Vancouver Police Deputy Chief Doug LePard addresses the media after releasing his report into the disappearance of women from the Downtown Eastside, in Vancouver, B.C., on Friday August 20, 2010.Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press
The Vancouver police lost the first tip about serial killer Robert Pickton that came in to Crime Stoppers, an incident that was not mentioned in the department's 408-page review of its missing women investigation.
Vancouver Deputy Chief Doug LePard, who wrote the extensive review, told the Pickton inquiry on Thursday he could not recall if he knew that the tip had been lost when he was working on the report. "I put in what I thought were significant events," he said during a tense cross-examination by lawyer Darrell Roberts.
A review of the investigation done for the inquiry by Deputy Chief Jennifer Evans of Peel Regional Police in Ontario discovered the tip had been lost.
The Evans review, which was released at the inquiry hearings earlier this week, says that Vancouver Crime Stoppers received a call on July 27, 1998, about someone that the caller believed could be responsible for the disappearances of prostitutes.
The caller described the man and said he lived in a trailer on a large farm in Port Coquitlam. The caller said a woman visiting the trailer spotted at least 10 purses, female identification and women's clothing. The man, who picked up prostitutes in Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster, had told others he could easily dispose of bodies by putting them through a grinder on his farm, the caller said.
Detective Constable Lori Shenher, who was at that time investigating the disappearances of an increasing number of women from the Downtown Eastside, learned about the tip only when it resurfaced after Crime Stoppers received a second one nine days later.
The tipster, who was believed to be the person who called the first time, identified the man in his second call as "Picton" and said that he might be responsible for killing all the missing women.
Mr. Pickton, who was arrested in February, 2002, was later accused of killing 33 women, including 18 who were killed after those two tips were received. He was convicted in 2007 of second-degree murder of six women.
The inquiry was appointed in 2010 to look into why the police did not arrest Mr. Pickton until 2002.
The Evans review said Det. Constable Shenher spoke with RCMP Corporal Mike Connor of the Coquitlam detachment on Aug. 7, 1998, the day after she heard about the tips.
At the inquiry, Deputy Chief LePard confirmed that he did not include an account of her call with Corporal Connor in his review. "I made choices about what information I put in," he said.
"[The tips were]interesting, unusual information about one suspect," Deputy Chief LePard said. But the information had to be considered in the context of the times, he added. Police receive "an incredible amount of information" through Crime Stoppers," he said.
Although the tip came to the Vancouver police, the RCMP Coquitlam detachment took over jurisdiction of the Pickton investigation after Det. Constable Shenher met with Corporal Connor on Aug. 18, 1998, Deputy Chief LePard said. The RCMP was in charge of the case because site of the alleged crimes was in Port Coquitlam, he said.
Mr. Roberts suggested that Vancouver police retained control of the jurisdiction until October, 1998, and that police had sufficient information as of Oct. 16, 1998, to obtain a warrant to search Mr. Pickton's trailer.
He also questioned whether Det. Constable Shenher, who had seven years of experience as a police officer, had put the tipster in danger by sharing confidential information with the RCMP and whether she was the appropriate person to investigate a serious murder tip.
Deputy Chief LePard insisted that the RCMP was in charge of the investigation from August, 1998. Det. Constable Shenher did "an excellent job" and had adequate resources for missing women investigations, but did not have the experience to be the lead investigator for homicides, Deputy Chief LePard said.