Workers begin Winnipeg landfill search

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This article was published 03/12/2024 (385 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — Workers began sifting through material excavated from a Winnipeg-area landfill Monday as the search for the remains of two First Nations women slain by a serial killer officially began.

The effort to find Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26, entered a fourth, and possibly final, stage shortly after 6 a.m., almost two years to the day their families were told the missing women were dead.

“While I am professionally obligated to remind everyone that we don’t know what the odds of this situation being successful are, in terms of recovering the remains of Morgan and Marcedes, we can say with confidence that we have a chance for this search to succeed,” Premier Wab Kinew told reporters after returning from the Prairie Green Landfill, where he watched the latest phase begin alongside some of the women’s family members.

“No matter what lies ahead, we can say that we tried and we made the effort for these families, which is very significant.”

Kinew said preparatory work that began at about 6 a.m. was followed by the start of excavation.

The first truck carrying excavated material delivered its load to a purpose-built search facility shortly after 10 a.m.

There, skid-steer operators spread the material on the floor, where search technicians — wearing personal protective equipment — went through the waste with gloved hands and rakes.

Kinew said some items that were found indicate workers are “in the right date range and time.”

Workers are looking for receipts and other dated items within excavated material to help narrow the search area.

The federal and provincial governments each contributed $20 million to search a section of the sprawling, privately run landfill.

The search could continue into 2026, depending on its progress, officials said previously. The target area could be excavated to a depth of about 10 metres, the province has said.

Kinew said he met with members of the Harris and Myran families Sunday to mark two years since police told them their loved ones were dead.

He was with two family members Monday, when the first load of excavated material was taken from the landfill to the search facility.

“It is an intense emotion that you feel standing on that site with those families,” he said.

“I just want to say on behalf of the people of Manitoba that we are making this effort to find your loved ones. I hope you know you are loved and valued, and that Morgan and Marcedes are loved and valued.”

Efforts to search the targeted area began months ago. Workers started removing a layer of material, roughly four metres deep, above the target area in October.

Kinew said a layer of more than 18,000 tonnes of landfill material was removed. That material will be stored in case it needs to be searched, as well.

The premier said asbestos within the layer was moved “safely and without issue.”

He said workers are going through a “very meticulous” process of donning and removing protective equipment.

“When we’re talking about the personal protective equipment, picture the COVID (intensive care unit) combined with the steel toes, high vis (gear) and hard hats of a construction site,” Kinew said.

“I’m confident the health and safety of workers on site is being safeguarded,” he said.

Nearly 200 people applied to be part of the search. There are 45 search team members.

Kinew said “everything that was previously proffered as an excuse,” including the cost, safety hazards such as asbestos or the likelihood of finding a zone of interest — has been “systematically disproven.”

The search will continue through cold weather and snow. The temperature was about -18 C when the work began Monday. The quonset steel structure where the search is taking place has indoor heaters but is by no means “balmy,” said Amna Mackin, the assistant deputy minister leading the operation.

Other structures, including a healing lodge for the women’s families and trailers for searchers, were built or moved to the site for the search effort. Utilities were connected to the site, and an access road was built.

The Winnipeg Police Service believes Harris and Myran’s remains were put in a garbage bin off Henderson Highway in May 2022. The bin’s contents were deposited at Prairie Green, just north of Winnipeg in the Rural Municipality of Rosser.

The landfill is owned by Ontario-based Waste Connections of Canada.

A First Nations-led study found a landfill search is feasible and risks, including asbestos and other toxic material, can be mitigated. The study said there was no guarantee of success.

In question period Monday, the government took every opportunity to remind Manitobans that the opposition Tories campaigned against conducting a landfill search. In response to questions ranging from post-secondary education to violent crime, addictions and the carbon tax on farm fuel, government ministers responded by taking shots at the Progressive Conservatives’ refusal to search as part of their 2023 election campaign platform.

The fourth stage began about three months after Jeremy Skibicki was sentenced to four concurrent life sentences with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Skibicki, 37, admitted to killing Harris, Myran and two other First Nations women — Rebecca Contois and an unidentified victim who was given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe (Buffalo Woman) by First Nations community members — but pleaded not guilty, claiming he was not criminally responsible due to mental disorder.

A judge convicted him of four counts of first-degree murder.

Contois’ remains were found in a garbage bin in North Kildonan in May 2022 and a section of the city-run Brady Road landfill during a search by police the following month.

Buffalo Woman’s remains have not been found.

» Winnipeg Free Press, with files from Carol Sanders