Rat feces found in Pickton's messy trailer, officer testifies
Last Updated: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 | 6:02 PM PT
CBC News
Police found the motorhome on Robert William Pickton's pig farm in British Columbia in a "state of disrepair," an officer testified at Pickton's murder trial Wednesday.
RCMP Sgt. James Gallant told the court in New Westminster that he was asked to photograph and videotape Pickton's property in Port Coquitlam.
He said he found rat excrement throughout the motorhome and seized condoms from the home's septic tank.
"It was indeed quite messy, with dirty dishes in the sink and various articles on the floor," Gallant told the B.C. Supreme Court jury.
Pickton has been charged with the first-degree murder of 26 women who disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. He is currently on trial for six of the murders and will be tried for the other 20 at a later date.
He was arrested in 2002 and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Women's clothing found, jury told
Gallant photographed Pickton's property and a nearby social club run by Pickton's brother, Dave, called Piggy's Palace. Dave Pickton has never been arrested or charged in connection with the case.
Gallant said there was one similar find at the properties he photographed.
"Buried in the yard, or partly buried, was a large amount of women's clothing," he said.
He said they included purses, perfume, high-heeled shoes, a nightgown and a roll of duct tape with hair on it.
Gallant was also asked to try to lift fingerprints from three buckets found on Pickton's farm that contained the remains of three dead women — Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury and Sereena Abotsway. He told the court he spent several days working on the buckets, but could not find any prints.
Pickton is being tried for the murders of Wilson, Joesbury and Abotsway, along with Brenda Wolfe, Georgina Papin and Marnie Frey.
Police investigated 3 deaths in 1995
Also on Wednesday, RCMP Cpl. William Birnie told the jury about efforts police made to identify a partial skull found along Highway 7 in Ruskin, B.C.
The court was told earlier in the trial that the skull has never been identified, but its DNA matches the DNA of remains found on Pickton's property. The skull was cut in similar ways as the remains of Wilson, Abotsway and Joesbury.
The jury heard Wednesday that police had looked for a connection between the skull and the bodies of three prostitutes found in 1995 alongside logging roads near Mission and Chilliwack. A male's DNA was found on two of the bodies, but never identified.
No one has ever been charged in the deaths.
Brother's fingerprint found near remains
Sgt. Timothy Sleigh testified that the right index fingerprint of Pickton's brother, Dave, was found near the remains of Abotsway and Joesbury.
The remains were in a freezer in a garage on the Pickton property, and the fingerprint was on a piece of cardboard in a tool box on the freezer, Sleigh said.
He described several other prints found on the property, including those of Robert Pickton's on a gun, knife blade and syringe wrapper.
The trial is breaking until March 26.
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