After killer found guilty in deaths of 4 women, families brace for 'heartbreaking' landfill search

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

While family celebrated the conviction of serial killer Jeremy Skibicki on Thursday, Elle Harris said she is bracing for the search of a Winnipeg-area landfill for her mother's remains. 

"We may have put that monster away, but our heartbreaks, they're not over yet," said Harris, whose mother, Morgan Harris, was one of four women killed by Jeremy Skibicki. 

He was found guilty in Manitoba's Court of King's Bench Thursday of first-degree murder in the deaths of Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26 — both members of Long Plain First Nation — and Rebecca Contois, 24, a member of O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, also known as Crane River.

Skibicki, 37, was also convicted of first-degree murder in the death of an unidentified woman who has been given the name Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, by community leaders. Police have said they believe she was Indigenous and in her 20s.

All four women were killed in Winnipeg between mid-March and mid-May of 2022. While Contois's remains were found that spring in a garbage bin in a Winnipeg alley and at the Brady Road landfill in the city's south end, it's believed the remains of Harris and Myran are in the Prairie Green landfill, north of the city.

"We still need to search for my mom's body, for Marcedes's body, for Buffalo Woman's body," Elle Harris said Thursday. "That's going to be even more heartbreaking, because we're going to have close calls. What if there's animal bones in there?"

Harris said that every one of those close calls that ends up not being her mother's remains is "going to hurt even more."

Last month, the province provided details on the next steps to search Prairie Green.

Premier Wab Kinew previously told CBC the search will begin late this fall, when technicians will start sifting through garbage removed from the search area at the landfill.

'What do we tell our future generations?

Some of the family members have also said they are anxious to prepare victim impact statements for Skibicki's sentencing hearing.

The Southern Chiefs' Organization said it is focusing on supporting the families as they prepare for those statements, a news release said on Thursday. 

The court has yet to confirm the date of the hearing.

Giganawenimaanaanig, an advisory committee that includes various Indigenous organizations in Manitoba, said in a news release it will hold its own engagement sessions to hear community impact statements in Winnipeg, The Pas, Thompson and Brandon later this month and in August.

Speaking at a Thursday news conference alongside other family members and First Nations leaders in Montreal — where a resolution was passed this week at the Assembly of First Nations general assembly to push for an inquiry into the police and government responses to the Skibicki case — Elle Harris said it's time to start fighting for every Indigenous woman, girl and gender-diverse person who is missing or murdered.

A search of the Prairie Green landfill was initially deemed unfeasible by Winnipeg police and was later the focus of campaign advertising by the then governing Progressive Conservatives in Manitoba's last provincial election.

Cambria Harris, Morgan's daughter, said that set the dangerous precedent of suggesting Indigenous women aren't worth looking for.

"What do we tell our future generations when this happens again, if it happens again? Because that's what message you were sending out," Cambria said at Thursday's news conference.

A spokesperson said the Winnipeg Police Service recognizes the case has had a tremendous impact on the families, friends and the larger community, and the police service will review the court decision in the coming days, an emailed statement Thursday said.

'A light shines' after conviction: chief

Skibicki's conviction is an important milestone, said Derek Nepinak, chief of Minegoziibe Anishinabe, also known as Pine Creek First Nation, on the southwestern shore of Lake Winnipegosis. 

"What happens now is a light shines on anybody who's trying to work in the shadows and hurt Indigenous women. A light will shine on you and the criminal justice system will do its work," he said.  

Nepinak, a former grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said no court decision could wash away the pain and sorrow the families and Indigenous communities feel, adding that he doesn't believe there's any Indigenous family who can't relate to the larger issues involving MMIWG. 

"I sit here today as a chief, as a former grand chief, but I was once a little boy, four years old, when my aunt was sent home in a box after being found in a hotel in Winnipeg," Nepinak said.

"And we buried her with nothing but questions about what the Winnipeg Police Service did in their investigation about what happened to her."

Nepinak spoke of another relative, Tanya Jane Nepinak, 31, who was from Pine Creek First Nation and went missing in September 2011. 

Shawn Lamb was charged with second-degree murder in connection with her death. While he was convicted of killing two other women, the charge in connection to Tanya Nepinak was stayed. 

Winnipeg police searched unsuccessfully for Tanya's body in the Brady Road landfill for six days in 2012.

Derek Nepinak said his family members deserve answers too. 

He also said the inquiry the Assembly of First Nations has called for into the deaths of Contois, Harris, Myran and Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe should include earlier investigations that may not have been as thorough as they should have been, he said. 

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak noted last month was the fifth anniversary of the release of the final report from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Women and Girls final report, but said only two of its 231 calls for justice have been fully implemented.

"This failure by federal and provincial governments is not acceptable to our people," she said.

"Substantive action is needed now more than ever before to guarantee the safety for First Nations women, girls and gender-diverse people."

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.