NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. - A crime scene expert told the Robert Pickton jury Thursday he found the heads, hands and feet of two women in a freezer on Pickton's property.

RCMP Sgt. Tim Sleigh said another officer found the partial jaw of a third woman in an area where Pickton fed his pigs.

Sleigh said the decomposing remains were located inside two white, five-gallon plastic pails.

He said the pails were located on their sides, with one pail inserted into the other.

Sleigh said the site was not a priority for investigation at the time but a strong odour prompted him to check inside the freezers.

In admissions of fact already put before the jury, the Crown and defence agreed that the remains were discovered on June 4, 2002, and that DNA analysis, fingerprint and dental records confirmed they were those of Sereena Abotsway and Andrea Joesbury.

Sleigh said he was called to an area of dirt and debris where another officer had marked the discovery of a partial jaw.

He said despite all the dirt, he noticed five teeth.

Sleigh cleaned some of the teeth and discovered that one had a filling.

He said the remains were identified as belonging to Brenda Wolfe.

Pickton is on trial for first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Abotsway, Joesbury, Mona Wilson, Georgina Papin, Marnie Frey and Wolfe.

In earlier testimony, Sleigh presented a meticulous overview of the task investigators faced when they descended on the large property after obtaining a search warrant in connection with the joint missing women's task force.

Sleigh told the jury that he was initially intimidated by the vastness of the potential crime scene, which he described as being more than "11 acres'' in size.

"It took two days to get over the feeling of being overwhelmed as I came to grips with just how large the scene was,'' Sleigh told the seven-man, five women jury near the end of five weeks of testimony.

The trial has been estimated to last about one year.

He said investigators soon decided that in addition to searching the many buildings on the site, they were looking at significant excavation of the soil.

In addition, the site contained many huge piles of dirt, some of which Sleigh estimated were an "acre'' in size alone.

"I again felt overwhelmed,'' he said.

He said investigators, who were working under the tight guidelines and limitations of a search warrant in the first few days, decided to concentrate their efforts first on the trailer belonging to Pickton and the slaughterhouse located next door.

The next two most important areas, he testified before Justice James Williams, were a garage-workshop and a motorhome where large amounts of human blood were discovered.

Because the search warrant had a limited time, Sleigh said investigators concentrated on seizing material from the trailer so that if the warrant expired they would have materials to analyze.

As the vastness of the investigation sunk in, Sleigh said more and more officers were brought in, along with a portable lab, many trailers for the use of the evidence seized and earth-moving equipment and operators.

Search teams for specific areas were established, with identification officers, case detectives and evidence recovery unit members.

A major concern among many, he testified was that water seemed to be everywhere, primarily due to the property's close proximity to the Pitt River which meant the water table in the area was high.

There were also continuing worries about power outages and the potential for electrocution.

Sleigh was the first witness to provide the jury with a microscopic examination of the search and the huge logistical problems that had to be overcome.

The search lasted almost two years.

A soil-screening operation that lasted for many months involved large screening machines with conveyor belts, he said.

The soil was taken to the screening plant by trucks, where screens separated all the soil into three different sizes.

Students with either an anthropology or archeology background who were termed "search technicians'' were hired to watch for anything not normally found in soil, said Sleigh.

"They were looking for bones, jewelry, clothing, human artifacts,'' said Sleigh.

He agreed with a suggestion by Crown prosecutor Mike Petrie that "human and animal bones'' were found.

"Did you find any large items?'' asked Petrie.

"You'd be surprised at the things that came (along the conveyor belt),'' said Sleigh without elaborating.