WARNING | This story contains details of violence against Indigenous women.
Police say they do not believe there are any more undiscovered victims of a Winnipeg serial killer, after investigators spent months combing through thousands of hours of surveillance footage, a spiderweb of his contacts, and conducting a review of his entire life.
Jeremy Skibicki was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder last July, after a weeks-long trial heard he targeted vulnerable First Nations women at homeless shelters before killing them and disposing of their remains.
Last week, Ashlee Shingoose, 30, was publicly confirmed to be the woman previously known as Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, a name given to her by Indigenous community members before she was identified.
She was one of four First Nations women killed by Skibicki between March and May 2022, along with Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26 — both originally from Long Plain First Nation — as well as Rebecca Contois, 24, a member of O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation.
A key piece of evidence in Skibicki’s trial was video from a roughly 20-hour interrogation by police in May 2022, after he was arrested as a suspect in the killing of Contois, during which he unexpectedly confessed to killing not only her, but three other women.
The investigation into Skibicki was one of the most complex in the Winnipeg Police Service’s history, says Deputy Chief Cam Mackid.
That investigation included a task force that looked at “every single connection” Skibicki had from childhood up until his arrest, Mackid said. Unsolved crimes and missing person cases near his residences were also explored, along with more than 7,000 hours of surveillance footage.
“It seems surprising that somebody would have a level of violence like that in that short period of time, and there wouldn’t be other victims,” Mackid said at the Wednesday news conference where police said Shingoose was the previously unknown victim.
“I would never stand here and tell you I can guarantee you there isn’t another victim. I can tell you we scrubbed everything we possibly could, and we didn’t find any other ones.”
But Enzo Yaksic, the Boston-based director of the Atypical Homicide Research Group — a network of academic researchers, law enforcement professionals and mental health practitioners who maintain a database of serial killers — says the two-month timeline of Skibicki’s killings isn’t surprising.
The database, which has tracked at least 5,000 serial killers from across the globe, defines a serial killer as someone who has killed more than one person over a span of time, Yaksic said.
The data indicates the number of serial murders has declined globally, but the timeframes of the killings are shorter than they typically were in the late 20th century, he said, as better-connected law enforcement agencies, and the prevalence of cellular and surveillance technologies, mean killers are more likely to be caught.
“Modern killers cannot function the same way their counterparts from the past were able,” he said, but that can also mean the potential for more victims.
“What that actually does is, it kind of increases the rate of killing, as they try to outpace the efforts of the police to apprehend them.”
‘Almost unprecedented’ DNA testing
Police say it was a recent interview with Skibicki, along with new DNA evidence, that allowed them to finally identify Shingoose, a mother of three originally from St. Theresa Point Anisininew Nation in northeastern Manitoba.
She was last seen in downtown Winnipeg on March 11, 2022 — a timeline that fit with when Skibicki told police in his May 2022 interview he had killed his first victim. He gave police the name of a person he believed was the woman, but that person was later found alive, leaving the identity of Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe an unanswered question.
During his trial last summer, court heard investigators found a DNA sample on a Baby Phat-brand jacket they believed was worn by the woman Skibicki had killed, but that sample was never matched to anyone.
Mackid said police now believe while Shingoose wore the jacket, the DNA found on it was someone else’s.
A DNA sample from a previously untested pair of pants led police to finally confirm Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe’s identity earlier this month, after investigators got new information from Skibicki during an interview in prison last December, Mackid said.
That pair of pants was among 5,000 physical items that police seized during their investigation into the Skibicki killings. About 130 of those exhibits were sent to the RCMP’s laboratory for testing, he said — an “almost unprecedented” number.
Police also showed Skibicki a number of photos during the December interview, and he identified Shingoose as the victim, said Mackid.
Yaksic says he thinks Winnipeg police have done good work on the Skibicki case, adding that serial murder investigations can be an incredibly difficult task for law enforcement.
“I do think that it is dangerous to believe that police are not … doing everything that they can to find additional victims,” Yaksic said. “I think that they’re doing a great job on this — at least now they are.”
Mackid said police didn’t explore more possible victims outside of Manitoba because Skibicki didn’t travel much — he’d never held a driver’s licence or had a vehicle registered to his name — and there’s no indication that he left the province or country.
“He was a local person who tended to stay local.”
Investigators also found Skibicki to be “quite forward and candid” in the May 2022 interview in which he confessed to the killings, said Mackid.
“We didn’t get the impression that he was hiding things from us.”
Yaksic says serial killers tend to be more forthcoming nowadays because they want to claim credit, but not all confessions are an attempt to seek fame. Some can be prompted by guilt, he said.
Serial killers can also often gain an unwarranted sense of celebrity due to extensive media exposure, said Yaksic. And while true crime podcasts and Hollywood movies can promote vigilance, they also tend to focus on an outdated archetype of serial murderers that can spur public paranoia, he said.
Skibicki is a good example of what a modern-day serial killer looks like, Yaksic said, because he had a history of violence against women and expressed hate-based motivations in his killings.
“As we delve into their histories, we find abusive partners [and] domestic violence,” he said. “Violence against others is really how they communicate with the world, and that’s like how they … process their deep-seated feelings of inferiority.”
Homeless people and sex workers are more likely to be targeted by a serial killer because they’re vulnerable, and there’s a perception they’re less likely to be reported missing, said Yaksic.
Discarding the bodies in garbage, as Skibicki did, is also common for serial killers, he said. The partial remains of Contois were found in a garbage bin near his North Kildonan apartment in May 2022. More of her remains were discovered the following month at the Brady Road landfill in Winnipeg.
Remains of Harris and Myran were recently recovered at the Prairie Green landfill, north of Winnipeg.
Investigators believe Shingoose’s body was placed in a garbage bin behind a business on Henderson Highway before it was taken to Brady Road landfill in March 2022.
Disposing of the victims’ bodies in that way is “really symbolic of his viewpoint that his victims were worthless to him and to society, and that really is a hallmark of how serial murderers behave,” said Yaksic.
“I want to say that each offender is unique, but the real, common thread that runs through them is that [sense of] superiority.”
Manitoba’s premier has promised the Brady Road landfill will be searched for Shingoose’s remains.
Support is available for anyone affected by these reports and the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous people. Immediate emotional assistance and crisis support are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through a national hotline at 1-844-413-6649.
You can also access, through the government of Canada, health support services such as mental health counselling, community-based support and cultural services, and some travel costs to see elders and traditional healers. Family members seeking information about a missing or murdered loved one can access Family Information Liaison Units.
