Slayings on rise in rural Manitoba Double homicide in Portage adds to mounting caseload for RCMP By: Chris Kitching Posted: 5:27 PM CST Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024

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This article was published 03/12/2024 (657 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A couple who were found dead in a house in Portage la Prairie on Sunday night were the victims of a double homicide that RCMP believe was targeted — the latest in a high number of slayings in rural Manitoba this year.

Manitoba RCMP have investigated 55 homicides so far in 2024, spokesman Sgt. Paul Manaigre said Tuesday.

“It’s just unheard of, the numbers this year,” he said. “We’re on pace for over 60, and that’s double our average.”

The total does not include slayings investigated by the Winnipeg Police Service or other municipal police agencies. In Winnipeg, police have investigated 36 slayings so far this year.

In Portage, officers found the bodies of a 42-year-old man and 37-year-old woman when they were called to a home on Oak Bay at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday.

Manaigre told the Free Press investigators suspect the man’s involvement in the drug trade is behind the crime.

“There are a lot of moving pieces in this investigation right now,” Manaigre said. “(Investigators) believe it to be targeted, and definitely not a random thing.”

RCMP, who don’t believe there is a danger to the public, didn’t release information about the suspect or the names of the victims.

RCMP confirmed the man and woman were in a relationship.

“It’s just unheard of, the numbers this year … We’re on pace for over 60, and that’s double our average.”–RCMP Sgt. Paul Manaigre

Manaigre believes a wellness check type of call led officers to the home. Investigators are trying to put together a timeline prior to the discovery of the bodies, he said.

The woman had contact with family earlier Sunday, Manaigre said.

Autopsies were scheduled to determine the cause of their deaths.

RCMP remained at the house in a northeast Portage neighbourhood Tuesday afternoon. Two police vehicles were parked behind the home, which was taped off, when the Free Press went to the scene.

The back of the house faces North Memorial School.

Two people who live in the neighbourhood said the home had a reputation for drug trafficking, based on previous RCMP visits or arrests that were publicized.

“The police certainly knew he was selling drugs. They had been there numerous times,” said a man, who asked to remain anonymous.

He said he noticed police at the victims’ house late Sunday night.

“I noticed lots of activity. I knew something was going on,” he said. “It actually pisses you off, that this sort of stuff goes on.”

The second person said they were shocked when they learned about the double homicide via an RCMP Facebook post.

“The neighbourhood has some rough edges, but I didn’t expect this kind of thing,” said the woman, who also requested that her name be withheld due to the homicide’s suspected drug trade links.

“It actually pisses you off, that this sort of stuff goes on.”–Anonymous neighbour

Portage, which had a population of about 12,950 as of the 2021 census, is about 70 kilometres west of Winnipeg.

The double homicide was one of three slayings the RCMP released details of Tuesday.

In the other incidents, a 31-year-old man was stabbed to death in Thompson on Monday, and a missing 37-year-old man was found dead in Canupawakpa Dakota Nation, in western Manitoba, on Nov. 30.

The high number of homicides has been taxing for the Manitoba RCMP’s Winnipeg-based major crime services, which travels around the province to investigate slayings alongside Mounties in local detachments.

The historical average for Manitoba RCMP is usually 20 to 30 homicides per year, Manaigre said.

“We hope this is an anomaly, because this is a trend that can’t continue,” he said about this year’s homicide total.

The number of homicides in Manitoba has fluctuated in recent years.

Including all police agencies in Manitoba, the province reported 74 homicides in 2023 for a rate of 5.09 per 100,000 people, a recent Statistics Canada study found.

Of those, 51 victims, or 69 per cent, were of Indigenous identity.

Manitoba had 89 homicides in 2022 (6.3 incidents per 100,000 residents), up from 62 in both 2021 and 2020, and 74 in 2019, StatsCan data showed.

— With files from Erik Pindera

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca