Investigation underway after body found at recycling depot

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/05/2025 (439 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Homicide detectives are investigating after a body was found in suspicious circumstances at a Winnipeg recycling facility early Thursday morning.

Winnipeg Police Service officers were called to the Mazenod Road plant run by GFL Environmental in St. Boniface Industrial Park at about 7:50 a.m. after the discovery of the body, believed to have been a man.

Although homicide detectives are in charge of the probe, the person’s death is not at, this point, considered a slaying. Forensics officers are also involved in the investigation.

The person has yet to be identified.

Recycling pickup in the city was postponed Thursday but is expected to continue as normal on Friday. The recycling plant, at 335 Mazenod Rd., is just north of CN’s Symington Yards.

There were few details police spokeswoman Ally Cox said she could release on Thursday, but added she expected investigators would provide an update on the case as early as Friday.

“It’s too early,” she said. “At this point, we really can’t provide anything further.”

It was not clear Thursday whether the death is considered suspicious solely because of the circumstances in which the person was found, or if foul play is suspected.

A police forensics truck sat, along with three other police vehicles, in the parking lot outside of the nondescript grey recycling building early Thursday afternoon.

No other signs of the suspicious death investigation were apparent outside of the fenced-off property, with few workers or trucks moving around the facility’s yard.

Police have asked anyone with information that might assist detectives to call their office at 204-986-6508, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 204-786-8477 (TIPS).

GFL Environmental is a contractor for the city. All contractor trucks that carry out garbage and recycling collection for the municipal government have GPS tracking systems and cameras, City of Winnipeg spokeswoman Lisa Marquardson said.

The City of Winnipeg said residents whose recycling collection day is normally Thursday should put out their carts before 7 a.m. on Saturday, if it wasn’t picked up Thursday.

Marquardson said the city does not have a location other than the Mazenod Road plant where contractors can deliver collected recyclables.

Public concern over human remains being discarded in Winnipeg garbage or recycling receptacles and area landfills has grown in recent years, after convicted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki disposed of the four First Nations women he murdered in 2022 in dumpsters.

Partial remains of Rebecca Contois, 24, were found in a dumpster near Skibicki’s home in May 2022, sparking a homicide probe. The rest of her remains were found in the Brady Road landfill later in June that year.

Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 24, were deposited in the Prairie Green Landfill, north of the city. Their remains were discovered earlier this year.

The remains of Skibicki’s fourth victim, Ashlee Shingoose, 30, are believed to be in the Brady landfill.

Premier Wab Kinew promised a search of the Brady landfill after Shingoose was identified. A spokesman for the premier said Thursday that search is still being planned.

On March 29, the body of Bronson Emery Dale Kequahtooway, 30, was discovered in a garbage bin in the West End. Two men have been charged with second-degree murder.

Linda Mary Beardy, 33, was discovered dead at Brady landfill in April 2023. City police determined foul play was not suspected, after investigators found surveillance video showing her climbing into a bin shortly before a truck collected it.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca