PORT COQUITLAM, B.C. — Janet Barnes stood at the edge of serial killer Robert Pickton’s farm Saturday as a chow-chow dog named Billy snuffled around at her feet.

Her voice breaking occasionally, she explained that 14-year-old Billy used to belong to her friend Tanya Holyk, one of the women Pickton is accused of killing on the land.

Supporters of Vancouver’s missing women say the farm should become a memorial park instead of being developed like nearby lands, which have residences or big-box stores on them.

When Pickton’s legal proceedings began in 2002, the government soon put a $10-million lien on the seven-hectare piece of land.

“The province has a lien against the Pickton property to secure recovery of legal costs for Robert Pickton’s trial,” said Ministry of Attorney general spokesman Shawn Robins.

The women’s supporters are aghast the land might be sold to recoup those costs.

Prostitution-rights activist Jamie Lee Hamilton says the land is a cemetery. It should be treated with dignity, she said.

“We need to press the government that they cannot recoup their investigative costs by doing further damage to the women by paving over and selling this land off to developers,” Hamilton said.

And Barnes agrees with the memorial plans.

“A lot of these girls don’t have proper graves,” Barnes said. “A lot of kids want to go downtown because they think it’s exciting. I think this is a gentle way of reminding them what could happen.”

About two dozen people gathered Saturday to discuss the park concept at the gates of the land where cows now graze.

The rally was in solidarity with the missing women’s families and friends, who were beginning a 70-hour vigil in recognition of the United Nations’ Violence Against Women Day this Tuesday, said Rev. Darrell Peregrym of the Partners in Care Society.

Calling the land the site of “one of the atrocious crimes in Canadian history,” Peregrym said the property “should be established as a sacred public place in British Columbia.”

He said the sale of the land would “be a further indignity and cause further suffering for the families . . .”

He called on the provincial government to donate the land “for public use and not for profit.”

The property is designated agricultural land, but the surrounding property has been rezoned for big-box stores and condos.

But, said Ministry of Attorney general spokesman Robins, any government discussion of the land’s future is inadvisable due to ongoing legal proceedings.

“At this point in time, the criminal aspect of the Pickton case has still not been resolved because it’s a matter before the appeal court and the civil aspects of the Pickton case are before the courts as well,” Robins said. “The province is not in any position to comment on the future of the property.”

The property is jointly owned by Pickton and his sister and brother.

Former Vancouver civic politician Art Cowie has designed a memorial garden for the site.

“It’s truly going to be a garden for everyone,” he said.

Pickton was sentenced last December to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years after he was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder.

He was convicted of killing Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Wolfe, Georgina Papin and Marnie Frey.

Pickton’s appeal of the six convictions is due to be heard March 30.

Pickton still faces murder charges in the deaths of 20 women, most of them prostitutes from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, but both the Crown and defence have filed appeals of the six convictions from his first trial.

The Crown only wants to proceed with the outstanding murder charges if Pickton’s first six convictions are overturned and has argued a second trial shouldn’t go ahead until the appeal is finished.

The other 20 counts of first-degree murder are in connection with the deaths of Cara Ellis, Andrea Borhaven, Kerry Koski, Wendy Crawford, Debra Lynne Jones, Tiffany Drew, Sarah de Vries, Cynthia Feliks, Angela Jardine, Diana Melnick, Jacqueline McDonell, Diane Rock, Heather Bottomley, Jennifer Furminger, Helen Hallmark, Patricia Johnson, Heather Chinnock, Tanya Holyk, Sherry Irving and Inga Hall.

Barnes called Holyk “very playful, young and caring.”

The supporters of the site say cemetery land is at a premium in the Lower Mainland. They say the memorial park could provide up to 10,000 new burial plots in the region.