Robert Pickton

Robert William Pickton was born on 24th October 1949 in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. He has one brother, David, and one sister. Not much is known about his childhood or family background except for the fact that his parents managed a farm.

His parents passed away in the 1970s after which he and his siblings inherited the family farm. Later he began to sell off parts of his land to encroaching housing estates and shopping centers.

Eventually the siblings started neglecting the farming operations and registered a nonprofit charity named the ‘Piggy Palace Good Times Society.’ They claimed to organize events and functions on behalf of worthy groups like service organizations and sports organizations. In reality, they organized wild rave parties featuring sex workers.

Robert Pickton was first charged with the attempted murder of a sex worker in March 1997. According to the victim, Wendy Lynn Eistetter, she was handcuffed and stabbed several times, after which she managed to escape after stabbing Pickton with his own weapon. Pickton was released on bail and the charges were dismissed a year later.

Some of Pickton’s early victims were Mamie Lee Frey, Georgina Faith Papin, Tiffany Drew, Sarah de Vries and Cynthia Feliks. Pickton’s later victims included a 29-year-old woman named Sereena Abotsway. She had disappeared in August 2001 and her foster mother reported her missing a few days later. Another victim, Mona Lee Wilson, went missing in November the same year, after a visit to her doctor.

Pickton continued his killing spree until it was noticed by his worker that the women who went to the farm always ended up missing. The police executed a search warrant for illegal firearms in his property in February 2002. Pickton was then taken into custody.

Another search was made as a part of the British Columbia Missing Women Investigation. The farm was sealed off as the police found personal items belonging to the victims. However, Pickton was released soon though the police kept him under surveillance.

Robert Pickton was eventually arrested on 22nd February 2002 and charged with two counts of first-degree murder of Serena Abotsway and Mona Wilson. Two months later, three more charges were added, followed by a sixth and a seventh after a few days. Four more charges were added in September and four again in October, bringing the total count to fifteen. This investigation became the largest ever of any serial killer in the history of Canada.

Forensic analysis, however, became difficult as most of the bodies were severely mutilated and in advanced stages of decomposition. It was also claimed that he used to feed the bodies directly to his pigs. The government later revealed in 2004 that he might have ground up the human flesh and mixed it with the pork which he sold to the public.

On 30th January 2006, his trial began in New Westminster. He was charged with 27 murders to which he pleaded not guilty. Justice Williams severed the charges and split them into two categories: one group of six counts and another of twenty counts. Due to lack of evidence, one of the 27 counts was rejected.

On 9 December 2007, the jury announced that Pickton was guilty of six counts of second-degree murder. He was eventually sentenced by Judge James Williams to life, with no possibility of parole for 25 years—the maximum punishment for second-degree murder.

Though he was convicted of six charges in the initial trial, an appeal was made by the British Columbia Crown prosecutors to have Pickton sentenced on the other twenty charges as well. Later, a second trial was cancelled as it would not add anything, as Pickton was already serving the maximum sentence under the law.