Who killed Kimberly Gallup? Sweethearts podcast dives into Victoria cold case

Lisa will never forget the night she found her best friend Kimberly Gallup, murdered at the old Colony Motor Inn in Victoria on Nov. 21, 1990. 

She is telling her story for the first time in the hope that it will help raise awareness of Kimberly’s cold case and draw fresh information about a possible suspect.

Lisa’s story is featured in the latest episode of Season 6 of the Sweethearts Island Crime podcast, released Tuesday, April 23.

Lisa, who is being identified by first name only in order to protect her anonymity, and Kimberly were both teenagers who were being sexually trafficked in Edmonton when they first meet. 

“Wherever she was, I was, where I was, she was — we were joined at the hip,” Lisa recalled.

Lisa describes Kimberly as “always smiling and happy.”

“She always just seemed to be, like, bouncing all the time,” Lisa said.

But in the days leading up to her death, Kimberly was withdrawn, sad, and moody. Lisa says her friend had just learned she was pregnant and was desperate to leave the streets.

“We were in the stairwell and she was crying and she was like, ‘I just want to get out. I want to leave.’ And I said to her, ‘Okay, we’ll go out tonight and this will be our last night,’” Lisa recalled.

Lisa remembers Kimberly drying up her tears and starting to cheer up because she had hope that she was going to leave “the lifestyle” and a friend who was going to help her.  The pair got dressed, put on their makeup, and went out on the downtown Victoria stroll. 

Back then, the stroll was on Government Street, near Trounce Alley. It’s a quiet fall night, Nov. 20, 1990.

“We were standing on the corner and a guy approached her, I was standing farther away so I wasn’t close enough to hear any conversation, but they had talked for a little bit,“ Lisa said.

She recalls glancing over a few times because Kim and the man had been standing there talking for a while. She watches as Kim and her “client” wave down a cab. 

Kimberly and Lisa share a room at the old Colony Motor Inn. As Kimberly gets into the taxi with the man, Lisa recalls a brief farewell to her friend.

“’Oh, you’re leaving?’ and she’s like, ‘yeah, I’m leaving now and I’ll be going back to the room.’ And I was just like, ‘you know, if I come back, I’ll knock to make sure everything’s fine.’ I didn’t have any weird feelings. She got in the cab, and she left.”

It’s a quiet night on the stroll, nothing is happening, so Lisa and some friends walk to an all-night coffee shop. It is now the early hours of Nov. 21, 1990.

“We’re all in there having something to eat when a mutual friend that we allowed to go use our room came rushing in looking really upset. And she’s like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on. I went to the room and Kimmy is lying in the bed and she’s not waking up.’”

The group pays the bill quickly, jumps in a friend’s truck, and rushes to the Inn. 

“I remember just walking up to the bed and she was laying there, and the blanket was pulled up to her neck area. She was just like laying on her back with her arms down by her side The blanket was fully covering her up to her neck and she just looked like she was asleep. So I went up and on the right side of her was a pillow that had mascara-like makeup stuff on it and I’m looking at that I’m looking at her and just something that was part of me was like, just go touch her, you know, go wake her up. But another part of me was like no, she’s gone … she’s not there anymore,” Lisa explained.

Lisa recalls the paramedics and police arriving on the scene. The last image from that night is seeing them come out with her friend Kimberly in a body bag on a stretcher. 

“I remember seeing that and then taking her down the hallway. And that’s kind of a blur after that.”

In the period after Kimberly’s murder, Lisa is taken to Vancouver to help an artist create a sketch of the suspect — the man last seen with Kimberly that night. 

“He was nervous acting, but in that profession, we had a lot of males that acted nervous when they approached us,” Lisa said of the suspect. “I just know that they talked and it seemed like they were talking for longer than is normal. He had been walking around. Back in those days, there was a lot of girls out on the streets like on either side of the corners. And I believe he was kind of just waiting around trying to get her attention like he specifically wanted to speak to her.”

Lisa has never forgotten her friend Kimberly. She is now a mom with children of her own, and has a message for Kimberly’s parents.

“I’m so very sorry they lost their daughter. I did my best to keep her safe, you know, keep her happy and just be a best friend for her.”

Kimberly Gallup is one of three teenage girls murdered in Victoria between the summers of 1990-1991. Cheri Lynn Smith was killed in June 1990 and Melissa Nicholson in June of 1991. All three deaths remain unsolved. 

If you or someone you know may be a human trafficking victim, you can call the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-833-900-1010.

‘Sweethearts’ is a series for the Frequency Podcast Network. You can listen to this series and other Island Crime episodes on all podcast platforms.

Rogers is the parent company of this station and the Frequency Podcast Network.