B.C. spent nearly $105 million to put serial killer Robert Pickton behind bars in a nine-year investigation and prosecution that began a year before his arrest in 2002, according to figures released by the Ministry of Attorney General.

The figure includes about $103 million in expenses plus about $2 million in long-term capital improvements to the New Westminster courthouse.

About $70 million was spent on the complex police investigation, which included the meticulous sifting of dirt and debris on Pickton's farm to find the DNA of dozens of suspected victims.

Then the long, complex and expensive legal process began. Pickton's defence team eventually cost taxpayers $12 million, while the cost for the Crown prosecution hit $9 million.

After an 11-month trial in 2007, Pickton was found guilty of six counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced in B.C. Supreme Court to life in prison. His legal team appealed to the B.C. Court of Appeal and lost, then again at the Supreme Court of Canada in August 2010.

Related security operations, coroner's services, correctional supervision, judicial and trial support and management totalled about $12 million.

Support services for the victim's families hit nearly $2.5 million.

But for taxpayers, the final bill is not yet in. Still to come are the cost of keeping Pickton, now 60, in prison for the rest of his life and the cost of a public inquiry into the flawed police investigation and the police handling of other investigations into B.C.'s murdered and missing women.

With files from The Canadian Press