WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
Items belonging to four slain women, including earrings and clothing, were found by Winnipeg police in the home of the man accused of first-degree murder in their deaths, his trial heard on Thursday.
Const. Jan De Vries, who is a 21-year veteran and was working in the Winnipeg Police Service’s forensic identification unit at the time of the killings, testified Thursday at the trial of Jeremy Skibicki, 37.
Defence lawyers have said Skibicki admits to the 2022 killings of three First Nations women — Rebecca Contois, 24, Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26 — as well as the death of an as-yet unidentified women who has been given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, by community leaders. Police have said they believe she was in her 20s and was Indigenous.
However, Skibicki’s lawyers are arguing he should be found not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder.
All four women were killed in Winnipeg between mid-March and mid-May of 2022 and were living in Winnipeg at the time, police have previously said.
De Vries testified Thursday he was one of the officers called to the scene behind Edison Avenue in northeast Winnipeg in May 2022, after partial human remains were found inside a North Kildonan dumpster.
The remains were later identified as those of Rebecca Contois.
De Vries, who said he was involved in collecting evidence from multiple crime scenes, outlined DNA and physical evidence found inside Skibicki’s North Kildonan apartment suite.
That included items such as earrings and clothing that belonged to Contois, Harris and Myran, along with blood stains officers were able to match to the women.
Harris’s name was also found printed on a Ziploc hospital bag. Police also found a jacket which they have said belonged to Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe.
De Vries said blood stains were also found on a number of areas throughout the suite.
Skibicki’s judge-alone murder trial in Manitoba’s Court of King’s Bench before Chief Justice Glenn Joyal began hearing evidence on Wednesday. It continues Thursday afternoon.
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.