Police said they had identified Morgan Harris, 39, and had also found more remains of another person by Oliver Holmes, 10 Mar 2025, The Guardian
Canadian police have identified the remains of a murdered Indigenous woman at a landfill and found more remains from another person, after a months-long search demanded by the families of victims targeted by a serial killer.
Police said in a statement they had confirmed that human remains found in the Prairie Green Landfill, north of Winnipeg, had been identified as those of Morgan Harris, who was 39.
“Her family has been notified and the Manitoba government continues to ask that the family’s privacy be respected,” the statement said.
Harris was one of four women killed in 2022 by Jeremy Skibicki, who was given a life sentence in July 2024 after he was found guilty of first-degree murder.
Skibicki, 37, had admitted to killing Harris, Rebecca Contois, Marcedes Myran and an unidentified woman, who was named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe (Buffalo Woman) by Indigenous leaders.
Police said Harris’s remains were “one of two sets recovered in the search” but did not provide an identification for the second person.
The murders were first uncovered in 2022 when the remains of Contois were found in a dumpster near Skibicki’s home. Both Harris and Myran were believed to have been buried in the privately owned Prairie Green landfill, while few details have been released about Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe.
Police initially said that they did not have the resources to search the refuse at the facility, much of which was buried under tonnes of clay.
After the victims’ families and Indigenous groups in Winnipeg led marches and road blockades to pressure officials to approve a search, authorities pledged C$20m ($14.7m) for a search.
Harris’s daughter, Cambria, has been a champion of her mother and of the need for a search.
After police confirmed her mother’s remains had been identified, she wrote on Facebook that it was “a very bittersweet moment”.
“Please keep our families in your hearts tonight and every day going forward as we trust this process,” the post said. “I believe both our families will bring both of our loved ones home.”
At least 4,000 Indigenous women and girls have been murdered or gone missing in recent decades, in what a landmark 2019 report described as a “genocide”.
In a backdrop of systemic inequity and injustice, vulnerable Indigenous women continue to be victims of neglectful policies and state indifference.
Remains of Morgan Harris confirmed among those found at Winnipeg-area landfill, Remains recovered late last month are 1 of 2 sets found in search of Prairie Green site by Santiago Arias Orozco, CBC News, Mar 07, 2025
RCMP have confirmed a set of human remains found in a landfill outside Winnipeg late last month are those of Morgan Beatrice Harris, one of four victims of a convicted serial killer.
Experts have been searching for the remains of Harris and Marcedes Myran since late last year.
The two women, both from Long Plain First Nation, 95 kilometres west of Winnipeg, were murdered by serial killer Jeremy Skibicki in 2022.
Harris’ remains were found on Feb. 26 at the Prairie Green landfill north of Winnipeg.
- ‘I want my mom,’ says daughter of woman slain by serial killer, after possible remains found in landfill
- Possible human remains found at Manitoba landfill where search underway for slain First Nations women
In a Facebook post Cambria Harris, Morgan’s daughter, said Friday’s news was a “very bittersweet moment.”
“Please keep our families in your hearts tonight and every day going forward as we trust this process,” the post said. “I believe both our families will bring both of our loved ones home.”
The remains are one of two sets recovered in the search, the province said in a news release Friday evening, adding that as facts are confirmed, relevant authorities will provide more information.
Skibicki was convicted in July 2024 of four counts of first-degree murder in the killings of four women in Winnipeg in 2022.
In addition to Harris and Myran, he was found guilty in the deaths of Rebecca Contois, 24, and a still-unidentified woman who has been given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, by community leaders.
Investigators believe Contois was the last woman Skibicki killed, on May 14 or 15, 2022. They believe he killed Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe in mid-March of that year.
It’s believed Harris, 39, and Myran, 26 were killed in early May 2022.
Partial remains belonging to Contois were discovered in garbage bins near Skibicki’s apartment and at Winnipeg’s city-run Brady Road landfill.
During Skibicki’s trial, court heard that when Contois’ remains were found, Harris’s and Myran’s remains were in a dumpster just a few blocks away and about to be taken to a landfill that same morning.
It wasn’t until June 20, 2022, that police realized Harris’s and Myran’s remains had been taken to Prairie Green, and by then more than 10,000 loads of garbage had been dumped there.
Winnipeg police initially decided that it was not feasible to search the landfill.
The decision was backed by then-premier Heather Stefanson and her Progressive Conservative Party, leading to widespread anger among the families of the victims, First Nations leaders and community members.
During the last provincial election, the PCs campaigned on their opposition to a landfill search. In advertisements, the party said “for health and safety reasons, the answer on the landfill dig just has to be no.”
Evil racist fuckers, unforgivable.
Early this week the party’s interim leader apologized to the families of the four First Nations women for refusing to do the search.
Premier Wab Kinew’s NDP, which won the October 2023 election, promised during the campaign to launch a search.
In October 2024, excavators started moving material away from an area of the landfill where Harris’s and Myran’s remains were believed to be, with the search officially starting in December.
“Just like we said it from the very beginning, we lead and fought with our hearts and now her spirit can rest,” Melissa Robinson, Morgan’s cousin, said in a Facebook post Friday night.
Too late cruel racist douche fuckersManitoba PCs apologize to families of murdered women believed to be in Winnipeg-area landfill, Apology made in question period to families of 4 victims, including Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran by Tessa Adamski, CBC News, Mar 05, 2025
Manitoba’s Opposition Progressive Conservatives apologized to the families of four First Nations women murdered by a serial killer in 2022 for refusing to search a Winnipeg-area landfill where it’s believed the remains of two of the women were taken.
“Honourable Speaker, our government erred.No mistake was made. The vile PC’s ooozed their hatred and racism, it’s as simple as that. It’s as simple as that,” interim PC Leader Wayne Ewasko said during question period at the Manitoba Legislature on Wednesday.
“We went forward and followed advice to emphasize prosecution above all. We lost our way in regards to empathy and also lost our way in regards to closure being brought forward to the families of the victims,” Ewasko said.
While in government, the Progressive Conservatives, under then premier Heather Stefanson, said the province would not help fund the search for two women believed to be in the Prairie Green landfill, citing health and safety concerns for workers and low prospects of success.These vile excuses are never uttered when victims dumped in landfills are white.
The decision not to search the landfill for Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26, led to widespread anger among the families of the victims, First Nations leaders and community members.
- Possible human remains found at Manitoba landfill where search underway for slain First Nations women
- Manitoba premier suggests landfill search could jeopardize ‘judicial process.’ What might that mean?
An advertisement run by the PC Party before the October 2023 provincial election, in which the PCs were defeated by the NDP, said, “For health and safety reasons, the answer on the landfill dig just has to be no.”I will never forgive these PC fucks, or any other PC fucks in any other province, or racist PeePee’s federal Cons. Absolutely hideous inhumane humans.
Ewasko said the party is offering an “unconditional apology” to the families and that they have his word the party will “be better.”His word is worthless, untrustworthy. He’d do the same fucking abusive racist shit if the PCs were in power, and there are more murdered Indigenous women dumped in landfills. Never trust a Canadian con politico. Never.
When Ewasko was asked by reporters afterwards if he was apologizing for the ad campaign, the language used or the refusal to search the landfill, he said it was a “combination of everything.”
Cambria Harris, a daughter of Morgan Harris, said she feels conflicted about the public apology, saying no one from the PCs has contacted the family privately to apologize or discuss a human rights complaint she filed against the party over a year ago.
“I acknowledge the apology that was made today, but you know, if it wasn’t for those actions of the previous PC government, my family wouldn’t have been standing at the landfill today waiting for our loved ones to be brought home,” she told CBC.
“Apologizing is one thing, but actually taking accountability and changing your actions to ensure tragedy doesn’t happen like that again will say otherwise.” Well said. Bravo.
Possible remains found
Morgan Harris and Myran, both originally from Long Plain First Nation, were two of the victims of Jeremy Skibicki, who was convicted last July of four counts of first-degree murder in their killings, and in the deaths of Rebecca Contois, 24, from O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, and a still-unidentified woman who has been given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, by community leaders.
Contois’s partial remains were found in a garbage bin near Skibicki’s apartment in Winnipeg in mid-May 2022. More of her remains were found at the city-run Brady Road landfill in June 2022. The remains of Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe have never been found.
Police have said they believe she was Indigenous and in her 20s.
During the 2023 election campaign, the NDP committed to a search of the Prairie Green landfill for the remains of Harris and Myran.
Excavation work in that search began in December, and last week, possible human remains were found.
The families were notified of the discovery and spent the rest of the day at the landfill, Kinew previously said.
The following day, the families held a news conference urging the PC Party to do better.
PCs must prove they’ve learned: Kinew
Kinew said the work to search the landfill has been respectful of the families’ wishes, and has shown that searching the landfill was “always feasible.”
“It remains to be seen whether the Progressive Conservative Party … will learn the terrible mistakes of Heather Stefanson and take those going forward, but again, it’s up to them to show that through their actions now,” he said during question period Wednesday.
PC leadership candidate Obby Khan, who was a government cabinet minister while the Tories were campaigning against the landfill search, deflected questions on whether he agreed with the apology.
“I think that’s a question for the current interim leader to answer. When I become leader, I will have my statement going forward on that,”callous cowardKhan told reporters.
“Right now our interim leader has spoken and his comments are clear on [where] he stands.”
The other leadership candidate, business owner Wally Daudrich, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cambria Harris questions whether the party’s apology is genuine or an opportunity to “save face” after last week’s discovery of possible remains.
“We’re doing the work that they said couldn’t initially be done from the very beginning and my family was used for a political campaign … where they blasted billboards in all the spots that my mom was last seen,” she said.
“Their words, they’re just mere words right now until I see actions and healing within us as a people, but also within a government.”
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