Police in Manitoba have identified Ashlee Shingoose of St. Theresa Point First Nation as Buffalo Woman, the previously unnamed victim of a convicted serial killer, and the province is now committing to search for her remains in a Winnipeg landfill.
The parents of 30-year-old Ms. Shingoose, a mother of three, have been looking for her since she went missing in 2022, the same year four Indigenous women were killed in Winnipeg but only three were identified.
The murderer was sentenced last summer, but until this week, police had not been able to locate Ms. Shingoose, despite pleas from her family that she may be connected to the killings.
On Wednesday, Winnipeg police joined Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and Indigenous leaders at a press conference to confirm for the first time that Ms. Shingoose is Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, meaning Buffalo Woman, a spirit name in Anishinaabemowin that First Nations elders had given to her to provide the dignity of an identity for nearly three years.
Standing next to a buffalo headdress to symbolize the deceased, Police Chief Gene Bowers said investigators found new information in December after a prison interview with the convicted killer. He said officials seized evidence and conducted a fresh forensic analysis, giving them a positive DNA match for Ms. Shingoose this week.
Based on the new evidence, police believe Ms. Shingoose’s remains are located at Brady Road landfill, operated by the City of Winnipeg, where the body of one of the other four victims was also disposed of, Chief Bowers said.
In an interview late Wednesday, Albert Shingoose said the confirmation from police validates years of fighting for his daughter, Ashlee, who he and his wife always believed was Buffalo Woman.
“This marks the start of our family’s healing journey,” Mr. Shingoose told The Globe and Mail by phone from his home in St. Theresa Point, a remote fly-in community in northern Manitoba, which Ms. Shingoose had left in 2016 to make a better life in Winnipeg.
“We weren’t able to get to Winnipeg for this because of bad weather. But we were there every step of the way, telling every police member we could speak with, that this was our girl out there, during the trial proceedings and during that killer’s sentencing that we attended,” said Theresa Shingoose, Ashlee’s mother.
“Now, all we can hope is that the authorities will work to find her.”
In August last year, after a months-long trial, Jeremy Skibicki, now 38, was sentenced to life in prison for the first-degree murders of 39-year-old Morgan Harris, 26-year-old Marcedes Myran, 24-year-old Rebecca Contois and Ashlee Shingoose, who was then known only as Buffalo Woman.
The trial revealed that Ms. Shingoose, killed in March of 2022, was the first of the victims, while the other three murders occurred in May of that year.
Her DNA was swabbed from a jacket belonging to her that was recovered after the killer tried to sell it on Facebook Marketplace, police identification specialist Constable Jan de Vries testified during the trial. But he said the DNA did not provide a match to anyone.
After the killer’s arrest in May of 2022, Winnipeg police had located some of the remains of Ms. Contois, a member of Crane River First Nation, at Brady Road landfill. But while police obtained GPS information to confirm that the bodies of Ms. Myran and Ms. Harris, both from Long Plain First Nation, were at Prairie Green, they opted not to conduct a search of that landfill.
That police decision became the flashpoint issue of Manitoba’s election in 2023, with the ruling Progressive Conservative Party arguing against a search. But Mr. Kinew’s New Democrats, who eventually won the election, argued that the search was the humane thing to do.
Manitoba has been searching for the women’s remains since last fall at Prairie Green. This month, Mr. Kinew told The Globe that two sets of human remains found at Prairie Green have been confirmed to belong to Ms. Harris and Ms. Myran, but the search is continuing to find more of their remains.
On Wednesday, Mr. Kinew promised to fund another search.
“When somebody goes missing, we go looking,” Mr. Kinew said to roaring applause, after which he sang a traditional song in Ms. Shingoose’s honour. “I can’t promise you that we will bring her home, but I can promise you that we are going to try.”
Raymond Flett, chief of St. Theresa Point First Nation, said Ms. Shingoose’s killing is a modern-day reminder for all of Canada about how many missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people are yet to be found.
“It is an ongoing struggle,” he said, speaking through tears, addressing a packed room of the women’s families and supporters.
The Premier said his government will work with municipal officials and Winnipeg police for the Brady search, which he added is in early stages and has not been allocated funding yet. The Winnipeg police are not directly involved in the Prairie Green search at the request of the Ms. Harris’s and Ms. Myran’s families, with the province working with the RCMP instead.
“There is a lot of trust that’s been lost with Winnipeg police,” Cambria Harris, daughter of Morgan Harris, told The Globe Wednesday. “We’ve wanted justice for Buffalo Woman from the start. It’s very convenient that now, after all this time – after all that we’ve done to ask police to not only look for our women, but also for Buffalo Woman – we’re being told that they want to be involved.”
Asked how police could be trusted with the Brady search, Chief Bowers said the Winnipeg service cannot change what happened in the past, but has had time for reflection.
“We just ask that you give us a chance,” he said. “I am committed to reconciliation. I am committed to searching Brady for Ashlee’s remains. I am standing here today, in front of everybody in the community, giving you my word that that will happen.”
