NEW WESTMINSTER, British Columbia (AP) — Three friends of a pig farmer accused of killing 26 women had also been arrested during the investigation, a witness testified at the murder trial on Monday.

Robert William Pickton, 56, is charged with 26 counts of first-degree murder in a case that has drawn widespread attention. He is accused of luring women to his pig farm outside Vancouver, where investigators say he threw drunken parties.

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Most of the victims were prostitutes and addicts who vanished from a drug-ridden Vancouver neighborhood in the 1990s. Pickton is on trial for the deaths of six of the women and a separate trial will be held for the other 20.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Don Adam said during questioning that Lynn Ellingsen, Dinah Taylor and Pat Casanova also were arrested in the case — although they were not charged with any of the murders.

Adam said Ellingsen and Taylor were arrested in February 2002, more than a week before Pickton was arrested. Casanova was arrested almost a year later.

Adam told Pickton during a videotaped police interrogation shown to jurors that Ellingsen saw Pickton skinning a woman who was hanging from a meat hook on his pig farm.

Jurors also heard last week that Pickton had told his brother Taylor he was involved in some of the murders. Casanova's connection with the case was not immediately clear Monday.

Prosecutors have said evidence against Pickton includes skulls, teeth and blood found on his farm. He denies any involvement in the murders and has pleaded not guilty.

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