Jeremy Skibicki acted out of hatred when he killed 4 Indigenous women, Crown argues as trial begins

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

Prosecutors say a confessed serial killer preyed on vulnerable Indigenous women at Winnipeg homeless shelters before killing four in 2022 and throwing their remains in the garbage.

They're alleging Jeremy Skibicki "devised a calculated scheme where he carefully thought out what he would do to the victims and then did those things," Crown attorney Renee Lagimodiere told court on Wednesday morning, the first day of Skibicki's weeks-long murder trial at Manitoba Court of King's Bench.

"This case is about a man's hate-filled and cruel acts perpetrated against four vulnerable Indigenous women," she said.

Skibicki is accused of four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of three First Nations women: Rebecca Contois, Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, as well the death of an as-yet unidentified women who has been given the name Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, by community leaders. Police have said they believe she was in her 20s and was Indigenous.

Defence lawyers say Skibicki admits to the killings, but should be found not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder.

Lagimodiere said the Crown is arguing Skibicki found the women at homeless shelters and invited them back to his apartment, where he assaulted and choked, smothered or drowned them in a bathtub before he "engaged in vile sexual acts with their bodies" and "disposed of the women as though they were garbage."

"The Crown expects that the evidence will show that Jeremy Skibicki, acting out of hatred, carefully calculated and considered how to kill the victims, and then did just what he set out to do. His actions were intentional, purposeful and racially motivated," she said, as the grandmother of one of the victims sat in the courtroom with her face in her hands.

Court heard through an agreed statement of facts that the DNA of all four women was found on various items in and outside Skibicki's apartment, including on a bloodstained pillow, a cigarette butt, a combat knife and a bra.

Court also heard audio of a 911 call made by a man who, while looking through dumpsters for copper and clothing to salvage, found what at that point were the recently disposed partial remains of Rebecca Contois inside a bag in a garbage bin near Skibicki's apartment.

He removed the bag because he was worried a garbage truck would soon come to empty the bin, court heard.

The partial remains of Contois were found in a garbage bin in May 2022, police have previously said. More of her remains were found after a search at the city-run Brady Road landfill in June 2022.

Police believe the remains of Harris and Myran are at the Prairie Green landfill, a privately owned facility just north of Winnipeg. They have said the location of Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe's remains is unknown.

Skibicki was initially arrested in May 2022 in connection with Contois's death. Later that year, police charged him in connection with the deaths of the other three women as well.