The weeks-long trial began with the accused killer’s confession to police being played to the court as his lawyers argue he is not criminally responsible for the charges.
Peter Smith
Canadian Anti-Hate Network
Image captured from one of Jeremy Skibicki’s since-shuttered Facebook accounts. Source: Facebook
This story contains details of sexual assault and violence.
A man accused of killing four Indigenous women began his trial this week. A 37-year-old Winnipeg resident, Jeremy Skibicki, is facing first-degree murder charges for the slayings in a trial scheduled to take place for four weeks.
Skibicki, who reportedly confessed to the murders during police interrogation, has pleaded not guilty due to not being criminally responsible.
The victims—Rebecca Contois, 24, Morgan Harris, 39, Marcedes Myran, 26, and an unidentified woman referred to as Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe or Buffalo Woman—were all Indigenous women allegedly lured by Skibicki to his apartment.
“This case is about a man’s hate-filled and cruel acts perpetrated against four vulnerable Indigenous women,” Crown Attorney Renee Lagimodiere told the court, calling his acts “racially motivated.”
“He preyed on these women in Winnipeg shelters and invited them back to his home, where he assaulted them, often sexually, and killed them.”
During an interrogation video played in court, Skibicki said he felt that he was never able to connect with Indigenous people. During the same recording, he claims to be a Holocaust denier and states that there is a systemic genocide of white people.
"I believe that this was something that God called me to do ... it was something that I decided to do because I thought it was right," Skibicki said in the video according to the Canadian Press.
“I just wanted to see how far I could take things because the criminal justice system is a joke.”
Lamenting that he got "sloppy" when it came to disposing of Contois's remains—an act that would result in his arrest when her partial remains were found in a garbage bin in May 2022—he told police he did not think he would stop killing women, according to APTN News.
“He engaged in vile, sexual acts with their bodies. He then disposed of the women as though they were garbage,” Lagimodiere said during the trial.
The start of the court case and the playing of the interrogation video shed light into Skibicki’s background. He reportedly told officers he has borderline personality disorder and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Claiming to be a victim of childhood sexual abuse, the court also reportedly heard that Skibicki caused harm to animals, killing a rabbit as a child and cats as an adult.
If found not criminally responsible, Skibicki would be considered incapable of understanding his actions due to a mental disorder and remanded to a hospital until a review board determines he is no longer a threat.
The victims’ bodies were allegedly disposed of in garbage bins, prompting demands from their families that a comprehensive search take place. In June 2022, police revealed they had found more of the remains of Rebecca Contois during a search of the Brady Road landfill.
The remains of Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran and Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe are believed to be interred in the Prairie Green and Brady Road landfills. Despite months of protests and calls from local and international human rights advocates, Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson initially refused to consider a search of the locations, citing the size of the sites and estimated cost. The Manitoba government also ran advertisements intending to “clarify” their position—Stefanson apologized for the ad campaign after losing a reelection bid in the fall of 2023.
Since then the provincial and federal governments have pledged a combined $40 million for the search of the Prairie Green site, alleged to be where Myran and Harris’ bodies were disposed of. Premier Wab Kinew said in February he expects the search to begin this year.
A study into the project estimated the cost would be somewhere around $90 million if completed in under a year.
Most of Skibicki’s social media has since been removed from its respective platforms. After the announcement of his arrest, the Canadian Anti-Hate Network was able to locate two online aliases used by the accused on Facebook.
Images posted by these accounts show him posting a hat of the Bundeswehr, the West German army, which he was also attempting to sell. Comments from Skibicki included jokes about burning bodies, his repeated self-identification as an Aryan and a white nationalist, as well as violent threats against an unnamed individual he claims called him a Nazi while out in public.
“This infidel better have a full clip and permission from god to end my life,” the account wrote in a long status update.
“I will send him to hell.”
In other comments, Skibicki calls himself antisemitic and repeats various tropes about Jews.
For immediate mental and emotional wellness support, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ toll-free support phone line is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The service is available in English, French, Cree, Ojibway and Inuktitut at 1-844-413-6649.
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