Alberta mother searches for son in B.C. amid spike in gang-related violence in Dawson Creek | Globalnews.ca

An Alberta mother is in B.C. this weekend conducting a search for her missing son as well as two other women who have gone missing from her community.

Julie Hosack of Strathmore says Cole Hosack was travelling over the holidays and made a quick stop in Dawson Creek, B.C.

The 24-year-old was travelling with a friend who was going to drive him to Medicine Hat to start a new job. Cole had never been to Dawson Creek. He went to Lonestar Bar on Dec. 31 and hasn’t been heard from since.

“Cole has no affiliation with the town.  Maybe it was the wrong place at the wrong time. I would assume he doesn’t know anyone there,” Julie said.

Julie has been in touch with the families of two other women who have gone missing. Members from those families also took part in the search on March 16.

“I feel for them too. I guess when your child goes missing, you just don’t know what to do,” Julie said.

Renee Didier, who sometimes used the surname Supernant, was last seen on Dec. 2, 2023 in Dawson Creek. Darylyn Supernant has been missing for a year now. She was last seen on March 15, 2023.

The RCMP has reported a rise in gang-related violence in the region. Additional officers from the province’s Uniform Gang Enforcement Team have been deployed to the area to support local police.

“Nobody there wants to talk. Everybody is scared,” Julie said. “You’ve got a whole bunch of people who don’t want to talk because they think that they could be next.  The crime is outrageous.  At the end of the day, I don’t care what anyone was involved in – they all deserve to be looked for and they all deserve some kind of voice,” Julie said.

Julie has also sought out help from a non-profit search dog association and from Please Bring Me Home, a non-profit organization that aims at preventing missing person cases from becoming cold cases.

Cole is the youngest of three siblings but “the one that both his brother and sister look up to. He’s like the protector of the family,” according to Julie. He also has a three-year-old son.

“First and foremost, he will tell you he’s a dad.  Definitely a dad first,” Julie said.

Cole was born in McLennan, Alta. and the family moved to Fort McMurray where Julie said the family lost their home in the wildfires in 2016.

“I wish my son would’ve gone missing somewhere else. I don’t want him to go missing anywhere, but this has been awful. What if this was your child? You wouldn’t want someone to help you? It just makes no sense,” Julie said.

In December the MLA for the Dawson Creek area told Global News there had been eight murders in Dawson Creek over the past two years.

“We’re starting to see a turf war….we don’t know who these people are. We don’t know where they’ve come from. It’s a level never seen,” said Mike Bernier the MLA for  Peace River South in December.

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