Shivangi Sinha
In February 2002, the police received a tip about illegal firearms being stored at the pig farm owned by Robert and David Pickton. What they discovered was far beyond their expectations. Along with the suspected firearms, the police found clothing and ID cards belonging to women who had been reported missing for many years. A search of the property followed, revealing DNA traces of 33 women. In Freeform’s ‘Sasha Reid and the Midnight Order,’ the team speaks with the families of Robert’s alleged victims whose cases remain unresolved. As his upcoming parole hearing approaches, the families discuss how the horrific acts of one man took their loved ones away and how they have been waiting for justice for decades.
Robert Pickton Spent His Childhood on His Parent’s Pig Farm
Robert Pickton was born on October 24, 1949, in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. His parents, Leonard Francis Pickton and Louise Helene Arnal, were pig farmers. Robert and his brother, David Francis Pickton, became proficient in the workings of the farm at a young age, while their older sister, Linda Louise Wright, was sent away to be raised in a more “proper” environment. The school was challenging for Robert, as he often faced mockery and ridicule, leading him to become more reclusive. In 1963, he dropped out and started working as a butcher, but by 1970, he was working full-time on his family’s farm.
In 1996, Robert and his brother started the Piggy Palace Good Times Society, a non-profit organization that quickly became a front for hosting parties and events attended by thousands of people. Reports of alleged drug use, loud music, and general nuisance on the farm began to attract police attention, and legal pressure to curb such activities started mounting. Following a New Year’s party in 1998, an injunction was placed to stop these events, and in 1999, the organization’s non-profit status was revoked. By this time, Robert’s involvement with the police in other matters had also escalated.
Robert Pickton Committed Horrific Crimes For Years
In 1992, Robert was convicted of assault after his victim claimed that he had attacked her in his trailer on the pig farm. He was fined CA$1000 and placed on a month-long probation. In March 1997, a woman named Wendy Lynn Eistetter reported to the police that Robert had handcuffed her and tried to kill her. She managed to stab him a few times with the same weapon and sustained multiple lacerations on her face and body. On March 23, 1997, Robert was charged with attempted murder.
However, the charge was stayed in January 1998 because the police considered Wendy’s profession as a sex worker and her alleged drug use to make her testimony unreliable and the case weak. The actual reality of what Robert was doing on the farm came to light in 2002 when someone reported the storage of illegal firearms on the farm. On February 6, 2002, when the police showed a search warrant to Robert and searched his property, they found many items belonging to women who had been reported missing in the preceding years.
On February 7, Robert was charged with weapons offenses, and he and David were kept under police surveillance. A second search warrant was executed on the property, revealing human remains and DNA of 33 missing women. On February 22, 2002, Robert was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and taken into custody. On April 2, three more charges were added, and the numbers kept mounting. By May 26, 2005, a total of 27 charges of murder had been filed against him, but they were later reduced to 26.
Robert Was Allegedly Connected to More Murders Than He Was Convicted of
On January 30, 2006, the trial of Robert Pickton commenced, with him pleading not guilty to the charges. The judge presiding over the case divided the charges into a group of six and the remaining twenty to prevent a mistrial. While in county jail, an undercover RCMP officer, posing as his cellmate, overheard Pickton saying he was aiming for an even 50 killings and had been stopped just one short, implying he had killed 49 women. The trial for the first six first-degree murder charges began on January 22, 2007.
On December 9, 2007, Robert Pickton was found guilty of the second-degree murders of Sereena Abotsway, Mona Lee Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Ann Wolfe, Georgina Faith Papin, and Marnie Lee Anne Frey. A woman also testified that she had seen Robert skinning a woman’s body hanging from a meat hook but did not report it out of fear. On December 11, he was handed the strictest punishment under Canadian law for murder and was given a life sentence with the possibility of parole in 25 years.
He remained accused of the first-degree murder of 20 other women and was implicated in the deaths of three different women. In a short period, he appealed his conviction to the British Columbia Court of Appeal, seeking a new trial. On June 25, 2009, the appeal was rejected, and in July 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the previous sentence and convictions. On August 4, 2010, the Crown prosecutor requested that the rest of the murder charges against him be stayed because he was already serving the maximum sentence.
Robert Pickton Died in an Attack in Prison
In the same August 2010 hearing, Robert was ordered to be admitted to a federal prison. Until 2018, he stayed at the Kent Institution in British Columbia and was transferred to the Port-Cartier Institution in Quebec, a maximum-security prison. In February 2024, he became eligible for day parole, leading to a significant outcry from many of the victims’ families who felt they had not yet received justice. Before his parole hearing could be scheduled, fate intervened.
On May 19, 2024, he was attacked by another prisoner, who struck him on the head with a thing resembling a broken broom handle. His condition was severe, and he had to be placed on life support. On May 31, 2024, Robert passed away, drawing a mix of relief and anger from the victims’ families, who had been fearing his release.
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