The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures. This article was published more than 10 years ago. Some information in it may no longer be current. Sad truths abound in the story of Edmonton's unsolved prostitute slayings. One is that most of the women who work the seedy th Avenue stroll can't or won't quit even though it looks like someone is out to kill them. Another is that even if police nab one killer, the women won't necessarily be much safer.
A third is that if the dead women had worked in any other profession -- say dentistry or accounting -- the public sympathy and outrage would be nothing short of passionate. Instead, bodies keep appearing in ditches and fields around the city, headlines last a few days and women keep risking their lives. The body of Ellie May Meyer, a year-old brunette, was found last week by a farmer plowing his field northeast of the city.
She is the seventh prostitute to be found dead within 50 kilometres of Edmonton since January of She was also the fourth who worked the same two-block, low-rent business strip where a community hall advertises self-defence lessons for women. There's probably lots of them packing weapons, knives or things like that," said JoAnn McCartney, a former vice police officer who now runs a court diversion program for women charged with soliciting.
But they keep going out, she said, because it's all they can do to get a meal each day, drugs to deaden the fear and maybe a decent place to sleep. Jesse, 29, works th Avenue and knew four of the victims. She likens her lifestyle to "playing Russian roulette with your life" each night.
Cherry Kingsley, who worked the streets for eight years in British Columbia, says women on any stroll in Canada know the danger that lurks. You know there's always that kind of risk, but you don't know what else to do.
