Today was the opening day of the trial of Robert Pickton, the infamous pig farmer, accused of murdering 26 local women. Currently facing charges for the murder of the first six of twenty six. He is reported to have claimed he killed 49. These women were the sisters, daughters, neices, wives and grandchildren of families who loved them and miss them. Robert Pickton thought these women were disposable. It was revealed today that the heads of some of these women were found in his deep freeze, in his home just a few minutes drive from here in the town of Port Coquitlam. Some of their bones were found in his pig trough. Did this man feed these women to his pigs. Which he then sold to the unsuspecting public? The trial is expected to last at least a year. How can this many women go missing before something is done? Well you see, they were mostly prostitures and drug addicts, so it took a while for the police to take their dissappearances seriously. Their already sad lives, ended so brutally horrible. Their souls and their families are once again on my mind today.
It could be any of us who have a family member succumb to the streets. How many of us know someone who is addicted to substances or making very bad choices. Maybe some of them have undiagnosed mental illness and are coping the only way they can. Many of these families were broken hearted to start with, when these women ended up living the lives they did. For them to come to this end must be such a torment to their loved ones.
May they rest in peace.
5 comments:
I heard a report that stated the first trial, which is expected to last a year, is only for six of his victims. This is going to go on for a long long time. It seems like such a waste of resources to go through years of trials when the guy confessed to 49 killings.
I can only take comfort in the fact that the people he killed are no longer suffering, and hope that their families can too.
I have a hard time watching or hearing about all the things they have in evidence. My heart breaks for those women and their families. And I also feel for the jurors that have to listen to all the testimony. Maybe Willy will get a conscience and stand up and say "I'm guilty" so the families can get some peace.
My backyard is like a lake....how's yours?
I agree that the dissappearance and then murder of these women was more than a family can bear. To have all these awful details exposed must be unbearable. I think it is wrong that the media can report on the details of any case. The newswatching public is not the jury, they do not need the details made open. Bad enough that the unfortunates who have been selected for jury duty, have to endure it all. Imagine having to sit through endless months listening to a case being built. Too bad that someone has not knocked him over the head in prison, save everyone the trouble of going through this farce. If he has confessed, then how can he recant and have to go through a trial? It is a mad world we live in.
It will never bring these women back to their families but I hope it brings closure to them. Is it my understanding that Canada doesn't have the death penalty? He would have life in prison then?
A policeman friend of mine told me that they take the disappearance of prostitutes and drug addicts seriously, however the reality is that such people don't really want police attention. They normally disappear to another city. (Only when there is a body, they mobilize.) There is no "drug addict" community or "hooker" community with leaders and spokespersons to go to. No paper trail. People come and go...nobody keeps track. Predators get a free feed.
Here in Ottawa, we lose about ten percent of our street persons every winter due to freezing to death. There is ALWAYS a coroner's report to ensure that the death is not a "wrongful death" or a homocide. So marginalized or not, there are agencies in place for them.
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