‘Bringing them home was within our grasp’ Second set of remains in landfill confirmed as serial killer’s victim Marcedes Myran By: Tyler Searle Posted: 2:02 PM CDT Monday, Mar. 17, 2025 Last Modified: 7:53 PM CDT Monday, Mar. 17, 2025 Updates

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RCMP have confirmed a second set of human remains found during a search at Prairie Green Landfill are those of Marcedes Myran, one of four victims of a convicted serial killer.

The news comes more than three years after Myran was killed by Jeremy Skibicki, and just over three months after efforts to recover two of his victims’ remains from the Winnipeg-area landfill began.

Donna Bartlett, Myran’s grandmother, described “mixed feelings” of grief and relief as she and her family came to grips with the confirmation announced by the provincial government Monday.

“She was a good girl. She was a happy girl; too trusting at times,” Bartlett told the Free Press, describing the 26-year-old Indigenous mother of two.

A search for the remains of Myran and Morgan Beatrice Harris, 39, began in December.

The bodies of the women, both of whom were from Long Plain First Nation, were put in a garbage bin and then deposited at the landfill in the Rural Municipality of Rosser, north of Winnipeg.

Skibicki was convicted of their killings — as well as those of Rebecca Contois, 24, and an unidentified woman named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe (Buffalo Woman) by Indigenous elders — last year. The women were killed between March and May in 2022.

The province said on Feb. 26 that two sets of remains were recovered. One was confirmed as belonging to Harris on March 7.

Bartlett described a difficult period of waiting for the identification of her granddaughter’s remains.

She said she hopes the recovery sends a message to other killers who would attempt to dispose of evidence through landfills.

“(Investigators) can always locate them, especially when they have written records of which garbage truck came from where,” she said.

“There should be no price on a human being found. It doesn’t matter who it is. I wouldn’t wish this on anybody.”

The question of whether to search the landfill became a political issue during the 2023 provincial election campaign after a study pegged the cost at up to $184 million and warned about potential health hazards.

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The NDP, which won the election, promised during the campaign to search the landfill, while the governing Progressive Conservatives campaigned against it. The Manitoba and federal governments each put up $20 million for the search.

“Marcedes Myran and Morgan Harris are coming home,” Premier Wab Kinew said Monday afternoon in his office at the Manitoba legislature.

“This is what we set out to do. I don’t know if many of us knew the odds of success… but it turns out bringing them home was within our grasp.”

Kinew confirmed the search, which was initially expected to proceed throughout 2025, is ongoing.

Searchers have continued to recover what are believed to be additional remains from the victims and other “things that are significant,” he said.

“We’re going to continue the search effort, but at some point, probably in the near future, we’ll have that conversation with the families about when we move on to the next steps,” the premier said.

“We went through a whole heck of a lot to get to this point, but at the end of the day, we did the right thing.”–Premier Wab Kinew

Kinew said his government will continue to engage with members of the Indigenous community regarding Buffalo Woman, but did not confirm whether the search for her would continue.

He expressed empathy for the victims’ families.

“Their leadership and their resolve has been inspiring. They are very strong,” he said. “We went through a whole heck of a lot to get to this point, but at the end of the day, we did the right thing.”

Reactions to the announcement poured in throughout the afternoon, with Indigenous leaders offering condolences and condemning violence against Indigenous women.

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Kyra Wilson said Myran was “deeply cherished” by her children, her family and her community.

“For far too long, First Nations women have been treated as though they are disposable,” she said in a statement.

The loss of Myran and the fight to recover her remains was “incomprehensible,” Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said.

Manitoba Moon Voices, an organization representing Indigenous women in Manitoba, called the discovery “yet another painful reminder” of systemic injustices.

“We demand the full weight of the law be applied to every case of violence against Indigenous people. We call for thorough investigations, immediate action and a justice system that no longer looks away,” it said in a statement.

Danny Smyth, former chief of the Winnipeg Police Service, once called the recovery efforts “unfeasible.”

Gene Bowers, who was sworn in as the new chief of police Monday morning, said reconciliation will be among his priorities as WPS leader.

He did not confirm to reporters whether he planned to apologize to the Harris and Myran families. He said he will comment publicly once he meets with both families.

“I did accept Gene Bower’s apology. I said, ‘It’s OK for you to apologize, but you can’t make the apology for the ones that did it, the ones that were in charge.’”–Donna Bartlett

But Bartlett told the Free Press that Bowers extended an apology when they met last week, and she appreciated the gesture, but would have liked to hear it from Smyth and senior officials from the former Tory provincial government in person, she said.

Interim PC leader Wayne Ewasko issued an “unconditional apology” on behalf of the party to the loved ones of the four women in the legislature earlier this month.

“I did accept Gene Bower’s apology. I said, ‘It’s OK for you to apologize, but you can’t make the apology for the ones that did it, the ones that were in charge,’” Bartlett said.

“He said, ‘At least give me a chance.’”

The grandmother said she is hopeful the new chief is sincere in his commitment to reconciliation.

It’s not clear whether Bowers has met with members of the Harris family.

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The fight to find Myran’s remains was symbolic of larger issues faced by Indigenous people in Canada, Bartlett said.

“Us as First Nations people, we don’t count,” she said.

“Throughout my life I’ve experienced that. They always try to get rid of us, one way or another.”

She said she hopes to one day publish a book about Myran’s life.

“I’m planning to do that for her kids’ sake,” she said.

Myran’s children, aged 9 and 8, are now living with Bartlett. She planned to tell them their mother had been found when they returned home from school Monday afternoon, she said.

“I try not to hide anything from them because I know it hurts them, and it hurts me. I know they will find out through the school anyway, so it’s better for them to hear it from me,” she said.

The province intends to honour people who participated in the search, including those who helped build the required infrastructure at the Prairie Green site, Kinew said.

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree said mental-health and cultural-support services are available for family and friends of the victims.

“We will do what is both right and necessary to honour missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit, and gender-diverse people and combat this national crisis. It’s the right thing to do,” he said in a statement.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler 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.