CANADA CANADA - ROBERT PICKTON, Pig Farm Killer, Vancouver, 1990'S

After a separation of 1,500 kilometres and 16 years, it was an emotional reunion last week for Mary Florence Lands and three of her children who had been told she might be dead.

Until last week, Lands, who used to live in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, was considered missing and presumed dead.

She was on a police task force list of women whom police said might be victims of a serial killer.

However, it turned out she was alive and well and living on a farm in Cochin, just north of North Battleford.

On Friday, there were tears of joy as she met her grown-up sons and daughter in Saskatoon.

"They're so gorgeous," she said as she met Michael Lands, 24, Stuart Panko, 22, and Jeannie Panko, 20, inside the Saskatoon airport.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2006/06/26/lands-reunion.html

Rle7 said:

After a separation of 1,500 kilometres and 16 years, it was an emotional reunion last week for Mary Florence Lands and three of her children who had been told she might be dead.

Until last week, Lands, who used to live in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, was considered missing and presumed dead.

She was on a police task force list of women whom police said might be victims of a serial killer.

However, it turned out she was alive and well and living on a farm in Cochin, just north of North Battleford.

On Friday, there were tears of joy as she met her grown-up sons and daughter in Saskatoon.

"They're so gorgeous," she said as she met Michael Lands, 24, Stuart Panko, 22, and Jeannie Panko, 20, inside the Saskatoon airport.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2006/06/26/lands-reunion.html

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This is the second woman now who has turned up alive and well. I wonder what the police actually do to try and find these people before suggesting that they could be a victim of a serial murder.

This last woman was found using her own name and social insurance number for all these past years. I wonder why the police didn't find her sooner.

Judge splits Pickton trial -

The trial will proceed on 6 counts and the balance will be tried separately. "It will be up to the prosecution to decide whether the 6 counts will proceed first or the twenty..."

"....a trial involving an unprecedented 26 counts of lst degree murder would be too much of a burden on the jury...."

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/n...=d326dfa9-57c6-4d7c-99ae-c7e6b2a52619&k=11295

Anna Draayers is struggling with her feelings after a judge ruled that accused serial killer Robert Pickton will stand trial for the murder of her foster daughter and five others, while 20 other cases will not proceed right away.

Draayers, the foster mother of Surrey resident Serena Abotsway, learned about the decision from a reporter Wednesday.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice James Williams ruled that hearing evidence in all 26 charges would be too much for one jury, and ordered that six murder counts should be heard together while the remaining 20 are referred to another trial.

Draayers said it means her family will have some closure sooner than others. “I know how hard it is to wait,” she said. “For the other people, they want to know just as well as we do.”

http://www.surreyleader.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=73&cat=23&id=705942&more=

FREMONT, Calif. -- A series of letters purportedly penned by Robert (Willie) Pickton, who is accused of killing 26 missing women, maintain his innocence and claim he is just the "fall guy" arrested in the multimillion-dollar investigation.

Pickton has given no media interviews since his 2002 arrest, and his court proceedings have been muzzled by a publication ban, so any letters written by him would provide the first public glimpse into the thoughts of the man accused of being Canada's worst serial killer.

http://snipurl.com/vtoh

After an agonizing wait, Elana Papin says she'll attend the trial of alleged serial killer Robert Pickton, the man accused of murdering her sister.

The B.C. government announced plans last month to fund travel and accommodation for families to attend the trial.

The pig farmer is accused of 26 counts of first-degree murder. Pickton's trial on six counts - including the death of Enoch resident Georgina Papin - begins in January.

"In my heart, I feel like it's my duty to be there," said Elana, 37.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2006/10/06/1963580-sun.html

I'm glad the victims' families will have an opportunity to confront Pickton in person at his trial. I'm appalled that the Pickton family wants to continue farming on that land Who would want anything that was grown or raised at that place?

The family of missing Victoria woman Nancy Clark was notified that her disappearance has been connected to the police task force investigating the Port Coquitlam, B.C., pig farm of accused serial killer Robert (Willie) Pickton.

Clark's family was notified Tuesday of the new development in her case by Victoria police detectives and members of the Lower Mainland's Missing Women's Task Force.

''It's kind of sad, but kind of a relief for them,''said Victoria police acting Insp. Les Sylven. ''To hear nothing for years and years, and then to get some kind of information, no doubt most people would feel relieved.''

The Missing Women's Task Force has seized tens of thousands of exhibits from Pickton's farm, and some of that evidence is still being analyzed in police labs across the country.

So far, Pickton stands charged with killing 26 missing sex trade workers whose DNA was located on the property during a massive police search between February 2002 and November 2003.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=9b49b692-a32a-407f-a03a-dd2a51027715&k=82972

• If convicted on all counts, Robert Pickton would be Canada's worst serial killer
• 600 potential jurors being called Saturday
• Suspect used to throw large parties on hog farm

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- The women began disappearing from Vancouver's seediest streets in the 1980s, hookers and dope addicts abandoned on the margins of society. Desperate friends and families were outraged when the police appeared to do little to find them.

Now, the man accused of murdering at least 26 of those missing women is finally going to trial. Jury selection was to begin Saturday for the case against Robert "Willie" Pickton, a pig farmer who, if convicted of all the murders, would become the worst serial killer in Canadian history.

Some 600 potential jurors were being called in Saturday. Justice James Williams has ruled that the trial will be divided into two parts, with the first six counts being tried first.

The gruesome allegations against Pickton fall under a publication ban which prevents the media from revealing details of the alleged crimes until opening arguments on January 8.

http://tinyurl.com/y9tntt

Like mothers, like daughters.

Georgina Papin always wanted to help people. Her daughter Kristina Bateman wants to remember that legacy and become a nurse.

Sarah de Vries loved to write and draw. Her daughter Jeanie says English is her favourite class.

Photos of Marnie Frey show deep brown hair. Her daughter Brittney recently dyed hers to match.

Papin, de Vries and Frey were street sisters in the most notorious neighbourhood in Canada - Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Their daughters are now among the elders of a different kind of a family - the generation of children born to the 26 women Robert Pickton stands accused of murdering.

There are about 40 children in all - Papin herself had seven, of which Kristina is the eldest.

Their mothers' stories have come and gone in the public eye since women began disappearing from the Downtown Eastside. And with the trial on six of the murders set to begin Jan. 22, they are surfacing again.

http://www.brooksbulletin.com/news/national_news.asp?itemid=59834

VANCOUVER — Marnie Frey called her parents for the last time on her 24th birthday. Lynn, her stepmother, answered the phone to hear Marnie giggling, wheedling for some birthday cash. Mrs Frey was reluctant, knowing that it would be spent to feed her heroin habit.

She told her daughter that a parcel was on its way, with clothes, food and toiletries, things low down on her daughter's shopping list for life on the mean streets of the Downtown Eastside, Vancouver. The thank-you call never came.

Rick and Lynn Frey would not learn what had become of their daughter until after a frantic search that lasted five years. Her remains were unearthed on a pig farm in Port Coquitlam, on the outskirts of Vancouver. The farm belonged to Robert Pickton, known as "Uncle Willie," a pig farmer well-known for the parties that he threw for prostitutes and bikers at his quasi- legal drinking club, the Piggy Palace.

Investigators dug up the remains of one woman after another, from body parts to minute traces of DNA, until the count came to 30. Four could not be identified. The other 26 were among the names of 67 women who had disappeared from the Downtown Eastside streets. On Monday Mr Pickton goes on trial for six murders, the only cases in which body parts survive.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245118,00.html

"Few of the details of the evidence have been made public in Canada, where strict publication bans have muffled preliminary hearings. But what has come to light is grim enough: butchered body parts discovered in a freezer; a woodchipper, confiscated by police, where the women's bodies were believed to have been disposed of; and the public health warning that the pigs believed to have been fed on human remains were then slaughtered and put into the human food chain — along with, perhaps, human meat itself."

This is incredibly disturbing. Having seen some the crimes that have been posted here.. this one is by far the worst.

Beyond Belief said:

Investigators dug up the remains of one woman after another, from body parts to minute traces of DNA, until the count came to 30.

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How can minute traces of DNA be isolated/found in a situation where the remains are being dug up? Are they talking about bone fragments, maybe?

I know this sounds horrid ........but I always heard pigs would eat a human body and there would be nothing left. So why did he bury them?

My aunt has been his psychiatric nurse for the past 5 years,at the remand center he is being held at.She said he is nothing but a little weasley slimeball.The facts that are going to come out in this case are going to be disturbing to say the least.There is so much evidence against him I don't know why he just didn't plead guilty.

Another thing that surprises me is,his brother was present at these big parties.I wonder why he was never charged with anything at all.You can't tell me he didn't know anything about all these women going missing.They apparently found alot of drivers licenses etc..He surely must have seen something.

Lisahas2cats said:

How can minute traces of DNA be isolated/found in a situation where the remains are being dug up? Are they talking about bone fragments, maybe?

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Inside teeth! There isn't much in a tooth, but enough for identification I do believe.

Alta said:

My aunt has been his psychiatric nurse for the past 5 years,at the remand center he is being held at.She said he is nothing but a little weasley slimeball.The facts that are going to come out in this case are going to be disturbing to say the least.There is so much evidence against him I don't know why he just didn't plead guilty.

Another thing that surprises me is,his brother was present at these big parties.I wonder why he was never charged with anything at all.You can't tell me he didn't know anything about all these women going missing.They apparently found alot of drivers licenses etc..He surely must have seen something.

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Maybe the brother is a witness for the prosecution.

There were a lot of people at those parties, I hear. It's going to be interesting to hear how they directly link Pickton to these murders. I understand he (Pickton) has a very good lawyer.

Thanks Katk! I was confused by their distinction between "body parts" and "minute traces of DNA" in relation to the remains they were finding...teeth makes sense.

Lisa

Lisahas2cats said:

Thanks Katk! I was confused by their distinction between "body parts" and "minute traces of DNA" in relation to the remains they were finding...teeth makes sense.

Lisa

Click to expand...

Also, maybe tiny droplets of blood, or...other matter found on the instruments of death or dismemberment. :sick:

What's expected to be the longest jury trial in Canadian history beings Monday when Robert (Willie) Pickton finally goes to court charged with murdering six women from this city's notorious Downtown Eastside.

The six -- Sereena Abotsway, Marnie Frey, Angela Joesbury, Georgina Papin, Mona Wilson and Brenda Wolfe -- are among 26 that Pickton has been charged with murdering.

Twelve jurors and two alternates have been told to prepare for a full year of evidence and arguments. The Crown alone has 240 people on its witness list. It has filed more than 750,000 documents and the number of exhibits -- physical evidence taken from Pickton's pig farm in suburban Port Coquitlam -- is expected to be equally daunting.

More than 600 police officers supplemented by civilian workers, including anthropology students, worked on the case, digging up and sifting dirt at the Pickton farm.

Because there is so much evidence and so many witnesses, B.C. Supreme Court Justice John Williams has taken the unusual step of allowing Pickton's lawyers to make an opening statement on Monday, right after the Crown's opening, rather than waiting months and months for the prosecution to unwrap its case.

It's already taken nearly five years for this trial to begin. Pickton, 57, was arrested and charged with two counts of murder in February 2002. But even when this trial ends, Pickton's days in court aren't over. He still has to face the other 20 murder charges.

Initially, it was to have been a single trial. But last summer, the judge split the charges after Pickton's lawyers said it could take two years to hear all the evidence in a case that's also known as the missing-women trial.

That's what many social services agencies working with women in the Downtown Eastside would prefer the media called it. They fear that the publicity surrounding the trial is conferring celebrity status on the accused rather than focusing on his crimes and victims.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/subscriber/editorial/story/3851421p-4455841c.html

NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. – Evidence in the trial against accused serial killer Robert Pickton will be distressing and repulsive and jurors must be careful to keep their objectivity, the judge in the case told them today.

"Some of the evidence to which you will be exposed to during the trial will be shocking and is likely to be upsetting. I must ask each of you to deal with that the best you can," Justice James Williams said as the jury trial began.

"It may arouse feelings of revulsion and hostility that can overwhelm the objective and impartial approach that jurors are expected to bring to their task.

http://tinyurl.com/335ceb