WARNING: This story contains details about violence against Indigenous women.
Family members of three First Nations women targeted by a serial killer in 2022 spoke, at times through tears, in a Winnipeg courtroom Wednesday morning about the devastation they’ve gone through since learning their loved ones had been killed.
Jeremy Skibicki, 37, sat staring straight ahead at his sentencing hearing on four counts of first-degree murder as one by one, relatives and advocates rose to tell the packed courtroom how the killings rattled the women’s families and sent shock waves through communities across the country.
“This has been horrific to go through,” read Elle Harris, the youngest daughter of Morgan Harris, from a victim impact statement as a family member stood at her side.
“Do you know how many times I had to listen to how my mother was murdered?”
Court also heard from First Nations leaders during the sentencing hearing, who described how the women’s killings took an emotional and psychological toll even on community members not directly related to the victims.
“The heinous crimes committed by Mr. Skibicki have left deep scars on First Nations communities,” Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Cathy Merrick said, pausing to hold back tears as she read from a community impact statement.
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Sandra DeLaronde reads a victim impact statement prepared by the organization Giganawenimaanaanig that was to be shared at Wednesday’s sentencing hearing for serial killer Jeremy Skibicki. The group gathered feedback from across Manitoba after Skibicki was found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder.
Skibicki was found guilty on July 11 of first-degree murder in the deaths of Harris, Marcedes Myran, Rebecca Contois and an unidentified woman whom community members have given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman. His crimes carry an automatic life sentence.
Harris, 39, and Myran, 26, were both members of Long Plain First Nation. Contois, 24, was from O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, also known as Crane River. Police believe Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe was an Indigenous woman in her 20s.
All four women were killed in Winnipeg starting in mid-March to May 2022, when Skibicki was arrested.
The sentencing hearing is being held at the request of the Crown, to allow the victims’ families and the community an opportunity to provide impact statements. Sentencing hearings don’t typically happen after a first-degree murder conviction because of the automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 25 years.
Giganawenimaanaanig — formerly known as the MMIWG2S+ Implementation Committee — created an impact statement on behalf of the wider community after holding engagement sessions in Winnipeg, Brandon, The Pas and Thompson that were attended by about 60 people.
Skibicki confessed to the murders while he was being interrogated by Winnipeg police in 2022, telling police the murders were racially motivated.
During the trial, which was heard before a judge alone, Skibicki’s lawyers argued he was not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder. Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal disagreed, saying comments he made during his confession showed the murders were deliberate and planned.
Contois’s partial remains were found in garbage bins near Skibicki’s apartment and at the Brady Road landfill in south Winnipeg.
A search for Harris’s and Myran’s remains — believed to be at the Prairie Green landfill just outside the city — is expected to start in the fall.
The location of Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe’s remains is unknown.
Support is available for anyone affected by these reports and the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous people. Immediate emotional assistance and crisis support are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through a national hotline at 1-844-413-6649.
You can also access, through the government of Canada, health support services such as mental health counselling, community-based support and cultural services, and some travel costs to see elders and traditional healers. Family members seeking information about a missing or murdered loved one can access Family Information Liaison Units.