In March, officials confirmed the identity of Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, also known as Buffalo Woman, as Ashlee Christine Shingoose, 30, from St. Theresa Point First Nation.JOHN WOODS/The Canadian Press
Manitoba has begun to search a Winnipeg landfill to recover the remains of Ashlee Shingoose, one of four First Nations women murdered by a serial killer and the only victim authorities had been unable to identify until earlier this year.
For years, Ms. Shingoose, of St. Theresa Point First Nation, was referred to as Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, meaning Buffalo Woman. It is a spirit name in Anishinaabemowin that Indigenous elders had given to her in 2022, when she was killed at the age of 30 by Jeremy Skibicki.
After a lengthy and high-profile trial, Mr. Skibicki, now 38, was sentenced to life in prison last year. Despite pleas from her parents that their daughter was connected to the killings, police found evidence to locate Ms. Shingoose and confirm her connection to the case only this past March.
On Monday, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said the first trucks arrived at the municipal Brady Road landfill at around 8:45 a.m., commencing a search that is aiming to provide Ms. Shingoose’s family “that important sense of compassion for their grief.”
He said he participated in a traditional pipe-smoking ceremony at the site with Ms. Shingoose’s parents, Albert and Theresa, to seek spiritual blessings and strengthen his government’s commitment to the search.
“It’s an important bond that these parents have with their child and who they’re trying to bring home in a very tragic situation as a result of a very terrible crime,” Mr. Kinew told reporters at an unrelated event in Winnipeg. “I hope we’re able to bring her home, and bring her home soon.”
Family of Ashlee Shingoose delivers tearful victim-impact statement
He said his government is prepared for the search to last up to a year and will assess budgetary demands in six months.
Theresa and Albert Shingoose told The Globe and Mail that the search marks the final steps toward a proper funeral for Ashlee.
“Nobody deserves to go through what we have gone through,” Mr. Shingoose said in an interview Monday, as his wife added: “It has been too long, just too, too long, for our family. I would not wish this position on anyone. We just want our girl’s spirit to be at peace.”
Last year’s trial revealed that Ms. Shingoose, killed in March of 2022, was the first of Mr. Skibicki’s victims. The murders of Rebecca Contois, 24, Marcedes Myran, 26, and Morgan Harris, 39, occurred in May of that year.
Shortly after the killer’s arrest in 2022, Winnipeg police conducted a search at the Brady landfill to find some of the remains of Ms. Contois. But the police service, citing dangerous conditions, declined to search for the other three victims, causing a national uproar, with protests held in several places across the country.
The search became the flashpoint issue of Manitoba’s 2023 provincial election. The province’s Progressive Conservative party ran ads arguing against it, but Mr. Kinew’s New Democratic Party, which eventually won, said it was the humane thing to do.
The remains of Ms. Myran and Ms. Harris were located at Prairie Green, another Winnipeg-area landfill, earlier this year. Since then, their families have told The Globe that they held funerals over the summer.
Depending on how the search for Ms. Shingoose goes, Mr. Kinew said the province is also planning to search the Brady landfill for Tanya Nepinak.
Ms. Nepinak, of Pine Creek First Nation, went missing in 2011 at the age of 31. Winnipeg police believed her remains were dumped at the landfill, but called off their search after a six-day effort in 2012.
Shawn Lamb, who was originally charged for the second-degree murders of Ms. Nepinak and two other women, denied his involvement in her killing. In 2013, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with the Crown staying his charge for Ms. Nepinak’s killing and reducing his charges to manslaughter for the other two women as part of a plea deal. He was released from prison last month.
Ms. Nepinak’s family and First Nations leaders have been demanding that a search be conducted for her remains.
“Our women’s families are being dismissed, ignored and treated as if their lives don’t matter. That somehow the dignity to go look for them is impossible,” said Kyra Wilson, Grand Chief of the Manitoba Assembly of Chiefs, which represents 63 First Nations across the province, on Monday.
Mr. Kinew said his government will use the funds available to change those conditions.
“We’re proceeding sequentially,” he said. “We were dramatically under budget on the Prairie Green search, so we’re just using the same budget to do this additional search.”
Though initial estimates had suggested that $184-million would be required, the federal government and Manitoba told The Globe last year that they committed to spend a total of $40-million for the search at Prairie Green. But upon completion, Mr. Kinew said the final tally only reached around $18-million.
That gives Ms. Nepinak’s aunt, Sue Caribou, who was at the Monday pipe ceremony, newfound hope for her “beautiful, sweet Tanya.”
“After all that time, it feels like the people in charge are finally listening,” Ms. Caribou said in an interview. “And I know Tanya is watching over me, making sure I keep pushing and don’t give up for her.”