Reward posters focus attention on case of 31 missing women
The Vancouver Sun
Lindsay Kines
Tuesday, July 27, 1999.
Investigators have included historic cases and those from other jurisdications in their probe of the disappearances of the women.
Vancouver city police will release today a reward poster featuring the photographs of 31 women who have gone missing from the Downtown Eastside since 1978.
More than 20 of those women, who were all involved in drugs or the sex trade, have gone missing in the past four years.
The most recent case is that of Julie Young who was reported missing July 6.
She was last seen Oct. 9, 1998.
In addition, police have added a number of historic cases, as well as those that were reported to other police departments or RCMP detachments.
The press conference to release the poster will be attended by Attorney-General Ujjal Dosanjh and John Walsh, host of television’s America’s Most Wanted, which is doing a segment on the missing women.
The provincial government and the Vancouver Police board have posted a $100,000 reward in the case. But city lawyers have been struggling with the wording of the reward, because without bodies or crime scenes, police say they have no proof the women have met with foul play.
Vancouver police currently have eight full and part-time investigators working on the case, which has sparked fears that a serial killer is preying on the women.
Investigators have spoken to their counterparts working on the unsolved Green River killings in Seattle, as well as serial killing cases involving prostitutes in Spokane and Poughkeepsie New York. Police have also used the services of geographic and psychological profilers, and have met with women who work in the sex trade.
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Missing Women at 31 July
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Missing Women's Poster July
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Missing Women Worth $100,000
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