Serial killer fears after couple shot dead on Canada’s ‘highway of tears’

A couple who broke down on a notorious Canadian highway have been found shot dead.

Australian Lucas Fowler, 23, and his American girlfriend, Chynna Deese, 24, were driving towards a cattle ranch in British Colombia when they were shot at close range.

Police said they have also found a third body on the same stretch of the Alaska Highway and are attempting to find out if it is linked.

The 450-mile road has been dubbed the ‘Highway of Tears’ with up to 50 women vanishing or being murdered there since 1970.

Locals are terrified there could be a serial killer on the loose as there have been six deaths in the past year.

In 2015 women were warned not to hitchhike in the area.

Lucas and Chynna were last seen by the side of their blue 1986 Chevrolet about 15 miles south of Liard Hot Springs on Sunday afternoon.

Their bodies were found at 7am the next day. Chynna had recently graduated from university while Lucas was working on a cattle ranch in Canada.

The pair were at the start of a road trip around the ‘top half of the globe.’ The couple’s friends and family said they had previously travelled across Europe and Asia together and were always ‘sensible and cautious.’

One of the last people to see the couple alive said both were happy just hours before their deaths. Curtis Broughton said he saw them in arm chairs close to their blue van on the Alaska Highway.

He said: ‘Obviously their van had broken down but they were still happy and smiling.

‘They were having lunch or a bit of a meal when we pulled up.’ He said he and his wife stopped to help the pair but he realised the young Australian had the problem under control.

Curtis said he was ‘shocked’ when he turned on the news later in the week and found out the pair had been murdered.

Canadian police are appealing for witnesses. Sergeant Janelle Shoihet said in a statement this morning:

‘We recognise this news is troubling for the entire community and absolutely appreciate there are concerns for safety, in an area that is popular with nature enthusiasts and tourists.

 ‘This investigation is in its very infancy and it is not yet clear whether Lucas and Chynna were targeted or if this was a crime of opportunity.

 ‘At this point, we have nothing to indicate that their deaths are linked to any other active and ongoing investigations in the area, or if there is a heightened risk to public safety.

 ‘This is a unique circumstance and not one I am personally aware of in recent years.’

Curtis’ dad is a serving police officer in New South Wales, Australia.

His family posted on Facebook their son had died in the ‘most terrible of circumstances’ and they will travel to Canada to bring him home.

 ‘We have lost our dear Lucas Fowler, son, brother, grandson and friend in the most terrible of circumstances.

 ‘To lose someone so young and vibrant, who was travelling the world and just enjoying life to the full, is devastating.

‘To know his beautiful girlfriend, Chynna Deese of Charlotte, North Carolina also lost her life in this violent event is too cruel.’

 The first recorded death on the highway was in 1969 when the body of Gloria Moody was found after she failed to return home from a bar.

Since then dozens more women have vanished on that stretch of road while several bodies have been found in shallow graves.

Last year, three women were murdered or went missing while on the Alaska Highway through British Colombia. Last July, the body of 34-year-old Chantelle Catherine Simpson was found in the Skeena River.

In September, Jessica Patrick, aged 18, vanished after last being seen at a McDonald’s restaurant.

Her remains were found down a steep embankment. On December 23, Cynthia Martin disappeared from Hazelton and the 50-year-old has not been seen since.

The deaths of Lucas and Chynna and the mysterious third body take the total to six in the past 12 months.

Source: Metro co uk