A murder which was discovered on the Langley-Surrey border on Thursday is a good reminder that there is plenty of evil all around us.
The 41-year-old woman who was killed was a Surrey sex trade worker. While many people may consider her less than worthy because of that, she was someone’s daughter and the mother of two children. She had value as a human being, even though many people might not think so.
This case is very reminiscent of the murders of two women in Langley some time ago. One of them, Sheryl Koroll, was a sex trade worker in Langley and her body was dumped at an industrial site in July, 2007.
Davey Butorac, who was charged and convicted of Koroll’s murder, along with that of another sex trade worker in Abbotsford, has had the conviction overturned on appeal, due to the way the trial was conducted. He will again face the charges of murdering the two women.
He is also charged in the murder of a third woman, Margaret Redford, who lived on the fringes of society in Aldergrove. Her body was found in Bertrand Creek, and the murder remained unsolved for several years.
This summer, a sex trade worker fought off an attacker in a rural area of South Langley near Campbell Valley Park. The man was attacking her, and had she not fought with him and helped force the vehicle into the ditch, she may have been another murder victim.
Police are warning sex trade workers all across the Lower Mainland to be very wary of potential attackers. It is a warning that needs to be heeded.
While the fact that there is a sex trade at all is a sad sign of the state of society, prostitution is not known as the oldest profession for nothing. Sex trade workers, no matter what they are called, have been part of human culture for thousands of years, and are often treated as objects of disdain — not only by their customers, but also by society at large.
People need to remember that they are people too, and they need to be treated as having worth. The last thing that the Lower Mainland needs is another Robert Pickton, preying on vulnerable women and killing them.