Robert Pickton: Canadian serial killer dies aged 74 after prison attack

CNN
—

Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton – who was convicted of murdering six women and confessed to killing dozens more – died after being attacked earlier this month by another inmate, officials said. prison authorities.

Pickton is one of the most notorious serial killers in Canadian history, taking his victims to his pig farm and feeding their remains to his animals.

The 74-year-old was serving a life sentence at the Port-Cartier Institution in the Canadian province of Quebec after being convicted of six counts of second-degree murder in 2007.

He was injured during an assault involving another inmate on May 19 and died in hospital on Friday, Correctional Service Canada (CSC) said.

Pickton’s next of kin have been informed and registered victims have also been contacted, added CSC, which said an investigation was ongoing.

At least 65 women disappeared from the Downtown Eastside neighborhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, between 1978 and 2001, before Pickton’s arrest.

Pickton operated a hog farm in nearby Port Coquitlam, where police found the remains of 33 women.

However, Pickton confessed to the murder of 49 women while speaking to an undercover police officer in a prison cell.

The case became the largest serial killer investigation in Canadian history and the Pickton pig farm became the largest crime scene in Canadian history, with investigators taking 200,000 samples of DNA.

Many of his victims were indigenous women, with police accused of not taking their cases seriously because many of the missing were prostitutes or drug addicts.

In its statement, CSC said: “We recognize that this offender’s case has had a devastating impact on communities in British Columbia and across the country, including Indigenous peoples, victims and their families. Our thoughts are with them. »

The news sparked mixed emotions among the families of Pickton’s victims.

Cynthia Cardinal, whose sister Georgina Papin was murdered by Pickton, told Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail that she was “really happy” but noted that she was “really sad” that some families didn’t have heard their case in court.

Michele Pineault, the mother of Stephanie Lane, who was killed at age 20 but Pickton has not been charged with, told the newspaper she was “delighted” by the death of “this animal” because “he didn’t There was no justice” for her. girl.

In 2016, a book allegedly written by Pickton and smuggled out of prison was published and offered for sale on Amazon, but was quickly removed following public backlash.