Police provide haven for relatives
By GREG JOYCE-- Canadian PressFebruary 12, 2002
PORT COQUITLAM, B.C. (CP) -- A tent is being
erected outside a pig farm here as a gathering place for relatives of 50 missing
women, even though police searching the property have not publicly connected it
yet to any of the disappearances.
The decision was made after members of the joint RCMP-Vancouver police task
force met with some family members, RCMP Const. Cate Calliford said Tuesday.
"It's understandable they need to be here near the shrine that's being
built," she said.
More than 80 police investigators, including 40 forensic specialists, have been
combing through farm buildings, junked cars, mounds of dirt and other material
on the 4.5-hectare property in this Vancouver suburb.
For the last week they've been looking for signs some of the 50 women may have
been here before vanishing over the last two decades.
Not a shred of evidence has been publicly disclosed -- though unconfirmed news
reports said police found identification and a woman's inhaler at the site.
But friends, relatives and supporters of the missing women have flocked to the
location, both hoping and fearing what may be found here.
Police decided to set up the tent reserved for victims' families and made it
off-limits to the media.
"We ask you to understand the emotional needs of others," Vancouver
Det. Scott Driemel told reporters at a daily police briefing outside the farm.
Freda Ens, executive director of the Vancouver Police and Native Liaison
Society, said family members were generally happy with the way police were
dealing with them.
"The tent will be a special place" said Ens.
She said her group has been in contact with relatives throughout British
Columbia and across Canada.
Police have kept them informed but Ens said relatives acknowledge investigators
can't release details to them for fear of jeopardizing any future case.
Since the search began in earnest last Wednesday, a number of relatives have
conducted vigils at the site, lighting candles and leaving flowers.
Ens said if any family members are afraid to come because of the media presence,
private visits can be arranged to "pay respects."
At Tuesday's briefing, police once again refused to report details of the
progress of their search.
The farm is owned by three people, including brothers David and Robert Pickton.
Police laid weapons charges against Robert Pickton last Thursday related to
illegal possession of an unregistered pistol.
However neither has been named as a suspect in the disappearances, nor are they
in custody.
Meanwhile, the manager of a Vancouver rendering plant said Tuesday police have
not asked for records of deliveries from the farm now under scrutiny.
Humphry Koch of West Coast Reduction said the Pickton farm regularly delivered
pig entrails to his facility for the last 20 years.
He said police inquired whether the plant had received entrails from the farm
but not from any individual.