Canada fears second serial killer

[__Kratos__]

EDMONTON, Alberta (Reuters) -- Each woman's body was found in farmers' fields, every few years at first, then more frequently. With every death, fear grows that Edmonton is the second western Canadian city to be home to a killer preying on prostitutes.

Police are reluctant to say if they believe a serial murderer is roaming the northern Alberta city, where the bodies of 25 victims, many of them drug-addicted prostitutes, have been discovered since 1975.

Behind Edmonton's fear is Vancouver's notorious missing women case. Police there were unwilling to say if a serial killer was at work until they arrested Robert Pickton in February 2002.

Pickton is charged with killing 27 women, most of whom were among nearly 70 prostitutes who disappeared from Vancouver from the mid-1980s. Critics say police could have saved lives if they had vigorously pursued the early cases.

In Edmonton, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police task force dubbed Project Kare is investigating 41 unsolved homicides and 31 missing persons cases across Alberta. All the women led high-risk lifestyles.

Four of the victims found since June 2004 were Edmonton prostitutes from the 118th Avenue, the city's red-light district. Two others remain missing, making life more dicier than usual on the strip.

Mary, who has been working the avenue for nearly 20 years, survived an attack last autumn. She is worried but that doesn't keep her -- or the women with a drug habit and no other job -- off the street or out of clients' cars.

"I'm starting to stay home some nights now, and so are some of the other girls," said Mary, not her real name. "I guess I'm one of the lucky ones -- I lived."

Mary said police found her last autumn lying battered and unconscious on a country road in Strathcona County, the region outside Edmonton that has become a dumping ground for victims.

Six months later, Mary, an aboriginal woman in her mid-30s, is again waving down potential customers on 118th Avenue, knowing her luck could run out at any time.

"I knew most of the girls that have disappeared or have been killed," she says, her face weathered and withdrawn from years of crack cocaine use.

Missing mother

Another regular, 33-year-old Elle May Meyer, was the most recent victim. On May 6, a farmer found her body on his property. Meyer was the mother of a 6-month-old baby.

Like most other Edmonton prostitutes, Meyer had provided a DNA sample and personal information to police investigators as part of a voluntary program begun in 2003.

It was a similar DNA sample that assisted the Mounties in identifying the charred remains of sex trade worker Charlene Gauld, 20, discovered in April by an oil field worker.

Gauld's mother, Myrtle, had spoken by phone with her daughter just days earlier.

"She said she was going to try and get into detox or a safe house -- that was the last time I talked to her," said Gauld.

Charlene's own 2-year-old daughter, Keona, is left with a grim reminder.

"She would see Charlene's picture through the media and say 'Mama'," said Gauld.

Gauld, and other victims' families, are anxious for an arrest. So are police.

Last November, a team of crime investigators, from those working on the Pickton case to U.S. officials who investigated the Green River killings in Washington state, met in Edmonton to analyze the investigation.

"This is my 28th year on the force, and this is the most serious situation I've seen," RCMP Cpl. Wayne Oakes said.

He wouldn't admit the Mounties' might be hunting for a serial killer, but said, "We believe one person may be responsible for more than one of the deaths.

"There's an absolute need to not fall into a blind alley of going after a single person for full responsibility."

Police may be loathe to classify their killer, or killers, but not the veteran prostitutes.

"I've had friends disappear from the streets in Edmonton and Vancouver," said Carol, not her real name, a former sex trade worker who quit in 1989 after the murder of friend Georgette Flett, near Edmonton.

"Police have also found the DNA of my friend, Georgina Papin, on Pickton's farm -- she too, was from Edmonton," Carol said. "Something has to come to an end here.

"I sit here and cry every day when I hear that police have found another dead girl."

Source

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Dang... thats just weird. 25 girls in 30 years... serial killers normally speed up. So either this guy/girl (more likey guy) has complete control or there may be more then one killer that sigs over lap.

[Hans Dolbrook]

or he may have killed many more who have'nt been ided yet.it's doubtful you have a copycat,there are always things the police keep seperate from all the published evidence/mos that only they know!

[The Silver Thong]

from what I have read,seen heard ect is that Robert pickton of Vancouver, may have killed over a hundred women. They are looking at Washington state,and there missing persons,possible victims of Pickton.

He owned a pig farm,and so far they have found so many human bone remains,on his farm that the numbers could very well be over 100. What a sick F%#* !!!

[First of Two]

Robert Pickton is one sick F*$k, but most people don't know just how sick... try this on for size, and tell me when you throw up:

Robert Pickton's earliest victims were the luckiest ones (at least as far as a serial killer victim can be considered "lucky") because he killed them first using a gutting knife or strangulation. He fed the bodies to pigs, then buried the skeletons.

After Robert got bored, he began doing LIVE feedings, aka Hannibal. He would get the hooker to go with him, walk her by the pigs, then toss her in to be eaten alive. Pickton allegedly m********ed to this in some incidents.

Finally, Pickton got tired of the work removing the bodies from the pens was, not to mention the risks of a surprise visit, so he went to his final (and most well-known) MO... He stuffed live women into a woodchipper and kept them in slop buckets to feed his pigs with. Apparently, this MO finally satisfied Pickton because he was still doing this when he was caught. On a hunch a sick joke spawned, the police ran through undelivered sausage shipments to discover that unused slop buckets of his final victims had been mixed in with the sausage. Pickton's depravity had evolved into selling the remains of his victims for consumption by the Canadian public.

Pickton's trial count at last release was 23 victims, but the police believe that he may have killed at least 100. Pickton shows no remorse, and not even the slightest evidence he cares. His lawyer's hoping to save him from death with an insanity plea.

[__Kratos__]

^ Just amazing how lawyer's can wake up in the morning with the thought of "saving" a guy like that...

[Stixxman]

Actually I don't think we have the death penalty in Canada anywhere so he is safe from that. Unless Washington does and we extrdite him there.

[mypaddedroom]

This happens like what every day in the US. [/i ]

[__Kratos__]

This happens like what every day in the US. [/i ]

696602[/snapback]

Serial killers, yes. Serial killers with insane MO's no.

[The Silver Thong]

Nope no death penalty here, damn it, we need to re think that!

[__Kratos__]

Nope no death penalty here, damn it, we need to re think that!

696700[/snapback]

No kidding... I actually want to extend the death penalty here to crimes involving kids (NASTY!), rapes and CEO's that steal from their companies leaving all the retired people broke and forced back into work for the rest of their lifes.

[The Silver Thong]

Nope no death penalty here, damn it, we need to re think that!

696700[/snapback]

No kidding... I actually want to extend the death penalty here to crimes involving kids (NASTY!), rapes and CEO's that steal from their companies leaving all the retired people broke and forced back into work for the rest of their lifes.

696709[/snapback]

WoW thats a bit crazy "kids" yikes, rapists should be castrated and micro chipped, Crooked CEO's should be forced out of that country with nothing but the clothes on there backs,and sent to the poorest parts of the world to live out their lives. And well killers thats a no brainer Off with ther heads

[Stixxman]

Agreed

[First of Two]

Actually I don't think we have the death penalty in Canada anywhere so he is safe from that. Unless Washington does and we extrdite him there.

Or the inmates kill him in prison; vengance killings is a common theme among killers like Dahmer and Pickton, and word is that he's dead if he does go to prison, death penalty or not. It goes further to say that he's already marked for an "inside hit" if he goes to prison instead of a mental institution.

Pickton would be extremely valuable as a study subject on sociopathic disorders- his psychological profile suggests that he's a very pure sociopath, a rare degree. This might be his scumbag lawyer's ace in the hole. Worked for Lucian Staniak, after all...

[Commander CMG]

Micro chipping, castration, prison.... all of these are far to lenient on cancerous scum like this.

[First of Two]

This happens like what every day in the US. [/i ]

696602[/snapback]

*Sigh*

Serial killers are, sadly, an everday occourence. For every Dahmer, Pickton or BTK we hear about, there's at least 100 Pee-Wee Gaskins types who don't even make the criminal archive websites and you have to be referred to them by specialists.

Why was Ridgeway news? 48 women over 20 years.

Why was BTK news? Because he vanished for 30 years and they just barely uncovered proof that he was killing during that time and the police had no clue. His 10 he's on trial for pale to the 23 more the police found evidence for in that shed.

Do I really need to talk about why Dahmer was news?

But there are killers that were so un-newsworthy that only specialist have even heard of them- Ever hear of Bobby Joe Leonard? Jesse Darnke? Very few people know about Peter Szoa, the real-life inspiration for Patrick Hampton(the killer on American Psycho). I used to belong to sites that gave crime warnings, and out of them all only one has been unique enough to dub any news attention, a bludgener in London. Between his brutality, his ability to be so patient despite it, and his bizarre theatrics, he may land himself a spot on the BBC news for a while.

Edited June 25, 2005 by First of Two

[Hans Dolbrook]

Actually I don't think we have the death penalty in Canada anywhere so he is safe from that.  Unless Washington does and we extrdite him there.

696552[/snapback]

canada will NOT even extradite a criminal unless they are assured the death penalty will not be invoked on that prisioner.i say let the victims families feed him to his pigs alive,he deserves that!!!!!!