Arguably Canada’s most famous serial killer, Robert Pickton was born Oct. 24, 1949.
He and his brother, David, owned a pig farm in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, nearly 20 miles east of Vancouver.
In 1996, the brothers registered their farm with the Canadian government. The “Piggy Palace Good Times Society” claimed to “organize, co-ordinate, manage and operate special events, functions, dances, shows and exhibitions on behalf of service organizations, sports organizations and other worthy groups” in a converted slaughterhouse on the farm.
In March of the following year, Pickton was charged with attempted murder of Wendy Lynn Eisetter. Despite being stabbed by Pickton several times due to an altercation, Eisetter escaped and informed police of what had occurred, though the charges were dropped in January of 1998.
Several months later, the brothers were sued by Port Coquitlam authorities for refusing to abide by zoning ordinances. After hosting a New Year’s Eve bash in 1998, the brothers faced an injunction which forbade all future parties, and the status of “Piggy Palace Good Times Society” was removed in 1999.
Throughout the course of the next three years, farm worker Bill Hiscox began to notice that women who came to the farm went missing not long after. On Feb. 6, 2002, police earned a warrant to search the farm for illegal firearms, and after the brothers were taken into custody, police secured an additional court order to search the premise as part of the BC Missing Women Investigation.
Their search found items belonging to the missing women, and on Feb. 22 of the same year, Pickton was arrested and charged with two counts first-degree murder in the deaths of Sereena Abotsway and Mona Wilson.
Three more charges were added on April 2 for the murders of Jacqueline McDonell, Diane Rock, and Heather Bottomley.
A sixth was added a week later for the murder of Andrea Joesbury, and another soon after for the murder of Brenda Wolfe.
Four more charges were added on Sept. 20 for the murders of Georgina Papin, Patricia Johnson, Helen Hallmark, and Jennifer Furminger.
On Oct. 3, another four were added for the murders of Heather Chinnock, Tanya Holyk, Sherry Irving, and Inga Hall.
Thorough analysis and excavation of the farm took place in November of 2003, with costs of the investigation reaching close to $70 million.
Determining the identities of the victims was difficult for forensic analysts because of the decomposition of bodies. It was revealed on March 10, 2004, that Pickton may have disposed of the bodies by mixing it with pork and selling it to the public for consumption, and another claim suggested he fed the bodies directly to the hogs.
Fast-forward to 2005, 12 more charges were added for the murders of Cara Ellis, Andrea Borhaven, Debra Lynne Jones, Marnie Frey, Tiffany Drew, Kerry Koski, Sarah de Vries, Cynthia Feliks, Angela Jardine, Wendy Crawford, Diana Melnick, and one unidentified woman.
By 2015, the premise was closed-off and all buildings were destroyed.
On Jan. 22, 2007, during the trial’s initial day of jury evidence, the Crown reported that Pickton had confessed to an undercover agent posing as his cellmate that he had murdered 49 women and wished to murder one more to bump the total to 50.
He said he was caught because he got “sloppy.”
Pickton was transferred from Kent Institution in Agassiz, B.C to a maximum security prison in Quebec, the Port-Cartier Institution in June of this year.
All information derived from Wikipedia.
Image from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/robert-pickton-video-serial-killer-women-murders-vancouver-canada-a8175716.html
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