‘No evidence’ to support viral posts claiming B.C. women are being abducted: RCMP

COQUITLAM (NEWS 1130) — Mounties in Coquitlam want women in Metro Vancouver to know that viral social media posts stoking fear about a rash of abductions or attempted abductions are untrue, and they’re urging everyone to stop sharing them.

Cpl. Michael McLaughlin says there is no evidence to support any of the claims made in these posts.

“There’s been a bunch of social media rumours that have gone somewhat viral. They started in our community here in the Tri-Cities, but I think they’ve gone well beyond that now — essentially that white vans are chasing women and trying to abduct them,” he explains.

“There’s no evidence to support that any of these abductions actually happened.”

McLaughlin says police have received one report of a “potential abduction attempt” and they are investigating that report.

“Everything else has been rumour and innuendo on social media, as often happens with social media. We can’t corroborate that any crime happened or was about to happen,” he says.

“We did see a video on Tik Tok that caused some concern to residents in our community. But when we looked at that video we realized that the person making it wasn’t actually there for any of these alleged abduction attempts and wasn’t actually providing any evidence. So that’s what’s called rumour, and to act on rumour, to get scared on rumour is something we’re trying to discourage.”

We've heard the social media rumours of white vans trying to abduct women. Call us right away if you feel unsafe, but please don't spread the rumours. There's no evidence that they're true. https://t.co/cE7hQ6QMZQ pic.twitter.com/sdIQKV4tY8

— Coquitlam RCMP (@cqrcmp) February 7, 2021

Police in Chilliwack and Port Moody have been called in to search for missing women in recent weeks, but McLaughlin says if those two cases were cause for widespread concern police would not hide that information.

“We’ve seen people trying to draw connections between other things that have happened around the community or around the province. That’s very dangerous. As police, we investigate each individual file on its own merits, because we follow evidence and we encourage people not to spread rumour. We’re the professionals and will absolutely let you know if there’s a concern, and we need to tell you to protect yourself,” he says.

“Please don’t carry weapons, and don’t try to draw conclusions about crimes based on very basic information.”

2018 data from the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains show there were 15 cases in all of Canada of an adult female being abducted by a stranger that year. More recent data are not available.