Winnipeg serial killer seen with victims in video footage played at trial

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

A Winnipeg man who admits to killing four women in 2022 was seen on video surveillance footage with some of them in the days and hours before they died — including eating a meal at a shelter, buying groceries and walking through a parking lot near the apartment where he later killed the women, his trial heard Monday.

Those moments were among more than 2,000 hours of surveillance video seized during the Winnipeg police investigation into Jeremy Skibicki, 37, Sgt. Paul Barber testified Monday morning before a courtroom where some of the women's family members sat and listened.

Skibicki has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the deaths of Rebecca Contois, Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran and a fourth woman whose identity still isn't known but who is believed to have been Indigenous and in her 20s. She has been given the name Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, by community members.

His lawyers argue he should be found not criminally responsible for the deaths due to a mental disorder.

Contois was a member of O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, also known as Crane River, on the western shore of Lake Manitoba. Harris and Myran were both members of Long Plain First Nation in south-central Manitoba.

Skibicki unexpectedly confessed to killing all four women when police questioned him after his arrest in May 2022. During his interrogation, Skibicki detailed how he killed each woman and then put their remains in the trash.

Prosecutors have said the women's deaths were "intentional, purposeful and racially motivated," and alleged the accused preyed on vulnerable Indigenous women at Winnipeg homeless shelters.

Video played in court on Monday showed Skibicki disposing of the women's remains under the cover of darkness in garbage bins in a back lane not far from his North Kildonan apartment.

"They were not garbage," the grandmother of one of the women said in Skibicki's direction, as he was escorted out of the courtroom during a break.

One of the earliest pieces of video surveillance police found was of Skibicki eating a meal with Harris at a homeless shelter on April 30, 2022 — one day before police say they believe she was killed.

Police also got video from that following night of Harris leaving the shelter after getting kicked out, court heard.

WATCH | Surveillance video shown in court of Skibicki with Morgan Harris:

The video shows her wearing some of the same clothes that police later found when they searched Skibicki's apartment and nearby garbage bins for evidence after Contois's partial remains were found in bins near his home.