Supporters hoist a banner in favour of searching a Winnipeg-area landfill in front of the Winnipeg courthouse. Photo: APTN file
The search of a Manitoba landfill for the remains of two First Nations women slain by a serial killer is scheduled to start on Dec. 2, APTN News has learned.
Relatives of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran confirmed the early December date Thursday.
“I’m anxious and I’m scared,” said Donna Bartlett, grandmother of Myran, 26. “Scared that we won’t find her and scared that we will.”
It has been a long and painful road for the families of the victims, who were murdered in the spring of 2022 by serial killer Jeremy Skibicki. The Winnipeg man, 37, was convicted in July of four counts of first-degree murder.
Skibicki was sentenced to life in prison in August for the deaths of Harris, 39, Myran, Rebecca Contois, 24, and Mashkode Bizhiki Ikwe (Buffalo Woman) – an as yet-unidentified victim given the spirit name by First Nations elders.
The grieving families waged a long fight for a search of the landfill after the Winnipeg Police Service refused to proceed citing a low probability of success. The then-ruling provincial Conservative government also opposed a search and made its position part of its losing October 2023 election campaign. The new NDP government promised to search following the murder trial.
“This should have been done right from the beginning,” said Bartlett. “I’ve said all along this wouldn’t have happened if the victims were White.
“I believe they looked at this as (they’re) just another Indian.”
Melissa Robinson, a cousin to Harris, said employment interviews wrapped up Wednesday to hire an eight-member search team for each family to sift through debris pulled from the possible dump site identified in the landfill.
The province is also hiring “technicians” to identify potential remains for testing under the supervision of forensic anthropologist Emily Holland of Brandon University, Robinson added.
Roughly 140 people applied to work 10-hour shifts Monday to Thursday and part-time Fridays and Saturdays, said Robinson, noting the new hires will begin their training soon.
Most of her family’s team is made up of people they know, she noted.
“It was very hard to think of strangers doing this, looking for Morgan,” she said. “We want it – as much as possible – to be people we know.”
Bartlett said some of the applicants told her they wanted to be part of the solution.
“They applied because of the cause – the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (cause),” she said. “They want to be part of a humanitarian cause.”
The search is jointly funded by the provincial and federal governments that are contributing $20 million each. The province and Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) advocacy group handled recruiting, while AMC and the families conducted interviews, Robinson said.
Premier Wab Kinew has committed to searching the landfill until remains are found.
