CIRCUMSTANCES

Victoria Younker, 35, struggled with a drug habit that led her into a life of petty theft and sex trade work on Vancouver’s Downtown East Side. She worked between Main St. and Victoria Dr.

Her death is one in a series called The Hemlock Valley Murders. Victoria, Tracy Olajide and Tammy Pipe were all sexually assaulted, killed by strangulation and their bodies were left in a similar fashion in remote areas of Fraser Valley, BC.

Victoria was last seen on Monday, September 11, 1995 at Ministry offices located on Hastings St. in Vancouver. She later failed to pick up her social assistance cheque on Sept. 25th.

Police do not know the exact date of her death but agree that it was at least 30 days before her nude body was discovered 25 feet down an embankment off a dead end of a logging road, north of Lougheed Highway #7, on Sylvester Road, near Mission, BC.

Later, several pieces of her identification were discovered in a dumpster, near the Vernon Rooms Hotel, 300 Vernon St., Vancouver, BC.

FACTS & SPECULATION

• Detectives theorized the killer lived in the area, or knew the area as a logger, fisherman, hunter or through the nearby work release program.
• The killer’s red 4×4 vehicle was scratched or damaged while going off-road to dump the bodies.
• The killer probably wrapped the victims’ bodies in some type of weathered yellow rain gear.
• RCMP had a prime suspect, a local roofer with a history of rapes but DNA tests cleared him.
• Robert “Willy” Pickton was ruled out as the killer through DNA.
• These serial killings may include that of Mary Lidguerre, who disappeared in 1995. Her skeletal remains were found in 1997 in a wooded area in North Vancouver.

CASE IMAGES