'We want our kids back'

A late summer sun peeks through the branches, creating a blanket of soft dappled light over a dirt path that cuts through a dense forest of poplar and spruce trees.

At the end of the well-worn track on the edge of Dawson Creek, B.C., lives a man who is part of a family bearing one of the most recognizable names in this small northern community, and not always for good reasons.

John Ominayak has constructed a ramshackle tent encampment in a small clearing. A circumstance of necessity, he says, because, fresh out of jail, no one will give him a job or rent him a place to live.

Ominayak invited a team from The Fifth Estate to witness his predicament, and, he says, to set the record straight.

I got accused of murdering a couple people in the trailer park and then a couple of people that recently went missing, he said in an interview.

WATCH | Denying the accusations of others: 

A woman and her partner were killed in the Mile Zero Trailer Park in 2023. Later that same year, two Cree women, cousins, mysteriously disappeared, one after the other.

They are four out of 11 people who have been killed or gone missing in the last three years in Dawson Creek and are part of a spike in violent crime that has shaken this small town to its core.
 

Ominayak says people are looking at him.

Hes been in and out of jail for violent assaults and weapons charges, dating as far back as 2014. His brother is in prison for attempted murder, after shooting a woman in the face.

I had nothing to do with anybodys death, Ominayak said. I wanna just keep my nose clean and stay out of trouble. Thats basically it.

The interview with Ominayak is the culmination of a months-long investigation by The Fifth Estate into the recent spike in violent crime in Dawson Creek. It follows a call-out by CBC last spring: With Canadas shrinking media landscape, what stories in smaller communities need to be brought to national attention?

• Watch the full documentary, Dawson Creek: We want our town back, from The Fifth Estate on YouTube or CBC-TV on Friday at 9 p.m.

An email from a Fifth Estate viewer suggested we come to northern B.C. to investigate why so many people have been killed or gone missing in their community.
 

The Fifth Estate investigation has revealed previously unreported connections between two unsolved killings, along with a possible motive, uncovered key details and individuals involved in the final moments some of the victims were last seen alive and unearthed communitywide frustration with the RCMP.

WATCH | Trying to protect younger people in Dawson Creek:

I'm just shaking. You start talking about stuff like that, it's it's sad, Laura Lambert told The Fifth Estate. She is the aunt to both of the missing Cree women, Renee Didier and Daralyn Supernant. Her tough exterior gave way to tears.

We want our kids back.

Surrounded by lush forests and farmland, and creeks that slice through canyons, Dawson Creek is famously located at Mile Zero of the Alaska Highway, a gateway to northern Canada and the U.S. 

Tourists pass through all summer long on their journeys. 

The town of around 12,400 in northeastern B.C., near the Alberta border, was historically a farming community, where neighbours knew neighbours. More recently, however, its seen a rise in mining and oil and gas production.

I moved up here in 1993 on a two-year plan to come up here and work in the gas sector and never left, said Mike Bernier, a former Dawson Creek mayor and current member of the provincial legislature who arrived at the beginning of that industrial wave.

What an amazing place. It's really a community. A great place to raise your family.

But as the community prospered, trouble grew. According to B.C. Emergency Health Services, overdose calls in the community exploded almost five-fold, from 48 in 2016 to 234 in 2023. Since 2021, 44 people in the region have died from an overdose.

The biggest killer, by far, is fentanyl. Seventy-nine per cent of the northern health regions drug overdoses were caused by the synthetic opioid in 2023.

And with the drugs came violence.

In 2021, a man was found dead on a rural road, south of Dawson Creek. His car had been set on fire. In January 2023, there was the double killing in Mile Zero Trailer Park. In April 2023, a body was found under a historic trestle bridge west of Dawson Creek.

Then, following in quick succession, several more killings and mysterious disappearances, including cousins Renee Didier and Daralyn Supernant and a young man passing through town.

Eleven missing or killed in total. All of them unsolved to this day.

Compare that to the seven years prior, when Dawson Creek had only a single homicide.

And while crime spiked, the area also saw its media landscape decimated like in many parts of Canada, when the region's two newspapers shut down after nearly 100 years in business.

In Dawson Creek proper, only one media outlet remains, a small CTV affiliate. Its responsible for covering the news in a large swath of northeastern B.C. and western Alberta.

Our newscast, day after day, was murders, drive-by shootings. And people were afraid. And I don't blame them, said Michael Popove, the local news director for CJDC-TV.

He hosts a nightly newscast run by a small staff. Without his team, whats happening day-to-day in Dawson Creek would largely go unreported, and, he said, it rarely gets reported beyond their small town. 

He believes the recent crime wave needs national attention and national pressure for bold solutions. The status quo for people who live here, he said, is terrifying.

It's fear. Are they going to be OK? Are their kids going to be OK? Do they need to move? Will their small town ever be the same?
 

The first mysterious disappearance came in the spring of 2023, when a 29-year old woman vanished without a trace.

Darylyn Supernant always stayed in touch with loved ones. Until she didnt.

Her family was devastated.

She's really smart. Really clever. And she was always happy and funny, her stepsister, Jordyn Cornish, said, recalling her favourite trait.

Her laugh, it's just unlike any other.

Cornish and Supernant grew up together as teens, less than a month apart in age. Cornish said her slightly older stepsister became her protector, attempting to keep her out of trouble. But in the end, both were tragically drawn into Dawson Creeks drug epidemic.

She was using heroin all the time. She wouldn't stop, said Brad Supernant, Darylyns father, during an interview at a park bench in downtown Dawson Creek. Breaking down in tears, he said he was unable to help his daughter.

I was at the same place as her.

Disappointed with the RCMP response, Supernants family searched high and low. Cornish searched riverbeds and back roads, and travelled to nearby Fort St. John, then Grand Prairie, Alta., finally taking her search as far as Vancouver.

Eventually she started hearing rumours from people she was talking to around town. Supernant had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and that got her in trouble. And then came the warnings.

I had friends coming to me and telling me: You know, there's people looking for you. They don't want you looking for Darylyn.

The second disappearance in Dawson Creek came in the summer of 2023. According to the RCMP, Dave Domingo is believed to have been shot on a farm outside town. A resident reported seeing a body, but by the time police arrived, there was no sign of it.

The 24-year-old man was charged with several firearms-related offences in 2023, and, according to sources, is believed to be connected to the drug trade in Dawson Creek.

Two people were now missing, and tensions were growing, but Supernants family ignored the warnings and kept digging. Weeks turned into months.

Darylyns cousin, Renee, whose given surname is also Supernant, but whose married name is Didier, joined in the searches, asking questions.

A video obtained by The Fifth Estate shows Didier taking part in one of those searches in November 2023, looking for human remains in a patch of disturbed ground in town.

Three weeks later, she was next.

In December, Didier became the third person to mysteriously disappear. According to her family, like her cousin, the 40-year-old mother of two had also struggled with addiction.

For many in town, frustration turned into anger.

[The police] don't care. That's the way I look at it, said Laura Lambert, aunt to both missing women.

Nobody's invested. We feel like nobody gives a shit because they're natives. And that's the way a lot of people are looking at it.

Then, late in December 2023, against this backdrop of fear and anger, a young man passed through town, stopping to ring in the new year. He would be the next to go missing.

Cole Hosack was looking for a fresh start.

The 24-year old was devastated by the recent death of his baby boy, who had been born with severe heart issues.

Late in December 2023, he left Prince George, where he was living, on his way to a new job in Alberta. He decided to stop in Dawson Creek for New Year's Eve.

Through a mutual friend, he met a group of locals. One of them, by coincidence, was the aunt to the two missing cousins, Laura Lambert.

He joined her and others at a local bar that evening, when three men approached them and insisted they give up their turn at the pool table. Hosack refused.

I was worried. I didn't know who those guys were. I didn't know if they're capable of anything because I've never seen them before, said Lambert.

I don't know if they're drug dealers or what they were but they were intimidating. You could see it. But Cole wasn't scared.

Tense words were exchanged, but the night continued. A little after midnight, Hosack went outside to Facetime his longtime partner, and the mother of his deceased baby. Morgan Crawford had stayed behind in Prince George, planning to meet up with him later.

He was just, I love you. Happy new year, she said. The phone call ended: I love you. I'll see you tomorrow or the next day.

That was the last anyone has ever seen or heard from Hosack.

His mother, Julie Hosack, arrived in town days later. She says the RCMP were refusing to search for her son, so she organized her own search. Her biggest issue with the police, she says, has been their failure to communicate.

Two months in, and still no sign of her son, she posted her frustrations on social media.

The RCMP are failing Cole, they are failing me and they are failing the community, she posted. It has been over 15 days since I have heard from them I am done being silent.

She wasnt the only one frustrated with the police. A year earlier, in November 2022, a group of residents went to city hall to express their concerns.

[We] have lost confidence in the RCMPs ability to address acute crime in the area, said Doug Scott in a presentation to the mayor and council.

Following that, a new citizens group was born, Citizens Take Action. According to the group, around 200 volunteers take turns patrolling the streets most evenings.

The Fifth Estate joined one of their members on patrol this past August. Given the levels of violence and concern for his safety, the member wanted to remain anonymous. He joined the group after his daughter felt so afraid walking to school in the mornings that she insisted on carrying mace.

There seems to be a turf war, who's in control, kind of a thing going on, he said.

Last early winter, there were firearms being discharged in town continuously. Like, every night, every day for quite a period of time.

The group has been praised by the RCMP for helping calm the streets and also recovering $150,000 in stolen property. Members of the group have also been criticized by people in town for so-called vigilante actions. The police, as of July of 2023, were investigating what they referred to as an alleged vigilante assault.

Then, this past spring, after the snow began to melt in Dawson Creek, the first body from the missing four surfaced.

In April, a body was discovered, partially decomposed in a ditch, beside a rural road north of town. When it was confirmed as Darylyn Supernant, her family was relieved. 

They could finally stop searching and wondering.

I felt like such a weight lifted off of me, and I felt like I could breathe again, said Cornish.

According to Darylyns father, Brad, she had been shot in the head with a .22-calibre bullet. He was reluctant to provide more information, but as his interview with The Fifth Estate continued, it became clear he knew something important about his daughter's death.

She witnessed a murder, he said finally, adding that she told him before she disappeared that she was afraid for her life.

Double murder. Yes. She witnessed both of them. Thats why she is gone.

WATCH | Remembering a final conversation with his daughter:

Theres only been one double killing in Dawson Creek in recent history. Tina Nellis and Roy Islay were shot in mid-January in their home in the Mile Zero Trailer Park. The case is currently unsolved.

Darylyns stepsister, Jordyn Cornish, also heard Darylyn had been in the wrong place at the wrong time during her travels.

She didn't listen and didn't stay put like she was supposed to. And heard some things she wasn't supposed to hear or saw something, Cornish said. They shot her in the face for that.

The Fifth Estate spoke to dozens of people in and around town over several months for this investigation. Two names kept coming up for people who might have more information about violent crime in Dawson Creek.

One of them was John Ominayak, the man living in the tent encampment at the edge of town.

The other, who we were told is connected to Ominayak, is Tanner Murray.
 

Last December, Murray was arrested for robbery and uttering threats after being on the run from police.

He was released from custody.

In the spring of 2024, he was arrested again and this time was facing 11 new charges. The RCMP said a search of his vehicle yielded ammunition, a loaded firearm and what police call support gear for organized crime.

He was released from custody again.

According to Cornish, on the day her stepsister disappeared, Darylyn had been really preoccupied on her phone talking to Tanner. She also revealed that police have been asking her friends about Murray during their investigation into Darylyns disappearance.

A month after Darylyns body was discovered, a worker was collecting water samples in a remote area of the Kiskatinaw River, 40 kilometres northwest of Dawson Creek, when they stumbled across more human remains. It was Renee Didier.

Did her involvement in searches for Darylyn and her tendency to ask questions put her at risk?

Yeah. Probably. Most likely it did. Because she didn't care what she said to somebody, said Liane Greyeyes, her aunt. 

And I think she stood up to a lot of people. Yeah, that probably got into trouble quite a bit.  

According to the RCMP, the last time Didier was seen was at a local gas station in the early morning hours of Dec. 3, with her stop there caught on CCTV camera. But The Fifth Estate has learned she was seen hours later by her cousin.

The last time I seen Renee was when I was on a video call with her, Shyann Hambler told The Fifth Estate. According to her phone log, she says that was at 6:28 p.m. on Dec. 3.

She was in a hotel room with Tanner Murray.

Hambler said a second man was also present, Brian Mooney.

LISTEN | A community on edge:

The Fifth Estate uncovered no evidence either man was involved in the killings, but we did have questions for them.  

We learned Mooney has since died of a drug overdose.

And Murray wasnt at the address listed in court documents when we visited this past August.

Weeks later, on Sept. 4, he was arrested again. His new charges include two counts of assaulting a police officer and obstruction. A search of his residence turned up several weapons, 1,000 rounds of ammunition and drugs, including 1.2 kilograms of suspected fentanyl and heroin.

Tanner is being held in custody.

We reached out to the office of his lawyer and we were told he does not "speak to the press.

As for Cole Hosack, The Fifth Estate has learned he was last seen on CCTV video from a local tire store, across the street from the bar he was at on New Years Eve.

His partner, Morgan Crawford, said she spoke to the workers at the tire shop. They wouldnt show her the video or tell her what was on it. But she said one of the workers had an ominous warning for her.

He looked at me and he said: If you saw what I saw, you wouldn't expect to find your fianc alive.

The Fifth Estate has since learned that CCTV video shows him running from the bar where he was celebrating and across the street. Hes then seen trying to run between two buildings, but reemerges when he realizes its a dead end. Then he takes off down a back alley and out of sight. Moments later, a pickup truck is seen in pursuit.

Families and people from the community of Dawson Creek continue to seek more answers. What is happening to their previously quiet town?

Local TV journalist Michael Popove said the RCMP units handling the most serious cases routinely refuse to answer even the most basic questions.

It's just been closed doors, slammed doors.

Until now.

After weeks of phone calls, emails and delays, The Fifth Estate showed up at the RCMP detachment in Dawson Creek to ask for an interview. 

Shortly after that, we were invited to the forces B.C. headquarters in Surrey to meet the man in charge of major crime investigations in rural areas of the province.

In his first sit-down interview about the crime wave in Dawson Creek, RCMP Supt. Sanjaya Wijayakoon said that residents dont need to be concerned for their daily safety. The majority of the violent crime, he said, is being committed by a group of about 50 people, and they mostly target each other.

[They] are involved in the street to mid-level drug trade. And they're all known to each other, he said.

And it's that circle who are constantly involved in these kinds of acts of violence against each other. And they're causing a lot of the trouble.

But that doesnt account for what happened to Cole Hosack, who was just passing through town when he vanished more than nine months ago. Wijayakoon declined to comment about the specifics of Hosacks case.

How could someone who's never been there just disappear? his mother, Julie Hosack, asked.

Family members of the missing and slain have raised several concerns about the RCMP.

After her son was missing for nearly two months, Julie Hosack points to a 15-day gap in communication from the RCMP that didn't end until she posted her concerns on social media.

The RCMP disputes this, but Hosack stands by her version.
 

Darylyn Supernants stepsister, Jordyn Cornish, wants to know why she wasnt interviewed or approached by the RCMP for weeks after Supernant disappeared, and until she approached them. And when she did, she said they didnt even know she was Supernants sister.

Laura Lambert is concerned racism is a factor.

Get some cops that care about the people here. Get investigators here that will do something about it, she said.

Why? Because they're native girls. They went missing. They've been hundreds and thousands of tips. And it seems like the cops ain't doing a damn thing about it.

WATCH | A view of RCMP action and a response from them:
 

Wijayakoon said he understands where Lambert and the others are coming from. He wants them all to know his teams are doing their best and that race has nothing to do with their decisions.

I know the history the Indigenous community has had with the police. I know how hurting the families are, and I understand why that aunt would think that way, he said. I can assure her that nobody in my section, nobody in the Dawson Creek RCMP, feels like that.

The bottom line, Wijayakoon said, is homicide investigations are very complex, and they take time.

For me and my teams, the goal isn't arrests. It really is arrests, laying charges and then convictions.

For the first time, Wijayakoon offered a public timeline. Within the next six months, he predicts the RCMP will have some level of success for some of the families.

WATCH | The RCMP responds to questions about its investigation in Dawson Creek:
 

Another sign of hope in Dawson Creek: violent crime has started to trend downward. Its a trend Cole Hosacks mother, Julie Hosack, hopes will continue.

I don't want Cole to be forgotten. I also don't want anybody else to be forgotten. Not Renee, not Darylyn, and not the other people that have gone missing or the people that have been murdered.

She hopes a safer Dawson Creek will be their legacy.

I would like it if this helped the town so that someone else going through town doesn't disappear.

Top image: darylyn.supernant.3/Facebook; renee.rose.106/Facebook; submitted by Julie Hosack/Illustration: L.J. Cake/CBC | Editing: Janet Davison