Donna Bartlett (left) walks to court in Winnipeg with other family members. Photo: APTN file
The search for the remains of two First Nations women murdered by a serial killer is at the one-month mark at a Winnipeg area landfill.
Acknowledging the non-disclosure agreements signed by the families and those involved in the search with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC), the grandmother of one of the victims told APTN News she remains optimistic.
“On a personal note, I am hoping they find my girl soon,” said Donna Bartlett of Marcedes Myran, one of four women Jeremy Skibicki was convicted of killing and disposing of during a trial last summer.
“That is all I can do. It may take a while, but I am hopeful.”
Officials believe the remains of Myran, 26, and Morgan Harris, 39, are in the Prairie Green Landfill, just north of Winnipeg. Police have said the remains were emptied from garbage trucks in May 2022.
During his trial, court heard Skibicki, 37, disposed of Myran and Harris’s bodies in commercial garbage bins near his home between March and May, 2022.
The excavation and meticulous sifting for the remains began Dec. 3 after Manitoba’s NDP government joined with Ottawa to contribute $20 million each towards the search. The search is concentrated in an area identified as most likely to contain refuse from Skibicki’s neighbourhood during the time of the murders.
The remains of another Skibicki victim, Rebecca Contois, were found in a different landfill and the remains of an unidentified woman, who an Indigenous grassroots community named Buffalo Woman, have not been located.
In the weeks since the search started, the sacred fire kept stoked at that landfill along Brady Road has been put out and the search-the-landfill camp has closed. Family members of the victims and volunteers kept the fire burning as a symbol of hope and remembrance for the murdered women.
AMC, which has supported the victims’ families and lobbied for the search, did not respond to a request for comment Friday. A message on its answering maching said the office was closed.
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It did say in a Dec. 19 news release that the fire “has been a profound reminder of the strength and courage of the families, friends, and supporters who have carried this cause.”
AMC’s acting Grand Chief Betsy Kennedy added, “As the family and friends of Morgan Harris closed the Sacred Fire (Dec. 18), they did so with a renewed commitment to continue the work that Camp Morgan has inspired.
“While the fire is no longer lit at camp, its spirit remains a powerful force driving the movement for justice for all Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People (MMIWG2S+),” she said in the release.
Meanwhile, it was the AMC that revealed in a media advisory in November that the families, along with search technicians, members of the Provincial Oversight Committee, forensic anthropologists and all others involved, were bound by non-disclosure agreements and other legal oaths that prevent them from sharing any information about the search.
APTN requested an update from the provincial government Friday and received this statement from the media relations team:
“The plan all along has been to provide updates. When there is an update one will be provided, rather than on a one-by-one request basis.”
