Investigator who uncovered partial human remains testifies in trial of admitted serial killer

WINNIPEG -

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A 22-year veteran of the Winnipeg Police Service took the stand Friday in the ongoing trial of admitted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki.

Court heard Constable Brian Neuman was the officer who recovered partial human remains from a North Kildonan dumpster on May 16, 2022. He told the court there were several black bags containing additional body parts.

He testified police requested that all garbage collection be stopped, but some had already been picked up.

Crown prosecutor Renee Lagimodiere asked if investigators learned whether items had already been taken to the Brady Road landfill.

Neuman testified certain trucks have GPS, and they learned where it had taken the potential remains.

“It was contained in a three-metre area that had numerous mounds, individual piles from every truck,” he said.

Afterwards, no more trucks were allowed to dump in the area, he said.

Winnipeg police search the Brady Landfill in June 2022 during a homicide investigation. (CTV News Winnipeg File Photo)

Court heard police then conducted a search over a number of days in June.

On June 13, 2022 the torso of Rebecca Contois was recovered, Neuman said.

Lagimodiere told the court that the second victim, Morgan Harris, is believed to have been put in a garbage bin behind a business on Henderson Highway on May 3, 2022.

There is security video of Marcedes Myran’s remains being dumped in a bin at the same location on May 6, she said.

Neuman also testified the body was in the garbage bin in the sun for up to two weeks, and exposure to heat increases the likelihood of decomposition.

“A lot of trucks have compaction to save space,” he testified.

He told the court the bin was collected on May 16, 2022 and taken to the Prairie Green landfill.

About 10,000 loads have been taken there since then.

“Since that date, the elevation of the landfill had gone up 40 feet,” he said.

Skibicki is charged with first-degree murder for the 2022 killings of Contois, Harris, Myran and an unidentified woman Indigenous leaders have named Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, or Buffalo Woman.

He has confessed to the slayings, but his lawyers are arguing that he's not criminally responsible due to mental illness.

The Crown has alleged the killings were racially motivated, with Skibicki a self-proclaimed white supremacist and the four victims Indigenous.

- With files from the Canadian Press

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