Two investigators watch for potential evidence as the Port Coquitlam pig farm owned by accused serial killer Robert Pickton was excavated on Dec. 6, 2002.Richard Lam/The Canadian Press
An independent review of the Pickton case has pinpointed a critical period in the investigation where the RCMP could have searched the Coquitlam pig farm for evidence more than two years before they did.
When they finally searched the property in February, 2002, police quickly found personal items belonging to women who had gone missing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Mr. Pickton was arrested and then convicted five years later of six second-degree murders. He has said he killed 49 women.
However, the RCMP could have searched the property much earlier, independent reviewer Deputy Chief Jennifer Evans of Peel Regional Police states in a report prepared for the Pickton inquiry.
Coquitlam RCMP officer Ruth Yurkiw had set out to interview Mr. Pickton in September, 1999, after two people had told police about a woman being killed at the farm.
Mr. Pickton insisted that he wanted to be interviewed on the farm, while police said he had to come to RCMP offices for the interview.
The stand off continued until January, 2000, when Mr. Pickton finally came to the RCMP detachment. Although the two officers who interviewed him thought Mr. Pickton was not telling the truth, they did not follow up information obtained in the interview or search the farm.
Constable Yurkiw should have gone out to the farm in September, 1999, or on other occasions over the following months when Mr. Pickton invited the police officer to his home, Deputy Chief Jennifer Evans states.
Both [Mr. Pickton]and his brother appeared very accepting of having police attend their property," her report says.
"[Mr. Pickton]provided an opening that Constable Yurkiw and members of the serious crime unit did not take. While an interview at the farm, in all likelihood, may not have provided a confession, it would have allowed her the opportunity to hear [Mr.]Pickton talk about the allegations," Deputy Chief Evans states.
"The worse-case scenario was that Pickton would refuse them entry; the best case scenario, we will never know," she says in the report.
A detailed account of the interview was among a lengthy list of missteps and missed opportunities documented in the independent review of police contact with Mr. Pickton from 1990 to his arrest on February, 2002. The review, obtained by CTV News, is to be presented to the inquiry on Monday.
Mr. Pickton's first contact with police outlined in the report occurred on Jan. 11, 1990.
A Coquitlam RCMP officer went to the pig farm as part of a sexual-assault investigation. The actual circumstances of the call remain unknown, Deputy Chief Evans states.
Officers in the Vancouver Police Department had identified Mr. Pickton as a prime suspect in the murder of missing women from the Downtown Eastside after receiving tips in August, 1998, her report says.
RCMP officers received additional tips and conducted interviews in 1999 that led them also to believe that Mr. Pickton was a prime suspect.
However, when police showed Mr. Pickton's photos to 150 prostitutes in the Downtown Eastside, none of the women recognized him, she says in the report. Also, RCMP surveillance of Mr. Pickton on several occasions failed to turn up anything suspicious.
Coquitlam RCMP in September, 1999, shelved the investigation "for the foreseeable future" in order to respond to other homicides.
When Constable Yurkiw finally spoke to him five months later, the interview was poorly conducted, without preparation or a plan, Deputy Chief Evans's report says.
Mr. Pickton was interviewed a second time, on Mar. 30, 2001. RCMP Corporal Frank Henley of the provincial unsolved homicide unit, spoke to Mr. Pickton alone and without involvement of investigators working the case. Mr. Pickton denied all allegations against him.
Both Corporal Henley and Constable Yurkiw are expected to testify at the inquiry.