Jason Proctor, Staff Reporter
 The Province

 April 26, 2000

David Clark, The Province / Barry Niedermier (above), who has been charged with 14 offences, lived on the third floor of the apartment in the background (above) in the 2900-block of Quebec Street in Vancouver. He is to be questioned in the disappearance of 28 women.

David Clark, The Province / Barry Niedermier (above), who has been charged with 14 offences, lived on the third floor of the apartment in the background (above) in the 2900-block of Quebec Street in Vancouver. He is to be questioned in the disappearance of 28 women.

Barry Thomas Niedermier has been charged in attacks against seven skid-road prostitutes. The 43-year-old Lethbridge, Alta., man faces 14 counts, including assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, robbery, administering of a noxious substance, and unlawful confinement.

Members of the missing-women task force built the case against Niedermier, who was convicted 10 years ago for being a pimp to a 14-year-old girl. While none of the 28 missing women is among the alleged victims, police said yesterday they plan to question Niedermier about the disappearances once he's sent back to Vancouver this week from Calgary.

"It's impossible to say at this point whether or not Niedermier may be related to those cases," said Const. Anne Drennan. "Certainly he is a person of interest, and he will continue to be a person of interest."

Residents of the building at Quebec and 12th where Niedermier lived during the years he spent in Vancouver reacted with little surprise yesterday at news of his arrest. A large, talkative man with long, salt-and-pepper hair, he drove a revolving succession of fancy cars --ÊLamborghini, Ferrari, Viper.

Police say Niedermier was a "constant driver" with a silver tongue -- who could talk people out of their cars for a few days, and then think nothing of driving to Calgary and back.

He had loud arguments with girlfriends in the IGA by his apartment and was known to many in his complex for the succession of bedraggled women who passed through his door, and manic behaviour police say was fuelled by an out-of-control drug addiction.

Niedermier used to own Cardonic's Smoke and Gift Shop in the mall beneath his apartment. But in 1995 he was charged and heavily fined for selling contraband cigarettes. He eventually lost the business.

"He'd be the perfect 'This is what drugs can do to you' example," said an acquaintance who once watched Niedermier drop $100 bills out the window of his sports car. He was eventually evicted from his building, and moved back to Lethbridge to live with his mother, who has Alzheimer's.

Police say Niedermier also will be questioned about attacks against women in Edmonton, Calgary and Lethbridge.

Police in Vancouver hope the publicity might encourage other victims to come forward.

Niedermier's name arose as a result of inquiries made by the task force investigating disappearances of 28 drug-addicted prostitutes. A $100,000 reward has been posted for information leading to the conviction of the person or persons responsible for the unlawful confinement, kidnapping or murder of any or all of the women.

Niedermier was sentenced in 1990 to 14 months in prison for pimping a 14-year-old girl who he brought from Calgary to Vancouver.

The officer who arrested him said at the time that the victim was so frightened she wanted her teddy bear returned from the grimy east-side room where she was being kept before agreeing to turn in the pimp.