The families and supporters of murdered women enter the Manitoba Law Courts for the trial of Jeremy Skibicki in Winnipeg on May 8.JOHN WOODS/The Canadian Press
A superior court heard the exhaustive account on Friday about how police traced the remains of three of the four First Nations women disposed by an admitted serial killer to different Winnipeg-area landfills.
After retrieving the severed head of one of the victims, Rebecca Contois, from a residential bin outside Jeremy Skibicki’s apartment on May 16, 2022, police halted all garbage collection services around the city’s Kildonan area, Constable Brian Neumann testified before Court of King’s Bench Justice Glenn Joyal.
The service stop was ordered because, by the time investigators were able to inspect the three bins that Mr. Skibicki confessed to having used to dump Ms. Contois’s remains, a garbage truck had already emptied one of them at the Brady Road landfill in the southern outskirts of Winnipeg. Constable Neumann told the court that, after weeks of planning, a multiday search started the following month.
Wrapped in a multicoloured bed sheet and pieces of black plastic, Ms. Contois’s torso was eventually located on June 14 in a three-acre section of the landfill, the Constable said. A small group of Ms. Contois’s relatives sitting in the back corner of the gallery whimpered as he spoke Friday, leaving the courtroom shortly thereafter.
According to an agreed statement of facts by both the Crown and defence, two years ago, Mr. Skibicki killed the yet-to-be-identified woman whom Indigenous elders have named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, meaning Buffalo Woman, on or about March 15; 39-year-old Morgan Harris on or about May 1; 26-year-old Marcedes Myran on or about May 4; and 24-year-old Ms. Contois on or about May 15.
While Mr. Skibicki has admitted to the killings, his trial, which began this week, now rests on whether the defence can show he was too mentally ill to be held criminally responsible of first-degree murder.
The Crown is arguing that Mr. Skibicki murdered the women in a calculated and thought-out scheme after preying on them at shelters for vulnerable people. To prove that he was criminally responsible, the prosecutors have been presenting graphic evidence since Wednesday that they believe demonstrates his planning before and after the killings.
Mr. Skibicki’s defence lawyers have pointed out that he disclosed a borderline personality disorder to police during his nearly 20-hour interrogation and that he struggled with posttraumatic stress disorder, which the lawyers plan to further explore in the next few weeks.
Jeremy Skibicki admitted in a Winnipeg superior court on May 6 that he killed four First Nations women. His lawyers are arguing that he’s not criminally responsible due to mental illness.
The Globe and Mail
The trial, which has been adjourned until Monday, is expected to continue until June 6. Prosecutor Christian Vanderhooft said in a brief interview that the Crown intends to rest its case on May 24, after which the court will adjourn for a short period before the defence presents its arguments.
On Friday, Constable Neumann testified that the remains of Ms. Harris and Ms. Myran are believed to have gone to the separate Prairie Green landfill, north of the city. This, he added, is partly based on information obtained by police from the GPS of some garbage trucks that had carried the bins in which Mr. Skibicki confessed to have dumped their bodies.
Although police had assessed the Prairie Green site, it was considered too dangerous to conduct a full search there in 2022 because of hazardous chemicals and waste, Constable Neumann said. Since then, the elevation of the landfill has “gone up 40 feet,” he said, adding that exposure to heat has likely also increased the decomposition of the potential remains.
(The Manitoba and federal governments each committed $20-million to an effort to search the Prairie Green landfill in late March, but have not indicated a timeline.)
The whereabouts of Buffalo Woman’s remains have not been determined, the Constable said. Earlier this week, police identification specialist Constable Jan de Vries testified that Buffalo Woman’s DNA, swabbed from a jacket belonging to her, has not been matched to anyone yet.
Winnipeg pathologist Raymond Rivera, an agreed expert for both sides, was also questioned in court Friday about the autopsy he performed on the remains of Ms. Contois. He explained the gruesome nature of the injuries to her body that led to her death and what was done to her remains after her killing.
Dr. Rivera said petechiae, which are tiny spots of bleeding under the skin, were found across Ms. Contois’s body, including her forehead and eyeballs – showing she was strangled.
During his interrogation by Detective Sergeant Greg Allan, a shortened video of which was shown in court Wednesday, Mr. Skibicki said he had been consuming psychedelic mushrooms before one of the killings and was high on methamphetamine for the other three.
Dr. Rivera said that traces of methamphetamine were also found in Ms. Contois’s system, but there was not enough of a sample in her dismembered body parts to test for any other drugs.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to more accurately describe the reaction of Rebecca Contois's relatives in the courtroom.
Temur Durrani