Victoria Younker

Victoria Lynn Younker was 35 years old and struggling when her life was violently cut short in 1995. Known to frequent Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, she was battling a drug addiction and supported herself through sex work and petty theft. Despite her difficult circumstances, she was a person navigating her world day by day. Her path led her to a government ministry office on Hastings Street on September 11, 1995, the last place anyone remembers seeing her alive.

More than a month later, on October 21, 1995, her body was discovered. A person on Sylvester Road, a remote logging route near Mission, British Columbia, found her remains about 25 feet down a steep embankment. Victoria was nude, and her body was partially decomposed, indicating she had been there for some time. An autopsy would later confirm that she had been strangled to death.

Victoria's murder was not an isolated incident. Investigators quickly linked her death to two other homicides that occurred that same year, creating a pattern that pointed to a potential serial killer. The first victim, 30-year-old Tracy Olajide, was found on August 12, 1995, near a logging road in the Agassiz area. The second, 24-year-old Tammy Lee Pipe, was discovered on September 2, 1995, on a side road near Mount Woodside. All three women were involved in sex work in the Downtown Eastside, struggled with addiction, and were found nude and strangled in remote, wooded areas of the Fraser Valley. These connected cases became known as the Hemlock Valley Murders.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) led the investigation, forming Project Evenhanded to look into the growing number of missing and murdered women from the Downtown Eastside. Investigators theorized that a single man was responsible for the deaths of Victoria, Tracy, and Tammy. They believed the killer was intimately familiar with the network of logging roads and rugged terrain between Mission and Agassiz, suggesting he may have lived or worked in the area as a logger, forestry worker, fisherman, or hunter. Police also considered that he may have been associated with a nearby correctional facility.

Evidence from the crime scenes provided a few crucial clues. Investigators found flecks of red automotive paint, leading them to suspect the killer drove a red 4x4 vehicle or pickup truck, which would have been necessary to navigate the difficult roads where the bodies were left. They also found traces of a weathered yellow material, possibly from rain gear used to wrap the victims. Although DNA evidence was collected from the scenes connected to Olajide and Pipe, and police believe the same person killed Younker, it has never been matched to a suspect in any database. Infamous serial killer Robert Pickton, who was active during the same period, was investigated for these murders, but DNA analysis officially ruled him out as a suspect in 2000. Another person of interest, a local roofer named Ronald Richard McCauley, was also cleared by DNA in 2001.

In November 2010, on the 15th anniversary of the murders, the RCMP made a public appeal for information. "It's been a tough investigation," said lead investigator Sgt. John Cater at the time. "There has been a number of persons of interest who have been examined thoroughly and excluded." Police released details about the red vehicle and yellow rain gear, hoping to jog someone's memory. They believe the killer may now be in prison for other crimes or may have since died, but they hold out hope that someone has the missing piece of the puzzle.

As of May 2025, the murders of Victoria Younker, Tracy Olajide, and Tammy Pipe remain unsolved. The RCMP's Unsolved Homicide Unit considers it an active cold case. Investigators continue to believe that someone, somewhere, has information that could finally lead to an arrest. They urge anyone who might know something, no matter how insignificant it may seem, to come forward.

The RCMP has asked that anyone with information regarding the Hemlock Valley Murders contact the investigation tip line at 1-877-687-3377.