She was raped numerous times before she reached the age of 10, became a hard-core drunk and is one of the few women who survived an encounter with Canada’s most heartless serial killer..All in all, Lenore said she feels lucky to be alive..Lenore – who asked that her true identity not be revealed – is one of three women known to escape killer Robert Pickton, and she’s telling her story for the very first time exclusively to the Western Standard.. Screen-Shot-2021-03-29-at-1.01.00-PMRobert Pickton Courtesy CBC .“I was so scared – I had no one to tell this to,” said Lenore, from her Cowichan Valley home on Vancouver Island..Abandoned by her mother as an infant, Lenore said she was in and out of “one too many” foster homes and had been raped or otherwise sexually abused numerous times before she was 11 years old..“I was told I would never amount to anything, I won’t be nothing,” she recalled..By the time she was in her late teens, Lenore was alone, a hardcore alcoholic living on the streets of downtown Vancouver..One night while in her late teens she said she became extremely intoxicated and ended up walking aimlessly in the Downtown Eastside, Vancouver’s notorious neighbourhood known for drugs, prostitution and the extremely high HIV rate of its citizens..“I was very, very drunk,” she told the Western Standard..It wasn’t long before a “white old van” pulled up next to the wobbly woman and a lone male driver wearing a ball cap offered Lenore a lift.. F2104862-C964-473B-86FF-EA2A39382FEBThe eyes of Lenore – lived to tell her story of an encounter with multiple murderer Robert Pickton. Photo my Mike D’Amour, Western Standard .She got in the van and said she noticed all the rear seats had been removed, leaving only cargo space..Lenore said it didn’t take long for her street smarts to permeate her drunken state..“I got in the van and almost immediately had a funny feeling,” she recalled..It was already well known on Vancouver streets that women were disappearing, a fact that caused Lenore’s misgivings to become full-blown fear..“He said he was taking me to a park or something but I just said ‘no I want to go home.’”.The driver asked where she lived.“I said ‘no,’ just drop me at Commercial Drive and I’ll walk from there.”.The man made it clear he was not going to stop..“I grabbed the door handle and I don’t know how fast he was going, but I just jumped out,” Lenore said..Uninjured, Lenore began walking, and noticed the driver circling to intercept her..Walking into crowds and into alleys, she was able to give him the slip..“I went home and just sat there – I was scared ****less – I was scared to go outside at all,” Lenore said..“I didn’t tell no one, not the police, not my friends or family.” .The very next week Lenore said she learned yet another woman disappeared and was later found dead..Much later, when Pickton was arrested and pictures of the murderer were widely seen, Lenore realized how lucky she had been..She could have been Pickton’s third, seventh – or God knows what number – victim..After his 2002 arrest, when he was charged with the murder of 26 women, Pickton was convicted five years later of killing six women, mostly prostitutes working the Downtown Eastside..Twenty charges were stayed by the Crown because of the low possibility of convictions in those cases..But the killer said the numbers were higher, much higher..“I was gonna do one more, make it an even 50,” he told an undercover police officer as the pair sat in a jail cell while the pig farmer awaited his day in court..“That’s why I was sloppy, I wanted one more. Make… make the big five-O.”.The pig farmer’s M.O. was that he preyed upon drug addicts and prostitutes whom he’d pick up in Vancouver’s red-light district before driving them to his nearby Port Coquitlam farm, where he had sex with the women before murdering them in a number of grim and ghastly ways, reportedly feeding some of his victims to his hogs..Pickton was sentenced to life behind bars with no possibility of parole for 25 years..Lenore is one of three women able to meet Pickton on the streets and live to tell her story..In 1997, for the promise of a hundred bucks, a woman got into Pickton’s vehicle and ended up at his farm..After they had sex, she testified at Pickton’s preliminary hearing, he came up behind her and slipped a handcuff onto one of her wrists..The woman managed to grab a knife and cut the pig farmer’s arm and neck before escaping the farm..A year earlier, another woman, said she found herself in Pickton’s trailer. .She said he pulled out a knife and accused her of swiping his wallet before he drove her back to Vancouver..While her encounter with Pickton never became a violent situation one, Lenore said she considers herself lucky.. 1A4E90F9-1F41-4B38-9431-FFEEE4778067Lenore, exults in the knowledge she survived foster homes, sexual abuse and an encounter with one of Canada’s most prolific murderers. Photo by Mike D’Amour, Western Standard .“I quit drinking and started a job,” she said..Now Lenore has been clean for decades, has steady work and loves her life on Vancouver Island..“I really am grateful.”.Mike D’Amour is a former investigative reporter for Sun Media, and the Western Standard’s B.C. bureau chief
