Robert Pickton
RobertPickton was born in 1949, and grew up in British Columbia, growing up to work as a pig farmer. Pig farming was not entirely satisfactory, apparently, because he resorted to serial killing. He is convicted of murdering six women, and is charged in the deaths of at least twenty more.
At one point, Robert and his brother David ran a charity called the Piggy Palace Good Times Society. What kind of charity this was, I have no clue.
On February 5, 2002, police obtained a search warrant for the property, to search for illegal firearms. Police arrested Robert, and then obtained permission to search the farm for missing women, when a personal belonging was found.
Later that month, Pickton was arrested and charged with two counts of first degree murder for the deaths of Sereena Abotsway and Mona Wilson. It was not until April that five other charges were added for the murders of Jacqueline McDonell, Diane Rock, Heather Bottomley, Andrea Joesbury, and Brenda Wolfe. In September, four more charges were added for the deaths of Georgina Papin, Patricia Johnson, Helen Hallmark, and Jennifer Furminger.
The charges continued being racked on…
Excavations of the farm continued all the way through November of 2003, costing more than $70 million dollars.
The trial for Robert Pickton began on January 30, 2006. He pleaded not guilty to 27 first-degree murder chages. One charge was dismissed by the judge.
In August of 2006, the judge presiding over the case brought the case down to six counts. The other 20 counts were not dismissed, just postponed.
January 22, 2007 was the first day of the trial. The evidence that was found was finally revealed – skulls cut in half, remains stuffed into trash bags, both victim’s and Pickton’s DNA were found on a sex toy attached to a gun, among other things.
A month later, more information was revealed in court - pictures of remains and video testimonies.
On December 9, 2007, the jury returned it’s verdict – Pickton was not guilty on 6 counts of first degree murder. He was found guilty on 6 counts of second-degree murder. Two days later, the judge sentenced Pickton to life with no possibility of parole for 25 years.
