Robert William Pickton, one of Canada’s most notorious serial killers, was convicted in 2007 of murdering six women at his pig farm in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. The 74-year-old died on May 31, 2024, after being attacked by another prisoner at a maximum security prison in Quebec. Pickton had been serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.
Between 1978 and 2001, at least 65 women went missing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, a neighborhood known for high rates of poverty, homelessness, and prostitution. Pickton would drive around the area and offer women money and drugs before taking them back to his farm. Many of the missing women were Indigenous and worked as sex trade workers. Their disappearances often went unnoticed by police for years.
According to The Canadian Encyclopedia, Pickton ran a small livestock operation and lived alone in a trailer on the family property. Police found the remains or DNA of 33 women on his pig farm. This became one of the largest criminal investigations in Canadian history. Prosecutors said Pickton told an undercover officer in his jail cell that he had killed 49 women and wanted to make it 50. Police believe he fed their remains to his pigs, but he was only charged with 26 murders because there was not enough evidence in other cases.
Police mistakes let the killings go on for years
The investigation showed police had many chances to stop Pickton but failed. In March 1997, he was charged with attempted murder after a woman fought back and escaped from his farm. But prosecutors dropped the charges because they thought the victim, who had drug problems, would not be seen as believable in court. In 1999, police got tips about women’s belongings at the farm but could not get a search warrant.
Robert William Pickton shouldn't be able to be out on the streets at all. This monster murdered many sex workers and homeless people who lived on the DTES. The victims families need respect and this isn't respect. Regardless if they were sex workers, their families need answers. pic.twitter.com/OF7jlLkGll
— Matthew David Landberg (@landberg_david) February 27, 2024
Police finally raided the property in February 2002 after getting information about illegal guns. They found personal items belonging to missing women, including jewelry, clothing, and an asthma inhaler. Pickton was arrested on February 22, 2002. The investigation cost nearly $70 million and police took 200,000 DNA samples from the farm.
A government inquiry released its final report, titled Forsaken, in December 2012. The report said that serious failures by police led to a tragedy of epic proportions. Many people said Vancouver police did not take the cases seriously because the victims were sex trade workers and Indigenous women. The inquiry made 63 recommendations to improve how missing persons cases are handled.
Pickton died after prisoner Martin Charest attacked him with a broken broomstick on May 19, 2024. Charest pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in September 2025, telling the court he killed Pickton for the victims. During his plea, Charest told the judge that Pickton kept talking about his crimes and had said that if he were released, he would keep committing crimes. Charest was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. The Pickton case brought attention to the problem of violence against vulnerable women and started conversations about serial killers and how society responds to crimes against marginalized communities.
