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- [00:00]
Podcast Host / Narrator
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- [01:46]
Podcast Host / Narrator
Canadian True Crime is a completely independent production funded mainly through advertising. You can listen to Canadian True Crime ad free and early on Amazon music included with Prime Apple Podcasts, Patreon and Supercast. The podcast often has disturbing content and coarse language. It's not for everyone. Please take care when listening.
- [02:05]
Narrator / Storyteller
This is part two of a four part series pieced together primarily from the public record, including court documents, newspaper archives, the final report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry and on the Farm by the late investigative journalist Stevie Cameron. We left off in the early to mid-1990s as women kept disappearing from Vancouver's downtown Eastside and police continued to resist the idea of a serial predator. Meanwhile, Robert Pickton regularly disposed of his barrels of waste and remains at a rendering plant right next to the downtown Eastside. An employee of that rendering plant would later remember seeing large chunks of meat floating in the waste, but there was no scrutiny or Oversight. A woman named Nancy Clark disappeared from Vancouver island at the exact same time that both David and Robert Picton were working there on a demolition job. Her DNA would later be located on the farm, revealing that by at least 1991, the killings had begun and they would continue for another 12 months.
- [03:27]
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Years.
- [03:37]
Narrator / Storyteller
During this time, Robert Pickton formed a friendship with a woman who would later become central to his story. Lisa Yelds was a former sex worker from the downtown Eastside, still connected to the biker scene and raising two teenage sons after a failed marriage. Her older son was friends with David Picton's son and she lived near the farm. One evening, she was grateful when Robert brought her boys home after they missed curfew and a friendship grew from there. Lisa and her sons eventually moved onto the farm and would describe her friendship with Robert as straightforward and non romantic. They spent time together doing ordinary things and Robert was generous in small, practical ways, sharing meat from the farm with Lisa, spotting deals and even setting her up with a Costco membership. She teased him about his hygiene and he took it in stride. On the other hand, Lisa Yelds couldn't stand David Pickton. She thought he was domineering and cruel and he didn't like her either. When he yelled insults at her, Robert would jump to her defence. That made Lisa feel quite loyal to him. But she had a private unease that she never voiced at the time and later told author Stevie Cameron. Lisa was an avid reader of true crime books and remembered reading about the American serial killer Ed Gein, who was known for fashioning keepsakes from human bones and skin. But it was actually Ed Gein's family dynamic that struck her. It seemed similar to what Robert Pickton had told her about his own childhood. A mean spirited, controlling mother and a cold, abusive father. Something about the similarities unsettled Lisa, but she couldn't figure out why. She insisted she wasn't afraid of Robert and believed he would never hurt her. She kept her thoughts to herself. Lisa Yelds would later maintain she had no idea about Robert's trips to the downtown east side. He kept that side of his life a secret from her. The next year, 1995, saw a spike in the number of women who went missing. Catherine Gonzalez grew up in Ontario and moved to British Columbia. She was described as slim, with blonde hair and blue eyes and scars on her cheek, her back and right forearm. Katherine got married and had a daughter, but her life started to unravel because of her hazardous use of drugs and alcohol. She separated from her husband, lost custody of their daughter and ended up on the downtown east side, where she was soon arrested for shoplifting, stealing and some other offences. Her family would tell the missing women inquiry that she kept in regular contact with them despite all of this. Just a few months after she served some time in prison, Catherine Gonzalez disappeared. She was 27 years old. The following month, Cathy Knight went missing. Her older sister would describe her as lovable, with chubby cheeks and always searching for someone to love her. Kathy had grown up in poverty with a father who had alcohol use disorder. She suffered childhood abuse and began using drugs and alcohol as a teenager to cope. By the time she was 15, Kathy was homeless and relying on sex work to survive. But her sister said she kept in regular contact with phone calls and sometimes came to stay with her. Shortly before Kathy's 29th birthday, the phone call stopped abruptly. She was never seen again. Shortly after that, Dorothy Spence was reported missing. Dorothy was from Sandy Bay First Nation in Manitoba. She moved to Alberta, then Vancouver, sharing an apartment with her sister for some years. They were close and her sister would describe her as a very good cook with a heart of gold. But Dorothy struggled with substance use disorder and ended up on the downtown east side where she was last seen, age 33. The last woman to go missing in 1995 was Diana Melnick, who was last seen at the end of December. Diana came from a middle class family and went to a private school. She loved horses and did not like mournings, but was otherwise happy. Diana began using drugs and her life began to unravel. She ended up facing charges for petty crime and sex work on the downtown eastside and failed to make a couple of court appearances. Then she disappeared. Diana melnick was only 20 years old. Her DNA would later be found on the walls of a freezer on the Picton farm. Back at the farm, major changes had been unfolding. The eldest Picton sibling, sister Linda, was now a successful realtor and saw an opportunity to sell some parcels of the family's land holdings. Port Coquitlam was no longer rural. It was rapidly transforming into a growing suburban hub and they didn't need that much land. She negotiated the sale of three major parcels of land for a total of $5.1 million. That's in the mid-90s. Today it's worth more than $9 million. Linda took her share and continued to distance herself from her brothers. Robert and David were no longer land rich and cash poor. They were officially wealthy. Flush with cash, David Pickton bought a nearby property with a large corrugated metal shed and converted it into a dance hall and bar for his biker friends and local hangers on where he would be in charge. He called it Piggy's Palace. With room for about 150 people, Piggy's palace featured live bands, heavy drinking and food, including that famous barbecued pork prepared by Robert and his associate Pat Casanova. It quickly gained a reputation as a lively local hotspot, drawing bikers, drug dealers, sex workers, off duty police, business owners and even city officials. The mayor of Port Coquitlam visited once. Neighbours complained about the noise, from the loud music to the Harley Davidsons lined up outside. The city tried to shut the events down, but David pushed back, claiming their events were to benefit local charities. He made it clear that they would continue, and they did. Robert Picton was pleased with Piggy's Palace. He'd spent decades in social isolation, known as a rat faced man with a toothy grin and a greying beard, frequently seen around town wearing muddied rubber boots and clothes stained with blood. But now he had cash and people noticed. He showed up at Piggy's palace wearing new jeans and seemed to be taking more showers. He bought an expensive hairpiece to cover his balding head. It was also time for him to upgrade from the old motorhome. He purchased a large mobile trailer home and placed it on the farm, using the living room as a spare bedroom for his various friends and acquaintances, including the women who came to clean, help him with work and just keep him company. But it's hard to undo decades of bad hygiene habits. Like everything else on the farm, it wasn't long before his new mobile trailer home and his new hairpiece were a filthy mess. By this point, Robert's close friend Lisa Yelds had moved off the farm with her sons. She would tell author Stevie Cameron that the place had changed after all that new cash, and she didn't like many of the new people coming around. But she stayed in contact with Robert. Soon after she moved out, he phoned, asking her for a favour. He was worried the police were going to raid Piggy's palace, and he knew she had a police scanner and listened to police calls often. He wanted her to tell him if she ever heard anything on the scanner that he needed to know. Robert Pickton certainly seemed paranoid about something. By the mid-1990s, whispers of a serial predator in the Vancouver area intensified after the battered, naked bodies of three women were found in a remote area of the Fraser Valley, about 50 kilometres east of Vancouver. Tracey Olejide was 13. Tammy Pipe was 24 and Victoria Yuncker was 35 and the last time each of them had been seen was on the downtown east side. DNA evidence found at the scene confirmed that at least two of these women were killed by the same man. Police compiled a list of suspects and began DNA comparisons. They ruled out a local violent offender on parole and turned their attention south of the border to a house painter named Gary Ridgway. They strongly suspected he was the serial killer known as the Green River Killer, who'd been targeting sex workers in the Seattle and Tacoma areas and leaving their bodies in remote woodland locations. And Ridgway knew that the police in the United States were tracking him and had his DNA. So he would often drive three hours north to vacation in Vancouver with his wife during this period. Gary Ridgway was ultimately ruled out of the first Fraser Valley murders, but he was the Green River Killer and would be convicted of murdering nearly 50 women in Washington State. There's never been definitive evidence linking him to victims in Vancouver, but many remain convinced he was active in the region at the time. Police then turned their attention to another familiar name. The Picton brothers were already well known to law enforcement across multiple jurisdictions. David had that sexual assault conviction and Robert was on that bad trick list put together by sex workers. The police focused more on Robert. DNA would later clear him of the Fraser Valley murders, which remain unsolved to this day. But during this time, Robert Pickton was placed under increased police scrutiny. And the women continued to go missing. Frances Young was a trained pastry chef, known to have a great sense of humour, a big happy smile and a love of makeup and cosmetics. She was close with her family and loved animals. Frances or Fran also struggled with depression and substance use and was relying on sex work on the downtown east side to pay her bills. The 36 year old was last seen there in April of 96. Fran's mother was of course frantic and reported her missing to the Vancouver pd. She was told there wasn't much they could do. Her mother never gave up, but Fran Young was never seen again. The family of Tania Marlowe Hollock never gave up either. She was just 23 years old when she disappeared. Tanya's mother's family is from the Schatine First Nation and her family history was marked by significant loss and instability. Tanya's mother and siblings had been placed in foster care after her own mother died of cancer. Two of Tanya's uncles died by suicide as teenagers. Tanya's aunt, Belinda Williams disappeared from the downtown east side in 1978 and had never been found. Tania went to high school in Vancouver and her loved ones described her as playful, young and caring. As a young adult, Tanya lived with her mother in Vancouver for a time and would then bounce back to her sister Cathy's home in Klemtu First Nation. But she struggled with substance use disorder and engaged in sex work on the downtown east side. At 20 years old, Tanya was living with a common law partner and gave birth to a son who motivated her to enter rehabilitation. The couple split up and shared custody, but Tanya struggled after that. She started using again and doing sex work on the downtown eastside but still checked in with her home. In October of 96, 23 year old Tanya was supposed to celebrate her auntie's birthday, but she never showed up. Three days later, her mother tried to file a missing person report with the Vancouver PD and was told that Tanya was probably just out having fun. Their response was essentially, don't waste our time, Tanya Marlo Holick was never seen again. Her DNA would later be found on the walls of the freezer at the Picton farm. That same year, a sex worker named Tracey was living in the downtown Eastside with her husband, stuck in a cycle of hazardous substance use. But Tracey had one firm rule she never used while working to make sure she kept her wits about her. She was determined to make it back to her children, but she couldn't do that if she didn't survive. Tracey had seen the lanky balding man known as Willie Picton many times in the low rent hotel she lived in, but he'd never been her client. So she was surprised one night when he approached her to go with him for oral sex. She got into his filthy truck and he drove her out to his mobile trailer home on the farm. It was almost as gross as the truck. When it was time to pay, Tracey was caught off guard when Willie suddenly pulled out a knife and accused her of stealing his wallet. She pushed him. He swiped at her, cutting two buttons off her shirt. She ran outside and tried to figure out what to do. After a period of time, Willy emerged with Tracey's handbag and wallet and got in his pickup truck. It was time to drive her back. He chatted to her the entire way as though nothing happened, telling her he liked to help sex workers kick their drug addictions. But chillingly, he told her that if they went back to the drugs and then they didn't deserve to live. At least in his mind. Quote, they're useless. They're better off dead. Tracey went to the Wish Drop in Centre and reported what had happened and what Willie Picton told her, she learned it was a familiar story. He'd said the same things to others. The sex workers realised he seemed to be targeting women who he thought were dependent on drugs, promising to help them but never actually doing anything. And when they inadvertently relapsed, he would suddenly turn nasty, telling them they were useless fucking bitches. Tracey's encounter with Willie Picton was noted in the Bad Trick list and he never approached her again. She didn't report the knife attack to the police. In fact, the first time she spoke publicly about this encounter was to author Stevie Cameron. By that point, Tracey developed a theory about why she lived to tell the tale of her trip to the farm. She believes that he realised she wasn't using drugs. She didn't ask him for drugs either. Tracey did not make for a good target, so he moved on. The last woman to disappear from the downtown east side in 1996 was 22 year old Olivia William, a member of Babine Lake First Nation in central British Columbia. Olivia's mother passed away when she was just a few months old and after that her siblings were split up. Olivia was raised on a remote reserve but kept in touch with her siblings with regular phone calls and visits. She had long brown hair, brown eyes and was described as having a sweet child's face. According to her brother, Olivia had trauma as a result of suffering childhood sexual abuse and began using drugs and alcohol to cope. She ran away from the reserve back to Burns Lake where she was born. She gave birth to her first child who was removed from her care. She ended up on Vancouver's downtown east side, living in the Rainbow Hotel. She got pregnant a second time. According to the Missing Women's Inquiry quote, she had the baby on November 16, 1996, walked out of the hospital and was not seen again. Her case remains unsolved. By early January of 1997, a woman had already disappeared from the downtown Eastside. Marie Laliberte was originally from Saskatchewan and had lived in Alberta before ending up in Vancouver's downtown Eastside. Almost nothing is known about her other than the fact that she was First Nations. She had brown, short curly hair and a flower tattoo on her left shoulder. Marie was last seen on New year's Day in 97, but she wasn't reported missing for another few years because she reportedly lived a socially isolated lifestyle and didn't keep in contact with her family. Marie Laliberte was 47 years old. That same month, Stephanie Lane disappeared, age 20. Her mother was Metis and her father was mixed race. She Grew up in East Vancouver. Stephanie reportedly had an amazing singing voice and loved to perform. She also excelled academically at school and had many friends. But according to her mother, Stephanie fell in with a bad crowd, started using heroin and ended up drifting to the downtown Eastside where she worked at a strip club. She gave birth to a baby boy and had been desperately trying to overcome substance use disorder. She went missing shortly after she began detox, age 20. Her son was only nine months old. Stephanie's mother, Michelle, would recall her daughter's contagious laughter. She was very gifted at art and dancing and making everyone laugh. She was a funny, funny girl. Stephanie Lane's DNA would later be found inside a deep freezer on the Picton farm. A sex worker named Renata was approached by David Pickton, who offered her $100 for oral sex, more than double the going rate. He told her, I'm not a cop and pulled out his penis as a show of good faith. She refused. He was dirty and smelly. He offered her drugs as well, but she had a strict rule that she only accepted cash. David then asked her if she knew anyone else, saying the request wasn't actually for him, it was for his brother back at the farm. Describing Robert as an invalid who probably couldn't get it up but liked to have a girl try anyway, Renata suggested a friend of hers, 24 year old Sherry Irving, who'd been staying with her and owed her a small amount of rent. The offer from David Picton would settle that debt and Sherry would be able to purchase a ferry ticket to Vancouver island to stay with a friend. Straight afterwards, Renata offered to go with Sherry out to the farm so she wouldn't be by herself. Sherry Irving was outgoing and striking, described as having long blonde hair and a wide smile. She was part indigenous. Her mother was a member of Lil Wat First Nation and her father was in the military. Their family moved around a lot. Sherry loved rock music and camping and excelled in track and field as a child. But her parents later split up and her mother passed away. Sherry started engaging in hazardous substance use and eventually found herself on the downtown east side doing sex work to survive. That fall, Sherry packed her bag and David Pickton picked her up with Renata and drove them out to the farm. Renata saw Willie Picton appear on the porch in rubber boots and jeans. Sherry said goodbye to her friend and walked off with Willie. Renata would later say she had an immediate sinking feeling that she might never see her friend again, but she dismissed it. She ended up forming a business relationship with David Picton, helping him to find women to take back to the farm, supposedly for his brother. They were both weird men and she didn't much like either of them. But business was business. Months later, Renata heard that Sherry had never made it to Vancouver Island. In fact, there was no evidence she even left the area. The last time anyone saw her was at the Picton farm. Renata reported her friend missing to police, but there's no evidence that any action was taken. Sherrie Irving's DNA would later be found on the walls of one of the freezers on the farm. That February of 1997, 29 year old Sharon Evelyn Ward went missing from Vancouver. She was a petite white woman who'd lived a tough life with many problems and she coped with drug and alcohol use. According to a webpage set up by her sister. A phone call was the last time her family heard from her and they weren't even home. She left a voice message with a return number. Sharon's sister said their mother tried to call the number. She left many times, but there was no answer. Sharon Ward just disappeared without a trace, aged 29. Then there was Wendy. You'll recall she was the sex worker who escaped from the farm with handcuffs on her wrist after a vicious knife fight. Shortly after she was rushed into emergency surgery, the police would receive word that a second stabbing victim was on the way to the same hospital. That's coming up in a moment. Proceeds from this series are being donated to the Wish Drop in Centre Society supporting street based sex workers on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside since 1985. Florence, Alabama. 1988. A preacher has an affair. A woman is murdered. One death cascades into more, stretching across decades and leaving no one untouched. Victims, bystanders, perpetrators and those just trying to help. And eventually, the fallout lands at the centre of one of America's most heated debates. Who gets to live, who should die and how far a state can go in the name of justice. On Revisionist the Alabama Murders fellow Canadian Malcolm Gladwell examines the death penalty and asks a deeper question. Why in our efforts to alleviate suffering, do we so often make it worse? Revisionist History the Alabama Murders Search for revisionist history wherever you listen.
- [30:02]
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- [30:28]
Narrator / Storyteller
If you're not using Ironclad for contracts, you could be leaving millions on the table without knowing it. Every contract holds renewal dates, pricing terms and obligations you can't afford to miss. But good luck finding them when it matters. Ironclad's AI instantly surfaces what matters so you can act before opportunities slip away. That's why they're trusted by OpenAI, L' Oreal and Salesforce. Find the savings hiding in your contracts@ironcladapp.com podcast that's ironcladapp.com podcast. That cold night in 1997, Wendy didn't recognize the man who pulled up and the red pickup truck. The 30 year old sex worker had probably heard of Willie Picton, but she didn't connect the dots. She needed the money, so she agreed to his offer of more than double the going rate to go back to the farm with him. But then he suddenly slipped handcuffs on one of her hands, followed by a struggle involving a butcher's knife from his kitchen table. They were both in injured, but Wendy managed to escape the farm and flagged down a passing car for help. She was rushed into emergency surgery in critical condition with deep stab wounds and a punctured lung. A short time later, police received word that a second stabbing victim was on his way to the same hospital, a male. It was Robert Willie Picton. Wendy had slashed across his jugular vein and he lost a lot of blood. The only reason she was able to escape him was because he was losing consciousness. Somehow he managed to drive himself to the hospital where he was also rushed into emergency surgery. The police were already at that hospital investigating what had happened with Wendy. An officer went through Robert Pickton's dirty clothes looking for evidence and found a small key in one of his pants pockets. He immediately thought of those handcuffs and took the key straight over to his colleague. With Wendy, the lock turned with a soft click and the cuffs fell off Wendy's wrist. She would later tell journalist Stevie Cameron that looking back, it wasn't the violence that disturbed her the most, it was those handcuffs. She realised that what happened to her was no accident or misunderstanding. It was deliberate and planned. It seemed like an open and shut case. Wendy had the handcuffs around her wrists and Robert Picton had the key to those handcuffs in his pocket. The local newspaper covered the story, but didn't name Robert or Wendy. They referred to him only as a 49 year old man saying he would be charged. If this were any other case, that might have been where this entire story ends. But it's really only just the beginning. Wendy had been seriously injured and needed intensive care over the next few weeks. As she recovered, Robert Pickton was sent home after three days to continue his recovery. There, police had released him on a peace bond that required him to stay at the farm and not contact Wendy. As they were still investigating, Robert told his brother and friends that he'd been snoozing innocently in his pickup truck. That night. When the sex worker Wendy, woke him up, he drove her out to the farm. But she saw a wad of cash on the table and grabbed a knife, threatening him. The bitch stabbed him, he said as he tried to defend himself, stabbing her back. There was no explanation for the handcuffs. A few days later, Robert was charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and unlawful confinement. His good friend Lisa Yelds was caring for him post surgery and she noticed he was filled with rage, directed all towards Wendy. He asked her to find out where Wendy lived so he could deal with her himself. Lisa told him to just drop it. Robert hired a private investigator to look into Wendy and also retained one of Vancouver's most expensive criminal lawyers to defend him. A trial date was set, but the case never made it to trial. The details Wendy gave in her police statement was a credible, early warning of what was happening to other women. It could have been a watershed moment, a turning point that might have changed the course of history and saved many lives. Instead, it was found to be a critical failure that resulted in catastrophic, catastrophic consequences. The later Commission of Inquiry would conclude that the RCMP did not investigate beyond the immediate assault on Wendy. They could have searched Robert Pickton's trailer fully and the farm. They could have spoken with his neighbours, relatives and known associates, which would likely have led to evidence he was engaged in other illegal and troubling activities. These steps were not taken. But the biggest failure was on the part of the Crown prosecution, who knew Wendy had nearly died, that her statement matched the evidence and that the RCMP believed her. Yet over the following 10 months, in the lead up to the trial, the Crown didn't contact Wendy, claiming she was hard to get hold of, which the inquiry found was not true. The problem was indifference. Finally, just two weeks before that trial was due to begin, the Crown prosecutor met with Wendy for the first and only time and noticed she was under the influence of drugs. By this point, Wendy had been warned that Robert Pickton was threatening to harm her and she was Utterly terrified, the Crown should have asked Wendy about her drug use and and offered her support and referrals to services that could help her as a vulnerable witness with valuable evidence and perhaps readjusted their approach for a successful trial. Instead, the Crown prosecutor decided Wendy was an unreliable drug user and stayed or dropped all the charges against Robert Pickton. The trial was cancelled and he slipped through the cracks. Wendy's name was protected by a publication ban for a long time, and she's been referred to by many different names. It wasn't until years later that her case was connected to the women vanishing from the downtown Eastside. At least 11 more women were killed after that and likely more disappeared and left no trace. In fact, there was DNA from two women on the clothes Robert Pickton was wearing when he arrived at the hospital. Those clothes were seized by police and later tested. Kara Ellis was originally from Calgary, Alberta. Her parents divorced when she was five and she lived with her mother in Ontario, then went to foster care, then with an uncle, followed by a move with her father in Alberta. Kara's family would describe her as a tomboy who loved playing horsey with her brothers. By the time she was a teenager, she was living in a group home and began using drugs. Then she was homeless, engaging in survival sex work on Vancouver's downtown east side. Cara's boyfriend was a Hell's Angels member, and when she checked in with her family, she told them she loved riding on his motorbike. According to testimony at the later missing women's inquiry, Kara had been convicted of attempted manslaughter, although there's no further details about this. During her stint in prison, she took classes and planned to return to school. When she was released, she never got the chance. She disappeared soon after. Kara Ellis had lived a life for someone just 25 years old. It was several months after this that Wendy survived her own trip to the farm. Police seized Robert Picton's jacket, and later testing found DNA belonging to Kara Ellis on that jacket. Her DNA would also be found on items in the slaughterhouse at the Picton farm, as well as on the lining of one of the deep freezers. Police had also seized Robert's rubber boots. Later testing found DNA from another missing woman on one of those boots, who also went missing a few months before he attacked Wendy. Her name was Andrea Borehaven. She was 25 when she disappeared. She had a very unstable childhood. In and out of the foster system and shuffled between relatives. Andrea was left with abandonment issues and a feeling she didn't belong anywhere. She was described as smart, spunky, loving and intelligent, but had trouble controlling her impulses that resulted in outbursts she later regretted. She ended up on the streets of the downtown east side and survived a violent sexual assault. She began using heroin and crack cocaine. Andrea's mother and father separately maintained that they continued to support her and their door was always open. She checked in every few months by phone and sometimes she would turn up in person. Until one day in 1997 when all contact ceased. A later search of the Picton farm uncovered a plastic bag of jewellery hidden in the kitchen floor vent of Robert's mobile truck trailer home. Andrea Borehaven's DNA was found on an earring. Her DNA would also be found on one of those rubber boots police seized after he attacked Wendy. Even though the newspapers didn't name Robert Pickton as the one charged in relation to the knife attack on Wendy, word got around quickly and all the locals knew it was him. He started phoning his female friends to tell them not to believe what they read in the papers. One of those women was a new friend named Gina Houston, a sex worker he'd already met briefly several years earlier. She'd been with a colleague on the downtown Eastside when he walked up and introduced himself as Willy, looking for company. He stood out to Gina at the time because he was clearly very comfortable picking up a sex worker. He'd definitely done it before her friend took the job, and Gina didn't see him again for a couple of years. But then she happened to be at Piggy's palace and recognised him. He didn't recognise her, but they struck up a conversation and began a friendship. Gina Houston had been down and out for years, a single mother supporting a couple of children and funding her own hazardous use of drugs and alcohol through a combination of welfare payments, sex work and however else she could provide. Robert found her friendly and easy to talk to. Gina thought he was a nice guy, but also identified him as gullible, someone who liked to think himself as someone who helps others out. And Gina really needed help, so she took advantage of it. She would often bring her kids to the farm to play and hung off Robert's every word. He started giving her pork meat when she didn't have money to buy food. Soon she became his best female friend. He was supporting her financially and her kids were calling him Daddy. Gina would later testify that she cared for Robert, describing him as polite, gentle, kind and naive. But it was never a sexual relationship. In fact, Gina found women on the downtown Eastside to bring to the farm for him. She had a shortcut. She just went to the Wish Droppin Centre on the main strip, Hastings street, and told them she had a friend with drugs and cash who was up for a party. Many of them knew she was talking about Willie Picton, noted Creep, and they also knew that he'd been charged in relation to the attack on Wendy, who was well liked. But they also knew those charges had also been dropped. Gina Houston seemed to be vouching for him, and they figured the chances of something happening while she was there were low. Gina was always able to convince one or two women to get in the pickup truck and go back to the farm with her. It was a risk they could take because they desperately needed the money. One she didn't even have to convince. Callie Little was a 28 year old transgender sex worker who was staying with Gina at the time, along with her pet cat. Callie was a member of the Newchatlet First Nation on the west coast of Vancouver island, and she'd been born with significant physical and health challenges. She only had one kidney, a cleft lip jaw, and dental deformities that required surgery and severe hearing loss. She'd grown up in foster care after being taken from her mother at a young age. Kelly struggled through her teenage years, reportedly attempted suicide, and as a young adult spent some time in prison for assault before she transitioned. Transgender people often end up resorting to sex work to survive because systemic discrimination in employment and housing often leaves them in poverty. So that's where Cali Little was. In April of 97. She stayed overnight at Gina Houston's home, then got ready for work and left. And she didn't come back. Gina knew that Kelly would never neglect her cat and reported her missing after a week or so. Next to disappear was 37 year old Janet Henry, the youngest of 12 children from a Kwakwaka' Wak First Nation family from Kincom Inlet in BC. Janet and her siblings faced a number of tragedies throughout their childhood. Their father was killed in a boating accident and the kids were separated and put in various foster homes. One of Janet's sisters was sexually assaulted and murdered by five men. A brother was hit by a car and died. Another sister overdosed on prescription medication. Janet herself was targeted by the man now known as one of Canada's most prolific serial killers, Clifford Olson. As a child, he kidnapped, drugged and assaulted her, but for some reason decided to release her. He would later be convicted of murdering 11 children and young adults. Somehow, Janet Henry was able to overcome all this trauma. For a time, she got married, had a daughter and spent a period of her adult life in relative stability on the lower mainland. She was a hairdresser and she cut the hair of the people she loved, including her older sister, Sandra Gagnon, and her nephews. Sandra is now in her 70s and tells us that Janet was a strong, loving person, a good mother who loved music and dancing and was always there for her loved ones. But all that early trauma caught up with Janet. Her marriage ended and she eventually drifted to the downtown east side, developing substance use disorder and relying on street based sex work to survive. But despite everything, Janet spoke with her sister Sandra on the phone every day and would often talk about how she didn't like the life she was living and wanted to get treatment so she could see her daughter again. The sisters had a regular routine. When they got their GST checks, they would go out for dinner together and share some laughs. One night in June 1997, Janet Henry did not show up. Sandra went looking for her on the downtown east side. Her rent had been paid up for the next month and everything was in place and the room she rented. Janet just disappeared. Aged 37, Sandra did learn that her sister had been going to parties at Robert Willie Picton's farm in Port Coquitlam, where he was offering free cocaine. She reported Janet missing, but the police showed very little urgency telling her, a lot of people are missing. Janet tells us that it wasn't for several more years after Janet was connected to the infamous pig farmer serial killer case that authorities seemed interested. To this day, Sandra Gagnon remains deeply upset that her sister's disappearance only mattered once the circumstances became sensational. That same month, Helen Hallmark went missing. Born in Vancouver, Helen grew up with instability, violence and abuse at the hands of her mother's partners. Helen often took the brunt of that abuse to shield all her siblings, according to her sister. At age 13, Helen had been labelled a rebellious teenager and placed in foster care. But she remained close with her siblings. She was known to be bright, funny, sophisticated, with sparkly eyes. At 19, Helen gave birth to a daughter who she gave up for adoption. She reportedly married twice, but a series of unfortunate events resulted in her living on the downtown east side with substance use disorder. She desperately wanted to pull herself out of it and was known to warn vulnerable teenagers not to go down the path she had. Then Helen Hallmark disappeared aged 31. Her family searched for her for years without answers. They had no idea her DNA was in blood spatter in Robert Pickton's bedroom and on a cowboy hat in his closet. Then there was Jacqueline Murdoch of the Takla Lake Band of Carrier Sekani, First Nation in BC's Central Interior. Her family called her Jackie. She was the youngest of 15 siblings and known to be a bright, affectionate child. At age 12, Jacqui was put into foster care and she ran away. A year or two later, she told her sister that she'd been sexually abused by a relative. She began engaging in hazardous substance use as an adult. Jackie gave birth to five children and was separated from them all. But trying to get help, she completed an intensive rehabilitation program where she wrote delicate poetry describing pain, resilience and the need for faith and support. During moments of despair, her loved ones would describe her as kind and joyful, someone who was funny, laughed easily and spoke badly of no one. In 1996, facing homelessness, Jackie Murdoch hitchhiked to Vancouver and ended up on the downtown east side. A year later, she disappeared, aged 26. Jackie's DNA would later be found on a used condom wrapper on the Picton farm. Jackie was the eighth woman who disappeared from the downtown Eastside that year, a massive spike compared to previous years. In around September of 1997, Cynthia Beck, known as Cindy, was living on the downtown Eastside with her boyfriend. He was also her pimp and had been charged with assaulting her two months earlier. Originally from Ontario, Cindy was adopted and her family would describe her as a beautiful child who became a lovely woman with a beaming smile, popular and remembered with affection. She had a rebellious streak and ended up in the company of people who used drugs. Cindy was 33 years old when she disappeared and reportedly pregnant. Cindy's parents were in regular contact with the police. No trace of her has ever been found. At the end of 1997, Cynthia Felix also disappeared. She was born in Detroit, Michigan, and after a series of divorces where both parents relinquished control, she and her siblings ended up with their stepmother in Vancouver. At age 16, Cynthia decided to go and visit her father in Florida. Her stepmother would later tell author Stevie Cameron that her father met his 16 year old daughter at the airport with alcohol and cannabis and tried to talk her into sleeping with him. Back at his trailer, he also pointed a gun at her. This experience had a dramatic effect on Cynthia, who started using drugs with friends in high school. As soon as she got back to Vancouver, Cynthia had been a competitive swimmer. She stopped altogether. Soon she would leave home for days. She started using heroin. She married in her early 20s and gave birth to a baby girl. Cynthia fought hard to detox and was successful for a time. But substance use disorder had taken hold, and she ended up on the downtown east side. She still kept in regular contact with her sister Audrey, but the phone calls to home suddenly stopped. The last anyone saw of Cynthia Fallux was in November 1997. She was 43. Her DNA would later be found on plastic shell sheet liners on the farm and in nine packages of ground pork in one of the freezers. It was by this point almost the end of that year, and the women in the downtown Eastside were heartbroken, frustrated and terrified. 97 had been the worst year yet. So many of them had gone missing, and more would join them before the year was through. Florence, Alabama 1988. A preacher has an affair. A woman is murdered. One death cascades into more, stretching across decades and leaving no one untouched. Victims, bystanders, perpetrators and those just trying to help. And eventually the fallout lands at the centre of one of America's most heated debates. Who gets to live, who should die, and how far a state can go in the name of justice. On Revisionist History the Alabama Murders Fellow Canadian Malcolm Gladwell examines the death penalty and asks a deeper question. Why, in our efforts to alleviate suffering, do we so often make it worse? Revisionist History the Alabama Murders Search for revisionist history wherever you listen.
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- [58:22]
Narrator / Storyteller
Marnie frey was almost 25 years old, living at the Balmoral Hotel with substance use disorder. Marnie had a young daughter that she left with her father, Rick Frey and stepmother Lynn, back home in Campbell river on Vancouver Island. She still called them to check in every two days or so and went home as often as she could to visit. In the lead up to her 25th birthday, Marnie's family told her they were sending her some money and clothes. Her birthday came and went and they waited for that next phone call. Marnie Frey was born to an indigenous mother and fisherman father in Campbell River. Her parents broke up when she was young and she mostly lived with her father Rick after that and later his partner Lin. Marnie was said to have a way with animals and was described as energetic, full of life and loved people. She was also known to be generous. She would literally give the shirt off her back if it helped someone. When Marnie was 14, she started using drugs, hanging out with a different crowd and became difficult to live with. Her father and stepmother tried everything they could to remove her from the situation, including changing schools, but Marnie had developed substance use disorder. She quit school by grade 11 and moved away from home. Soon after that. She had several run ins with the cops before finding out she was pregnant at 19. Once her daughter Brittany arrived, Marnie tried to make it work, but she was too deep into substance use. She moved to the downtown Eastside with a friend. Before long, she was living at one of the seedy hotels and was hospitalised with suspected drug toxicity. She survived, but when Rick and Lin Frey did not hear from Marnie after her birthday, they contacted everyone they could think of, but no one knew where she was. After a week, they reported her missing to the Vancouver Police Department, who told them it was too soon to be upset. Marnie was probably on a cruise. They said her family should check in again in a few months and they did. Over the following year, Rick and Lin went to Vancouver to look for Marnie on the downtown east side and ask around if anyone had seen her. Lin would later tell the missing women enquiry that she heard rumours about a Willie Picton who lived on a farm in Port Coquitlam. Rumours were that he took women back to his farm and they ended up in his wood chipper. She was told she'd never see Marnie again. Lyn's foster daughter, Joyce Lachance, lived out at Port Coquitlam, and they decided to head over to the Picton farm and scope things out. Lyn climbed the front fence in a daring stunt to get in. She peered over the top and saw tractors, vehicles and big mounds of dirt and grass. Suddenly, two big rottweilers appeared, barking. There was a sign on the fence that warned there was a pit bull with aids. Marnie Frey's jawbone would later be found on the farm along with four of her teeth. Robert Pickton had continued to troll the downtown Eastside that year, but he had started feeling unwell. Eventually, he took himself to the doctor and he was diagnosed with hepatitis C. He learned it was a virus that attacks the liver, contracted through direct contact with the blood of an infected person, most commonly by sharing needles or drug paraphernalia, and less commonly, through unprotected sex with blood exchange. Robert complained to his good friend Lisa Yelds that he must have gotten the virus from Wendy. During their knife fight. He declared he'd been infected by her blood. He was still holding a massive grudge, of course. He had no idea if Wendy even had hepatitis C, but it was known to be one of several major health issues for sex workers on the downtown east side. At the end of 1997, Wendy Robert Picton found himself lonely. On Christmas Eve, he went to the downtown Eastside looking for company, but found the place quiet. The sex workers who frequented there were, of course, loved and missed by their families, and many were home for the festive season or at one of the local churches or community shelters. They were not out and about as usual. Robert would later tell an undercover police officer officer that he devised a silly prank to amuse himself. He returned to the farm and picked up a couple of piglets, drove back to the downtown east side and let them loose on Hastings Street. He said he watched as they ran around terrified, and he laughed as he watched the police try to catch them. He made a joke about pigs trying to catch pigs. Finally, someone called the Humane Society and the prank was over. Robert would tell the undercover officer he never came forward to claim the pigs, but he certainly thought it was the Funniest thing he'd ever done. Journalist and author Stevie Cameron verified this story in her book on the Farm. A Vancouver police constable reported seeing Robert Pickton's vehicle that Christmas Eve, amongst other reports of piglets on the loose. The next day, 39 year old Kerry Lynn Koski was celebrating Christmas with her family in Coquitlam, right next to Port Coquitlam where the Picton family farm was. As a child, Kerry was described as pretty and full of life. A great dancer, kind and generous, always had a big smile on her face. Her adult life unravelled after her husband died by suicide, leaving her a single mother with three young daughters. She reportedly started using heroin with a bad run of boyfriends and became the victim of domestic violence. About two months before Christmas, she just left her daughters with her family and moved to the downtown Eastside. When Kerry arrived for Christmas that day, her family noticed she looked like she hadn't eaten for days. That was the last time they saw her. Two weeks later when her sister reported her missing, the police were not interested. Kerry's daughters were young teenagers by this point, devastated after all they had been through. One of her daughters told the police, you have to find my mom. The Vancouver PD told them not to worry. Kerry was probably off partying. Kerry Koski's DNA would be found on a pair of earrings in the grocery bag of jewellery hidden under the floor vent in Robert Pickton's mobile trailer home. Thirteen women had gone missing from the Downtown Eastside in 1997, a massive spike from previous years. And this would be the worst year. And still the Vancouver police refused to take the losses seriously. Inga Monique hall was the first woman to go missing in 98. She'd immigrated to Canada from Germany with her parents when she was young and first lived in Ontario. When she was 14, she ran away from home. At 19, she married a man from Alberta and gave birth to a daughter who ended up being cared for by his family. The relationship broke down. Inga met another man in British Columbia. She gave birth to another daughter and again left her with her in laws. She moved to Vancouver's downtown Eastside. She reportedly attempted to track down her daughters later, but returned deflated where she and another woman tried to rob a bank with a plastic gun. Inga Monique hall was last seen in February 98. She was 46. Her DNA would be found in nine packages of ground pork in one of the freezers on the Picton Pig farm and on plastic sheet liners. Clumps of her hair would be found in A plastic bag in the slaughterhouse. In April of 98, 28 year old Sarah DeVries vanished from the corner of Princess and Hastings street on the downtown Eastside. She was almost 29 years old. She'd been standing there with a fellow sex worker friend who left briefly with a date. When she returned, Sarah was gone. Sarah was of mixed racial background, white, black, Mexican and indigenous. Described as absolutely stunning. Her parents weren't able to care for her, so when she was 11 months old, she was adopted into a white middle class family in Vancouver, the DeVries family, where she had three older siblings. Because of the way adoption worked at the time, Sarah had no contact with her birth family. After she was placed, she was described as bright, artistic and athletic, often seen rollerblading around. She loved swimming and gymnastics and she did well academically. She was also a prolific writer from a young age. In her journal, she wrote about the increasing isolation she felt as a girl of color growing up in a predominantly white community. The racial slurs that were hurled at her, the bullying and physical abuse she had to endure. Sarah's sister would later say she also believed Sarah had been repeatedly sexually abused by a neighbour. During childhood, she became increasingly unhappy. When Sarah Devries was 14, she ran away from home. By 17, she was on the downtown Eastside engaging in sex work and hazardous drug use. She told a journalist working on a book about youth on the street that she'd become pregnant after being sexually assaulted by a client or trick, and that she'd had an abortion. Despite everything, Sarah stayed connected to the devries family. She visited them often and was frequently in the process of trying to stop using heroin. According to the Missing Women's Inquiry, she lived for years with a partner on the downtown east side and gave birth to a daughter. She served a short prison sentence and a few years after that gave birth to a son. Both children ended up living with the de Vries family, but Sarah saw them regularly. Here's a passage she wrote in her journal. Woman's body beaten beyond recognition. Am I next? Is he watching me now? Stalking me like a predator and its prey? Waiting. Waiting for the perfect spot, Time or my stupid mistake. How does one choose a victim? Good question, isn't it? If I knew that, I would never get snuffed. It's a shame that society is that unfeeling. She was some woman's baby girl. Girl gone astray, lost from the right path. She was a person. One day, a new client picked Sarah Devries up. His name was Wayne Ling and he became a regular developing Romantic feelings for her. Sarah stayed with him for a time because she felt safe, but eventually returned to the down townes side. She told Wayne she only wanted friendship and he accepted it. He would say he was grateful simply to be part of her life. In 1998, when Sarah disappeared off the street corner, Wayne Lang noticed almost immediately. He went straight to the police but was told he wasn't a family member. The police dismissed him. So he reached out to her family members and joined forces with her sister Maggie Devries, who filed a missing persons report. They put up posters, searched the downtown eastside and asked people on the street if they'd seen Sarah. No one had. Sarah DeVries was the 48th woman to disappear from the Downtown Eastside in the 20 years since 1978. By this point, the families of the growing collection of missing women were distraught and frustrated with the Vancouver police department who were not taking the issue seriously. Once again, it was too easy to dismiss these women as expendable throwaways who deserve what they got. Instead of someone's daughter, sister, mother. They were people, they were loved. And someone was picking them off the streets one by one. Wayne Lang was well connected on the downtown Eastside and began reaching out to the press. He wanted the public to be aware that his friend Sarah Devries wasn't just one missing woman. She was one more in a very long and growing list that deserved a closer look. Frank Luber of the province wrote an article about Sarah Devries, who had been missing for about six weeks by that point. It featured an interview with Wayne Lang and her mother Pat De Vries. The article got people talking. Some reached out to Wayne himself to provide tips. In a follow up article two months later, Wayne reported receiving a series of disturbing phone messages. The caller was male and Wayne Lane described him as having a sexual, slightly slurred voice. He said, sarah's dead, so there will be more girls like her dead. There will be one every Friday night at the busiest time. You'll never find Sarah again, so just stop looking for her, alright? So bye. She's dead. In a final message, the caller said, this is in regards to Sarah. I just want to let you know that you'll never find her again alive because a friend of mine killed her and I was there. In response to questions that the mystery caller might have been pranking, Wayne said this man knew some things about Sarah Devries that had not been made public. He forwarded the voicemails on to the Vancouver police. Sarah Devries DNA would later be found in lipsticks in a White body purse along with a used condom with Robert Picton's DNA. The purse had been hidden in the loft of one of the many outbuildings on the Picton farm. The next call Wayne Lang received would be a revelation. It was from a man named Bill Hiscox who explained that in the past two years he'd worked for a demolition and salvage company owned by David Pickton and he'd seen and heard some strange things on the Picton family farm out at Port Coquitlam. Wayne Lang had never heard of David Picton or this farm before. Bill Hiscox told him that David's older brother Willie Picton had hired him for the job and he often went to the pig farm to pick up his paycheck. Hiscox described it as a creepy looking place with lots of outbuildings and spaces for hiding things, vehicles and heavy equipment everywhere. He also described being chased by a 600 pound vicious pig on the property that ran with the guard dogs. He got a strange feeling from that farm, especially from Willie Picton, who he described as quite a strange character. A quiet guy, antisocial, hard to strike up a conversation with. He told Wayne Lang that Willy had a reputation for being a slow pig farmer that had to be looked after by his younger brother David. But that wasn't the case. Hiscox described Willy as cunning. He said Willy was known to make frequent trips to the downtown Eastside to pick up sex workers and he had actually heard him talking about one that he seemed to have intense animosity towards and mentioned a police investigation around it. Quote, he said he wanted someone to bring her out to the farm, he'd take care of her. Hiscox also told Wayne Lang that a friend of his who did cleaning on the farm had seen bags of bloody clothing, at least 10 women's purses and identification cards for various women strewn around the farm. Bill Hiscox told Wayne Lang that he'd actually called the Vancouver Police Department tip line several times. One time they said they'd look into it and asked for the name of the woman who told him about the items belonging to women on the farm. Her name was Lisa Yelds. He also reported that Willie had said a few strange things to him in to others. One time Willie told him, if you ever have a body that you need to get rid of, Bill, just bring it in and we'll throw it in the piggery. That'll be that. Hiscox said he believed the remark was made jokingly at the time, but then he started hearing from multiple sources that Willie had been bragging about disposing of bodies with his meat grind grinder. That did not seem like a joke. As it turned out, Bill Hiscox wasn't the only one seeing and hearing things about the Picton Pig Farm. He was just the first to tell the police. Thanks for listening. In part three, farm workers and guests describe an escalation of disturbing encounters, but they're silenced by threats and intimidation. Then one woman wakes to a scream from the slaughterhouse and finds herself the first and only direct witness to an act so horrific many would find it difficult to comprehend. And women would continue to vanish for three more years before police finally step onto the farm. The next episode will be available in a week. You can listen ad free and early on our premium feeds. For the full list of resources, sources, research, studies and anything else you want to know about the podcast, see the show Notes or visit Canadian True Crime we donate monthly to those facing injustice. Proceeds from this series are going to the Wish Droppin Centre Society supporting street based sex workers on Vancouver's Downtown east side since 1984. Special thanks to Danielle Paradis for family outreach and additional research. Audio editing was by Crosby Audio and Eric Crosby voiced the disclaimer. Our senior producer is Lindsay Eldridge and Carol Weinberg is our script consultant. Research writing, narration and sound design was by me and the theme songs were composed by we talk of dreams. I'll be back soon with another Canadian True Crime episode. See you then. Shipping, billing, admin, payroll, marketing. You're managing all the things, so why waste time sending important documents the old fashioned way. Mail and ship when you want, how you want with stamps.com print postage on demand 247 and schedule pickups from your office or home. Save up to 90% with automated rate shopping. That's why over 1 million small businesses trust stamps.com go to stamps.com and use code podcast to try stamps.com risk free for 60 days.
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