On a Wednesday afternoon, June 13, 1990, fifteen-year-old Delphine Anne Camelia Nikal left her uncle's home in Telkwa, British Columbia, with plans to meet friends in the nearby town of Smithers. At the time, Delphine, a member of the Wet'suwet'en tribe, was facing a difficult period in her young life; her father had passed away years earlier, and her mother was in a coma at a hospital several hours away following a complicated surgery.
Consequently, Delphine was in the care of her uncle. She hitchhiked the approximately 16 kilometers to Smithers and spent the afternoon with her friends. As evening fell, Delphine did something her friends found unusual: she invited them for a sleepover, an invitation she had never extended before. They declined due to school and work commitments the next day. Around 10:00 p.m., Delphine called her uncle to let him know she was heading home. She was last seen by two of her friends, hitchhiking in the eastbound lane of Highway 16. Delphine never arrived home.
In the days that followed Delphine's disappearance, her family’s concerns were initially met with suggestions from police that she might have run away. This was a notion her family vehemently rejected, knowing she would not have willingly left her mother's side during such a critical time, and noting that all of her personal belongings remained at home. The family, left to their own devices, began a desperate search for answers. Leads were sparse and often led to dead ends. An employee at a gas station near where Delphine was last seen reported seeing her get into a red sports car, but this information did not resolve the case. There was also speculation that she may have attended a party in a rural area near Smithers, but this, too, failed to yield any concrete information. Her uncle was investigated, but evidence indicated that Delphine never made it back to the house that night. The family's pain was compounded by previous and subsequent tragedies; Delphine's cousin, Cecilia Nikal, had gone missing the year before, and another cousin was murdered a few years after Delphine vanished.
Delphine Nikal's case is one of many that have cast a dark shadow over the northern British Columbia highway where she was last seen. Her disappearance is included in the E-PANA task force investigation, an RCMP initiative created to look into a series of unsolved cases involving murdered or missing women along a stretch of highway known as the 'Highway of Tears'. The task force aims to determine if a serial killer or killers are responsible for these tragedies. Over the years, potential suspects have been considered, including American serial killer Bobby Jack Fowler, who was known to target female hitchhikers and has been linked by DNA to another victim from the area. Despite the passage of time and the ongoing investigation, Delphine's disappearance remains unsolved, and she is believed to have been a victim of homicide. The case stands as a painful, unresolved chapter in the larger story of the Highway of Tears, representing a family's enduring search for answers and justice for a young girl who vanished on her way home.Last Seen: Jun 13, 1990
