Abby Connolly
After news of Nicole’s disappearance broke, employees at a Pharmasave in Smithers told police they had allegedly seen and served Nicole on June 22nd, 2002. One of the employees claimed she had spoken to Nicole, who was very friendly and buying a toothbrush from the store.
While the employees were convinced they had spoken to Nicole, investigators working on her case could not confirm the sighting and were skeptical of their story, considering the last transaction in Nicole’s bank account was on June 21st, 2002, the day she disappeared.
That September, someone informed the police they allegedly saw a woman who matched Nicole’s description briefly speak to a man in an orange-yellow colored car that could’ve been a Dodge Colt, Toyota Tercel, or Volkswagen. The informant claimed she spoke to the driver but did not see her get in the car. However, police believe she may have entered the vehicle and consider the driver a suspect.
Since her disappearance, no one who may have given Nicole a ride the day she went missing has contacted the police.
Police have struggled to find any physical evidence of Nicole, but they have received hundreds of tips from people who claimed to have seen her in the last 21 years. Unfortunately, none of them have led to anything.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police hoped they might find something related to Nicole’s disappearance when they created a task force in 2005 to begin investigating the disappearances and murders of women around highways 5, 16, and 97 in British Columbia between 1969 and 2006.
In 2009, they investigated the home of Leland Vincent Switzer, a man who owned property near the gas station where Nicole was dropped off. He had killed his brother just two days after she went missing, but police found no remains on the property, and he was eventually granted parole in 2016.
While other disappearance cases may have taken Nicole’s case out of the spotlight, it is still considered unsolved, and people are still searching for her over two decades later.
On the day Nicole disappeared, she wore a long-sleeved red shirt with the number 13, beige capri pants, Teva sandals, and wire-rimmed glasses. She was also carrying her black and purple backpack and a green shoulder bag.
If you have any information regarding her case, you are urged to contact the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at 613-993-7267.
If true crime defines your free time, this is for you: join Chip Chick’s True Crime Tribe
The Last Time Her Sister Saw Her, She Gave Her A Ride To The School Bus Stop, And Then She Vanished
She Was The First Woman To Sail Around The World, And On Her Journey, She Had To Hide Her Identity
