Police working to ID woman after remains found on riverbank By: Chris Kitching Posted: 11:59 AM CDT Tuesday, Apr. 18, 2023 Last Modified: 5:56 PM CDT Tuesday, Apr. 18, 2023 Updates

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Human remains found near the Red River in South Point Douglas belong to an unidentified woman whose death was a homicide, Winnipeg police announced Tuesday.

Sgt. Wade McDonald, a member of the homicide unit, said detectives’ current focus is finding out the name of the woman and informing her loved ones.

“The family needs to know this,” McDonald, who is overseeing the investigation, said at a news conference at the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters.

Some of the woman’s remains were found in a wooded section of riverbank near Curtis Street, just south of Higgins Avenue, Saturday afternoon.

A local resident who found the remains said they were sealed, package-like, in orange plastic at the base of a slope a few metres from the Red. They were metres below a gravel path used by cyclists and pedestrians.

Her death is the ninth homicide to occur in Winnipeg in 2023.

In response to a question about whether police are looking for additional remains, McDonald said officers searched a crime scene that was about 3,000 metres in length.

“Am I going to stand up here today and say that we’ve discovered everything? No, I’m not,” he said.

Woman may have been previously missing

Police believe the woman was more than 20 years old and between five-feet and 5-5 tall, with a slight build and short, dark hair.

Investigators don’t know her ethnicity.

She had a caesarean section scar and no upper or lower teeth, which police believe were missing before she died, based on a post-mortem examination.

“We have information to believe they were previously missing,” said McDonald, who declined to elaborate.

It’s not known whether the woman had dentures, he said.

Both of her ears were double-pierced.

“We have not been able to identify this female,” said McDonald. “We need help. We need help in identifying this female, with any information, as well, on this investigation.”

Police don’t know how long the partial remains of the victim had been on the riverbank.

The WPS didn’t reveal how long ago the woman is believed to have died. It’s unclear where she was killed.

Police hope DNA helps identification

There’s nothing to suggest this case is linked to any other homicide investigations, said McDonald.

“At this point, we are looking at this as a stand-alone event,” he told reporters.

Police are pursuing several avenues, including DNA, in the effort to find out who she was and learn more about what happened to her.

“DNA is a factor. It’s a very important piece of the puzzle,” said McDonald. “Hopefully, it will help us identify this female.”

Police didn’t provide a timeline for the DNA aspect of the investigation.

Missing persons cases are also being looked at.

A news release issued by police began with a warning that some of the details may be disturbing to some people, particularly families directly affected by matters involving missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit and gender-diverse people.

McDonald said detectives don’t know if the woman was Indigenous.

‘No stone left unturned’

The police investigation involves members of the forensic identification unit, dive team and ground search and rescue members.

Police divers entered the Red and officers searched the riverbank alongside Waterfront Drive.

“No stone has been left unturned on this,” McDonald said of the investigation.

Detectives returned to the Waterfront Drive area Tuesday to speak to residents and others who were passing through.

Police are looking for video from surveillance systems or cyclists who use the river path and have a mounted action camera, said McDonald.

He said officers have been working the case on “very little sleep” since they were alerted around 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

On Monday, South Point Douglas resident Herman Holla told the Free Press he was picking up litter along the riverbank when he noticed the orange plastic Saturday.

Holla said he was walking back through the area when a man with a bicycle pointed out the rectangular-shaped object and asked Holla to take a look with him.

It was about the size of a medium suitcase, he said.

Holla said he used the man’s knife to cut through two straps made from some kind of fabric, and then began to pull back the plastic until he got a glimpse of what was inside.

He wasn’t sure what he was looking at, but he knew he had to alert police.

Police are asking anyone with information about the case or video footage to call 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 204-786-8477 (TIPS).

The woman isn’t the only recent homicide victim Winnipeg police are trying to identify.

In a separate investigation, officers are trying to determine the identity of a victim who has been named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, by Indigenous elders.

She is one of four Indigenous women police believe were slain by an alleged serial killer in early 2022.

Her remains and those of two other women, Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, have not been found.

Remains belonging to Rebecca Contois were recovered from a garbage bin and the Brady Road landfill.

Jeremy Skibicki, 36, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder in that case.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching