Robert Pickton, a notorious Canadian murderer, passes away at 74 following an attack in prison.
Robert Pickton, a notorious serial killer in Canadian history, brought his victims to his pig farm and fed their remains to his animals. He was 74 years old and serving a life sentence at Port-Cartier Institution in Quebec, Canada after being convicted for six counts of second-degree murder in 2007.
The inmate had sustained injuries from an assault by another inmate on May 19 and died in the hospital that same Friday. Correctional Service Canada (CSC) made the announcement, stating that Pickton's family and the registered victims have been notified and an investigation was underway.
Between 1978 and 2001, at least 65 women had disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighborhood in the British Colombia province. Pickton ran a pig farm in Port Coquitlam, where law enforcement found the remains of 33 women. However, Pickton confessed to murdering 49 women when discussing it with an undercover police officer in a jail cell.
This case is known as the largest serial killer investigation in Canadian history, and Pickton's pig farm became the largest crime scene in the country. Authorities took 200,000 DNA samples as part of their investigation.
The majority of these women were indigenous, and the police were accused of not taking the cases seriously due to the fact that many of those missing were prostitutes or drug addicts. CSC's statement read: "We are mindful that this offender’s case has had a devastating impact on communities in British Columbia and across the country, including Indigenous peoples, victims, and their families. Our thoughts are with them."
This news brought mixed emotions to the families of Pickton's victims. Cynthia Cardinal, whose sister Georgina Papin was murdered by Pickton, said she was "really happy" but also noted her sadness that all families did not receive justice. Michele Pineault, the mother of Stephanie Lane, who was killed at age 20, but whose death Pickton was not charged for, said that she was "elated" and that there was "no justice" for her daughter.
In 2016, a book purportedly written by Pickton and smuggled out of prison was scheduled for publication and sale on Amazon, but it was quickly withdrawn after conducting a public backlash.
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The case of Robert Pickton, with its 65 missing women from the Downtown Eastside neighborhood, shed light on the systemic issues in investigating crimes against marginalized communities in the Americas. The world watched as Canadian authorities conducted one of the largest serial killer investigations in history.
