Robert Pickton

The Missing Women of Vancouver

Rebecca Guno, vanished from Vancouver in June 1983. Her name was the first of 61 women to disappear mysteriously over the 2 decades that followed. It wasn't until 19 years later, early 2002, that charges were made. The charges came after police focused on a farm in Port Coquitlam, outside Vancouver. Officers scoured the farm in search of evidence. Within months, the owner of that farm, 53 year-old Robert William Pickton, would face multiple murder charges.

The 15 victims were among 63 missing women, from the Vancouver Downtown Eastside. While some were reported missing immediately, others weren't noticed until months after they disappeared. The last of the initial 15 charges was filed in October 2002.

Pickton is charged with 1st-degree murder in the deaths of: Sereena Abotsway, 29 disappeared August 2001
Heather Bottomley, 25 disappeared April 2001
Heather Chinnock, 30 last seen April 2001
Jennifer Furminger, last seen in 1999
Inga Hall, 46 last seen February 1998
Helen Hallmark, last seen in 1997
Tanya Holyk, 23 last seen October 1996
Sherry Irving, 24 last seen 1997
Andrea Joesbury, 22 last seen June 2001
Patricia Johnson, last seen March 2001
Jacqueline McDonell, 23 last seen January 1999
Diane Rock, 34 last seen October 2001
Mona Wilson, 26 last seen November 2001
Brenda Wolfe, 32 last seen February 1999
Georgina Papin, last seen in 1999

Victim DNA found:
Marnie Frey missing since August1997
Sarah de Vries vanished in 1998. Timeline Downtown East: Missing women BC police were told years ago of pig farm

No other slum or ghetto in Canada matches the squalor of Vancouvers Downtown Eastside 10-block urban wasteland, with rundown hotels and pawn shops, stained and fractured sidewalks, gutters and alleyways littered with garbage, used condoms and hypodermic needles. They call the district Low Track, and it fits. 9 bodies in 15 years not unusual -- Crime statistics for Edmonton seem in line with prostitute deaths in other cities. Pickton, was charged in 1997 with attempted murder and aggravated assault of a prostitute, although for reasons that are unclear, he was never prosecuted. To his neighbors, Robert William Pickton is a hardworking, clean-living sort known for helping out when someone needed a hand. Dave Pickton, runs a construction business lived nearly all his life on the farm with his older brother. Today, his life and business are nearly ruined, Dave, a divorced father of 2 grown children, lives down the road from the farm on a second family property. It was the younger Pickton, who ran the show and protected his "too-trusting" sibling. Dave ran the family businesses and "made the coin" while Willy tinkered with his cars and animals. They have a sister, Linda, who left home as a teenager. Now married and has a family in Vancouver. Dave said Willy's troubles were the result of his trusting, gullible personality. Willy also loved to spin tall tales. "Everyone took advantage of my brother," Dave said. Willy gave away thousands of dollars. That only attracted more hangers-on.

Families of missing BC women want open hearing

Pickton murder trial likely to begin in 2004 -- Judge David Stone said Crown Counsel had applied earlier in the preliminary hearing to seek an additional seven counts against the accused. The charges were in connection to the deaths of Marnie Frey, Tiffany Drew, Sarah de Vries, Cindy Felix, Diana Melnick, Angela Jardine and an unidentified woman. Stone ruled the trial will only proceed on the original 15 murder counts. Outside the courtroom, prosecutor Mike Petrie refused to comment on the extra seven charges. Pickton home demolished -- July 26, 2003, Christine Cellier watched the last building on a former pig farm crumble to the ground. A lone brick chimney is all that remains of the sight where more than a dozen murders allegedly took place, was a painful reminder that Cellier's best friend, Taressa Williams, one of the missing women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, still hasn't been found.

Pickton case spokesman resigns over comments -- Police chief stands by him, but brother of missing woman calls remarks offensive. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, launched an ad campaign that compared the deaths of Canadian women murdered and dismembered to animals killed for meat.

BC Pork Producers, with all pork producers in Canada and the US, are disturbed about issues concerning the Pickton case. The pork industry is disheartened when the story is labeled as the Pickton Pig Farm.

Web auction offers dirt from Pickton pig farm

Slayer of Innocence by Jim Conover A predator pedophile serial killer on the loose for years. More than 16 boys throughout the Midwest, California, Oklahoma and Arizona disappeared and 14 had been murdered. This pedophile predator made the Midwest his killing field from 1972 until 1979 when lawmen caught his track.