Red dresses, hung in honour of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit individuals, line fences at Brady Road Resource Management Facility, where the body of 33-year-old Linda Mary Beardy of Lake St. Martin First Nation was discovered, in Winnipeg on April 4.SHANNON VANRAES/Reuters
Winnipeg Police are investigating the discovery of a First Nations woman’s body at the city’s Brady Road landfill – the same landfill where the victim of an alleged serial killer was found less than a year ago.
Police identified the woman as Linda Mary Beardy. Inspector Shawn Pike told a news conference on Tuesday that the 33-year-old mother was from Lake St. Martin First Nation and had been living in Winnipeg.
Insp. Pike said there is no evidence to suggest the case is linked to the deaths of four Indigenous women last year whom investigators believe were the victims of a serial killer. The remains of one of those women were found at the Brady Road landfill, two others are believed to be at a different landfill, and police do not know where the fourth is.
“At this time, we have no information to suggest that there are any other victims, or that this investigation is related to any previous incidents,” Insp. Pike said Tuesday. “I think it’s important for us right now to focus on this particular scenario, investigation … how this is affecting her family, her friends, her community. I think it’s very important for us to keep focused on this right now.”
Landfill staff made the discovery Monday afternoon in an “active area” of the site, Insp. Pike said, and immediately alerted police. They believe the body had been transported there by a garbage truck, likely a couple of hours earlier. Now, they are working to determine from where.
Insp. Pike said the death has so far only been classified as suspicious, though the homicide unit is investigating. The medical examiner now has the body.
The discovery was made as the community awaits a feasibility study of a search of another facility, Prairie Green landfill, for the remains of two Indigenous women, whom police announced in December are believed to be victims of alleged serial killer Jeremy Skibicki.
Mr. Skibicki was first charged last May, after the partial remains of Rebecca Contois, 24, a member of O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, were discovered in a garbage bin outside a Winnipeg apartment building, and then at the Brady Road landfill.
Six months later, police announced that three additional murder charges were being laid against the 35-year-old, for the killings of Morgan Harris, 39, Marcedes Myran, 24, and a fourth woman who has not been identified, but who is also believed to be Indigenous. First Nations elders have named her Buffalo Woman. Investigators have said they do not know where her remains are.
The remains of Ms. Harris and Ms. Myran, who were both members of Long Plain First Nation, are believed to be at the Prairie Green landfill.
While investigators with Winnipeg Police concluded that Ms. Harris’s and Ms. Myran’s bodies were at Prairie Green in June of last year, they did not reveal this to the families until the charges were announced in December. By that point, they said it was too late to search the landfill, and that trying to do so would be too difficult and dangerous because of contaminants at the site, including asbestos.
The decision sparked outrage from the victims’ families, as well as from Indigenous leaders in the province.
In response to the pressure, operations at the landfill were temporarily paused and an Indigenous-led working group, which includes police, government representatives and forensic experts, is now considering the feasibility of a search at Prairie Green.
That feasibility study is expected to be completed in four to six weeks, according to a statement Tuesday by Grand Chief Cathy Merrick of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, who is leading the feasibility study.
“We are confident the study will deem these search and recovery efforts feasible. The impacted families will have time to review and provide input before the study is released to the public,” Grand Chief Merrick wrote, offering her condolences to Ms. Beardy’s family. “The Landfill Search Feasibility Committee remains dedicated to getting this study done thoroughly and properly for this search to get under way. We can then concentrate on the Brady Landfill next.”
Cambria Harris, the daughter of Morgan Harris, has been adamant that the search should not be limited to Prairie Green, but should also include the Brady Road landfill.
Grand Chief Jerry Daniels of the Southern Chiefs’ Organization echoed that sentiment in a statement Tuesday, expressing his condolences to Ms. Beardy’s family and loved ones.
“In December, we asked that the Brady Landfill be classified as an active crime scene,” he wrote. “Only a few months later and we are hearing of one of our sacred women being located in this space. This is devastating news. It is clear that so much more needs to be done to protect our women.”
The Missing and Murdered Women Inquiry’s final report, published in 2019, said Indigenous women are 12 times more likely to be murdered or missing than any other women in Canada and six times more likely to be murdered than non-Indigenous women. The inquiry released 231 calls for justice, including better training for police officers about Indigenous history, culture and language.
“Why aren’t the governments implementing the MMIWG’s 231 Calls to Justice immediately?” Grand Chief Merrick asked in her statement Tuesday. “We are losing women every day, and it is shameful we have to come out looking in landfills for our women.”