Families testify at Pickton Inquiry

The public inquiry into the Robert Pickton investigation has entered a new phase. Family members of the serial killer's victims testified on Monday in Vancouver, B.C.

Victim Marnie Frey's mother Lynn claimed social status was the reason a proper investigation was never launched by Vancouver police or former mayor Philip Owen.

"If Marnie would've been a woman from UBC, SFU or Langara School, somebody in the community who was higher up, or not a low-life prostitute, Philip Owen would've definitely have looked for her," she said. "But because she was an addicted prostitute, he didn't give a damn. And that's the truth of the whole matter. They just didn't give a damn."

Frey said the police patronized her when asked about Marnie, saying her welfare-dependent daughter was probably on a cruise. She was told not "act like a cop," but Frey embarked regardless on a search for Marnie.She made several trips to Vancouver's East Side to find her daughter, who went by the name 'Kit Kat.'

Frey once tried to enter Pickton's pig farm once by hopping a fence, but she was chased away by dogs.

The woman was also told a grisly rumour by one prostitute that a wood chipper may have played a role in her daughter’s disappearance.

Pickton murdered six women from Vancouver's downtown East Side in the late '90s, and the investigation is examining why it took so long for the police to capture him. Vancouver police have apologized several times for failing to catch Pickton, but the RCMP has not apologized or admitted their officers made mistakes in the investigation. 

Story by Brandon Judd and Sarah Deshaies