Province preparing to search landfill for serial killer’s victims

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This article was published 11/06/2024 (494 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The province has been quietly making preparations and building structures at a landfill north of Winnipeg to search for the remains of two murder victims for the last few months, Premier Wab Kinew revealed Tuesday afternoon.

Kinew disclosed the government is well into Stage 2 of its five-stage approach to completing a search of a two-hectare area of Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran.

“We have undertaken this out of respect for the families,” Kinew said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

Kinew met with the families of Harris and Myran earlier in the day to discuss the province’s progress in preparations to begin the search.

As of Tuesday, permits to conduct the search have been approved and buildings to examine raw material are currently being constructed, Kinew told reporters.

The government was advised not to disclose the operation or any timelines during the murder trial of serial killer Jeremy Skibicki, 37, who admitted to killing Harris and Myran, as well as Rebecca Contois and an unidentified woman known as Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe (Buffalo Woman), and disposing of their bodies in garbage bins.

The four-week trial, in which Skibicki has argued he is not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder, wrapped up with final arguments Monday. Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal will deliver his ruling on July 11.

“We have been trying to put the families first and that’s why prior to telling the public… we met with both Myran and the Harris families today to bring them up to speed on what we’ve been doing,” Kinew told reporters.

The premier committed to beginning the search “right away,” Myran’s grandmother Donna Bartlett said.

“It’s good. I’m really happy… (to) get her home,” Bartlett said after the meeting with Kinew.

Phase 1 of the effort involves approving budgets and plans. Constructing buildings and conducting a test search are in the second phase. Phase 3 will be hiring workers. The actual search of the area where Myran and Harris are believed to be is the fourth phase. Phase 5, if necessary, will be broadening the search area if the initial operation is unsuccessful.

The effort could continue into early 2026 but will fall within the $40-million price tag budgeted by the province and federal government, Kinew said.

A test search in another area of the landfill, located north of the city in the RM of Rosser, will begin next month to prepare for the area of interest, he said.

The premier didn’t reveal when a search of the key area is expected to begin.

Earlier Tuesday the province issued a notice of alteration approval under the Environment Act to Waste Connections of Canada, which owns the Prairie Green facility, for on-site work to begin for temporary structures needed to support the search.

“There’s Manitoba Hydro workers on site now, there’s heavy equipment on site now doing all of the prep work. There is a lot of activity at the Prairie Green landfill site as we speak,” Kinew said.

The estimated search area within Prairie Green identified by Waste Connections is two hectares with an approximate depth of two metres, the Waste Connections application says.

The premier said employees hired to do the search will receive extensive training to handle material taken from the dump site — including asbestos, which was an outlined concern in multiple preliminary reports concerning a search.

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A January report on the feasibility of the search notes the sections of the landfill where the women’s remains are believed to be recorded a total of 712 tonnes of asbestos deposits between April 11 and June 20, 2022. About 12 tonnes of that were deposited after May 16, 2022 — the day the remains were believed to have been placed and the day the province is targeting in its search.

Despite the risks, a manual search is the best chance at finding remains, Kinew said.

“This is going to allow us to move forward in a much more robust fashion with a more thorough search with less downtime,” he said. “If we use a conveyor-belt system, if the belt breaks, the whole search comes to a stop.”

After meeting with the premier, the Harris and Myran families travelled to the landfill site and performed a cultural ceremony.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca

Nicole Buffie
Multimedia producer

Nicole Buffie is a reporter for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College’s Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom as a multimedia producer in 2023. Read more about Nicole.

Every piece of reporting Nicole produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.