Families and supporters of four murdered women celebrate outside the Manitoba Law Courts after the guilty verdict of serial killer Jeremy Skibicki is read in a courtroom in Winnipeg on July 11, 2024.JOHN WOODS/The Canadian Press
Manitoba has identified a second set of human remains at a Winnipeg-area landfill, confirming that at least two First Nations women whose bodies the province has been searching for since last year have now been found at the site.
Investigators from the RCMP and Office of the Chief Medical Examiner have matched some remains located at the Prairie Green landfill to Marcedes Myran, one of four women murdered in 2022 by a serial killer who was convicted last summer. Manitoba’s previous government and the Winnipeg police had refused to search the landfill, calling it too dangerous and costly, despite an outcry from families and supporters.
Premier Wab Kinew said Monday that the search is continuing in hopes of finding any further remains of Ms. Myran or other victims. Earlier this month, Mr. Kinew told The Globe and Mail that the province identified a first set of human remains at Prairie Green as those belonging to Morgan Harris, another one of the victims.
In an interview, Jorden Myran, said fighting to find the remains of her sister, Marcedes, has been a nearly three-year odyssey that she would not wish upon any other family.
“It’s been only a few hours since we were notified about this. None of us have processed anything yet,” she said. “But one thing I can say, for sure, is that this should’ve never happened and it should’ve never taken this long, especially because we kept being told – over and over again – how wrong we were to search for our missing and murdered women.”
Donna Bartlett, Ms. Myran’s grandmother, said that all the families of the victims have ever wanted was to give their loved ones a dignified funeral. “Now, we get to finally bring our girls home. And soon, we can finally let their spirits rest,” she told The Globe late Monday.
Manitoba has been searching for the women’s remains since last fall at Prairie Green, just north of Winnipeg in the Rural Municipality of Rosser, a multiyear effort that the provincial and federal governments have each committed $20-million toward.
Editorial: A small and overdue step in Manitoba toward dignity and reconciliation
In August last year, after a months-long trial, Jeremy Skibicki, now 38, was sentenced to life in prison for the first-degree murders of 39-year-old Ms. Harris, 26-year-old Ms. Myran, 24-year-old Rebecca Contois and a yet-to-be-identified woman whom First Nations elders have named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, meaning Buffalo Woman.
After the killer’s arrest in May of 2022, Winnipeg police had located some of the remains of Ms. Contois, a member of Crane River First Nation, at a separate landfill. But while police obtained GPS information to confirm that the bodies of Ms. Myran and Ms. Harris, both from Long Plain First Nation, were at Prairie Green, they opted not to conduct a search of that landfill.
Police said the Prairie Green search would be unfeasible, an assertion that became the flashpoint issue of Manitoba’s election in 2023. The ruling Progressive Conservatives at the time paid for billboards, radio ads and newspaper spots to tell voters that “the answer on the landfill dig just has to be no.” But Mr. Kinew’s New Democrats, who eventually won the election, argued that the search was the humane thing to do.
Winnipeg Police Service declined to comment on the matter Monday.
This month, Opposition Leader Wayne Ewasko apologized for the first time to the women’s families at the Manitoba legislature on behalf of the Tories.
However, the families of Ms. Myran, Ms. Harris and Ms. Contois have told The Globe that the apology was never offered directly to them and that they believe the PCs are being disingenuous.
“Where were these words when we were shouting from the rooftops for them to find our women?” said Cambria Harris, daughter of Morgan Harris. “They’re saying this stuff publicly now, without even talking to any of us, because it might help them get some future votes.”
The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, which represents 63 First Nations across the province, said it hopes for healing for the women’s families after their tireless efforts.
“For far too long, First Nations women have been treated as though they are disposable,” wrote Kyra Wilson, Grand Chief of the Manitoba Assembly, who is also from Long Plain First Nation, in a statement. “Marcedes deserved to live a full life surrounded by love and possibility. We will continue to honour her spirit.”
Speaking to reporters from his office at the legislative building Monday, Mr. Kinew said that the landfill search was successful much sooner than anticipated. The province was prepared to conduct its operation for all of 2025 and well into 2026, for which workers have manually sifted through more than 18,000 cubic metres of detritus from dozens of feet below the ground since early December.
The Premier declined to say whether the operation would also focus its efforts toward finding the remains of Buffalo Woman. For now, he said, the search is being conducted to locate any other remains of Ms. Harris and Ms. Myran.
Ms. Myran and Ms. Harris’s families said they plan to prepare in the next few weeks for a traditional burial and funeral for the women, which Mr. Kinew previously told The Globe that the province would help with.
“We went through a whole heck of a lot to get to this point. But at the end of the day, we did the right thing,” Mr. Kinew said. “Regardless of how you felt over the course of this thing, I hope we can all just agree that it’s good that we’re able to provide closure to these families.”