Tragic Story in Vancouver
Today marks the beginning of another chapter in the saga of Vancouver's missing women. Robert (Willy) Pickton went on trial today in Greater Vancouver for the murder of 26 working girls. This first trial is actually for the murder of 6 girls. A subsequent trial will try him with killing the other 20.
It is a terrible tragedy and the judge has warned everyone that evidence presented will be horrible and shocking. But it has gripped the media from all over the world in the same way that people just could not help being fascinated by the story of Jack the Ripper or the Green River Killer in Seattle. And the fact that he has pleaded not guilty, and that this first trial is projected to last for a year, will keep this story in the public eye for a long, long time.
These girls lived in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, a pocket that is one of the most impoverished areas of North America. Probably all of the girls were drug addicted and all of them worked on the street. More than 60 girls from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside have vanished from the streets over the last few years. The police, at first, did not believe that a serial killer was at work. But, gradually, they came to that realization.
This story has so many facets. Local, national and international media have all been issued with kits containing stock video footage of sex trade workers in the Downtown Eastside, videotaped interviews with prostitutes, and contact information for agencies that speak for women in the sex trade. Authorities are trying to shield current sex workers from any media frenzy. They have issued sex workers with printed information as to how to deal, or not deal, with any media that wish to talk to them. One media outlet has hired two former street working girls as reporters who will tell the story from their perspective.
The accused is a pig farmer from an area about 45 minutes from downtown Vancouver. Many working girls partied at the farm and most thought that Willy was a little odd, but harmless. It is alleged that he killed the girls on his farm, butchered them there, and may have disposed of the body parts through an animal rendering plant. Every inch of soil on the six hectare property was sifted over a 16 month period looking for human DNA.
In his opening statement today, the lead prosecutor said that the heads and other body parts of three victims were found in a freezer on the farm. He also said that Pickton had admitted to killing 49 women and was going to kill one more before he stopped. (Seattle’s Green River killer murdered 49)
There will be a lot of information on this story on the internet. Here are a couple of websites: [url]www.vancouversun.com[/url] and [url]www.missingpeople.net[/url]
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Searching for that middle ground
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By that I mean the choices are limited between a 300 dollar per hour escort or a 30 dollar street skank. Surely there must be some middle ground. If there is, I'm ceratinly having a heck of a time finding it. Any suggestions?