Free My Book of Life By Angel by Martine Leavitt

Author’s Note
    A ngel, Serena, Melli, Widow, Call and Daddy Dave are my own invention. But inside my made-­up story is much that is true.
    It is true that a young girl is commonly lured into prostitution because the man she thinks is her boyfriend turns out to be a pimp. Sometimes he is the one who introduces her to street drugs. Often, once she is “turned out,” she takes drugs to help her tolerate the lifestyle. She stays for many reasons: because she must feed her addiction, because she is afraid she will be beaten or killed if she leaves, or because her pimp has threatened to hurt her family members if she leaves. Each girl’s story is different.
    It is true that, beginning in 1983, a number of women disappeared from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, an area notorious for its poverty, open drug use and high rate of HIV infection—­one of the highest in the world. Most but not all of the women who vanished from the Eastside ­were sex workers. Over the next thirteen years, families and friends filed missing-­persons reports, giving reasons why they thought their loved ones ­were not just missing but dead. Nothing was done.
    In 1997, the same year that eleven more women went missing, Robert William “Willy” Pickton handcuffed and attacked a sex worker, who fled naked with knife wounds to her stomach. The charges against Pickton ­were stayed, however, because the sex worker was not considered a reliable witness. She cannot be named because a court ban prohibits using her real name.
    In 1998, an additional ten women went missing. Police ­were told that bloody clothing and a number of women’s purses, complete with ID, had been seen lying around Pickton’s farm. That same year the Vancouver Police Department issued a news release saying that law enforcement officers did not believe a serial killer was behind the disappearances.
    By the time Pickton was arrested in 2002, nineteen more women had been reported missing. Investigators found on his farm the remains and the DNA of thirty-­two of the missing women. Pickton admitted to the murders of forty-­nine women; he was convicted of six counts of second-­degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for twenty-­five years.
    I respectfully acknowledge that the names I use on pages 49 and 117 refer to several of the real missing women: Debra Jones, Dawn Crey, Dianne Rock, Sarah de Vries and Janet Henry.

The Missing Women of
Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside*
    Yvonne Abigosis
    Sereena Abotsway
    Sharon Abraham
    Elaine Allenbach
    Angela Arseneault
    Sherry Baker
    Cindy Beck
    Yvonne Boen
    Andrea Borhaven
    Heather Bottomley
    Heather Chinnock
    Nancy Clark
    Wendy Crawford
    Marcella Creison
    Dawn Crey
    Sarah de Vries
    Sheryl Donahue
    Tiffany Drew
    Elaine Dumba
    Sheila Egan
    Cara Ellis
    Gloria Fedyshyn
    Cynthia Feliks
    Marnie Frey
    Jennifer Furminger
    Catherine Gonzalez
    Rebecca Guno
    Michelle Gurney
    Inga Hall
    Helen Hallmark
    Ruby Hardy
    Janet Henry
    Tanya Holyk
    Sherry Irving
    Angela Jardine
    Andrea Joesbury
    Patricia Johnson
    Debra Jones
    Catherine Knight
    Kerry Koski
    Marie Laliberte
    Stephanie Lane
    Danielle Larue
    Kellie Little
    Verna Littlechief
    Laura Mah
    Jacquelene McDonell
    Diana Melnick
    Leigh Miner
    Marilyn Moore
    Jackie Murdock
    Georgina Papin
    Tania Petersen
    Sherry Rail
    Dianne Rock
    Elsie Sebastian
    Ingrid Soet
    Dorothy Spence
    Teresa Triff
    Sharon Ward
    Kathleen Wattley
    Olivia Williams
    Taressa Williams
    Mona Wilson
    Brenda Wolfe
    Frances Young
    Julie Young
    * Sources: missingpeople.net and Missing Women Task Force list, 2007

Thanks
    I wish to express my deep gratitude to Candace Fisher, Sarah Gough, Stephen Roxburgh, Julie Larios and Brenda Bowen, who gave me guidance and much-­needed encouragement as I wrote this book. I am always grateful to my family, who inspire me in my work. I am especially indebted to my brilliant editors Margaret Ferguson and