Chris's Crime Forum

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Police now know what happened to one of the women whose face has been on a poster of Vancouver's missing women for years.

RCMP Cpl. Annie Linteau said Friday police have been investigating the disappearance of Laura Kathleen Mah since the 1990s.

Linteau said she was reported missing to Vancouver police by a family member in 1999 and that the woman's relatives last spoke to her in August 1984.

Linteau said investigators have now determined through inquiries with the Vital Statistics Agency that Laura Mah died of natural causes on Jan. 17, 1986, at Burnaby General Hospital.

She had been reported deceased as Marie Laura Mah and Linteau said the confusion arose because the woman had used a number of names and birth dates during her life.

"For instance, she was reported missing as Laura Kathleen Mah, with a birth date of the 23rd of March 1943, but was actually reported deceased as Marie Laura Mah, with a birth date of the 15th of March 1943," she said. "So that's certainly complicated the investigation."

Mah was among 68 women who have vanished and were known to frequent the Downtown Eastside, including the 26 Robert Pickton has been charged with killing.

This week, both the Crown and Pickton's defence lawyers began arguments to appeal the former pig farmer's conviction on six counts of second-degree murder in December 2007.