CIRCUMSTANCES

The murder of Tammy Pipe, 24, is considered one of three murders in a series called The Hemlock Valley Murders. Tammy, Tracy Olajide and Victoria Younker were all sexually assaulted, killed by strangulation and their bodies were left in a similar fashion in remote areas of Fraser Valley in 1995.

Tammy was last seen on Tuesday, August 29, 1995, at the Cobalt Hotel on Main Street in Vancouver.

Tammy’s nude body was discovered on September 2, 1995 in the middle of a remote side road north of the Lougheed Highway #7, along the road to Mount Woodside hang glider launch area. Her body was discovered about five miles away from Tracy’s. 

Tammy dreamed of being a dancer and what she regarded as “interpretive dance routines” were seen by others as “stripping”. She was known to be charitable in the area of the Patricia Hotel on Hastings Street and Victoria Drive and Franklin Street where she worked in the sex trade to support her cocaine habit.

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