The Family That Vanished

PATREON: patreon.com/realhorror SOURCES, NOTES & MORE: bit.ly/44i5kUy TWITTER: @therealhorroryt THREADS: @therealhorrorchannel This video has been made by one person, there may be small mistakes, typos etc. Thank you for understanding 🙏 Corrections: - The driver is on the right side of the road but the wrong side of the car - The sign should say 12am, to indicate midnight, not 12pm - Any statistics refer to ‘the highway of tears’ (the area between Prince Rupert and Prince George) not highway 16 in general, which is much longe

On highway 16, West of Prince George where I lived for several years, there is a town called Vanferhoof. In 2014 my mom got a job there and due to some circumstances she took it. She was given a place to stay which was an old motel turned into 5 rental units. My mom called me first night she was there and told me she was feeling very unsafe and had a bad feeling. The room next to her was talking very loudly and there was a car circling the property. She decided to drive to a busier part of town and sleep in her car. Next morning when she returned. There was a police everywhere. The people in the room next to her got killed. The thought of if she decided to stay there that night still haunts me. Highway 16 is no joke.

The second I realized the family was an indigenous one, I knew the police would make this case a frustrating one. HUGE props to you for not making the fact that this was likely a hate crime a side note, and for noting the violent history the Canadian government has with its indigenous population, many other creators wouldn't.

I’m from BC. We don’t even call it highway 16 anymore - it’s called the highway of tears. There are AT LEAST double the amount of victims if you ask me, the RCMP cover up or make light of every possible situation they come across… especially when it comes to Indigenous Canadians. Its disgusting.

I'm watching this on july 26th, and according to 31:12, it would have been little Ryan's 38th birthday today. Happy birthday, Ryan. You and your family are not forgotten, and hopefully one day, your disappearance will be solved and you all will be at peace. Heartbreaking.

Thank you for addressing the myth of serial killers being "geniuses" who evade police capture. So many just take advantage of holes in a system that doesn't care about minoritized people.

There's a deeply upsetting pattern here in Australia where law enforcement frequently dismisses cases of missing Indigenous people by saying they've probably gone walkabout (a traditional practice that does NOT mean disappearing without telling anyone) - even in cases of missing young children. I'm always happy to see these greater issues talked about.

this started out as a true crime video and ended up being a documentary that genuinely educated me. thank you so much for being so thorough.

My mom has been missing for 5 years from Alberta.. she is part Cree and was homeless/addicted to drugs all my life, so the police just literally don't care... seeing that the jack family got no coverage at all really makes me think of her case.....

The RCMP getting pissy about indigenous locals "not helping enough" when EVERYONE knows cops put minimal effort/resources/manpower into these cases is WILD to me. What a horrific tragedy for this family and their community.

Most true crime commentators, when covering cases like this, put the fact that it was most likely a hate crime against indigenous people as a side note. I appreciate the fact that you genuinely took the time to explain the atrocities committed by the canadian government and police against indigenous communities, and how that long history of violence is being continued today. As you said, things like this do not happen in a vacuum. It's a continuing cultural genocide. I'm certain that if it was a white family that went missing, it would make national headlines for years.

Daycare at a logging camp. Ronnie was clearly desperate. When ronnie was unable to get his brother to watch his kids and the mystery man told him that there was actually day care at the logging camp, I'm guessing alarm bells went off for he and/or his wife, hence the disturbing last words on the call. It seems like they ignored their gut on this one.

As a Canadian I have to say I have immense respect for how open and real you are about the horrible treatment of indigenous communities instead of tip toeing around the details. A lot of the history classes I did in school very vaguely grazed on it with a very broad open ended description and then moved on like it wasnt important that there was a mass murder and torture of people that happened here. Thank you for your amazing work and research on these videos

The picture of the sister, with her sign "Taken Not Forgotten", just made me cry. This is just heartbreaking.

Thank you for discussing this case. I'm indigenous myself and the continual apathy surrounding indigenous disappearances and murders is truly infuriating. We're just not "interesting" enough for our deaths to be worth the effort, even just to talk about. Also, to all the people saying this history "isn't real horror", this video is talking about children being kidnapped from their parents, not allowed to bond with family or engage with their culture, being abused in every way possible, then growing up and not receiving the help they need when their lives are in danger, all due to something they can't change. I think that qualifies as horror.

I’m an indigenous person who resides in Canada and wanted to say I really appreciate that you went into detail about Canada’s treatment of our peoples as a factor in this case and not just a simple “serial killer was smart!” You’ve earned my respect 🧡

My brother Meysam Mokri vanished into thin air in Aug of 2014. We are immigrants and very little was done to look for him. There has been absolutely no trace of him. But when a white woman literally blocks away went missing, it was all over the news. Helicopters all over our neighborhood, massive search party went on foot with dogs through the surrounding area, including forests. She was found almost 2 hours away in another city. But what about my brother. His disappearance has devastated me! BC has a huge problem with the number of people who go missing in this province and nothing is being done about it! This is absolutely horrible and unacceptable! What is it gonna take for them to take this matter seriously??? These are living, breathing human beings. They are someone’s loved ones! How can they vanish without a trace?? 😭😭🤣

I grew up on the streets of this cesspool. I saw the ads about the family on TV. I watched my friends disappear over the years and have no idea how I’m still alive. Thank you for presenting this with such respect.

As a Tsimshian who lives less than an hour from Prince Rupert, this is something I grew up terrified about, and would constantly be trying to prevent since I was only 5 and I am so grateful that the horrific conditions we experience are FINALLY being talked about more. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for helping bring attention to an issue that is all too often ignored or swept under the rug

the institutional racism in canada and the us is truly a terrifying pattern, especially in the cases of missing and murdered indigenous people. thank you for touching on this, it's rare to find channels that speak about cases like this while addressing systemic issues.