'I want my mom,' says daughter of woman slain by serial killer, after possible remains found in landfill
Families of murdered women speak of anguish at getting news they hoped for
WARNING: This story contains details about murdered Indigenous women.
Elle Harris thought she might be ready when the news came, but when it did her heart fell and all she could think was "I want my mom."
Her mom, Morgan Harris, is one of two women whose remains were believed to be at the Prairie Green landfill north of Winnipeg, after they were killed in May 2022 and left in dumpsters by Jeremy Skibicki.
After a long fight to search the landfill for their remains, work started in December.
And on Wednesday, the families of Harris, who was 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26, were notified that possible human remains had been found.
"I wasn't expecting it so soon because of how hard we've had to fight for this," Elle said Thursday in Winnipeg at a news conference organized by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.
WATCH | Elle Harris speaks to those who said the search for her mother wouldn't and shouldn't happen:
After the discovery, work was halted. The remains were assessed by a second search team and forensic anthropologists. Police were called.
And the families gathered, spending the rest of the day there.
"Yesterday, all I could think about was 'I want my mom,'" Elle said. "And when I left the landfill, I felt like I was abandoning her again. I felt like I was leaving her."
Even though the news was what families had longed for, it's impossible to be ready, said Jorden Myran, Marcedes Myran's sister.
"That emotion just hits you. There's nothing you can do to prepare for that moment."
WATCH | Jorden Myran thanks people who supported the families' push to search the landfill:
Harris and Myran, both originally from Long Plain First Nation, are two of four women murdered by Skibicki in 2022.
He has also been found guilty in the deaths of Rebecca Contois, 24, and a still-unidentified woman who has been given the name Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, by community leaders.
Contois's partial remains were found in a garbage bin in Winnipeg in mid-May in 2022. More of her remains were found at the city-run Brady Road landfill in June 2022. The remains of Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe have never been found.
"That scary movie we've been living for the last couple of years has become a reality. I think the shock of everything has finally hit me, because I woke up this morning and I just don't feel right," Melissa Robinson, a cousin of Morgan Harris, said at Thursday's news conference.
"Usually takes a lot to break me, but I'm pretty emotional today. It's a heavy day"
WATCH | 'To hell with all you guys, 'cause it got done,' Melissa Robinson says to those who didn't want to search the landfill:
Jorden and Elle shook as they spoke, even though both women have previously spoken at multiple news conferences.
"I don't think any of us has processed it," Elle said. "I've barely even processed court [for Skibicki, who was found guilty in July 2024]."
Elle dropped out of school and "didn't see myself making it too far in life" when she first learned about her mom's death. On Thursday, she said she's doing a lot better "on my journey of healing."
"But every day, every day I just think, 'I want my mom.' I want her to be there for me."
When she watches movies or sees people walking around as loving families, kids and parents beside one another, it can be too much.
"It's heartbreaking to know I'm never going to be able to get that," she said.
Technicians have been searching the landfill since December, sifting through material moved into a sorting facility where crews examine the debris.
"We knew those women were in there, and this is the day that we've been waiting for … [but] it's also very, very hard," said Robinson, who keeps thinking back to when police and the previous Manitoba government said no to a landfill search, "that it couldn't be done and that it wouldn't be done."
"It honestly just really just makes my blood boil. Here we are, less than three months of the search commencing and already remains have been found," she said. "So yeah, it gets me very angry.
"To hell with all you guys, because it got done. And it's just beginning."
Elle had an equally angry message for everyone who opposed a landfill search.
"How could you?" she said. "That's my mom in there."
AMC Grand Chief Kyra Wilson said Wednesday's news underscores the deeper crisis of First Nations people going missing and being murdered at unacceptable rates.
"This is an unfortunate reality for our families … that we have to search landfills for our loved ones. It's an awful, awful reality."
Searching resumed Thursday with a renewed sense of determination, but also with a clear message of patience, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew told CBC Manitoba Information Radio host Marcy Markusa.
"[We are] trying to ensure that we do every single step here in the most meticulous fashion, so that we can give confidence to the families, if we are moving forward on their healing journey, that it will be in a good way — but also to the public, who've been rightfully paying so much attention to this issue."
Patience is also required as people wait to learn whether the remains are human, and whose they might be, he said.
"On identification, we're looking at up to two weeks, and that's because it's a joint process with the chief medical examiner and the RCMP. And there are obviously some technical things that need to be worked through," Kinew said.
"Best-case scenario, it will move ahead much quicker than that, so we can move on to the next step."
Activity at the landfill search site was paused following Wednesday's discovery but will resume Thursday, Kinew said.
"That was to make sure that the families had time to get to the site and to go through their process. It's very meaningful and emotionally impactful," he said.
"But also because the RCMP needed time for their process and then to do their transportation and hand-off to the chief medical examiner."
The discovery has made searchers and technicians, many of whom are university students studying to become forensic anthropologists, more determined than ever, Kinew said.
"I heard directly from some of the search technicians who made the actual identification. They're motivated to get back into the search facility and to continue this work, because they've now seen some very direct evidence of how they can potentially bring closure for these families and for our province, and country, too."
Kinew said he hopes the discovery begins a healing process on multiple levels.
"I mean, first and foremost healing for the families, who've been through a very difficult period of losing their loved ones and then having the issue play out so publicly and become very divisive at some points," he said.
The call for a landfill search resulted in protests and blockades around the city, sometimes with heated confrontations.
"Again, there's a lot of uncertainty right now and we have to wait for this identification process to play out, but if this is in fact one of the women that we're searching for … I hope the fact that we have had tense moments on this topic over the past few years … that this helps to bring healing and closure on that level, too, and that we can move forward as one province," Kinew said.
There's going to be more clarity and answers as the process to identify the remains moves forward in the next couple of weeks, he said.
If the remains are indeed those of one of Skibicki's victims or someone else entirely, "I do hope that Manitobans just recognize this is a value statement about who we are," Kinew said.
"This is about us as Manitoba and saying who we want to be as a province. And in my mind, we're a province where if somebody goes missing, we go looking.
"Even if it's difficult and even if there are long odds, we work hard."
Crisis support is available for anyone affected by these reports and the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous people through a national 24-hour hotline at 1-844-413-6649.
Health support services such as mental health counselling, community-based support and cultural services, and some travel costs to see elders and traditional healers are available through the government of Canada. Family members seeking information about a missing or murdered loved one can access Family Information Liaison Units.
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