Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe now has a name: Ashlee Shingoose was Winnipeg serial killer's 1st victim

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

After years of police investigation and community anguish, investigators say they've identified the lone unknown victim of a Winnipeg serial killer as Ashlee Christine Shingoose, a missing woman from St. Theresa Point Anisininew Nation who was last confirmed seen in downtown Winnipeg in March 2022.

It was a bittersweet update for a community that for years has known Shingoose as Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, a name given to her by Indigenous community members — and that hoped that one day, they would finally be able to say her real name.

"My heart hurts, but I'm happy. I'm happy because of what has transpired," said Thelma Morrisseau, one of the grandmothers who took part in the late 2022 ceremony to give Shingoose, 30, a name before she was identified.

"We know who she is. She does have a family. We're still her family, because we adopted her," she said during a Wednesday news conference where police gave the update on their investigation into Shingoose's murder.

"Our whole community adopted her and took her in as one of ours. But she also has that other family, that now can have a little bit more closure. And so we give thanks for that."

Investigators believe Shingoose's body was placed in a garbage bin behind a business on Henderson Highway in North Kildonan before it was taken to Winnipeg's Brady Road landfill in March 2022.

Wednesday's emotional news conference was held at the Millennium Library in downtown Winnipeg, where a number of symbolic items that were in the courtroom to represent Shingoose during the trial of the man convicted of killing her and three other women were also present, including a buffalo headdress.

WATCH | Ashlee Shingoose's family calls for landfill search to start as soon as possible:

Shingoose was among the four First Nations women killed by Jeremy 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. 

He was convicted last July of four counts of first-degree murder, after a weeks-long trial that heard he targeted vulnerable First Nations women at homeless shelters before killing them and disposing of their remains.

Skibicki unexpectedly confessed to killing the four women during a police interview in May 2022, after Contois's partial remains were found in garbage bins near his North Kildonan apartment. More of her remains were later discovered at the Brady Road landfill.

He said the woman now known to be Shingoose was the first he killed, in mid-March 2022, but he was unable to positively identify her by name. He gave police the name of a person he believed was the woman, but that person was later found alive, leaving the question of that victim's true identity to linger.

While Shingoose's parents were unable to attend Wednesday's news conference because bad weather prevented their plane from landing, they called in and over speaker phone expressed their thanks for the work that helped identify their daughter.