Suspect in missing women case appears in court

Associated Press

PORT COQUITLAM, British Columbia — A man charged with murdering two of 50 women who have disappeared from the Vancouver area over the past two decades is shocked by the charges and intends to seek bail, his lawyer said Monday.

Robert Pickton, 52, said nothing during a two-minute court hearing in which the first-degree murder charges were read to him. He was not asked to offer a plea, and another hearing was set for April 2.

Pickton, balding with shoulder-length hair and wearing a gray hooded shirt and blue pants, stood with his hands behind his back in the courtroom.

The charges accuse him of murdering Sereena Abotsway sometime between July 18, 2001, and Feb. 5 of this year, and also killing Mona Wilson sometime between Dec. 1 and Feb. 5. The charge sheet spelled Abotsway’s name differently than in previous reports.

It said the killings occurred at or near Port Coquitlam, the town 20 miles east of Vancouver where Pickton and his siblings own a pig farm that is the focus of a huge police investigation.

Abotsway was reported missing in August and Wilson in November. Most of the missing women were drug addicts and prostitutes from Vancouver’s rough east end.

Peter Ritchie, the lawyer for Pickton, said he expected Pickton to seek bail "in due course." Ritchie didn’t specify if that would happen before the April 2 appearance. Pickton and his relatives have denied any involvement in the disappearances.

"When a person gets arrested for something like this, they’re completely shocked by it," Ritchie said. "That’s a fair description" of Pickton’s reaction.

Ritchie said he was unaware of any other possible charges, and he asked the news media to leave the Pickton family alone.

Steve Ricks, who said he was Mona Wilson’s common-law partner, told reporters he last saw Wilson get into a car with two men on Nov. 23. Ricks, whose slow, slurred speech gave the impression he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, said Wilson was drunk at the time.

"She didn’t deserve this," Ricks said.

He said he wanted to talk to Pickton, but added, "I know they won’t let me near him."

Tight security delayed the start of the hearing in Port Coquitlam as journalists and others had to pass through a special screening area to enter the courtroom.

Pickton was arrested Friday on the charges, the first involving any of the 50 women who have disappeared since 1983. Police have yet to say what evidence found at the pig farm caused them to file the charges. A police task force started investigating the farm on Feb. 6 after a search of the property brought weapons charges against Pickton and evidence linked to some of the missing women.

The investigation, which involves scores of police officers and specialists, has turned the 10-acre farm into a virtual crime lab.

The ramshackle farm sits amid a sprawl of commercial developments and townhouses. Pickton, who lived by himself at the farm, and his brother and sister made millions of dollars in recent years selling off parcels of the farm for development.

Pickton and his brother operated a drinking club frequented by bikers and prostitutes near their farm, which now has a makeshift shrine of candles, flowers and cards for the missing women.

In 1997, Pickton was charged with attempted murder, accused of stabbing a drug-addicted prostitute in his home. The charges were later dropped.

Relatives and friends of the missing, while still unaware of what evidence police have against Pickton, hope the charges lead to answers about what happened.

"Now I feel better, knowing she’s at peace, hopefully," Ricks said of Wilson. "She told me many times she’d like to die. She was sick of this hell, all the hooking and drugs."

According to Ricks, Wilson and Abotsway knew each other. Both were of Canadian Indian descent, he said.

Abotsway’s background was similar to some of the other missing women — a broken family, growing up in foster homes, turning to drugs and prostitution in her teens.