Family gathers to remember Morgan Harris on anniversary of charges against alleged serial killer

A year after Winnipeg police announced first-degree murder charges in the deaths of three First Nations women, the family of one of those women will gather outside the former home of her alleged killer to remember their loved one.

Melissa Robinson, whose cousin Morgan Harris is among four women police believe were killed by the same man, said her family will honour Harris's life Friday evening outside the North Kildonan-area home where he lived.

"It's important to gather, to remember. Morgan is loved," Robinson said.

"We don't want her to be remembered as the victim to a serial killer. We want her life to be remembered in a good way. By us coming together and remembering her … I think it'll help give us strength to continue on."

At a news conference on Dec. 1, 2022, police announced that Jeremy Skibicki had been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Harris,  39, Marcedes Myran, 26, and a still-unidentified woman who was later given the name Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, or Buffalo Woman. 

Skibicki had been charged earlier that year with first-degree murder in the death of Rebecca Contois, 24.

Robinson remembers the day clearly.

The family had already gotten a call from homicide detectives, who wanted to talk with them, Robinson recalled on Thursday, when she was at Camp Morgan — an encampment named in Harris's honour and set up near Winnipeg's Brady Road landfill to push for a search for her remains, and those of Myran.

"What still sticks with me … is them letting us know that she was the victim of a murder," she said.

"I remember Cambria [Harris's daughter] asking, 'Well, where is she?'"

Five days later, police said they believed the remains of Harris and Myran, who were killed in May, had been taken to the Prairie Green landfill, just north of Winnipeg. 

Their families have been fighting to have it searched since.

A federally funded feasibility study done last spring found a search could cost up to $184 million and take up to three years.

There have still been no firm funding commitments from any level of government for a search, nor has a start date been set.

However, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, whose party was elected on Oct. 3, said both during the campaign and after he was elected that his NDP government will support a search. 

In October, Liberal member of Parliament Dan Vandal (St. Boniface-St. Vital) said the federal government would need a partner in Manitoba's provincial government to move forward with a search — something it did not have under the previous Progressive Conservative government.

Detailed search plan coming: Long Plain chief

Vandal's comments came on Oct. 4, when the federal government gave Long Plain First Nation — Harris and Myran's home community — an additional $740,000 for more detailed review of a possible search.

Long Plain Chief Kyra Wilson said the First Nation was given 90 days to do that research and come back to the federal government with a report on what equipment and resources would be needed, Wilson said.

Long Plain is working with a team of experts now to put together "a very clearly outlined plan," she said. The deadline to complete that work is Jan. 12.

The past year has been full of meetings and discussions, while grieving families have been advocating to find their loved ones, Wilson said.

"There's a lot of people supporting the families, a lot of people that want to bring the women home," she said.

"There's still a lot of work ahead and we're pushing forward with that, despite whatever barriers or issues that come up."

A spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree said the $740,000 funding is meant to help with planning activities to support a search, and work with experts on mitigating biohazard risks during a potential search.

The federal government is "working with partners on the path forward," Matthieu Perrotin said in an email to CBC, including "discussions about the next steps" with the recently elected NDP provincial government.

In Brandon on Thursday, Premier Wab Kinew said his government has reset the relationship with the families and First Nations leaders, after the Progressive Conservative government refused to support a landfill search — a position the party turned into an election issue during its campaign.

"It's my commitment that we will follow up with these families and conduct a search in a compassionate way, while also fulfilling our responsibility to all Manitobans of being responsible with the public purse," Kinew said. 

He also noted the emotional toll the past year has taken on many.

"I was moved by the voices of the daughters, and I was moved when the families visited us at the legislature, and to hear that a provincial election campaign caused them harm," he said.

"It's my hope that the families of murder victims in Manitoba never have to go through something like this again."

Skibicki pleaded not guilty to all four counts of first-degree murder on the first day of pretrial motions in his case early last month.

Robinson and other members of Harris's family attended the court proceedings. 

While the pretrial is now over, the family is preparing for the emotional toll of a search, and Skibicki's trial in the spring.

"We're a united family, and we're tight and we lean on each other," Robinson said.

"And that's what's most important."