Canadian authorities edged closer to resolving the mystery of the disappearance of some 50 women over two decades in western Canada after the arrest and indictment of a pig farmer on two murder counts.
Police have been combing the grounds of Mr Robert William Pickton's pig farm for more than two weeks, hoping to find bodies of prostitutes who went missing from Vancouver's "red light" district.
Some 80 investigators are involved in "the detailed, inch by inch search of the farm property that will continue for many months," said Joint Task Force spokesperson Constable Catherine Galliford.
The 52-year-old was charged yesterday with two counts of first degree murder, a spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said, adding that additional charges could soon follow. He is to appear in court on Monday.
Most of the women were drug addicts and prostitutes who disappeared without trace. Some relatives complained the women's professions led the police initially to investigate the disappearances with something less than the utmost diligence.
But confronted with the real possibility that a serial killer was in their midst, authorities stepped up the investigation last year.
It was only two weeks ago, however, that real leads started appearing in the case, when police, armed with a search warrant to find illegal weapons, began their exhaustive search of the property Mr Pickton co-owns with his brother.
AFP