2 First Nations women, 1 unidentified woman were victims of alleged serial killer: Winnipeg police
CBC
WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
Winnipeg police say the man accused of killing a 24-year-old First Nations woman and disposing of her body in a dumpster in May has been charged with three more homicides.
Jeremy Skibicki, 35, was charged Thursday with three more counts of first-degree murder after more victims were identified, police said at a Thursday afternoon news conference.
Skibicki was initially arrested on May 18 and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of Rebecca Contois, who was a member of O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, also known as Crane River, located on the western shore of Lake Manitoba.
Investigators now believe Skibicki was also responsible for the deaths of two other First Nations women and another woman who hasn't yet been identified, between March and May 2022, said police Chief Danny Smyth.
"It's always unsettling when there's any kind of a serial killing," but these homicides are particularly unsettling "because it does involve Indigenous women," he said at Thursday's news conference.
Police say Morgan Beatrice Harris, 39, was killed on or around May 1, while Marcedes Myran, 26, was killed on or around May 4.
Both women were members of Long Plain First Nation, in south central Manitoba, but were living in Winnipeg.
Skibicki is also charged with the homicide of a fourth woman, but her identity hasn't been confirmed.
Insp. Shawn Pike of the major crimes division said she is believed to have been an Indigenous woman in her mid-20s. It's believed she was killed on or around March 15.
Police are asking the public for help identifying the victim, who wore a reversible Baby Phat brand jacket with a fur hood.
The bodies of those three women haven't been recovered, but Smyth says police have enough evidence to charge Skibicki in their killings. Pike added that DNA helped in their investigation, but wouldn't go into specifics.
Rebecca Contois's partial remains were discovered in a garbage bin in a back lane in Winnipeg's North Kildonan neighbourhood on May 16.
Police believed some of her remains may have been taken to the city's Brady Road landfill during a residential pickup, and conducted a search that involved a massive area at the landfill.
