A jury convicted a 58-year-old British Columbia pig farmer of murdering six women, handing him an automatic life sentence, but finding that the killings were not planned.
Robert "Willie" Pickton still faces 20 more murder charges for the deaths of women, most of them prostitutes and drug addicts from a seedy Vancouver neighborhood. If convicted on all those charges, he would become Canada's most prolific serial killer.
Police are still investigating the cases of almost 40 other missing women.
The remains of the six women he was convicted of killing were found on Pickton's farm, but he denied he was responsible for their deaths.
Pickton listened to the verdict on Sunday with his head bowed and later smirked at one point. He had been charged with first-degree murder in the six killings, but the jury convicted him on a lesser charge of second-degree murder, which means they did not believe the killings were planned.
Two sisters of victim Georgina Papin screamed "No!" when the jury foreman first got up and said "not guilty" on first-degree murder. But they later said they were pleased he was convicted on the second-degree charge.
Two jurors, both women, wiped tears from their eyes while the verdicts were read. The jury foreman glared at Pickton as the verdicts were read back by a court official.
A conviction for any murder in Canada carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison and he will be sentenced today, when the judge will decide when Pickton might be eligible for parole.
During his trial, a prosecution witness, Andrew Bellwood, said Pickton told him how he strangled his alleged victims and fed their remains to his pigs.
Health officials once issued a tainted meat advisory to neighbors who might have bought pork from Pickton's farm, concerned the meat might have contained human remains.
The jury of seven men and five women took 10 days to reach a verdict. They had the option of finding Pickton guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter or not guilty on any of the six counts.
First-degree murder, which means a murder was planned, also carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison but does not offer parole eligibility for 25 years. The second-degree charge offers parole eligibility in 10 years.
Pickton was convicted of murdering Mona Wilson, Sereena Abotsway, Marnie Frey, Brenda Wolfe, Andrea Joesbury as well as Papin.
"It should have been first degree," said Rick Frey, father of Marnie Frey. "You don't have six murders over that time and not have first degree."
Family members and friends gathered for a candlelight vigil outside the courthouse after the verdicts.
The victims all came from Vancouver's grubby downtown Eastside, considered the worst ghetto in Canada. Drugs are sold openly a short distance from the Vancouver police headquarters.
Relatives of the missing women have long said officials ignored those who said a serial killer was preying on prostitutes in the area. Police did not set up a missing women's task force until the media began investigations of their own and relatives protested.
Marilyn Kraft, mother of one of the victims in the second murder trial Pickton will face, was relieved that Pickton got a life sentence based on the first trial.
"He's going away for life," Kraft said.
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