Episode 26 Serial Killer: Robert "Willie" Pickton

In this episode, disturbing witness accounts and overlooked tips begin to paint a darker picture of what may have been happening at the Pickton farm. Piece by piece, the investigation edges closer to a horrifying reality.

Court documents
2006 BCSC 995 (CanLII) | R. v. Pickton | CanLII
2009 BCCA 299 (CanLII) | R. v. Pickton | CanLII
2009 BCCA 300 (CanLII) | R. v. Pickton | CanLII
2007 BCSC 30 (CanLII) | R. v. Pickton | CanLII
2005 BCSC 1463 (CanLII) | R. v. Pickton | CanLII
2007 BCSC 42 (CanLII) | R. v. Pickton | CanLII
2007 BCSC 1293 (CanLII) | R. v. Pickton | CanLII Book
On The Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver's Missing Women.
Documentary
The Pig Farm
Robert “Willie” Pickton — Prolific serial killer’s jailhous

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome back to Valley of Secrets. I'm Nikki Ruth. If you're new here, welcome. I'm happy to have you. And for my faithful listeners, thank you for your continued support. In the last episode, we ended with a tip that could have changed everything. A man named Bill Hiscox contacted Wayne Lang, a friend of missing woman Sarah DeVree's and urged him to look into a man named Willie Pigden. It was a name that at the time didn't mean much to most people, but it soon would. Bill also brought the information to the Vancouver Police Department, hoping it might finally lead somewhere. But once again, the response was the same. They said they would look into it. And once again, Willie slipped through the cracks of justice. Today we continued this journey together, bringing awareness to more of the women whose lives were taken, and walking through the events that slowly built towards the moment that would finally lead to the arrest of Robert Willie Pickden. So just buckle up because today's story is probably going to be closer to the hour mark rather than the 30 to 40 minutes that we normally see with my episodes. There's just so much information that I want to get out to you. So bear with me. The majority of source information from this episode and the past episodes comes from court documents, Stevie Cameron's book on the farm, documentaries, and news articles. Once again, I will give a trigger warning. Some of the things I will talk about today are gruesome and hard to stomach. So please take care while listening. This is part four of the Robert Willie Picton story. The pressure was mounting from the public, from families desperate for answers about the woman disappearing from Vancouver's downtown east side. But without any bodies, the police still clung to the idea that maybe the woman didn't want to be found. Maybe they were partying, and maybe they had left the city. But as the numbers kept rising, the Vancouver Police Department had no choice but to take a closer look. And that's when they decided to bring Kim Rosmo back in. He was put in charge of a small task unit called Project Amelia, set up to dig deeper into the mystery of the missing woman. By this point, Rosmo had earned a PhD in criminology and was a specialist in geographic profiling. Years earlier, he had warned his colleagues that the pattern of disappearances pointed to a serial predator. But back then, few had taken him seriously. Now, with more women vanishing, Rosmo's suspicions only grew stronger. Actually, he was certain and determined to prove it. He began pouring over hundreds of reports of missing women between the years of 1995 and 1998. Nearly 800 women had been reported missing within that time frame. But Rosmo wasn't just looking at names or dates. He was hunting for patterns, where the woman had last been seen, how they moved through the city, anything that might connect the dots. Eventually, he compiled a detailed report, and in it, he clearly stated that he believed a single killer was likely responsible for these disappearances. But he didn't rule out the possibility of an accomplice or even a small network of people helping. He also highlighted something called cluster sites. Serial killers, he explained, often return to places they know well, places that feel familiar and safe to them. In many cases, the bodies would end up in a single dumping site or within a very tight radius, sometimes no more than 50 feet apart. Roswell stressed that investigators needed to focus on those patterns if they were ever going to catch the person responsible. Once the report was finished, he sent it to three fellow officers hoping to spark action. They weren't convinced a serial killer was on the loose, but at least they agreed to assign two homicide investigators to assist Rosmo with Project Amelia. Around the same time, police also began contacting the families of missing women and asking for DNA samples. The hope was that if remains were ever discovered, they could be identified and returned to their loved ones. For many families, it was a heartbreaking request, one that forced them to face the possibility that their sisters, daughters, and mothers might never come home. One of those women was Angela Jardy. Angela was born in Sudbury, Ontario, but when she was still young, her family moved west to the small town of Sparwood, BC. Growing up, Angela faced developmental challenges. Her speech came later than other children's, and when she started school, she often struggled with emotional regulation. At times, she would have outbursts, which made it difficult for her to fit in with other kids. One of the students in her class back then was a boy named Scott Chubb, a name that will come up often later on in the story. But the people who loved Angela remember something much more important about her. They remember how badly she wanted to belong. Angela had a trusting heart, and that sometimes made her vulnerable to teasing and ridicule. Even as an adult, those close to her believed Angela had the intellectual development of a young child, around 11 years old. Her family did everything they could to support her. They searched for medical services, extra care, and resources to help her navigate life. But when Angela was in her late teens, she moved in with a caregiver outside the family home while her mother was dealing with a serious illness. For a time, things seemed stable. But eventually the ministry moved her into a group home with rotating caregivers, and Angela struggled with the constant change and lack of stability. At 19 years old, Angela made a decision that would change everything. She moved to Vancouver's downtown east side. Her family tried to convince her to come back home to Sparwood many times because they worried about her. But Angela chose to stay. She eventually lived at the Portland Hotel, where she formed close relationships with staff, social workers, and others in the community who cared deeply about her. The people who knew Angela described her as vibrant, full of life, affectionate, someone who hugged easily and loved deeply. But like many women living in the downtown East Side during that time, Angela also experienced violence. After being attacked and assaulted, she filed a compensation claim. And in that claim, Angela wrote that she was afraid to go to work and had moved because she no longer felt safe where she had been living. The last confirmed sighting of Angela was on November 30th, 1998, after she attended a community event called Out of Harm's Way. And then she disappeared. For the next four years, Angela's family pushed police to take her disappearance seriously. They kept asking the questions and they kept searching for answers. And eventually they would hear the devastating news that Angela's DNA would be found on the walls of a freezer at the Picton Farm. Just weeks later, another family would begin that same nightmare. Her name was Jacqueline McDonnell, though most people in her life called her Jackie. Jackie grew up in the Kooteny region in the city of Trail, BC, where she lived with her mother and stepfather. At 18 years old, Jackie became pregnant and made the very difficult decision to leave school so that she could raise her daughter. Friends and family say that she loved her little girl deeply and tried so hard to be a good mother. But life became complicated when Jackie became involved with a man who was a recovering addict. Over time, she developed a heroin addiction herself and granted custody of her daughter to her mother so the child could have stability. For a while, Jackie stayed with her father in Victoria, but by 1998 she had moved to Vancouver's downtown east side. Despite everything she was dealing with, people who knew Jackie described her as intelligent and thoughtful, someone with a friendly small-town warmth that people noticed right away. On January 16, 1999, Jackie was reported missing. Her family was left waiting, hoping, and searching for answers. Years later, investigators would uncover chilling evidence linking Jackie to the Picton farm. Her blood would be found on a pair of handcuffs on Willie's headboard. Investigators also discovered Jackie's DNA on an earring recovered from a closet inside Willie's trailer. Another woman gone. Another family left trying to understand what happened. Around the spring of 1999, another story was unfolding. One that would later provide investigators with disturbing insight into what was happening on that farm. A woman named Lynn Ellingston had been introduced to Willie through his friend Gina Houston. Lynn and Gina had first met at a woman's shelter after both had fled abusive relationships. They bonded quickly over their crack cocaine addiction. Lynn was struggling financially. She had lost her driver's license after a dangerous driving conviction and owed roughly$14,000 to the insurance company. When Willie offered her work at his farm to help pay off the debt, she accepted. And when he offered her a place to stay in his mobile home in exchange for cleaning and helping around the property, Lynn moved in. Willie began providing her with money, groceries, cigarettes, and often paid for the drugs she was using. Around the same time, another man named Andrew Bellwood was staying at the farm. Andrew had a criminal record involving fraud and theft, and he too struggled with crack cocaine addiction. Years later, Andrew would testify about a disturbing conversation he had with Willie. One night, while Andrew was watching television in his room, Willie came in and asked if he wanted to go pick up a sex worker. Andrew declined. That wasn't his thing. Willie kept pushing the idea, even offering him a couple hundred dollars to come along. Andrew still refused. That's when the conversation took a dark turn. According to Andrew's later testimony in court, Willie began describing what he did to the woman he brought back to the farm. He said he would take their hand, slide it behind their back, and slowly place the handcuffs on them. He would stroke their hair and tell them everything was going to be okay, that it was all over now. Then he would strangle them, sometimes with a belt, sometimes with a thin wire. He claimed he would take their bodies to the slaughterhouse, where he would bleed them and dismember them. Andrew later testified that Willie talked about how much blood came out of a human body, and ascribed feeding the remains to pigs, or disposing of them in barrels mixed with slaughterhouse waste. Even those words now are difficult for me to process. The cruelty of what these women endured is almost impossible to comprehend. And my heart truly goes out to the victims and their families, who have had to live with the unimaginable aftermath of all these acts. Andrew said that not long after that conversation, he was attacked by a few men and beaten and ended up with a broken nose. Lynn was allegedly present and encouraged the assault happening. They accused Andrew of stealing equipment from the property, something he denied. But the message was clear, and Andrew knew that it came from Willie. Andrew left the farm immediately, abandoning his belongings behind, and went to Vancouver Island. He never returned to the farm again. But he also didn't report what Willie told him to the police for a few more years. Then in March of 1999, an event unfolded that would later play a huge role in bringing Willie to justice. According to court documents, as Willie and Lynn were driving around to Vancouver one night, he asked her if it was okay to pick up a sex worker, and she agreed. They drove around until a woman approached the car. Willie asked if she wanted to go back to the farm, and the woman, knowing what was going on in the downtown east side about woman vanishing, checked in with Lynn to ask if she was going back to the farm, and Lynn said yes. So the woman felt safe enough to get into the truck. On the way back, they stopped to buy some crack cocaine, which Lynn and the woman smoked together while talking. Lynn remembered the woman as indigenous looking with long black hair, bangs, and chipmunk cheeks. When they arrived at the farm, it was dark and the property seemed empty. The three went inside the trailer and sat in Willie's office smoking more crack. Willie asked, Who's going first? The woman volunteered and he handed Lynn$150, giving the other woman money as well. Picton and the woman went to his bedroom and Lynn went to her own room. Later on that evening, Lynn heard a noise and looked out the window. A bright light was coming from the barn. She called for Willie but got no response. So she stepped onto the porch and cautiously walked toward the barn doors. She stated that the smell hit her first, bowel sickening, something she would never forget. When she opened the barn doors, she saw a body hanging where Willie slaughtered pigs. Lynn recognized the woman, the same one they had picked up earlier. The woman's feet were at Lynn's eye level, and she could see red nail polish on her toes. Willie was there, covered in blood, working over a table with knives and a lot of gore. Lynn didn't see the woman's face, but she saw the long black hair lying on the table. Struggling to describe it, she said in court documents that it reminded her of when he butchered pigs, stating, quote, pulling everything out like I don't know how to explain it. She noticed that the remains were being placed in a garbage can similar to the ones used for pig intestines. Hearing that someone can actually do this to a human being, it's horrifying. And yet he continued to escape justice. He warned her that if she ever told anyone, she would end up like the woman in front of her. Lynn promised she wouldn't say a word and told him she just wanted money for drugs. Willie handed her the cash, walked her back to the trailer with his hand on her shoulder, called her a taxi, and walked her down the road holding onto her until it arrived. On the way, she hit the cab driver, jumped out, and ran, eventually making it to her friend Val's house. A few days later, she returned with a friend to retrieve her belongings, but she never stayed at the farm again. Investigators later believed that the woman she saw was Georgina Papen, based on the timeline and the description. Georgina Papen was born on March 11, 1964, in Edmonton. She had long dark hair and chickmunk cheeks, just as Lynn described. She was the fourth of nine children and a proud member of the Enoch Cree nation. Like many indigenous families during that time, Georgina's childhood was shaped by instability and separation. Some of her siblings were placed in foster care and residential schools, before the children were eventually reunited in a foster home together. But the trauma didn't stop there. At just 12 years old, Georgina ran away after experiencing abuse while in care. And by the time she was 14, she had ended up all the way in Las Vegas, where she began doing sex work simply to survive. Eventually, Georgina made her way back to Canada, and over the years she actually became a mother of seven children herself, including a set of twin girls who were born just a year before she disappeared. Despite the struggles she faced later in life, the people who knew Georgina remember a woman who stayed deeply connected to her culture. She loved traditional Cree dancing. She spent hours beating and creating art, and she enjoyed cooking for the people around her, especially Bannock. Even while serving time for minor offenses connected to her addiction, Georgina tried to help other women. While incarcerated for a time, she volunteered with the Native Sisterhood Association, helping other indigenous women reconnect with their traditions and culture. She also wrote poetry. One of Georgina's poems was later read during the inquiry into the missing woman, speaking about injustice and resilience within indigenous communities. Words that would take on an even deeper meaning after her disappearance. Years later, investigators would uncover heartbreaking evidence. Bones from Georgina's hand were discovered buried beneath a platform that had once supported a freezer inside the slaughterhouse at the farm. Now let's circle back to Scott Chubb. Scott had grown up in the same town as Angela Jardine, even sitting in classrooms with her as a kid. And later in life, he ended up working for Dave Picton, Willie's brother. Over the years he drifted in and out of the farm, sometimes working, sometimes parting on his days off with Dave and the others. By the time the events we're talking about had unfolded, Scott was in a rough spot. He had separated from his wife and owed money and child support. So money was tight, which is what drove him to ask Willie if there was any work he could do around the property. During that conversation, he also asked Willie about Lynn Ellingson. He had heard the rumors and wanted to know what had happened to her. According to his later court testimony, Willie told him that Lynn had been blackmailing him and had already cost him over$10,000. Then, in a chilling proposition, Picton offered Scott$1,000 to hurt Lynn, even suggesting the method, injecting her with antifreeze or windshield washer fluid to make it look like an overdose. Even needing that money, Scott refused. He couldn't bring himself to do it. Still, he didn't report what Picton had said at the time. Brenda Wolf was an indigenous woman and the oldest of five children. She grew up in Alberta and was known for being incredibly athletic. In fact, she became a badminton champion while she was still in school. Later, Brenda pursued hairdressing and proudly earned her certificate in 1991. She went on to have two daughters with her common law partner. But when the relationship became abusive, Brenda made the difficult decision to leave. She fled to a shelter to protect herself and start over. When she arrived at Vancouver, Brenda worked a number of different jobs. She waitressed and at one point even worked as a bouncer at the bar inside the Balmoral Hotel on the downtown east side. Described Brenda as quiet but incredibly strong. She was someone people turned to when they needed protection. She loved music, she loved dancing, and she enjoyed being surrounded by people in her community. But by early 1999, life had become incredibly difficult. And after relapsing into drug use, Brenda lost her apartment and custody of her kids. In March 1999, she disappeared. And years later, investigators would uncover devastating evidence connecting her to the Picton farm. A part of Brenda's jawbone was discovered in a trough inside the piggery at Willie's slaughterhouse. Her DNA was also found on a leather jacket in Willie's closet and on a pair of handcuff keys in the loft of the workshop. Another life lost, another family left carrying an unimaginable grief. By this point, the families of the missing woman were reaching a breaking point. Many of them felt like their concerns weren't being taken seriously, not by police and not by the city leadership in Vancouver either. They wanted answers. They wanted someone to acknowledge that something terrible was happening. And more than anything, they wanted whoever was responsible to finally be held accountable. So the families decided they were going to make themselves heard. On May 12, 1999, a rally and memorial was organized, led by the family of Sarah DeVries. What began as a call to raise awareness quickly grew into something much larger. That day, between three and four hundred people gathered together. Families stood shoulder to shoulder with community members, advocates, and friends of these missing women. For many of them, it was the first time they had met others who were living through the same kind of nightmare, the same fear and the same unanswered questions. The memorial lasted nearly three hours, and it blended both indigenous and Christian traditions with prayers, songs, and moments of reflection that honored the different cultures and backgrounds of these missing women. Parents stepped forward to speak about their daughters. Loved ones shared memories and stories. The small details that made these women who they were. And woven through all of it was the pain of not knowing what happened to them. At one point during the memorial, candles were lit for each of the twenty three women who were missing at that time. One by one the flames slickered to life. It was a quiet moment, but a powerful one. A visible reminder that these women were not forgotten, and that their families were no longer willing to suffer in silence. Around July of 1999, the story of the missing woman from Vancouver's downtown East Side reached a much bigger audience. America's Most Wanted aired a segment about the disappearances, offering a$100,000 reward for information. For many families and friends of the missing woman, it was a moment of hope. They finally felt like their voices were being heard beyond the city streets. The broadcast sparked a flood of tips, some more useful than others. The segment also put pressure on those close to Willie. People who had stayed silent for fear or for protection started sharing fragments of what they knew, even if it was just to get the reward money to support their drug addiction. After witnessing what she did in the barn, Lynn Ellingson was absolutely terrified of the Picton brothers. She stayed away from the farm after that night, but the experience was something she couldn't completely keep to herself. Over time, she started telling bits and pieces of the story to friends and people she knew. And as we all know, information like that has a way of spreading. Eventually, some of those details made their way to police. One of the key people who passed information along was a man named Ross Caldwell. Ross was a local bouncer who had connections to Willie Picton and moved in some of the same circles. While speaking with officers, Ross mentioned something that immediately caught their attention. He told police that a woman had confided in him about something horrifying she had seen on Willie's farm. According to Ross, she said that she had walked into the barn and found Willie Picton skinning a woman, quote, like a pig, end quote, as he described it. Ross also told investigators that Lynn said she hadn't realized before that human body fat was yellow in color. She believed the remains had later been put through a meat grinder. And Ross went on to tell the police something even more disturbing. He claimed that Willie Picton had once told him directly that if someone ever needed to dispose of a body, it could be done at the farm without leaving a trace. And based on everything he had heard and seen, Ross said he believed Willie was responsible for several of the missing women from Vancouver's downtown east side. Investigators weren't sure what to make of the information. Some of what Ross described actually matched earlier tips police had received, including statements from Bill Hiscox, who had also claimed that Willie talked about disposing of bodies on the farm using his meat grinder. So police decided to keep talking to Ross. Over several interviews, he shared more details about what he had seen while visiting Picton's trailer. Ross told investigators he had noticed handcuffs tucked beneath mattresses inside the trailer. He also described a hollow space in the wall where Picton supposedly hid illegal firearms. He said it was widely known among people in the area that Willie hosted illegal cockfights on the property almost every week. Ross also repeated another disturbing rumor he had heard, that human bodies had been placed in large barrels and shipped off to a facility where the contents would eventually be processed into fertilizer. If you guys remember, West Coast rendering, that was where he dropped all of his barrels. At one point, Ross even claimed he had eaten dinner with Willie and believed the meat he had been served wasn't pork or any kind of meat he had ever tasted before. I'll just leave it there. To investigators, the information was both disturbing and bizarre. But there was also a problem. Ross Caldwell was known to use drugs and had a criminal background. Because of that, many officers questioned whether her statements could really be trusted, and if he really was a credible source. Then something else happened. Another woman came forward with a similar story. This woman, whose name was Leah, went to a different RCMP detachment and told officers that her friend Lynn Ellingson had confided in her about something terrible she had witnessed. Leah said Lynn had told her she walked into the barn at Willie's farm and saw him cutting open a woman's body. She also believed Willie was responsible for killing several sex workers. According to Leah, Lynn had told her that someone else had once seen woman's legs inside of one of the freezers on the property. Lynn had also allegedly described seeing women's identification cards, earrings, and other personal belongings at the farm. Leah told investigators something else as well, that Willie had been paying Lynn money to keep quiet about what she had seen. At that point, investigators began realizing they were hearing the same pieces of information repeated by different people. But there was another issue complicating things. Willie's farm was located in Port Coquitlam, which fell under RCMP jurisdiction. Meanwhile, the disappearances of the women themselves were being investigated by the Vancouver Police Department. While the two agencies did communicate, the level of coordination between them wasn't nearly what it needed to be. At the time, a small investigation into Willie had been started by Corporal Mike Connor at the Coquitlam RCMP detachment. That investigation was largely triggered by the tip from Ross Caldwell. During their work, investigators also learned about Lynn Ellingson's former boyfriend, a man named Ron Menard. Ron had been telling people that Lynn was receiving money from Willie in exchange for staying quiet about what she had seen on the farm. Ron was also the same man Lynn had once fled from when she sought refuge at the women's shelter, the place where she had originally met Gina Houston. As investigators spoke with Ron several times over the summer of 1999, he confirmed that Picton had been paying Lynn about$500 a month, but he refused to explain why. Ron also told police that Lynn had once admitted she had gone with Willie to pick up a sex worker and later said she couldn't believe, quote, how we finished her off, end quote. However, during another interview, Ron suddenly changed his story and denied hearing that at all. Investigators also asked him about a rumor that someone had seen body parts inside one of the farm's freezers. Ron said he hadn't seen anything himself. Instead, he claimed Lynn had told him that the person who supposedly saw them was Pat Casanova, the butcher who worked with Willie processing pork. Police interviewed Casanova as well, and he denied ever seeing human remains inside those freezers. Although he admitted it wouldn't surprise him if Willie was using sex workers. He claimed he had no knowledge of anything criminal happening on the farm. Years later, investigators would discover that statement wasn't entirely truthful. Casanova also told police something else that Willie was extremely worried about officers speaking with people connected to the farm. At that point, most of what investigators had was hearsay, but they had no proof. But it was hearsay that seemed to be pointing back to one person, Robert William Pickden. What police really needed was to speak to the person at the center of all of these stories, Lynn Ellingson herself. They eventually learned that she was staying in a cheap hotel, and with much reluctance, they convinced her to come in for questioning. But when asked about what her friends had said, Lynn denied everything. She insisted that they were lying and refused to cooperate with investigators. Still, during the conversation, she made one strange comment, something that stuck with one of the officers in the room, and something that Ross Caldwell had mentioned before. At one point, Lynn mentioned that the inside of a human body looked yellow and disgusting. And the officer immediately took notice because human body fat is yellow. And it was the kind of detail most people would not know unless they had seen it for themselves. And the comment stayed with him for the next few years. Not long after that interview, Lynn disappeared from the area. Investigators later learned that she resurfaced just long enough to blackmail Picton for money and drugs, and it would take years before she had finally admitted the truth on the stand. Investigators later speculated that if Lynn had spoken up earlier, as many as eleven more women might have been saved. Around the same time, several different law enforcement teams had begun conducting surveillance on Willie Picton. The RCMP and Coquitlam attempted to install surveillance cameras near the farm, but the layout of the property made it difficult to monitor effectively. Other short surveillance operations were carried out by specialized RCMP units and the Vancouver Police Strike Force. But because of limited funding and resources, those efforts were sporadic and inconsistent. Still, investigators did make some observations that would later become incredibly important. During one surveillance operation, officers watched Willie Picton deliver several large 45-gallon barrels to West Coast reduction before driving into the downtown east side. At some point, however, the surveillance team lost track of him. This detail would later become incredibly significant. Remember, one of the claims in the Ross Caldwell tip was that human remains might have been placed in barrels and transported to a facility to be processed. Two weeks later, officers again followed Picton to the West Coast reduction. They watched him dump the contents of the barrels into the plant slurry system. Then they continued following him as he drove back toward the downtown east side. But once again, they lost him. I don't know what's up with these police officers, guys. At one point, officers pulled him over while he was driving with a woman in his truck. For a moment, investigators believed they might have caught him with a potential victim. But the woman turned out to be Gina Houston's daughter, and the surveillance operation was then exposed. The devastating part in all this was investigators never stopped to examine what had been inside those barrels or question people at the rendering plant. Years later, during the inquiry into the case, officials would include something deeply troubling. Had there been a consistent and well-resourced surveillance strategy at the time, the investigation may have reached its conclusion much sooner, and many more lives could have been saved. By now, investigators wanted to speak directly with the man at the center of all of this, Robert Willie Picton himself. But getting him to sit down for an interview proved difficult. Officers tried calling him and even stopped by the farm unexpectedly. But Willie either ignored the messages, wasn't home when they arrived, or told them he called back later and never did. But then something unexpected happened. Willie simply walked into the Coquitlam RCMP detachment one day. There was no appointment, no meeting scheduled, he just showed up. And he didn't come alone. Willie arrived with his friend Gina Houston. The pair told officers they wanted to clear up what they described as quote unquote misunderstandings about rumors surrounding the farm. Police agreed to speak with them, but the interview quickly became frustrating. Houston did most of the talking, frequently interrupting and answering questions before Willie even had the chance to answer. Investigators struggled to get clear answers or keep the conversation on track. And at one point during the interview, Willie tried to appear cooperative. He told officers that if they wanted to, they were welcome to come out to the farm and take a look around. And police did that. Investigators later visited the pig farm in Port Coquitlam. But it wasn't a full search. There actually was no search warrant, and there was no forensic team there digging, looking through anything in detail. They just kind of walked through the property looking into Picton's trailer. They didn't search the freezers, the barns, or the slaughter areas at all in detail. At the time, they said they didn't see anything that immediately raised enough concern to justify a deeper investigation. So they left. And for the moment, the investigation stalled again. Years later, when the property was finally searched in detail, investigators would uncover evidence connected to numerous victims across that farm. Which means that in the late 1990s, police had already been standing on the property of a serial killer, and they didn't quite know it yet. Meanwhile, women from Vancouver's downtown east side continued to disappear. Wendy Crawford spent much of her early life moving between Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon. By the time she had reached her teenage years, she had mostly settled in the lower mainland, living in both Vancouver and Chilliwack. Wendy eventually became a single mother to two children, a daughter and a son. She struggled financially to support her kids, and she received welfare, and occasionally to make more money, she would do sex work on the downtown east side. But no matter what she was going through, the people who knew her say she always came back home to those kids in Chilliwack to raise them. Like many of the women connected to Vancouver's downtown east side, Wendy was also dealing with serious health challenges. She lived with diabetes and Crohn's disease, conditions that required regular medication and ongoing care. She had also been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Even with those struggles, Wendy stayed closely connected to her family. So when they stopped hearing from her, they knew something was wrong. Wendy Crawford was reported missing by her family on December 14, 1999. She was 43 years old. Years later, investigators would uncover part of Wendy's leg bone in a sewage tank outside the slaughterhouse. Investigators noted that the bone segment had a distinctive shape, almost as if it had been carved by human hands. Just weeks later, another young woman would disappear. Her name was Jennifer Firminger. Jennifer was born in Northern Ontario in 1971. She was indigenous, and as a toddler, she was adopted by the Firminger family and raised in St. Catharines, Ontario. By all accounts, she grew up in a loving home surrounded by parents and brothers who cared deeply about her. But as Jennifer got older, she struggled with questions about identity and belonging, something many adoptees can understand. In 1989, Jennifer made the difficult decision to leave home and begin navigating life on her own. Those who knew Jennifer remember her as someone who loved stories. She was an avid reader who could easily lose herself in books for hours at a time. She also carried fond memories from her childhood, especially the time she spent fishing with her father when she was younger. In 1999, Jennifer became a mother herself to a baby boy. Unlike many of the women connected to this story, Jennifer's life was complicated. But she was loved and she mattered deeply to the people in her life. Jennifer was last seen on December 27, 1999. She was just 28 years old. Years later, investigators would discover her blood on multiple objects on the Picton farm. Her blood was found on a leather jacket inside Willie's office, on a hoodie in his laundry room, and on a watch on the shelf in the slaughterhouse. It was also found in three different places on an electric reciprocating saw inside of the slaughterhouse. As the year 1999 came to an end, New Year's Eve was shaping up to be another massive party at Piggy's Palace Good Time Society. For years, the converted building on the Picton property had become infamous for its wild gatherings. People from all over showed up, bikers, locals, partygoers, drawn by the reputation of a place where almost anything seemed to go. But on New Year's Eve 1999, things completely got out of control. Willie Picton himself reported that nearly 1,700 people packed into the building that night. A space that was only supposed to hold about 300. The party was loud, chaotic, and impossible to ignore. Before long, authorities arrived. Between 50 and 60 police cars pulled up to the property, with RC ⁇ P officers accompanied by fire marshals. The crowd was simply too large, and the safety risks were too obvious. Officials shut down the party that night, and this time it wasn't temporary. Local officials in Port Coquillam had already grown tired of the illegal nightclub atmosphere that had developed on the farm. After the New Year's Eve shutdown, the RCMP obtained a court order to ensure that no more parties could be held there. And just like that, Piggy's Palace was finished. The music stopped, the crowds disappeared, and the infamous party venue on the Picton Farm was closed for good. Tiffany Louise Drew grew up on Vancouver Island, spending her childhood in both Port Alberni and Nanaimo. She came from a big close knit family and was especially close with her cousins. A lot of her childhood memories were the kind many people can relate to swimming in the summer, camping trips with family, and spending time outdoors. When Tiffany was younger, she was also an athlete. She played softball and Was even part of a championship team in Port Alberni, something her family was really proud of. But as she got older, Tiffany struggled with addiction and eventually became dependent on heroin. That struggle led her to Vancouver's downtown east side. Even after moving there, Tiffany never completely lost touch with her family. She stayed in contact with them, including her aunt who was helping care for Tiffany's three children between the ages of five and nine. Tiffany was tiny in stature. She was less than five feet tall, but people who knew her often said she made up for it in personality. She was feisty, independent, and not afraid to speak her mind. She was also someone who took pride in her appearance. Knowing how dangerous life could be on the streets, Tiffany and a close friend had come up with a safety system. They checked in with each other regularly, making sure the other one was okay. So when Tiffany suddenly stopped checking in in late 1999, her friend noticed almost immediately she was 24 years old. Tiffany's DNA would be later found on a syringe filled with windshield wiper fluid on an entertainment center in Willie's office. It appears that Willie tried out the method that he had wanted Scott Chubb to use on Lynn Ellingson. Sadly, it worked. By now, Project Amelia had wrapped up. The Vancouver police faced serious limits, both in resources and manpower, and the sheer number of missing women made it almost impossible for such a small team to make real progress. With only a handful of officers working the cases, the investigation struggled to gain traction. That's when it shifted into a larger, more coordinated effort called Project Even Handed. This new operation brought together investigators from both the Vancouver Police Department and the RCMP, which was crucial because the cases spanned two jurisdictions. The downtown East Side fell under VPD, while many other areas in BC, like Willie Picton's farm, for instance, was under RCMP authority. By working together, the two agencies could share resources, follow leads across city lines, and build a more complete picture of what was happening, something that neither force could effectively do alone. By now, investigators were diving deeper into the list of suspects. And among them, obviously, was Robert William Picton. Though at this point, he was just one name among many. The team knew they couldn't ignore the bigger picture, and that meant also looking beyond Canada's borders. Across the U.S. Pacific Northwest, there were two notorious killers whose crimes had already shocked the region. And the question was whether any of it could be connected to what was happening in Vancouver. The first suspect was Gary Ridgway, the Green River killer, who had murdered at least 48 women, and many of them being sex workers in Seattle, which is just a three-hour drive south of Vancouver. And then there was Robert Lee Yates, a former Armory helicopter pilot, who had killed 13 women in Spokane, Washington, about five and a half hours from Vancouver. Both men were terrifying in their own right. And for the investigators, their cases were a reminder of how careful, methodical, and patient a killer could be. At that point, the net was wide. Every lead, every name, and every tip mattered. Some would turn out to be dead ends, but others would bring him closer to the grim reality and folding right under their noses. The search was like trying to navigate a fog. Sometimes you caught glimpses of something horrifying, and sometimes you felt like you were chasing shadows. They just needed to piece it together to see the pattern and find the person hiding in plain sight. Robert Willie Picton. As we wrap up this episode today, I want to pause and honor the lives that were taken far too soon. My heart goes out to the families of these victims, to the mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and children who have carried this pain for far too long. Angela Jardine, Jacqueline McDonald, Georgina Papen, Brenda Wolfe, Wendy Crawford, Jennifer Firminger, and Tiffany Drew. These women were more than the headlines or the horrors of their final moments. They were daughters, friends, mothers, and sisters. They laughed, dreamed, and loved, and they deserved to grow old, to see their children thrive, and to live full lives. Today I say their names aloud, because saying their names is an act of remembering, a promise that they will not be forgotten, a promise that their lives mattered and still do. To the families who grieve and who remember every day, my heart is with you. And to these women, may your voices echo beyond the pain, may your stories be carried forward, and may the world never forget you. Thanks for tuning in to part four of the Robert Willie Picton story. Join me next time for the final episode where we'll cover more of the missing woman and take a closer look at Picton's arrest and conviction. If you're enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a five-star review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. It really helps get the word out. And if you'd like to support the show, you can contribute a small monthly donation. The link is in my bio on social media or in the show notes. Every little bit helps and is much appreciated. You can also find photos and additional content from this case on Instagram and Facebook at Valley of Secrets Podcast. Don't forget to follow me. Until next time, stay safe, stay aware, stay curious.