Both BC Folders in KCSO's Possession
Background Info on KCSO Files
From 1974 to 1975 the King County Sheriff's Office (KCSO) worked with agencies in California, Colorado, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming — as well as other western states to a lesser degree — as well as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in British Columbia, Canada (BC) to investigate whether each area's recent unsolved female homicides (UFHs) were related.
On California's side of things, the list of likely victims was eventually narrowed down to 22: fourteen in CA — including seven SRHM victims — and eight in OR and WA (primarily KCSO cases). This investigation culminated in the CA DOJ publishing a report on the 22 victims in February 1975.
From what I could find, it seems that the agencies in California and Canada did not communicate with each other, likely due to the large physical distance between the two making it seem less likely that their UFHs were related. The common link between the two areas' agencies, however, is the KCSO, which did communicate and compare their UFHs with both areas.
By the second half of 1975 it was determined that the cases under KCSO jurisdiction (as well as many others) were committed by serial killer Ted Bundy, though none of the cases in California or Canada, among others, have been attributed to him.
Despite this, KCSO — unlike many CA agencies, including CA DOJ — not only retained all their files generated during this inter-agency investigation, but have also graciously made them available in a Dropbox among their other Bundy files through the King County Archives. Due to the large volume of records in a semi-disorganized fashion — including many repeated pages, incorrect page orientations, etc — I have gone through and separated the relevant ones into related chunks, including the one below.
Furthermore, many of these files were more-or-less redacted prior to being shared by KCSO/the respective agency in accordance with laws regarding what can or cannot be disclosed when responding to a public records request. I have gone through and either typed — in Helvetica/Arial/etc font — or commented — it varies — what I have determined to be the contents of the redacted information, primarily victim names that I deduced based on date, location, age, etc. All text in Helvetica/Arial/etc font is my work, and not part of the original case files.
Upon opening a post, please then open just the pdf in another tab in order to see my comments, which contain important information regarding cases that have since been solved, the contents of redacted details, missing persons who have since been located, corrections to typos/factual errors, etc.
[To open the pdf in another tab, hover your cursor over the pdf, then click on the box-and-arrow icon that appears in the upper right-hand corner of the pdf.]
A full list of all files pertaining to the above that I have made available on this site can be found here, as well as on the sidebar of this blog under the title "KCSO File Index."
Contents of the Specific Files Below
The pdf below consists of sheets from two different folders: pg.s 3-18 and 19 [rotated] of Box 4, Folder 3, "Information about Canadian victims," and pg.s 1 [rotated], 11-12, and 15 of Box 27, Folder 4, "British Columbia" of the King County Archives' Dropbox.
The first page of the pdf is a scan of the cover of the original physical KCSO manila folder, the contents of which were scanned to become the digital file folder "954-27-4 British Columbia"; this folder has a lot of overlap with the contents of the "Info about Canadian victims."
Information on the Cases Below
Many/all of these cases are now considered part of the phenomenon called the Highway of Tears, a section of British Columbia's Highway 16 that has been the setting for many disappearances and murders of women and girls, many of whom are First Nations. Beacause of this, the Highway of Tears is associated with the MMIW/MMIP movement, though some of the victims are not Indigenous.
It is generally agreed upon that while maybe some of the Highway of Tears cases are related to each other through a common perpetrator, most of them are likely unrelated to each other and not the act of a serial killer. While the name for the Highway of Tears was coined in 1998, the following files show that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have taken note of the phenomenon as early as 1974.
While this blog is primarily dedicated to California and other western states in the US, I am still uploading these documents in case they could potentially be useful or relevant in the future.
WARNING: Please be aware that these investigative records contain details of violence — primarily of a sexual nature — against women and girls aged anywhere between 11 and 27 years old, which is described using blunt police terminology as well as some dated terms (especially regarding race and female sexuality) that were more-or-less typical of the time period. This includes examples of violence — both sexual and not — against Indigenous women and girls. Some individuals may find these details and descriptions graphic or disturbing. Reader discretion is advised.
Packet/Documents
File Folder Cover
Page 1 of full packet
Here is an updated version of the list featured on this page, with everything unredacted and updated to reflect identifications:
3) Weys, Gale Ann
4) Darlington, Pamela Lorraine
6) Leigh, Nina
Information Wanted on Unsolved Female Homicides
Page 1 of section, page 2 of full packet
Page 2 of section, page 3 of full packet
Page 3 of section, page 4 of full packet
Page 4 of section, page 5 of full packet
Page 5 of section, page 6 of full packet
Page 6 of section, page 7 of full packet
As noted in the handwritten notes at the bottom of this page, in mid-April 1975 it was announced that this victim had been identified as 44-year-old Nina Leigh. Leigh's husband Eric was found guilty of her murder in May 1976, making this case SOLVED.
Page 7 of "Information Wanted" section, page 8 of full packet
Intra-Department Communication Memo #1
Page 1 of section, page 9 of full packet
The redacted name below is that of victim Roberta Denice "Robin" Gates, who was found murdered on Tuesday, July 8, 1974. A suspect was later charged with her murder as well as that of Barbara Joan Statt; at the trial he was found insane.
Assault Case
Page 1 of section, page 10 of full packet
Based on the list of names provided on pg. 1 of this packet, I believe (but will double check) that the victim in this case is a Sherry Wingowski.
Page 2 of section, page 11 of full packet
Page 3 of section, page 12 of full packet
Page 4 of section, page 13 of full packet
Page 5 of section, page 14 of full packet
Info on Naramata Jane Doe 1974
Page 1 of section, page 15 of full packet
This page is a memo for the Seattle Police Department (SPD) from the Okanogan County Sheriff's Office, notifying the SPD of the existence of Naramata Jane Doe's case in British Columbia. However, the SPD was already aware of the case, as evidenced by previous pages in the packet above. Furthermore, it should be noted that the author of this page mistakenly wrote "Princeton" instead of "Penticton."
Page 2 of section, page 16 of full packet
Page 3 of section, page 17 of full packet
This letter outlines the forwarding of information concerning Naramata Jane Doe 1974 (below) to SPD. It was most likely actually dated August 1, 1974 instead of July 1st, as, based on context, it was generated chronologically before the page above it and after the page immediately below; furthermore, the pages immediately below consist of the "photo stats" (and other information) mentioned in this letter that were being forwarded to SPD alongside the letter.
Page 3 of section, page 17 of full packet
Page 4 of section, page 18 of full packet
Intra-Agency Communication #2
Page 1 of section, page 19 of full packet
The "woman at 100 Mile Creek" mentioned here is actually 14-year-old murder victim Colleen Rae MacMillen, who went missing on Aug. 9, 1974 then was found dead at 100 Mile House on Aug. 25, 1974. Her remains were identified on Sept. 6, 1974.
It has since been determined that Colleen was a victim of suspected serial killer Bobby Jack Fowler, who is also highly suspected in the murders of Gale Weys and Pamela Darlington mentioned above.
Page 2 of section, page 20 of full packet
Missing Person
Page 1 of section, page 21 of full packet
It should be noted that the first name of the subject of the page below is most often spelled "Carmen" rather than "Carman."
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