A blue bag filled with jewelry. A pair of green dress socks. A small yellow flower-shaped hair clip “with some hair.”
Those are just a few of the roughly 100 items seized by RCMP during the investigation into notorious serial killer Robert Pickton that police are now looking to dispose of.
On Thursday, lawyers for the RCMP submitted an application to B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster asking for a judicial decision on how they can dispose of the massive amount of evidence from the years-long investigation.
“We are seeking a judicial decision around the disposal given the volume of materials,” Staff Sgt. Janelle Shoihet confirmed in an email to Black Press Media.
According to a lawyer representing the RCMP, John Ahern, the items were seized in the early 2000s.
READ MORE: Pickton jurors troubled by new evidence
Pickton, who owned a pig farm in Port Coquitlam, was sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 25 years on Dec. 11, 2007, for the second-degree murders of six women between 1971 and 2001.
He was originally charged for the killings of 26 women. The remains or DNA of at least 33 women were found on his farm.
A jury found him guilty in the second-degree murders of Marnie Frey, Georgina Papin, Mona Wilson, Sereena Abotsway, Brenda Wolfe and Andrea Joesbury.
The explosive trial shone a spotlight on the violence faced by sex workers, as well as the high number of missing and murdered Indigenous women, in the Lower Mainland.
READ MORE: Children of serial killer Pickton’s victims get $50,000 each
Evidence presented at trial included illegal guns stashed on the property, human remains, sex toys and bloody running shoes.
The application presented Thursday includes many rather innocuous items seized by police, including pieces of clothing and random single shoes.
A number of licence plates, at least four, will likely be returned to ICBC, according to the application.
But then there are some more daunting items of which speak to the mystery that still surrounds the notorious serial killer and the police investigation. A broken toy Xylophone. A “black penis shaped, rubber like, hollow sexual aid.” A rusty .303 calibre bolt action rifle.
A lawyer representing Pickton said Pickton wishes to appear by video link at the next hearing, set for May 15.
He was transferred to the maximum-security Port-Cartier Institution in June 2018.
READ MORE: Oppal presses for police reform a year after Pickton inquiry findings
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