Complex investigation ruled out potentially undiscovered victims of Winnipeg serial killer, police say

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.