Ashlee Shingoose's father never let go of the idea his missing daughter could be Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe
Albert Shingoose often travelled from St. Theresa Point to search for daughter who disappeared in 2022
WARNING: This story contains details of violence against Indigenous women.
Albert Shingoose's long-held suspicions that his missing daughter might have been the unidentified victim of a Winnipeg serial killer have been confirmed.
On Wednesday, Winnipeg police confirmed Ashlee Shingoose, 30, was the first woman killed by Jeremy Skibicki in 2022. The identity of that victim had, until this week, not been confirmed, and she was given the name Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, by Indigenous community members.
DNA results identified Shingoose as the victim this month, after Skibicki gave them new information in a December interview, police said at a Wednesday news conference.
Albert had spent years searching for his daughter, travelling from his home in St. Theresa Point Anisininew Nation to search the streets of Winnipeg, sometimes until 3 or 4 a.m. He was gone for weeks at a time, but went home empty-handed each time.
"I wasn't thinking about being scared or something happening to me, I was thinking of trying to find my daughter," he told CBC News in an October 2023 interview.
"It was pretty hard."
She was one of four First Nations women murdered by Skibicki in Winnipeg in 2022, along with Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26 — both originally from Long Plain First Nation — as well as Rebecca Contois, 24, a member of O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation.
Although the identity of his first victim wasn't known at the time, he was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder last July.
Police previously said DNA samples taken from Ashlee's family members in early 2023 did not match a DNA profile found on a jacket they believed Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe had worn. But the missing murder victim stayed on Albert's mind.
"I'm just thinking about that all the time, that Buffalo Woman … maybe that was her, maybe not. I don't know," he said.
Police said Wednesday they believe Ashlee's remains were taken to the Brady Road landfill in Winnipeg after she was killed in March 2022. At the news conference, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew promised a search of the landfill for her, and later sang a traditional song for Ashlee at the request of her father, who spoke via speaker phone.
WATCH | Premier sings for Ashlee Shingoose:
In his October 2023 interview, Albert expressed hope that as a First Nations person, Kinew — whose government had just been elected — would support a search of Prairie Green landfill for the remains of Harris and Myran. He rejected the reasoning of the former Progressive Conservative government, which pointed to health and safety reasons for its refusal to launch a search.
During a leaders' debate before the October 2023 election, then premier Heather Stefanson asked Kinew why he was "willing to put $184 million and Manitoba workers at risk for a search without a guarantee," citing the projected cost of the search.
"They talk about money, it's going to cost a lot of money to search that landfill. To me, it's like life is worthless," Albert said in 2023.
"Life is precious. I'd like to have my daughter back home and buried in a proper place, not in a landfill."
'She had nowhere to go'
Ashlee was from St. Theresa Point Anisininew Nation, in northeastern Manitoba, but moved to Winnipeg around 2016, Albert said. The mother of three was last seen in the city's downtown on March 11, 2022.
Albert said a lack of housing in St. Theresa Point forced her to move. He and Ashlee's mother, Theresa, share a small bungalow with eight grandchildren, some sleeping on a couch and in the kitchen.
There are at least 300 families on the waitlist for housing in the First Nation, which has an on-reserve population of about 4,000 people, according to the federal government.
"If we had more housing … she would've been here, instead of being lost out there," Albert said.
Albert said he remembered his daughter as happy, outgoing and a problem solver. But she lost custody of her children while in Winnipeg, and Albert says she became addicted to drugs.
"That's when we started losing her, because she had nowhere to go."
Her disappearance was hard on the family, he said, and their tragedy was compounded in March 2023, when Ashlee's daughter, Dayna, was identified as one of two 14-year-old girls found dead outside a home in St. Theresa Point.
Then chief Elvin Flett said he believed the girls had taken drugs before freezing to death.
Albert said his granddaughter had been depressed about the loss of her mother.
"She did miss her mom lots, [and would] always say, 'Grandpa, when are you going out to look for my mom?'" said Albert.
"'Bring her home,' that's what she said to me."
Investigators believe Ashlee's remains were taken to the Brady Road landfill in March 2022, based on the time of her death and new information about where her remains were placed, police said Wednesday.
The remains of Harris and Myran, left in a different dumpster, were recently discovered following a search that began last December at the Prairie Green landfill, north of Winnipeg.
Contois's partial remains were found in garbage bins behind a North Kildonan apartment on May 16, 2022, and more of her remains were found the following month at the Brady Road landfill.
When CBC visited Albert in his home in 2023, he hadn't stopped searching for his daughter, or fighting to have the landfill searched — something he said he'd do himself.
"I'd go. I don't care if they arrested me. I'd go and do it. I'd go digging in there, and I don't care if the cops take me away from there, no matter what. Because that's my daughter," he said. He added he had faith that Wab Kinew, as a First Nations premier who 'understands the people,' would get it done.
Police said Wednesday that discussions about what a search at Brady Road could look like are still in early stages.
Support is available for anyone affected by these reports and the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous people. Immediate emotional assistance and crisis support are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through a national hotline at 1-844-413-6649.
You can also access, through the government of Canada, health support services such as mental health counselling, community-based support and cultural services, and some travel costs to see elders and traditional healers. Family members seeking information about a missing or murdered loved one can access Family Information Liaison Units.
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With files from Erin Brohman