Timeline: The missing-women investigation and Robert Pickton
A chronology of the Robert Pickton serial-murder case:
Sept. 12, 1978: Lillian Jean O'Dare, the first name on the list of missing women, is last seen. and reported missing the same day.
Feb. 14, 1991: Relatives of missing women and advocates for sex-trade workers start annual Valentine's Day event pushing for tougher police investigation.
Dec. 27, 1995: Diana Melnick last seen.
October 1996: Tanya Marlo Holyk last seen.
January 1997: Cara Ellis last seen.
March 1997: Andrea Borhaven last seen.
April 1997: Sherry Leigh Irving last seen.
June 15, 1997: Helen Mae Hallmark last seen.
August 1997: Marnie Frey last seen.
Nov. 26, 1997: Cynthia Feliks last seen.
Jan. 7, 1998: Kerry Koski reported missing.
February 1998: Inga Monique Hall last seen.
April 14, 1998: Sarah Jean de Vries last seen.
Sept. 18, 1998: A Vancouver police team, including a geographic profiler, announces it will review files of women who went missing as far back as 1971.
Nov. 20, 1998: Angela Jardine last seen.
Jan. 16, 1999: Jacqueline McDonell last seen.
Feb. 1, 1999: Brenda Ann Wolfe last seen.
March 2, 1999: Georgina Faith Papin last seen.
April 28, 1999: Vancouver police board approves $100,000 reward for information related to case.
June 4, 1999: Two Vancouver homicide detectives have been assigned to team investigating missing women case.
July 31, 1999: U.S. TV show America's Most Wanted airs segment on the missing women.
November 1999: Wendy Crawford last seen.
Dec. 27, 1999: Jennifer Lynn Furminger last seen.
Dec. 31, 1999: Tiffany Drew last seen.
Dec. 21, 2000: Debra Lynne Jones last seen.
March 3, 2001: Patricia Rose Johnson last seen.
April 2001: Heather Gabrielle Chinnock last seen.
April 10, 2001: RCMP join with Vancouver Police Department to review all files related to death or disappearances of Vancouver sex-trade workers.
April 17, 2001: Heather Bottomley last seen.
June 8, 2001: Andrea Joesbury reported missing.
Aug. 1, 2001: Sereena Abotsway last seen.
Sept. 21, 2001: Vancouver Sun launches missing women series, including articles about flaws in police investigation highlighting understaffing.
Nov. 23, 2001: Mona Wilson last seen.
Nov. 23, 2001: Diane Rock last seen.
Dec. 4, 2001: RCMP and Vancouver police joint task force raise the number of missing women to 45.
Dec. 11, 2001: Task force members travel to Seattle to talk with investigators probing case of Green River killer Gary Ridgway.
Jan. 15, 2002: Five names added to missing women list, now totalling 50.
Feb. 5, 2002: Police enter Port Coquitlam pig farm on firearms warrant.
Feb. 6, 2002: Missing women task force officers with warrant begin searching pig farm.
Feb. 7, 2002: Robert Pickton, co-owner of farm, charged with weapons offence and search of property continues.
Feb. 22, 2002: Pickton charged with two counts of first-degree murder (Abotsway, Wilson).
March 8, 2002: B.C. provincial court judge bans the publication of 1997 warrants to search Pickton's farm.
April 2, 2002: Pickton charged with three more counts of first-degree murder (McDonell, Rock, Bottomley).
April 9, 2002: Pickton charged with one count of first-degree murder, totalling six counts (Joesbury).
April 17, 2002: Police execute search warrant on second Port Coquitlam property partially owned by Pickton on Burns Road.
April 23, 2002: Mother of Andrea Joesbury files civil suit naming Vancouver police, Pickton.
May 22, 2002: Pickton charged with one count of first-degree murder, totalling seven counts (Wolfe).
May 22, 2002: Joint task force confirms bringing in approximately 50 specialists in the science of human osteology, a branch of archeology, to assist in processing materials at search site.
June 6, 2002: Police with assistance from archaeologists begin excavating farm.
Sept. 19, 2002: Pickton charged with four counts of first-degree murder, totalling 11 counts (Furminger, Hallmark, Johnson, Papin).
Sept. 19, 2002: List of missing women grows to 63.
Oct. 2, 2002: Pickton charged with four counts of first-degree murder, totalling 15 counts (Chinnock, Holyk, Irving, Hall).
Oct. 4, 2002: Pickton lawyer Peter Ritchie says he will quit Pickton case if he doesn't receive help in preparing the defence.
Oct. 9, 2002: Ritchie makes application for charges against Pickton to be stayed unless government makes defence funding arrangement.
Oct. 11, 2002: Ritchie quits criminal case, but continues to represent Pickton in attempt to secure government funding for defence.
Nov. 8, 2002: Pickton lawyer tells court that tentative defence funding agreement reached with B.C. government and judge delays start of preliminary hearing to give defence team time to prepare.
Dec. 2, 2002: Pickton lawyer requests public and media be barred from preliminary hearing, but the request is later denied.
Dec. 23, 2002: Pickton defence lawyers say final funding agreement with government still not settled and could affect their ability to continue on the case.
Jan. 9, 2003: Pickton lawyers tell court that funding agreement reached with provincial government.
Jan. 13, 2003: Pickton preliminary hearing begins.
July 20, 2003: Police search begins in marshy area owned by Kwantlen First Nation band near in Mission, B.C.
July 21, 2003: Pickton preliminary hearing ends.
July 23, 2003: Judge David Stone commits Pickton for trial on 15 counts of first-degree murder.
Nov. 18, 2003: Excavation and search of farm completed.
Jan. 27, 2004: RCMP announce discovery of DNA of nine more women on the farm (Yvonne Boen, Andrea Borhaven, Wendy Crawford, Dawn Crey, Cara Ellis, Kerry Koski, Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2, Jane Doe 3).
March 10, 2004: Health officials say human remains may have been in meat processed for human consumption at the Pickton farm.
June 28, 2004: Trial delayed because thousands of exhibits from Pickton farm still need to be examined.
Oct. 6, 2004: Eight women added to list of disappearances under investigation, bringing number to a total of 69.
Dec. 20, 2004: Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm asks for patience from victims' family members when court delays setting trial date.
Feb. 14, 2005: Hundreds march in annual Valentine's Day memorial for women who disappeared from the city's Downtown Eastside.
March 31, 2005: B.C. Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Barrow of Kelowna, B.C., is chosen as trial judge.
May 2005: Tammy Fairbairn found alive.
May 25, 2005: Pickton charged with 12 counts of first-degree murder, totalling 27 counts (Frey, Drew, de Vries, Feliks, Jardine, Melnick, Doe, Jones, Crawford, Koski, Borhaven, Ellis).
June 1, 2005: Court hears that B.C. Supreme Court Justice James Williams will take over as trial judge, replacing Barrow.
Jan. 18, 2006: Sister of missing woman says she is disgusted by reports that movie made about Pickton case.
Jan. 19, 2006: New Westminster business owners briefed on potential impact of trial.
Jan. 30, 2006: Pickton pleads not guilty as murder trial begins.
March 2, 2006: Justice James Williams drops one count of murder against Pickton (Count #22 Jane Doe). Count now 26 charges.
March 14, 2006: Pickton and siblings appeal to B.C. Supreme Court to have pig farm reclassified as farmland.
May 3, 2006: Defence lawyer Peter Richie warns that trial could last two years.
May 15, 2006: Veteran defence lawyer Glen Orris leads arguments in pre-trial hearing.
June 2006: Linda Louise Grant found alive.
June 2006: Mary Florence Lands found alive.
July 2006: Wendy Louise Allen found alive.
Aug. 9, 2006: Williams orders Counts 1, 2, 6, 7, 11 and 16 — Abotsway, Wilson, Joesbury, Wolfe, Frey and Papin — be heard as a separate trial to avoid 'unreasonable burden' on the jury and potential mistrial.
Oct. 4, 2006: Two new indictments filed officially splitting the first-degree murder charges he faces into a group of six counts and another group of 20.
Oct. 11, 2006: Task force confirms Nancy Clark's DNA found at Pickton farm. Brings total number of women whose DNA found at farm to 33.
Dec. 4, 2006: Justice James Williams states potential Pickton jurors will face more intense screening process.
Dec. 9, 2006: Jury selection begins at New West Supreme Court. 12 jurors and 2 alternates to be selected.
Dec. 12, 2006: Jury selection complete. 12 jurors (5 women, 7 men) and 2 alternates (1 man, 1 woman)
Dec. 15, 2006: Justice James Williams rejects publication ban for Pickton's first trial.
Dec. 18, 2006: Judge Williams delays Pickton trial by two weeks.
Jan. 23 to Aug. 13, 2007: Crown presents case. Includes videotape of interviews with Picton, testimony on remains found at farm, witnesses who were at farm.
Sept. 4 to Oct. 16, 2007: Defence attacks Crown evidence, witnesses, portrays Pickton as low IQ.
Nov. 30: 2007: After more than 10 months of hearing evidence, a five-woman, seven-man jury begins deliberations in Pickton trial.
Dec. 9, 2007: Jury finds Pickton guilty of second-degree murder on six counts.
Dec. 11, 2007: Justice James Williams hands Pickton the maximum sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. A month later, Pickton appeals, arguing error in instructions to jury.
December 2007: Family of Jacqueline Murdock tells the press they were told three years earlier that her DNA was found on the Pickton farm, but couldn't tell anyone until after his trial ended.
Feb. 26, 2008: The B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal says there will not be a second trial for 20 more counts of murder against Pickton if his appeal is dismissed.
February 2009: Pickton's brother and sister launch suit against RCMP for damages arising from the probe at the family-owned pig farm in Port Coquitlam.
June 25, 2009: B.C. Supreme Court splits 2-1, upholds conviction. Pickton files appeal next day with Supreme Court of Canada.
Nov. 26, 2009: Pickton granted leave for a wide-ranging appeal of his murder convictions.
Nov. 29, 2009: For the first time, the Vancouver Police Department is openly backs calls for a public inquiry into the investigation of the missing-women case.
Feb. 15, 2010: Thousands march in annual demonstration to raise awareness of women missing from the Downtown Eastside, and urge PM Stephen Harper to call a national inquiry.
July 30, 2010: Supreme Court rejects Pickton’s appeal for a new trial. Crown says 20 remaining murder charges won’t likely be prosecuted.
Aug. 4, 2010: Supreme Court judge stays the 20 additional first-degree murder charges against Robert Pickton. Judge also ends the judicial order keeping Pickton in provincial jail, paving the way for his transfer to federal prison.
No comments:
Post a Comment