More bodies found on pig farm
28/01/2004 07:34  - (SA)  

Murder accused will stand trial

Vancouver, British Columbia - Canadian police confirmed they have found the remains of nine more women, raising the possibility of more charges against a pig farmer alleged to be Canada's worst serial killer.

The latest discoveries bring the total number of confirmed dead to 31.

Authorities said six of the latest victims were identified as having vanished from the city's drug-infested downtown eastside. Their remains were found at a farm owned by Robert William Pickton.

Police were not saying whether the other three victims' remains were found at the farm. Those women have not been identified.

Pickton, 54, is charged with 15 counts of first degree murder in the disappearances of women over the past 20 years, and he is expected to be charged with seven more counts. No court date has been set. The remains of those 22 victims were also found at the farm.

Relatives of the dead and missing have complained that police ignored warnings that women were disappearing for several years.

A brother-in-law of one of the victims who had been identified said his family was initially in shock after police told them of the finding.

Terry Hughes said the mother of Kerry Koski was coping well with the confirmation that her daughter's remains had been found at the farm.

Bit of a shock

"She's a trooper," he told reporters. "But it's still a bit of a shock."

The remains were identified through DNA matching, said police. They appealed for public help in identifying the three sets of unidentified remains.

"Task force investigators recognised that forensic DNA technology would play a significant role in solving these cases," Detective Sheila Sullivan said. "It is of critical importance to the investigation that we identify the women to whom these DNA profiles belong."

The investigation into the case was ignited by a massive police raid on the farm owned by Pickton and his brother and sister on February 6, 2002.

While some of the women were reported missing almost immediately, the disappearances of others weren't noticed until weeks and sometimes months later.

A large part of the property now has recently-built subdivision developments surrounding it.

The search for victims has sometimes progressed slowly because of the difficulty in locating and testing what are often scant remains.

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