“There’s a big cover up”, says step-mum of serial killer’s victim

Summary of story from The Province, October 25, 2011

Lynn Frey, whose stepdaughter Marnie was killed by serial killer Robert Pickton, has accused the police of a “cover up”.

Frey insisted this week at the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry  that she told Vancouver police about the farm belonging to Pickton years before he was arrested.

Marnie first went missing in 1997. She normally called home at least once a day from the Downtown Eastside, where she had fallen prey to a heavy drug addiction supported by prostitution.

The last call came on Marnie’s 24th birthday on August 30, 1997, after which her stepmother went looking for her.

She called morgues and hospitals, and talked to sex-trade workers.

“The women told me she’s probably gone in that chipper and you’re never going to see her again,” said Frey, who found out the “chipper” was on a muddy farm about 45 minutes from Vancouver, near a fast-moving river.

Frey visited the farm many times, often at night after a fruitless day of looking for Marnie.

After what she felt was “indifference” from the police, Frey finally found a “caring, compassionate” police officer, Vancouver Detective Constable Lori Shenher, who was assigned to missing persons.

David Crossin, the lawyer acting for the Vancouver Police Union and Shenher, told Frey in cross-examination that Shenher “has no record in her notes” of ever being told by Frey about the pig farm.

Frey replied, to loud applause from the audience, that police were covering up. “There’s a big cover up here, I know what I said,” Frey insisted.

Pickton, 62, is serving a life sentence for the murder of six women, including Marnie, but has been linked by DNA to the deaths of 33 women.