BC

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Highway 16 near Prince George, B.C. Monday, Oct. 8, 2012. Mounties say they've received 250 tips since making a new plea for information in the deaths and disappearances of women in B.C.'s northern Interior, including the so-called Highway of Tears. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Mounties say they've received 250 tips since making a new plea for information in the deaths and disappearances of women in BC's northern Interior, including the so-called Highway of Tears.

The plea came after police revealed two weeks ago that Bobby Jack Fowler, who died in an Oregon jail, was responsible for one of the murders and was a strong suspect in two others.

Staff Sgt. Wayne Clary says that aside from Fowler, some of the tips were about other historical crimes that may not have been previously linked to this investigation.

He says it's too soon to say whether any of the tips will yield any substantial leads, but they will be followed up.

DNA from Fowler has been positively matched to the 1974 murder of 16-year-old Colleen MacMillen of Lac La Hache, and he is also suspected in the 1973 deaths of Gale Weys and Pamela Darlington.

All three were among 18 women who disappeared or were murdered along northern BC highways, including Highway 16, known as the Highway of Tears, in the last four decades. (CFJC)