This episode is brought to you by simply safe, go to simply safe dot com, slash crime junkie, to build your system today, high crime, junkies, I'm your host, Ashley flowers and I'm bread. Today's story is one I wanted to tell on the podcast for a long time and its one that are listeners have requested more times than I can even count its this worry of more than sixty miss king and murdered canadian women and the one man who terrorized Vancouver British Columbia for over fifty

years March, twenty second nineteen. Ninety seven was a knight, Wendy Lynn, ice tat. Her will never forget. Wendy was thirty years old, just five six and itty bitty. She had two children that she loved very much and they lived with their father of fishermen in north in coover- and I say their father rather than Wendy's husband, because although they were married when

no longer lived with her family. She lived in Vancouver, downtown EAST side. She was unfortunately addicted to cocaine and heroin, and her drug of choice was speed. Ball, which is a mix of the two. Her drug habit cost her almost two hundred dollars a day and she had to work hard to make enough money to buy those drugs. Sometimes she shoplifted, but mostly she sold what she had and that was sex late. That night on March, twenty six she was picked up by a man in a red truck. He offered her a hundred dollars for her services, that's more than double the going rate in the downtown east side at the time. So, although she wanted to stay near by, she decided to go with him to his place, which is what he was asking, and it wasn't too far so agreed when they arrived, the police was a mess and super dirty, but whatever she was willing to ignore it. He paid her, and that was that

the word as she was getting ready to leave. She felt the guy kind of hovering around her. He took her hand and started to caress, which is like so we are to me, but certainly like caress her hand and in a split second, he Lou handcuffs around one of her wrists. Wendy fought back immediately, punching heading kicking screaming and the guy retaliated with punches of his own. She moved backwards bit by bit, remembering that she had seen a knife in the kitchen when she arrived so How and I don't know she remembers exactly she got to the knife and ass. She grabbed it. She actually cut through her own Paul, but she was able to secure it and she started slashing wildly with one hand, still kicking still screaming she needed to get the hell out of fair and when she saw

her chance. She took it as you screaming and cutting she breaks, free bolt out the door with the man not far behind her and both of them I mean, if you can imagine it- are battered their bleeding. Their fight continues outside and wall, it's happening, Wendy lose control of, the knife, and the man plunges it into her stomach and her chest before he actually slumps to the ground struggling to stay conscious. So you know she stabbed now twice. She grabs a knife back and she starts to run and at the end of his driveway across the street, where to houses and they both had porch lights on. So she runs to the nearest house pounding on the door. Nice Dylan hands screaming for help there is no response. Wendy is petrified

this point. She knows she has precious little time before the guy is up and after her again so suddenly just then she sees headlights coming up the road, so she cried he's down on the porch kind of, like I mean her initial thought, she's terrified tat. This guy has found her again a daughter, his headlight and he's going to kill her, but it's not a red truck like he had its a car, and she sees that. There's two people inside I'd so kind of imagine this scene from their perspective from like the people in the cars perspective. If you can for a second now, the people in the car was elderly man and his wife, and when decide like ok, this isn't the guy was trying to kill me. I'm gonna go run for help, so she run down to the car and in front of them is a frantic woman, screening covered in blood guns, quite literally, spilling out of her stomach with a knife in hand and she's like

literally trying to break the window in the car with the other? Only god I cannot even imagine like. Did they stop, because I honestly wouldn't blame them. If they didn't that's gonna be terrifying. It would have been an luckily for Wendy. They did stop Wendy tosses the knife and the couple helps or into the back seat, so they head towards than yours. Broke Holly an ambulance while they're on their way. By the time she arrives at the emergency room. It's one. Forty five in the morning, her injuries are absolutely life threatening she's been stabbed multiple times. She has a puncture lung she's lost nearly three leaders of blood. There is no doubt Wendy needs urgent medical attention, so they we'll her in

the operating room, handcuffs literally still on her wrist. But here's the interesting part, the hospital staff pretty quickly connected the dice between Wendy and this bloodied man who come into the same hospital that same night. His story was that he had picked up a hitchhiker and that this hitchhiker, who is that was a woman, had attacked him and he had multiple stab wounds to prove it now. The stories didn't match, but you know what did match no Wendy's handcuffs and be handcuff key. They found in the guise pockets. Hospital staff knew something was it right, so they called the cops and the guy's stuff and Wendy stuff was Baghdad and given to police when they arrived within a few days, the man was charged with attempted murder, a soul with a weapon and forcible confinement.

And when that happened, Wendy was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief now at this time, I'm gonna win Wendy story had unfolded in over a decade prior women had been, vanishing from Vancouver Downtown EAST side, mothers, daughters, sisters, friends. These were vulnerable women, often who were sex workers and often who had debilitating drug addictions. If there had been a missing persons lists which there wasn't at the time, it would included the names of nearly two dozen women who vanished without a trace from Vancouver in it. It is in the nineties, No one knew what was happening or why or how and Wendy had no way of knowing she escaped something that would have connected her to these other forgotten women. But what Wendy did know for sure was that this was a dangerous man that she had in common.

A violent man and the community was safer with him behind bars. Unfortunately, her relief was short lived because this man was released. Just two thousand dollars bail we want a nine of mines. The crown had dropped all of the charges against him. Oh my god, why? How did this happen? the reason was it known at the time, but years later they would find out that it had to do with when these were liability as a witness and not because she was a sex workers, though I am sure that didn't help the matters it was actually because of her drug addiction and the crown prosecutor her hands, The case said that Wendy was in no state to proceed with those charges when the time came, so he served zero time for that vicious attack on Wendy,

It may not have seemed like at the time, but she was a very lucky woman, because that man, that man was Robert, William packed in the British Columbia PIG farmer who would come to be known as Canada as most notorious serial killer, the time he walked away from that attempted murder charge in January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety eight he had already killed at least eight women and before it was over, he would go on to kill another eighteen more stay how Willie Picton was able to get away with murder. Literally for two decades, you have to understand the community to which his victims belonged. The downtown east side of Vancouver is Canada's poorest neighbourhood, the skid row basically, and when people talk about the downtown inside, they mostly talk about this ten blocks stretch around

East Hastings and mainstream back in the nineties, crack cocaine and heroin were everywhere today into them nineteen, though not much has changed. The coover remains the drug use overdose capital of Canada and with high rates of HIV and Hepatitis C infection, poverty, homelessness, prostitution, mental illness, addiction. All. Of it now the downtown EAST side residents were and are of very vulnerable population, and the women of the downtown EAST side were the most vulnerable of all. They were poor, many of them lived alone and their drug addiction force them into survival. Sex work most of the women in this story, including Wendy, who escaped really picked in an one thousand. Nine hundred and ninety seven worked on this, so called low TRAC, which was-

stroll of dark, alleyways and dirty side streets in the bleak as part of downtown east side. There was this two thousand and twelve article from the national posts, which is like a canadian daily newspaper that estimated that four hundred sex workers were working. The low track stroll at the time and other estimates put that number even higher But the thing about the downtown east side that I can't get out of my mind is the part of down known as the hideous strong. I'm sorry what yeah? That's where children as young as eleven are working on the street

and I cannot even read my mind, a roundabout bert. You have an eleven year old. I can't I care. I cannot process that like mentally physically cognitive Lee. I cannot, I can't go there. Is there anything good about this place? So actually there is there. Is this section in Stevie Cameron's book on the Picton case calls on the farm that I want to read to you directly, because I think it's the perfect description. The downtown east side is a village dysfunctional, yes poverty stricken, certainly ugly and sad, almost everywhere, but it is still a community where most people know one another and it is still a place where love and respect and generosity and laughter are present in surprising and gentle places. I mean I kind of love that

Me too, and that's another thing. Actually there was a lot of love in the downtown east side, the women who went missing during these decades. They had families and friends, parents and children loved them and counted on them and they counted on one another, two weeks Why, when some of them didn't call when they were supposed to or what for dinner when they normally would or arrive to visit their children. Alarm bells sounded immediately for their family and friends. Again and again, missing persons reports were filed and again and again those reports were ignored by police. The officer taking the report might change, but their responses. Unfortunately, we're always the same. Just wait a day or two they'll come home, they're, probably off somewhere getting high, or maybe they finally cleaned up and start a fresh life somewhere else. Maybe they wanted to disappear?

and sure in some cases, maybe they did their families sometimes felt that way too. But while many women were reported missing right away for others, it took months or even years before people in their lives realise. Maybe they weren't going to come back. Ok, but is is years like really realistic? How can somebody missing for years without anybody ever really note, I don't think it's so much whether or not people notice they noticed for sure, but these women and did not live, we organised or predictable lives. They didn't get up at the same time. They can go to the same job or take the same route every single day. Their lives were chaotic and they were a little bit hard to track. Like I dont know, if you remember, this is like one of our very first episode and we started the podcast that we talked about the west me said, Kate yeah- and I remember in that case it was. It was either in New Mexico, obviously, but lot of the same women who live in kind of lifestyle.

I remember a talking about how their families would try and track their comings and goings, and it wasn't always super consistent, but I remember in that case it was like when they missed the big holidays, the birthdays, the Christmas we re, not just one but over and over and over again. So I think they. Noticed that they were gone. But it may have taken a little bit longer fort, like sink in yeah yeah. Exactly and to complicate things even more police. A lot of the women who worked on the low track went by aliases so of family might have reported, say, Jane Smith missing, but that's not someone known to police or even to others in the community, because in the downtown aside motion, we're gonna like Jackie Johnson, so even if the people are thinking there two people missing. When really it's the same one and its not necessarily getting connected now in one case

I read about. In Stevie Cameron's book, the sister of missing woman went to the downtown east side to actually look for her sister and she had a recent picture with her, or at least the most recent one that she and no one recognized her and it wasn't until they found her idee in her apartment that they realized who she was talking about, because the woman you looking for by now was almost unrecognizable, because your daily drug use sickness, not enough food, can

totally change people's appearances and sometimes like, like dramatically India. Now, I'm not saying any of this as an excuse for what happened to these women or how long it took to track them down. What I'm saying is nothing about. This case was easy, but no one even knew how complicated it would soon be. This episode is made possible by audible long before podcast, I relied on audible exclusively for entertainment. I've been a member since two thousand and seven, and I still look forward to my credit. Every single because, with my credit I get audio books, I get exclusive podcast and the best part is, if I don't like it or couldn't get into the narrator, you can exchange or credit to find something that you really love and the most recent audio book that

use. My credit for in really loved is one that you guys might have heard me mentioned in a recent episode, the gift of fear by Gavin Tobakcre. This book, is life changing for everyone in your life that tells you you're paranoid after listening to our show, get them this book get yourself this book because, being a little paranoid being afraid is a gift we are given to help protect us and save us, and you have to learn how to listen to that voice. Don't waste another second of your life. Without hearing this audio book visit, audible, dot, com, slash crying junkie or you can text crime junkie, two five hundred five hundred, so don't waste another second of your life. Without hearing this audio book visit, audible, dot, com, slash, crying junkie or text crying junkie, all one word to five.

Hundred five hundred, I'm serious you guys go get the gift of fear right now. This is gonna, be the best book you ever read and again you can get that an audible dot, com, slash crime, junkie or cringing. All. One word: you contacts that two five hundred five hundred here's, what we no about Robert, William, Pakistan or Willie as he prefers to be called. He was raised on a farm in port co, quit lung, I'm getting cities canadian towns- and this is a British Columbia just outside of Vancouver, where his family raised pigs and they re a lot of pigs and also some dairy cows whose milk they sold to neighbours. Now on this

arm life and death were a daily occurrence. Babies are born animals slaughtered people were fed yeah having grown up on a farm it something that you kind of get used to after awhile. Right now, his mother was in charge of the whole operation and she ran a tight ship. His father was a butcher and the kids, especially the boys, were expected to work mucking our pig pens and taking care of the cows before were end after school sounds pretty familiar. I used to make about like five to feed the calves and was back out right before dinner. Every single light doing exactly thing yet even on the weakens when I used to say the night, you would like it if its super earlier, I slept in to go tend to the animals are totally go back to bed, but it was deafening, something that was a huge part of our life and was definitely expected of us yeah yeah.

His eyes, these sons, daughters of farmers that I like I I don't know, a single one who is expected to work on the farm, now really had a sister name Linda, who had married and moved out of port, quit Lamb and had a successful real estate business. He also had a brother David who was tangled up with the local health angels chapters and basically has been long like criminal history himself. Aside from a few years, training as a butcher, Willie didn't have any kind of formal. Condition, he dropped out of school. I just fourteen years old and never went back. He earned a step, living running his own pig butchering business along with another guy named Pat Cassa Nova Casanova. Are you serious yeah? I could not make this up if I wanted to now, both of the Picton brothers were known police and to the women on the downtown east side. Together they ran several businesses from the farm and employed several

people when Willie's mother died, he and his siblings parcel off pieces of the family, sprawling farmland and sold them to this city and to local developers. Portico quickly was close enough to think of her to make it like a doable commute for peace well who worked there, but it was totally more affordable than the city, so the money that they made was divided between Willie, David and Linda, and this move made the three really wealthy, like millionaire wealthy, allow but money didn't change Willie. He lived a very simple life in this, like Rayam, shackled, trailer on the farm property,

if he wasn't driving along like the low track looking for sex, he was at the bars and the downtown s side and there he would basically hold court with these local women listening to their stories buying them drinks. If he saw someone, he like he'd, peel tens and twentys off roles of bill that he kept in his pocket and send them out to buy drugs and never for him. Here's the thing he didn't drink. He didn't use drugs, but he would constantly provide those things to women, and sometimes he would talk them into going back with him to his farm to keep the party going Because of this, you know, generosity is how they saw it. Women flocked to Willie and not because he was handsome, are smart or even treated them. Well, in fact, one of the things you here over and and over in this story was about how the had Lee he smelled from life on a pig farm. So Women were attracted him because of that they were attracted to him because they were broke and sick.

Wanted to believe that this was a kind man, a good man who wanted to do something nice for them One woman who encountered Willie on the downtown EAST side described him as someone who was comfortable picking up a sex worker who would pay them quickly? they even describe them as a nice guy, and if anyone asked what he did for a living. He'd, say I'm a big man. That's all. I am just a pig man. So, if you're at all familiar with the depicting case, you'll know that there is a lot to say about the police and their investigation like I could fill an entire episode with this, but I'm trying condense it for you. But before I do, there's something I want to mention an that's hindsight bias it's either. For me to sit here and tell you a story about the times the police, let Willie picks and get away about how a monster plucked literally dozens of women off the streets and killed them right under their noses, and it would be easy to do that.

Because it's exactly what happened, but the truth is more nuanced. The VP these lawyer says best in their opening remarks at the public inquiry in this case in two thousand and twelve. Now this isn't a transcript. I have basically condensed So if you want to read the full thing will link to it and our blog post. But basically what was said was when all of us look back on the investigation. Now we can't help but view the events through the prism of knowledge that we ve since obtained, and there was in fact a serial killer at work and that killer was indeed Picton. The hindsight that we now have is similar to looking down at the landscape from above at a bird's eye view. Today we see a clear path connecting the downtown east side to the horrors of the pig farms, but at the time the investigator stood on a flat landscape with hundreds of possibilities and few landmarks to guide. But I think we have only talked about hindsight by us much on this package,

by its super super relevant, because almost all the stories we tell were telling from the future, we know it's not. The cases are closed, the door in the past. You know we ve already seen the investigation, the trial, the sentencing and honestly that condense meant that you just said it sums up perfectly. In my mind, it really does give us a birds. I viewed have this hindsight

totally- and I think it's important to keep this in mind as we go into this story because, yes, it's it's heartbreaking and yes, a really bad man slipped away too many times, but I dont think it was for a lack of good people doing their best work and one of those good people, I think, was Kim row. Small Kim was a season detective and a criminal profile with the Vancouver p D. He was the only police officer in Canada at the time, with a Phd in criminology and he's basically the brains behind what we call geographic profiling, which is something I think we know well today, but a birth for anyone who doesn't quite know what that is due in a kind of explain that sure it's when investigators look for. Turns and information based on where the crimes are committed. I mean it's human nature for someone to want to stick to where they are familiar with, like the area that they know really well and it's the same thing for criminals, geographic profiling, pretty much like hell

investigators, narrow down where the perpetrator might live, based on the location of where their finding crimes occurring exactly so, it's a type of criminal. Finally, so in the late nineties, Kim was in I demand speaking a conferences and teaching police forces around the world about what geographic profiling. Why so? He was like a star back then, but at home indian coup There was really no love for him. Now there isn't much explanation for that. As other then maybe like the old brass boys club like off politics be nonsense. Like the people in charge, they just straight up, didn't like it and eat. And though there was an obvious pattern of disappearances and the downtown east side during this time and a resource. Kim Rosemary that they could call upon. It may be help solve this. No one did

criminal profiling then was still pretty new and geographic profiling even more so they called it back then voodoo and mostly the VP, refuse to believe that, anything other than good old fashioned. Police work was going to solve this case. If there was even a case to be solved here, and were missing sure, but they said you know, there's no way those disappearances could be connected and for sure nothing even remotely close to a serial killer in the downtown s side. And this attitude continued for years the v p D had only two officers assigned to investigate what was at this point: twenty six missing person cases. So, of course they looked at all those cases and died You know who we need cameras, mow, geography, profiling unit, but not so much like that. Mad sarcasm there if it in

September, one thousand nine hundred and ninety eight public pressure was mounting and the Vancouver PD finally established its first team dedicated to finding these missing women. They got to work figuring out who exactly was missing and when they were last seen, they also called hospitals. Check to death record and followed up with friends and families and others who knew these women and by the end of the year they had actually taken a few names off of the list. Some were actually alive and well others confirmed dead from overdoses and others to cease from different causes. But here's the thing for every name that the team knocked off the west to more were added.

By the end of the year a Levin more women had gone missing. The year was not a total bust for police, though they did get one important tip in nineteen. Ninety, eight straight from Willie Picton farm bill. His Cox was an employee of the pact and brothers who spent time on the fire he had suspicions about Willie, Picton and thought me be. He might have something to do with the women who are going missing from the downtown each side. He knew well spent a lot of time on the low track. He knew that he hired sex workers and he knew the girls were disappearing.

But, most importantly, he knew that he'd seen women's clothes, purses and ideas in Willie's trailer. So he told police really had a ton of space on the farm and then it would be easy to hide things and that Willie had a lot of big equipment like a wood chips her- and he said I ll- be super easy for him to destroy things and his feelings about Willie were only emphasised when that attack on Wendy happen. He could not shake his bad feelings that he had about really know most of what bill shared at the police. During that call came second hand from a woman named LISA yelled, who was a friend of Willie Picton from childhood, so he's kind of a passing. All of this off second hand. Knelt police followed it, but LISA wasn't interested in speaking to that so

This tip was great, but ultimately was filed away because without a statement from LISA to corroborate the story, it just wasn't enough: yeah, that's basically hearsay right, but by early one thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine bill wasn't the only one suspicious of Willie Pickton. Finally, the pieces of the puzzle started coming together. The charge two years before for attempted murder on Wendy from Bill for some reason and ninety ninety nine. It was enough now they said got all this information. He does look fishy, it's time to start watching him, so the VP detectives worked with local Arcy MP to start surveillance on Willie. They were instructed to stop him if be saw him pick up any one, so they're looking for something anything that would get the message.

Torrent for Willie's property. So for two weeks they followed him in unmarked cars and they got nothing. Will here's the thing the surveillance effort on him got nothing, but now the police had their sight train unwell This was a serial killer, thee serial killer than surely his dna would match the dna that they found on three of the murder victims, all of them again downtown inside sex workers that had been killed in and around ninety. Ninety five and this group of women was actually just a few of the missing a serial killer, these serial killer than surely his dna would match the dna that they found on three of the murder victims. All of them again, Tom side, sex workers that had been killed in and around ninety ninety five and this group of women was actually just a you of the missing women whose bodies had actually shown up? So this could be there big break they sent.

These dna off to a lab to get tested against what they were covered from those bodies, but it didn't match whites and looking at this they're saying Willie, isn't guy now the idea that who serial killers were hunting sex workers on the downtown EAST side was more than any one could process at the time. Police wouldn't even admit to one and they definitely weren't going to entertain the idea of two. So they decided to stop the surveillance like his dna to match the there's. No way there could be choose serial killer, so we're going to stop watching we, but by now the rumors were already so world around Willie Picton and they did not stop in July. One thousand nine hundred and ninety nine America's most wanted did a piece on Vancouver's, missing women and it garnished tons of interest and shown a spotlight on the case and the local police. It was enough to spur government and police to

a hundred thousand dollar reward for information about the unsolved cases, but even as He made that announcement. They didn't really believe it will go anywhere. They were still convinced that the woman had made themselves scarce, moved away, change their names and eventually they would turn up its point in another town under another name, safe and sound, and no one families advocates reporters, even their own colleagues could change their mind so to give you a little of history. Women had started going missing from the downtown east side as early as the least seventies. Sometimes, body would be found in the woods or in a dumpster, mostly though they just disappear without a trace, and while we cannot rule out willie- for any of the unsolved deaths or disappearances in downtown east side. Unlike the Eightys and Ninetys, most people speculate that his acting he began in the mid nineties right around the time

that Willie and his brother opened piggies palace now, piggies palace good times, society, that's the full name was actually a registered charity. A police community groups or politicians could basically book out the space for, like a super cheap price and all the proceeds went back to charity. This seems completely different, then the picture you painted for me of the victim brothers, like a charity. So charity is a loose term with the pact and brothers. What the piggy palace really wise was a night club and a big one full of all of Dave's friends and associates like the hell angels and I'm sure, Willie's friends and associates would have been there too, but he didn't really have a time so women from downtown aside ended up at piggies palace to when it was a place that they could get cheap drinks uneasy drugs. So a kind of became like a play house for the brothers

yeah and you know they had their like core group of people who would come, but beside those people who would hang out there. No one else like this place. The city actually took the pic two brothers to court to try to get it shut down, but they lost. And it remained open for years, drawing in crowds of rough men and Honourable women and some of those women never left in January, two thousand piggies palace was finally shut down and a society lost its charitable status, which is a great start to the year for Willie Picton, who loved piggies palace and loved being part of that action and that, like US community, he thought he created so to make matters worse for Willie police had eyes on him all the time and while there's two wriggling him, while they're like kind of watching all of his actions. Few women were disappearing. So by October of that year there has only been one missing persons report and the

number had been trending downward for a while, so there was thirteen missing and nineteen these seven eleven Ninety ninety eight five in one ninety nine and again all this while they're like keeping eyes on him. He's been a suspect tips or coming in like so please are looking at him and now in two thousand and just one missing person, so here's the Parthenon kills me then Coover pity were quick to determine that the tears over the problem, whatever it was as is solved, but instead of realising that may be less. Women were going missing because of what they were doing and who they were watching. They assume that the problem was just gone, so vague, dismantle their dedicated team and sent them back to work on other cases,

But not everyone agreed with this assessment, including the r c m p, so the Arcy MP began to assemble their own team and invited some of the VP officers had been working the case to join them. The very thing? The new taskforce dead was admit something that BP had refused to acknowledge all of this time that there's a serial killer on the loose yet exactly and admitting this was a critical piece because it meant that they had somewhere to focus their energy. Instead of looking in a million different directions for dozens of missing women, they were now look. For wine, suspect they asked the public for help with this task as anything you know and will take it now. This task force work was just getting off the ground when Christmas rolled around in the year, two thousand and with it another missing woman by April. First, two thousand one just three months into the new year for more disappeared, any tiny glimmer of hope

that the tear was behind them was gone for this task force and they added more members now up to ten people and those ten officers were busy sifting through more than thirteen hundred tips that had come in from the public about the potential suspects. The pool of suspects was massive and kind of like we said about hindsight how the officers were standing on that flat landscape with hundreds of options like that's. A good description of the officers started, dividing their suspect pool into three categories, so they basically had priority one aspect, which was someone connected to the downtown east side. They either lived there

or spent time there. They were a dangerous sex offender who lived in the neighborhood so that that would put them on the list and they would also put any one and a priority one who had been charged with murder, attempted murder or aggravated a soul of sex worker. Now a priority to suspect was very similar, someone who was charged with an offence against sex worker or with a history of violence. The difference was that these aspects would have lived outside of in Cuba and priority three suspects were ones who didn't fit into one of the, there's two categories but who needed to be looked at any way. People who were may be known to the downtown east side or anyone with a charge against them that maybe could be related well. Willie Picton checked all the boxes right away a charge for an attempted murder against sex workers. Check hanging around the downtown aside check super creepy, isolated farm products,

We just outside of town check, check, check, and you know when thereby creating this piled. They come across that tip from bill and The combination of all this being a priority once s bag, finding this hit from bill. He goes back to the top of the list in the summer of two thousand and one, the taskforce had their sight trained on finding a serial killer, and importantly, local media really started to put the pressure on They were running stories. Everyday profiles on the missing women expose about infighting among the Vancouver PD and those stories serve as a daily reminder to the task force and to the rest of the province that someone was out there roaming and he was far from calling it quits. This episode is brought to you in part by the Pantene Nutrient blend collection Ashley. I have been traveling so much these past few months

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snow was inspired by Australia. Women who use her humble oiled, hydrate they're here Let's hope oil mirrors the natural scalp oils best of all panting nutrients blend collection is free, open, Vince dies and mineral oils. I am super figure out what I put my here and knowing what my curls love best are products that dont have Ikey stuff like dies and caravans, and mineral oil has made my experience of painting nutrient buns collection and absolute dream, with bouncy shiny curls all day long, so experience something new and discover what's good, with panting nutrient blends collection. Now, if the details of this case sound familiar you're, not alone, this story is eagerly. Similar to another cereal murderer. We covered on our show and another long investigation taking place just a few hundred miles away in Seattle,

If you remember Gary Ridgeway, also known as the Green River killer is responsible for the deaths of forty five women, most of whom were sex workers throughout the Eightys and Ninetys and just like in the picked in case the police had Ridgeway pegged for these crimes. As far back as nineteen The three, but there was never enough evidence to charge him, let alone convict, so it wasn't until two thousand and one after decades of advances in dna technology that police were able to finally get thereby so the Vancouver taskforce knew that there would be something to learn from their colleagues. In Seattle, they headed down to talk to the investors, who worked the Green River case, and their advice was clear.

We have to embed yourself in the victim's community, get to know the women earn their trust and find out who the bad guys are. You need to get ahead of your killer. More officers joined the ranks and, on October, fifteenth, two thousand and one after twenty years of denial. The Vancouver peaty joined the Arcy MP to announce together that they were officially treating the disappearances of what was now. Forty six women as murders. Now imagine this from the point of view of the women in the downtown aside, their families and friends, but the support workers. The admin Finally, finally, police were taking this seriously and fight Lee. They were admitting that there was a predator on the streets of Vancouver and finally, we might start getting some answers for days.

Peter another woman, disappeared and months after that, another police might have finally had all hands on deck, but it wasn't slowing the sky down by the end of December. The years tally with seven missing women, seven right under their noses when they knew what they should be looking for. It wasn't until early two thousand and two seventeen years after the man is began that police would finally get the Tipp that would below the case of Vancouver missing women wide open. A man named scotch up just like Bill has Cox was one of those guys who spent time on the pact in farm,

working for one or both of the pact and brothers. He called police hoping that they might be willing to trade information for money. He was Dedbroke at the time. He said he had tips on drug traffickers and grow operation, so the cops really interested eminent in granite. You know he's not calling this like specific bars. The Mp Tipp line heat is calling the police in general. So then he asked what avow illegal guns. Do you guys care about those and the police are like, of course, yes. So Scott Chap said, he'd seen, guns out on a pig farm, import quit left hand, guns automatic weapons bullets which now

abnormal here and the? U S where we don't have a ton of gun lies, but all of this is restricted under the canadian criminal code. So this guy he says Willie. He has all of these things in his trailer and being go. That's all police needed to here to be able to search this guy's place now, when police do a quick search of Willie, Picton name that's when all the sudden, the charges for attempted murder show up from nineteen ninety seven and the surveillance order for one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine and his status as a person of interest in the ongoing investigation of Vancouver's, missing and murdered women. So this officer who is just looking at him for like guns and maybe a girl operation or whatever alert the task force now, with a task force hears, of course, like the judge grandson

a warrant based on the weapons allegations to search the entire Picton Farm and on February fifth, two thousand and two. They assembled a team to execute that warrant. They were finally going in the team arrived at the picture in farm parked near the entrance, and five officers crept toward Willie's place. They'd just seen him jump out of his truck into the trailer. The lights were on and wasting no time they busted down the door guns drawn and they entered the trailer and met with we picked up in the middle of the room. He was arrested without fanfare under suspicion of possession of illegal fire arms. They led him out to a police car in handcuffs where an officer waited to take him back to the Arcy MP before they left the driveway. That night they asked. Is there anything we should know about in your house and, of course like

probably meaning guns, traps dangerous deadly stuff right and will He tells them. You know, there's a twenty two caliber rifle in the barn, but he did not tell them what else that they would find, not that a warning could have even prepared police for what whores awaited them on Willie's Hague Farm and unfortunately, you won't know what that is until next week's episode, If any of you want to see pictures from this episode or a list of our sources, you can visit our website crying junkie, podcast, dot com, and I know actually, you looked everyone on a little bit of equipping our but good news gun club members. Part two of his red is out to write them. Yet

The rest of you will be back next Monday with part two of this episode, crying junkie is an audio chuck action. So what do you think chuck disapprove