Tanya Nepinak's family holding hope landfill search for her remains will happen after meeting with premier

The aunt of Tanya Nepinak, a Pine Creek First Nation woman who went missing more than a decade ago, is feeling hopeful after meeting with Premier Wab Kinew over her plea to search the Brady Road landfill for her niece's remains.

Sue Caribou led a march on Friday with roughly a dozen supporters who walked toward the Manitoba legislature from Portage and Main, leading up to her conversation with Manitoba's premier. 

"This is the first time I actually got through further than just the doors, got to an office to be able to speak to the leaders," Caribou told reporters after speaking directly with the premier.

"We're getting somewhere, but … we need actions, not just talk," she said. 

In late March, Manitoba's government committed to search the Brady Road landfill for the remains of Ashlee Shingoose, recently identified as one of the four First Nations women murdered by serial killer Jeremy Skibicki in 2022.

First Nations leaders in Manitoba have since called for the search of the Brady Road landfill to include recovery efforts for Nepinak.

Earlier this week, Kinew said on Tuesday he would be open to speaking with her family, but that logistically, the search at Brady Road landfill would have to take a different approach than the search at the Prairie Green landfill, where the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran were found this year. 

Robyn Johnston, an advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, said Kinew told Nepinak's family that the province had already started looking into how they could retrieve her remains. 

"Just like all the other assurances that he's provided to the other families that they would try, he's assured they will try," Johnston said. 

Nepinak's family asked for confirmation of the search in writing, to which Kinew answered, "he was the premier," Johnston said.

"So we have to take his word for it," she added. 

It's been more than 13 years since Nepinak went missing after she left her home on Winnipeg's Sherbrook Street in September 2011.

In June 2012, Shawn Lamb was charged with second-degree murder in connection with her death and disappearance. But those charges were later stayed, though he was convicted of manslaughter in the deaths of Carolyn Sinclair and Lorna Blacksmith.

Winnipeg police have said they believed Nepinak's body was dumped in a garbage bin and brought to the Brady Road landfill.