Inside the battle over disposal of evidence from B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton's farm
Once evidence is gone, there's no hope for answers in multiple unsolved missing cases, including those linked to Pickton's farm, families and advocates say.
Author of the article:Lori Culbert
Published Dec 08, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 5 minute read
A group of forensic experts searches through dirt on conveyer belts in Port Coquitlam at the pig farm owned by William Pickton where some of the missing women from Vancouver have been found. Photo: Jeff Vinnick
A group of forensic experts searches through dirt on conveyer belts in Port Coquitlam at the pig farm owned by William Pickton where some of the missing women from Vancouver have been found. Photo: Jeff Vinnick
The RCMP has asked the court for permission to dispose of 14,000 pieces of evidence collected during its probe into former Port Coquitlam pig farmer Robert (Willie) Pickton, the target of the largest serial killer investigation in Canadian history, Postmedia has learned.
The move is opposed by 40 groups and individuals, who say the items seized in this historic case are important and should be kept in storage. Beyond the six women Pickton was convicted in 2007 of murdering, more than two dozen unsolved missing women files have been linked by DNA to the farm.
There are also 30 more women who vanished from the Downtown Eastside — Pickton’s hunting grounds — and many of them match the timeframe and life circumstances of his known victims.
“For the families of those victims, justice has been elusive, and they still hold hope that one day they will know what happened to their loved ones. Disposal of the exhibits will quash any remaining hope they have and solidify their perception that their daughters, mothers, sisters and aunties are less important than the space required to keep that evidence,” said a letter signed by the 40 national and provincial organizations and individuals.
Organizers plan to send the letter on Monday to the federal public safety minister, the provincial attorney general and solicitor general, and the RCMP commissioner, asking them to preserve the evidence, much of which was seized during the 18-month-long search of Pickton’s farm in 2002 and 2003.
The 40 signatories include the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, B.C. Assembly of First Nations, B.C. Civil Liberties Association, Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre, National Association of Women and the Law, as well Vancouver-East MP Jenny Kwan and two university law professors.
A half-dozen relatives of the missing and murdered women also expressed concerns about the large volume of evidence being purged, and told Postmedia they were not consulted.
The letter was co-written by Sue Brown, the director of advocacy and a staff lawyer at Vancouver-based Justice for Girls, and Sasha Reid, a University of Calgary law student and former psychology instructor who researches cases of missing and murdered individuals.
“Anytime you dispose of evidence, especially evidence that has DNA on it, you’re signalling that there is no hope” for unsolved cases, Reid said.
“We’ve got a really big problem with unsolved cases of missing and murdered people in this country. … And so if there’s even a chance that this (evidence) could help solve anything, why not keep it?”
the farm
The farm shortly after police arrested Pickton in February 2002. (Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun)
The RCMP previously asked the court for permission to dispose of evidence from several sites outside the farm, including destroying about 200 exhibits seized from a rural area in Mission, where a partial skull was found and linked by DNA to a heel and rib bone on Pickton’s farm. That victim has never been identified and her case remains unsolved.
This new application focuses on the farm, the main crime scene, and expands significantly the number of exhibits the RCMP wants to purge.
In an interview Thursday, two senior RCMP members said they have exhausted all investigative leads and are now legally obligated to return any evidence to the rightful owners. They said the objects include women’s clothing, items accumulated by Pickton in his slaughterhouse and trailer, and some furniture, but do not include human remains.
A small portion of the items belonged to missing or murdered women, and they will be returned to the families. The majority of the 14,000 items, for which police don’t have a known owner, technically belong to Pickton, but he is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.
So police are working with a First Nation to plan a culturally appropriate ceremony to get rid of them, said RCMP Major Crimes Staff Sgt. Ron Palta.
Any evidence found on the farm that is crucial to keep, such as DNA profiles, has already been stored in databases, and the RCMP has determined the 14,000 items hold no investigative value.
“There’s nothing that we have that points to any other missing or murdered women,” said Wayne Clary, who led the missing women task force until his retirement in 2016, but has now returned as a RCMP reserve constable to help with this case and others.
“For example, items of clothing, especially female clothing that we found in his trailer, and there was enough of it, (investigators) did what they had to do to find DNA. For many, there was no DNA on them.”
When asked about keeping items in case they become relevant to a future investigation — such as a piece of clothing with a unique logo — Clary said the RCMP have taken photos of all the evidence, so that information would still be available.
There is no point in keeping this evidence to identify possible additional suspects, Palta added, because police have “exhausted” all leads to identify any accomplices.
Since the summer of 2022, the two officers said they have met personally with more than 20 families to explain the items found on the farm that belonged to their loved ones will be returned to them.
But the lawyer representing children of 13 women linked to Pickton’s farm said it is the 14,000 pieces of evidence with unknown owners that the families are opposed to destroying. The main reason, Jason Gratl said, is doubt raised during Pickton’s trial that he was the only killer on the farm.
“I expect to oppose the destruction of evidence dealing with unindicted perpetrators,” Gratl said. “It seems unfathomable to me that the RCMP would want to destroy evidence when Robert Pickton repeatedly implied he did not act alone.”
B.C. Attorney-General Niki Sharma said her ministry will communicate with federal lawyers acting for the RCMP to ensure nothing is done to imperil any future trials. “Our understanding is that the court will be provided with submissions on how to avoid any steps that could unduly jeopardize the integrity of future investigations,” she said in an email Thursday.
“It is important that the court supervise a process that ensures any dispersal of evidence will be conducted with sensitivity and involving appropriate engagement with the families of victims.”
During the 2020 hearing into items seized on the Mission property, Pickton appeared by video link from prison to say police should keep the evidence to “finally” prosecute those responsible for the deaths.
lculbert@postmedia.com
Coming Saturday: An inside look at how advocates learning about the plans to dispose of the evidence, missing women’s families share their concerns, and the RCMP explains in detail why the evidence is no longer needed.
torontosun.com
Once evidence is gone, there's no hope for answers in multiple unsolved missing cases, including those linked to Pickton's farm, families and advocates say.
Author of the article:Lori Culbert
Published Dec 08, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 5 minute read
A group of forensic experts searches through dirt on conveyer belts in Port Coquitlam at the pig farm owned by William Pickton where some of the missing women from Vancouver have been found. Photo: Jeff Vinnick
A group of forensic experts searches through dirt on conveyer belts in Port Coquitlam at the pig farm owned by William Pickton where some of the missing women from Vancouver have been found. Photo: Jeff Vinnick
The RCMP has asked the court for permission to dispose of 14,000 pieces of evidence collected during its probe into former Port Coquitlam pig farmer Robert (Willie) Pickton, the target of the largest serial killer investigation in Canadian history, Postmedia has learned.
The move is opposed by 40 groups and individuals, who say the items seized in this historic case are important and should be kept in storage. Beyond the six women Pickton was convicted in 2007 of murdering, more than two dozen unsolved missing women files have been linked by DNA to the farm.
There are also 30 more women who vanished from the Downtown Eastside — Pickton’s hunting grounds — and many of them match the timeframe and life circumstances of his known victims.
“For the families of those victims, justice has been elusive, and they still hold hope that one day they will know what happened to their loved ones. Disposal of the exhibits will quash any remaining hope they have and solidify their perception that their daughters, mothers, sisters and aunties are less important than the space required to keep that evidence,” said a letter signed by the 40 national and provincial organizations and individuals.
Organizers plan to send the letter on Monday to the federal public safety minister, the provincial attorney general and solicitor general, and the RCMP commissioner, asking them to preserve the evidence, much of which was seized during the 18-month-long search of Pickton’s farm in 2002 and 2003.
The 40 signatories include the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, B.C. Assembly of First Nations, B.C. Civil Liberties Association, Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre, National Association of Women and the Law, as well Vancouver-East MP Jenny Kwan and two university law professors.
A half-dozen relatives of the missing and murdered women also expressed concerns about the large volume of evidence being purged, and told Postmedia they were not consulted.
The letter was co-written by Sue Brown, the director of advocacy and a staff lawyer at Vancouver-based Justice for Girls, and Sasha Reid, a University of Calgary law student and former psychology instructor who researches cases of missing and murdered individuals.
“Anytime you dispose of evidence, especially evidence that has DNA on it, you’re signalling that there is no hope” for unsolved cases, Reid said.
“We’ve got a really big problem with unsolved cases of missing and murdered people in this country. … And so if there’s even a chance that this (evidence) could help solve anything, why not keep it?”
the farm
The farm shortly after police arrested Pickton in February 2002. (Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun)
The RCMP previously asked the court for permission to dispose of evidence from several sites outside the farm, including destroying about 200 exhibits seized from a rural area in Mission, where a partial skull was found and linked by DNA to a heel and rib bone on Pickton’s farm. That victim has never been identified and her case remains unsolved.
This new application focuses on the farm, the main crime scene, and expands significantly the number of exhibits the RCMP wants to purge.
In an interview Thursday, two senior RCMP members said they have exhausted all investigative leads and are now legally obligated to return any evidence to the rightful owners. They said the objects include women’s clothing, items accumulated by Pickton in his slaughterhouse and trailer, and some furniture, but do not include human remains.
A small portion of the items belonged to missing or murdered women, and they will be returned to the families. The majority of the 14,000 items, for which police don’t have a known owner, technically belong to Pickton, but he is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.
So police are working with a First Nation to plan a culturally appropriate ceremony to get rid of them, said RCMP Major Crimes Staff Sgt. Ron Palta.
Any evidence found on the farm that is crucial to keep, such as DNA profiles, has already been stored in databases, and the RCMP has determined the 14,000 items hold no investigative value.
“There’s nothing that we have that points to any other missing or murdered women,” said Wayne Clary, who led the missing women task force until his retirement in 2016, but has now returned as a RCMP reserve constable to help with this case and others.
“For example, items of clothing, especially female clothing that we found in his trailer, and there was enough of it, (investigators) did what they had to do to find DNA. For many, there was no DNA on them.”
When asked about keeping items in case they become relevant to a future investigation — such as a piece of clothing with a unique logo — Clary said the RCMP have taken photos of all the evidence, so that information would still be available.
There is no point in keeping this evidence to identify possible additional suspects, Palta added, because police have “exhausted” all leads to identify any accomplices.
Since the summer of 2022, the two officers said they have met personally with more than 20 families to explain the items found on the farm that belonged to their loved ones will be returned to them.
But the lawyer representing children of 13 women linked to Pickton’s farm said it is the 14,000 pieces of evidence with unknown owners that the families are opposed to destroying. The main reason, Jason Gratl said, is doubt raised during Pickton’s trial that he was the only killer on the farm.
“I expect to oppose the destruction of evidence dealing with unindicted perpetrators,” Gratl said. “It seems unfathomable to me that the RCMP would want to destroy evidence when Robert Pickton repeatedly implied he did not act alone.”
B.C. Attorney-General Niki Sharma said her ministry will communicate with federal lawyers acting for the RCMP to ensure nothing is done to imperil any future trials. “Our understanding is that the court will be provided with submissions on how to avoid any steps that could unduly jeopardize the integrity of future investigations,” she said in an email Thursday.
“It is important that the court supervise a process that ensures any dispersal of evidence will be conducted with sensitivity and involving appropriate engagement with the families of victims.”
During the 2020 hearing into items seized on the Mission property, Pickton appeared by video link from prison to say police should keep the evidence to “finally” prosecute those responsible for the deaths.
lculbert@postmedia.com
Coming Saturday: An inside look at how advocates learning about the plans to dispose of the evidence, missing women’s families share their concerns, and the RCMP explains in detail why the evidence is no longer needed.
Inside the battle over disposal of evidence from B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton's farm
If it's gone, there's no hope for answers in several unsolved cases, including those linked to the serial killer's B.C. farm, families say.
