As one Manitoba landfill search for First Nations women's remains ends, another is set to begin
Searchers will soon look for remains of Ashlee Shingoose, after finding remains of 2 other women in February
Donna Bartlett's family is still coming to terms with the end of a months-long search of a Winnipeg-area landfill for her granddaughter, after it wrapped up last week with only some of Marcedes Myran's remains located.
"It was, I guess, hurtful," Bartlett said, adding searchers were able to find only about 15 per cent of her granddaughter's total remains since the process began in December.
"I would have liked them to continue searching, but [it was] because they haven't found anything I think in about a month that they said … they were done."
Myran was one of four First Nations women killed by Jeremy Skibicki in Winnipeg in 2022. Skibicki was convicted of first-degree murder last year in her death and the deaths of Morgan Harris, Rebecca Contois and Ashlee Shingoose.
Both Myran, 26, and Harris, 39, were originally from Long Plain First Nation in south-central Manitoba, while Shingoose, 30, was from St. Theresa Point Anisininew Nation in northeastern Manitoba.
Contois, 24, was a member of O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, also known as Crane River, on the western shore of Lake Manitoba.
While some remains belonging to Harris and Myran were found at the Winnipeg-area Prairie Green landfill earlier this year, Contois's partial remains were found in May 2022 in a garbage bin near Skibicki's apartment in Winnipeg's North Kildonan area, and more were found the following month at the Brady Road landfill.
That Winnipeg landfill is also where Shingoose's remains are now believed to be.
Bartlett said she feels torn as the search for her granddaughter's remains ends, but she knows it means those resources will move to soon start searching for Shingoose.
"I still appreciate them finding some of her. They actually did it," Bartlett said in an interview Friday. "It's kind of heartbreaking, and at the same time, it's kind of good that they're going to search for the other woman."
Albert Shingoose said he's trying to stay strong as the process gets underway to start searching for his daughter, who was identified as the previously-unknown victim in the case earlier this year.
But he's hoping to push the province to also search the Brady landfill for the remains of Tanya Nepinak, whose remains were believed to have been taken to that site after she went missing at age 31 over a decade ago.
A search for Nepinak's remains was launched in October 2012, but it was cancelled after six days with no evidence located.
"I know how it feels to lose a daughter," Shingoose said in an interview in Winnipeg, where he and his family are staying after wildfires forced them out of their homes in St. Theresa Point.
"For so many years that they're not looking for her, and the family [has] been asking for help."
Melissa Robinson knows how it feels to lose a loved one, too — her cousin, Harris, was the other woman whose remains were recently found in the Prairie Green landfill alongside Myran's.
Now, she said she hopes to use her family's experience to help families like the Shingooses.
"What they primarily need is just people there. You know, people there to hold them up, right, when they're feeling like they just can't do it anymore," Robinson said.
"All we can do now as a community is be there to support them like the community supported us."
As Bartlett and Robinson's families prepare to finally lay their loved ones to rest, Shingoose said he hopes the search for his daughter's remains begins soon.
The province announced Thursday that the search of the Prairie Green landfill for Harris's and Myran's remains officially ended on July 9, followed by private ceremonies with the families on July 14 and 15 alongside Premier Wab Kinew, members of the search team and other community supporters.
The update came months after the women's partial remains were discovered at the landfill in February, though workers remained at the site after that in an effort to find more of their remains, Kinew said previously.
With the Prairie Green search concluded, specialized equipment and personnel will soon move to the Brady Road landfill to continue the search for Shingoose's remains, the province said.
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