By David Lohr
December 27, 2006
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Crime Library) — It has been nearly five years since Robert Pickton was arrested and charged with the brutal murders of 26 women. Amazingly, he has yet to face a jury of his peers. Justice delayed, has been and is, justice denied.
Pickton first came to the attention of authorities in 1998. At that time, authorities were investigating the disappearance of over sixty women, all of whom seemed to vanish without a trace. An acquaintance of Pickton dropped his name to authorities as a possible suspect in those disappearances and days later a search was conducted of Pickton's 14-acre pig farm. However, that search, along with two others conducted within the same time frame, did not result in the discovery of evidence linking Pickton to the disappearances. The thoroughness of those initial searches remains a subject of great debate.
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| Pickton's Pig Farm |
After almost four years and several more unexplained disappearances, authorities in Canada finally arrested Robert Pickton on suspicion of murder. The announcement came on February 22, 2002. According to Vancouver Constable Catherine Galliford, a firearm charge resulted in yet another search of Pickton's property, during which time they discovered evidence linking him to the murders of Sereena Abotsway and Mona Wilson. "Police found human body parts in freezers used to store unsold meat," Fox News reported. "They also discovered remains in a wood chipper — the victims' bodies turned into pig feed." The news came as a shock to many and authorities began to wonder how many more victims they would soon discover.
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| Abotsway, Wilson, victims |
During the summer of 2003, Pickton's preliminary hearing was held under a strict publication ban. Details of the testimony and forthcoming evidence remain unknown. Nonetheless, a judge did rule there was enough evidence to warrant a trial.
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| Investigators at Pickton farm |
It took nearly two years for authorities to complete a search of Pickton's 14-acre pig farm. Over 100 forensic anthropologists worked together, to link the DNA of over two-dozen women to the property. As of this writing, all but three of them have been positively identified.
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