Robert William Pickton (October 24, 1949 – May 31, 2024), also known as the Pig Farmer Killer or the Butcher, was a Canadian pig farmer and serial killer. He is believed to have murdered at least 26 women, many of them sex workers from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. He confessed to forty-nine murders to an undercover RCMP officer. In 2007, he was convicted on six counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years—the longest possible sentence for second-degree murder under Canadian law at the time.
In 2010, the Crown attorney officially stayed the remaining 20 murder charges, allowing previously unrevealed information to be made available to the public, including that Pickton previously had a 1997 attempted murder charge dropped. Crown prosecutors reasoned that staying the additional charges made the most sense, since Pickton was already serving the maximum sentence allowable.
The discovery of Pickton's crimes sparked widespread outrage and forced the Canadian government to acknowledge the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, with the British Columbia provincial government forming the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry to examine the role of the police in the matter. Pickton died on May 31, 2024, after being attacked in prison by another inmate.
Early life and criminal history
Robert William Pickton was born on October 24, 1949, to Leonard Francis Pickton (1896–1978) and Louise Helene Arnal (1912–1979), pig farmers in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, 27 kilometres (17 miles) east of Vancouver. Pickton's older sister was sent to live with relatives in Vancouver when her parents decided a pig farm would be an inappropriate setting to raise a young girl.
From an early age, Robert and his younger brother David worked at the family's farm at 953 Dominion Avenue. Pickton was strongly attached to his mother but rarely interacted with his abusive father. Pickton's mother was very demanding, forcing her sons to work long hours raising livestock. His mother prioritized the pigs over her sons' personal hygiene, often sending her sons to school in dirty clothes, reeking of manure and earning both the nickname "Stinky Piggy". Pickton struggled in school, being put in a special education class after failing grade two. When he was twelve years old, Pickton began raising a calf which became his beloved pet. After two weeks, he couldn't find the calf after school. Pickton was told to check the barn and was distraught to find it had been slaughtered.
After dropping out of school in 1963, Pickton worked as a meat cutter for nearly seven years before leaving to work full-time at his family's farm. After the deaths of their parents in the late 1970s, the Pickton siblings inherited the farm and sold parts of it to developers for C$5.16 million.
On March 23, 1997, Pickton was charged with the attempted murder of prostitute Wendy Lynn Eistetter, whom he had stabbed four times during an altercation at his farm. Eistetter told police Pickton handcuffed her and inflicted lacerations upon her body. She escaped, disarmed Pickton and stabbed him with his own knife. Pickton sought treatment at Eagle Ridge Hospital, while Eistetter recovered at a nearby emergency room. Pickton was eventually released on C$2,000 bond. The attempted murder charge against Pickton was stayed on January 27, 1998, when prosecutors determined that Eistetter, a drug addict, was too unstable for her testimony to help secure a conviction.
Pickton hosted parties at an ad hoc nightclub called Piggy's Palace in a converted slaughterhouse at the farm. Events at the venue attracted up to 2,000 people, including political and business figures as well as Hells Angels members. Pickton and his brother were sued by Port Coquitlam officials for violating zoning ordinances—neglecting the agriculture for which it had been zoned and having altered a farm building for the purpose of holding recreations. The Picktons registered a non-profit charity, the Piggy Palace Good Times Society, with the Canadian government in 1996, claiming to organize events on behalf of worthy groups. After flouting legal requirements and holding a New Year's Eve party, the brothers were served an injunction banning gatherings. The charity's non-profit status was removed after failing to produce financial statements, and the charity was disbanded.
During this period, multiple disappearances of women in the Lower Mainland, mostly from the impoverished Downtown Eastside area of Vancouver, led to media speculation that a serial killer was active. An employee of Pickton found several purses belonging to missing women and reported him to police. Police conducted three searches of the farm but found no evidence. In June 1999, police received a tip that Pickton had a freezer full of human flesh in his farmhouse; this information was ignored.
Discovery and investigation
On February 6, 2002, police executed a search warrant for illegal firearms at the Pickton property. Both Pickton brothers were arrested and police obtained a second warrant using what they had seen on the property to search the farm. Personal items belonging to missing women were found and the farm was sealed off by members of the joint RCMP–Vancouver Police Department task force. The following day, Pickton was charged with weapons offences. Both Picktons were released and Robert was kept under police surveillance.
On February 22, 2002, Robert Pickton was arrested again and charged with two counts of first degree murder in the deaths of Sereena Abotsway and Mona Wilson. On April 2, three more charges were added for the murders of Jacqueline McDonell, Dianne Rock, and Heather Bottomley. A sixth for the murder of Andrea Joesbury was laid on April 9, followed by a seventh for Brenda Wolfe. On September 20, four more were added for Georgina Papin, Patricia Johnson, Helen Hallmark, and Jennifer Furminger. Another four for Heather Chinnock, Tanya Holyk, Sherry Irving, and Inga Hall were laid on October 3. On May 26, 2005, 12 more came for Cara Ellis, Andrea Borhaven, Debra Lynne Jones, Marnie Frey, Tiffany Drew, Kerry Koski, Sarah de Vries, Cynthia Feliks, Angela Jardine, Wendy Crawford, Diana Melnick, and Jane Doe, bringing the total to 27.
Excavations continued at the farm through November 2003; the cost of the investigation was estimated at C$70 million by the end of 2003. The property was fenced off under lien by the Crown in Right of British Columbia and remained so as of 2023. In the meantime all the buildings except a small barn had been demolished. Forensic analysis proved difficult because the bodies may have decomposed or been eaten by insects and pigs.
During the early days of the excavations, forensic anthropologists brought in heavy equipment, including two 50-foot (15-metre) flat conveyor belts and soil sifters to find human remains. On March 10, 2004, the government revealed that Pickton may have ground up human flesh and mixed it with pork that he sold to the public; the province's health authority later issued a warning. Another claim was made that he fed the bodies directly to his pigs. In 2003, a preliminary hearing was held and the clothes and rubber boots that Pickton had been wearing during the Eistetter assault were seized by police from an RCMP storage locker. In 2004, the DNA of Borhaven and Ellis was found on the items.
Trial
Pickton's trial began on January 30, 2006, in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in New Westminster. Pickton pleaded not guilty to the 27 charges of first-degree murder. The voir dire phase of the trial took most of the year to determine what evidence might be admitted before the jury. Reporters were barred from disclosing material presented in argument. On March 17, one count was rejected by Justice James Williams for lack of evidence. On August 9, Justice Williams severed the charges into one group of six counts and another of twenty.
The trial proceeded on the six counts. Full details of the decision were not made publicly available, but Justice Williams explained that trying all 26 charges at once would put an unreasonable burden on the jury as the trial could have lasted up to two years, and would increase the possibility of mistrial. The remaining 20 charges were stayed on August 4, 2010.
On January 22, 2007, Pickton faced first-degree murder charges in the deaths of Frey, Abotsway, Papin, Joesbury, Wolfe, and Wilson. The media ban was lifted and details of the investigation were publicly released:
About eighty unidentified DNA profiles, roughly half male and half female, had been detected.
In Pickton's trailer were found: a loaded .22 revolver with a dildo over the barrel and one round fired, boxes of .357 Magnum handgun ammunition, night-vision goggles, two pairs of faux fur-lined handcuffs, a syringe with three millilitres of blue liquid inside, and "Spanish fly" aphrodisiac. In a videotape played to the jury, Pickton claimed to have attached the dildo to his weapon as a makeshift silencer; this explanation is impractical at best, as revolvers are near-impossible to silence in this manner.
A videotape of Pickton's friend Scott Chubb saying Pickton had told him a good way to kill a female heroin addict was to inject her with windshield washer fluid. A second tape, in which Pickton's associate Andrew Bellwood said Pickton mentioned killing sex workers by handcuffing and strangling them, then bleeding and gutting them before feeding them to pigs.
Photos of the contents of a garbage can found in Pickton's slaughterhouse, which held remains of victim Mona Wilson.
On December 9, 2007, the jury found Pickton not guilty on six counts of first-degree murder, but guilty on six counts of second-degree murder. On December 11, 2007, after reading eighteen victim impact statements, Judge Williams sentenced Pickton to life with no possibility of parole for 25 years—the maximum punishment for second-degree murder, and equal to the sentence for first-degree murder—stating: "Mr. Pickton's conduct was murderous and repeatedly so. I cannot know the details but I know this: What happened to them was senseless and despicable."
Victims
On December 9, 2007, Pickton was convicted of second-degree murder in the deaths of six women:
Count One: Serena Abotsway, 29, reported missing on August 22, 2001
Count Two: Mona Lee Wilson, 26, reported missing on November 30, 2001
Count Six: Andrea Joesbury, 22, reported missing June 8, 2001
Count Seven: Brenda Ann Wolfe, 32, reported missing on April 25, 2000
Count Eleven: Georgina Faith Papin, 34, reported missing in March 2001
Count Sixteen: Marnie Lee Anne Frey, 24, reported missing on December 29, 1997
Pickton also stood accused of first-degree murder in the deaths of 21 other women. These charges were stayed on August 4, 2010:
Count Three: Jacquelene Michelle McDonell, 22, reported missing on January 16, 1999
Count Four: Dianne Rosemary Rock, 34, reported missing on December 13, 2001
Count Five: Heather Kathleen Bottomley, 27, reported missing on April 17, 2001
Count Eight: Jennifer Lynn Furminger, 28, reported missing on December 27, 1999
Count Nine: Helen Mae Hallmark, 20, reported missing on June 15, 1997
Count Ten: Patricia Rose Johnson, 25, reported missing on January 2, 2001
Count Twelve: Heather Gabrielle Chinnock, 30, last seen in April 2001
Count Thirteen: Tanya Holyk, 23, reported missing on November 3, 1996
Count Fourteen: Sherry Leigh Irving, 24, reported missing on February 22, 1997
Count Fifteen: Inga Monique Hall, 46, last seen in February 1998
Count Seventeen: Tiffany Louise Drew, 27, reported missing on December 31, 1999
Count Eighteen: Sarah Jean de Vries, 29, last seen in April 1998
Count Nineteen: Cynthia "Cindy" Feliks, 43, last seen in December 1997
Count Twenty: Angela Rebecca Jardine, 27, reported missing on November 20, 1998
Count Twenty-One: Diana Melnick, 23, last seen in December 1995
Count Twenty-Two: Mission Jane Doe, discovered on February 25, 1995
Count Twenty-Three: Debra Lynne Jones, 42, last seen in December 2000
Count Twenty-Four: Wendy Crawford, 43, last seen in December 1999
Count Twenty-Five: Kerry Lynn Koski, 38, reported missing on January 7, 1998
Count Twenty-Six: Andrea Fay Borhaven, 25, last seen in March 1997
Count Twenty-Seven: Cara Louise Ellis, 25, reported missing on January 21, 1997
Pickton was implicated in the deaths of but not charged with the murders of four women:
Mary Ann Clark, 25, disappeared in August 1991.
Stephanie Lane, 20, disappeared January 1997; her partial remains were found but misplaced 2003 to 2010
Dawn Teresa Crey, 42, last seen in December 2000
Yvonne Marie Boen, 33, reported missing on March 16, 2001
After Pickton was arrested, witness Lynn Ellingsen came forward to authorities claiming to have seen Pickton skinning a woman hanging from a meat hook years earlier and claimed she had not told anyone about it out of fear of losing her life. However, Ellingsen admitted she had blackmailed Pickton about the incident on more than one occasion.