On December 26, 1996, 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was found dead in the basement of her family’s home in Boulder, Colorado (USA). It makes me shudder to know it was her father, John, who found her strangled and beaten body (no father should ever have to experience that)…and then to have to live for the next […]

A father, Allan Dwayne Schoenborn, identified by the RCMP as the prime suspect in the April 6th deaths of his three children in Merritt, B.C., was finally captured yesterday (April 16/08). He had been on the run from the police since the children were reportedly stabbed in their mother’s trailer. Just hours after the arrest, […]

I have to admit I felt very disturbed after the Pickton verdict came out this week. I’ve been following that case for some time for two reasons: Because my sister, Cindy James, had once mentioned she came in contact with a prostitute who was afraid for her life—one of Pickton’s targets (?) I’ve wondered. And, […]

Watching the Vancouver news waiting to hear “Willie” Pickton’s sentencing, I heard the mother of one of his victim’s say, “I keep hearing her screaming and saying Mommy…Mommy…please come and help me.” Remember, these victims were butchered and fed to the pigs. And the family members were in court when the evidence was presented. Over […]

Although Cindy was neither a prostitute nor killed in the same manner, in both the “Willie” Pickton case and in Cindy’s case society failed the victims through a lack of proper support over a span of years. In the Pickton case, a long list of women disappeared from the streets of East Vancouver over a […]

On Tuesday a sentencing hearing will begin for Robert “Willie” Pickton, the man who was recently convicted of second-degree murder of the six women whose butchered remains were found on his pig farm. That verdict will certainly help the family move forward as they continue to grieve. And so will the victim impact statements they […]

I feel an enormous sense of relief to know the verdict is finally in after 110 days of testimony (ten months) and almost ten days of deliberation. Here it is: Just before noon today, Robert “Willie” Pickton, charged with 26 counts of first-degree murder, was found guilty of 6 counts of second-degree murder. (A second […]

Would you help someone end their life (if you believed they were of sound mind) if they were in extreme pain (whether mentally because of intolerable harassment, or physically)? Is it possible to set aside any religious doctrine (the belief that only God should determine the time for death) to debate this issue? Did you […]

The Pickton trial started today and I find myself concerned for the families of the victims. To read how one couple left the courtroom sobbing, breaks my heart. Then when I saw the mother of one of the murdered women exclaim on TV how you can never be prepared for the gruesome details that are […]