Vancouver murder suspect accused of killing more women

Police filed three more murder charges today against a man already charged with two counts of murder involving some of the 50 women who have disappeared from the Vancouver area over the past two decades.

Robert Pickton, 52, now faces five counts of first-degree murder in the case that raised fears of a serial killer stalking Vancouver’s east end, an area populated by prostitutes and drug addicts.

The new charges announced today in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, named the victims as Jacqueline McDonell, who disappeared in January 1999; Heather Bottomley, who went missing a year ago; and Diane Rock, who was last seen in October.

The two previous charges involved women who had disappeared since August.

Pickton took part in the hearing by video link from the jail where he is being held. A slight, balding man with shoulder-length hair, he wore an orange prison-issue T-shirt and appeared relaxed.

Peter Ritchie, Pickton’s lawyer, asked for further information about the new charges. Another hearing was scheduled for April 9.

Pickton, a pig farmer, and his brother operated a drinking club frequented by motorcycle riders and prostitutes in this community 20 miles east of Vancouver.

He was arrested in February, more than two weeks after a police task force launched an investigation at the 10-acre farm owned by Pickton and his siblings. Police have yet to say what evidence was found.

Pickton and his younger brother Dave ran ‘‘Piggy’s Palace’’ - a place to party for those familiar with Vancouver’s mean streets - in an old building they owned near the farm.

Dave Pickton, through a lawyer, has denied involvement in the disappearances. He told a Vancouver newspaper his brother often befriended prostitutes out of kindness.

Rebecca Guno was the first of the 50 women to disappear, vanishing in June 1983. The disappearances increased in frequency in 1997 and 1998, with nine women vanishing in each of those years.