Potential search at landfill reopens old wounds for aunt of Winnipeg woman who went missing over a decade ago

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

Sue Caribou often sits by the window in her Winnipeg residence, looking down Main Street, and sometimes thinks she sees her niece, who went missing in 2011.

The debate around a potential police search of Prairie Green landfill, just north of Winnipeg, for the remains of two missing Indigenous women is making Caribou relive the trauma she experienced more than a decade ago.

"You can't have closure when you don't have a body," she said Thursday, fighting back tears.

The Winnipeg Police Service spent six days searching for Tanya Nepinak, 31, at the Brady Road landfill in 2012, but she was never found.

Caribou said it was challenging for her to get police to search the dump for her niece.

"It began fast, and it also ended fast. They make us happy, and then break another promise, and then we're right back to where we were," she said of the search. 

"We don't have our loved ones and we're still searching for our loved ones. It's hard to accept your loved one being in the dump like trash. Our women are not trash."

Caribou said police offered to erect a monument in honour of Nepinak at the landfill, which she still scoffs at.

"There is no way any human being belongs to be left by the dump. And I'm not going to have a monument at the dump for my loved one. That's an insult to me and my loved one," she said.

And there's also the mental and physical toll the search took on Caribou.

"You feel very devastated. You have nightmares again and again. You're not eating," she said.

Charges were stayed against Shawn Lamb — convicted in the death of two other Indigenous women — in part because Nepinak was never found.

Caribou feels like police gave up searching for Nepinak a long time ago.

"At one point, too, they said they didn't have enough people to search," Caribou said. "I figured, if they need people to search, I'm sure our people will be willing to search."

Members of the Indigenous community have been calling on the police and government to do more in the search for Marcedes Myran and Morgan Harris, since police revealed they believe the remains of the two women are at Prairie Green.

Jeremy Skibicki is facing first-degree murder charges in the deaths of Myran, Harris, and an unidentified woman in her mid-20s whom members of the Indigenous community have given the name Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, or Buffalo Woman.

Skibicki was previously charged with first-degree murder in the death of another Indigenous woman, 24-year-old Rebecca Contois.

None of the charges against him have been proven in court.

Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham and Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson announced Thursday that the privately owned landfill in the rural municipality of Rosser will pause its operations, meaning nothing new will enter the site.

Both politicians said they don't know what the next steps will be.

Bernadette Smith, NDP MLA for Point Douglas, is relieved to hear dumping has been temporarily suspended.

She says police and the province need to move forward with a feasibility study on how to safely conduct a search of Prairie Green.

Smith's own sister went missing in 2008 and is presumed dead, but her family continues to look for Claudette Osborne-Tyo.

"We're constantly in limbo. It's like a roller-coaster ride," said Smith.

"Every time you hear remains are found or … someone's been charged with a crime, it takes you to — could that be your loved one? Could they be responsible for your loved one's disappearance? You know, we have no answers," she said.

"Our sister could be in that landfill. We don't know, and we have to do what we can."

Smith is calling on all levels of government to fund the study and search Prairie Green.

She says First Nations leaders have promised to do whatever it takes to support these efforts.

"Yes, we have it finally paused, but now we need to look at what can be done and what are the resources and costs of that being done," Smith said. "And certainly, our First Nation leaders are in favour of that and are supporting that call."

"Potential search at landfill reopens old wounds for loved ones"

2 years ago

Duration 2:30

Winnipeg police searched Brady Road landfill for 6 days in 2012 before Sue Caribou says they gave up

Support is available for anyone affected by details of this case. If you require support, you can contact Ka Ni Kanichihk's Medicine Bear Counselling, Support and Elder Services at 204-594-6500, ext. 102 or 104 (within Winnipeg), or 1-888-953-5264 (outside Winnipeg).

Support is also available via Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Liaison unit at 1-800-442-0488 or 204-677-1648.