Parents of slain Manitoba woman hope search for remains in landfill can start soon

WINNIPEG — Albert Shingoose never wavered in his belief that the unidentified victim of a Winnipeg serial killer who was given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, was his daughter Ashlee.

He would travel from his family home at St. Theresa Point Anisininew Nation in northeastern Manitoba to the province’s capital to comb the streets in the hopes of finding his daughter.

As the days, weeks and months passed, the father came to the horrific conclusion that the quiet, caring girl he loved was likely a victim of serial killer Jeremy Skibicki.

“I knew at some point that Ashlee was Buffalo Woman,” Albert Shingoose said Thursday.

His fears were confirmed this week when Winnipeg police officers travelled to St. Theresa Point to tell Albert and Theresa Shingoose that their daughter was indeed Buffalo Woman and that her remains are likely in the city’s Brady landfill.

Police announced the update Wednesday at a large event attended by officers, investigators, First Nations leadership and government officials.

Albert and Theresa Shingoose were to attend, but bad weather forced them to stay home. Instead, they watched the announcement on a livestream at the community’s band office as Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew promised there would be a search of the landfill for her remains.

Albert and Theresa Shingoose say they hope the search begins soon.

“We all got to work hard to bring her home,” Albert Shingoose said.

“The landfill is not a burial ground … It’s not the burial ground for anybody. We’re not garbage. Nobody is garbage.”

Ashlee Shingoose, 30, was last seen near downtown Winnipeg in March 2022. Until now, she was known as Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, a name given to her by Indigenous grassroots community members.

She was one of four Indigenous women killed in 2022 by Skibicki. He was sentenced to life in prison last year.

Skibicki’s trial heard he targeted them at homeless shelters in Winnipeg and disposed of their bodies in garbage bins in his neighbourhood.

He admitted to the four slayings but argued he was not criminally responsible due to a mental illness. However, a judge found him guilty of first-degree murder.

The remains of Rebecca Contois were first discovered in a garbage bin in Skibicki’s neighbourhood and at the Brady landfill. The remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran were recently found at the Prairie Green landfill north of Winnipeg.

Police have said DNA found on a jacket that would become the focal point on identifying Buffalo Woman would turn out to be a dead end.

The jacket belonged to Ashlee Shingoose, police said, but the DNA was of someone else. However, forensic investigators did find the woman’s DNA on multiple items that were in Skibicki’s home at one point.

Albert Shingoose said he heard a homeless shelter worker link the jacket to his daughter. Given this and the fact that his daughter went missing around the same time Skibicki’s first victim was killed, he believed Buffalo Woman was his daughter.

Ashlee left her overcrowded home in St. Theresa Point for the city with the hopes of finding a place for her and her three kids, said Theresa Shingoose.

She fell in with a bad crowd and times were tough, but Ashlee Shingoose’s children remained an important part of her life, Theresa added.

She was tasked with telling some of them about their mother’s death.

Theresa Shingoose said she leaned on her faith to get her through the past three years. “I prayed all the time,” she said.

For the first time since Buffalo Woman was gifted her name, the Shingooses met with one of the grandmothers who was part of the naming ceremony.

They presented Thelma Morrisseau with a gift of tobacco for making sure their daughter was not forgotten.

“Our community adopted her … We wanted her to have a name because she deserved it, because she was important,” said Morrisseau.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 27, 2025.

Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press