Pickton Trial Directly Impacts One Ontario Family
Thousands of kilometres from where Robert Pickton stands trial in New Westminster, B.C. for the murder of 26 women, a Welland, Ont. family watches closely, hoping for some long overdue closure.
Diane Rock (pictured) is one of the 26 women Pickton is charged with killing.
The 34-year-old mother of five was last seen alive in the fall of 2001, and six years later her Welland family still waits for answers.
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“She’s my daughter,” mother Ella Marin said while fighting back tears.
“It doesn’t matter what she did in her life … she’s still my daughter.”
Rock’s death won’t be dealt with in Pickton’s initial trial. The B.C. pig farmer is facing charges relating to six murders first, and will be tried for the remainder of the charges at the first trial’s conclusion.
And because his case is expected to be one of the longest in Canadian criminal history, Rock’s sister, Lilliane Beaudion, fears she may never find out exactly how her little sister died.
“It is an enormous strain on the families to have to wait this much longer,” she said.
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“We’ve waited five years, now how much longer must we wait?”
The gruesome story began two decades ago, when dozens of sex trade workers started disappearing from Vancouver’s east end. It wasn’t until 2001, however, that local police acknowledged they could be dealing with a serial killer.
“When I look in his eyes what I see is he just has a blank look about him,” said Beaudion, looking at a photograph of Pickton.
“ I look at it and I see how one life can just be snuffed out in an instant.”
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