Grieving relatives blast landfill search doubters

WINNIPEG — Relatives of two victims of a serial killer are speaking out after a discovery at a landfill outside Winnipeg, with one saying “to hell with” those who were against searching the site.

Possible human remains were identified Wednesday in material found at Prairie Green Landfill north of the city. Excavation work at the landfill and a search through material for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran — two of Jeremy Skibicki’s four victims — began in December.

At a news conference Thursday, Melissa Robinson, a cousin of Harris, criticized the Winnipeg Police Service and the previous Progressive Conservative government under premier Heather Stefanson for refusing to search the landfill.

“You know what? To hell with all you guys, ’cause it got done. And it’s just beginning,” Robinson said. “We’re gonna continue pushing the search. We’re just going to continue lifting each other up.”

Robinson said she was “pretty emotional” Thursday.

“That scary movie we’ve been living for the past couple of years has become a reality,” she said. “I think the shock of everything has finally hit me,” said Robinson, whose husband is taking part in the search.

“It honestly just really makes my blood boil to think for two years we were constantly told ‘no’ because it couldn’t be done or it was like looking for a needle in a haystack,” she said. “Yet, here we are less than three months of the search commencing and already remains have been found.”

The question of whether to search the landfill became a political issue during the last election campaign after a feasibility study pegged the cost at up to $184 million and warned about potential health hazards. The NDP, who won the October 2023 vote, promised to search the landfill, while the Tories campaigned against a search. The provincial and federal governments have each put up $20 million for the search.

Morgan Harris’s daughter, Elle Harris, also criticized those who were against searching the landfill.

“No family, no person, should go through what we went through. And again, to every one of you that said no, to every one of you that didn’t believe in us — do better. Do better,” she said.

“How could you? How can you say no to somebody’s little girl? That’s my mom in there.”

Elle Harris said Wednesday was a difficult day, saying, “My heart dropped right down to my stomach” when she was told about the discovery.

“Yesterday, all I could think about was, ‘I want my mom.’ No one should go through any type of heartbreak without their mom,” she said. “Yesterday, when I left the landfill, I felt like I was abandoning her again. I left like I was leaving her.”

Jorden Myran, a sister of Myran, said Wednesday was the day the families have been waiting for.

“Although it’s a good thing that we found the remains, it’s also very, very hard,” she said.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs organized the news conference. Grand Chief Kyra Wilson said missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls need to be found.

“It does definitely bring deep grief, but it also reinforces what we’ve known… our sisters, our stolen sisters, deserve to be found, deserve to be honoured, and they deserve to be laid to rest with dignity,” she said.

The Winnipeg Police Service declined to comment Thursday about whether it is reviewing processes or policies that led to the 2022 decision not to search the landfill or whether it had any regrets.

“Out of respect to the families involved and in order to maintain the integrity of the ongoing investigation, the Winnipeg Police Service is not in a position to provide comment on the recent development regarding the Prairie Green Landfill search,” an email said.

The PCs were also asked if they had any regrets about refusing to search the landfill when they were in government or making it part of their election campaign.

Interim leader Wayne Ewasko “will not be commenting at this time out of respect for the families and the ongoing search,” PC caucus communications said in an email.

“It’s disappointing that we can’t expect better from some of our political leaders than what we’re seeing,” Brandon University political science Prof. Kelly Saunders said of the Tory response.

“This is a moment when I think they can really step up to the plate and bring about healing and justice and compassion and to show that they deserve our vote and they deserve to be our representatives, and it’s more than just balancing budgets,” Saunders said, repeating the call from Elle Harris.

“We have to do better: all of us as settlers, allies and systems — the criminal justice system, education system, the health system, political leaders and legislative bodies, policing bodies,” Saunders said.

When the potential human remains were discovered Wednesday, Premier Wab Kinew told reporters he’s hoping for unity.

“I hope that this news just brings us back together as one province in one country — that it allows us to live together and just say, ‘You know what? When it’s someone’s loved one, we just want them treated with the same respect as our own.’”

» Winnipeg Free Press, with files from Adam Treusch