B.C. serial killer Robert William Pickton was released briefly from a Quebec prison May 1 for ‘medical purposes,’ Correctional Service Canada (CSC) has told victims’ families by letter.

B.C. serial killer Robert William Pickton was released briefly from a Quebec prison May 1 for ‘medical purposes,’ Correctional Service Canada (CSC) has told victims’ families by letter.

The killer was out of the Port-Cartier maximum-security prison, to which he was transferred from B.C.’s Kent Institution in Agassiz last June, for about four hours.

“This inmate was permitted to leave the institution as early as 1:45 p.m. on May 1, 2019,” said the letter from victims services officer Ryan Quance. “While the inmates return to the institution may have been earlier, they had to return by 5:30 p.m. on the same day. While this inmate was absent from the institution, they were escorted by a CSC staff member. They were in the area of Sept-Isles, Quebec, and were not in your vicinity while traveling to that location.”

The letter is dated May 2.

Pickton was charged with 26 murders connected to the disappearances of dozens of women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. He was convicted in December 2007 in the killings of Marnie Frey, Wilson, Georgina Papin, Andrea Joesbury, Sereena Abotsway and Brenda Wolfe. The remaining 20 charges were stayed.

Frey’s stepmother Lynn said she understands the prison service doesn’t want people knowing where Pickton is in advance but said she’d like advance warning of a temporary release.

“They wait until he’s back and safe,” she said. “He has a right to have medical attention. I don’t want him to bleed to death.”

Frey said she’s had to move on from having bitterness around the man who killed her stepdaughter.

“We’ve gone through enough shit,” she said. “The more you dwell on it, the more you suffer.”

Evidence against Pickton included body parts, multiple bones found in pigsties and multiple DNA samples found throughout his property.

The farm became the biggest murder scene in Canadian history and Pickton Canada’s most prolific serial killer.