The missing women of Vancouver
CBC News Online | Updated Aug. 10, 2006 4. After investigators spent 18 months excavating his Port Coquitlam farm, Robert William Pickton faced 15 murder charges in Vancouver's missing women case in 2002.
In May 2005, Crown attorneys added 12 more first-degree murder charges against Pickton, bringing the grim total to 27.
One of those charges was eventually dropped in March 2006, after a judge ruled Pickton could not be tried for killing an unidentified victim.
In July 2003, B.C. provincial court judge David Stone ruled there was enough evidence to take Pickton to trial. This came after an extensive six-month-long preliminary hearing.
But in June 2004, lawyers working on the case said Pickton's trial won't start until spring 2005 at the earliest. In December 2004, Pickton's defence team asked for another delay to give them time to examine DNA