Serial killer - Canada

[faceless]

'Pig Farm Murders'
Updated: 13:35, Tue Jan 23

Robert "Willie" Pickton has gone on trial in Canada, accused of being the country's worst serial killer. The pig farmer is charged with killing 26 women in Vancouver.

One of his alleged victims was Mona Wilson. Her husband Steve Rix holds up a photograph of his wife outside the courthouse. Most of Pickton's alleged victims were prostitutes and drug addicts from Vancouver's red-light district, who disappeared in the 1990s.

The victims: (1st row L-R)Andrea Borhaven, Andrea Joesbury, Angela Jardine, Brenda Wolfe, Cindy Feliks, (2nd row L-R) Debra Jones, Diana Melnick, Diane Rock, Cara Ellis, Georgina Papin, (3rd row L-R) Heather Chinnock, Heather Bottomley, Helen Hallmark, Inga Hall, Jacqueline McDonell, (4th row L-R) Jennifer Furminger, Kerry Koski, Marnie Frey, Mona Wilson, Patricia Johnson, (5th row L-R) - Sarah de Vries, Sereena Abostway, Sherry Irving, Tanya Holyk, Tiffany Drew and Wendy Crawford.

The focus of the police investigation was Pickton's farm. The prosecution believes he stored the heads, hands and feet of two women in a freezer. After his arrest in 2002, health officials warned neighbours who may have bought pork from his farm that it could have contained human remains.

Prosecutors said human bones were found mixed with manure and that part of one of the victim's jaw, with five teeth still attached, was discovered in a pig trough. The trial opened with prosecutors saying Pickton had told investigators, including an undercover police officer planted in his jail cell, that he had killed 49 women. Police say dozens of women, who have disappeared from the area over the years, are still missing.

This faded photo of one of them was placed near the farm alongside a rusted metal can which had been made into a candle holder.

After Pickton was arrested and the first traces of DNA from some missing women were allegedly found on the farm, the buildings were razed and the soil sifted through by investigators. He denies the charges.

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This has to be one of the most gruesome killers ever - but it will be interesting to hear more as the case develops.

[eefanincan]

I think the thing that struck me the most about this guy was what he said about the 49 murders.... "I was going to do one more to make it an even 50."

[maycm]

[6ULDV8]

Brings an entire new meaning to "Having a bit on the side"

[Brown Sauce]

Remember "Snatch".

All very bad taste this ...

[IRiSHMaFIA]

[eefanincan]

Jurors to hear Pickton interrogation tapes
January 23, 2007
CBC News

Another intense day is expected at the murder trial of Robert William Pickton Tuesday when jurors hear the accused speak during hours of videotaped police interrogations. Pickton is on trial in connection with the deaths of six women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. His trial opened Monday when Crown prosecutor Derrill Prevett told the jury that Pickton admitted he had killed 49 women and wanted to make it an even 50.

The Crown will introduce videotapes of Pickton answering questions from police. Defence lawyers have asked the jury to do more than just listen to the tapes, but to pay attention to Pickton's intellectual capacity while he speaks. Lawyer Donna Turko, who is watching the case for CBC News, said juries do have to be cautious when considering so-called jailhouse confessions. "Jails are an unusual place. People behave in an unusual manner," she said. "People sometimes want to sound full of bravado. They want to sound like they are tough murderers at the top of the heap in jail."

The Crown intends to prove that Pickton took the women to his home in suburban Port Coquitlam, where he killed them, butchered their remains and then disposed of them, Prevett told the B.C. Supreme Court jury. Pickton faces a total of 26 counts of first-degree murder, but only six of those charges will be dealt with in the trial that started Monday. He is to be tried on the remaining 20 murder charges in a later trial. Pickton, 57, has pleaded not guilty to all charges, none of which have been proven in court.

Prevett said that when police searched Pickton's trailer in 2002, they found belongings of Sereena Abotsway, who was on a list of missing women, and that triggered a mass search of the farm that lasted nearly two years. When investigators checked freezers on the property, they made a disturbing discovery, he said before Justice James Williams. They found two five-gallon laundry buckets stacked inside each other. The buckets contained the skulls, hands and partial feet of two of the missing women, Abotsway and Andrea Joesbury. Police later discovered both heads had bullet wounds. As well, Joesbury's personal belongings were found on the Pickton property.

Prevett also told the jury that the skull, hands and feet of another missing woman, Mona Wilson, were discovered in a plastic garbage can. He said 14 human hand bones were also found at the farm. One was identified as that of Georgina Papin, another of the six alleged victims. A tooth was also discovered, and identified as that of Marnie Frey, who had also gone missing. All six — Abotsway, Joesbury, Wilson, Papin, Frey and Brenda Wolfe — were drug-addicted sex-trade workers who walked the streets of Canada's poorest neighbourhood. They disappeared between 1997 and 2001.

Before the Crown began its presentation, Williams warned the jury that some of the evidence would be shocking and upsetting. "Where evidence is particularly distressing, there is a concern that it may arise feelings of revulsion and hostility, and that can overwhelm the objective and impartial approach jurors are expected to bring to their task. You should be aware of that possibility and make sure it does not happen to you."

Williams also instructed the jury to ignore all news coverage, and rely only on the evidence. The judge also ruled that family members of the women Pickton is accused of killing, who have been subpoenaed, will be allowed into court to hear the opening arguments Monday, but that those who may be called to testify in this trial will not be allowed to attend until after they testify.

Just before the trial began, the brother of one of the victims said it would not be easy to sit through the hearings. Ernie Crey said he would force himself to attend because he wants to know what happened to the missing women, including his sister Dawn, who disappeared in 2000. She isn't among the six at the centre of this trial. Crey said he knows at least one family whose members cannot bring themselves to enter the courtroom. "It's affected that family so much that members of that family won't be at the trial," Crey told CBC News as he lined up outside the courtroom, waiting to be let inside. This [trial] will be difficult for all the families."

The 26 women — the first of whom vanished in 1995 — are among more than 60 listed as missing from the Downtown Eastside over a period stretching back to the late 1970s. What happened to the others is unknown. Most were prostitutes and drug addicts, which limited the chances of a public outcry at their disappearances, as well as an early police response, even though some relatives and local activists had been pressing for action since the early 1990s.

A joint Vancouver police-RCMP investigation was not launched until April 2001. It wasn't until February 2002 — after the investigation focused on the Pickton farm — that charges were laid in any of the cases. Pickton co-owned the farm with a brother and sister. Justice Williams, who is presiding over the case, ruled last summer that the trial had to be split because trying all 26 charges at once would take too long and place an unreasonable burden on the jury. The voir dire phase of the trial, in which the Crown and defence argue over which evidence is admissible, began Jan. 30, 2006. No jury was present and details of that phase cannot yet be published.

The jurors' task is unenviable as they now face months of testimony, based partly on an inch-by-inch search and excavation of the farm by police, forensic specialists and archeologists. News organizations have been wrestling with questions of what to publish or broadcast, and how graphic the coverage should be. The CBC has decided, among other things, to offer warnings at the beginning of stories containing disturbing facts.

In court on Jan. 12, the judge made an unusual ruling designed to help the jury follow the twists and turns of the evidence. The defence will be allowed to make a brief opening statement immediately after the Crown's opening, rather than waiting for prosecutors to wrap up their case. In its opening, the Crown outlines what it intends to prove. One reason for the ruling is that "given the size and complexity of this case, it makes eminent sense that anything that can be done to assist the members of the jury by bringing some order to that complexity be encouraged," Williams said earlier this month. In the ruling, he mentioned that the Crown intends to call 240 witnesses.

[eefanincan]

'Do another 25 new ones,' jury hears Pickton saying
This story includes disturbing details

Last Updated: Tuesday, February 6, 2007 | 3:39 PM ET
CBC News


The jury in the Robert William Pickton murder trial has heard a jubilant Pickton tell an undercover police officer that he wanted to "make it an even 50" before going on to "do another 25 new ones."

The jury in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster on Tuesday watched a videotaped jail cell conversation between the officer and Pickton. The exchange was filmed immediately after the Port Coquitlam pig farmer was returned to his cell following his interrogation in February 2002.

During the video, a guard brings him dinner and Pickton is unfailingly polite, thanking the guard and delivering coffee to his cellmate. Pickton perks up as the RCMP officer begins to talk about his own charges for attempted murder — a story concocted as part of his role as a cell plant. "But you're nothing like mine," says Pickton. As he spoons up his dinner, Pickton gestures with one hand to five fingers, and then zero. "Five-zero. Fifty?" the undercover officer says in disbelief, and asks what proof police have. "Old carcasses," Pickton says, although police had not mentioned that during the interrogation. In fact, at this point in the search, no human remains had been found.


Calls himself 'Mr. Sloppy'

The undercover officer then gives his own hints, saying he uses the ocean to dispose of things. Pickton takes his plate, and goes to sit beside the officer. He lowers his voice, and as he continues to eat, Pickton says, "Did better than that — a rendering plant."
(Rendering plants take excess animal tissue from slaughterhouses and farms to extract usable material. There is one in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.)

Then Pickton says: "I was gonna do one more, make it an even 50 … make the big Five-0." With little prodding, he continues, calling himself "Mr. Sloppy." He raises four fingers: "Four I was sloppy with," he says. Pickton then says, "So, let everything die for a while," and then, laughing, adds, "do another 25 new ones." Seconds later, he looks straight at the camera in the cell, says "Hello" and waves at it.


Pickton is being tried on six of the 26 charges of first-degree murder in the deaths of missing women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, with a second trial to be held later. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The jury also saw Pickton saying he would be "bigger" than the Green River killer, who confessed to killing 48 women in Washington state.

Undercover plants common, says lawyer
Donna Turko, a criminal defence lawyer who's observing the trial for CBC News, said it's common for police to plant undercover officers in cells with suspects to glean information from them. "Defence counsel tell their clients, 'Don't speak to anybody,'" she told CBC News on Tuesday. She said lawyers often advise their clients to stay clear of those who appear to be friendly or sympathetic in jail for fear that their words could be used against them later in court. "But it's amazing how many people feel they have to unload," she said.

On Monday, the jury heard part of the lengthy videotaped conversation between Pickton and the officer, in which Pickton recalled childhood memories and said he wanted to leave the pig-farming business when he was 40.