The Jack family (1989), consisting of 26 year old husband and wife Ronald and Doreen, and their two young sons — 9 year old Russel, and 4 year old Ryan were enrolled members of the Cheslatta Carrier Nation of British Columbia.
Doreen was known to have attended the infamous Lejac Residential School at Fraser Lake, an institution known for wanton abuse of indigenous children. After the school’s closure in 1976, Doreen would meet Ronald while attending a public high school. At 17, they welcomed their first son, Russel, in 1980. From there, the Jack family would live with Ronald’s parents for a short time, before relocating to the town of Prince George for work.
On the evening of August 1, 26 year old Ronald Jack was approached by a stranger in a bar in Prince George, offering the entire family work and lodgings at a lumber camp off Highway 16. Recently fired from his job at a sawmill due to injury, Jack was said by his parents to be “desperate to work”.
The man offered Ronald a job as a logger, including a job as camp cook for his wife, as well as daycare for his two young sons. Jack agreed to these terms, and the family was last seen loading their belongings into the stranger’s red pickup truck at their home on August 2. No trace of the family has been found for over 35 years.
British Columbia Highway 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert, nicknamed “The Highway of Tears”.
This remote, heavily forested stretch of road has become synonymous with disappearance and death, primarily of indigenous women. At least 80 people are known to have either disappeared along this road, or to have been killed under suspicious circumstances, since 1970.
RCMP police sketch of the unknown primary suspect in the Jack disappearance. He was described as a tall white male, 30-35 years old, wearing blue jeans and flannel.
To this day, no one has been able to conclusively identify this man, or determine if he had anything to do with the Jacks’ disappearance. In 1996, the RCMP received an anonymous tip that the entire family was buried on an undisclosed ranch somewhere off Highway 16, but the call ended before police could determine an exact location.
Aged up images of the Jack Family, as they would have looked today. Often called the “most mysterious modern disappearance” in Canadian history, it’s believed by most that the Jack Family met some violent end out on the highway. But some have never given up hope that they may one day be found alive, possibly the victims of human trafficking.