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