'It's hard for me to believe this': Community reacts to search of B.C. pig farm
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PORT COQUITLAM, B.C. — Gloria Bidwell first met Robert "Willy" Pickton two years ago, when she needed someone with a trailer to move her horse, and he offered to do it for $25. When one of her goats got sick a year later, she turned to Pickton again, and he advised a successful treatment of penicillin shots and vitamins.
He's always been helpful to Bidwell; about the worst she can say about her 52-year-old friend and neighbor is he sometimes tells corny knock-knock jokes and — with his grubby appearance and solitary ways — might come across as weird.
But Bidwell, 32, is well aware that some in this suburban Vancouver town have long viewed his eccentricities in a more sinister light, whispering about a man alternately described as an oddball loner and the host of wild parties.
The talk has never been more rampant than now, as Canadian authorities scour the muddy pig farm where he lives with his brother in the investigation into the disappearance of some 50 women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside over nearly 20 years.
The family of one missing woman said it told police about the Pickton farm years ago; the friend of another said he told police about a man named Willy.
Police won't say what they're looking for on the 10-acre farm, and they aren't calling Pickton a suspect. They say they carried out a search warrant against him Tuesday on firearms violations and found something that made them get another search warrant the next day.
According to anonymous police sources quoted in The Vancouver Sun, identifications of at least two of the missing women were among the items found.
Willy Pickton and his younger brother, David Pickton, meanwhile, are apparently not at their farm, though police won't comment on their whereabouts.
Willy Pickton was charged Thursday with violating Canadian gun laws and has a court appearance scheduled for Feb. 28.
The brothers did not return calls; an attorney for the family said Willy Pickton was flabbergasted by the investigation.
As far as any connection between Willy Pickton and the missing women, "I wouldn't figure him to be involved in something like that," says his friend Bidwell, who raises farm animals. "It's hard for me to believe that something like this could be happening."
Owned the farm for decades
The Pickton name is well known in Port Coquitlam, a city of 53,000 known locally as "PoCo." Mayor Scott Young said the Picktons were among the early settlers, having owned the farm for decades.
"When you mention the Picktons, you know the pig farm right away," said 62-year-old Gordon Stidolph, a lifelong resident. Locals say it had 600 or 700 pigs in its prime, and was several times its current size.
"I think in Port Coquitlam it was probably the biggest pig farm there ever was," Stidolph said.
Pickton, his brother and sister grew up on the farm with their parents — "simple farmers," said 38-year-old Troy Hoffer, whose father bought pigs from the Picktons.
When Hoffer worked on the farm as a teen, Willy and Dave's father wasn't working on the farm as much and the brothers worked alongside their middle-aged mother. "She was a really nice lady, super hard-working," Hoffer recalls. Hoffer said the boys went to school, but he doesn't know for how long. At some point, he said, Dave got interested in running heavy equipment and other work pursuits, but Willy was a natural farmer, always on the land.
The brothers and their sister inherited the farm and reportedly cashed in on PoCo's growth spurt, selling off land for condos, an elementary school and a city park as the once-rural enclave 22 miles east of Vancouver was transformed into a sprawling suburb. What remains of the farm was recently assessed at more than $3 million in Canadian dollars.
The brothers own a number of other properties under a company called Pickton Brothers Investments, as well as a used-building materials business in a nearby town.
Burly, bearded Dave Pickton has long been a familiar sight at City Hall, applying for rezoning and development permits.
"Most of the staff have found him to be a decent fellow," Mayor Young said. "He's no stranger to the community ... (but) to be perfectly honest, I've never met Robert."
Some neighbors say they didn't know Dave Pickton had a brother.
That's how it is around PoCo, said Lilian Seymour, 33, who's lived in the area most of her life. "Everybody knows Dave," she said. "Nobody knows too much of Willy."
Willy Pickton goes most Saturdays to the Fraser Valley Auction, where Bidwell often sees him buying pigs, sheep, llamas and goats. Friends say he goes to a lot of auto auctions, too, and sells car parts.
And he spends a lot of time at the farm, reportedly living in a trailer that police were searching last week. Friends say Dave lives in the main house.
Hoffer said Willy Pickton might be more solitary than his brother but that he's far from anti-social.
Both brothers took part in a venture they dubbed the "Piggy Palace Good Times Society," involving a building on a swampy Pickton property around the corner from the farm where they threw big parties that quickly became legendary.
The city tried to shut down the parties at "Piggy's Palace" a few years ago, claiming they created fire hazards. The fire chief said in an affidavit that a building on the land — zoned for agriculture — housed a "commercial-type kitchen, pub-type bar, raised entertainment stage, dance floor, sound and lighting system and tables and chairs capable of accommodating a group in excess of 150 persons."
An injunction was granted in 1998, though some residents say parties still regularly happen.
Locals don't talk much about the parties, but people in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside do, according to the family of a missing woman.
Lynn Frey started visiting with prostitutes in the city after her 24-year-old stepdaughter, Marnie, disappeared in August 1997, hoping to hear something that might help her find Marnie. When women started mentioning a pig farm and a guy they called "Wee Willy Wonka," she recalled, she thought they were probably just stoned and rambling. But the references kept coming up.
"They'd say, 'This guy's got pigs and he's really gross, and people will come and pick you up and take you there. ... But it was a place to stay, plus there was all the booze they wanted ... and they could shower," she said.
Police were called
When Frey pressed women about it, though, she says they clammed up. "They would say, 'I don't want to talk about it,' hold their hand up and just walk away."
She and her sister called police in 1999. She said they were told that police would check on it, but never heard anything from authorities about the farm until last week.
A few months before Frey's stepdaughter disappeared, Willy Pickton was charged with attempted murder, accused of stabbing a young woman from Vancouver's streets and confining her. It's not clear why the charges were eventually dismissed.
"I just figured it was a rumor," Bidwell said. "People always tell wild and whacked-out stories."
As for the current talk, Bidwell says she'll pay it no heed unless she knows more.
Last week, she said that she hadn't heard from him since mid-January.
After the police search started, she paged him one night, just to see how he was doing. He hasn't called back.
Seattle Times staff reporters John Zebrowski and Ian Ith contributed to this report. Material from The Vancouver Sun is also included in this report.