Final Missing Women Inquiry report to be released today

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Later today, the commissioner of the Missing Women Inquiry is expected to shed some light on why it took so long for police to catch serial killer Robert Pickton.

Wally Oppal’s 1,448-page report examines why Pickton wasn’t arrested until February, 2002, even though police received tips about him years earlier.

The report also makes recommendations on how to prevent another serial killer from preying on women who work in the sex trade.

“There will be other serial killers,” says Oppal. “Horrible tragedies have taken place here and we need to learn from those tragedies. We have to come together as a community so that women are better protected.”

Ernie Crey, whose sister Dawn’s DNA was found on Pickton’s farm, hopes the report leads to better police policy on dealing with vulnerable women.

“There needs to be a level of cooperation between policing agencies in the Lower Mainland, such that if another Pickton should ever emerge in BC in the future, that individual will be apprehended far earlier in their killing spree,” says Crey.

“If I hear about things more generally, like the social and economic circumstances of the women in the Downtown Eastside and how things might be improved for women who continue to live down there in harms way, I’ll be very happy about that.”

The inquiry has been criticized by many for not including the voices of advocates who work with women in the Downtown Eastside. Several advocacy groups boycotted the hearings after the provincial government denied them funding.

Oppal wants those critics to read the report with an open mind.

“I think, in fairness, people should look at the report and look at some of our findings and look at some of our recommendations,” says Oppal. “I’m urging those people who have had differences with the inquiry to come forward and cooperate.”

Crey, who also believes the commissioner should have been given a broader mandate, is putting his faith in Oppal; he says that’s what his sister would have wanted.

“I looked after her when she was an infant,” he tells us. “I changed her diapers. I fed her pablum. She was the type of young woman who would say to me, ‘Ernie, you know I’m gone but don’t lose your dignity.  Keep your wits about you and say what you need to say.’ So, that’s what I’ve tried to do.”

Police received the first tips about Pickton’s involvement in the murder of Downtown Eastside sex trade workers in 1998.

Pickton was subsequently convicted of six counts of second-degree murder, though the remains or DNA of 33 women were found on his farm. He once told an undercover police officer that he killed 49 women.