DNA belonging to Ashlee Shingoose was found in Jeremy Skibicki’s apartment. She has been missing since 2022. Photo: Winnipeg police.
Warning: This story contains disturbing details. Please read with care.
APTN News: The Winnipeg Police Service confirmed the DNA of four Indigenous women inside the home of their self-confessed killer, a court heard Thursday, along with the DNA profiles of 12 more women.
Police forensic identification officer Jan de Vries said he sent clothing, jewelry and blood stains from the apartment of Jeremy Skibicki for testing in May 2022 that positively identified Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran and Rebecca Contois, three First Nations women who were slain in the spring of 2022.
The testing also confirmed the presence of a fourth victim known as Buffalo Woman, an Indigenous person police have been unable to identify, de Vries said.
The prosecution has alleged the murders were “racially motivated.”
Crown attorney Christian Vanderhooft said nine of the 16 female DNA profiles were not identified by police.
That means their DNA is not on file with the police.
It does not mean they were victims of a crime.
He did not name two of the three DNA profiles identified by police; the one he named was that of Andrea Cederwall.
None of the crimes have been proven in court.
Defence lawyer Leonard Tailleur has said Skibicki, 37, killed Harris, Myran, Contois and Buffalo Woman between March and May of 2022, but was mentally ill. He said his client suffers from borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
He asked Justice Glenn Joyal of Manitoba Court of King’s Bench to find his client not criminally responsible.
In an interview with two Winnipeg police homicide detectives, Skibicki appeared lucid and calm. He recounted the killings in a nonchalant manner over seven hours following his arrest on May 18, 2022.
In the videotaped interview shown at his trial on four first-degree murder charges, Skibicki said he self-medicated with marijuana and was coming down from magic mushrooms or high on methamphetamine when he committed the crimes.
Joyal has heard graphic testimony all week and Thursday was no exception.
Vanderhooft led de Vries through more than 100 crime scene photos of items he swabbed, tested and fingerprinted from inside Skibicki’s apartment and recovered from various garbage bins and dumpsters in the blocks surrounding the McKay Avenue building. The items included furniture, household goods, clothing, shoes, hats, jackets, underwear and jewelry.
Also, de Vries confirmed he located some of the remains of Contois inside garbage bags while searching residential and commercial garbage bins and dumpsters in the area.
Police have said they recovered additional remains of Contois in the city’s landfill, but they refused to search the landfill for the remains of Harris, Myran and Buffalo Woman.
Skibicki was captured on residential and commercial surveillance video putting garbage bags in bins and dumpsters in his North Kildonan neighborhood before his arrest, Vanerhooft said.
The photos were not displayed in the courtroom, but members of the victims’ families could be seen bowing their heads or closing their eyes as the images were described.
Among the items de Vries located in Skibicki’s apartment was a black “combat-style or hunting” knife with a serrated blade. He said the blade and hilt tested positive for human “biological material.”
Skibicki told investigators on the video he dismembered Contois’ body in the apartment.
The bathtub, where he described drowning the victims after strangling or choking them, also tested positive for latent blood “not visible to the human eye,” said de Vries. A wall in the bathroom, the bathroom door, two mattresses and a pillow also tested positive for human blood, he added.
Vanderhooft said DNA of Ashlee Shingoose was identified in Skibicki’s apartment, a woman from St. Theresa Point First Nation in northern Manitoba who has been missing in Winnipeg since March 2022. Police said the 31-year-old mother of three was last seen near the Salvation Army homeless shelter in Winnipeg’s inner city.
Court has heard Skibicki met his victims at Winnipeg homeless shelters.
Shingoose’s father, believing she might be Buffalo Woman, travelled nearly 500 km to Winnipeg in January 2023 to provide police with a DNA sample.
But it was no match and Buffalo Woman remains unidentified, although police have said she is an Indigenous woman in her 20s.
Police confirmed Thursday that Shingoose is still missing.
Vanderhooft also revealed that Cederwall, a mother of three who grew up in Kenora, Ont., has since died. She was 34, according to her obituary.
A black, Baby Phat jacket is the only item police linked to Buffalo Woman via DNA, court was told. The Crown said it was recovered from a man who police said bought it from Skibicki on Facebook Markeplace, after she was killed.
A running shoe with DNA of Myran was found in the apartment, said de Vries, while its mate was located in a nearby garbage bin. He also discovered a Ziploc bag marked with the name “Harris, Morgan” and her date of birth that de Vries said looked like it came from a hospital.
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Vanderhooft noted de Vries also photographed Skibicki for police purposes and asked whether he had concerns about Skibicki’s behaviour or mental health, to which the officer replied “No,” he “did not.”
Meanwhile, the day got off to a tense start when the judge told court he’d been made aware of a “security concern related to some of the families involved.”
Without revealing many details, Joyal said a male had been prevented from entering the courtroom by Sheriff’s officers who provide security at the downtown complex. The male had attended a pre-trial hearing related to the case in November 2023.
Joyal provided an update at the end of the day noting Winnipeg police and their Major Crimes Unit has been made aware of the situation.
The trial is scheduled to resume Friday morning.
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.
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