Search for remains at Prairie Green landfill ‘not feasible’: Winnipeg police

Winnipeg police say they believe the remains of two victims of an alleged serial killer are at the Prairie Green landfill north of the city – not the Brady Road landfill.

And police clarified why they made the decision not to search Prairie Green, a decision that previously faced criticism from the community and the victims’ families.

In a press conference Tuesday, Winnipeg police Chief Danny Smyth said investigators believe the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran are at the Prairie Green landfill north of the city, in the RM of West St. Paul.

No location has been established for an unidentified victim, who was named “Buffalo Woman” by the community.

Police allege those three women – all believed to be Indigenous – were the victims of an alleged serial killer.

Jeremy Skibicki, 35, was taken into custody and charged May 18 with first-degree murder in the death of Rebecca Contois, 24.

Contois’ partial remains were found in a garbage bin near an apartment building. Police later found the rest of her remains in the Brady Road landfill in the city’s south end.

This week Skibicki was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Harris, 39, Myran, 26, and the unidentified woman. Police believe the women were killed between March and May of this year.

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The community has been vocal about wanting police to search for the remains of Harris, Myran and Buffalo Woman.

“We were expecting and hoping for a different outcome,” said Smyth. “We were successful at Brady and used every resource in our means to do that. The circumstances dealt to us here are such that we don’t have the same kind of circumstance.

“We acknowledge that the families are heartbroken. We acknowledge that they’re angry. Frankly, a lot of people are angry.”

Differences with Brady, Prairie Green landfill

But Smyth and Insp. Cam MacKid expressed why a search of Prairie Green is not feasible.

They say conditions of the Brady landfill made the search for Contois “difficult but manageable.” Those conditions included non-compacted debris that was above grade and loose.

Within hours of locating Contois’ partial remains near the apartment building, Brady was shut down, and only 100 additional truckloads of refuse were added to the landfill.

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What’s more, police say they were helped by technology in the Brady search: a drone, GPS technology and on-board video on the dump truck, and GPS technology on the landfill machinery.

Those conditions are not the same at Prairie Green, police say.

The four acres at the landfill north of the city are 40-feet deep and made of heavily compacted, wet and heavy mud.

Police say it took 34 days for police to become aware the remains of Harris and Myran were supposedly at the landfill. MacKid says it’s an equivalent of 10,000 trucks or 9,000 tonnes of debris that was then packed by heavy machinery.

Because of the muddy nature at Prairie, police say drones could not help in the search. And the trucks that bring debris to Prairie are not equipped with GPS technology, according to MacKid, and they compact refuse along the way – something the Brady truck did not do.

WATCH: Winnipeg police press conference (Dec. 6, 2022)