Between 1978 and 2001, at least 65 women disappeared from Vancouver's downtown east side before Robert Pickton was finally arrested and charged with some of their murders. The case exposed systemic discrimination against Indigenous women and sex workers, becoming the largest crime scene investigation in Canadian history.
• Robert "Willie" Pickton operated a pig farm in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, where he targeted vulnerable women
• Pickton and his brother ran "Piggy's Palace Good Times Society," hosting parties that attracted people from Vancouver's downtown east side
• Despite a survivor escaping his farm with handcuffs in 1997, charges were dropped because she wasn't considered a "competent witness" due to drug addiction
• Multiple tips about bodies and women's belongings at the farm were ignored for years before a 2002 weapons search finally uncovered evidence
• Police collected 200,000 DNA samples and sifted through 383,000 cubic yards of soil in the $70 million investigation
• Though Pickton claimed to have killed 49 women, he was convicted of 6 murders and sentenced to life in prison
• In May 2024, Pickton died after being stabbed by another inmate with a broomstick shank at Port Cartier Institution
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Source Material:
The Associated Press, June 1, 2024, Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton, who brought victims to pig farm, is dead after prison assault, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/canadian-serial-killer-robert-pickton-brought-victims-pig-farm-dead-pr-rcna155020
Butts, Edward, Mcintosh, Andrew, June 2024, Robert Pickton Case, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/robert-pickton-case
Slack, Terry and House, Tina, May 31, 2024, Serial killer Robert Pinkton dead, https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/serial-killer-robert-pickton-dead-quebec-prison/
Proctor, Jason, October 11, 2024, 'Tell all Book' found after death of serial killer Robert Pickton, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/robert-pickton-serial-killer-book-1.7349138
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