Swab By Swab

Swab By Swab

Photo copyrighted by www.steviecameron.com/pigfarm.htm.

They observed Dinah Taylor go into the Cobalt Hotel on Main Street, a filthy hotel I used to have to live at because that's all I could afford.

By Citizen Correspondent Pauline VanKoll

Date Posted: 03/21/07

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I guess I've sat through one too many court hearing in my past life. I sat through my own attempted murder case back in the 1980's. I was charged with possessing a .38 firearm and a sawed off shotgun, which had a track record for robberies. In my case, I got into quite the predicament for firing it within city limits. When the Vancouver Police Force showed up, I put up quite the resistance because I wasn't about to go to jail. At the time, I was involved with the wrong partner (ex-husband) and the wrong crowd. It seemed as though I was always going to court for my ex-husband. If I wasn't visiting the court house, I was visiting an institution. He was always going in and out of jail; I always said he was the world's worst or dumbest criminal. Those days are in the past and gone forever. These days, court can be very arduous and far from the drama of CSI on TV. Court continues to break down the evidence, slowly, swab by swab, grid by grid, inch by inch of Pickton's property.

If you've wondered why this case is taking so long it's because the pig pen, slaughterhouse, doors, walls, freezers et cetera were all separated and divided by investigators into smaller grids in order to swab each and every inch of these items. The grids are 1"x1" to 3"x3". Then they find caps from syringes and they get tested for finger prints, hairs, DNA.

We keep hearing about new exhibits entered into evidence, but the number of exhibits exceeds 600,000, so it can be somewhat tedious. Drug paraphernalia was found along with 92 drug flaps. Drugs are wrapped up in mini envelopes, which are called 'flaps.' Today they had fingerprint specialists testified. On a hand gun revolver they located Pickton's right index finger print on the cylinder. A left thumb print of Dinah Taylor's was found on white duct tape. A pink backpack was found with plastic flowers on it and they searched every inch of it for evidence. That's where they found syringe portions that went to the lab. A woman named Nancy Plasman's pill bottle was found and taken in for analysis. Investigators used different light sources to illuminate evidence, and they photographed everything. These are just a few of the ways was listen about in court as to how and what they do with all the evidence.

A process of sifting through wet soil is called 'wet screening.' They used this process by fitting a screen or mesh over a wheel-barrel and with a glove on, rubbing the wet dirt so it would separate the larger portions.