WHO ARE THESE WOMEN?

WHO ARE THESE WOMEN?
Day 8 - Pickton Trial

Today on the Province newspaper website, it has been disclosed that two women lived on the Pickton farm. These women are in addition to four others who frequented the Port Coquitlam farm.

One woman, Monique Woods lived in the broken down motorhome of Mr. Pickton. Another woman, Nancy Plasman, lived in the spare bedroom of Mr. Pickton's trailer. The same trailer where a gun with an attached sex toy was discovered.

From testimony coming from the Pickton farm, we know that women, often visited and stayed at the property. These women are alive and as far as anyone can tell, were not harmed by Mr. Pickton.

Many readers may be wondering what these women were doing out at the farm?

These women probably viewed Mr. Willy Pickton as a mark. In street jargon, a mark means someone who is easy to take advantage of, usually to be used to gain some favor or another. Most likely, these women were also drug addicted, coping with mental illness, living in poverty and perhaps sex trade workers.

Peter Ritchie, defence counsel for Mr. Pickton has numerous times alluded to Mr. Pickton being 'slow' or 'lacking sophistication'. Police have stated that he was 'simple'. So from a logical perspective, most likely, he would be vulnerable to being taken advantage of. This behavior happens frequently amongst drug addicts, especially when they find someone to target.

While, most citizens may have found the farm area dirty and uninhabitable, for those though with no home or money, the Pickton property may have been like finding Paradise.

What is interesting in terms of Downtown Eastside women's DNA and other body parts being found on the farm, is that these six women who associated with Mr. Pickton are alive and a number of them have been fiercely loyal to Robert Pickton. As a matter of fact, many of them said Mr. Pickton treated them very well.

Statements coming out of Day 8 of the trial raise a number of interesting points. A common thread seems to be emerging. Many people had access to that very large area of land. They came and went frequently, according to an anonymous source. Moreover, these six women who fit the profiles of other Downtown Eastside women, are still alive and this raises a huge question--why these women were not harmed? In fact, it appears that Mr. Pickton may have assisted and generously supported them for lengthy periods of time.

Hopefully, light might be shed on people who visited or toiled at the farm. Those who also had the potential to inflict harm onto others. Perhaps even participated in horrendous acts.

This trial, however, will not be able to answer what roles certain people played at the farm. The trial is beginning to resemble a Who Dunnit scenario.

Clearly, there needs to be a fact finding mission to determine culpability or guilt regarding the Picktonn carnage. So far, one person has been charged. Already, one very bright defence attorney is poking gaping holes into the investigation. An outstanding question is why was Mr. Pickton the only person charged?

Law enforcement Investigators have a lot of answering to do. While they are answering certain questions, far too many serious questions remain unanswered. No doubt ones the Police may never wish to answer.

Charging one person in what are clearly mass murders, makes everything appear so easy and packaged. Perhaps it even satisfies the appetite for closure or for justice to be seen to be done.

My feeling though is that the public will not accept easily this one only scenario.

While most opinion is that the police bungled the disappearances of the missing women, they may also have skewed the investigation of these murders by solely concentrating on one single, simple and slow man.

Jamie Lee Hamilton
tricia_foxx@yahoo.com