A recent search of a Winnipeg-area landfill for the remains of two First Nations women murdered by a serial killer in 2022 was completed for roughly $18 million, Manitoba’s premier says — a fraction of estimates originally presented as the top end of possible costs to carry out the project.
The search of the Prairie Green landfill, north of Winnipeg, located remains belonging to both Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran in February, and wrapped up last month after beginning in December.
An initial feasibility study suggested in 2023 the search could, in a worst-case scenario, take up to three years and cost between $84 million and $184 million. A later report put the cost closer to $90 million, if the search could be done within a year.
The search of the landfill included “the highest standard of health and safety for the workers with trauma-informed mental-health supports,” said a Thursday emailed statement attributed to Premier Wab Kinew, where he confirmed the final cost of the project.
Manitoba’s then Progressive Conservative government ran ads in 2023 promoting the party’s decision not to search the Prairie Green landfill for the women’s remains, citing safety concerns for searchers facing toxic material.
Kinew’s NDP government launched the search after winning that year’s election. Obby Khan, who became leader of the now Opposition PCs earlier this year, has apologized for those ads and promised a new tone from his party.
Harris, 39, Myran, 26 — both originally from Long Plain First Nation — were among four women killed in 2022 by Jeremy Skibicki, along with Rebecca Contois, 24, a member of O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation.
While it took years for remains belonging to Harris and Myran to be recovered, Contois’s partial remains were found in a garbage bin near Skibicki’s apartment in Winnipeg’s North Kildonan area in May 2022. More of her remains were found the following month at the city-run Brady Road landfill in Winnipeg.
Skibicki unexpectedly confessed to killing Myran, Harris, Contois and a fourth woman who at that point was unidentified during a police interview in May 2022, after Contois’s partial remains were found.
He was convicted of first-degree murder last year and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years, after a weeks-long trial that heard he targeted vulnerable First Nations women before killing them and disposing of their remains.
The fourth victim of Skibicki, who was initially unidentified, was known only as Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, a name given to her by Indigenous community members.
Police announced in March they’d determined that woman was Ashlee Shingoose, 30, from St. Theresa Point Anisininew Nation.
With the Prairie Green search concluded, specialized equipment and personnel will move to the Brady Road landfill, where a search will be launched for the remains of Shingoose, which are believed to have been taken there.
A spokesperson for Kinew said another $2 million is expected to be needed to decommission and clean up the Prairie Green site and move search equipment to the Brady Road site. Plans for the search of that site are still being developed, the spokesperson said.
Kinew announced earlier this month the province is also planning to search the Brady Road landfill for the remains of Tanya Nepinak, which were believed to have been taken there after she went missing at age 31 more than a decade ago.
A search for Nepinak’s remains was launched in October 2012, but it was cancelled after six days with no evidence located. A murder charge laid in connection to her death against Shawn Lamb was stayed by the Crown for lack of evidence.
Lamb was charged in June 2012 with three counts of second-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Carolyn Sinclair, 25, Lorna Blacksmith, 18, and Nepinak. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the cases of Sinclair and Blacksmith, but denied killing Nepinak.
