"He Just Walked Away": Robert Pickton's 2000 RCMP Interview on CBC's The National

Name: "He Just Walked Away": Robert Pickton's 2000 RCMP Interview on CBC's The National
Uploaded: 2012-02-09
Duration: 2 min 30 s
Description: Two years before his arrest, Robert Pickton sat down with two RCMP constables and talked about a knife fight at his farm. In 2012 the Missing Women Inquiry released the video, and CBC's The National showed excerpts.

Two years before his arrest, Robert Pickton sat down with two RCMP constables and talked about a knife fight at his farm. In 2012 the Missing Women Inquiry released the video, and CBC's The National showed excerpts.

Subject: Robert William Pickton
Recorded: about January 19, 2000
Runtime: 2:30

Content warning: Pickton describes a knife attack on a woman at his farm; the report refers to the murders of women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

The Interview

On the evening of January 19, 2000, two constables of the Coquitlam RCMP Serious Crime Section, Ruth Yurkiw and John Cater, interviewed Robert William Pickton about allegations that women were being killed at his family's farm in Port Coquitlam. He was not under arrest, and he went home afterwards. Twelve years later the video was played at the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, and CBC's The National broadcast this report, with short excerpts of the interview. In them Pickton says he does not drink, smoke or use drugs, talks about a knife fight with a woman at his farm, and denies taking women back to his trailer before that incident.

Historical Context

Through the 1980s and 1990s dozens of women, many of them sex workers, disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. In February 2002 police searching the Pickton farm under a firearms warrant found evidence that led to his arrest. He was eventually charged with 26 murders. In December 2007 a jury in the BC Supreme Court convicted him of six counts of second-degree murder, for the deaths of Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Wolfe, Marnie Frey and Georgina Papin, and he was sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 25 years. The remaining charges were stayed in 2010. He died on May 31, 2024, of injuries from an attack by another inmate.

Circumstances of the Interview

By January 2000 the RCMP had received information, largely from an acquaintance of Pickton's, that women were being killed at the farm. On March 23, 1997, Pickton and a woman had both been taken to hospital after a knife fight at the farm; he was charged with attempted murder, but the charge was later stayed. Pickton said she attacked him. In 2012 the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, led by Commissioner Wally Oppal, examined why the police had not stopped him sooner. The video was produced to it as Exhibit 90 and was shown during the cross-examination of retired RCMP officer Mike Connor, who had led the RCMP's work on Pickton in the late 1990s.

What the Interview Covers

The excerpts are short. Asked whether he drinks, Pickton says no, and that he does not smoke or use drugs. Asked about the 1997 knife fight, he says he did not take the knife away from her and that he knifed her twice, and adds "I admit I did that". Asked whether he had ever taken prostitutes back to his trailer, he says not since that incident, and then answers "no" repeatedly. The report adds that the interview lasted two hours and produced no incriminating answers. A retired RCMP officer who watched the interview as it happened says it "certainly wasn't a textbook case", and lawyer Cameron Ward contrasts it with the 2010 interrogation of Russell Williams in Ontario.

What Makes the Recording Significant

The interview was recorded more than two years before Pickton's arrest, while women were still disappearing from the Downtown Eastside. The trial jury never saw it. Its release in 2012 let the public see how the RCMP had questioned him, and it became part of the inquiry's examination of missed opportunities. The RCMP's typed transcript of this interview is published separately; this report shows a few moments of the video itself.

Archival Importance

The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry reported in December 2012 ("Forsaken") that the police investigations had been a failure. This report preserves a piece of the evidence the inquiry heard, and the voices of Pickton and the two officers from 2000.

Important Caveats

Pickton's account of the 1997 knife fight is his own. Police believed the woman's account, that he attacked her and she escaped; she is not named in the report and is not named here. One sentence in the knife excerpt is heard differently by the two machine passes ("I did do that" / "I didn't do that"); it is bracketed in the transcript until it has been heard. The retired officer is not named on air; he is probably Mike Connor. The clip contains only excerpts of a two-hour interview.

Anchor: There are more questions tonight about how police in British Columbia handled the Robert Pickton investigation, this time prompted by the release of video at the Missing Women's Inquiry. It's from January of 2000, two years before the pig farmer would be charged with murder. Ian Hanomansing is on the story for us tonight. Ian?

Reporter: Peter, it's disturbing enough to see Robert William Pickton questioned by police 12 years ago. Even more chilling to know afterwards, he just walked away. Already the leading suspect in the case of Vancouver's missing women, it was a relaxed Robert William Pickton who sat down with police.

Rcmp Officer: Do you drink alcohol?

Robert Pickton: No, [unclear: "no, no" / "no"] I don't drink. I don't smoke. I don't use drugs. And then everybody says, how come your eyes [unclear: "is this bloodshot" / "there's still room for blood services"].

Reporter: This tape is now public because it's evidence at this judicial inquiry, trying to find out whether police should have arrested Pickton earlier. During the interrogation, investigators asked him about a vicious knife fight with a woman at his farm.

Robert Pickton: I turned around, I didn't take the knife away from her. I did not take the knife away from her. I aimed at her and I knifed her twice. I [unclear: "did do" / "didn't do"] that. I admit I did that. That's one thing I didn't, shouldn't have done.

Reporter: Two hours of questions, no incriminating answers.

Rcmp Officer: So you've never taken any of the prostitutes back to your trailer?

Robert Pickton: Not since this incident.

Rcmp Officer: But before that incident?

Robert Pickton: [unclear: "Nope" / "No"], no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Reporter: This now retired RCMP officer was watching the questioning as it took place back in 2000, and today said it was frustrating.

Retired Rcmp Officer: It certainly wasn't a textbook case on how to do an interview.

Reporter: Lawyer Cameron Ward says the tape is in sharp contrast to another, far more successful interrogation of a serial killer, Russell Williams. [unclear: "Strangler" (captions only; not in Whisper)]

Cameron Ward: Well, that was a textbook example of how to interrogate a possible suspect.

Reporter: In Pickton's case, it would be two more years before he was arrested.

Cameron Ward: Had the interview been better handled, the result may well have been differently, and Mr. Pickton may well have been prevented from murdering a number of women who died after that date.

Reporter: In hindsight, of course, these missed opportunities seem clear. Now the inquiry will have to determine whether they should have been obvious to police and prosecutors at the time. Peter?

Anchor: All right, Ian, thanks very much. Ian's in Vancouver tonight. ---