Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe now has a name: Ashlee Shingoose was Winnipeg serial killer’s 1st victim | CBC News

WARNING | This story contains details of violence against Indigenous women.

The previously unidentified victim of a Winnipeg serial killer has been identified as Ashlee Christine Shingoose, a missing woman from St. Theresa Point First Nation last confirmed seen in downtown Winnipeg in 2022, police say.

The update comes after DNA results came back on Monday identifying Shingoose as the victim, after new information was provided in December, the Winnipeg Police Service said in a news release Wednesday.

Based on the time of her death and new information about where her remains were placed, police said they believe Shingoose’s remains were taken to Winnipeg’s Brady Road landfill in March 2022.

Police said they’ve reached out to city and provincial leadership to start discussions about doing a humanitarian search for Shingoose’s remains — a search they said they support and are committed to being part of, though discussions about what that search could look like are still in early stages.

The confirmation of Shingoose’s identity came after evidence seized during the investigation was sent for DNA analysis to determine whether her DNA could be found on those items, police said.

Their efforts to identify the unknown woman continued during and after Skibicki’s trial, in consultation with Crown attorneys and investigators from the homicide, missing persons and forensic identification units, the release said.

Investigators believe Shingoose’s body was placed in a garbage bin behind a commercial business in the 1300 block of Henderson Highway before it was taken to the landfill.

Police said they travelled to St. Theresa Point First Nation on Tuesday to provide the update to her family and community members.

Shingoose was last seen in downtown Winnipeg in March 2022. She was 30, police say.

She was among the four First Nations women murdered by Jeremy Skibicki in 2022, along with Morgan Harris, 39, Marcedes Myran, 26, and Rebecca Contois, 24.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Kyra Wilson, St. Theresa Point Anisininew Nation Chief Raymond Flett and Chief Gene Bowers and Deputy Chief Cam Mackid of the Winnipeg Police Service are scheduled to speak at the Wednesday afternoon news conference being livestreamed here.

The update comes after remains recently found at Prairie Green landfill, north of Winnipeg, were confirmed to be those of Harris and Myran, both of whom were originally from Long Plain First Nation.

Police also said in the news release that their initial decision not to search for Harris’s and Myran’s remains had a significant impact on the women’s families and community.

“While we can’t undo the past, we can learn from it,” the news release said.

Police had previously declined to say whether they had information about where the remains of Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe are, or whether they may be at Prairie Green or the city-run Brady Road landfill in Winnipeg, where some of the remains of Contois, a member of O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, were found.

When asked last week, Premier Wab Kinew did not answer questions about whether a search would continue at Prairie Green landfill in hopes of finding Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe’s remains.

The province’s decision about the future of the landfill search will be made with the families of Harris and Myran, he said.

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Kyra Wilson told CBC News last week that the organization will push for a continued search to try to find Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe.

What do we know about Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe?

Until today, very few details about Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe had been made public.

During Skibicki’s trial last summer, court heard investigators found a DNA sample on a jacket they believe she wore, but that sample was never matched to anyone.

Skibicki unexpectedly confessed to killing the four women during a police interview in May 2022. He said the unidentified woman was the first he killed, in mid-March 2022. It’s believed he killed the other three women between May 1 and May 15.

Skibicki said he met the woman previously known only as Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe outside the Salvation Army shelter in Winnipeg.

There was still snow on the ground at the time, and COVID-19 pandemic restrictions had just been lifted in Manitoba, he told police.

Those restrictions were lifted on March 15, 2022.

He described her as being Indigenous and in her early 20s, with dark patches on her skin, an average build and short hair that didn’t go past her neck.

Skibicki also said he was coming down from being high on mushrooms when he got upset with the woman after she attempted to steal from him.

After killing her, Skibicki said he put the woman’s remains into a dumpster behind a business on Henderson Highway. He also gave police the name of a person he believed was the woman he had killed, but that person was later found alive.

He said after killing Harris, he returned to that same dumpster with the intention of leaving her remains inside, but it was locked.

He said he disposed of Harris’s and Myran’s remains at another dumpster nearby, which led to their bodies being taken to the Prairie Green landfill.

Contois’s partial remains were found in garbage bins behind a North Kildonan apartment on May 16, 2022, and later at the Brady Road landfill in Winnipeg.

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.