WEBVTT - Introducing - Robert Pickton: The Final Chapter, Part 1 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.680 Hi everyone, This is Steve Fishman from Orbit Media and 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:07.640 just a quick announcement. Our new series Lives of Crime, 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:13.240 True Crime from True Criminals drops March twenty fourth. Meantime, 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:18.120 we're bringing you episodes from some of our favorite podcasters today. 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:21.520 It's the first episode of a new series from our friendsic, 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:26.480 Canadian True Crime. It's called Robert Picton the Final Chapter. 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:30.760 Some of you will recall Robert Picton, the Canadian pig 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:35.080 farmer who confessed to murdering forty nine women on his farm. 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.839 In this special mini series, Alsie Canadian host Christy Lee 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:44.000 revisits the case with tons of new information. There's much 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:45.800 we didn't know about mister Picton. 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:46.760 He was a. 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:52.680 Killer made, not born. In his childhood, cruelty and violence 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:58.000 were daily fair and now there's new evidence Picton may 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.600 not have acted alone, just one of the things the 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.919 police missed. And then in this series there are the women, 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:12.000 the victims. Finally, this series tells their stories. Here's the 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:16.040 first episode of Robert Picton the Final Chapter. The second 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:20.240 episode is available now at Canadian True Crime wherever you 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:21.600 get your podcasts. 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:27.840 Enjoy Canadian True Crime is a completely independent production. The 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:31.679 podcast often has disturbing content and course language. It's not 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:34.080 for everyone. Please take care when listening. 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:39.080 Hi. I'm Christy Lee and welcome to episode two hundred 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:43.199 of Canadian True Crime. I started this podcast nine years 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:46.840 ago as a passion project and it still is today, 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:50.360 so thank you so much for joining me. This special 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:53.840 four part series has been pieced together primarily from the 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:59.320 public record, including court documents, newspaper archives, the final report 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:03.200 of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, and On the Farm, 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:07.440 the definitive book by the late award winning investigative journalist 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:13.119 Stevie Cameron. Please be aware this series includes distressing details 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:16.160 that might be difficult to hear. There's also mention of 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:21.800 sexual assault, residential schools, Indigenous issues, child abuse, and suicide. 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:26.399 Please see the show notes for crisis referral services. Proceeds 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:29.760 are being donated to the Wish Drop In Center, society 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:34.520 supporting street based sex workers on Vancouver's downtown east Side 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:50.280 since nineteen eighty four. It's a cold night in March 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.480 of nineteen ninety seven, and a thirty year old woman 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:57.720 named Wendy is working a street corner in Vancouver's downtown 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:01.919 east Side, often referred to was the poorest postal code 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:05.120 in Canada. The downtown Knee Side is known for high 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:10.240 concentrations of poverty, homelessness, mental illness has it a substance 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:14.760 use crime and sex work. A red pickup truck. 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:15.840 Pulls up to the corner. 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:20.280 The driver is in his late forties, baulding with greasy, 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:24.600 scraggly hair hanging down the back and sides. He asks 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:28.640 Wendy how much she charges for oral sex. She tells 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:32.200 him the going rate is forty dollars. He offers her 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:35.080 one hundred dollars if she comes back to his place 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:39.320 in Port Equitlam. Wendy needs the money, but that's about 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:43.520 a forty minute drive away. Can't they find somewhere closer, 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:47.440 The driver insists, promising to drop her. 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:48.880 Back by one in the morning. 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:52.160 She gets into the pickup and they drive out of 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:58.680 the city. The man doesn't want to make conversation. After 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:03.360 a while, the sie violence starts, making Wendy uneasy. She 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.840 might only be thirty, but she's already lived a far 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:11.760 heavier life than her years suggest. Wendy started using drugs 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:15.480 in her teens and joined forces with two men ten 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:19.000 years older than her with criminal records. They would be 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:23.400 arrested for stealing cigarettes and other goods. She gave birth 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:26.400 to a daughter with one of those men, but according 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:30.480 to an obituary, their little girl passed away as a toddler. 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:34.480 Wendy retreated to drugs for a while, but she pulled 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:39.240 herself together. Vancouver is a port city, and she found 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:42.240 a job on a local fishing boat as a deckhand 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:45.800 and crew cook. She fell into a relationship with the 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:49.640 captain and gave birth to two children with him. For 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:53.719 a few years, Wendy's life was mostly stable, but the 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:58.080 urge to use was not easy to overcome. The relationship 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:01.360 broke down, and she left her children with their father 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:06.360 to get help for hazardous substance use. Cocaine and heroine 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.720 were her drugs of choice, but she was also desperate 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:13.320 to see her kids again. Wendy ended up living on 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:17.839 Vancouver's downtown east Side with some of society's most vulnerable 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:24.320 marginalized people, trying and failing miserably to get clean. That 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:28.200 cold night in March of nineteen ninety seven, she was 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:32.839 stuck in survival mode, sustaining her drug use through stealing 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:34.919 an outside sex work. 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:40.760 In the red. 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:45.479 Pickup truck Wendy is feeling increasingly uneasy as they continue 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:49.280 driving out to Port Coquitlam, or at least that's where 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:52.520 the man told her they were going. She asks him 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:55.320 to stop at the next gas station so she can 0:05:55.440 --> 0:06:01.440 use the washroom. He refuses and continues driving sallantly. The 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:04.799 man stops the truck at a property with a padlocked gate. 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:09.440 He gets out, unlocks the gate, and drives in. Wendy 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:12.719 realizes the man lives on a farm, not a house. 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:18.359 There's old cars and junk everywhere. He parks beside a 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:23.920 mobile trailer home and ushes Wendy inside. It's filthy in there, 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:28.880 the air is stale and there's mess everywhere. She notices 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:31.919 a large butcher knife lying on the table as he 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:34.880 leads her through the kitchen and into a back room. 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.039 There's no bed, only a sleeping bag on the floor. 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:43.240 The man gives Wendy the hundred dollars and she performs 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:47.719 oral sex followed by intercourse. Nothing out of the ordinary. 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.320 She gets dressed and asks to use the phone to 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:55.360 call a friend. She senses the man behind her and 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:59.880 he gently takes her left hand. Then, without warning, he 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:04.480 snaps a handcuff onto her wrist. Wendy is jolted by 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:08.200 an intense fear for her life. For a split second, 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:14.160 she freezes, Then her body's trauma response activates, automatically, deferring 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:18.000 to habits she learned earlier in life, and Wendy has 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:22.360 always been a fighter. She punches and kicks him. She 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.560 grabs a potted plant and whatever she can reach and 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:29.520 swings it at him. As he fights back, she finds 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:32.760 herself backing toward that butcher knife she saw on the 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:36.679 kitchen table. She grabs it and slashes the man across 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:40.520 the neck. He roars as the blood starts flowing, but 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:43.280 he grabs a cloth, holding it to the wound and 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:47.800 keeps fighting. Now there's an intense struggle for the knife, 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:52.440 and Wendy suddenly feels herself losing consciousness. 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:55.160 When she comes. 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.520 Too, the man is over her, holding her down, and 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:02.680 then now back outside the pickup truck, she's still gripping 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:05.720 the knife in her right hand and jabs at him, 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:09.520 screaming at him to let her go. She feels him 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:13.280 weakened and seizes an opportunity to slide out from under him. 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:18.040 Still holding the knife, she staggers down the driveway covered 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:23.400 in blood. Wendy doesn't realize she has suffered catastrophic injuries 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:27.840 because adrenaline has taken over, numbing the pain and keeping 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:33.240 her moving with a singular focus escape. Terrified he's going 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:36.319 to come after her, she limps across the street. 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:38.600 And knocks on a house. No answer. 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:42.000 She tries to break a window to get inside, but 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:44.280 then she sees headlights approaching. 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:47.600 It's him. She ducks down, but. 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:50.680 As the car gets closer, she sees it's not him 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.800 and there's a woman in the passenger seat. Feeling safer, 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:57.880 Wendy runs out and screams for help. 0:08:58.559 --> 0:08:59.679 The car stops. 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:03.480 It's an elderly couple, but they hesitate at the sight 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:07.560 of this small woman, half naked, soaked in blood, with 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:09.800 her internal organs exposed. 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:11.359 Holding a knife. 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:14.840 Wendy throws it on the ground and the man opens 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:17.200 the back door and helps her into the car. 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:18.679 As they call. 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:22.319 Nine one one for police and an ambulance, Wendy points 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:23.360 toward the farm. 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:25.560 She tells the couple that if. 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:28.720 Anything happens to her, the man living in the trailer 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:30.920 there was responsible. 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:31.679 And he's been injured. 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:31.880 Two. 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:38.960 Wendy is rushed to emergency surgery with significant blood loss, 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:42.760 deep stab wounds to her abdomen, and a punctured long 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:47.800 She's lucky to be alive. Wendy would have known that 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:51.319 an increasing number of women just like her had been 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:55.680 disappearing from the Downtown east Side in recent years. That's 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:59.080 why she was on high alert. What she didn't know 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.040 was that the the DNA or remains of at least 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:05.280 seven of those women were already on the farm she 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:10.000 just escaped from, waiting to one day be discovered, and 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:14.880 there would be more to come. Years later, when Robert 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:19.199 Picton was identified as the man now considered Canada's worst 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:23.880 serial killer, the remains or DNA of thirty three missing 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:26.359 women would be found on that farm. 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:27.840 Most of them were. 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:33.800 Sex workers, disproportionately Indigenous and thought of as expendable, disposable, 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.679 not worthy of care. It's believed there were many more 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:42.319 victims than that, and years later Robert Picton would confirm 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:47.319 it himself when the details began to emerge about how 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.960 their remains may have been handled and disposed of, the 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:55.600 implications were so shocking and grotesque that many struggled to 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:59.400 even grasp what they were hearing. This case has been 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:04.280 described as a tragedy of epic proportions, leaving the families 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:07.720 of all those women with a lasting legacy of grief, 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:11.560 at least ninety eight children without their mother, and a 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:17.920 lot of unanswered questions. In twenty twenty four, Robert Picton 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:23.480 became a victim himself of prison vigilante justice. His death 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:27.120 might have closed his chapter, but this story is far 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:31.920 from over. The evidence suggests that others knew what was happening, 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:40.160 and worse, he likely did not act alone. This special 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:43.600 four part series traces the case from the very beginning 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:47.240 right up to where it stands today. From a disturbing 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:51.440 childhood on the Picton family farm where cruelty and exploitation 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:56.000 were normalized and morality optional, where Robert and his brother 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.240 were shown that bad deeds can be covered up using 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:04.720 privilege in intimidation, to the blatant police failures, systemic injustice, 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:09.120 and deep rooted societal prejudice that enabled that violent culture 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:14.720 to continue long after the Picton parents were dead. Most importantly, 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:19.440 this series centers the vulnerable women who would targeted, restoring 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:23.720 their names, stories, and humanity through the personal accounts of 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:27.120 those who loved and missed them, making space for the 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:46.760 unanswered questions still being asked to this day. Robert William 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:50.800 Picton was born in nineteen forty nine to parents Leonard 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:54.040 and Louise Picton. They were pig farmers who lived in 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:58.360 pork Equitlam, a city in the Metro Vancouver area, about 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:00.960 thirty five minutes drive from downtown. 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:03.040 They didn't live. 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:05.679 On the property we now know as the Picton Farm, 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:10.040 though Leonard had inherited his family's homestead and farm a 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:13.880 few kilometers away and worked on it through his twenties 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:18.319 and thirties, showing no other interests. When he was forty 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:21.920 seven years old, he surprised his family by bringing home 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.239 a much younger woman he'd met in a coffee shop. 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:29.360 Her name was Louise Arnold. She was thirty one years 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:33.720 old and from Saskatchewan. They got married and Louise moved 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:38.200 into the Picton family homestead five years later. The couple 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:42.880 had their first child, a daughter, Linda, in nineteen forty eight, 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:47.520 then first son Robert, followed by second son David, a 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:51.839 year apart. Linda and David were said to take after 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:57.679 their mother Louise physically anyway, short with round faces. The 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:01.520 middle child, Robert or Willie, as his family started calling 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:05.600 him took after father Leonard. Tall and slim, with a 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:10.480 narrow face and a long pointed nose. The Picton family 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:15.400 lived in Port Coquitlam, known as Poco by the locals. Today, 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.480 the city has a population of almost sixty thousand people, 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:23.920 but back in nineteen forty nine it was around three thousand. 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:29.680 It was known for being rural farmland territory. Leonard Picton 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:34.040 was reportedly a workaholic who had minimal interaction with any 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:37.760 of his three children. He was not an engaged parent. 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:41.720 He specialized in livestock and the production of pork, and 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:45.360 expected sons Robert and David to work on the farm 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:48.280 as soon as they were able to, aiding in the 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:53.240 slaughtering and butchering of pigs. Some accounts by neighbors and 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:58.040 co workers paint Leonard as a violently abusive and abrasive man, 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:02.000 all too ready to dole out punishment to his sons. 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:03.320 In the form of beatings. 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:07.280 It seems that daughter Linda might have been spared from 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:11.600 this treatment. In later interviews, she would portray Leonard in 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:16.240 a positive light as a respectable father with good intentions. 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:19.840 But she said her younger brother Robert was never close 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:22.880 to his father. In fact, he seemed a bit scared 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:27.120 of him. Linda described Robert as shy and naive, a 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:31.440 mumma's boy. Robert himself would later say that he and 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:35.560 his mother were like two peas in a pod. The 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:39.840 reasons for that label are not entirely clear. In town, 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:44.960 residents reported hearing Louise nag and publicly sham Robert in 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:50.600 front of other children. He became increasingly withdrawn, often remaining 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:54.320 silent for long stretches, and hiding when he feared he 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:59.239 was in trouble with either parent. The responsibilities of homemaking 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:02.720 and child wearing fell to Louise, picked in by default, 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.520 and she was not a nurturing or maternal presence to 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:08.320 any of their three children. 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:10.640 Her focus was also. 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:15.800 On the family business, pigs. Everything else came a distant second. 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:20.360 As a mother, Louise was remembered as harsh and abrasive, 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:25.320 and was frequently heard screeching orders at her children. Those 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:30.160 who came into regular contact with her described her as odd, eccentric, 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:34.360 and unkempt workaholic who paid little attention to her own 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:39.280 health or appearance. Former neighbors recalled her rotting teeth an 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:44.880 apparent indifference to personal hygiene. The children were reportedly bathed 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:48.600 only about once a week, which wasn't enough to remove 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:53.240 the farm stench. Those same neighbors went inside the pict 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:56.760 In home briefly and would describe it as dirty and 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:00.880 foul smelling. Farm animals were allowed to work wonder freely 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:07.200 through the farmhouse, relieving themselves indoors without consequence. Louise made 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:12.520 little effort to clean, seemingly unfazed by the conditions. She 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:18.480 always wore men's rubber gum boots. Louise was strict and demanding. 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:23.000 She required her children to spend long hours slopping pigs 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:29.160 and caring for animals, sometimes even on school days. To outsiders, 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:33.080 the Picton family appeared to be poor, living below the 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:37.720 poverty line. As one local resident put it, everyone knew 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:42.119 the Pictons and no one knew the Pictins. The reality 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:46.480 was they owned the family homestead outright and some additional 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:50.639 parcels of land, and the farm was profitable. They just 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.720 chose to live that way. It was said that the 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:56.800 general attitude of the Picton family was that there was 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:01.200 nothing wrong with a bit of mess or a life. 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:04.280 Many of the memories Robert Pickton would recall from his 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:09.320 childhood and early adulthood were disturbing if true. He would 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:12.600 claim that one time his father left him sitting in 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:17.160 his truck and he accidentally moved the gearstick into neutral, 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:20.200 which caused the truck to start rolling down a hill 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:24.600 and crash. Robert would claim his father beat him severely 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:28.520 for not stopping that truck. He was just three years 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:34.359 old at the time. In another story, he recalled being 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.640 about four years old when his mother, Louise, caught him 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:42.000 smoking a cigarette. As punishment, she forced him to smoke 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:45.240 a whole cigar, thinking it would cure him for good, 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:49.400 and it did. Robert would say it was the last 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:54.080 cigarette he ever had. He would also tell a particularly 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:58.400 disturbing story later about a pet calf he had when. 0:18:58.200 --> 0:18:58.879 He was young. 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:03.640 This this was noteworthy because he suddenly became animated when 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:09.080 he remembered the calf story and recalled vivid details. According 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:12.520 to Robert, when he was about twelve, he developed a 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:17.000 close emotional attachment with this calf, spending as much time 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:20.440 as he could with it day or night. One day, 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:23.600 he came home from school to find his favorite animal 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:27.399 was missing. He looked over the house and then the farm, 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:32.040 and he asked his family members, where's my calf. He 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:35.200 was horrified when they suggested he look in the barn, 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:39.800 knowing that's where the animals were slaughtered. It seemed his 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:44.360 family wanted him to discover his pet calf hanging upside 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:49.360 down in a shed, slaughtered and disembowed. Robert would tell 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:53.399 investigators he was distraught at the site and refused to 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:57.159 speak to his family for four days. They promised to 0:19:57.160 --> 0:19:59.879 buy him a new calf, but he didn't want an 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:05.120 He wanted his pet back. He was traumatized by the incident, 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:08.080 and even as an adult, it was only something he 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:12.399 would share with people he'd become close to. After that, 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:16.040 he seemed to develop the sentiment that life goes. 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:18.439 Around and around with little meaning. 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:30.440 Robert and younger brother David were being groomed by their father, Leonard, 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:34.080 to take over the family farm. He taught them animal 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:37.600 husbandry and butchering, and when they weren't at school, they 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:41.560 were expected to work. But Linda, the eldest of the 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:44.679 three picked in children, wasn't much of a fan of 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:47.760 farm life and wanted to be as far away from 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:52.160 it as possible. She was always described as the smart one, 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:56.240 according to Stevie Cameron's book on the Farm. When she 0:20:56.400 --> 0:20:59.560 was in grade nine, Linda decided to move in with 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:03.879 relatives closer to Vancouver. She was away from the farm, 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:07.359 and after that she reportedly had as little to do 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:12.640 with her family as possible. Leonard and Louise purchased more 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:16.879 land just a few kilometers away on Dominion Avenue and 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:20.639 moved over there with their sons. This is the property 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:24.119 that would come to define the Picton family far more 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:35.120 than they could have ever imagined. If Robert Picton were 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:38.520 in school today, he might well have been diagnosed with 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:42.840 a learning disorder and offered support and treatment. People who 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:46.000 knew him would say he was far more intelligent than 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:49.320 he was given credit for. But back in the nineteen 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:53.080 sixties when he started high school, he was labeled slow 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:58.360 and placed in special education classes at school. This embarrassed 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:01.400 him and made him an easy target for bullies. 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:03.480 His severe lack of. 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:07.760 Personal hygiene, combined with the ratty, stinky clothes he wore, 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:12.080 did not help. Robert dropped out of high school as 0:22:12.119 --> 0:22:15.639 soon as he could in grade eight. Louise was not 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:19.240 at all troubled by her son's decision. She put him 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:22.879 to work right away full time on the farm. She 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:25.480 told him he needed to learn how to slaughter the 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:29.520 pigs himself, and at first he said he didn't want to, 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:34.680 but he eventually relented and began learning the trade. This 0:22:34.920 --> 0:22:38.919 was Robert's life. He'd never really known anything else but 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:58.320 school and the farm. In October of nineteen sixty seven, 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:02.240 fourteen year old Timothy Barrett left home at about eight 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:05.520 pm to walk to a friend's place. It wasn't a 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:09.400 long walk, just up the road and down Dominion Avenue, 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:13.960 the same street as the new Pigton farm. Timothy put 0:23:14.000 --> 0:23:17.200 on his jacket and told his parents he'd be home later. 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:23.120 He never returned home. After a few hours, his parents 0:23:23.160 --> 0:23:27.320 found out that Timothy never actually arrived at the friend's home. 0:23:27.920 --> 0:23:31.640 They panicked and started checking in with neighbors to see 0:23:31.640 --> 0:23:34.720 if anyone had seen him or knew where he might be. 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:40.040 At about one am, Timothy's parents reported him missing to 0:23:40.119 --> 0:23:44.480 the local RCMP, and the search continued throughout the night 0:23:44.800 --> 0:23:49.480 with no sign of him. In the early daylight hours, 0:23:49.720 --> 0:23:54.439 Timothy's father was still on Dominion Avenue searching alongside the 0:23:54.520 --> 0:23:57.520 road with a neighbor when he spotted a shoe on 0:23:57.600 --> 0:24:02.400 the side of the road. It looked like Timothy's. About 0:24:02.440 --> 0:24:06.600 ten feet away was a deep ditch running alongside the road. 0:24:07.119 --> 0:24:11.639 He walked over and peered down. Submerged in several feet 0:24:11.680 --> 0:24:16.760 of water was his fourteen year old son. Timothy Barrett 0:24:16.880 --> 0:24:21.840 was dead. The RCMP quickly developed a theory that Timothy 0:24:22.040 --> 0:24:24.439 must have been walking along the road when he was 0:24:24.480 --> 0:24:27.600 struck from behind by either a car or a truck 0:24:27.880 --> 0:24:31.560 and then hurled over into the ditch. The car was 0:24:31.600 --> 0:24:36.680 probably speeding and Dominion Avenue was poorly lit. The houses 0:24:36.720 --> 0:24:41.000 were sparse because it wasn't a developed area. As the 0:24:41.000 --> 0:24:45.200 body was sent for autopsy, the RCMP received a phone 0:24:45.240 --> 0:24:48.359 call from a local mechanic who said he'd seen the 0:24:48.400 --> 0:24:51.520 news reports of a hit and run and had something 0:24:51.600 --> 0:24:55.119 strange to report. He said the son of one of 0:24:55.160 --> 0:24:58.800 his regular clients had shown up the night before wanting 0:24:58.840 --> 0:25:04.639 a fast repair to an old, red, beaten up farm truck. Specifically, 0:25:04.920 --> 0:25:08.800 he wanted the smashed front indicator light repaired, along with 0:25:08.880 --> 0:25:12.080 a dent on the front fender, which he also wanted 0:25:12.119 --> 0:25:15.679 to be painted over. The young man told him a 0:25:15.800 --> 0:25:18.439 log had fallen on the truck back at the farm, 0:25:18.800 --> 0:25:23.080 but the mechanic looked at the dent and was suspicious. Also, 0:25:23.480 --> 0:25:27.920 the entire truck was old and completely banged up. Why 0:25:27.960 --> 0:25:33.040 the sudden request to repair this one area. Hours later, 0:25:33.359 --> 0:25:37.200 that mechanic saw the news about Timothy Barrett and contacted 0:25:37.240 --> 0:25:40.080 the police, giving them the name of the young man 0:25:40.119 --> 0:25:46.040 who requested the repairs, David Picton. That's Robert Picton's younger brother. 0:25:46.960 --> 0:25:50.720 At the time, David was sixteen and had just earned 0:25:50.760 --> 0:25:55.439 his driver's license. David Picton was charged in juvenile court 0:25:55.560 --> 0:25:58.120 with failing to remain at the scene of an accident. 0:25:58.720 --> 0:26:02.000 He would be placed on in definite probation and his 0:26:02.160 --> 0:26:04.520 driver's license suspended. 0:26:03.960 --> 0:26:06.840 For five years. As far as the. 0:26:06.800 --> 0:26:11.040 Criminal justice system was concerned, Timothy Barrett's death was the 0:26:11.080 --> 0:26:15.439 result of a careless accident. Partial blame was assigned to 0:26:15.480 --> 0:26:18.800 Timothy himself for walking on the side of the road 0:26:18.840 --> 0:26:22.359 where cars would be coming up behind him, wearing dark 0:26:22.480 --> 0:26:27.800 clothing on a dimly lit night. A coroner's inquiry concluded 0:26:27.880 --> 0:26:31.159 that David Picton was the one most at fault for 0:26:31.280 --> 0:26:34.800 driving the truck that hit Timothy from behind and for 0:26:34.920 --> 0:26:39.320 not stopping as Timothy was hurled into the water filled ditch. 0:26:40.160 --> 0:26:44.280 The autopsy confirmed Timothy suffered a fractured skull and a 0:26:44.280 --> 0:26:48.360 broken pelvis, but those injuries would not have been fatal. 0:26:49.200 --> 0:26:51.280 The actual cause of his death. 0:26:51.440 --> 0:26:56.480 Was drowning in the water, but there was more to 0:26:56.640 --> 0:27:01.120 the story. It began as whispers among names, but some 0:27:01.280 --> 0:27:05.119 twenty five years later it was confirmed to journalist and 0:27:05.200 --> 0:27:10.280 author Stevie Cameron. Robert Pickton himself would later tell a 0:27:10.320 --> 0:27:14.720 friend that he knew exactly what happened that night. At 0:27:14.760 --> 0:27:18.480 the time, he was seventeen years old, and he recalled 0:27:18.640 --> 0:27:22.399 David bursting into the farmhouse saying he'd hit someone with 0:27:22.480 --> 0:27:26.600 his car and they were probably badly hurt. He pointed 0:27:26.640 --> 0:27:30.240 to the red truck. Robert saw a new dent in 0:27:30.280 --> 0:27:33.120 the front right fender with marks and what. 0:27:33.320 --> 0:27:34.520 Looked to be blood. 0:27:35.560 --> 0:27:39.600 Mother Louise sprang into action. She ordered sixteen year old 0:27:39.680 --> 0:27:42.560