Delphine Nikal was a member of the Wet'suwet'en tribe and the youngest in her family. She was born on a farm near Smithers, British Columbia, in the same hospital as Ramona Wilson . Known as an adventurous child who loved animals, Delphine faced hardship early in life. When she was only 11 years old, her father passed away, and she moved to the neighboring village of Telkwa to live with her mother.
Delphine Nikal (missingkids.ca)
In 1990, Delphine was 15 years old when her mother, Judy, fell ill after a surgery went wrong, resulting in a four-month coma at a hospital in Prince George. Because the hospital was a four-hour drive from their village, Delphine went to live with her uncle, Frank Tompkins, who lived just across the street.
On Wednesday, June 13, at approximately 2:00 p.m., Delphine told her uncle she was going into town to meet some friends. She met up with her close friend Kristal Grenkie and two other girls. The group wandered around town throughout the afternoon and, as evening approached, headed to the Mohawk gas station located at the corner of Main Street and Highway 16. Delphine’s friends remembered her asking if they wanted to spend the night at her house, since her mother was not home. The girls found this unusual, as Delphine had never invited them over before. They declined due to school and work the following day. After they parted ways, Delphine called her uncle to tell him she was heading home.
Delphine Nikal was last seen hitchhiking in the eastbound lane of Highway 16 but never made it home. In the days following her disappearance, her family reported her missing but were met with suggestions from police that she had probably run off and would return soon. Delphine was known to police due to previous minor offenses, including theft and mischief, and had been in and out of youth facilities in the province. With little help from the authorities, her family was left to search on their own—knocking on doors and driving throughout Vancouver looking for her.
There was no, literally no support. The cops never really showed a whole lot of interest...They obviously didn't really care.Mary Nikal, sister of Delphine (Highway of Tears)
When the police finally became involved, they ruled out foul play, citing the fact that many young people go missing each year and eventually turn up on the streets of Vancouver. This was difficult for Delphine’s family to accept, as her mother was very sick and Delphine would never have left her side. All of her belongings remained at home, and her friends knew she would have confided in them if she had planned to run away. Moreover, she would not have invited them over that night if she intended to disappear.
With additional assistance from Canpro Investigation Services and the Missing Children’s Society of Canada, which offered a $10,000 reward, new information began to surface. An employee at the Mohawk gas station claimed to have seen Delphine getting into a red sports car on the night she disappeared. Her uncle was also investigated, but evidence suggested that Delphine never made it home that night. He eventually passed away. There was also speculation that Delphine might have ended up at a party in a rural area near Smithers, but these leads all ended in dead ends after further investigation.
In March 2019, a witness came forward with information that confirmed suspicions that Delphine was most likely picked up by someone who was leaving town.
Since Delphine’s disappearance, the RCMP established a task force called E-PANA to investigate a series of unsolved murders along Highway 16, including Delphine’s case. The task force’s mission is “to determine if a serial killer, or killers, is responsible for murdering young women traveling along major highways in BC” (E-PANA website). To date, this case remains unsolved, as do all the cases along the highway included in E-PANA.
