May 2, 1981. Hope, British Columbia. After spending the night at a friend’s house, 16-year old Verna Bjerky leaves on a trip to visit her boyfriend, but even though she plans on hitchhiking to her destination, she never arrives. Five months later, some of Verna’s personal belongings are discovered in a remote area, but there is no trace of her body. During this time period, a serial killer named Clifford Olson is charged and convicted of the murders of eleven children which took place in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. After he is sent to prison, Olson hints at possible involvement in Verna’s disappearance, but he is never conclusively linked to her case and Verna’s remains are never found. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we travel back to our podcast’s home country of Canada to explore the unsolved disappearance of Verna Bjerky, an Indigenous victim who has always been mistakenly classified as “white” in all of the official sources.

If you have any information about this case, please contact the Upper Fraser Valley detachment of the RCMP at (604) 792-4611 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

Additional Reading:

https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3070dfbc.html

https://www.hopestandard.com/news/remembering-verna-loss-felt-through-the-generations/

https://www.services.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/missing-disparus/case-dossier.jsf?case=2014001314&id=13

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/10/26/Police-find-missing-girls-property/6368372920400/

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/10/27/Some-unidentified-personal-effects-belonging-to-Verna-Bjerky/7169373006800/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/465738032/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/472013957/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/507635462/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/507635466/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/733002984/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/536942896/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/561496224/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/561484985/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/464047804/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Olson

“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon. Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.

“The Trail Went Cold” is doing a weekly livestream show on Vokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True  Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website.

“The Trail Went Cold” is going to be appearing on podcast row at “Crimecon UK” at the Tower Bridge, Leonardo Royal Hotel & Spa in London on June 10-11, 2023, as well as “Crimecon” at the World Center Marriott in Orlando, Florida on September 22-24, 2023. To get a 10 % discount on the purchase of tickets to either event, please use our specialized promo  code, “COLD23”, by visiting https://www.crimecon.co.uk or https://www.crimecon.com.

The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.