Missing Women Commission of Inquiry

The BC Missing Women Investigation is an ongoing criminal investigation into the disappearance of at least 60 women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside from the early 1980s through 2002. The investigation is headed by a task force of members from the RCMP and the Vancouver Police Department.

Many of the missing women were impoverished, drug-addicted sex workers from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Much of the investigation centred on Robert William Pickton and his Port Coquitlam pig farm.

On December 9, 2007, Pickton was convicted of second-degree murder in the deaths of six women:

On January 7, 2008 an appeal for a new trial was requested by the Crown to the British Columbia Court of Appeal (BCCA). This was an attempt to convict Robert Pickton on twenty-six counts of first-degree murder.

Judgment by the Court of Appeal on June 25, 2009 did concur with the Crown that errors were made during Pickton's trial. However, a new trial would not be granted in support of the Crown.

On the same day as the Crown's appeal was denied, Robert Pickton's appeal for a new trial was denied, as well. Pickton still has the right to appeal the lower court's decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.

On July 30, 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered its decision dismissing Pickton's appeal and affirming his convictions.

In August 2010, the Vancouver Police Department released Missing Women: Investigation Review, a report which provides a critical analysis of the Missing Women Investigation.

The RCMP said that it continues to investigate the deaths of missing women, with a task force including 51 staff.

At a press conference on July 30, 2010, RCMP assistant commissioner Al MacIntyre said:

RCMP inspector Gary Shinkaruk of the Missing Women Task Force suggested that at least one other serial killer may be operating in the region: "There's a number of active investigations that we know are homicides that, again, we are not attributing to Pickton, so we are fully engaged in those investigations." This includes five women believed to have been murdered in the Mount Pleasant area of Vancouver, and three women murdered in the Fraser Valley.

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Wikipedia