WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
An admitted serial killer was seen coming and going from his Winnipeg apartment carrying waste bins around 2 a.m. on May 16, 2022 — just hours before the partial remains of one of his victims were found by someone looking for items to salvage in a nearby garbage bin, his trial heard Wednesday.
One of Jeremy Skibicki’s neighbours told court he woke up early that morning to the sounds of someone “running up and down the stairs” with boots on, and he wondered if his McKay Avenue apartment building in North Kildonan had been broken into.
Allan MacKay said when he left his suite to confront the person making the noise, he saw it was Skibicki, who was not wearing a shirt.
“He comes downstairs carrying a couple of baskets in his arm. I said, ‘What are you doing?’ He said, ‘I’m getting rid of garbage,'” MacKay testified.
“I said, ‘Well, do it during the day. People go to work in the morning.'”
MacKay said he heard Skibicki go up and down the stairs a few more times that morning.
He couldn’t see what was inside the bins in Skibicki’s arms.
Court previously heard a man found the partial remains of Rebecca Contois, one of four women Skibicki has admitted to killing, while sifting through dumpsters in the area early that morning. That man called 911 to report his discovery at 5:24 a.m.
Later that same morning, police announced to the public that they’d found human remains in the area.
Skibicki, 37, is accused of four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of three First Nations women — Contois, 24, Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26 — as well as the death of an as-yet-unidentified woman who has been given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, by community leaders. She is believed to have been in her 20s when she died.
All four women were killed in Winnipeg between mid-March and mid-May 2022, police have previously said. While Skibicki was initially arrested only in connection with Contois’s death in May 2022 after her partial remains were discovered, he unexpectedly ended up also confessing to four killings — three of which police had no knowledge of.
Prosecutors have said the women’s deaths were “intentional, purposeful and racially motivated,” and alleged Skibicki preyed on vulnerable Indigenous women at Winnipeg homeless shelters.
Contois was a member of O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, also known as Crane River. Harris and Myran were both members of Long Plain First Nation. Police have said they believe Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe was also Indigenous.
Defence lawyers say Skibicki admits to the killings, but should be found not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder.
Court also heard Wednesday from another neighbour of the accused, who testified he saw Skibicki not long after Contois’s partial remains were discovered.
Skibicki disposed of an armful of clothing in one of the building’s garbage bins, then lined it up with the others that were already out for garbage collection, Allen Cohan testified.
“Sweaters or jeans or leggings … stuff like that. Just a big armful of clothes,” Cohan told court.
Cohan said he looked inside the bin after Skibicki threw the clothes inside, and saw the clothing and a pink backpack, covered by a piece of cardboard or particle board.
Skibicki’s defence team didn’t ask any cross-examination questions of either witness Wednesday morning.
The judge-alone trial before Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal, which is now in its second week, is scheduled to continue Wednesday afternoon with testimony from two more witnesses. The trial is expected to continue until June 6.
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.