- VANCOUVER (AAP) -- Police
and forensic scientists are wrapping up a 21-month huge search of a pig
farm near Vancouver in the case of Canada's worst serial killing, while
dozens of women remain missing.
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- Evidence discovered on the farm led to murder charges
against Robert William Pickton in the deaths of 15 women.
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- A judge also ruled that only procedural reasons prevented
him from sending Pickton to trial for the murders of seven other women.
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- Pickton is scheduled to appear in court on December 15
to have a date set for his trial, which is expected to begin next year
in Vancouver.
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- But the fate of about 40 women remains unknown even as
police wrap up their search of Pickton's property in Port Coquitlam, a
suburb 35km east of Vancouver.
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- They are on a list of more than 60 women who vanished
over a 25-year period. Most were impoverished and involved in prostitution
and drugs in the Downtown Eastside, a notoriously seedy neighbourhood of
Vancouver.
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- The case caused a long-running controversy here, with
critics charging that police were ignoring the women.
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- In 2001, area police forces formed a joint task force,
which moved on to the Pickton farm 21 months ago.
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- "The investigative and forensic steps undertaken
are, in fact, unprecedented in Canadian history," Detective Sheila
Sullivan of the Vancouver Police Department said as police now prepare
to leave the farm.
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- As many as 150 forensic anthropologists and police combed
through Pickton's demolished farm buildings, shacks and gravel and dirt,
seeking body parts, DNA and personal items owned by missing women.
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- The ramshackle farm lies in the middle of a newly developed
suburb of middle-class homes and a nearby elementary school.
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- Before police moved in, a house and outbuildings including
a pig slaughtering facility were protected by large dogs and "No Trespassing"
signs, one of which warned visitors of a "pit bull with AIDS".
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- Police have now reduced the property to piles of dirt
and gravel and mounds of junk from demolished buildings and rusty equipment.
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- The property will be returned this week to Pickton's
brother and sister, who co-own it with him.
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- Police said they will continue tests on items seized
from the farm.
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- "Six forensic specialists and five exhibit handlers
will be working over the next year or so, to process thousands of exhibits
seized during this search," Catherine Galliford, spokesperson for
the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said.
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- Now police are focusing on what happened to the women
on their list who are not, so far, linked to the Pickton farm.
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- "The search of the farm property was only one avenue
of investigation that we were pursuing," said Galliford.
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- "We still have approximately 40 people on our list
who are unaccounted for. ... The conclusion of this search means we can
move ahead and focus on those cases."
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- Police say they have not ruled out Gary Ridgway as a
suspect in the disappearances of some of the Canadian women.
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- Ridgway is the so-called Green River killer in the American
state of Washington, just south of Vancouver. He pleaded guilty earlier
this month to killing 48 American women.
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- Copyright 2003 News Limited.
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- http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7822716%255E1702,00.html
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