Killer pleads guilty to second-degree murder of woman in downtown suite last fall

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This article was published 19/08/2025 (221 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man has admitted responsibility in the slaying of a 28-year-old mother of four inside a downtown apartment suite last fall.

Ryan John Kennedy, 33, pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder in the Oct. 31, 2024, killing of Briannah Clowes.

Kennedy remains in custody and will be sentenced at a later date following the completion of reports examining his background and personal history.

Members of Clowes’ family wept in court as Crown attorney Carla Dewar outlined the circumstances of the killing in advance of Kennedy’s guilty plea.

Court heard Clowes was sleeping in the suite of a male resident at The Promenade apartment complex behind Portage Place mall when Kennedy arrived at about 5:30 a.m. Kennedy and the other man smoked crack together and Kennedy showed him a butcher knife and cleaver he was carrying before the two men fell asleep.

Clowes, Kennedy and the male resident all awoke around noon and spent about an hour together “with no issues,” before the male resident left the suite to run some errands, Dewar told King’s Bench Justice Herbert Rempel.

Sometime between 1 p.m. and 1:35 p.m., Kennedy armed himself with a knife and stabbed and slashed Clowes 44 times about the head and body, “rendering her immobile” on the floor, Dewar said.

Kennedy left the suite minutes later wearing a parka with a “prominent” blood stain on the sleeve. Kennedy walked to Portage Place mall, where he met his brother and his brother’s girlfriend.

“(Kennedy) threw his parka in the garbage and these people gave him a hoodie to wear in place of it,” Dewar said.

The apartment suite resident returned home around 3 p.m. and found Clowes dying on the floor. Clowes was rushed to Health Sciences Centre where she died a short time later.

Kennedy’s presence in the suite at the time of the killing was confirmed by the male resident and security video.

Police arrested Kennedy two days later. Kennedy admitted to killing Clowes and claimed he was acting in self-defence.

Court was not told if Kennedy and Clowes knew each other prior to the killing.

A more detailed accounting of the circumstances surrounding Clowes’ killing will be provided to court when Kennedy is sentenced, Dewar said.

Questioned by Rempel in court, Kennedy confirmed he had no legal defence for killing Clowes.

Clowes, who once worked as a health-care aide at St. Boniface Hospital, strove for a better future for herself and her children, her sister Shauna Clowes wrote in a message to the Free Press following her murder.

“(Briannah) was done wrong by many people and the system. She truly deserved better,” Shauna Clowes wrote. “This heinous act of violence should not go unpunished.”

The minimum sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca