Winnipeg police searching landfill in Rebecca Contois homicide investigation

The Winnipeg Police Service has officially started searching a landfill in connection with a homicide of a 24-year-old Winnipeg woman.

The service announced in a news release on Thursday that the search has started at the Brady Road Resource Management Facility for partial human remains of Rebecca Contois. An area of the landfill has been secured and further dumping in the area has been stopped.

“Ten members of the WPS Ground Search and Rescue Team are on-site at the resource facility,” the service said in a statement. “They have been fitted with respirators, methane detection equipment, and other protective gear to guard against the hazards of searching in a landfill. Extensive preparation work and poor recent weather conditions delayed the ground search from getting underway until today.”

The partial remains of Contois were discovered outside of an apartment building in the 200 block of Edison Avenue on May 16. Two days later, police confirmed Contois was the victim of a “horrifically grisly” homicide, and said the investigation also led them to a scene at the landfill.

Jeremy Anthony Michael Skibicki, 35, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with Contois’ death. The charge has not been proven in court, and he remains in custody.

-with files from CTV’s Josh Crabb