Landfill search for murdered woman’s remains begins in Winnipeg

The province has started searching the Brady Road landfill for the remains of Ashlee Shingoose, who was murdered in 2022.

The search of a Winnipeg landfill for the remains of a murdered Indigenous woman has started.

Ashlee Shingoose, a 30-year-old woman from St. Theresa Point Anisininew Nation, was killed in March 2022 by convicted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki.

Police believe Skibicki put Shingoose’s body in a garbage bin and the contents were taken to Brady Road Landfill in the city’s south end.

On Monday, Premier Wab Kinew confirmed crews have started probing the landfill for Shingoose’s remains after a preliminary search was completed this summer.

“At about 8:45 a.m. today, the first truckload of landfill material drove down the hill at the Brady Road landfill and searchers began their work to look for Ashlee Shingoose,” Kinew told reporters.

Kinew said he took part in a pipe ceremony with Shingoose’s family, including her sister, who is participating in the search, as work got underway.

“I just told her parents, ‘I hope you feel this is the value and the respect and the dignity we hold for your daughter, and I hope we’re able to bring her home and bring her home soon.’”

Skibicki was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder in July 2024 in the killings of Shingoose, Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran and Rebecca Contois. He is serving four concurrent life sentences with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Contois’ partial remains were discovered in May 2022, igniting a police investigation that led to Skibicki. The remains of Harris and Myran were found this year at the Prairie Green landfill north of Winnipeg.

During the investigation and Skibicki’s trial, Shingoose’s identity was unknown, and she was gifted the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe (Buffalo Woman) by members of the Indigenous community.

In March, investigators confirmed Shingoose was Buffalo Woman following a prison interview with Skibicki and a positive DNA match from evidence found at either Skibicki’s home or a nearby garbage bin.

Kinew said the process at Brady Road will be conducted similarly to the Prairie Green landfill search.

He said crews will be using the same search facility, equipment and procedures to comb through the landfill materials.

Kinew said the workers previously conducted test searches and are now pulling from the targeted zone where Shingoose’s remains are believed to be.

“We have teams of searchers methodically working through the landfill material,” Kinew explained. “This is the same process that brought Morgan and Marcedes home.”

Kinew said the search could take up to a year and it will be funded through money earmarked prior to the Prairie Green excavation.

The Manitoba government said that the search cost around $18 million — well below an initial estimate of $184 million.

Once the Shingoose search is completed, Kinew said crews will look for the remains of Tanya Nepinak. She was last seen in Winnipeg in September 2011, and police believe her body was put in a garbage bin and taken to the Brady Road landfill as well.

With files from CTV’s Danton Unger