 Serial killer Robert Pickton is shown in this undated file photo. REUTERS/Global TV
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If a woman Robert Pickton stabbed in 1997 had died, his conviction would have been a “slam-dunk,” said a Vancouver police constable who worked the serial killer investigation.
Instead, the charges were stayed and it’s believed Pickton went on to kill at least 10 more women before being arrested in 2002.
Det. Const. Lori Shenher — the first witness at the Missing Women Inquiry who was actually involved in the Pickton investigation — testified Monday she’d interviewed his stabbing victim shortly after being assigned to the missing persons unit in 1998.
The sex-trade worker’s horrific experience seemed to point to the pig farmer as a potential suspect.
But the woman, whose name is protected by a publication ban, told Shenher the charges against Pickton were dropped “on account of me being an addict.”
There was “nothing in my interactions with her that would make me question her credibility at all,” Shenher said.
The woman recounted how she’d been picked up in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) by Pickton, who offered her an outrageous amount of money before driving to his Port Coquitlam, B.C., farm.
She spoke of his strange quietude and feeling concerned upon seeing a bra on the floor of his truck.
At the farm, they had sex before he handcuffed her and stabbed her in the abdomen.
Shenher said she’d heard the woman’s heart had stopped on the operating table but was resuscitated.
“Had she died, which is as mortifying as it is, but had she died, we probably would’ve had a slam-dunk murder conviction without her testimony,” Shenher said.
Shenher said there was no mechanism back then if subordinates disagreed with superiors. Going over a superior’s head was “a bit of career suicide.”
Shenher also spoke of an “old guard” with an outdated perception of the sex trade in the DTES.
They believed the missing women were simply working a Western Canada circuit, even though she pointed out they hadn’t cashed their welfare cheques or contacted their children.
Asked why she didn’t insist more, Shenher said she didn’t want to be dismissed as a zealot.
“That’s something I’ve personally struggled with for 13 and half years now … I felt I had to walk that line,” she said.
Last Friday, the RCMP apologized for the force's failure to catch Pickton sooner.
Vancouver police issued an apology in July 2010 after the Supreme Court of Canada rejected Pickton’s appeal of his convictions. Previously, the RCMP had issued a statement stating its “deep regret.”
