Bobby Jack Fowler - Highway of Tears Serial Killer?

Born June 12, 1939, Bobby Jack Fowler was a habitual criminal almost right from the womb. Originally from Texas, Bobby would "rabbit around" as he would call it, moving between Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Texas, Oregon, South Carolina, Arizona, Tennessee, Washington State, and British Columbia.

In Bobby's lifetime, he racked up a long criminal record in the United States including attempted murder, sexual assault, kidnapping, attempted rape, and assault. If Bobby saw something he wanted he would take it, regardless of consequence.

A drug addict and violent criminal, Bobby Jack Fowler was a transient construction worker, often working as a roofer. Moving frequently in old beat up cars he would spend his free time in bars and motels, and often picked up hitchhikers. Bobby believed that women who hitchhiked or women he picked up in bars wanted to be sexually assaulted.

In 1969 he was arrested for murdering a man and woman in Texas but was able to get off with only discharging a firearm within city limits. In '69 he also spent time in a Tennessee prison for attempted murder and sexual assault. In the words of an investigator, "he tied [a woman] up, beat the hell out of her with her own belt, covered her with brush and left her to die.

Although Bobby Jack Fowler was never convicted of murder, he is a suspect or person of interest in approximately 16 murders in the US and Canada.

Bobby Jack Fowler

In 1974 Bobby Jack Fowler worked for a roofing company in Prince George and would often travel Highway 16, the infamous Highway of Tears. RCMP believe he could be responsible for 10 murders along this Highway, while other estimates put it closer to 20. Some of the evidence that point to Bobby is circumstantial at best, but he was in the area at the time of some of the murders and they did follow his M.O.

In June of 1995, Bobby was arrested in Newport, Oregon after a woman jumped out of a second story window in the Tides Inn. Nude, bleeding and with a rope still tied to her ankle, the woman was able to escape from Bobby and get to the police to tell then what Bobby did to her. In January of 1996, he was convicted of Kidnapping in the 1st Degree, Attempted Rape in the 1st Degree, Sexual Abuse in the 1st Degree, Coercion, Assault in the Fourth Degree, and Menacing. He was sentenced to 195 months with the possibility of parole.

In 2006 Bobby Jack Fowler died in Oregon State Penitentiary of lung cancer at the age of 66.

In 2012 RCMP named Bobby Jack Fowler a suspect in a murder on the Highway of Tears in 1974. In August 1974 16-year-old Colleen MacMillen went missing from 100 Mile House, BC. Going out that fateful night, she told her little brother Shawn "Don't tell mom I'm hitchhiking". She was never seen alive again.

Colleen MacMillen

One month later Colleen's body was found around 50 kilometers from her home at 100 Mile House. RCMP also found Colleen's blouse, but DNA technology was non-existent so no tests could be done at that time.

Even though they had been unable to do any DNA testing the RCMP collected and stored Colleen's blouse safely enough that evidence collected years later could still be used in court. In 2007 they looked at the blouse again and were able to find a small sample of DNA from an unknown male, but it was not a match to any sample in RCMP databases.

In 2012, 38 years after Colleen went missing,  DNA technology had advanced to the point that smaller and smaller samples could be tested. RCMP were able to get a DNA profile from a small fragment of DNA collected from Colleen's blouse.

They then submitted that sample to Interpol, whose extensive database included samples from multiple countries, in the faint hope that there would be a match. Police were surprised to find that Interpol got a match in their database, and that DNA matched violent US criminal Bobby Jack Fowler.

Although Bobby had an extensive criminal record in the United States, he was unknown to RCMP. There were no criminal records, nor any record that he entered the country. I guess in the 70's security was pretty lax between our two countries. I personally remember being able to enter Alaska from BC and only having to show my BC Drivers Licence to the border guard. Note that is singular, there was only one guard and I don't remember him writing my name down or license number or anything. Post 9/11, things have changed considerably.

After further investigation into Bobby Jack Fowler, RCMP suspect that he was also responsible for the murder of Pamela Darlington and Gale Weys, two other murdered women on the "official" Highway of Tears victim list.

Although the task force formed by the RCMP to investigate the Highway of Tears, named E-PANA, only has 18 people on its official list, some groups have put the number of missing and murdered women along this highway closer to 40, and the list continues to grow.

Jennifer Esson and Kara Leas

Bobby Jack Fowler is also linked to two double homicides in Oregon. Sheila Swanson and Melissa Sanders in Oregon 1992, were last seen making a call from a payphone near the Beverly Beach State Park, their bodies found 6 months later. In January 1995, Jennifer Esson and Kara Leas were last seen walking in Newport, Oregon. Their strangled bodies found a month later. That was 6 months before he kidnapped and sexually assaulted the woman that jumped out the second story motel window, ultimately leading to Bobby Jack Fowler being arrested and convicted.

US Law Enforcement believes that Bobby Jack Fowler may have killed 20 people or more and have compared him to the cold-blooded serial killer Ted Bundy.

It is important to know that while Bobby Jack Fowler is suspected of being a serial killer, he was never actually convicted of murder, but he did operate for a time along the Highway of Tears. He is likely not "The Highway of Tear's serial killer". Bobby was in custody for some of the murders or was known to be in a different area for others. A scary thought is that he may be just ONE of the serial killers that hunt along the Highway of Tears.

But guess what! Next week I'll tell you the story of Cody Legebokoff, who has the distinction of being Canada's youngest serial killer, and guess where he was based out of?

Prince George, BC. The start of the Highway of Tears.

For more information on the Highway of Tears, read "Obstruction of Justice: The Search for Truth on Canada's Highway of Tears" by Ray Michalko. Click the link below to view it at Amazon.

Thanks for reading. See you next time.


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