Canadian True Crime - Robert Pickton: The Final Chapter [5]

Episode Date: February 15, 2026

Part 5 - The Final Episode.*Thanks for your patience - it's a long oneCONTENT WARNING: Graphic and disturbing details.WATCH:Robert “Willie” Pickton — Prolific serial killer’s jailhouse confession to undercover cop - The Mob Reporter, YouTubeREAD/LISTEN:On The Farm by Stevie CameronWHAT TO LISTEN TO NEXT:The Shedden Massacre - our three part seriesThe Trail Went ColdThe Canadian GothicCrisis referral services:Free National Indian Residential School Crisis Line: call 1-866-925-4419 toll freeHope for Wellness free chatline - 1-800-721-0066 or using the chat box on the websiteGovernment of Canada Crisis and Mental Health support  Resources for Sexual assault survivorsCanadian True Crime donates monthly to those facing injustice. Proceeds from this series are being donated to the WISH Drop-in Centre Society, supporting street-based sex workers on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside since 1984.Full list of resources, information sources, and more:www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Canadian True Crime is a completely independent production, funded mainly through advertising. You can listen to Canadian True Crime ad-free and early on Amazon music included with Prime, Apple Podcasts, Patreon, and Supercast. The podcast often has disturbing content and coarse language. It's not for everyone. Please take care when listening. An additional content warning, graphic and disturbing details. This is the final chapter of Robert Picton. Where we left off, it was early February of 2002, and the police raided the Picton farm based on a search warrant for illegal weapons. Instead, they found evidence linking him to multiple missing women.

Pickton was arrested and released on bail the following day, while police sealed off the farm and returned with a new search warrant. Inside Robert Pickton's mobile trailer home, investigators found a disturbing amount of evidence scattered throughout, belonging to multiple missing women along with blood and hair. They also found multiple inhalers prescribed to Serena Abbott's Way, who'd been missing for months. The 29-year-old had picked those inhalers up from the pharmacy

only a few days before she was last seen alive. Investigators shifted their focus to an old run-down motorhome, Picton had lived in for a time. Inside, they found heavy blood staining on a mattress and blood spatter throughout the motor home, signs that someone had been badly injured and dragged out. So far, they'd found no actual remains, but there was no way one person could have survived that level of blood loss. Multiple samples from the motorhome were rushed for DNA testing in comparison to samples from the missing women. As the search continued,

investigators were preparing for the inevitable second arrest of Robert Picton. This time, it had to count. Any contact with him needed to be carefully planned and handled by the right people. Police decided a female officer would approach him and try to build a rapport, constable Dana Lilly's,

the only woman on the team. She'd recently spent with Robert's sister Linda, who described him as deeply submissive to their younger brother. David even told him what time to go to bed. On February 16, 2002, 11 days after the police raided the farm, the officer showed up to David Pickton's current demolition work site, where Robert had been working while out on bail. Dressed in plain clothes, she approached him and told him she was there to serve him a summons on his firearms charges, the official reason for the visit.

She began asking him questions about how he was dealing with all the media attention, giving him the impression she was a sympathetic outsider who might get in trouble for talking to him. He quickly slipped into his familiar narrative, portraying himself as a persecuted, poor farm boy. He compared himself to Princess Diana. being hounded by the media, as reported in On the Farm by Stevie Cameron. At times, he broke down in tears, his chin quivering. The officer listened and nodded along sympathetically, as Robert Picton rambled through the same stories he'd repeated for years.

His weird and abusive childhood, the slaughtering of his pet calf, his road trip across the United States to meet one of his pen pals, and his failed engagement, the deaths of his parents. He called his younger brother David a greedy asshole. He denied having anything to do with the missing women. He did pick up sex workers, but he was helping them and asked for nothing in return. He also mentioned helping Gina Houston. If he was killing them all, why was she and others he'd been helping still alive? Speaking of Gina, she would later testify about a conversation she had with Robert Pickton four days later in her car. It was February 20, 2002, and the farm was now swarming with police.

Gina would testify her pal Willie was distraught and crying about being under investigation and connection to the missing women. He told her suicide was his only option now, because he did not want to go to jail. Then he suggested they both kill themselves by the end of the week. Gina also reminded Willie of a phone call they had three months earlier when she heard voices, the sound of a struggle, and him saying, stop that, before the line went dead. She asked if someone had been hurt.

Willie indicated yes. He said he'd tried to do everything he could for her, but she did not make it. Gina asked if by she, he meant Mona. She didn't mention a surname, but Mona Wilson had only just disappeared at that time. Willie said yes, he did mean Mona, and she was now buried in the piggery with several other bodies, but he denied killing Mona or any of the women.

Gina Houston would testify he blamed Dinah Taylor, claiming she was responsible for several of the deaths and that she would take responsibility for them. Dinah Taylor had already been arrested and questioned aggressively. She was uncooperative and would not buckle. She was released hours later without charge, but was under intermittent surveillance. At around this time, the first forensic results came back from the lab.

The multiple samples of blood taken from Robert Pickton's old motor home was matched to one missing woman. It was the blood of 26-year-old Mona Wilson, the last of the women to disappear. Mona's blood was everywhere, in more than 75 locations in that motorhome, on clothing, pieces of paper, three blankets, a running shoe, a space heater, window blinds and alcohol bottles. Mona's DNA was also on that dildo attached to the 22-caliber revolver found in Robert Pickton's mobile trailer, along with his DNA. But there was DNA from another woman in that old motorhome as well. 34-year-old Diane Rock had disappeared a month before Mona Wilson

and her DNA was found in several areas and her hairs on a blanket. Diane's handbag was found discarded in debris outside the old piggery. Inside it, investigators discovered a fluid-filled condom containing Robert Pickton's DNA. In a loft above the farm's mechanical workshop, they found a white purse belonging to 28-year-old Sarah DeVries, who'd been missing for four years by this point. It still held her lipsticks, along with her. another used condom containing Picton's DNA. Nearby, a set of keys carried the DNA of Brenda Wolf. Outside the slaughterhouse, investigators would find four more condoms tied together in a knot,

each containing Robert Pickton's semen. Perhaps a way of preserving something as a kind of trophy, or maybe it was just more of the filthy squalor that defined the daily life of a very dirty man. So far, investigators had not recovered a full body, but what they were uncovering told its own story, and the search was far from over. The police now had the authority to arrest Robert Picton and charge him with two counts of first-degree murder for Mona Wilson and Serena Abbott's Way. By the end, he would be charged with the first-degree murder of 27 women. On February 22 of 2002,

officers in plain clothes drove to the demolition work site where they found Robert Pickton sitting in a flatbed truck. He was told he was under arrest. He said nothing. He was advised he'd been charged with two murders and was under investigation in connection with dozens of other women and put in the back of a police cruiser. He appeared stunned.

He protested it wasn't true. For the rest of the drive, he spoke very little. As Robert Picton was formally booked and charged, it was noted that he was absolutely filthy and his breath was said to be foul. His hands were so dirty they were almost completely black on the palm. arms and fingers. His fingernails were caked in black grime. He was told to have a shower and change

into jail clothing. He refused the shower. He was taken to his cell. As he walked in, his cellmate immediately began protesting that he didn't want to share a cell and demanding to see his lawyer. Robert urinated, did not wash his hands and then lay down on his bench. He asked the other man, he'd been charged with. His cellmate was of course an undercover officer, a cell plant. The cell was being surveilled and there was another officer just down the hallway. And it was good that Robert started the conversation because the cell plant can't guide it or interview the suspect. It has to be a natural conversation. It was also clear that Robert just wanted to talk about himself. He called himself a plain old pig farmer.

who was being charged for 50 murders. The cell plant said he didn't believe it that Robert was bullshitting him, but then he realized this was the man from the TV. Robert Picton sarcastically referred to himself as a legend. He reiterated he was just a farm guy and launched into all the same stories of his life on the farm. Then he was taken out for police questioning.

The interrogation team was ready, and waiting, task force members, psychologists, profilers, as well as other officers involved in the case so far. Three skilled investigators would have a go at trying to crack Robert Pickton. The first, Sergeant Bill 40, began by trying to establish a rapport with Robert, discussing his childhood, his short-lived engagement to Connie, whether he drank or did drugs. Only a few very brief video clips of Robert Pickton's police interview were later released, and the audio is not great, but here's a few clips. Do you drink?

Oh, no? No. I don't drink. I don't smoke. All you drugs and everybody says, how can you guys are so bloodshot? That last part is unintelligible. They also discussed the 1997 knife attack with Wendy, and Robert continued to insist he was the victim. I turned around. I didn't take a knife away from her. I did not take a knife away from her. I aimed a tour and a knife or twice. I didn't do that. I admit I did that. That's one thing I didn't. Shouldn't have done.

He was asked if he ever hired sex workers. Not since his incident. No. What about after the incident? Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. They talked about how he butchers animals on the farm. Robert, yawned a lot. He was shown a poster with the headshots of 48 missing women and was asked if he recognised any of them. He's vague, saying he doesn't know. There's so many people coming in and out of his place. Robert speculated that some of them may have been at his place to party, but he didn't know any of them well and certainly had not had sex with any of them.

The investigator pointed to each woman one by one, and he denied they were ever at his place. He commented that many of them were pretty. They talked about the media, and Robert seemed shocked, yet almost delighted that he was in the paper, and his picture was on the front page. They spoke about Dinah Taylor, and he said he'd been with her for seven or eight years,

calling her a nice person, but insisting he had never had sex with her. He was asked about Serena Abbott's ways inhaler. Robert asked, Serena, who's that? He was asked why her inhaler was found in his mobile trailer home and her DNA all over the place if she hadn't actually been there. Robert said,

That's impossible. The conversation turned to the revolver found in the laundry with the dildo attached to it. Robert explained that the little plastic thing was to make the firearm quiet. The investigator asked him, how did Mona Wilson's DNA get on that dildo along with your own DNA? Robert played dumb and suggested there must have been a setup. This continued for hours.

Police had stacked a bunch of boxes in the interview room with labels like DNA evidence, toxicology report. informant and surveillance. They were all fake. It was intended to spook him. Constable Dana Lillies came in as a friendlier face. Same result. He just said he didn't know what happened, how the DNA got there, and proclaimed his innocence. Finally, after even more hours, Staff Sergeant Don Adam came in to give it all they had. Robert was told that his brother David was cooperating with the police and had told them that it was over for Willie and that he knew there were bodies. The investigator also told Robert that his brother blamed Dinah Taylor

for some of the killings and that Willie helped dispose of the bodies. He was then informed that his brother was preparing to give them all the information he had. None of that was true. It was a classic Reed investigative technique designed to make Robert believe that others had turned on him in the hope he would give up information. In Canada, police are legally allowed to lie during interrogations. It didn't work. So they moved on to Dina Taylor, telling Robert she had fled, but officers had tracked her down back to Thunder Bay, Ontario and spoken with her family. They had convinced her to cooperate with police, she'd already given them information and was preparing to give them more. This wasn't true either. Dina had refused to speak to the police and they were still surveilling

her. Investigators then shifted to a new angle, telling him that Lynn Ellingson was negotiating to give him up about seeing him stringing up a woman in the slaughterhouse. Robert flatly denied this. He did confirm that Lynn Ellingson was negotiating to give him up. was blackmailing him, though. Robert was told that the police expected to find bodies and now was the time to speak up. For the first time, he cracked slightly. He did not confess, but he shifted the focus away from himself,

saying that before he could say anything, he needed to talk to Dinah Taylor. After hours of denial, Robert Picton finally made his first admission, quote, there are bodies. He said it was way over that too many people were involved and that he had made his own grave. But when investigators pressed him on the numbers, how many bodies he said he didn't know.

The investigator probed was at 10, 20, 30. Robert accused the police of, quote, making me more of a mass killer than I am. He insisted that he was not the only one involved, although his brother had nothing to do with it. When attention turned to Dinah Taylor, Robert admitted he had told others that she was responsible for some of the killings,

but he refused to tell investigators whether it was true. When asked to explain whether Dinah acted with him to kill some women together, or if she killed some of them without him, Robert responded with no comment. Again and again, he insisted he would not speak until he'd talk to Dinah Taylor first, and that he would take the fall for everything if it came to that. He kept saying he had been nailed to the cross, yet remained extremely vague on any actual details.

By this point, Robert had been in the interview room for more than 11 hours. He hadn't eaten anything and hadn't even left to use the washroom yet. He was offered the opportunity, but refused. At one point, the investigation. The investigator asked him if he was hungry. Do you want a pork sandwich? He shook his head. I don't deserve to eat.

As the interview went on, Robert Picton described himself as the head honcho, the head guy, and repeatedly hinted that others would eventually be caught, that a lot of people were going to come down. But each time investigators pressed for details, he clammed up. He said, quote, There will be other murderers or whatever, other people charge, but that's here not there.

The investigator asked him, men or women, and he said, A man. The following questions were answered with no comment. All Robert would say was that that man was not his brother David. In fact, his language softened when he spoke about his brother. He said they'd shared a good life together for 50 years. loved David and they were very close. When investigators raised the idea that David had bossed him around, Robert said, Yeah, that's good. I like that. Whatever happened, he insisted, it had

nothing to do with his brother. The investigator tried turning to the question of why he killed. Robert Picton blamed the police for taking so long to catch him. That's why. He rejected the suggestion that it had anything to do with fantasies, desire, gratification or collecting trophies. He acknowledged that he'd thought about stopping. The investigator asked, Would I be right in saying, Willie, that you had reached the stage where you just no longer really viewed these girls as being worth anything? He replied, Mm-hmm. That's the same affirmative response he gave when he was asked if he loved his younger brother. He was asked, he loved his younger brother. He added that he had one more planned and then he was going to shut it down. That's why he

was so sloppy. That was the end of it. An odd response given the plethora of evidence he must have known was on the farm. But then again, many of the missing women had disappeared without a trace. Slowly, Robert Picton began to offer fragments that sounded like very narrow admissions. When asked how many women he had killed, he gave a vague estimate, saying two, maybe three, but he immediately tried to walk it back. He refused to acknowledge anything about Serena Abbott's way. He was pushed on Mona Wilson that it was her blood on the mattress. Robert again said that affirmative, but once again, he refused to give details. When the investigator told him he'd done a poor job, cleaning up inside the trailer, he laughed about it and agreed. He said he was sloppy and careless.

How did David not see that? Robert replied, because he's too busy. Each time the investigator pressed for specifics about any of the other women, Robert told them repeatedly he couldn't say anything without speaking to Dinah Taylor first. Then, almost casually, he threw out a final line. If police wanted to dig up the property, they were welcome to it. After 12 hours, the interview was over for the day. It was now 10pm. Investigator Don Adams would later testify that he felt Robert Pickedon was toying with him during that interrogation,

that he was deliberately playing head games with the police. Robert Piquton thought his interrogation was over. He had no idea it would be continuing in a different form. The undercover cop playing his cellmate was waiting for him to talk all about it. Later on, a small selection of video from this conversation would be released publicly, but it's not very good quality and a lot of picked inside of the conversation is in mumbles and whispers. It is available on YouTube via the Mob Reporter YouTube channel. in the show notes to watch it with subtitles.

I've got my fellow OG podcasters to voice the key parts. Robin Warder from The Trail Went Cold is voicing Robert Picton. Got me. They got me on this one. And Jordan Bonaparte from the Canadian Gothic is voicing the undercover cop. No, no shit. What have they got? And in certain parts, you'll hear clips from the real conversation as well. Please note, this conversation has been edited for clarity. brevity, and excessively gratuitous swearing.

I... I fucking bury myself now. Hey? I buried myself. How? Got me. They got me on this one. No, no shit. What have they got? Fuck, all, there's old carcasses. Fuck, what have you got?

No. No, carcasses. What have you got? You know what I'm saying? DNA. So what do you got? Now I'm saying. Fuck. Yeah.

Yeah. Come on, buddy. fuck, that's nothing. You've got a fucking missing person. It's hard to collect DNA. They've got DNA. He's a fucking missing person. We're a fucking guy who's got it. Guy does it right. I find the best ways to dispose of something is take it to the ocean.

The cell plant is building on Robert Pickton's comment about DNA with a classic elicitation technique, casually mentioned something close enough to the truth. then wait for the suspect's ego to step in and correct it. Suppose it something to take it to the ocean. Oh, really? Do you know what the ocean does to things? There ain't much left. I did better than that.

Then you better than that? Who? Me? No. No. Robert moves over to sit right next to the cell plant, bowing his head as he whispers. The cell plant asks him to repeat what he says.

A rendering plant. No shit. That's got to be pretty good, eh? Mm-hmm. Can't be much left. Oh, no, only, uh, I was kind of sloppy at the end, too, getting too sloppy. Really? Really? Yeah, much sloppy left.

Oh, man, it's sloppy. Too, get too sloppy. Really? Oh, fuck, getting too sloppy. They want to dig, they are. They're going to dig for easy. That's unbelievable. Let him dig.

That's right. I told them already. Dig. Have fun. No shit, have fun. Play in the dirt. Teeth, we're gonna find fingernails, bones, yes, so yes it is. You said good luck.

I don't believe this. I'm so fucking stupid. Like sloppy. Mr. Sloppy. I'm sloppy at the end. Robert Picton holds up four fingers. Yeah, four? Four I was sloppy with.

I just couldn't finish it off, so I cleaned it up and that's it. So I let everything die for a while. Yeah. Then do another 25 new ones. In another part of the conversation, Robert Pickton says that if he hadn't been caught, he would have done more and his count would have been more than, quote, the ones in the states. He adds that the Green River Killer's record was about 42.

That's Gary Ridgeway, who targeted sex workers in the Seattle area. It's interesting that Pickedon brought him up. The cell plant tells him it looks like he's got the record. Pekton says his number is still growing. I can make things disappear. I was going to do one more, making it even 50. Make the big 50. Make the big 50.

Make the big 50. 5-0, half a hundred. Everybody says how many of those? wouldn't tell them. Talk about half, about one quarter, talking about all of them? I says no. You know they got 48 on the list? Yeah. You know the list has only got like only half the people in there? The other half might. But I think most of them, based on that fucking evidence, I think I'm nailed to the cross. But I think what would be you can't be able to be able to be able to be able to be a fucking fuck at us. I think they're going to cross. But if that happens... Robert Picton is about to say that there'll be about 15 other people going down. Some will go down the tank.

He says, they were my friends. I thought they were my fucking friends. But if that happens, 15 other people are going to go down. Yeah. I thought they were my friends. I thought they were my fucking friends. 15 people.

But despite his concerns about being sloppy and that he had buried himself, Picton also boasts about how he handled the police interrogation. So I'll see what's going to happen tomorrow. Tomorrow's going to be very interesting. My lawyer says don't say nothing. Perfect. They're going to say, you know, you don't understand that? You're not saying what you said yesterday.

That's right. They're going to come back to me and I'm going to say, I don't know. I can't remember. Yeah, you're going to, really. really fuck them up tomorrow. You're going to have some fun. I'm really, I'm really turning their minds around today. I really had them fucking going today. It suggests his bumbling pig farmer persona was just that, a mask, something he performed when he needed to, and he believed it had fooled the police.

At around midnight, the cell plant was told his lawyer was on the phone. Robert started masturbating on his bunk. His cellmate never came back. The undercover operation was over. It's right about this time that Robert Pickdon's former house guest, Lynn Ellingson, was working up the courage to finally speak to the police about what she'd seen in the slaughterhouse that night three years earlier. Proceeds from this series are being donated to the Wish Dropin Center Society,

supporting street-based sex workers on Vancouver's downtown Eastside since 1984. In the days after Robert Pekton's arrest, his former friend Lynn Ellingson gave a full police statement. She'd stopped using drugs and was thinking more clearly. It still took some coaxing because she was terrified that he would be released on bail and would make good on his threats. The police took her out to the farm to point. out various locations and give more details, which gave her statement further credibility. Investigators re-interviewed Scott Chubb, who confirmed what Willie picked and told him about

killing someone with a syringe containing windshield washer fluid. As a sidebar, a forensic toxicologist would later testify that one syringe of methanol, which is consistent with windshield washer fluid, would not be enough to kill someone. someone, it would take about 150 to 375 times that amount. Scott Chubb also told police that while Willie's temperament was usually quiet, he snapped when he got angry and it sometimes ended in violence. He recalled the two brothers having an argument once, and Willie suddenly punched David in the nose. He would later testify that shortly after Willie was arrested, David

phoned him and threatened him if Willie goes down. Scott Chubb mentioned the Hell's Angels and repeatedly requested witness protection for himself and his family. He was one of many key witnesses who were struggling with poverty and substance use. Police would provide financial support, relocation and treatment to ensure they could testify. Several would also apply for the $100,000 reward. which was ultimately split among six anonymous tipsters. Robert Pickton's defense team would argue that these witnesses were all desperate for money,

which drove them to exaggerate or fabricate their stories. The only one who confirmed he was one of those tipsters was Bill Hiscopx, the former employee of David Pickton's demolition business, who rang the alarm four years earlier with some disturbing anecdotes, from the farm. He notified both the Vancouver PD Tip Line and the local RCMP that Willie Picked in regularly picked up sex workers and talked openly about disposing of their bodies in the piggery and in his meat grinder. Bill Hescox also relayed information about bloody clothing and identification belonging to multiple women. He was one of the earliest people to notify police about what he'd

seen and heard, and while Detective Constable Laura Machena had interviewed him at the time and believed he was credible, the higher-ups dismissed his information as hearsay and not enough for a search warrant. More than a dozen more women were murdered after those warnings were ignored. Then there was Andrew Bellwood, the man who had lived in Pickton's trailer for a short time before he was assaulted, falsely accused of stealing tools and chased off the farm. He'd been too terrified to report anything to the police at the time, but Andrew Bellwood would testify that Willie Picton told him he lured sex workers to the farm with drugs and money and demonstrated exactly how he restrained and strangled them. He described

taking their bodies to the barn to butcher and gut them and then feed them to the pigs. And what the Pigs didn't eat was taken to West Coast reduction, no one the wiser. Back at the farm, the search moved to the workshop building. One of the investigators opened up a freezer and saw two white plastic buckets inside each other lying on their sides. One had the word clout labelled on it. The investigator looked inside the inner bucket and was horrified at what he thought he saw. Inside was a human head that had been cut in half vertically.

There were also two hands and two feet. They were the frozen remains of 23-year-old Andrea Joseberry, who vanished about 10 months beforehand. This was the first actual human remains found on the farm, and that was just the inner bucket. The outer bucket it was tucked into, contained, identical frozen remains, a head cut in half vertically, accompanied by hands and feet. These belong to 29-year-old Serena Abbotsway, whose inhalers had been found in Robert Pickton's

mobile trailer. Serena's DNA was also in the other bucket with Andrea Jonesbury's remains. And in that same freezer was DNA belonging to at least seven other women, including including Heather Bottomley, Diana Melnick, Tanya Marlowe-Hollick, Stephanie Lane, Sherry Irving and Kara Alice, all in their early to mid-20s, as well as Diane Rock, who was 34. Over at the slaughterhouse, investigators were appalled by a smell coming from two plastic garbage pails. One of them contained animal remains, the other contained another human head, cut in half vertically and again accompanied by two feet and hands. These were the remains of Mona Wilson, not frozen and badly decomposed. Mona was the victim of the bloodletting event in Robert Peckton's old motorhome. By this point, it had been about three months since she vanished.

The discovery of these three human heads and the way they'd been cut in half vertically, immediately reminded forensics experts of something found seven years earlier in the city of Mission, about 30 minutes drive east of Port Coquitlam. In 1995, a woodworker had spotted something on the ground between a creek and the Trans-Canada Highway. At first, he thought it was an indigenous artifact, but when he got closer, he realized it was a partial skull. A number of forensic specialists were consulted at the time and determined that the half skull belonged to a Caucasian woman aged between 20 and 40.

She was missing teeth in her upper right jaw and she might have worn dentures. She had been killed some time in the previous 10 years. Her DNA was submitted to every laboratory in Canada and composite drawings were shared with Interpol in all-known missing persons databases, but nothing matched the description. The RCMP believed it was possible that her family either didn't know that she was missing

or might have been under the mistaken belief that she'd already been reported missing when she hadn't been. She was given the name Mission Jane Doe, and her skull was placed in storage and forgotten. The discovery made no sense to police at the time, but seven years later, during the search of the Picton farm, that changed. A forensic examination of the skulls of Serena Abbotsway, Andrea Joseberry and Mona Wilson, revealed they'd been bisected or cut in half vertically with a reciprocating sore,

and they each had a gunshot wound to the head that came from a 22-caliber firearm. There was no evidence of a gunshot on Mission Jane Doe's skull, but it was only a partial skull. All four skulls bore the same distinctive cuts and had been dissected the exact same way using the same reciprocating saw. There were multiple freezers located in several buildings on the farm. Investigators digging around in a different freezer came across a number of packages of ground pork. Given the frozen human remains already found, this discovery came with some alarming implications. The packages of ground pork were sent away for DNA testing.

Nine packages contained ground human tissue, belonging to two women who disappeared more than four years beforehand. 43-year-old Cindy Fallix and 47-year-old Inger Monique Hall. Their DNA was also found on plastic sheet liners in that freezer. This was a potential public health risk, but for some reason it wasn't announced until more than 18 months after these results were known. BC's provincial health officer would issue a public advisory asking anyone who might still have frozen pork from the pig farm to turn it over to police, citing the conditions discovered at the site. The public advisory stressed there was no evidence of disease transmission

and reassured the public that the risk was extremely low, especially if the meat was not consumed raw. The advisory was carefully worded, focusing on food safety without disclosing the full reason the alarm had been raised. But many people put two and two together because a police source had already leaked information to the press that body parts had been discovered in freezers on the farm. Authorities reassured the public that the meat in question had not been sold commercially and was only shared privately with Robert Pickton's friends and acquaintances.

But an associate who helped him with the packaging and sales of the ground pork publicly accused the RCMP of playing that aspect down. He said he knew that the meat had been routinely sold to local butcher shops nearby. This ground meat discovery was yet another real-life horror connected to this case. Back at the farm search, investigators turned to the ruins of what was once the old piggery. At the far end of the ruins was an old cistern, a tank used to collect liquid waste, there was a strong stench coming from it. While sifting through the manure, an investigator felt something solid. It was part of a human lower jaw that had been cut with a

sore. There were five teeth still attached and one tooth had a distinctive dental filling. Dental records would identify the jaw as belonging to 31-year-old Brenda Wolfe, who'd been missing for more than three years by this point. Brenda's DNA had also been found on a number of items inside Robert Pickton's mobile trailer. There was something else among the waist in the old cistern, a small human bone with a distinctive shape like it had been whittled or carved by human hands. It turned out to be a partial leg bone belonging to 43-year-old Wendy Crawford, who'd been missing for more than two years. The discovery so far were scattered across several different

buildings and in ruins on the farm. It was widespread and investigators now faced the reality that the entire property might hold evidence and answers, not just the buildings, but all 14 acres of land, much of it buried under decades of junk, machinery and debris. The farm was stripped down, cleared, sectioned off in a grid and systematically excavated, square by square, with every load of soil screened for evidence. Specialised teams, heavy equipment, and renowned forensic experts were brought in to process the sheer volume of material. After more of the structure around the pig pen was torn down, officers discovered a series of small bones buried in the ground.

They turned out to be 14 hand bones, belonging to 34-year-old Georgina Papin. By this point, she'd been missing for more than three years. Georgina had been identified as the indigenous woman with long black hair and chipmunk cheeks that Lynn Ellingson said she saw strung up in the slaughterhouse with Robert Picton that night. Lynn would testify she couldn't remember

the exact date that this happened, so it's not a confirmed identification. But photos of Georgina Papin indicate she did indeed have high cheekbones, and this discovery of her handbones confirmed that she was a victim of Robert Pickdon. This was the only evidence of Georgina Papin left. There was no DNA, other remains or any other personal possessions found. Investigators never did find those three illegal firearms that Scott Chubb told police he saw, but that no longer mattered. They recovered thousands of items believed to belong to women from the downtown east side. With no intact bodies to return, police began meeting with families,

laying out recovered belongings and asking them to identify what they could. For many, it was the first confirmation that, their loved one had been at the Picton farm at all. Every available white contamination suit in the country was being used by the searches. More than 400,000 crime scene photos were taken and some 600,000 exhibits were sent for DNA testing, challenging the entire lab system across Canada. It would take several years to get all the forensic results back.

DNA belonging to 26-year-old Jackie Murdoch was found on a used condom wrapper. There was another syringe filled with windshield wiper fluid and the DNA of Tiffany Drew, who was 24. They found 39-year-old Sharon Abraham's fingernail, and DNA belonging to 34-year-old Yvonne Marie Boone in a miscellaneous location. There was also the DNA of 25-year-old Nancy Clark, the earliest known victim who disappeared from Vancouver Island 11 years earlier in 1991, when Robert and David Picton were working a demolition job there. In the Slaughterhouse, more DNA was matched to Andrea Joseberry, Kara Alice and Patty Johnson. The story became a global sensation. camera crews were sent from all over the world to see the search site for themselves and dig around the downtown east side.

They spoke to the families of the victims and the police. The Vancouver Sun dug into land sales records and reported that the Picton siblings had made some $6.6 million selling various parcels of their land over the years, and the remaining land that the police were now digging up was assessed at more than $4 million at that point. There was some public outrage, the rumours of the Picton family as greedy, corrupt and morally rotten, running a junkyard pig farm tied to Biker rumors and now a serial killer,

the infamous Piggy's Palace and their refusal to follow the rules, while also cashing in on millions in land deals. It was all a bit rich. But Robert Pickton's older sister, Linda, the one who went to live with relatives in Vancouver when she was about 13, gave a reluctant interview to Kim Bolan of the Vancouver son. She claimed they only made a modest profit from the land sales. She insisted that the land cost a lot to develop before it could be sold, even though most of that work was done by David Pickdon's landfill and trucking company. She claimed the family was actually financially strained now and there was no money left to pay for her brother Robert's legal defence. Linda Picton clarified she hadn't shared any holidays or

social events with her brother and before his arrest she only ever saw him at lawyer's offices when they were selling parcels of their land. She said she had not spoken to him or visited him in prison. Linda Picton expressed sympathy for the victims and their families, but said the search of the farm marked the end of life as she knew it. She described herself as a victim that it had left the family in disbelief and turmoil struggling to come to turns with the shock and stigma attached to their name. According to Stevie Cameron's book On the Farm, Linda Picton said the body parts in his freezers alone would convict him.

quote, It's ridiculous to say he's not guilty. She also claimed Robert Picton was lazy and had never worked a day in his life. Quote, Maybe if he'd worked at a real job, he wouldn't have done this. If Rob had any conscience at all, he would plead guilty and get it over with. As the digging operation on the farm continued, more missing women were reported. Now the count was 54.

the Robert Picton case had been declared the biggest in Canadian history. The importance of a thorough search of the farm was never clearer. The searches had grown to include teams of forensic anthropologists and archaeologists to deal with the bones, because bone pits used for animal disposal were uncovered across the property. It all had to be processed and searched. A group of university students and these and related, forensic fields were brought in to stand by the conveyor belts and help sort out the debris

uncovered by the search. The work was brutal, physically and mentally stressful and exhausting, but critically important. One student saw something unusual on the conveyor belt. It was a partial jawbone with fragmented edges and three teeth that were extremely brittle. The jawbone belonged to 24-year-old Marnie Frey, who had disappeared more than five years earlier. And nearby were two more human bones, a heel bone and a ribbone. They belonged to Mission Jane Doe, definitively linking her to the Picton Farm. The investigation became the largest and most expensive crime scene in Canadian history, costing an estimated 40 to 50,

million dollars for the search alone. The operation officially ended in November of 2003, more than 18 months after it began. As the final bone pit was filled in, students who had worked the site held a quiet memorial, placing white roses and name cards for each of the now 61 missing women into the pit. A bagpiper played as each name was spoken out. A small but meaningful act of respect at the end of a devastating search. By May of 2005, Robert Picton had been charged with the first-degree murder of 27 women, including Mission Jane Doe. In the time leading up to the trial, Robert Pickton wrote to at least one pen pal from prison.

That pen pal, based in California, would later provide the letters to the Vancouver Sun. Of note, Robert Picton wrote, I know I was brought into this world to change this world of their evil ways. They even want to disregard the Ten Commandments, he complained. He quoted a Bible verse which says, For you can be quite certain that nobody who actually indulges in fornication or impurity or promiscuity can inherit anything of the kingdom of God. He referred to himself as a condemned man of no wrongdoing, just like his father,

and bragged about how many millions had been spent on investigation and excavating the farm and how he's now so important he needs a convoy of protection to and from the court. Robert Pickton insisted he was just the fall guy and that the police had arrested the wrong man. The trial finally began in January of 2007, almost five years since the search of the pig farm began, and it was full of disappointment for many of those on the victim's side. The year beforehand, the Crown had announced it would only proceed to trial based on six of the 27 first-degree murder charges. The decision was described as being in the interests of justice. because it would be too costly and expensive and too much of a burden for a jury to hear and

consider evidence for. The jury would only hear about evidence related to Serena Abbotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joseberry, Brenda Wolfe, Georgina Pappen and Marnie Frey. But there was a suggestion that all of the other charges would be prosecuted at a second trial. Regardless, this was a major blow to all of the other families. Many of them did not know what had happened to their loved ones or what evidence there was and would not find out for quite some time. At the same time, the charge in relation to Mission Jane Doe was also dropped at first. It would be brought up again at the trial,

but the judge would end up instructing the jury to forget everything. they'd heard about Mission Jane Doe. To this day, she has never been identified. The Crown Prosecutions case was that the evidence showed that Robert Pickton had a patent. He would find vulnerable women on the streets and lure them to his farm. The way he did this was by offering to buy their sexual services at a higher price than they would charge if they stayed on the downtown east side. And he also promised to provide them with drugs. once they got to the farm. He would transport them in his vehicle, give them the free drugs,

and during the course of sexual activity, he would restrain them with handcuffs or other restraints. The Crown argued that once a woman was restrained, Robert Picton would kill her using the dildo revolver or by some other means, and he would then take her body to the slaughterhouse to disembow and butcher it. He would dispose of the remains over a period of time, feeding some of those remains to his pigs, delivering some of them to West Coast Reduction, the rendering plant, and freezing other parts for later disposal.

That brings us to the other suspects and the many public questions about whether Robert Picton had partners in crime. The police would confirm that some people went from being witnesses to suspects then back. to witnesses again, depending on what was learned about them during the investigation. You'll recall that Lynn Ellingson and Dinah Taylor were the first two people arrested before Robert Picton himself was arrested. The police would clarify that Lynn Ellingson's arrest only happened because they heard from multiple sources that she witnessed Picton killing on the farm, and she refused to speak with them about it. But that was all sorted out and she was completely cleared. The court heard there was

no DNA evidence from Lynn Ellingson found on the farm. Pickedon's defense attacked Lynn's credibility relentlessly, but she never wavered on what she saw. Things were slightly different with Diana Taylor, who did not cooperate with police at any time and did not testify at trial. And there was evidence of her on the farm. Her prints and DNA had been found on duct tape, personal items and documents at the farm. Her hairs were found on a blanket along with Serena Abbotsway's DNA. Dina Taylor's DNA was also on Mona Wilson's rosary, on Brenda Wolfe's lipstick, and on several items found at the nearby property formerly known as Piggy's Palace. But Dina Taylor was known to stay on the farm and was also known to help Robert Picton procure women from the downtown east side,

so there was a plausible explanation for these items. Dinah Taylor was subject to ongoing surveillance, a wiretap and an undercover investigation. The RCMP would clarify they believed she may have some knowledge and or some involvement in the case, but there was not enough evidence for charges. That said, part of the defense's strategy was to suggest Dinah Taylor as one of several alternative suspects to Robert Pickton, particularly in the murder of Andrea Joseberry, since Dinah admitted to bringing her back to the farm. Robert Pickton did not testify in his own defense, but his defense lawyers suggested he had a low IQ and was slow, a man of limited intelligence. The Crown witnesses, including Gina Houston and Lynn Ellingson,

Scott Chubb and Andrew Bellwood, were all accused of being junkies that Picton helped, who had taken advantage of his generosity and were now telling lies about him to get their hands on the reward money. The court heard from several sex workers who testified that Robert Pickton was not violent, he was generous and nice, he respected their boundaries without expecting anything in return. But this stood in contrast to the other evidence

that he had several different sides to his personality along a spectrum from friendly and simple to cold, manipulative and violent. The defence suggested a large number of people came and went from the property, gang members, hell's angels, sex workers, drug users, and no one kept track of it. could have been anyone.

The defence pointed their fingers at the suspicious behaviour of Robert Pickdon's acquaintances, suggesting it was not fair or reasonable to blame all the murders on him. Dinah Taylor was of course one of those friends, and so was Pat Casanova, Robert Pickton's butchering partner. He was actually the third suspect arrested in connection with the murders, apart from Robert Pickton, and that happened 11 months after the search of the farm began based on DNA evidence found in multiple locations.

The police were suspicious the married father of four in his mid-60s might have been an accomplice to more than just butchering and barbecue pork. His DNA was found on one swab taken from inside the door of the slaughterhouse and it was mixed with the DNA of victim Mona Wilson. Pat Casanova's DNA was also found on an orange rubber apron hanging in the slaughterhouse and in several other areas there, and in a freezer beside the freezer that contained human remains. At the trial, Pat Casanova testified for the crown that he butchered pigs on the farm

over 18 years every weekend. He denied killing anyone, denied any involvement in the murders, and denied seeing any dead bodies or knowingly disposing of any. He testified about Robert Pickton's method of slaughtering and butchering pigs, saying they were killed with either a 22-caliber firearm or a nail gun, and then slaughtered and butchered in a similar method to how Lynn Ellingson had testified about the night she saw him in the slaughterhouse with a woman. strung up. Pat Casanova also explained that in the case of a pig, the head might be cut in half based on the wishes of the customer, and for many years, Robert Pickton used a hand saw. But about eight months before the farm search started, Picton brought a reciprocating saw to start doing that work, because it works better. Police had seized a banned saw from Pat Cassanova's

house that had human DNA on it, but not enough to identify from whom. At trial, he testified he had no explanation for that. Pat Casanova's DNA was also found in Robert Pickton's mobile trailer home, on a bathroom wall near a stain linked to victim Andrea Jonesbury, and on night vision goggles in the laundry room. He testified that he originally lied to police. and admitted that he had seen sex workers on the farm and on occasion paid some of them for sex. He identified Andrea Joseberry as being one of those women. He said when he lied to the police, he didn't know that she was dead. RCMP officers testified that Pat Casanova was put under surveillance,

a wiretap and an undercover operation, but there was not sufficient evidence for charges. Pat Casanova passed away in 2011. Perhaps the one left with the biggest question mark was Robert Pickton's younger brother, David Pickton. He was not called to testify at the trial, and neither was their older sister, Linda Picton. RCMP officers testified that they believed David Picton was the brains of the two brothers, that he took care of his older brother, but was also condescending. to him, and that Robert appeared submissive to David and deferred to him often.

Robert's defense lawyers put in great effort to point out details about David's violent criminal past, including his sexual assault conviction, his association with Hell's Angels and his sexual practices. In David Pickton's interview with the province soon after the farm search began, He claimed he'd moved away from the farm a few years earlier, but police testimony seems to confirm he was still living in the farmhouse. Regardless, the farmhouse was part of the farm search. Under David Pickton's bed, there was an electric massager that had DNA belonging to a woman who was never identified.

Her DNA was also found in a freezer in the slaughterhouse, and on a floor vent in Robert Pickton's mobile trailer. There was a bucket found in David Pickton's bedroom that had the label clout, similar to the label on one of the buckets that contained human remains in the freezer. Also in his bedroom, they found multiple dildos, black leather wrist restraints and a bottle of massage oil.

In his closet, there was another dildo, a tube of whipped cream, and a tube of lubricant that had animal hairs on it and blood-like stains. There was no testimony about whether the stains came from a human. Similar blood-like stains were found on the kitchen counter and on a sheepskin and carpet in a shed outside the house, again with no testimony about origin. David Pickton's fingerprint was discovered on a piece of cardboard above the freezer,

where the remains of Serena Abbotsway and Andrea Josbury were located. There's also no information about whether he was questioned by police. All that's known is that he was under police surveillance for a time. Police testified they could find no proof to connect David Picton to the murders of the women, but they still considered him a person of interest who warrants further investigation. Then there was DNA evidence that remains a mystery. On the bucket containing Andrea Josbury's remains was DNA belonging to two unknown men.

On teeth belonging to Andrea and Serena Abbotsway, there was DNA of three people who were also unidentified. And there was a fingerprint on one of the freezers that was not a match to Robert Picton, but was not compared to anyone else's. The trial lasted for almost a year and the jury heard evidence from almost 130 witnesses. Robert Picton listened to all the testimony without showing emotion.

In closing arguments, the Crown reminded the jury of Pickton's statements to the undercover officer or cell plant and his admissions to investigators in his police interrogation. Personal items belonging to four of the victims were found in his mobile trailer home, and the remains of all six that were part of this trial were found in his workplace. Picton's defense lawyer attempted to persuade the jury that there was no evidence that he killed any of the missing women, that no witnesses had actually seen the murders, that Lynn Ellingson was not credible, end that quote, it really comes down to this question, who fired the gun?

The court also heard that despite multiple items linking Robert Pickton's DNA to DNA belonging to missing women, he couldn't be tied forensically to the buckets holding the body parts, and none of his firearms or saw blades could be conclusively matched to the women's remains. When the defense mentioned Marnie Frey, whose partial jawbone was for found during the farm excavation and argued there was no way Picton could have killed her. Marnie's 15-year-old daughter, Brittany, broke down in tears in the courtroom. Laurie Colbert reported for the Vancouver Sun that, quote, In a touching show of emotion, Jeannie DeVries, the 16-year-old daughter of missing woman, Sarah DeVries,

hugged Brittany as she wept. The tragedy of what happened at the farm did not end. end with the arrest of Robert Picton. It reverberated through the lives of the 98 children who lost their mothers. Some, like Brittany, Jeannie and her brother, were adopted and raised by family. Others entered foster care or were adopted outside their families. They would all continue to face ongoing challenges, including the trauma and stigma tied to the violence against their mothers. The jury deliberated for five days with no word. Then on day six, the jury sent a question to the judge.

Were they able to find Robert Picton guilty, even if they believed he did not act alone, or if others were involved? The answer was yes. As long as the jury believed Picton actively participated in the killing to the degree required by the law, the jury could find him guilty. After another three days, the jury finally reached a verdict.

On December 9th of 2007, they announced that they'd found Robert Picton guilty of second-degree murder in the deaths of all six victims. But he'd been charged with first-degree murder. The jury's verdict indicated they did not believe the Crown had proved the main element of first-degree murder, that it was planned, deliberate and premeditated. Many were baffled by this distinction. There were reportedly mixed reactions from the families in the courtroom, including those of Marnie Frey, Serena Abbottesway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joseberry, Brenda Wolfe and Georgina Papin.

Some immediately proclaimed, yes. Others spoke out about the injustice of guilt, only in the second degree, and many broke down in tears. After the verdict, Don Adam, the RCMP investigator who finally got Robert Pickton to break down and partially confess, told the press that he didn't believe justice was served. Quote, Willie Picton is a chameleon. Let's not be confused about his capabilities.

He got every break in the world and people underestimated him. I was left sitting there looking into his eyes with a real sense of malignant evil. I just had the smallest sense he was playing with me, and of what it must have been like for those women when they were in his control. Before Robert Pickton was sentenced, the court heard victim impact statements from the loved ones of the six victims who were part of this trial. Many of them read out by the Crown Prosecutor

because the family members were too distraught. The same themes echoed again and again through their statements. How the loss never really ends, and it's not just grief, how it affects their sleep, their health, their relationships. Some described a constant fear, intrusive thoughts, and even moments where they did not want to keep living. They struggled to trust others. What happened?

fundamentally changed who they are. They also spoke about what was taken from their families. These women were mothers, daughters, sisters, and they had many happy memories. Now there were kids growing up without their moms, grandparents stepping in to raise grandchildren and holidays and birthdays that felt incomplete. Many family members carried immense guilt, wondering if they should have done something differently. There was a lot of anger as well. Families pushed back against the way their loved ones were reduced to labels simply because they were vulnerable. These were real women who were

loved, who had plans and who wanted better lives. Yet a lot of the media coverage and the focus on Robert Picton often made them feel like the many women were just an afterthought. And underneath it all was the same question. What happened in those final moments? Some family members mentioned trying to cope with the injustice and the unanswered questions through sobriety, faith, or advocacy in their loved one's name. But none of them spoke of closure.

What they described was something that would haunt them for the rest of their lives. Marnie Frey stepmother, Lynn, read a statement written by Marnie's 15-year-old daughter, Brittany. She looked directly at Robert Pickton as she read, quote, Why did you hurt my real mother and those other women? Do you know how you hurt those family members and me? Mr. Pickton, why would you do that? What did they do to you?

Robert Pickton again showed no emotion and kept his head bowed down. He would be a coward right to the end. In sentencing, Judge James Williams told the court that Picton's conduct was murderous and repeatedly so, and although no one knows the exact details of what happened, quote, I do know this. Each of these women were murdered and their remains were dismembered. What happened to them was senseless and despicable. Nothing I can say can adequately express the revulsion the community feels at the killings. The judge pointed out that Pickton had expressed no remorse whatsoever. For six counts of second-degree murder, he was sentenced to six life sentences to be served concurrently or at the same time, and he would not be eligible for parole for the maximum of 25 years.

When Robert Pickton was given the chance to make a statement, he looked as though he was going to say something, but his lawyer spoke up. His client did want to say something, but because he would be going to trial again for the remaining 20 charges, he had accepted advice to stay quiet for now. The defence appealed,

arguing that what Robert picked and admitted to the undercover officer in his cell were just his attempts to impress the man thinking he was a hardened criminal. The appeal also pointed to the DNA that implicated Dinah Taylor and Pat Casanova. It was unsuccessful. The defence tried with the Supreme Court of Canada, also unsuccessful,

concluding that the evidence of Pickton's guilt was overwhelming. A second trial never happened. The Crown declined to prosecute Robert Pickton on the remaining 20 murder charges, which greatly upset the families of those 20 victims. The RCMP recommended Picked and be charged with six more murders, Sharon Abraham, Stephanie Lane, Yvonne Boone, Jackie Murdoch, Dawn Kray and Nancy Clark. This didn't happen either. The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry took two years

and the final report in 2012 made one thing painfully clear. These women weren't just failed by one police officer or one decision. They were failed by an entire system that didn't see them, didn't hear them, and didn't act when it mattered most. Commissioner, the Honourable Wally T. Opel QC, found that warnings were brushed aside. Families were dismissed and deep-rooted bias, especially against indigenous women, allowed Robert Picton to keep killing while loved one. ones begged for help. It was described as a colossal failure of policing. The Vancouver

Police Department and the RCMP apologised to the families of the missing women for their losses and for the many mistakes that meant they did not catch Picton sooner. It was a case of too little, too late. Nothing could bring their loved ones back. In the years after the guilty verdict, Robert Pickton's siblings David and Linda Picton filed a civil claim against the BC government, alleging that the RCMP search of the pig farm had caused extensive damage to their property, buildings, vehicles, landscaping and other land they owned. They believed they were the victims and claimed they incurred significant loss and damage as a result. This lawsuit did nothing. This lawsuit did nothing. to help their public image.

The siblings would drop the lawsuit three years later. In 2010, Robert Pickton gave a phone interview with John Woodward for CTV News, saying police were still hunting, looking for a scapegoat. He claimed he wanted to testify in his own defense at trial that he had all this information that could have blown the whole thing apart, but his lawyer would not let him testify. He was asked why he didn't just get a new lawyer or represent himself, and he claimed, Because you can't.

Robert Pickton lied like its second nature. He told the journalist that Andy Bellwood was lying to get revenge because he'd been beaten up on the farm. He called Lynn Ellingson a lying spaghetti brain, and that Wendy attacked him with a knife to steal his money. He claimed the undercover officer in his cell tricked him into making those admissions about the rendering plant and tricked him into joking about wanting to kill 50 women and his claims about beating the Green River killer. When asked who the real killer was then, Picton said he didn't know, but accused the hell's angels of being involved as well as other people who visited the farm. Despite his repeated protests of innocence and promises to provide the real story,

Robert Picton didn't provide any additional detail or point the finger at anyone. The sister of Sarah DeVries, Maggie DeVries, told the journalist, quote, He's already done the most heinous things imaginable, so why would I expect better from him? As families were still grappling with the people, these unanswered questions, another set of battles was already taking shape, leading to Robert Picton eventually being eligible for parole. After the break, his final chapter. The injustices did not end with Robert Pickton's conviction.

For some families, they simply took a different turn. Three years after the trial, Marnie Frey's remains were returned to her parents in Campbell River on Vancouver Island. They were told the remains had been cremated, but when they brought the urn to a funeral director to arrange burial, they learned the bones had not been cremated properly. It appeared they'd been manually broken up

to fit inside the urn. Rick and Lynn Frey called it disrespectful. The funeral director described it as a desecration. The phrase pushed for a review, of how all of the remains had been handled. Later, their concerns were validated by records showing the remains had been, quote, wrapped in an envelope, rolled up in a towel, and crushed with a mallet. The phrase saw it as yet more evidence that these vulnerable women were considered disposable

and how that attitude had continued years after their deaths. Kara Ellis's family faced a different shock. In 2010, they were given an urn and told it contained all that was left of Kara after DNA testing. Years later, after reviewing police files, a family member discovered additional bone fragments had been overlooked. Those remains were eventually returned to the family. Stephanie Lane's family later learned that. that part of her spine, recovered from the farm, had never even been entered as evidence, and Robert Pickton was never charged for her murder.

The remains sat in RCMP storage for years before being returned in 2014. And these families were not alone, according to reporting by Jeremy Hainsworth for Glacier Media. The records revealed discrepancies in the number of cremations and buries. permits issued compared to the number of victims. The families of Mona Wilson, Georgina Pappin and Andrea Josbury questioned whether they had clearly consented to cremation and were confused about how the remains were actually handled. Mona Wilson's brother publicly questioned whether the remains his family received were truly his sisters. Investigations followed, suggesting the

former regional coroner and another funeral director had mishandled the remains. They pushed back. Fines were issued and later reduced. The RCMP opened a review but laid no criminal charges. In 2003, BC's chief coroner apologized publicly to the Frey family, acknowledging that the handling of Marni's remains did not meet service standards. But the family was ultimately told no further action would be taken. Rick Frey tells us the situation has not been resolved to this day.

He would like to see a criminal investigation based on the criminal co-defendants of indignity to a human body. The family consulted with a forensic anthropologist who said the fragments in their own were consistent with Marnie's remains, but couldn't say so definitively, so they don't know what to do with Marnie's remains. They don't even know if they actually are her remains. Another injustice. And for the 98 children left without their mothers, the story is far from over.

They're in the midst of a years-long battle. Robert Picton could have pleaded guilty and saved them all from a long, arduous trial. and the intense emotional, physical and financial costs that came with it. His sister Linda had claimed there was no money left from their millions to pay for his legal expenses. Yet after his trial, he somehow managed to pony up the cash to fund an unsuccessful appeal and try again with the Supreme Court. This all caused further unnecessary trauma to the families of his many victims.

Linda Picton and David Pickton's attempted lawsuit after that was more salt in the wound. In 2013, the children, then adults, filed civil lawsuits against the Picton brothers, several RCMP officers and three levels of government, alleging in part that police failed to properly investigate the disappearances and failed to protect vulnerable women in the downtown east side while the killings continued.

The governments paid out financial settlements to the children of $50,000 each, which would give them a leg up to improve their future prospects, according to their lawyer Jason Grattle. There was no admission of wrongdoing, but that settlement brought the claims against government bodies to an end. What did not end were the lawsuits against the Picton family. Lawyer Jason Grattle tells us that nine civil actions remain tied to Robert and David Picton. Seven of those named both brothers.

And the reason is tied to that question the jury asked the judge while they were deliberating. Can they convict Robert Picton even if he did not act alone? The civil lawsuit alleges that David Picton knew or should have known what was happening on that farm and that he had a duty to warn the women who entered it. When the civil actions were first filed, both Robert and David Picton filed statements of defense. Robert denied civil liability and David denied knowledge of his brother's crimes. He said he had no idea. sex workers were being murdered on his family property and denied ever helping his brother cover up his

crimes. In recent years, the children of the missing women learned that the RCMP was planning to send human remains evidence from the farm that they'd been keeping over to the BC Coroner Service. The children tried to stop this from happening, arguing it might be needed for their upcoming civil actions. The BC Supreme Court would rule that the remains themselves were not necessary to advance the civil claim, but those on the victim's side do not agree. Their lawyer tells us this evidence includes many items with the DNA markers of unidentified men and women, and the destruction of these items and DNA markers could limit future prosecutions. After more than a decade of litigation, the civil actions were finally set to go to trial. But that plan would be derailed

by an unexpected development. Early 2004, public outrage erupted after reports revealed that Robert Pickton was now eligible to apply for day parole. By this point, he was 74 years old, and it had been 23 years since he was first incarcerated. At the time, he was still in maximum security at Port Cartier Institution in Quebec, about 850 kilometres northeast of Montreal. If he were approved for day parole, it would have allowed him to leave custody during the day while returning to prison or a halfway house at night. And if that went well, he'd be eligible to apply for full parole in 2007. When an incarcerated person is eligible for parole in Canada, it doesn't mean that they will automatically get parole.

They have to apply and they have to have a hearing before the Parole Board of Canada. While the Canadian justice system focuses on rehabilitation over punishment, the Parole Board of Canada is all about public safety. It's the primary consideration in all their decisions. The board examines the applicant's criminal history, behavior in custody, whether they have any insight into their crimes like remorse or whether they've taken accountability, their progress in rehabilitation, whether they've cascaded down from maximum security to medium or minimum security and have proven they can be trusted, whether they have a practical plan for living in the community and what supports they might

have. It would be very unusual for the parole board to release a violent serial killer still in maximum security, back into the community in any capacity. Correctional Service Canada would not confirm whether Robert Picton had actually applied for parole or whether he intended to do so, but this news alone was enough to re-traumatize the families of his many victims, reopening wounds that had never fully healed. They organized a candlelight vigil at the fence on Dominion Avenue, the former site of the pig farm to raise awareness of the injustice. Dozens of people showed up to support them, although it should have been more,

as they hung flowers, posters and red dresses and remembrance of the women who lost their lives on that farm. Among those in attendance was Lorelei Williams, cousin of Tanya Hollick, who said, returning to the site where so many women were last known to be alive took an emotional toll. She spoke of children growing up without mothers, of holidays and milestones permanently marked by absence. Lorelei William said families were never informed by the justice system that Robert Pickton's parole eligibility date was approaching. She only learned of it through a lawyer she knew. She said the lack of communication did not surprise her.

We've seen it many times before. Too often, the victims are surprised to learn painful updates from the media or third parties instead of hearing it from the justice system itself. Parole eligibility is always an extremely difficult time for those on the victim's side, but a lack of sensitive communication leaves them feeling a deep sense of disrespect, hurt and mistrust. Lorelei William said she didn't trust the justice system, describing it as racist, and deeply harmful to Indigenous women and communities.

She said she'd been told by lawyers that a parole board would almost certainly never grant Robert Picton day parole, but that assurance brought her little comfort. Quote, there's always going to be that fear. That sentiment was echoed by Michelle Pino, whose daughter Stephanie Lane was just 22 years old when she vanished in 1997. her DNA later found at the Picton farm. Stephanie's mother told the press that Picton, quote, should not walk on this earth.

She spoke of the baby her daughter left behind and said she thinks of Stephanie every day but does not want to be forced to think about Picton. All they could do was wait and see if Picton would apply. A man named Martin Charray was incarcerated in the the same unit as Robert Pickton at Maximum Security Port Cartier Institution in Quebec. At the time, Martin Choray was 51 years old, and he'd spent nearly all of his adult life in federal custody following repeated convictions for violent crime, including assault and

multiple armed robberies, according to reporting by Kim Boland and Paul Cherry for the Vancouver son. His sentence had been extended several times while incarcerated due to further misconduct, including uttering threats and assaulting a male nurse. It did not seem likely that Martin Choray would ever be released. And he'd grown increasingly angry and disturbed by comments Picton had been making. According to Choray, the 74-year-old former pig farmer had been speaking loud and clear about his many crimes, openly bragging, adding that he would continue to commit more crimes if released.

Shiree came to believe that Picton posed an ongoing danger. The final straw with Picton, according to Shiree, was when he heard from another inmate that Pickton, quote, said that a child was with one of the women he killed. He said he wanted to eat the liver of the child. Martin Chiray would describe that moment as when he lost control. Quote, I could not let him go on. Just after 5pm that day,

while medication was being distributed in the unit, Sharray found himself alone in a common room with Robert Picton and took his chance. He manipulated the door lock to make it difficult for staff to open and shut the door behind him. He knocked Pickett. to the ground and began punching and kicking him as staff tried to get the door open. When they got into the room, gas was deployed to stop the assault.

Martin Chiray recoiled and staff persuaded him to stop as Robert Picton lay on the floor. But Chiray did not stop. He suddenly grabbed a nearby broom, snapped the wooden handle and drove it into Picton's face. That was May 19, 2024. Pecton was airlifted to Quebec City Hospital following what was described as a major assault that left him clinging to life. After surgery, Robert Piquton was placed in a medically induced coma.

The police expressed interest in interviewing him if he ever recovered. He never did. He never regained consciousness and died 12 days. days later, at the age of 74. His cause of death was blunt polytrauma, meaning multiple severe injuries that together proved fatal, the type of trauma most commonly seen in high-impact events like serious motor vehicle collisions.

In the days that followed, authorities released few details, but family members of Picton's victims publicly hinted at the extreme violence involved, including the use of a broken broom handle. The family of Marnie Frey said that while Picton's death was brutal, it did not compare to the pain and terror he inflicted on his many victims. They also pointed out that many other families never even received the same sense of closure, given Picton had only been convicted in relation to six women. Other victims' families described his death as karma.

While they felt relief, they also acknowledged the news brought complicated feelings to the surface. Martin Choray pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, telling the judge he lost control. Quote, It's regrettable, but it happened, and I don't have any remorse. I know that we can't take justice into our own hands, but I killed him for the victims, not for myself. At sentencing, there were no victim impact statements, no one to speak about how the loss of Robert Picton impacted them.

The prosecutor mentioned that Robert's brother David had declined to speak, and his older sister Linda was long since out of the picture. Martin Charray received an automatic life sentence, the judge noting that his victim had been guilty of the worst atrocities a person can commit towards others, but he still has the right to serve his sentence in safety. Correctional Services Canada is required by law to investigate incidents where an inmate dies or suffers serious bodily injury. This investigation found that while staffing levels met standards, there were systemic failures that contributed to the murder of Robert Pickton,

most notably the fact that inmates had unrestricted access. to mop and broom handles that could be used as weapons. Recommendations were made. After Robert Pickton's death, prison staff had searched his cell for a legal will, but none was found. Instead, they discovered hundreds of pages of handwritten material, including a collection titled,

Pickton in his own words, My Life as I Truly See It. The RCMPC sees, the writings, hoping that Picton might provide information about any of his victims, including others that might not have been connected to him. Picton's ramblings were thoroughly examined and, according to the RCMP, contained no references to any missing women or offences and no new information for families. For many Canadians, Robert Pickton's death brought a sense of closure,

And for the families of the six women he was convicted of murdering, it means they'll never have to brace themselves for another looming parole hearing. The families of Marnie Frey, Georgina Pappen, Brenda Wolfe, Serena Abbotsway, Andrea Joseberry and Mona Wilson, will never have to relive the horrific details of his crimes as they organise their fear and grief into formal language, reopening old wounds to explain once again how the violence reshape their lives. They'll never have to decide whether to face him in person at a parole hearing

and hear his name spoken in a room debating his release, and they'll never have to endure the recurring cycle of preparation and emotional strain each time they're notified of another parole hearing. But closure is important. possible. Any further details picked and claimed he would provide one day died with him, leaving family still waiting for answers that would never come. The families of the 26 women whose murder charges were stayed were left suspended in a painful in-between. Nancy Clark, Diana Melnick, Tanya Marlow Hollick, Andrea Borehaven, Kara Alice, Cynthia Felick,

Helen Hallmark Sherry Irving Stephanie Lane Jacqueline Murdoch Sarah DeVries Inga Monique Hall Angela Jardine Kerry Lynn Koski

Wendy Crawford Tiffany Drew Jennifer Furminger Jacqueline MacDonald Sharon Abraham Dawn Cray Deborah Jones Yvonne Boone

Heather Bottomley Heather Chinnock Patty Johnson and Diane Rock. And then there are the women who disappeared from Vancouver's downtown Eastside during that time, without a trace. Rebecca Guno, Sherry Rail, Marlene Abigosis, Elaine Alenbach, Teresa Williams, Cecilia Nicole, Ingrid Soit, Kathleen Whatley, Elsie Sebastian Jones,

Lee Minor, Angela Arsino, Dorothy Sotomay. Spence, Catherine Knight, Catherine Gonzalez, Francis Young, Callie Little, Olivia William, Janet Henry, Elaine Dunbar, Cindy Beck, Sheila Egan, Michelle Gurney, Marcy Creason, Julie Young, Angela Williams, Tanya Peterson and Cheryl Lynn Donahue. No remains, no timeline and no confirmation of what happened or who might have been responsible. And in the midst of it all, there's the still unidentified woman known as Mission Jane Doe. Their families live with a different kind of torment, grief without finality. What has remained constant is that every year on February 14,

people come together in Vancouver's downtown east side for the Women's Memorial March. Mothers, sisters, children, friends and neighbours gather, holding photos and signs. They walk the same streets where many of the women lived and were last seen, as a promise they will never be forgotten. May they all rest in power and our sincere condolences to their loved ones. Thanks so much for listening and special thanks to Rick Frey and Sandra Gagnon. This series was pieced together from court documents, the Public Inquiry Final Report, on the farm by the late Stevie Cameron, and decades of coverage by dogged reporters with the Vancouver Sun,

who kept the issue of Vancouver's missing women front and foremost, including Neil Hall, Kim Pemberton, Lindsay Kines, Kim Bolan and Laurie Colbert. Proceeds are being donated to the Wish Dropin Centre. If you found this series compelling, you might like the Sheddon Massacre, our three-part series from 2025 covering the history of Outlaw Biker Clubs in Canada and the Biker Wars, leading up to the tragic and senseless Bandido Massacre. Thanks to Danielle Paradie for attempted family outreach and additional research, and to Robin Warder from The Trail Went Cold, and Jordan Bonaparte from the Canadian Gothic for voiceovers.

Thanks also to Crosby Audio for Audio editing, producer Lindsay Aldridge, and script consultant Carol Weinberg. Eric Crosby voiced the disclaimer, and the theme song is by We Talk of Dreams.