The Decades-Long Search for Shelley-Anne Bacsu

On Tuesday, May 3, 1983, 16-year-old Shelly-Anne Bacsu (sometimes spelled "Shelly-Anne or "Shelly-Ann") was babysitting at her boyfriend's home on Sunset Trailer Court in Hinton, Alberta (now Hillcrest Trailer Park). She called her mother, Muriel, around 8pm to tell her that a friend would be picking her up and that she would be home in about 15 minutes. Muriel received another call around 9pm from Shelley-Anne's boyfriend who told her that a friend was unable to pick her up and that he did not have a means of driving her himself. As a last resort, she began walking down Highway 16 toward her home located just off Highway 40. Sandy and Tim Bacsu, Shelly-Anne's father and brother, respectively, immediately began driving around the area searching for her after receiving the phone call - Muriel set out on foot. One witness claimed to have seen Shelly-Anne walking on the north side of Highway 16 heading west (toward Highway 40). Two other witnesses reportedly saw someone entering a van with what might have been a British Columbian license plate. A missing persons report was eventually filed, and friends and family members joined the days-long search for Shelley-Anne.

A few days later, her student union card, jacket, bra, pantyhose, and a library book she had checked out on the day of her disappearance were all found along Highway 40 not far from the Athabasca River. Unfortunately, forensic testing conducted on the clothing did not produce any incriminating DNA results, and no arrests were made by the RCMP during the investigation. The Bacsu family has since moved away from Hinton, but Muriel has not given up on Shelly-Ann. Though she no longer believes her daughter is still alive, she hopes that the discovery of her remains will bring her some closure.

Since the 1960's, over 40 women - particularly those from the Aboriginal community - have disappeared along a stretch of Highway 16 between Prince Rupert and Prince George, British Columbia, known as the "Highway of Tears." This same highway stretches east, passing several provincial parks into Jasper National Park that borders the communities of Brule, Hinton, and Cadomin. Very few have been apprehended for these disappearances, and many remain unsolved. In 2005, Project E-PANA was launched in an effort to further investigate unsolved homicides and missing persons cases occurring along Highway 16. (Pana is the Inuit deity that safeguarded the souls of the dead). Currently, there are 13 homicide and 5 missing persons investigations going as far back as 1969 under the purview of this task force.

In 1995, Texan-born serial killer, Bobby Jack Fowler (1939 - 2006) was arrested and charged in 1995 for the kidnapping and rape of an Oregon woman, and later connected to the murder of Colleen MacMillen through DNA analysis in 1974. He is also suspected for the murders of two other women, Gayle Weys and Pamela Darlington, but his death in 2006 at Oregon State Penitentiary and lack of physical evidence has since stalled these cases. To date, investigators are uncertain as to the number of Fowler's victims, and may have potentially been involved in Bacsu's disappearance about 500 kilometers northeast from where MacMillen's body was found near Lac la Hache. Others have since been arrested and convicted of murders along the Highway of Tears including serial killer, Edward Dennis Isaac, who was sentenced for the homicides of two Prince George women in the early 1980's. Unfortunately, Bacsu's disappearance will remain unsolved without new evidence for the foreseeable future.

Albeit inconclusive, the probability that Bacsu was abducted as she was walking south along Highway 16 toward her home on Highway 40 is too great to ignore. That her belongings were found by the Athabasca River possibly suggest that her body might have been disposed of in the murky, rushing waters where all physical evidence of the crime would so readily wash away in the night. Whatever events transpired that windy May evening in 1983, Muriel Bacsu is still searching for answers, and that one day she will be able to lay Shelley-Anne to rest. Perhaps one day, with the aid of new technology - or a simple stroke of luck - new clues will surface that will lead to her discovery and closure of one of Alberta's oldest cold cases.

Bibliography

(2013, September 25). Bobby Jack Fowler Highway of Tears investigation stalled. CBC News. Retrieved from: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bobby-jack-fowler-highway-of-tears-investigation-stalled-1.1867647.

Culbert, L., and Hall, N. (2009, December 11). These are the stories of the victims. Vancouver Sun. Retrieved from: https://vancouversun.com/news/these-are-the-stories-of-the-victims.

Roth, P. (2013, May 2). Found remains near Hinton rekindles a mix of emotions for Alberta family of missing teen. Vancouver Sun. Retrieved from: https://edmontonsun.com/2013/05/02/found-remains-near-hinton-rekindles-a-mix-of-emotions-for-alberta-family-of-missing-teen