the investigation among the refuse.
Hoar, a 25-year-old tree planter from
Red Deer, Alta., went missing in 2002 as she was
attempting to hitchhike from Prince George to
Smithers on Highway 16, dubbed the "Highway of
Tears" for the number of women who have vanished
along its length over the past several decades.
Investigators from the RCMP's E
Division unsolved homicide unit began searching
a property on Pinewood Road in the rural area
northwest of Prince George known as Isle Pierre
on Thursday.
As of Saturday, investigators had not
said they had found evidence in relation to the
case, but said they would remain on the scene
all day.
Linteau said the Prince George Search
and Rescue unit would join police to help in a
grid search of the densely forested property.
A former owner of the property is a
“person of interest” in the case, Linteau said,
but she refused to identify him.
Property records show Leland Vincent
Switzer, who is in prison after being convicted
of murdering his brother, owned the property at
the time of Hoar’s disappearance.
Linteau encouraged anyone else whose
memory might have been sparked by the latest
developments and have information about Hoar's
disappearance, which occurred the weekend of
June 21-23, 2002, to call the E Division
unsolved homicide tip line at 1-877-543-4822 or
Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
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Only surprise for
Isle Pierre residents is that it's taken this
long
By Sam Cooper, The
Province August 29, 2009
An RCMP forensic team
digs for evidence on a five-acre rural lot in
Isle Pierre, northwest of Prince George, on
Friday. Police are looking for information that
will help them in the investigation of Nicole
Hoar's disappearance.
Missing woman's parents hope for
answers
Former owner of property searched by RCMP
is 'person of interest' in the case of Nicole
Hoar
Lori Culbert, with research by Pacific Newspaper
Group librarian Sandra Boutillier, Vancouver
Sun:
Saturday, August 29, 2009
For the last seven
years, ever since Nicole Hoar disappeared along
B.C.'s "Highway of Tears," her parents have
agonized about the young tree planter's
whereabouts.
Now it appears the
RCMP may be poised to offer Jack and Barb Hoar
some answers, although they are surely not the
ones the family had hoped for.
Members of the RCMP's
unsolved homicide unit have been searching a
Prince George property since Thursday to
"further their investigation into the 2002
disappearance of Nicole Hoar."
Police had found no
evidence as of late Friday afternoon, but would
continue searching for several days, Cpl. Annie
Linteau said.
A former owner of the
property is a "person of interest" in the case,
Linteau said, but she refused to identify him.
Property records show
Leland Vincent Switzer, who is in prison after
being convicted of murdering his brother, owned
the property at the time of Hoar's
disappearance.
On Friday, Hoar's
parents issued a statement through the RCMP
about the search.
"We are supportive of
the police investigation and hoping it may
further their investigation into the case of our
missing daughter," the Hoars said.
"Our thoughts continue
to be with Nicole. Nicole is just one of many
missing persons in that area and our thoughts
continue to be with their families as well. This
is a difficult time for us."
Hoar is one of nine
young women who vanished on the remote 750-km
stretch of Highway 16 between Prince Rupert and
Prince George from 1990 to 2006.
The RCMP have added
nine other unsolved cases of missing or murdered
women along major highways, mainly in northern
B.C., to their investigation.
I t has been dubbed the
Highway of Tears case, and there has been
speculation that a serial killer was preying on
young hitchhiking women, many of them native.
Linteau said there was
no indication yet the Prince George property
being searched will reveal evidence of any of
the other 17 victims.
"It is possible that
we will find human remains, yes, but we have no
information to suggest that the remains of more
than one woman could be found here," she said.
Hoar, 25, of Red Deer,
Alta., was working as a tree planter. She was
last seen June 21, 2002 hitchhiking on Highway
16 to visit her sister in Smithers.
An older-model orange
car may have picked her up west of Prince George
at a gas station, which is not far from the
five-acre Pinewood Road property being searched.
Switzer -- a welder
and mechanic who worked for his father's Prince
George-based drilling company in the mid-1990s,
according to court documents -- owned the land
from 1994 to 2005.
On June 23, 2002, two
days after Hoar's disappearance, he shot and
killed his older brother, Irvin Switzer, at his
parents' property, nearby his own home.
Switzer was not
immediately charged with his brother's murder.
He was sent to jail on
an unrelated matter, involving obstruction of a
peace officer and assault with a weapon, and was
paroled in November 2002.
A B.C. Board of Parole
decision, released Friday to The Vancouver Sun,
said Switzer has a criminal record dating back
to 1983 that includes prohibited weapons,
assault, obstruction and driving offences.
The records say
Switzer has a history of running from or
fighting authority figures, and struggles with
alcohol, marijuana and cocaine.
Prince George RCMP
were opposed to Switzer's release on parole,
claiming he was a "definite risk to community
safety and is prone to
violence and to violent
outbursts," according to the parole documents.
While Switzer had
previously been ordered not to go near his
spouse and her children, the parole documents
said she was supportive of his 2002 release.
Switzer, who had some
good work reports in jail and had completed some
programs, was scheduled to attend a treatment
centre upon his release.
"Mr. Switzer presents
with a past of violence and anger-related
behaviours. He has stated ... that, 'I do need
management and that I would be a fool to admit
otherwise,'" the parole documents say.
"Mr. Switzer is in the
early stages of understanding the root of his
behaviour. He states that ... his triggers are
'pressure and the physical need for the
alcohol.'"
His brother's death
and the disappearance of Hoar occurred before
the writing of the parole document. Police did
not have evidence to charge him with his
brother's murder until October 2004.
The B.C. Supreme Court
judge's reasons for finding him guilty, as well
as the B.C. Court of Appeal ruling that rejected
his appeal, suggested Switzer was bullied and
beaten by his older brother most of his life.
"Each had apparently
threatened to kill the other at various times
including in the weeks just before the
shooting," the 2007 B.C. Appeal Court ruling
said.
"My impression is that
both Mr. Switzer and his brother were likely
psychotic in at least the months preceding the
shooting," the 2005 B.C. Supreme Court ruling
said.
A month before the
shooting, the court documents say, Switzer asked
his mother "not to hold him to a promise he had
made to her when he was about 16 years of age
that he would not kill his brother Irvin."
On the night of the
murder, Switzer's unemployed older brother was
home alone at their parents' property when he
was shot in the chest with a rifle. Switzer
argued he was acting in self-defence, but the
courts rejected his story.
Medical reports
submitted to Switzer's murder trial suggested he
had a long history of substance abuse and
suffered delusional episodes. "The appellant
told others that he thought that a chip had been
implanted in his arm by the FBI to keep him
under surveillance," the Appeal Court documents
say.
For about three months
in 2004, Switzer was certified under the Mental
Health Act.
The parole board
documents said he had "a number of serious
medical issues that need to be addressed."
While Linteau would
not confirm the imprisoned Switzer is a suspect
in Hoar's murder, she said police had
interviewed a previous owner of the property and
were confident he posed no immediate risk to the
public.
Linteau said police
began searching the property this week as part
of the investigation into Hoar's disappearance,
and not because someone had stumbled across
evidence there.
The current owners of
the property, which has changed hands twice
since Switzer owned it, are not of interest to
police. They have been put in a local hotel
during the search, Linteau said.
lculbert@vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) The
Vancouver Sun
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“The police are
digging at Chug’s old place because of what I
told them,” says Cindy Mortimer, staring with
unblinking blue eyes. “I said, ‘You better look
down the well. He poured diesel fuel down there
and lit it on fire.’”
Mortimer, 46, is
talking about a well on the Pinewood Road
property previously owned by Leland Switzer,
known to most in the tiny sawmill town of Isle
Pierre simply as “Chug.”
Mortimer was sitting
with friends on Friday night in the Bed Nesti
Lake Resort off Highway 16, where Switzer used
to drink and play pool. That was before he went
to jail for shooting his brother Irwin dead in
2002, just two days after hitchhiker Nicole Hoar
went missing from a Mister G gas station on the
outskirts of Prince George.
Hoar is one of 18
women to have vanished on the route from Prince
George to Prince Rupert, a bleak ribbon of
pavement bordered by shrivelled black, red and
grey pine trees, standing like matchsticks.
Mortimer went to
Beaverly Elementary school with Switzer, was his
neighbour for 30 years, and knows the episodes
surrounding him better than anyone, Isle Pierre
locals told The Province.
The area residents
aren’t surprised the RCMP is digging up
Switzer’s former property on Pinewood Road.
They’re only
surprised it’s taken this long to happen. Some
say they sense a number of families in the
bundle of unsolved cases called “The Highway of
Tears” are about to get closure. “And I’ll be
able to sleep better at night,” Mortimer said.
Mortimer and another
Switzer neighbour, 68-year-old Wally Anderson,
claimed they’ve been giving tips to Prince
George RCMP Sgt. Judy Thomas since Switzer went
to jail.
Anderson says he
smelled the diesel in Switzer’s well years ago.
On Saturday, Anderson
went back to the place where he believes he
discovered a woman’s remains in November 2008.
He alleged Switzer
had bragged to Mortimer about killing his
brother on the day it was done, and at the same
time, suggested that Mortimer look in a
side-road junk heap near Isle Pierre, under an
appliance.
Anderson stood on the
spot, where locals throw trash and butcher
moose, and smoked a cigarette, pointing to the
spot where he walked through a light snow and
turned over a fridge, finding a bag of bones. He
says when he took the bones to police, they
didn’t take him seriously.
“I never drive by a
deep freezer without checking,” he said.
Dave Klein, the
former owner of the Bed Nesti, which features
swinging doors, a black bear pelt mounted on a
wall opposite the bar, and a clientele of
cowboys, bikers and fiddle-playing locals,
remembered Switzer as a man who put everyone on
edge.
“ Chug was always
proud of what he done,” Klein said. “He bragged
about killing his brother.”
Switzer was also a
“dead-eye” pool shot, capable of predicting how
he was going to clear the table, shot by shot,
and winning bets playing one-handed.
He wasn’t smart
bookwise, dropping out before Grade 8 and
getting “strung out on meth,” according to
Mortimer, who said she first saw Switzer’s bad
side when he was seven and beat a smaller boy at
school.
“He was always unruly
and he just got worse with age — he was nice to
me, but I knew the evil side of that boy.”
Cynthia and James
Andal, who live on the property that backs onto
the former Switzer property, say Switzer
terrorized and threatened everyone in Isle
Pierre, even scaring off a young couple on the
next-door lot with a shotgun.
“Chug was a nasty
piece of work,” Cynthia said. “He wasn’t
physically imposing; he just had a weird look.
He was crazy.”
James Andal says
eight years ago, Switzer walked up to the
family’s lane-way and started a conversation
that almost ended in a fight. “He said, ‘Why did
you phone the police on me?’ I had to just walk
away.”
“We worried about our
children,” Cynthia added. “It’s disturbing to
think you could have been there when something
was happening.”
The Andals say
stories about Switzer were common. Mortimer said
he was married to a tough, pretty woman named
Karen, and children were removed from their home
by authorities. None of the locals know where
the ex-wife is now.
On Friday night,
Mortimer told The Province she advised the RCMP
to search a second site up Pinewood Road, where
junk, including vehicles, is dumped, and where
Switzer would drive late at night, she claimed.
She also said police should be looking for a
second man, named Freddy, about 60, who was with
Switzer the day Hoar disappeared.
On Saturday morning,
police searched the four-metre dry well
mentioned by Mortimer, and around noon they
seized a crumpled yellow pickup truck for
forensic examination, located up a steep
500-metre rock road at a dump on Crown land
matching the description given by Mortimer. At
the site, digging in civilian clothing, was RCMP
Sgt. Judy Thomas.
Late in the day, RCMP
announced they are looking for a second man,
described as around 60 years of age with a
jagged scar on the left side of his neck, who
may have information in connection with Hoar.
The apparent search
for Hoar’s remains at Switzer’s former residence
expanded Saturday, as a 15-member
search-and-rescue team and a geoscientist using
ground-penetrating radar identified additional
areas for excavation.
At 2:30 p.m. a team
of dogs trained in locating human remains
arrived on site from Alberta.
Of the 18 missing
women in the case, all First Nations women
except for Hoar, 13 are confirmed homicides,
with five considered missing.
A man who works at
the Isle Pierre sawmill said Switzer had done
some welding there, and liked to “spout off
stories.”
“I heard a lot of
crazy s---,” the man, who did not want to be
named, said. “After he went to jail, women
stopped disappearing.”
E-mail reporter
Sam Cooper at
scooper@theprovince.com
© Copyright (c) The
Province
RCMP
searching rural Prince George, BC property for
remains of Nicole Hoar
Fri,
2009-08-28 23:46.
By: Dirk
Meissner, THE CANADIAN PRESS
PRINCE
GEORGE, B.C. - RCMP are searching the former
property of a convicted murderer for the remains
of a young Alberta woman who disappeared seven
years ago.
Cold-case
investigators and forensic experts descended on
a rural Prince George acreage armed with a
search warrant to look for the remains of Nicole
Hoar, who disappeared June 21, 2002, while
hitchhiking along Highway 16, west of this
northern B.C. city.
"We are
confirming that we are searching for evidence in
relation to the 2002 disappearance of Nicole
Hoar," Cpl. Annie Linteau said Friday in an
interview.
"Obviously
we are searching for her remains."
Hoar is one
of at least nine young women who have
disappeared while hitchhiking along Highway 16
linking Prince George and Prince Rupert.
The stretch
of road has been dubbed the Highway of Tears and
some communities along the road have erected
signs warning people of the dangers of
hitchhiking.
Hoar was a
25-year-old tree-planter from Red Deer, Alta.,
who vanished while hitching a lift to Smithers,
B.C., to visit her sister.
She was
last seen standing in front of a gas station
west of Prince George, about a 25-minutes drive
from the Pinewood Rd. property now marked by
police tape.
The
two-hectare property in Isle Pierre was once
owned by Leland Vincent Switzer, now serving a
life sentence for second-degree murder. He shot
and killed his brother early on June 23, 2002,
two days after Hoar was last seen.
Switzer was
convicted in December 2005 of driving to his
family's home and putting a rifle bullet through
his brother Irvin's chest.
At his
trial, Switzer argued he was traumatized by a
lifetime of bullying and beatings by his older
brother, and grabbed a rifle from a workshop at
the family home because he was afraid.
But the
judge trying the case without a jury didn't
accept Switzer's claim, or that he intended to
fire only a warning shot in self-defence as his
brother approached him.
A search of
the land titles registry shows Leland Vincent
Switzer owned the Pinewood road property between
1994 and 2006. It has changed hands twice since
then.
Linteau
would not confirm Switzer is the man they're
interested in.
"I can tell
you that a previous owner is a person of
interest to us and that this person has been
spoken to in the past by police," she said. "We
are confident that this person is not a threat
to any member of the general public at this
time."
However,
defence lawyer Keith Jones, who represented
Switzer at his murder trial, said he was aware
of the search of his client's former property.
The lawyer
said in an email to The Canadian Press that
Switzer was interviewed by an RCMP major crimes
investigator in 2004 about Hoar's disappearance.
Jones said
he has not spoken with Switzer since his murder
conviction except for a request to assist on his
appeal.
Hoar's
parents, Jack and Barb Hoar, released a
statement through the RCMP, along with a request
for privacy.
"Our family
is aware of the police search currently going on
west of Prince George," the statement says.
"We are
supportive of the police investigation and
hoping it may further their investigation into
the case of our missing daughter. "
"Our
thoughts continue to be with Nicole. Nicole is
just one of many missing persons in that area
and our thoughts continue to be with their
families as well."
Many have
linked Hoar's case to a string of killings and
disappearances of women - most of them
aboriginal - along Highway 16.
In October,
2007, RCMP announced they were conducting an
extensive review into 13 deaths and five
disappearances connected to the highway that
runs about 800 kilometres between Prince George
and Prince Rupert on the north coast.
The cases
involve women from the B.C. Interior and Hoar,
whose family is from Red Deer, Alta., and date
back to 1969.
RCMP said
at the time they didn't know if one person or
more people were responsible for the deaths.
But on
Friday, police played down speculation that this
search is connected with the Highway of Tears
murders.
"I need to
point out that we are searching the property for
remains of only one person," Linteau said.
"At
least we have no information that we are
searching for more than one person."
Mounties
have pitched three black tents on the Prince
George acreage, which is lined with yellow
police tape. Friday evening, officers toting
shovels could be seen placing dirt onto a large
blue tarp.
The RCMP
renewed their appeal for public assistance and
want to hear from anyone who may have heard or
seen anything suspicious in the Isle Pierre area
the weekend of June 21-23, 2002.
Linteau
said RCMP expect this search to last several
days.
"We are
searching everything but the main residence,
which consists of a mobile home," she said.
"There's
small outbuildings such as sheds and tents, a
motor home that will be subject of this search
as well."
RCMP UPDATE!
Prince George - Search at
Rural Property Continues
Investigators from the "E" Division Provincial Unsolved Homicide Unit
are continuing their search of a property
located at 31645 Pinewood Road in the
District of Isle Pierre, west of Prince
George.
Investigators are searching for evidence
on the property that will help further t heir
investigation into the 2002 disappearance of
Nicole Hoar. Nicole Hoar, who was from Red
Deer, Alberta, was last seen on June 21,
2002, while hitchhiking on Highway 16, just
west of Prince George, in front of Mr. G's
(gas station). She was going to Smithers to
visit her sister and was employed as a tree
planter at the time of her disappearance.
She was last seen wearing army colored
capri pants, sandals, glasses, a tank top, a
red shirt with a yellow collar with the word
"Ravens" on it, and she carried two bags.
The first one was a dark green bag with an
orange patch on it, while the other was a
large purple and black backpack.
A limited amount of information is
available at this time. Contrary to
speculation, the search is still in the
preliminary stages and no evidence or
remains have been located at this point.
Anyone who has seen or heard anything
suspicious in the Isle Pierre area during
the weekend of June 21-23, 2002, or who may
have information in relation to the
disappearance of Nicole Hoar are asked to
contact the "E" Division Unsolved Homicide
Unit at 1-877-543-4822 or Crime Stoppers at
1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).
Please continue to monitor this website
for update. Media inquiries can be directed
to Cpl. Annie Linteau, (604)910-6892. She is
currently in Prince George.
Former property owner
'person of interest'
|
Written by Citizen staff
|
|
Friday, 28 August 2009
|
A former owner of the
property being searched for clues in a
"historical" homicide is a person of interest in
the case, RCMP say.
A five-acre property on
Pinewood Road near Isle Pierre, 50 kilometres
west of Prince George, is being combed for key
evidence in an unsolved homicide case believed
to be linked to the disappearance of Nicole
Hoar. She was a 25-year-old treeplanter from Red
Deer, Alta., who was last seen hitchhiking to
Smithers on June 21, 2002.
Ms. Hoar's parents
are reportedly en route to Prince George.
The
property was once owned by Leland V. Switzer,
who is serving a life sentence for the
second-degree murder of his brother, Irvine, at
the family home on Melonie Road near West Lake.
Leland Switzer shot his brother in the chest,
shortly after midnight June 23, 2002, less than
36 hours after Ms. Hoar was last seen.
“I can
say a previous owner is a person of interest in
this investigation,” RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Annie
Linteau told the Vancouver Province, but she
would not comment on Switzer as a suspect.
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RCMP confirm search
near Prince George related to Nicole Hoar case
Graeme Wood and Mary
Frances Hill, Vancouver Sun: Friday, August 28,
2009
The RCMP are occupying five acres of a property
near Prince George to investigate what they are
calling a "historical homicide."
The RCMP confirmed
Friday it is searching for evidence related to
the disappearance of Nicole Hoar on a rural
Prince George property once owned by a convicted
murderer.
The Red Deer, Alta,
resident was last seen hitchhiking near Prince
George on Highway 16, also known as the "Highway
of Tears," on June 21, 2002. She was 25 at the
time and working as a tree planter.
She is one of 18
known women to disappear on the "Highway of
Tears" since 1969, which has led to a large RCMP
investigation.
Nicole Hoar's
parents, Jack and Barb Hoar, released a brief
statement Friday through the RCMP.
"Our family is aware
of the police search currently going on west of
Prince George. We are supportive of the police
investigation and hoping it may further their
investigation into the case of our missing
daughter," the Hoars said. "Our thoughts
continue to be with Nicole. Nicole is just one
of many missing persons in that area and our
thoughts continue to be with their families as
well."
According to a Prince
George media outlet Jack Hoar was contacted by
RCMP earlier this week regarding his daughter's
case. He said the RCMP told him it may have
located the remains of his daughter, but an RCMP
statement on Friday stated "no evidence or
remains have been located at this point."
"We will just sit
tight and wait and see," Hoar told
opinion250.com, "although it would be good to
have closure."
Investigators from
the "E" Division Provincial Unsolved Homicide
Unit have been searching a rural area
surrounding 31645 Pinewood Road in the District
of Isle Pierre for several days, said RCMP
spokeswoman Cpl. Annie Linteau.
The property
surrounds a mobile home, which will not be
searched, said Linteau.
" We'll be searching
everything in its entirety, except the home,"
she said.
"We have no
information that would suggest the owner of the
property is involved in this investigation."
However, Linteau did
say that a previous owner of the property is a
"person of interest" in the case and that the
person is known to police.
The property in
question was once owned by convicted murderer
Leland Vincent Switzer.
In 2005 Switzer was
found guilty for the second-degree murder of his
brother Irvin on June 23, 2002 — two days after
Hoar went missing — after a lifelong feud
between the two.
Switzer claimed self
defence in the case, which including his belief
that Irvin had AIDS and would pass the disease
on to Switzer during an altercation.
At age 16, according
to a court document, his mother made him promise
her that he wouldn't kill Irvin. A month before
he did, he asked his mother if he could take
back his promise.
"I am satisfied in
the end that animosity got the better of the
accused and he shot his brother," stated the
judge in his reasons for judgment, who added he
believed Switzer to be psychotic during the time
leading up to the murder.
Switzer was then
sentenced to life in prison where he remains.
Linteau did not
release any names or other details regarding the
investigation but said the RCMP was "confident
[the person of interest] is not a threat to the
public" and that "we know where this person is."
Switzer has a long
criminal record
beyond the murder conviction. In
the past decade he has been found guilty of
mischief under $5,000, numerous assaults,
failing to appear in court, willfully resisting
or obstructing a peace officer, and a number of
driving offences.
I nitially, the
"Highway of Tears" investigation focused on the
disappearance of nine women on Highway 16, a
desolate two-lane highway running from Prince
Rupert to Prince George and on to Edmonton.
Police later expanded
the geographical scope to include nine other
unsolved cases along other major highways in
B.C., including those leading to Hudson's Hope,
Kamloops, Merritt, 100 Mile House, and extending
as far as Hinton, Alta.
Amnesty International
has previously reported the number of missing
women from these highways is 32.
© Copyright (c) The
Vancouver Sun
Police digging for
evidence on lot near Prince George
By Sam Cooper, The
Province August 28, 2009 5:53
Nicole Hoar was last
seen June 21, 2002, while hitchhiking on the
so-called Highway of Tears. Police are searching
a property outside Prince George for her
remains.
Photograph by:
Handout, RCMP
PRINCE GEORGE —
Police may be close to breaking the Highway of
Tears case.
An RCMP forensic team
is now digging for evidence on a five-acre rural
lot in the small lumber town of Isle Pierre,
northwest of Prince George.
Police spokesperson
Cpl. Annie Linteau would not say whether police
are looking for the remains of 25-year-old tree
planter Nicole Hoar.
Neither would Linteau
confirm that the suspect in Hoar’s
disappearance, a previous owner of the property,
may be a suspect in 17 other Highway of Tears
cold cases.
All 18 cases are
being actively investigated in a joint RCMP
project.
Police won’t confirm
nor deny the possiblity that one person could be
connected to all 18 cases.
A statement from
Hoar’s family, circulated by the RCMP, said
Nicole and the 17 other cases could be related.
Linteau would not
confirm previous property owner Leland Switzer
is suspected in the Hoar cases, only saying a
previous owner is the person of interest.
Switzer is serving a
life sentence for fatally shooting his brother
on the family acreage just two days after Hoar
disappeared in June 2002.
The Highway of Tears
disappearances concern women missing from the
years 1969 to 2006.
Fifteen of the women
have been confirmed as homicides and three,
including Hoar, are still missing.
The scene of the
forensic’s dig is a quiet lot surrounded by tall
pines. Officers are digging beneath three black
tents in 30-degree heat.
E-mail reporter Sam
Cooper at
scooper@theprovince.com
Police search B.C.
property for human remains
Katie Mercer, Vancouver Province: Friday, August
28, 2009 5:53 PM
VANCOUVER — Homicide
investigators returned to a rural property in
central B.C. Friday, where they are searching
for the possible remains of a young Alberta
woman who went missing along B.C.'s Highway of
Tears in 2002.
The RCMP have
occupied a property near Prince George, B.C., to
investigate what they are calling a "historical
homicide."
On Friday morning,
RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Annie Linteau said they
were searching the five-acre area, but still
would not confirm they were searching for the
body of Red Deer, Alta., native Nicole Hoar, a
25-year-old tree planter.
However her father
told a B.C. news website Thursday that police
may have located her remains.
Jack Hoar told
opinion250.com that police advised him they may
have "but can't be certain" that they located
his
daughter's remains on a rural central B.C.
property.
Hoar was last seen in
June 2002 as she hitchhiked from Prince George
to Smithers along Highway 16 to surprise her
sister.
Eighteen women have
disappeared along the stretch of road between
Prince George and Prince Rupert, earning it the
ominous name, Highway of Tears.
Police were combing a
five-acre property in Isle Pierre, about 800
kilometres northeast of Vancouver.
The property had once
been the home of Leland Vincent Switzer — a man
convicted of killing his own brother Irwin, just
two days after Hoar's disappearance.
Linteau said a
previous owner is a person of interest in the
investigation. She would not comment on Switzer
as a suspect in the murder.
While details are
scarce, Linteau said the investigation involves
"just one (homicide) at the moment." A police
source has told The Vancouver Province that
investigators fear more remains may be found.
The main home — now
occupied by other residents — will not be
searched, but all other buildings on the
property will be.
Switzer has been
jailed since 2005, when he was given a life
sentence for fatally shooting his brother in the
chest on the family farm with what he told court
was a warning shot fired in self-defence.
© Copyright (c) CW
Media Inc.
News
Latest - Sept.
2009 - Prince George Search
News -
January 2008 - August
2009
News -
April 2007 - November 2007
News -
November
2005 - March 2007
Misc.
News
Police confirm
search is for missing Albertan
Graeme Wood and Mary Frances Hill,
Vancouver Sun: Friday, August 28, 2009
VANCOUVER — The RCMP
confirmed today that their search of a rural
Prince George property is related to the 2002
disappearance of Nicole Hoar, who was 25 when
she vanished along Highway 16 while working as a
tree planter.
Earlier, the father
of a woman who went missing on the "Highway of
Tears" has told a media outlet that the RCMP
have contacted him regarding his daughter's
case, which may now be linked to a convicted
murderer.
Jack Hoar told
opinion250.com, an online news outlet based in
Prince George, that the RCMP told him it may
have located the remains of his daughter Nicole
Hoar, however, no confirmation has yet been
made.
“We will just sit
tight and wait and see” Hoar said.
“Although it would be
good to have closure.”
Nicole vanished near
Prince George along Highway 16 while working as
a tree planter. She is one of 18 women and girls
who went missing along the infamous "Highway of
Tears" since 1990.
The RCMP are
occupying five acres of a property near Prince
George to investigate what they are calling a
"historical homicide."
A team of
investigators has been searching a rural area
surrounding 31645 Pinewood Road in the District
of Isle Pierre for several days, said RCMP
spokeswoman Cpl. Annie Linteau.
The property
surrounds a mobile home, which will not be
searched, said Linteau.
"We'll be searching
everything in its entirety, except the home,"
she said.
"We have no
information that would suggest the owner of the
property is involved in this investigation."
However, Linteau did
say that a previous owner of the property is a
"person of interest" in the case and that the
person is known to police.
The property in
question was once owned by convicted murderer
Leland Vincent Switzer.
In 2005 Switzer was
found guilty for the second-degree murder of his
brother Irvin on June 23, 2002 after a lifelong
feud between the two.
The murder occurred
two days after Nicole went missing.
Switzer claimed self
defence in the case, including his belief that
Irvin had AIDS and would pass the disease on to
Switzer during an altercation.
At age 16, according
to a court document, his mother made him promise
her that he wouldn't kill Irvin. A month before
he did, he asked his mother if he could take
back his promise.
"I am satisfied in
the end that animosity got the better of the
accused and he shot his brother," stated the
judge in his reasons for judgement, who added he
believed Switzer to be psychotic during the time
leading up to the murder.
Switzer was then
sentenced to life in prison where he remains.
Linteau could not
release any names or other details regarding the
investigation but said the RCMP was "confident
[the person of interest] is not a threat to the
public" and that "we know where this person is."
Switzer has a long
criminal record beyond the murder conviction. In
the past decade he has been found guilty of
mischief under $5,000, numerous assaults,
failing to appear in court, wilfully resisting
or obstructing a peace officer, and a number of
driving offences.
Linteau would also
not comment on whether the police investigation
is related to the so-called "Highway of Tears."
Initially, the
"Highway of Tears" investigation focused on
Highway 16, a desolate two-lane highway running
from Prince Rupert to Prince George and on to
Edmonton.
Police later expanded
the geographical scope to include unsolved cases
along other major highways in B.C., including
those leading to Hudson's Hope, Kamloops,
Merritt, 100 Mile House, and extending as far as
Hinton, Alta.
P.I. Hopes RCMP Search Yields Results
By
250 News
Friday, August 28,
2009 04:00 PM
Prince George,
B.C.-The private investigator who has spent
several years looking for clues in the
disappearances and deaths of several women along
Highway 16 says he hopes the RCMP can find the
evidence they are looking for on the Pinewood
Road acreage west of Prince George.
The RCMP historical
homicide unit has been on the scene of the
acreage since Thursday morning, and have
confirmed their presence is part of their
investigation into the disappearance of 25 year
old Nicole Hoar. She was last seen June 21st
hitch hiking to Smithers.
Ray Michalko says his
investigation lead him to Isle Pierre several
times “I wanted to do a door to door visit like
I normally do, but when I got there and saw the
community and pit bulls chained to the fence,
(of properties in the area) I asked myself do I
really want to do this?” He never did go door to
door.
Michalko, who will be
a guest on the Meisner program on 93.1 CFIS FM
on Monday, says if remains are found on the
site, the RCMP may still face a challenge “They
will still have to prove who put them there.”
The private
investigator had launched an extensive search of
an area not far from the property which is now
cordoned off by police tape. In May of 2007,
Michalko and dozens of searchers,
including members of the Hoar family,
did a grid by grid search of the Norman Lake
Transfer station which is on the opposite side
of highway 16 a couple of kilometres west of the
Isle Pierre turn off. That search failed to
turn up any clues in the disappearance of the 25
year old tree planter, or any of the others who
have disappeared over the years from highway 16.
The property where
RCMP investigators have set up their forensics
trailer and mobile command post was once owned
by Leland Vincent Switzer. He is
currently serving time for the second degree
murder of his brother Irvin, a murder which took
place just two days after Nicole disappeared. “I
tried to talk to Switzer” says Michalko, “ I had
heard the name before.” But
Michalko was not successful in his attempts.
Michalko is hopeful
this chapter in the investigation will prove
fruitful “Maybe if they find remains, it will
give one family closure. It is only
one case, but maybe it will be the start of
something good and lead to the resolution of
other cases.”
Although there have
been questions raised about the
possibility of a serial killer travelling
that stretch of highway between Prince George
and Prince Rupert, Michalko says he never bought
into that theory “I have always
believed that in at least half of the cases of
the nine disappearances I was
originally investigating, there were different
people involved. I have always said there was
no, ‘one’, killer.”
Hoar Family Issues Statement
By
250 News
Friday, August 28,
2009 02:28 PM
Prince George, B.C.-The family
of Nicole Hoar, the 25 year old tree planter
missing since June 21st of 2002, is asking
for privacy. The family had the RCMP
release the following statement;
"Our family is aware of the police
search currently going on west of Prince George.
We are supportive of the police investigation
and hoping it may further their investigation
into the case of our missing daughter.
Our thoughts continue to be with Nicole.
Nicole is just one of many missing persons in
that area and our thoughts continue to be with
their families as well. This is a difficult time
for us, and we would ask that the media please
be respectful of our privacy."
Jack and Barb Hoar and family
Police have confirmed they are
searching the Pinewood Road
acreage property for evidence in
the disappearance of Nicole Hoar. When
contacted by Opinion 250 last night,
Jack Hoar said he had been contacted by
the RCMP and that they had told him
they thought they might have the
location where Nicole's remains may
be found. The investigation in that
area at this point has focused on interviews
with people in the area.
On site are the RCMP mobile command
post and the mobile forensics
trailer.
Corporal Annie Linteau says a
previous owner of the property is a person of
interest in this case,and RCMP have
spoken with that person, someone she
says "poses no threat to the public."
One of the previous owners was Leland
Vincent Switzer who is serving a life
sentence for the 2nd degree murder of his
brother Irvin on July 23rd, 2002. That
murder happened just two days after Nicole
disappeared.
Police Now Confirm Search Is For
Remains of Nicole Hoar
By
250 News
Friday, August 28,
2009 12:24 PM
Prince
George, B.C.- Investigators from the "E"
Division Provincial Unsolved Homicide Unit are
continuing their search of a property located at
31645 Pinewood Road in the District of Isle
Pierre, west of Prince George.
I nvestigators have now
confirmed what opinion 250 reported last
night, namely that they are
searching for evidence on the property that will
help further their investigation into the 2002
disappearance of Nicole Hoar.
Nicole Hoar, who was from Red Deer,
Alberta, was last seen on June 21, 2002, while
hitchhiking on Highway 16, just west of Prince
George, in front of Mr. G's (gas station). She
was going to Smithers to visit her sister and
was employed as a tree planter at the time of
her disappearance.
She was last seen wearing army colored
capri pants, sandals, glasses, a tank top, a red
shirt with a yellow collar with the word
"Ravens" on it, and she carried two bags. The
first one was a dark green bag with an orange
patch on it, while the other was a large purple
and black backpack.
A limited amount of information is
available at this time. The search
is still in the preliminary stages and no
evidence or remains have been located at this
point.
Anyone who has seen or heard anything
suspicious in the Isle Pierre area during the
weekend of June 21-23, 2002, or who may have
information in relation to the disappearance of
Nicole Hoar are asked to contact the "E"
Division Unsolved Homicide Unit at
1-877-543-4822 or Crime Stoppers at
1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).
RCMP say one of the previous
owners of the property is a "person of
interest" in this investigation, that the
person does not pose a threat to the
public, and that they have spoken to
this person.
One of the previous owners was
Leland Vincent Switzer who is serving a
life sentence with no chance of parole for
ten years for the second degree murder of his
brother Irvin on June 23rd of 2002.
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