Behind the fear: The unsolved killings in Dawson Creek, B.C.

WARNING: This story contains graphic content and vulgar language.

When Arron Linklater leaves his house, the essentials come with him: Wallet. Phone. Keys. Bullet-proof vest. 

For 30-odd years, Linklater has been dealing cocaine in Dawson Creek, a small town tucked within the sprawling farmland in northern British Columbia at the origin point of the Alaska Highway. 

Although he lives in a modest bungalow, Linklater boasts that his cocaine business can bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. In all that time, the RCMP has only busted him once for drug trafficking. 

A member of the nearby Carrier Sekani First Nation, Linklater has deep roots in town. His grandfather was Dawson Creek’s mayor in 1951, during its first major population boom thanks to the area's first gas plant and the arrival of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway. In those days, a Linklater didn’t have to worry about being shot while walking through town.

But this is no longer his grandfather’s Dawson Creek.

Death, by the needle or by the bullet, now stalks its streets.

“He’s turning in his grave right now,” Linklater said of his grandfather. “I’m his only grandson who would carry the Linklater name on. He’d just say: ‘You’re a f–king idiot.’ He’d probably slap me.”

Linklater has watched the town evolve from a farming community into a booming oil-and-gas region that spawned more clients for his wares. With more money came more drugs, from cocaine to fentanyl. And more drugs meant more crime and violence.

There have been 13 unsolved homicides in four years — 11 since January 2023. Like justice, an end to the killing seems elusive in the town of 12,500 souls.

For more than a year, the fifth estate has been investigating this cyclone of crime, answering an email from a viewer desperate for attention and help. Last year, the RCMP told the fifth estate they expected “some level of success” within six months in what were then investigations into 11 unsolved killings in Dawson Creek. 

The fifth estate discovered the justice system has been unable to keep the worst criminals off the streets and has found more connections between the killings and the local underworld.

While police say they remain confident they will make progress in some of those homicide cases, the killings have continued. 

“Get investigators here that will do something about it, get rid of the drug dealers,” said resident Laura Lambert, whose two nieces are among the slain. “We want our kids back.”