Robert Pickton Case Study

The Case of Robert Pickton is a long one, that may have started in 1978 when he was in his early 20’s. His involvement in the case of the disappearing women was only noticed after 1997 when Geographic forensics Dr. Kim Rossemo and the RCMP said there must be a serial killer in the Vancouver area. Pickton owned and lived on a pig farm in Vancouver British Columbia, with his brother David Pickton. They were known for their parties at the Piggie palace; which were large, dirty and filled with prostitutes and drugs. R. Pickton was a frequent around skid row and was known as a “good date”; he provided good money and drugs to prostitutes. When police showed prostitutes his picture in early 1999, they wouldn’t admit to knowing because of this. However, many prostitutes were scared of him. It was known that a fellow ‘prostitute’ and friend of Pickton’s Lynn Ellingsen was helping him get prostitutes who didn’t trust him out to the farm after the 1997 attack on Sandra Ringwald. The police received a tip in 1998 after over 15 women disappeared, but ignored it. The VPD then created Project Amelia to help find the women who disappeared, but it was a joke. When in jail before the trials, Pickton confessed to have killed 49 women to an undercover police officer and over 26 plus different women's DNA was found on what authorities had deemed his death farm. To hide the bodies, Pickton used a grinder to destroy the bodies and fed the women to his pigs and guests. Due to systematic and fundamental errors of the police, Robert Pickton managed to murder of over 26 female sex trade workers in seven years. The VPD was not involved enough in the disappearances of the women and many of the mistakes that happened within the investigation and departm...

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...taffing and expertise. Each of those problems could have been easily fixed, yet they were not. Not only was the lack of staffing an issue, but the VPD’s desire to not acknowledge that there was a serial killer was a vial mistake. Failure to arrest and charge Picton for the attempted murder of Ringwald, as well as the failure to obtain a search warrant when prominent evidence was discovered delayed the investigation and allowed for more women to die. Lies and deception of the family and friends of the missing women proved the lack of respect towards the sex trade workers and the values the VPD held. Through firing Rossemo, they dismissed one of the few who was dedicated to finding the killer and shed bad light onto Vancouver’s force. Officer wells who took charge pulled the case to an end and allowed for the police to apprehend and keep Pickton from killing again.