Gale Weys was the second oldest of nine siblings and lived in Kamloops, British Columbia with her family. Her siblings remembered her as an independent, funny, and protective older sister. She was a good student, spent her time as a lifeguard and Girl Guide leader, and also took the time to volunteer with special-needs children. Gale was 19 years old when she moved to Clearwater to live independently and to save money for college. She was working two jobs at the time of her disappearance.
On October 19, 1973, Gale was last seen finishing her shift as a service station attendant. She was trying to get home to her parent's house in Kamloops that night and needed a ride. Ron Hagerman a banker in the area remembered seeing Gale in the David Thompson Pub where she also worked, asking if anyone could give her a ride.
I know that night she was asking around for someone to drive her to Kamloops, because her parents lived there. No one was going to Kamloops, and so she just walked outside and stuck out her thumb.Ron Hagerman, client of the David Thompson Pub where Gale worked (The Vancouver Sun)
It is believed that she eventually found a ride and she has not been seen since. Her remains would not be found until the next year on April 4, 1974. Her body was discovered in a water-filled ditch off Highway 5. She was found nude and her clothes have never been recovered.
In 2012, police announced that they had a possible suspect in the murder of Gale, a man named Bobby Jack Fowler. Fowler had died in prison in 2006 but they strongly believed he was responsible for not only Gale's death but the death of two other women in the area. All women were believed to have been hitchhiking before they went missing. Unfortunately, police did not have enough DNA evidence to convict him at the time and the case still remains unsolved.
Since Gale's death, an RCMP Task Force called E-PANA was created to investigate the series of unsolved murders along this highway, including Gale's. The purpose of the task force was "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, however, this case still remains unsolved, as do all the cases along the highway included in E-PANA.
