Search for remains of missing woman expands

Police are searching a second location in Prince George, B.C., as part of an investigation into the disappearance of tree planter Nicole Hoar, 25, who went missing from the area in 2002.

Police say the search has grown beyond a rural property west of Prince George, where investigators are looking for Hoar's body. Police said they're also searching an unauthorized dumping site used by local residents, about a kilometre northwest of the original search area.

Police stressed they were not expecting to find remains at the second location, but said they could find discarded items of interest. Police are focusing their efforts on an abandoned yellow pickup truck, which they say will be seized and examined.

RCMP also said late Saturday they were also looking for a man who may have information about Hoar's whereabouts on the weekend she disappeared. They said they would like to speak to the man or people who may know of him.

At the time of Hoar's disappearance, police say the Caucasian man was believed to be in his mid 50s, with shoulder-length black hair and sunken eyes. He was a smoker and has a pronounced jagged scar on the left side of his neck.

Hoar, from Red Deer, Alta., disappeared June 21, 2002, while hitchhiking along Highway 16 west of Prince George.

That highway has been called the Highway of Tears because a total of 18 women, including Hoar, have gone missing along the highway since 1969. No arrests have been made since the first incident, even though a special investigation into the cases was launched in 2006.

RCMP investigators obtained a warrant this week to search a two-hectare property once owned by Leland Vincent Switzer. A man by the same name was convicted of shooting his brother to death two days after Hoar disappeared, but it is not clear whether they are the same person.

The RCMP did not say Switzer was the person of interest in this case.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Unsolved Homicide Unit at 1-877-543-4822 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.