The Pig Farm

When police showed up at a Port Coquitlam pig farm in February of 2002 to serve a firearm warrant to Robert (Willy) Pickton, they stumbled upon one of the grizzliest discoveries in the history of this country. They uncovered human remains of over 60 women, most of whom worked as sex trade workers in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The discovery makes Pickton  allegedly the worst serial killer in Canadian history.

In the three years since Pickton was first charged, a flummoxed public has gradually become aware of more and more details of what transpired at the Pickton farm. Details of dismembered women found in meat freezers, and human flesh mixed with ground pig meat. An almost unfathomable scene of horror.

Pickton’s farm would be transformed into a monolithic crime scene investigation –calling on an international team of forensic experts – and DNA matching on an unprecedented scale. The first two charges of first degree murder would stretch to five, then seven, fifteen, twenty-two. When work ended on the site, investigators had turned up DNA on 64 women.

Stretching back behind this investigation is another story. It is the anatomy of an investigation that didn’t take place. Reports of missing women that were ignored. Victims who escaped Pickton’s clutches to tell their stories to investigators who didn’t follow up.  A rash of murders that stretched over a decade.

Production Company
Entertainment One

Website
http://shows.ctv.ca/ThePigFarm.aspx

Broadcaster
Knowledge Network

Funding Program
Broadcaster  Performance Envelope