Family and friends of Vancouver's missing women met and questioned some of the senior officers on the missing women task force yesterday.

More than 50 people spent the afternoon in Surrey, learning about the painstaking investigation and looking through personal artifacts found at the notorious Pickton pig farm in Port Coquitlam.

"There were satchels, jewelry, shoes, and fanny packs," said Ernie Crey, whose younger sister Dawn is one of more than 50 women to disappear from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. "Many of the families had questions."

The Province
ERNIE CREY: viewed jewelry, shoes, fanny packs

Crey said Crown counsel, the chief coroner, senior officers and duty officers were all questioned in the latest of a series of meetings to keep families informed about the labour-intensive investigation, expected to last more than a year.

The Province
News media gather outside Surrey office where family
members are briefed on status of search for missing relatives

"Families come a great distance to the meetings because everybody's anxious to hear how the investigation is going," said Crey. "Everybody is compassionate for all the families."

Crey hopes a nationwide DNA bank will be set up for all missing persons in Canada, and hopes that the terrible end that some women apparently have met will keep others off the street.

The Province
Relatives of some of the more than 50 missing women take a
break on a balcony during a briefing session by police in Surrey

"Someday one of the results of all of this is there should be programs that will help young women to avoid taking up a life on the street that will expose them to these dangers," said Crey.

Robert Pickton, 52, is charged with the murder of seven women. Police estimate they'll be searching the farm for clues for more than a year.

iaustin@pacpress.southam.ca