Nine new victims found on suspected B.C. serial killer's farm

VANCOUVER, B.C. -- Canadian police yesterday confirmed finding the remains of nine more women, raising the possibility of more charges against a pig farmer alleged to be Canada's worst serial killer.

Six of the women have been identified as being among more than 60 who vanished from the city's seedy drug-infested downtown east side. Their remains were found on the Port Coquitlam pig farm owned by Robert William Pickton and his family 20 miles from Vancouver.

Police were not saying whether the other three victims' remains were found at the farm. Those women have not been identified.

Pickton, 54, faces 22 counts of first-degree murder in the disappearances of women over the past 20 years. No charges have been filed in connection with the nine new victims.

Terry Hughes, the brother-in-law of Kerry Koski, whose remains were among those identified yesterday, said it was devastating to be visited by police Monday with news of his wife's sister's DNA being located.

The family had waited six years for the news they didn't want to hear.

"I think really it is the news that we knew would come. With everything that has gone on so far, we thought this would be the end result," Hughes told The Vancouver Sun. "There is always hope, but this (news) has taken the hope away."

Hughes said Koski's mother was coping well with the confirmation that her daughter's remains had been found at the farm. "She's a trooper," he said. "I think the relief will come but it's still a bit of a shock."

The case became one of two high-profile serial murder investigations in the Pacific Northwest. In November, Green River killer Gary Ridgway confessed to the murder of 48 young women, many of them prostitutes.

As part of a plea bargain, he was sentenced last month to life in prison without possibility of parole.

On Pickton's pig farm, the remains were identified through DNA matching, police said. They appealed for public help in identifying the three sets of unidentified remains.

In all, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Vancouver Police Department's missing women's task force have identified the remains of 31 victims at the farm among the 60 women who vanished during the past 15 years.

The RCMP identified the six women as Yvonne Boen, reported missing in March 2001; Andrea Borhaven, reported missing in May 1999; Wendy Crawford, reported missing in December 1999; Dawn Crey, reported missing in December 2000; Cara Ellis, last seen in 1997; and Koski, reported missing in January 1998.

Pickton was first arrested in early February 2002 for a weapons violation. Local investigators, who suspected a link between Pickton and the disappearances, searched the farm after his arrest.

Evidence linking him to the crimes led to an ongoing 21-month search of the property. Pickton was charged with the first two murders Feb. 22, 2002.

Police have asked friends of the six identified women to contact investigators with any information about their lifestyle, movement or associates.

"Task force investigators recognized that forensic DNA technology would play a significant role in solving these cases," Detective Sheila Sullivan said. "It is of critical importance to the investigation that we identify the women to whom these DNA profiles belong."

While some of the women were reported missing almost immediately, the disappearances of others weren't noticed until weeks and sometimes months later.

Investigators would not comment on the nature of the DNA or where it was found on the farm property.

No date has been set for his trial, but it is expected to start in late 2004.

The Associated Press, Vancouver Sun and P-I staff writer Mike Lewis contributed to this report.

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