Video showing admitted serial killer with two of four victims played at trial

WINNIPEG — In what may be one of the last documented moments in Marcedes Myran’s life, a video shows her walking in a Winnipeg parking lot next to her killer. 

Hours later, police believe she was slain.

When officers collected the May 4, 2022, surveillance video during their investigation of Jeremy Skibicki, they didn’t know Myran’s name — only that she had been killed and her remains put in a garbage bin.

Sgt. Paul Barber testified Monday that officers were tasked with going over more than 2,000 hours of video evidence while trying to track the whereabouts of Skibicki and his four victims in the days before the killings.

“We went back to try and seize as much video surveillance as possible,” said Barber. 

Skibicki, 37, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder for the slayings of Myran, Morgan Harris, Rebecca Contois and an unidentified women Indigenous leaders have named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman.

His lawyers have said he killed the four Indigenous women but argue he’s not criminally responsible due to mental illness.

The Crown has said the killings were racially motivated and Skibicki preyed on the vulnerable women at homeless shelters.

Court has been told he assaulted the women, strangled or drowned them and disposed of their bodies in garbage bins. Two were dismembered. 

The partial remains of Contois were first found in a garbage bin in Skibicki’s neighbourhood. More of her remains were later found in a landfill.

Police have said the remains of Myran and Harris are likely in another landfill. They have not said where the remains of Buffalo Woman might be.

When police collected the video of Skibicki with Myran, Barber said officers were tasked with trying to identify the 26-year-old. 

Myran can be seen wearing a black and red baseball cap with a logo of the online video game Fortnite. She has on Under Armour running shoes. 

The hat and one of the runners were later found in Skibicki’s apartment.

Myran’s family reported her missing in September 2022.

Court has heard that police believe her remains were put in a garbage bin in Skibicki’s neighbourhood about two days after she appears on the video.

Video of Harris was also played at the trial, with one of the last recordings from the early morning of May 1, 2022. 

Court heard Harris had been staying at N’Dinaweak – Our Relatives’ Place, a 24-hour warming space and resource centre. She was asked to leave for drinking alcohol. 

The video shows Harris wearing a three-quarter length coat, which was later found in Skibicki’s apartment.

Another video from days earlier shows Skibicki and Harris interacting with each other at the shelter. 

The judge-alone trial is scheduled to continue until June 6.   

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 13, 2024.

Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press