Memorial for victims of Winnipeg serial killer helps families close painful chapter after sentencing hearing

August 29, 2024 Canuck

One day after a Winnipeg serial killer was sentenced to life in prison for murdering four women, the families gathered for a memorial ceremony designed to close this emotional chapter of their lives.

Stephanie Contois, the sister of Rebecca Contois, one of the four women who were murdered in 2022, was credited for requesting the memorial and asking the other families to attend.

More than 150 people, including family members, friends and many of the people who’ve supported the families through their grief, attended the memorial Wednesday at the Oodena Circle at The Forks.

“It’s been a very, very long two years of fighting and it hasn’t been easy but with you guys behind us, it’s been a little bit better,” Jordan Myran, the sister of Marcedes Myran, one of the victims, told the crowd.

“Yesterday was a very emotional day, and although he got life, he deserves a lot more than what he got.”

On Wednesday, Jeremy Skibicki received an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

WATCH | Families read impact statements at sentencing:

‘He is an evil monster’: Families read impact statements at serial killer’s sentencing

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Duration 2:46

Family members of three First Nations women targeted by a serial killer in 2022 spoke, at times through tears, in a Winnipeg courtroom Wednesday morning about the devastation they’ve gone through since learning their loved ones had been killed. Jeremy Skibicki, 37, sat staring straight ahead at his sentencing hearing at Court of King’s Bench on four counts of first-degree murder as one by one, relatives and advocates rose to tell the packed courtroom how the killings rattled the women’s families and sent shock waves through communities across the country.

The serial killer was escorted to prison after relatives and advocates told him, along with a packed courtroom, how the killings of Contois, Myran, Morgan Harris — three First Nations women — and an unidentified Indigenous woman who has been given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, shattered their lives.

Advocate Sandra DeLaronde, who works for Giganawenimaanaanig — formerly known as the MMIWG2S+ Implementation Committee, said Thursday’s ceremony will support the families’ journey going forward.

“I think that’s where ceremony is important because unless you have something that moves you from one place to the next, then you are going to have difficulty moving forward,” she said afterwards.

It was a chance to both acknowledge the loss, pain and suffering they’ve endured, but also to share in the promise and hope of tomorrow, DeLaronde said.

“And absolutely it’s going to be difficult, but they can remember this day and help them to go forward.”

People sit in chairs, their faces solemn as their either look ahead or look down to the ground. — The family of Rebecca Contois asked for a memorial ceremony as a way to help the families close the chapter of their lives that ended with the convicted murderer being sentenced to life in prison. (Ian Froese/CBC)

The memorial included various components meant to “represent an integration of a good life,” including a tobacco offering, a fire ceremony, pipe-raising ceremony and a water-raising ceremony, DeLaronde said.

It’s “what we need to sustain us to live a good life,” she said.

“And so by presenting them today, it’s to help the families to move forward to live a good life with good thoughts and memories of their loved ones.”

Donna Bartlett, the grandmother of Marcedes Myran, said her attention now turns to a search of the Prairie Green landfill, where the remains of Myran and Harris are believed to be. Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew has said the search is expected to start in October.

“It’s been a long journey and it’s still longer — all I want is a piece of my girl home,” Bartlett said.

Kinew said the victims’ families deserve special praise for their advocacy.

He said their efforts raised awareness about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and rallied the public behind the cause of searching the landfill.

“You really changed the conversation and you changed the thinking and you changed the way people look at this,” the premier said.

“You never should have had to do that, but given the situation that you were put into, you handled yourselves with the utmost of grace and courage and, even in vulnerable moments, a tremendous amount of strength.”

Kinew ended his address by singing a Lakota song of remembrance.

WATCH | Wab Kinew sings at memorial:

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew sings at memorial for slain women

25 minutes ago

Duration 2:22

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew shared a Lakota song of remembrance at a memorial Thursday night at The Forks in Winnipeg. The event was held to honour the four women whose lives were taken by a serial killer, who was given four life sentences on Wednesday.

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