Robert Pickton

"Pig Farm Killer" Robert Pickton- Arrested in 2002, convicted in 2007, Pickton’s method of disposing of his victims’ bodies, either at the plant or by feeding them to pigs, investigators had been fielding tips about Pickton since 1971.

Pickton was born to Leonard and Louise Pickton, a family of pig farmers in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. Robert and his younger brother David began working at the farm at an early age. Louise was very demanding, prioritizing the pigs over the brothers' personal hygiene, and forcing them to work long hours raising the farm's livestock. She often sent them to school in unwashed, dirty clothes reeking of manure and earning the brothers the nickname "stinky piggy" from their classmates. Pickton was strongly attached to his mother and had little interaction with his abusive father.

When he was in his early teens, he used his savings to buy a calf which became his beloved pet. One day, after failing to find it after school, he was told by his mother to check the barn, where he was heartbroken to find it slaughtered. Pickton dropped out of school in 1963 at the age of fourteen and acquired a position as a butcher's apprentice. In 1970, he left his apprenticeship to work full time at the family farm. His father died in 1978 and his mother died the following year, leaving the farm to Pickton and his two siblings. Linda and David did not want the farm; David took over the house and Robert began running the farm on his own while living in a remote area of the property in a trailer.

The Pickton brothers began to neglect the site's farming operations. They registered a non-profit charity, the Piggy Palace Good Times Society, with the Canadian government in 1996, claiming 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". Its events included raves and wild parties featuring Vancouver sex workers and gatherings in a converted slaughterhouse on the farm at 953 Dominion Avenue in Port Coquitlam. These events attracted as many as 2,000 people. Members of the Hells Angels were known to frequent the farm.

Over the course of three years, Hiscox noticed that women who visited the farm eventually went missing. On February 6, 2002, police executed a search warrant for illegal firearms at the property. Robert and David Pickton were arrested and police obtained a second warrant using what they had seen on the property to search the farm as part of the BC Missing Women Investigation. Personal items belonging to missing women were found at the farm, which was sealed off by members of the joint RCMP–Vancouver Police Department task force. The following day, Pickton was charged with weapons offences. Both of the Picktons were later released; however Robert Pickton was kept under police surveillance.

On February 22, 2002, Robert Pickton was arrested and charged with two counts of first degree murder in the deaths of Sereena Abotsway and Mona Wilson. On April 2, three more charges were added for the murders of Jacqueline McDonell, Dianne Rock, and Heather Bottomley. A sixth charge for the murder of Andrea Joesbury was laid on April 9, followed shortly by a seventh for Brenda Wolfe. On September 20, four more charges were added for the slayings of Georgina Papin, Patricia Johnson, Helen Hallmark, and Jennifer Furminger. Four more charges for the murders of Heather Chinnock, Tanya Holyk, Sherry Irving, and Inga Hall were laid on October 3, bringing the total to fifteen. This was the largest investigation of any serial killer in the Canadian history. On May 26, 2005, twelve more charges were laid against Pickton for the killings 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 Jane Doe, bringing the total number of first-degree murder charges to 27.

Robert Pickton A.K.A Willie.

Pat Casanova, who has known the accused serial killer for 18 to 20 years, was interviewed by police Feb. 15, 2002, shortly after Mr. Pickton was arrested on murder charges.Pat Casanova also admitted under cross-examination that he had oral sex with one of the six women Pickton is accused of murdering. Casanova said he knew the woman as Angel, but later identified her as Andrea Joesbury.He was arrested on 15 counts of murder, but not charged.

View of the southern entrance to Pickton farm on Dominion Ave. in Port Coquitlam.

Pickton's cluttered office, with the stuffed head of his pet horse Goldie in the upper left hand corner.

An open desk drawer in Pickton's office in the trailer. Police testified they found a .22-calibre bullet inside a drawer in his office.

A close up of the bag police found in Pickton's messy room, which contained an asthma inhaler prescribed to missing woman Sereena Abotsway, whom Pickton is accused of killing.

Sereena Abotsway bag that contained some shoes and some books. The Crown says her DNA was found on two syringes in the room as well.

The Kitchen in the trailer, looking into the laundry room where a .22-calibre revolver with a sex toy attached to the barrel. The toy bore DNA of Mona Wilson and Pickton. The Crown say a pillow case with Andrea Joesbury's DNA on it was found in this room.

Photos of a Blood-stained mattress inside a motorhome parked on the Pickton's farm.

On December 9, 2007, Pickton was convicted of second-degree murder in the deaths of six women:

• Count 1, Sereena Abotsway (born August 20, 1971), age 29 when she disappeared in August 2001; her foster mother reported her missing on August 22, 2001.

• Count 2, Mona Lee Wilson (born January 13, 1975), age 26 when she went to her doctor on November 30, 2001, and was reported missing that night.

• Count 6, Andrea Joesbury, age 22 when last seen in June 2001; reported missing June 8, 2001.

• Count 7, Brenda Ann Wolfe, age 32 when last seen in February 1999; reported missing on April 25, 2000.

• Count 16, Marnie Lee Frey, last seen August 1997; reported missing on December 29, 1997.Vancouver Police Missing Persons Case #98-209922.

• Count 11, Georgina Faith Papin, last seen in January 1999 and reported missing in March 2001.

From top left: Sereena Abotsway, Andrea Joesbury, Marnie Lee Frey, Georgina Faith Papin, Brenda Ann Wolfe and Mona Lee Wilson.

The Search continues for 20 months, and police find the partial remains of six victims and an unidentified woman. They also discover dozens of personal possessions linked by DNA to four of the six victims, all of them within 70 metres of Pickton’s residential trailer. Police also find evidence linked to potential suspects other than Pickton.

Meanwhile, the pig farm became the largest crime scene in Canadian history. Investigators took 200,000 DNA samples and seized 600,000 exhibits. Archaeologists and forensic experts needed heavy equipment to sift through 383,000 cubic yards of soil in search of human remains. The cost of the investigation was estimated at nearly $70 million.

Although Pickton claimed to have murdered 49 women, he was only charged with the murders of 26 who could be identified with evidence found on the pig farm; plus one unidentified woman whose remains were also found, who was given the name “Jane Doe.” The Jane Doe charge was eventually dismissed by the court because of a lack of information about her identity and the time of her death.

After Pickton was convicted of six charges in the initial trial, British Columbia Crown prosecutors kept open the possibility of trying Pickton on the other 20 charges at a later date. However, on 4 August 2010, prosecutors announced they would not proceed on the 20 charges. They said a second trial, even if further convictions were achieved, would not add anything to Pickton's punishment, which was already the maximum possible under the law. The decision angered some of the families of the 20 victims; others said they were relieved at being spared the experience of another long and difficult trial.

In 2016, an autobiographical book titled Pickton: In His Own Words, allegedly written by Pickton and smuggled out of prison, was published by Outskirts Press of Denver, Colorado. It was offered for sale on Amazon.com, but was withdrawn due to public outrage.