Robert Pickton: The Final Chapter [2]

[Part 2 of 4] The Pickton brothers become officially wealthy, and open the infamous party venue known as Piggy’s Palace. There’s an alarming spike in vulnerable women vanishing from the Downtown Eastside - but two would live to tell their stories. Look out for early, ad-free release on CTC premium feeds available on Amazon Music https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/fbe63977-5737-4910-a067-1745b99fae36/canadian-true-crime (included with Prime), Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/3LZBCxa, Patreon https://www.patreon.com/canadiantruecrimeand Supercast https://canadiantruecrime.supercast.com/. CONTENT WARNING: this series includes graphic details that will be distressing for many listeners to hear, including mention of sexual assault, residential schools, Indigenous issues, child abuse and suicide. Crisis referral services: Free National Indian Residential School Crisis Line https://www.irsss.ca/irsss-services: call 1-866-925-4419 toll free Hope for Wellness https://www.hopeforwellness.ca/ free chatline - 1-800-721-0066 or using the chat box on the website Government of Canada Crisis and Mental Health support https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/mental-health-services/mental-health-get-help.html Resources for Sexual assault survivors https://www.beyondtheverdict.ca/resources-for-suvivors Canadian True Crime donates monthly to those facing injustice. Proceeds from this series are being donated to the WISH Drop-in Centre Society, https://wish-vancouver.net/ supporting street-based sex workers on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside since 1984. Full list of resources, information sources, and more: www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes https://www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episode Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• 2:17Speaker 04

  This is part two of a four-part series, pieced together primarily from the public record, including court documents, newspaper archives, the final report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry and On the Farm by the late investigative journalist Stevie Cameron.

• 2:42Speaker 04

  We left off in the early to mid 1990s as women kept disappearing from Vancouver's downtown east side and police continued to resist the idea of a serial predator. Meanwhile, Robert Pickton regularly disposed of his barrels of waste and remains at a rendering plant right next to the downtown east side. An employee of that rendering plant would later remember seeing large chunks of meat floating in the waste, but there was no scrutiny or oversight. A woman named Nancy Clark disappeared from Vancouver Island at the exact same time that both David and Robert Pickton were working there on a demolition job.

• 3:25Speaker 04

  Her DNA would later be located on the farm, revealing that by at least 1991, the killings had begun.

• 3:36Speaker 04

  And they would continue for another 12 years.

• 3:49Speaker 04

  During this time, Robert Pickton formed a friendship with a woman who would later become central to his story. Lisa Yelts was a former sex worker from the downtown east side, still connected to the biker scene and raising two teenage sons after a failed Marriage. Her older son was friends with David Pickton's son, and she lived near the farm. One evening, she was grateful when Robert brought her boys home after they missed curfew, and a friendship grew from there. Lisa and her sons eventually moved on to the farm and would describe her friendship with Robert as straightforward and non-romantic.

• 4:31Speaker 04

  They spent time together doing ordinary things, and Robert was generous in small, practical ways, sharing meat from the farm with Lisa, spotting deals and even setting her up with a Costco membership. She teased him about his hygiene, and he took it in stride. On the other hand, Lisa Yelts couldn't stand David Pickton. She thought he was domineering and cruel, and he didn't like her either. When he yelled insults at her, Robert would jump to her defense. That made Lisa feel quite loyal to him. But she had a private unease that she never voiced at the time, and later told author Stevie Cameron.

• 5:14Speaker 04

  Lisa was an avid reader of true crime books and remembered reading about the American serial killer Ed Gein, who was known for fashioning keepsakes from human bones and skin. But it was actually Ed Gein's family dynamic that struck her. It seemed similar to what Robert Pickton had told her about his own childhood: a mean-spirited, controlling mother and a cold, abusive father. Something about the similarities unsettled Lisa, but she couldn't figure out why. She insisted she wasn't afraid of Robert and believed he would never hurt her. She kept her thoughts to herself.

• 5:56Speaker 04

  Lisa Yelts would later maintain she had no idea about Robert's trips to the downtown East Side. He kept that side of his life a secret from her.

• 6:08Speaker 04

  The next year, 1995, saw a spike in the number of women who went missing. Catherine Gonzalez grew up in Ontario and moved to British Columbia. She was described as slim with blonde hair and blue eyes, and scars on her cheek, her back, and right forearm. Catherine got married and had a daughter, but her life started to unravel because of her hazardous use of drugs and alcohol. She separated from her husband, lost custody of their daughter, and ended up on the downtown east side, where she was soon arrested for shoplifting, stealing, and some other offences. Her family would tell the Missing Women Inquiry

• 6:50Speaker 04

  that she kept in regular contact with them despite all of this. Just a few months after she served some time in prison, Catherine Gonzalez disappeared. She was 27 years old. The following month, Cathy Knight went missing. Her older sister would describe her as lovable, with chubby cheeks and always searching for someone to love her. Cathy had grown up in poverty with a father who had alcohol use disorder. She suffered childhood abuse and began using drugs and alcohol as a teenager to cope. By the time she was 15, Cathy was homeless and relying on sex work to survive.

• 7:32Speaker 04

  But her sister said she kept in regular contact with phone calls and sometimes came to stay with her. Shortly before Cathy's 29th birthday, the phone calls stopped abruptly. She was never seen again.

• 7:48Speaker 04

  Shortly after that, Dorothy Spence was reported missing. Dorothy was from Sandy Bay First Nation in Manitoba. She moved to Alberta, then Vancouver, sharing an apartment with her sister for some years. They were close, and her sister would describe her as a very good cook with a heart of gold. But Dorothy struggled with substance use disorder and ended up on the downtown east side, where she was last seen, aged 33.

• 8:22Speaker 04

  The last woman to go missing in 1995 was Diana Melnick, who was last seen at the end of December. Diana came from a middle-class family and went to a private school. She loved horses and did not like mornings, but was otherwise happy. Diana began using drugs and her life began to unravel. She ended up facing charges for petty crime and sex work on the downtown east side, and failed to make a couple of court appearances. Then, she disappeared. Diana Melnick was only 20 years old. Her DNA would later be found on the walls of a freezer on the Pickton farm.

• 9:11Speaker 04

  Back at the farm, major changes had been unfolding. The eldest Pickton sibling, Sister Linda, was now a successful realtor and saw an opportunity to sell some parcels of the family's land holdings. Pork acquitlam was no longer rural. It was rapidly transforming into a growing suburban hub, and they didn't need that much land. She negotiated the sale of three major parcels of land for a total of $5.1 million. That's in the mid 90s. Today, it's worth more than $9 million. Linda took her share and continued to distance herself from her brothers.

• 9:55Speaker 04

  Robert and David were no longer land-rich and cash-poor. They were officially wealthy. Flushed with cash, David Pickton bought a nearby property with a large corrugated metal shed and converted it into a dance hall and bar for his biker friends and local hangers-on, where he would be in charge. He called it Piggy's Palace. With room for about 150 people, Piggy's Palace featured live bands, heavy drinking, and food, including that famous barbecued pork prepared by a Robert and his associate Pat Casanova. It quickly gained a reputation as a lively local hotspot,

• 10:37Speaker 04

  drawing bikers, drug dealers, sex workers, off-duty police, business owners and even city officials. The mayor of Porke Aquitlam visited once. Neighbours complained about the noise from the loud music to the Harley Davidsons lined up outside. The city tried to shut the events down, but David pushed back, claiming their events were to benefit local charities. He made it clear that they would continue, and they did.

• 11:11Speaker 04

  Robert Pickton was pleased with Piggy's Palace. He'd spent decades in social isolation, known as a rat-faced man with a toothy grin and a graying beard, frequently seen around town wearing muddied rubber boots and clothes stained with blood. But now he had cash, and people noticed he showed up at Piggy's Palace wearing new jeans and seemed to be taking more showers. He bought an expensive hairpiece to cover his balding head. It was also time for him to upgrade from the old motorhome. He purchased a large mobile trailer home and placed it on the farm, using the living room as a spare bedroom for his various friends and acquaintances,

• 11:56Speaker 04

  including the women who came to clean, help him with work and just keep him company. But it's hard to undo decades of bad hygiene habits. Like everything else on the farm, it wasn't long before his new mobile trailer home and his new hairpiece were a filthy mess. By this point, Robert's close friend Lisa Yelts had moved off the farm with her sons. She would tell author Stevie Cameron that the place had changed after all that new cash, and she didn't like many of the new people coming around, but she stayed in contact with Robert. Soon after she moved out, he phoned asking her for a favour.

• 12:40Speaker 04

  He was worried the police were going to raid Piggy's Palace, and he knew she had a police scanner and listened to police calls often. He wanted her to tell him if she ever heard anything on the scanner that he needed to know. Robert Pickton certainly seemed paranoid about something.

• 13:05Speaker 04

  By the mid 1990s, whispers of a serial predator in the Vancouver area intensified after the battered, naked bodies of three women were found in a remote area of the Fraser Valley, about 50 kilometres east of Vancouver. Tracy Olegid was 13, Tammy Pike was 24, and Victoria Yunker was 35, and the last time each of them had been seen was on the downtown east side. DNA evidence found at the scene confirmed that at least two of these women were killed by the same man. Police compiled a list of suspects and began DNA comparisons.

• 13:48Speaker 04

  They ruled out a local violent offender on parole and turned their attention south of the border to a house painter named Gary Ridgway. They strongly suspected he was the serial killer known as the Green River Killer, who'd been targeting sex workers in the Seattle and Tacoma areas and leaving their bodies in remote woodland locations. And Ridgway knew that the police in the United States were tracking him and had his DNA, so he would often drive three hours north to vacation in Vancouver with his wife during this period.

• 14:28Speaker 04

  Gary Ridgway was ultimately ruled out of the Fraser Valley murders, but he was the Green River Killer and would be convicted of murdering nearly 50 women in Washington State. There's never been definitive evidence linking him to victims in Vancouver, but many remain convinced he was active in the region at the time.

• 14:52Speaker 04

  Police then turned their attention to another familiar name. The Pickton brothers were already well-known to law enforcement across multiple jurisdictions. David had that sexual assault conviction, and Robert was on that “bad trick list” put together by sex workers. The police focused more on Robert. DNA would later clear him of the Fraser Valley murders, which remain unsolved to this day. But during this time, Robert Pickton was placed under increased police scrutiny.

• 15:32Speaker 04

  And the women continued to go missing. Frances Young was a trained pastry chef, known to have a great sense of humour, a big happy smile, and a love of make-up and cosmetics. She was close with her family and loved animals. Frances, or Fran, also struggled with depression and substance use, and was relying on sex work on the downtown east side to pay her bills. The 36-year-old was last seen there in April of 96. Fran’s mother was of course frantic, and reported her missing to the Vancouver PD. She was told there wasn’t much they could do. Her mother never gave up, but Fran Young was never seen again.

• 16:20Speaker 04

  The family of Tanya Marlowe-Hollick never gave up either. She was just 23 years old when she disappeared. Tanya’s mother’s family is from the Shkatin First Nation, and her family history was marked by significant loss and instability. Tanya’s mother and siblings had been placed in foster care after her own mother died of cancer. Two of Tanya’s uncles died by suicide as teenagers. Tanya’s aunt, Belinda Williams, disappeared from the downtown east side in 1978 and had never been found. Tanya went to high school in Vancouver, and her loved ones described her as playful, young, and caring.

• 17:04Speaker 04

  As a young adult, Tanya lived with her mother in Vancouver for a time, and would then bounce back to her sister Cathy’s home in Klemtoo First Nation. But she struggled with substance use disorder and engaged in sex work on the downtown east side. At twenty years old, Tanya was living with a common law partner and gave birth to a son, who motivated her to enter rehabilitation. The couple split up and shared custody, but Tanya struggled after that. She started using again and doing sex work on the downtown east side, but still checked in with her home.

• 17:44Speaker 04

  In October of ninety-six, twenty-three-year-old Tanya was supposed to celebrate her auntie's birthday, but she never showed up. Three days later, her mother tried to file a missing person report with the Vancouver PD and was told that Tanya was probably just out having fun. Their response was essentially, "Don't waste our time." Tanya Marlowe-Holick was never seen again. Her DNA would later be found on the walls of the freezer at the Pickton farm.

• 18:28Speaker 04

  That same year, a sex worker named Tracy was living in the downtown east side with her husband, stuck in a cycle of hazardous substance use. But Tracy had one firm rule: she never used while working, to make sure she kept her wits about her. She was determined to make it back to her children, but she couldn't do that if she didn't survive. Tracy had seen the lanky, balding man known as Willie Pickton many times in the low-rent hotel she lived in, but he'd never been her client. So, she was surprised one night when he approached her to go with him for oral sex. She got into his filthy truck, and he drove her out to his mobile trailer home on the

• 19:13Speaker 04

  farm. It was almost as gross as the truck.

• 19:20Speaker 04

  When it was time to pay, Tracy was caught off guard when Willie suddenly pulled out a knife and accused her of stealing his wallet. She pushed him, he swiped at her, cutting two buttons off her shirt. She ran outside and tried to figure out what to do. After a period of time, Willie emerged with Tracy's handbag and wallet and got in his pickup truck. It was time to drive her back. He chatted to her the entire way as though nothing happened, telling her he liked to help sex workers kick their drug addictions. But chillingly, he told her that if they went back to the drugs, then they didn't deserve

• 20:03Speaker 04

  to live, at least in his mind. Quote, "They're useless, they're better off dead." Tracy went to the Wish Drop-In Centre and reported what had happened and what Willie Pickton told her. She learned it was a familiar story, he'd said the same things to others. The sex workers realised he seemed to be targeting women who he thought were dependent on drugs, promising to help them but never actually doing anything. And when they inadvertently relapsed, he would suddenly turn nasty, telling them they were useless fucking bitches.

• 20:43Speaker 04

  Tracy's encounter with Willie Pickton was noted in the Bad Trick List, and he never approached her again. She didn't report the knife attack to the police. In fact, the first time she spoke publicly about this encounter was to author Stevie Cameron. By that point, Tracy developed a theory about why she lived to tell the tale of her trip to the farm. She believes that he realised she wasn't using drugs, she didn't ask him for drugs either. Tracy did not make for a good target, so he moved on. The last woman to disappear from the downtown east side in 1996 was 22-year-old Olivia William,

• 21:28Speaker 04

  a member of Bebean Lake First Nation in central British Columbia. Olivia's mother passed away when she was just a few months old, and after that, her siblings were split up. Olivia was raised on a remote reserve, but kept in touch with her siblings with regular phone calls and visits. She had long brown hair, brown eyes, and was described as having a sweet child's face. According to her brother, Olivia had trauma as a result of suffering childhood sexual abuse and began using drugs and alcohol to cope. She ran away from the reserve back to Burns Lake, where she was born. She gave birth to her first child, who was removed from her care.

• 22:13Speaker 04

  She ended up on Vancouver's downtown east side, living in the Rainbow Hotel. She got pregnant a second time. According to the Missing Women's Inquiry, "She had the baby on November 16, 1996, walked out of the hospital and was not seen again. Her case remains unsolved."

• 22:40Speaker 04

  By early January of 1997, a woman had already disappeared from the downtown east side. Marie La Liberte was originally from Saskatchewan and had lived in Alberta before ending up in Vancouver's downtown east side. Almost nothing is known about her, other than the fact that she was First Nations. She had brown, short, curly hair and a flower tattoo on her left shoulder. Marie was last seen on New Year's Day in 97, but she wasn't reported missing for another few years because she reportedly lived a socially-isolated lifestyle and didn't keep in contact with her family. Marie La Liberte was 47 years old.

• 23:26Speaker 04

  That same month, Stephanie Lane disappeared, aged 20. Her mother was Maitee and her father was mixed race. She grew up in East Vancouver. Stephanie reportedly had an amazing singing voice and loved to perform. She also excelled academically at school and had many friends. But according to her mother, Stephanie fell in with a bad crowd, started using heroin, and ended up drifting to the downtown east side, where she worked at a strip club. She gave birth to a baby boy and had been desperately trying to overcome substance use disorder. She went missing shortly after she began detox, aged 20.

• 24:09Speaker 04

  Her son was only nine months old. Stephanie's mother Michelle would recall her daughter's contagious laughter. Quote, "She was very gifted at art and dancing and making everyone laugh. She was a funny, funny girl." Stephanie Lane's DNA will later be found inside a deep freezer on the Pickton farm.

• 24:39Speaker 04

  A sex worker named Renata was approached by David Pickton, who offered her $100 for oral sex, more than double the going rate. He told her, "I'm not a cop", and pulled out his penis as a show of good faith. She refused. He was dirty and smelly. He offered her drugs as well, but she had a strict rule that she only accepted cash. David then asked her if she knew anyone else, saying the request wasn't actually for him. It was for his brother back at the farm, describing Robert as "an invalid who probably couldn't get it up, but liked to have a girl try anyway."

• 25:22Speaker 04

  Renata suggested a friend of hers, 24-year-old Sherry Irving, who'd been staying with her and owed her a small amount of rent. The offer from David Pickton would settle that debt, and Sherry would be able to purchase a ferry ticket to Vancouver Island to stay with a friend straight afterwards. Renata offered to go with Sherry out to the farm so she wouldn't be by herself. Sherry Irving was outgoing and striking, described as having long blonde hair and a wide smile. She was part Indigenous. Her mother was a member of Lil' Wot First Nation, and her father was in the military. Their family moved around a lot.

• 26:05Speaker 04

  Sherry loved rock music and camping, and excelled in track and field as a child. But her parents later split up, and her mother passed away. Sherry started engaging in hazardous substance use, and eventually found herself on the downtown east side doing sex work to survive.

• 26:28Speaker 04

  That fall, Sherry packed her bag, and David Pickton picked her up with Renata and drove them out to the farm. Renata saw Willie Pickton appear on the porch in rubber boots and jeans. Sherry said goodbye to her friend and walked off with Willie. Renata would later say she had an immediate sinking feeling that she might never see her friend again, but she dismissed it. She ended up forming a business relationship with David Pickton, helping him to find women to take back to the farm supposedly for his brother. They were both weird men, and she didn't much like either of them, but business was business.

• 27:14Speaker 04

  Months later, Renata heard that Sherry had never made it to Vancouver Island. In fact, there was no evidence she even left the area. The last time anyone saw her was at the Pickton farm. Renata reported her friend missing to police, but there's no evidence that any action was taken. Sherry Irving's DNA would later be found on the walls of one of the freezers on the farm.

• 27:49Speaker 04

  That February of 1997, 29-year-old Sharon Evelyn Ward went missing from Vancouver. She was a petite white woman who'd lived a tough life with many problems, and she coped with drug and alcohol use, according to a webpage set up by her sister.

• 28:09Speaker 04

  A phone call was the last time her family heard from her, and they weren't even home. She left a voice message with her return number. Sharon's sister said their mother tried to call the number she left many times, but there was no answer. Sharon Ward just disappeared without a trace, aged 29.

• 28:36Speaker 04

  Then, there was Wendy. You'll recall she was the sex worker who escaped from the farm with handcuffs on her wrist after a vicious knife fight. Shortly after she was rushed into emergency surgery, the police would receive word that a second stabbing victim was on the way to the same hospital.

• 28:59Speaker 04

  That's coming up in a moment.

• 29:06Speaker 04

  Proceeds from this series are being donated to the Wish-Dropin Centre Society, supporting street-based sex workers on Vancouver's downtown east side since 1984.

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  The youth mental health crisis is growing, and social media is a major driver. Kids are spending up to nine hours a day on screens, often unsupervised, and studies show a direct link to anxiety, depression, and even suicidal thoughts. That's where Gab comes in. Gab offers safer phones and watches for kids with no social media, tailored to every age, offering the right tech at the right time. Or Tech in Steps. From GPS-tracking-enabled watches for younger kids to phones with parent-enabled apps for teens, each device allows kids to more safely grow their independence. Visit gab.com/getgab and use code GETGAB for an exclusive offer.

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• 31:23Speaker 04

  That cold night in 1997, Wendy didn't recognize the man who pulled up in the red pickup truck. The 30-year-old sex worker had probably heard of Willie Pickton, but she didn't connect the dots. She needed the money, so she agreed to his offer of more than double the going rate to go back to the farm with him. But then, he suddenly slipped handcuffs on one of her hands, followed by a struggle involving a butcher's knife from his kitchen table. They were both injured, but Wendy managed to escape the farm and flagged down a passing car for help. She was rushed into emergency surgery in critical condition with deep stab wounds and a punctured lung.

• 32:18Speaker 04

  A short time later, police received word that a second stabbing victim was on his way to the same hospital, a male. It was Robert Willie Pickton. Wendy had slashed across his jugular vein and he lost a lot of blood. The only reason she was able to escape him was because he was losing consciousness. Somehow, he managed to drive himself to the hospital, where he was also rushed into emergency surgery.

• 32:49Speaker 04

  The police were already at that hospital, investigating what had happened with Wendy. An officer went through Robert Pickton's dirty clothes, looking for evidence, and found a small key in one of his pants pockets. He immediately thought of those handcuffs, and took the key straight over to his colleague with Wendy. The lock turned with a soft click, and the cuffs fell off Wendy's wrist. She would later tell journalist Stevie Cameron that, looking back, it wasn't the violence that disturbed her the most, it was those handcuffs. She realised that what happened to her was no accident or misunderstanding, it was deliberate and planned.

• 33:36Speaker 04

  It seemed like an open and shut case. Wendy had the handcuffs around her wrist, and Robert Pickton had the key to those handcuffs in his pocket. The local newspaper covered the story, but didn't name Robert or Wendy. They referred to him only as a 49-year-old man, saying he would be charged. If this were any other case, that might have been where this entire story ends. But it's really only just the beginning. Wendy had been seriously injured and needed intensive care over the next few weeks as she recovered. Robert Pickton was sent home after three days to continue his recovery there.

• 34:20Speaker 04

  Police had released him on a peace bond that required him to stay at the farm and not contact Wendy as they were still investigating. Robert told his brother and friends that he'd been snoozing innocently in his pickup truck that night when this sex worker Wendy woke him up. He drove her out to the farm but she saw a wad of cash on the table and grabbed a knife, threatening him. "The bitch stabbed him", he said, as he tried to defend himself stabbing her back. There was no explanation for the handcuffs. A few days later, Robert was charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and unlawful confinement.

• 35:03Speaker 04

  His good friend Lisa Yelts was caring for him post-surgery and she noticed he was filled with rage directed all towards Wendy. He asked her to find out where Wendy lived so he could deal with her himself. Lisa told him to just drop it. Robert hired a private investigator to look into Wendy and also retained one of Vancouver's most expensive criminal lawyers to defend him. A trial date was set. But the case never made it to trial. The details Wendy gave in her police statement was a credible early warning of what was happening to other women.

• 35:44Speaker 04

  It could have been a watershed moment, a turning point that might have changed the course of history and saved many lives. Instead, it was found to be a critical failure that resulted in catastrophic consequences. The later Commission of Inquiry would conclude that the RCMP did not investigate beyond the immediate assault on Wendy. They could have searched Robert Pickton's trailer fully and the farm. They could have spoken with his neighbours, relatives and known associates, which would likely have led to evidence he was engaged in other illegal and troubling activities. These steps were not taken.

• 36:27Speaker 04

  But the biggest failure was on the part of the Crown Prosecution, who knew Wendy had nearly died, that her statement matched the evidence, and that the RCMP believed her. Yet, over the following 10 months in the lead-up to the trial, the Crown didn't contact Wendy, claiming she was hard to get hold of, which the inquiry found was not true. The problem was indifference. Finally, just two weeks before that trial was due to begin, the Crown Prosecutor met with Wendy for the first and only time and noticed she was under the influence of drugs. By this point, Wendy had been warned that Robert Pickton was threatening to harm her,

• 37:11Speaker 04

  and she was utterly terrified. The Crown should have asked Wendy about her drug use and offered her support and referrals to services that could help her as a vulnerable witness with valuable evidence, and perhaps readjusted their approach for a successful trial. Instead, the Crown Prosecutor decided Wendy was an unreliable drug user and stayed or dropped all the charges against Robert Pickton. The trial was cancelled, and he slipped through the cracks.

• 37:49Speaker 04

  Wendy's name was protected by a publication ban for a long time, and she's been referred to by many different names. It wasn't until years later that her case was connected to the women vanishing from the downtown east side. At least 11 more women were killed after that, and likely more disappeared and left no trace.

• 38:13Speaker 04

  In fact, there was DNA from two women on the clothes Robert Pickton was wearing when he arrived at the hospital. Those clothes were seized by police and later tested.

• 38:27Speaker 04

  Cara Alice was originally from Calgary, Alberta. Her parents divorced when she was five and she lived with her mother in Ontario, then went to foster care, then with an uncle, followed by a move with her father in Alberta. Cara's family would describe her as a tomboy who loved playing horsey with her brothers. By the time she was a teenager, she was living in a group home and began using drugs. Then she was homeless, engaging in survival sex work on Vancouver's downtown east side. Cara's boyfriend was a Hells Angels member and when she checked in with her family, she told them she loved riding on his motorbike.

• 39:10Speaker 04

  According to testimony at the later missing women's inquiry, Cara had been convicted of attempted manslaughter, although there's no further details about this. During her stint in prison, she took classes and planned to return to school when she was released. She never got the chance. She disappeared soon after. Cara Alice had lived a life for someone just 25 years old. It was several months after this that Wendy survived her own trip to the farm. Police seized Robert Pickton's jacket and later testing found DNA belonging to Cara Alice on that jacket.

• 39:52Speaker 04

  Her DNA would also be found on items in the slaughterhouse at the Pickton farm, as well as on the lining of one of the deep freezers.

• 40:03Speaker 04

  Police had also seized Robert's rubber boots. Later testing found DNA from another missing woman on one of those boots, who also went missing a few months before he attacked Wendy. Her name was Andrea Bohr Haven. She was 25 when she disappeared. She had a very unstable childhood, in and out of the foster system and shuffled between relatives. Andrea was left with abandonment issues and a feeling she didn't belong anywhere. She was described as smart, spunky, loving and intelligent, but had trouble controlling her impulses that resulted in an outburst she later regretted.

• 40:46Speaker 04

  She ended up on the streets of the downtown east side and survived a violent sexual assault. She began using heroin and crack cocaine.

• 40:56Speaker 04

  Andrea's mother and father separately maintained that they continued to support her and their door was always open. She checked in every few months by phone and sometimes she would turn up in person, until one day in 1997, when all contact ceased.

• 41:16Speaker 04

  A later search of the Pickton farm uncovered a plastic bag of jewellery hidden in the kitchen floor vent of Robert's mobile trailer home. Andrea Borhavens DNA was found on an earring. Her DNA would also be found on one of those rubber boots police seized after he attacked Wendy.

• 41:43Speaker 04

  Even though the newspapers didn't name Robert Pickton as the one charged in relation to the knife attack on Wendy, word got around quickly and all the locals knew it was him. He started phoning his female friends to tell them not to believe what they read in the papers. One of those women was a new friend named Gina Houston, a sex worker he'd already met briefly several years earlier. She'd been with a colleague on the downtown east side when he walked up and introduced himself as Willie, looking for company. He stood out to Gina at the time because he was clearly very comfortable picking up a sex worker. He'd definitely done it before.

• 42:26Speaker 04

  Her friend took the job and Gina didn't see him again for a couple of years. But then, she happened to be at Piggy's Palace and recognised him. He didn't recognise her, but they struck up a conversation and began a friendship. Gina Houston had been down and out for years, a single mother supporting a couple of children and funding her own hazardous use of drugs and alcohol through a combination of welfare payments, sex work, and however else she could provide.

• 42:59Speaker 04

  Robert found her friendly and easy to talk to. Gina thought he was a nice guy, but also identified him as gullible, someone who liked to think himself as someone who helps others out. And Gina really needed help, so she took advantage of it. She would often bring her kids to the farm to play and hung off Robert's every word. He started giving her pork meat when she didn't have money to buy food. Soon, she became his best female friend. He was supporting her financially and her kids were calling him daddy. Gina would later testify that she cared for Robert,

• 43:39Speaker 04

  describing him as polite, gentle, kind and naive, but it was never a sexual relationship. In fact, Gina found women on the downtown east side to bring to the farm for him. She had a shortcut. She just went to the Wish Drop and Center on the main strip, Hastings Street, and told them she had a friend with drugs and cash who was up for a party. Many of them knew she was talking about Willie Pickton, noted creep, and they also knew that he'd been charged in relation to the attack on Wendy, who was well-liked. But they also knew those charges had also been dropped. Gina Houston seemed to be vouching for him,

• 44:20Speaker 04

  and they figured the chances of something happening while she was there were low. Gina was always able to convince one or two women to get in the pickup truck and go back to the farm with her. It was a risk they could take because they desperately needed the money. One she didn't even have to convince. Callie Little was a 28-year-old transgender sex worker who was staying with Gina at the time, along with her pet cat. Kelly was a member of the new Chatlet First Nation on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and she'd been born with significant physical and health challenges.

• 45:00Speaker 04

  She only had one kidney, a cleft lip, jaw and dental deformities that required surgery, and severe hearing loss. She'd grown up in foster care after being taken from her mother at a young age. Kelly struggled through her teenage years, reportedly attempted suicide, and as a young adult spent some time in prison for assault before she transitioned. Transgender people often end up resorting to sex work to survive, because systemic discrimination in employment and housing often leaves them in poverty. So that's where Kelly Little was in April of 97.

• 45:42Speaker 04

  She stayed overnight at Gina Houston's home, then got ready for work and left, and she didn't come back. Gina knew that Kelly would never neglect her cat, and reported her missing after a week or so. Next to disappear was 37-year-old Janet Henry, the youngest of 12 children from a Kwakwakewok First Nation family from Kingkem Inlet in B.C. Janet and her siblings faced a number of tragedies throughout their childhood. Their father was killed in a boating accident, and the kids were separated and put in various foster homes.

• 46:24Speaker 04

  One of Janet's sisters was sexually assaulted and murdered by five men. A brother was hit by a car and died. Another sister overdosed on prescription medication. Janet herself was targeted by the man now known as one of Canada's most prolific serial killers, Clifford Olsen. As a child, he kidnapped, drugged and assaulted her, but for some reason decided to release her. He would later be convicted of murdering 11 children and young adults.

• 46:59Speaker 04

  Somehow Janet Henry was able to overcome all this trauma for a time. She got married, had a daughter, and spent a period of her adult life in relative stability on the Lower Mainland. She was a hairdresser and she cut the hair of the people she loved, including her older sister Sandra Gagnon and her nephews. Sandra is now in her seventies and tells us that Janet was a strong, loving person, a good mother who loved music and dancing and was always there for her loved ones. But all that early trauma caught up with Janet. Her marriage ended and she eventually drifted to the downtown east side,

• 47:43Speaker 04

  developing substance use disorder and relying on street-based sex work to survive. But despite everything, Janet spoke with her sister Sandra on the phone every day and would often talk about how she didn't like the life she was living and wanted to get treatment so she could see her daughter again. The sisters had a regular routine. When they got their GST checks, they would go out for dinner together and share some laughs.

• 48:14Speaker 04

  One night in June 1997, Janet Henry did not show up. Sandra went looking for her on the downtown east side. Her rent had been paid up for the next month and everything was in place in the room she rented. Janet just disappeared, aged 37. Sandra did learn that her sister had been going to parties at Robert Willie Pickton's farm in Porkequitlam, where he was offering free cocaine. She reported Janet missing, but the police showed very little urgency, telling her, "A lot of people are missing."

• 48:54Speaker 04

  Janet tells us that it wasn't for several more years after Janet was connected to the infamous Pig Farmer Serial Killer case that authorities seemed interested. To this day, Sandra Gagnon remains deeply upset that her sister's disappearance only mattered once the circumstances became sensational.

• 49:19Speaker 04

  That same month, Helen Hallmark went missing. Born in Vancouver, Helen grew up with instability, violence and abuse at the hands of her mother's partners. Helen often took the brunt of that abuse to shield all her siblings, according to her sister. At age 13, Helen had been labelled a rebellious teenager and placed in foster care, but she remained close with her siblings. She was known to be bright, funny, sophisticated, with sparkly eyes. At 19, Helen gave birth to a daughter who she gave up for adoption.

• 49:57Speaker 04

  She reportedly married twice, but a series of unfortunate events resulted in her living on the downtown east side with substance use disorder. She desperately wanted to pull herself out of it, and was known to warn vulnerable teenagers not to go down the path she had. Then Helen Hallmark disappeared, aged 31. Her family searched for her for years without answers. They had no idea her DNA was in blood spatter in Robert Pickton's bedroom and on a cowboy hat in his closet.

• 50:42Speaker 04

  Then there was Jaclyn Murdoch of the Tackler Lake Band of Carrier Secany First Nation in BC's central interior. Her family called her Jackie. She was the youngest of 15 siblings and known to be a bright, affectionate child. At age 12, Jackie was put into foster care and she ran away a year or two later. She told her sister that she'd been sexually abused by a relative. She began engaging in hazardous substance use. As an adult, Jackie gave birth to five children and was separated from them all but trying to get help. She completed an intensive rehabilitation programme where she wrote delicate poetry describing...

• 51:27Speaker 04

  Pain, resilience and the need for faith and support during moments of despair. Her loved ones would describe her as kind and joyful, someone who was funny, laughed easily and spoke badly of no one. In nineteen ninety-six, facing homelessness, Jackie Murdoch hitchhiked to Vancouver and ended up on the downtown east side. A year later, she disappeared, aged twenty-six. Jackie's DNA would later be found on a used condom wrapper on the Pickton farm.

• 52:03Speaker 04

  Jackie was the eighth woman who disappeared from the downtown east side that year, a massive spike compared to previous years.

• 52:18Speaker 04

  In around September of nineteen ninety-seven, Cynthia Beck, known as Cindy, was living on the downtown east side with her boyfriend, who was also her pimp and had been charged with assaulting her two months earlier. Originally from Ontario, Cindy was adopted and her family would describe her as a beautiful child who became a lovely woman with a beaming smile, popular and remembered with affection. She had a rebellious streak and ended up in the company of people who used drugs. Cindy was thirty-three years old when she disappeared and reportedly pregnant.

• 52:57Speaker 04

  Cindy's parents were in regular contact with the police. No trace of her has ever been found.

• 53:08Speaker 04

  At the end of nineteen ninety-seven, Cynthia Phallics also disappeared. She was born in Detroit, Michigan, and after a series of divorces where both parents relinquished control, she and her siblings ended up with their stepmother in Vancouver. At age sixteen, Cynthia decided to go and visit her father in Florida. Her stepmother would later tell author Stevie Cameron that her father met his sixteen-year-old- Daughter at the airport with alcohol and cannabis and tried to talk her into sleeping with him back at his trailer. He also pointed a gun at her.

• 53:48Speaker 04

  This experience had a dramatic effect on Cynthia, who started using drugs with friends in high school as soon as she got back to Vancouver. Cynthia had been a competitive swimmer. She stopped altogether. Soon, she would leave home for days. She started using heroin. She married in her early twenties and gave birth to a baby girl. Cynthia fought hard to detox and was successful for a time, but substance use disorder had taken hold and she ended up on the downtown east side. She still kept in regular contact with her sister Audrey, but the phone calls to home suddenly stopped.

• 54:30Speaker 04

  The last anyone saw of Cynthia Phallics was in November nineteen ninety-seven. She was forty-three. Her DNA would later be found on plastic sheet liners on the farm and in nine packages of ground pork in one of the freezers. It was by this point almost the end of that year and the women in the downtown east side were heartbroken, frustrated and terrified. Ninety-seven had been the worst year yet.

• 55:09Speaker 04

  So many of them had gone missing and more would join them before the year was through.

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  Marnie Frey was almost 25 years old, living at the Balmoral Hotel with substance use disorder. Marnie had a young daughter that she left with her father, Rick Frey, and stepmother Lynn back home in Campbell River on Vancouver Island. She still called them to check in every two days or so and went home as often as she could to visit. In the lead-up to her 25th birthday, Marnie's family told her they were sending her some money and clothes. Her birthday came and went, and they waited for that next phone call.

• 58:11Speaker 04

  Marnie Frey was born to an indigenous mother and fisherman father in Campbell River. Her parents broke up when she was young, and she mostly lived with her father Rick after that, and later, his partner Lyn. Marnie was said to have a way with animals, and was described as energetic, full of life, and loved people. She was also known to be generous; she would literally give the shirt off her back if it helped someone. When Marnie was fourteen, she started using drugs, hanging out with a different crowd, and became difficult to live with. Her father and stepmother tried everything they could to remove her from the situation, including changing schools.

• 58:55Speaker 04

  But Marnie had developed substance use disorder. She quit school by grade eleven, and moved away from home soon after that. She had several run-ins with the cops before finding out she was pregnant at nineteen. Once her daughter Brittany arrived, Marnie tried to make it work, but she was too deep into substance use. She moved to the downtown east side with a friend. Before long, she was living at one of the seedy hotels, and was hospitalized with suspected drug toxicity. She survived, but when Rick and Lyn Frey did not hear from Marnie after her birthday, they contacted everyone they could think of, but no one knew where she was.

• 59:41Speaker 04

  After a week, they reported her missing to the Vancouver Police Department, who told them it was too soon to be upset. "Marnie was probably on a cruise," they said. "Her family should check in again in a few months."

• 59:58Speaker 04

  And they did. Over the following year, Rick and Lyn went to Vancouver to look for Marnie on the downtown east side, and ask around if anyone had seen her. Lyn would later tell the Missing Women Inquiry that she heard rumours about a Willie Pickton who lived on a farm in Port Kewquitlam. Rumours were that he took women back to his farm, and they ended up in his wood chipper. She was told she'd never see Marnie again.

• 1:00:30Speaker 04

  Lynne's foster daughter Joyce Lachance lived out at Port Caquitlam and they decided to head over to the Pickton Farm and scope things out. Lynne climbed the front fence in a daring stunt to get in. She peered over the top and saw tractors, vehicles and big mounds of dirt and grass. Suddenly, two big rottweilers appeared, barking. There was a sign on the fence that warned there was a pitbull with AIDS.

• 1:01:03Speaker 04

  Marnie Frey's jawbone would later be found on the farm, along with four of her teeth.

• 1:01:17Speaker 04

  Robert Pickton had continued to troll the downtown east side that year, but he'd started feeling unwell. Eventually, he took himself to the doctor and he was diagnosed with hepatitis C. He learned it was a virus that attacks the liver, contracted through direct contact with the blood of an infected person, most commonly by sharing needles or drug paraphernalia, and less commonly through unprotected sex with blood exchange. Robert complained to his good friend Lisa Yelts that he must have gotten the virus from Wendy during their knife fight. He declared he'd been infected by her blood. He was still holding a massive grudge.

• 1:02:02Speaker 04

  Of course, he had no idea if Wendy even had hepatitis C, but it was known to be one of several major health issues for sex workers on the downtown east side.

• 1:02:15Speaker 04

  At the end of 1997, Robert Pickton found himself lonely on Christmas Eve. He went to the downtown east side looking for company, but found the place quiet. The sex workers who frequented there were of course loved and missed by their families and many were home for the festive season, or at one of the local churches or community shelters. They were not out and about as usual. Robert would later tell an undercover police officer that he devised a silly prank to amuse himself. He returned to the farm and picked up a couple of piglets, drove back to the downtown east side and let them loose on Hastings Street.

• 1:02:58Speaker 04

  He said he watched as they ran around terrified and he laughed as he watched the police try to catch them. He made a joke about pigs trying to catch pigs. Finally, someone called the Humane Society and the prank was over. Robert would tell the undercover officer he never came forward to claim the pigs, but he certainly thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever done. Journalist and author Stevie Cameron verified this story in her book On the Farm. A Vancouver police constable reported seeing Robert Pickton's vehicle that Christmas Eve, amongst other reports of piglets on the loose.

• 1:03:45Speaker 04

  The next day, 39-year-old Kerry Lynn Kosky was celebrating Christmas with her family in Coquitlam, right next to Port Coquitlam where the Pickton family farm was. As a child, Kerry was described as pretty and full of life, a great dancer, kind and generous, always had a big smile on her face. Her adult life unraveled after her husband died by suicide, leaving her a single mother with three young daughters. She reportedly started using heroin with a bad run of boyfriends and became the victim of domestic violence. About two months before Christmas, she'd just left her daughters with her family and

• 1:04:29Speaker 04

  moved to the downtown east side. When Kerry arrived for Christmas that day, her family noticed she looked like she hadn't eaten for days. That was the last time they saw her. Two weeks later, when her sister reported her missing, the police were not interested. Kerry's daughters were young teenagers by this point, devastated after all they'd been through. One of her daughters told the police, "You have to find my mum." The Vancouver PD told them not to worry, Kerry was probably off partying.

• 1:05:06Speaker 04

  Keri Kosky's DNA would be found on a pair of earrings in the grocery bag of jewellery hidden under the floor vent in Robert Pickton's mobile trailer home. Thirteen women had gone missing from the downtown east side in 1997, a massive spike from previous years, and this would be the worst year. And still, the Vancouver Police refused to take the losses seriously. Inga Monique Hall was the first woman to go missing in 98. She'd immigrated to Canada from Germany with her parents when she was young, and first lived in Ontario. When she was 14, she ran away from home.

• 1:05:50Speaker 04

  At 19, she married a man from Alberta and gave birth to a daughter who ended up being cared for by his family. The relationship broke down. Inga met another man in British Columbia, she gave birth to another daughter, and again left her with her in-laws. She moved to Vancouver's downtown east side. She reportedly attempted to track down her daughters later, but returned, deflated, where she and another woman tried to rob a bank with a plastic gun. Inga Monique Hall was last seen in February 98. She was 46.

• 1:06:30Speaker 04

  Her DNA would be found in nine packages of ground pork in one of the freezers on the Pickton Pig Farm, and on plastic sheet liners. Clumps of her hair would be found in a plastic bag in the slaughterhouse.

• 1:06:55Speaker 04

  In April of 98, 28-year-old Sarah De Vries vanished from the corner of Princess and Hastings Street on the downtown east side. She was almost 29 years old. She'd been standing there with a fellow sex worker friend, who left briefly with a date. When she returned, Sarah was gone.

• 1:07:17Speaker 04

  Sarah was of mixed racial background, white, black, Mexican and Indigenous, described as absolutely stunning. Her parents weren't able to care for her, so when she was 11 months old, she was adopted into a white, middle-class family in Vancouver, the DeVries family, where she had three older siblings. Because of the way adoption worked at the time, Sarah had no contact with her birth family after she was placed. She was described as bright, artistic and athletic, often seen rollerblading around. She loved swimming and gymnastics, and she did well academically. She was also a prolific writer from a young age.

• 1:08:02Speaker 04

  In her journal, she wrote about the increasing isolation she felt as a girl of colour, growing up in a predominantly white community, the racial slurs that were hurled at her, the bullying and physical abuse she had to endure. Sarah's sister would later say she also believed Sarah had been repeatedly sexually abused by a neighbour during childhood. She became increasingly unhappy.

• 1:08:30Speaker 04

  When Sarah DeVries was 14, she ran away from home. By 17, she was on the downtown east side, engaging in sex work and hazardous drug use. She told a journalist working on a book about youth on the street that she'd become pregnant after being sexually assaulted by a client or trick, and that she'd had an abortion. Despite everything, Sarah stayed connected to the DeVries family. She visited them often and was frequently in the process of trying to stop using heroin. According to the Missing Women's Inquiry, she lived for years with a partner on the downtown east side and gave birth to a daughter.

• 1:09:13Speaker 04

  She served a short prison sentence and a few years after that, gave birth to a son. Both children ended up living with the DeVries family, but Sarah saw them regularly. Here's a passage she wrote in her journal.

• 1:09:30Speaker 04

  Woman's body beaten beyond recognition. Am I next? Is he watching me now? Stalking me like a predator and its prey? Waiting, waiting for the perfect spot, time, or my stupid mistake? How does one choose a victim? Good question, isn't it? If I knew that, I would never get snuffed. It's a shame that society is that unfeeling. She was some woman's baby girl, gone astray, lost from the right path. She was a person.

• 1:10:08Speaker 04

  One day, a new client picked Sarah DeVries up. His name was Wayne Ling, and he became a regular, developing romantic feelings for her. Sarah stayed with him for a time because she felt safe, but eventually returned to the downtown east side. She told Wayne she only wanted friendship, and he accepted it. He would say he was grateful simply to be part of her life.

• 1:10:36Speaker 04

  In 1998, when Sarah disappeared off the street corner, Wayne Ling noticed almost immediately. He went straight to the police, but was told he wasn't a family member. The police dismissed him. So he reached out to her family members and joined forces with her sister Maggie DeVries, who filed a missing persons report. They put up posters, searched the downtown east side, and asked people on the street if they'd seen Sarah. No one had.

• 1:11:09Speaker 04

  Sarah DeVries was the 48th woman to disappear from the downtown east side in the 20 years since 1978. By this point, the families of the growing collection of missing women were distraught and frustrated with the Vancouver Police Department, who were not taking the issue seriously. Once again, it was too easy to dismiss these women as expendable throwaways who deserved what they got, instead of someone's daughter, sister, mother. They were people, they were loved, and someone was picking them off the streets one by one.

• 1:11:49Speaker 04

  Wayne Lang was well-connected on the downtown east side and began reaching out to the press. He wanted the public to be aware that his friend Sarah DeVries wasn't just one missing woman. She was one more in a very long and growing list that deserved a closer look. Frank Luber of the province wrote an article about Sarah DeVries, who had been missing for about six weeks by that point. It featured an interview with Wayne Lang and her mother, Pat DeVries. The article got people talking. Some reached out to Wayne himself to provide tips. In a follow-up article two months later,

• 1:12:31Speaker 04

  Wayne reported receiving a series of disturbing phone messages. The caller was male and Wayne Lang described him as having a slightly slurred voice. He said, "Sarah's dead, so there will be more girls like her dead. There will be one every Friday night, at the busiest time. You'll never find Sarah again, so just stop looking for her, alright? So bye, she's dead." In a final message, the caller said, "This is in regards to Sarah. I just want to let you know that you'll never find her again alive, because a friend of mine killed her and I was there."

• 1:13:15Speaker 04

  In response to questions that the mystery caller might have been pranking, Wayne said this man knew some things about Sarah DeVries that had not been made public. He forwarded the voicemails on to the Vancouver Police. Sarah DeVries' DNA would later be found in lipsticks in a white purse along with a used condom with Robert Pickton's DNA. The purse had been hidden in the loft of one of the many outbuildings on the Pickton farm.

• 1:13:52Speaker 04

  The next call Wayne Lang received would be a revelation. It was from a man named Bill Hiscox, who explained that in the past two years, he'd worked for a demolition and salvage company owned by David Pickton, and he'd seen and heard some strange things on the Pickton family farm out at Port Coquitlam. Wayne Lang had never heard of David Pickton or this farm before. Bill Hiscox told him that David's older brother Willie Pickton had hired him for the job, and he often went to the pig farm to pick up his paycheck. Hiscox described it as a creepy-looking place with lots of outbuildings and spaces for hiding things,

• 1:14:36Speaker 04

  vehicles and heavy equipment everywhere. He also described being chased by a 600-pound vicious pig on the property that ran with the guard dogs. He got a strange feeling from that farm, especially from Willie Pickton, who he described as "quite a strange character, a quiet guy, antisocial, hard to strike up a conversation with." He told Wayne Lang that Willie had a reputation for being a slow pig farmer that had to be looked after by his younger brother David, but that wasn't the case. Hiscox described Willie as "cunning." He said Willie was known to make frequent trips

• 1:15:20Speaker 04

  to the downtown east side to pick up sex workers, and he had actually heard him talking about one that he seemed to have intense animosity towards, and mentioned a police investigation around it. Quote, "He said he wanted someone to bring her out to the farm. He'd take care of her." Hiscox also told Wayne Lang that a friend of his who did cleaning on the farm had seen bags of bloody clothing, at least 10 women's purses and identification cards for various women strewn around the farm. Bill Hiscox told Wayne Lang that he'd actually called the Vancouver Police Department tip line several times. One time, they said they'd look into it

• 1:16:05Speaker 04

  and asked for the name of the woman who told him about the items belonging to women on the farm. Her name was Lisi Yelts.

• 1:16:15Speaker 04

  He also reported that Willie had said a few strange things to him and to others. One time Willie told him, "If you ever have a body that you need to get rid of, Bill, just bring it in and we'll throw it in the pigery. That'll be that."

• 1:16:32Speaker 04

  Hiscox said he believed the remark was made jokingly at the time. But then, he started hearing from multiple sources that Willie had been bragging about disposing of bodies with his meat grinder. That did not seem like a joke. As it turned out, Bill Hiscox wasn't the only one seeing and hearing things about the Pickton Pig Farm. He was just the first to tell the police.

• 1:17:12Speaker 04

  Thanks for listening. In Part Three, farmworkers and guests describe an escalation of disturbing encounters, but they're silenced by threats and intimidation. Then, one woman wakes to a scream from the slaughterhouse and finds herself the first and only direct witness to an act so horrific, many would find it difficult to comprehend. And women would continue to vanish for three more years before police finally step onto the farm.

• 1:17:47Speaker 04

  The next episode will be available in a week. You can listen ad-free and early on our premium feeds. For the full list of resources, sources, research studies, and anything else you want to know about the podcast, see the show notes or visit canadiantruecrime.ca. We donate monthly to those facing injustice. Proceeds from this series are going to the Wish Drop-in Centre Society, supporting street-based sex workers on Vancouver's downtown east side since 1984. Special thanks to Danielle Parry-Dy for family outreach and additional research. Audio editing was by Crosby Audio and Eric Crosby voiced the disclaimer.

• 1:18:30Speaker 04

  Our senior producer is Lindsay Eldridge and Carol Weinberg is our script consultant. Research, writing, narration and sound design was by me and the theme songs were composed by We Talk of Dreams. I'll be back soon with another Canadian true crime episode. See you then.

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