AMC eyes April start to landfill search

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This article was published 10/02/2023 (1022 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Specialists could begin searching a Winnipeg-area landfill in April for the remains of two Indigenous women believed to have been slain by an alleged serial killer.

An Indigenous-led committee overseeing the effort is “very optimistic” the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran could be found, given success in other cases, according to chairwoman Cathy Merrick, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

The search team is also hoping to recover the remains of an as-of-yet unidentified woman, who’s been named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe (Buffalo Woman) by Indigenous elders — if they are at the same site.

“I think it would be safe to say that probably in April that the work can actually really be done and get going on that,” Merrick told reporters Friday. “For anybody to come and say that we can’t find our women, I don’t believe that.”

A feasibility study for a search at the privately-owned Prairie Green Landfill, north of Winnipeg, is expected to begin soon, after the federal government agreed to provide $500,000.

“We do appreciate it, but it’s unfortunate as well to say that it took the lives of many of our women for the government to be able to move and to be able to listen to our concerns as First Nation women,” said Merrick. “It’s a positive step moving forward, and I hope that it continues for further work that needs to be done.”

Once it receives the funds, the committee hopes to have a final feasibility report ready within four to six weeks. The study will help to identify the work, equipment and personnel needed.

Committee members will visit the site for a traditional ceremony and assessment Feb. 24.

Merrick said it’s not yet known how much a search could cost, but additional funding will be sought from governments as required. “We’re not going to go away in the middle of a search if there’s a lack of funding.”

The Harris and Myran families are grateful for the funding and work of the committee, whose ex-officio members include representatives of the Winnipeg Police Service, RCMP, city and province.

The families are eager for a search to begin. They hope it will bring some closure to everyone who’s been affected.

“We know that as much as this was a direct loss for us, it is a greater loss to our community,” said Harris’s cousin, Kirstin Witwicki, a member of the oversight committee.

Myran’s grandmother, Donna Bartlett, said the wait has been difficult.

“My granddaughter is out there and we need her home,” said Bartlett, who is also on the committee. “I just hope they can do it soon.”

The WPS believes four Indigenous women — Harris, 39, Myran, 26, Buffalo Woman and Rebecca Contois, 24 — were killed by the same man last year.

Remains belonging to Contois were found in a garbage bin in North Kildonan in May, and at the city-owned Brady Road landfill during a police search in June.

Investigators believe Harris’s and Myran’s remains were deposited by waste trucks at Prairie Green in May.

Police decided a search wasn’t feasible due, in part, to the volume of waste deposited over a 34-day period before they learned the women’s remains may be there.

The Indigenous-led committee formed as police faced criticism over the decision and no government took the lead while calls for a search escalated in December, after investigators announced three more alleged killings had been linked to the suspect in Contois’s death.

Jeremy Skibicki, 35, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder. He intends to plead not guilty, said his lawyer, Leonard Tailleur.

A jury trial is scheduled to begin in April 2024, and last up to four weeks.

Prairie Green’s owner, Waste Connections of Canada, stopped dumping material in June in a landfill section police marked as a possible search area.

As part of the committee’s work, forensic experts have been looking at newer technology and methods used in past cases, including the search of serial killer Robert Pickton’s pig farm in B.C.

Kristin Flattery, AMC women’s co-ordinator, said the team hopes to conduct all search activity at Prairie Green, rather than transporting 72,000 cubic metres of waste for examination at another site.

“There is a conveyor-belt method that seems to be the best way,” said Flattery. “We’re looking to go to a recycling plant that offered to help us, to lift any metal debris out and then have officers stationed on either side as well as searchers, so we’re very able to very quickly do a hand-eye search.”

A DNA analysis will be done if any remains are found, she said.

If no remains are found, the committee will submit a funding proposal for a search at Brady Road, said Merrick.

Colin Fast, a spokesman for Mayor Scott Gillingham, said the city has not yet received a “specific ask” for any assistance.

Provincial help will be assessed once the feasibility study is completed and reviewed, according to a spokeswoman for Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson.

Merrick said more action is needed to address some of the factors that put Indigenous women at risk of violence.

She also called for additional documenting measures at landfills to help in any searches in the future.

“The Brady Road Landfill already make extensive use of GPS tracking, but we will be looking at other options to enhance landfill practices to make it easier and quicker to respond to similar situations,” said Fast.

The AMC is creating a database of missing Indigenous women and girls in Manitoba, said Merrick.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching