Mona Lee Wilson, a 26-year-old woman with a kind heart and a memorable smile, was remembered by her family as a dreamer who, even as an adult, still believed in unicorns. The youngest of five siblings, she was born on January 13, 1975, and grew up with a close bond to her next-youngest sister, Ada. Her life, however, was marked by hardship. After being removed from her home on the O'Chiese First Nation in Alberta, she spent six years with a foster family before being moved again.
By 16, she was living on her own in East Vancouver, where she struggled with addiction and became involved in sex work to survive. Despite the immense challenges she faced, those who knew Mona described her as a sweet and gentle person who desperately wanted to get into a treatment center and change her life.
In November 2001, Mona was last seen in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Her family grew deeply concerned when she failed to make her customary call on Christmas Day. Ada had a gift waiting for her, a necklace with a ruby heart pendant and matching earrings, but Mona never arrived to open it. The silence was a confirmation of their worst fears; they knew something was terribly wrong. Mona Lee Wilson was officially reported missing on November 30, 2001. She was a mother to a young son and was known to be a kind person who was battling immense personal demons.
The horrifying truth of Mona’s disappearance began to surface on February 5, 2002, when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Vancouver police executed a firearms warrant on a sprawling pig farm in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, owned by Robert "Willie" Pickton. During the search, investigators discovered personal items belonging to missing women from the Downtown Eastside. This initial raid led to one of the most extensive forensic investigations in Canadian history. On February 22, 2002, Robert Pickton was arrested and charged with the murders of Mona Wilson and Sereena Abotsway. It was just the beginning, as the search of the farm would continue for another 18 months, unearthing the remains of dozens of women.
The search of the squalid farm revealed a gruesome scene. In June 2002, investigators found Mona’s decomposing skull, hands, and feet inside two stacked plastic garbage pails. Further evidence linking Pickton to her death came from a.22-calibre handgun found in his trailer; a sex toy attached to the barrel contained both his DNA and Mona's. The discoveries provided prosecutors with the physical evidence needed to build a case against the man who became known as "The Pig Farmer Killer." Pickton would eventually be charged with the murders of 26 women, though he boasted to an undercover officer that he had killed 49.
Due to the complexity of the case, the Crown decided to proceed with a trial for six murders first, including Mona's. The trial began in January 2007, presenting harrowing evidence of how Pickton lured vulnerable women from the Downtown Eastside to his farm, where he murdered them and disposed of their dismembered remains. On December 9, 2007, a jury found Robert Pickton guilty of six counts of second-degree murder, including that of Mona Lee Wilson. He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years, the maximum sentence allowed.
Following the conviction, the remaining 20 murder charges were stayed, a decision that brought mixed feelings for the victims' families, who felt that not all the stories were heard. Mona's family has continued to advocate for justice, opposing the destruction of evidence from the farm, believing it may hold clues to the involvement of others. Her sister, Lisa Bigjohn, spoke of the profound wound left by Mona's murder and the feeling that the justice system failed her and the other women because they were seen as high-risk and disposable. Through their grief, Mona's family remembers her as the amazing little sister she was, a woman with true love in her heart, whose life was tragically cut short.
