Robert Pickton Aka the Pig Farmer: Largest Canadian Serial Killer?

Between 1978 and 2002, 69 women vanished into thin air in Vancouver, British Columbia. The women were prostitutes, most addicted to drugs and desperate for money to support their habit. All the women disappeared from Vancouver's poor downtown eastside. In the first decade (1978-1989) one woman per year would disappear. However, in the 1990's more and more women started to disappear each year. However, very little was done to investigate the disappearances of Vancouver's women at first, most likely because prostitutes and drug users are typically the "forgotten ones." Most people would prefer to pretend that these people do not exist, and fail to realize that these women are daughters, sisters, and mothers. They are individuals with pasts of love and pain. They are people, first of all. Finally the police started to get more involved once reporters began to write about the disappearances, and even America's Most Wanted did a show on the missing women, mentioning the possibility that a serial killer was on the roam.

In 1998, a sex-trade employee fled a pig farm with stab wounds. She reported to the police that a man, Robert Pickton, attempted to murder her at his pig farm located in Port Coquitlam. The police searched his farm and found nothing. The charges were dropped, it is unknown as to why the charges were dropped against Robert Pickton.

On February 5, 2002, the police executed a search warrant for illegal firearms at the property owned by Robert Pickton and his two siblings. He was taken into custody, and the police then obtained a second court order to search the farm once they discovered personal items belonging to one of the missing women. By February 22, Pickton was charged for the murders of two women, Sereena Abotsway and Mona Wilson. This was only the beginning. For the few months, more and more bodies and DNA was found on the property. So far, 26 identified women's bodies and DNA were found on Robert Pickton's pig farm, and one unidentified DNA which will have to remain as a Jane Doe for now. All women, except one, were on the list of 69 missing women.

It is said that Robert Pickton held parties at his pig farm where Vancouver prostitutes would attend. Perhaps this is how Pickton managed to persuade so many women to his property. One woman who visited the property but left safely afterward, mentioned in an article that piles of cocaine was seen in his trailer. She wisely decided to leave quickly after she felt that things were not right with Robert Pickton, and his girlfriend. The suggestion of drugs being present would definitely successfully make some drug-addicted women to attend his parties.

From the research I have done, it seems as the pig farm was something from a horror movie. Decomposed bodies. Body parts found in the freezers. Bloody women clothes scattered all over. People are even wondering if the pigs were fed processed human body parts. Only Robert Pickton knows for sure what happened on his property.

One thing that everybody is wondering, did Robert Pickton have help? It is a bit hard to believe that only one person would be responsible for 26 identified murdered females. One has to recall that apparently Pickton's girlfriend at one point, met some of the prostitutes according to the woman who got away. Also it is hard to believe that Pickton's siblings would have not noticed anything strange on the farm. So far, from what I can see, no charges have been placed on Pickton's siblings.

This year, Robert Pickton's trial has started and it is estimated that the trial will last a year. This trial focuses on the murders of six women, Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Ann Wolfe, Georgina Faith Papin and Marnie Frey. Another trial for the remaining twenty women will follow after the conclusion of this current trial. While Pickton admits that the bodies were found on his property, he denies that he killed them. However on the first day of the trial, it was revealed that Pickton apparently admitted that he killed 49 women to an undercover cop.

It is without a doubt, the biggest murder case that has ever occurred in Canada. Robert Pickton could possibly be the serial killer of the century. It is quite devastating for Vancouver residents to know this was happening under their noses, and most didn't really care until it was too late.

Please check the links I provide in the links section to look for more information on each woman that was identified, and to follow the trial as it occurs. I will do my best to keep posting updates.