Canadian prison officials are under fire as the country’s most notorious serial killer is eligible for parole.
The outraged families of the victims of Robert Pickton, now 70, say they are “disgusted” that he has aged into parole eligibility, despite killing at least 26 women in his pig farm
Prosecutors say he confessed to as many as 49 murders to an undercover police officer posing as a cellmate, and once joked that he wanted to kill another woman to make her “even fifty.”
Palexelsiya Lorelei Williams, cousin of victim Tanya Holyk, said CA Global News that her possible parole makes her feel “sick to her stomach.”
Robert Pickton, a pig farmer, made international news in 2002 when a search warrant at his farm led to the discovery of dozens of murders.
The serial killer and rapist is known to have killed at least 26 women, although prosecutors say he confessed to 49, and once joked that he wanted to kill another woman so they would be “fifty alike.”
Families of Pickton’s victims (pictured) have expressed outrage over his eligibility for parole, with one saying the ongoing case “turns my stomach.”
Pickton, also known as ‘The Butcher’ and ‘The Pig Farmer Killer’, has not yet submitted a request for a parole hearing, and is expected to be denied if he does.
But the mere fact that he could request a hearing sparked a strong reaction in Canada, with Pierre Poilevre, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s main rival, harshly criticizing the country’s prison system.
“Common sense conservatives believe mass murderers should face consecutive sentences, so they just get out of prison in a box,” he said. said in X.
Pickton made international news in February 2002, when Canadian police issued a search warrant at his pig farm in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, for firearms offences, only to discover that he had committed much more gruesome crimes.
Inspectors found items belonging to numerous missing women in the British Columbia area and, after an excavation of the farm that cost more than $70 million, discovered evidence of dozens of murders.
He was quickly accused of the murder of 26 women, and the real number is feared to be even higher.
Identifying all the remains became complicated when detectives feared that Pickton had cannibalized some of his victims.
In 2004, two years after the first search, prosecutors revealed that Pickton may have ground up his victims and mixed them with pork products from his farm that he then sold to customers.
Investigators are seen at the Pickton pig farm in British Columbia, Canada, in April 2002, as part of a year-long, $70 million excavation of the property that revealed gruesome evidence of murders.
Forensic workers collect evidence at the Pickton pig farm in 2002.
Pickton ran a pig farm and may have ground up his victims and mixed them with his farm’s pork products which he then sold to customers.
Pickton seen under interrogation. Although he was only convicted of six murders and twenty others were suspended, police said he confessed to an undercover officer that he had killed up to 49
He was convicted in 2007 of six murders, and twenty others were suspended in court because he had already reached the maximum possible sentence under Canadian law: life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years.
However, he became eligible to apply for day parole on Thursday, and was reportedly offered the opportunity eight years before the end of his 25-year sentence.
The day before he was eligible, his victims’ grieving relatives gathered at the site of his former pig farm to protest his parole and pay tribute to his victims.
Families held a candlelight vigil and hung red dresses in memory of their loved ones.
Williams, who became an advocate for missing Indigenous women after her cousin’s murder, said the fact that Pickton is eligible and back in the spotlight is “disgusting.”
‘Our justice system is horrible. “It’s racist and endangers the lives of indigenous women,” she said. “It makes me sick to my stomach.”
He added that the possibility of his parole came as a surprise since officials didn’t tell him and “the other families close to me didn’t know either.”
Stephanie Lane, the mother of victim Michele Pineault, said at the vigil that her “heart ached” at the resurgence of the case.
‘My daughter is not given parole. It’s been 27 years since she left,” she said.
He is an evil, evil, evil man. He doesn’t even belong on this Earth. He needs to stay where he is until the day he dies.
The day before Pickton was eligible for parole, families held a candlelight vigil and hung red dresses in memory of their loved ones.
The families paid tribute to their lost relatives and shared their outrage over Pickton’s eligibility for parole. One called him an “evil, evil, evil man” and called on the serial killer to “stay where he is until the day he dies.”
Michelle Pineault brings flowers to remember her daughter Stephanie Lane, one of the victims of the serial killer
The costly search at Pickton’s farm has also become a point of controversy in recent months.
More than 200,000 exhibits at the farm were confiscated, including three freezers with more than 400 meat products, some of which contained “unknown samples” feared to be partly human.
In total, the remains or DNA of 33 women were found on his farm, but their families oppose authorities’ attempts to destroy or return some 14,000 pieces of evidence in the case.
Sasha Reid, a developmental psychologist and creator of a database of unsolved cases of missing and murdered people in Canada, told Global News CA that there has been a disturbing lack of participation from victims’ families in consultations about the destruction Of the tests.
“This was an application that potentially connects with human remains and human materials,” he said.
“I think given the amount of stress the family has been under, the amount of lies they’ve been told, the lack of information they have access to, this is something that, at the very least, they should have been informed about.”
Sargeant. BC’s Kris Clark. The RCMP responded that the evidence needed to be destroyed because it was “depreciating rapidly and presented no evidence.”
‘As well as for health reasons, our need to dispose of the items was more immediate than would normally be required to obtain a Waste Order; These reasons influenced our decision to proceed Ex Parte,” he said.
“To be as transparent as possible given our time constraints, we did not seal the request or attempt to hide it from the public.”
Williams sharply criticized the process, which spans more than two dozen years after Pickton’s arrest, saying, “It’s just been horrible to go through this and it shows what the system is like.”
“These things come in huge waves and it’s strange to say, but I’m kind of normalizing it… I’m not surprised when these things come out of the RCMP or the government,” he added.
With the prospect of Pickton having a parole hearing, Williams said she and other victims’ families would want to attend the hearings to give their opinion.
“I’d probably want to be there in person and I’d have to prepare for that,” he said.