Winnipeg Police Refuse To Search Landfill Where Indigenous Women Are Believed to be Buried

Winnipeg police are searching for a serial killer whom they believe murdered four women, but refuse to search for the remains of at least two of them, citing extreme safety hazards.

Winnipeg Police Chief Danny Smyth explained that investigators believe the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran are located at the Prairie Green Landfill, located north of Winnipeg’s Perimeter Highway.

“The circumstances combined with the safety hazard formed the basis of a difficult decision not to go forward with the search at Prairie Green [landfill],” Smyth said during a press conference.

Kera Harris, one of Morgan Harris’ daughters, travelled to Ottawa with several First Nations advocacy groups to ask the federal government for help in the ongoing investigation. She and her sister Cambria Harris spoke to media in Ottawa earlier this week telling police that they would search the landfill if police continued to balk at the idea.

“If you can’t find them, then why haven’t you asked for help?” Kera Harris asked. “Why can’t you ask for help nationwide rather than just having a small amount of people conduct the searches? […] And if you won’t look for them, then we will.” Note that the Tweet below incorrectly referred to Kera as Kiera.

“I should not have to come here and be so mad and beg and beg, so that you will find and bring our loved ones home,” Cambria said. “My mother didn’t pass away with a home so let’s pay her the respect that she deserves by finally giving her one that’s not a resting place at the Prairie Green landfill.”

Jeremy Skibicki is at the centre of the investigation. Police arrested Skibicki in May and charged him with the first-degree murder of Rebecca Contois, whose partial remains were located at the Brady Road landfill.

Police then charged Skibicki with first-degree murder resulting in the death of Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran, and an unidentified woman whom community members call Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, according to CBC News.

Skibicki had previously threatened to kill two previous partners, both Indigenous women, according to court records obtained by CBC News in a separate article. He was convicted in 2015 of physically assaulting his ex-partner while she was pregnant.

“This is not how we wanted it to end, and my heart goes out to the families expecting and hoping for a different outcome,” Smyth added at the press conference. “We acknowledge that a lot of people are angry, and we’re doing our best to bring justice for the families.”

These four murders come at the height of an ongoing crisis involving the murders and disappearances of Indigenous women across North America, and an especially violent year in Winnipeg. 

“We have to come here over and over again for these tragic events,” Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee said at Odena Circle last Sunday. “Sit down with us; let’s work on this together. We have the solutions but we don’t have the resources and if they want us to do the job for them we wills—just give us the resources. We’ll do it.”