Canada closes in on serial killer

vancouver: the british may never unravel the 114-year-old mystery of the jack the ripper, but the canadians are on the verge of tracking down their modern-day jack the ripper. against jack the ripper’s killings of half a dozen prostitutes in london’s east end in 1888, the alleged canadian serial killer is behind thedisappearance of about 50 prostitutes from vancouver’s downtown eastside since 1983. the breakthrough in the biggest serial killer case in history came friday when the canadian police were searching a pig farm for illegal firearms on thursday. while searching, the police found identification items of two of the 50 missing prostitutes. farm owner robert pickton was charged with an attempted murder in 1997. but he has not been arrested yet. canada’s so-called serial killer saga began in 1983 when prostitutes in vancouver started disappearing one after the other. many suspected a serial killer behind the disappearances. but the police ruled it out for a lack of evidence. however, the serial killer theory gained credence when the disappearances increased five years ago. bowing to public pressure, the police set up a task force in 1998 to work on the case. an award of $100,000 was announced for any clues which would help them unravel the case. america’s most wanted released the pictures of 31 of the missing women. yet the police remained clueless.