The seven-year-old mystery of what happened to a Red Deer couple’s daughter might soon come to a sad, but conclusive end.
The parents of Nicole Hoar said in a public statement on Friday that they are hoping to get some information about their daughter’s 2002 disappearance from a police search of a rural acreage west of Prince George.
“Our thoughts continue to be with Nicole. Nicole is just one of many missing persons in that area and our thoughts continue to be with their families as well,” reads the statement by Jack and Barb Hoar and their family.
While the Hoars support the police investigation, they added “this is a difficult time for us,” and they asked that their privacy be respected.
RCMP confirmed on Friday that they are searching a two-hectare property for evidence in an investigation related to the disappearance of the 25-year-old tree planter.
The property police forensic investigators are combing had once been the home of Leland Vincent Switzer, a man convicted of killing his brother, Irwin, just two days after Hoar’s disappearance.
Police have confirmed that a former owner of the property is a person of interest, but they stressed that their search of the rural property is in the early stages and no evidence or human remains have been discovered yet.
Nicole vanished on June 21, 2002 while hitch-hiking on Hwy 16. She was last seen in front of a gas station, and had been bound for Smithers, B.C. to visit her sister.
Hwy 16 has become known as the Highway of Tears because eight other women disappeared or were murdered along it since 1990.
Jack Hoar had earlier told B.C. media “we will just sit tight and wait and see . . . it would be good to have closure.”
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com