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Convicted Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton, who brought female victims to his pig farm during a crime spree near Vancouver in the late 1990s and early 2000s, has died after being assaulted in prison, authorities said Wednesday. He was 74 years old.
Pickton, an inmate from the Port-Cartier Institution in Quebec, died in hospital from injuries resulting from an assault on another inmate on May 19, the Correctional Service of Canada said in a statement.
A 51-year-old inmate was being held on charges of assaulting Pickton on Sunday in a Quebec prison, police spokesman Hugues Beaulieu said earlier this month.
Robert “Willie” Pickton was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2007, with a maximum period of parole ineligibility of 25 years, after being accused of killing 26 women.
Police began searching Pickton Farm in the Vancouver suburb of Port Coquitlam more than 22 years ago in what would be a years-long investigation into the disappearance of dozens of women.
The remains or DNA of 33 women, many taken from downtown Vancouver, were found at Picton’s pig farm in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. He once bragged to an undercover police officer that he had killed a total of 49 women.
Families of some victims have campaigned against a police application seeking to destroy evidence relating to the cases against Pickton Vancouver Sun It was reported, claiming that it might one day be useful if DNA technology could eventually link him to the murders of other women.
Pickton released his self-published memoir in 2016, but it was quickly removed by Amazon.
AP contributed to this report.