http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3082795.stm

Canadian police widen pig farm body hunt

By Ian Gunn
BBC correspondent in Vancouver



The investigation into a Canadian pig farmer who is accused of killing 15 women
has expanded. Police in the city of Vancouver have been searching the farm
belonging to Robert Pickton for evidence of more than 60 missing women.

The move to a second site
comes as the first stage in Mr Pickton's trial nears its
conclusion.

The missing women have simply vanished from Vancouver's
streets, most in the past decade and most from the city's sex
trade.

Early last year, dozens of police swarmed onto a scruffy pig
farm outside Vancouver and began looking for evidence in
their disappearances.

Soon afterwards, they began laying murder charges against
Mr Pickton.

He currently stands accused of killing 15 of the missing
women but at least a half dozen more murder charges are
widely expected.

Diving for evidence

Until now, teams of police and archaeologists have been
searching painstakingly on hands and knees through the soil
at Mr Pickton's farm and the nearby property.

But now about half of the team has shifted 30 kilometres
away to a new site on a native reserve.

Some of the area is swamp and police divers are being used
to help look for the evidence.

The development comes just at the conclusion of Mr Pickton's
preliminary hearing.

Normally a formality, this hearing has taken months and has
been shrouded in a strict publication ban that still prevents
journalists from revealing any of the evidence against the
farmer. ˇ