Canadian prison officials are under fire as the country's most notorious serial killer becomes eligible for parole.
The outraged families of the victims of Robert Pickton, now in his 70s, say they are “disgusted” that he has aged into probation despite killing at least 26 women on his pig farm.
Prosecutors allege he confessed to as many as 49 murders to an undercover police officer posing as a cellmate and once joked that he wanted to kill another woman to get to an “even fifty.”
Palexelsiya Lorelei Williams, the cousin of victim Tanya Holyk, told Global News CA that his possible parole makes her “sick in the stomach.”
Robert Pickton, a pig farmer, made international headlines in 2002 when a search warrant on his farm led to the discovery of dozens of murders
The murderer and serial rapist is known to have killed at least 26 women, although prosecutors say he confessed to 49 – and once joked that he wanted to kill another woman to make it “just fifty.”
The families of Pickton's victims (pictured) have expressed outrage at his parole eligibility. One of them said the ongoing case “makes me sick to my stomach.”
Pickton was convicted of six murders in 2007 and twenty more were withheld from trial because he had already reached the maximum possible sentence under Canadian law – life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years.
However, on Thursday he was able to apply for day parole as he was apparently offered the opportunity eight years before the end of his 25-year sentence. It is not clear why its eligibility did not begin in 2032.
Pickton, also known as “The Butcher” and “Pig Farmer Killer,” has not yet applied for a parole hearing and is expected to be denied if he does.
But the very fact that he can request a hearing sparked a fierce backlash in Canada, with Pierre Poilevre, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's leading rival, sharply criticizing the country's prison system in response.
“Common sense conservatives believe that mass murderers face consecutive sentences so they get out of prison in a box,” he said said on X.
Pickton made international headlines in February 2002 when Canadian police served a search warrant at his pig farm in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, on firearms charges – only to discover that he had committed far more gruesome crimes.
Inspectors found items belonging to numerous missing women in the British Columbia area, and after a $70 million excavation of the farm, they uncovered evidence of dozens of murders.
He was quickly charged with the murders of 26 women, although the actual number may be even higher.
Identifying all the remains became complicated because investigators feared Pickton had cannibalized some of his victims.
In 2004, two years after the initial search, prosecutors revealed that Pickton may have ground up his victims and mixed it into his farm's pork products, which he then sold to customers.
Investigators are seen at Pickton's pig farm in British Columbia, Canada, in April 2002, as part of a year-long, $70 million excavation of the property that uncovered horrifying evidence of murders
Forensic staff collects evidence at Pickton's pig farm in 2002
Pickton ran a pig farm and may have ground up his victims and mixed it into his farm's pork products, which he then sold to customers
Pickton is interrogated. Although he was only convicted of six murders and sentenced for another twenty, police said he confessed to an undercover agent that he had killed up to 49 people
The day before he was eligible for parole, grieving family members of his victims gathered on the grounds of his former pig farm to protest the parole and pay tribute to his victims.
The families held a candlelight vigil and hung red dresses in memory of their loved ones.
Williams, who campaigned for missing Indigenous women after her cousin's murder, said the fact that Pickton was entitled and back in the spotlight was “disgusting”.
“Our justice system is terrible. “It’s racist and endangers the lives of Indigenous women,” she said. “It makes me sick.”
She added that the chance for his parole was a surprise because officials didn't tell her and “the other families close to me didn't know either.”
Stephanie Lane, the mother of victim Michele Pineault, said at the vigil that her “heart aches” as the case resurfaces.
“My daughter won't get a day of probation.” “She's been gone for 27 years now,” she said.
“He's a bad, bad, bad man.” He doesn't even belong on this earth. He just has to stay where he is until the day he dies.”
The day before Pickton was eligible for parole, families held a candlelight vigil and hung red dresses in memory of their loved ones
Families paid tribute to their lost relatives and expressed outrage over Pickton's eligibility for parole. One branded him a “bad, bad, bad man” and urged the serial killer to “just stay where he is until the day he dies.”
Michelle Pineault brings flowers in memory of her daughter Stephanie Lane, one of the serial killer's victims
The expensive search of Pickton's farm has also become a point of contention in recent months.
Over 200,000 exhibits were seized from the farm, including three freezers containing over 400 meat products – some of which contained “unknown samples” that were feared to be partly human.
In total, the remains or DNA of 33 women were found on his farm. However, their families are resisting attempts by officials to destroy or return around 14,000 exhibits in the case.
Sasha Reid, a developmental psychologist and author of a database of unsolved cases of missing and murdered people in Canada, told Global News CA that there was a troubling lack of involvement from the victims' families in the consultation to destroy the evidence.
“This was an application potentially related to human remains and human material,” she said.
“I think given the amount of stress the family was under, the amount of lies they were told, the lack of information they had access to – this is something they should have at least been informed about.”
Kris Clark of the B.C. RCMP responded that the exhibits had to be destroyed because they had “rapidly lost value and were no longer provable.”
“Furthermore, for hygiene reasons, our need to dispose of the items was more immediate than would normally be required to obtain a disposal order; “These reasons played a role in our decision to proceed ex parte,” he said.
“In order to be as transparent as possible given our time constraints, we have not sealed the application and made no attempts to hide it from the public.”
Williams criticized the trial, which continues more than two dozen years after Pickton's horrific arrest, saying: “It was just terrible to go through and it just shows what the system is like.”
“These things come in big waves and it's weird to say that, but I kind of normalize it… I'm not shocked when these things come from the RCMP or the government,” she added.
With the prospect of a parole hearing for Pickton, Williams said she and other victim families want to attend the hearings to have their say.
“I definitely want to be there in person and I need to prepare for that,” she said.