The daughter of one of the victims of serial killer Jeremy Skibicki said on the final day of his trial that family members will be meeting with Premier Wab Kinew on Tuesday.
Cambria Harris made the announcement at the start of a news conference organized by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs on Monday afternoon, after closing arguments in Skibicki’s murder trial for killing four Indigenous women.
“I can only hope this is one step closer to bringing my mom home,” she said of the planned meeting and ceremony between the victims’ relatives and Kinew.
Skibicki has admitted to killing Rebecca Contois, Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran and an unidentified woman known as Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe (Buffalo Woman). His lawyers claimed at trial that he is not criminally responsible because of mental illness.
Harris said the families will resume their push to have the landfill where the remains of her mother and Myran are believed to be located searched.
“We put this fight on pause to attend the trial, essentially,” she said.
Harris — looking back on the trial, which started hearing evidence May 8 — said it was difficult to sit in a courtroom with the man who killed her mother and not be able to do anything about it.
Other family members and Indigenous leaders expressed hope Skibicki will be found guilty.
Chief Justice Glenn Joyal is slated to deliver his verdict on July 11.
fpcity@freepress.mb.ca