Three years ago, the body of an Indigenous woman murdered by a convicted serial killer was found in a landfill in central Canada.
Morgan Harris One of the Indigenous women killed by Jeremy Skibicki, she was sentenced to multiple life sentences after being sentenced to four murders last year.
Skibicki encountered his victims in a homeless shelter, a symbol of the dangers facing Canadian women, where they became disproportionately victims of violence, known as the 2019 National Public Inquiry.
Testimony at Skibicki’s trial said he raped, killed and dismembered Harris and another woman, Marcedes Myran, in 2022.
Photo by Shay Conroy in The Washington Post via Getty Images
Police believe their bodies were left at the site of a prairie green landfill north of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Last month, authorities announced the discovery of the remains of two bodies at the scene. They confirmed that a group of remains were Harris’s body later Friday.
“Manitoba Police” confirmed that the human remains found in the search for green landfills in the grasslands has been identified as the remains of Morgan Beatrice Harris of the First Nation of Rompley, the province said in a statement Friday. ”
It added that the identification of the second group of remains would be “as facts were confirmed.”
The body of Rebecca Contois, another victim of Skibicki, was found in a separate landfill and a trash can, while the remains of the fourth unidentified victim in his 20s remain missing.
In a social media article, Harris’s daughter called her mother’s body a “bitter-pleasant moment.”
“She went home like we said from the beginning…we fought our hearts and now her spirit can rest in peace.”
Harris and Myran’s families urged authorities in Manitoba to find the body.
Manitoba Prime Minister Wab Kinew, the first indigenous to lead the Canadian province, said in a social media article: “We are honored to you Morgan Harris”.
In December 2022, Winnipeg Police Chief Danny Smyth wrote an open letter to Indigenous leaders, acknowledging the “unthinkable” pain around the case.
“The investigation involving Rebecca Contois, Marcedes Myran, Morgan Harris and Buffalo women has been one of the most complex and important homicide investigations of my tenure,” Smith wrote. “I heard calls from families, indigenous leaders and communities. I understand your calls; pain and sorrow are unimaginable.”
Shay Conroy via Getty Images for The Washington Post
Although only five percent of the female population, indigenous women represent about one-fifth of all women who died in gender-related homicides in the country.
There are similar crises In the United StatesNative American Women The goal is disproportionate In murders, whether on reservations or in nearby towns, sexual assault and other acts of violence.
According to anti-sex attack group Rainn, there were more than 5,700 reports in 2016 that indigenous women and girls disappeared in 2016, citing statistics from the National Crime Information Center. The Indian Affairs Bureau recently estimated that about 4,200 missing and murdered indigenous peoples have not been resolved.
Last month, a woman’s body was found dead on a reservation in southwestern South Dakota Determined as Ms. Su A missing person over a year ago.
