Project E-Pana

Project E-Pana is an operation started by the RCMP Task Force in 2005, to investigate the series of unsolved murders with links to Highway 16, Infamously dubbed “The Highway of Tears.” The purpose of the investigation was to determine if a serial killer or a group of killers was responsible for murdering young women traveling along the major highways of BC. In 2006, the Task Force took full ownership of nine investigations in which, doubled from nine to eighteen a year later. The project consisted of 13 homicide investigations and five missing people's investigations. The cases investigated in the project range in date from 1969 to 2006. As the dates of the incidents are ranged far apart, it is quite easy to assume that the murders and missing persons during the early periods of the homicides. Specifications were also so that all the victims of the cases were to be female and either be involved in hitchhiking or other high risk behavior, and last seen or have their body found within a mile or so from three B.C. highways which are; Highway 16, 97, and 5.

Although the project has taken effect for eleven years, there has been little to no information added to the whereabouts of the murdered and missing women. Investigators are confident that a single serial killer is not responsible for all the E-Pana investigations. I believe that even with the 50 investigators and support staff committed to solving the cases, homicide and missing persons investigations are extremely complex and require a significant investment of time and manpower. All in all, even though Project E-pana was organized with good intentions, its purpose was never carried out and was a waste of taxpayers money.

In regards to the actions taken by the government to resolve the Highway of Tears, I found it quite irresponsible for the government to disregard the deaths and missing persons for such a long stretch of time. Although an effort was put out, its organization and contribution is lackluster. As the first incident occurred in 1969, it took the provincial government 46 years to respond which tells me that they care very little about their people. E-Pana is still actively investigating the remaining unsolved cases although it is unlikely that all the murders and dissapearances will be solved.