Ashlee Shingoose's father wishes her daughter continue to be known as Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe
Indigenous community members named Shingoose 'Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe' or Buffalo Woman, when Winnipeg police couldn't identify her after she was murdered by a Winnipeg serial killer in 2022.
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CBC
05-05-2025
- CBC
St. Theresa Point to honour Ashlee Shingoose, other area MMIWGs
St. Theresa Point First Nation in northeastern Manitoba is holding its first Red Dress Day event on Monday, as the community mourns one of its own. In March, Ashlee Shingoose of was identified as the previously unknown victim of a Winnipeg serial killer. She'd been given the name Buffalo Woman, or Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, by Indigenous community members.
CBC
05-05-2025
- CBC
First Nation mourning serial killer victim Ashlee Shingoose holding 1st Red Dress Day event
A northern Manitoba First Nation is holding its first Red Dress Day event on Monday as the community mourns one of its own. In March, Ashlee Shingoose of St. Theresa Point First Nation was identified as the previously unknown victim of a Winnipeg serial killer. She'd been given the name Buffalo Woman, or Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, by Indigenous community members. Shingoose, who police believe was murdered in March 2022, is among several known missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls from the Island Lake and Red Sucker Lake region of northern Manitoba, about 450 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. Red Dress Day has been observed on May 5 since 2010 as a day to honour and remember missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people. Organizer Tanya Dawn McDougall says Shingoose's case is part of why St. Theresa Point is marking Red Dress Day for the first time this year. Community members will also honour Precious Pascal, Theresa Robinson, Kathleen Wood Annie Little, Tammy Nattaway, Charlotte Wood and Andrea Harper. The event is an example of St. Theresa Point's resilience, said McDougall, who is also the local school's mental health advocate. "We're not going to shy away from how much it hurts. We're going to do our best to challenge and contribute to the solution," she told CBC News on Friday. On Monday, high school and middle school students will first gather in the gym to hear speeches, light candles for the women and name them, McDougall said. After, they'll hold a spirit dance, then walk with all 1,200 school-age children and participate in a buffalo call — a collective prayer McDougall described as a loud and short call to release hurt and pain. In recent weeks, organizations in the community have held several workshops on making red dresses and skirts for girls and women to wear on Monday. McDougall said she also addressed boys and girls directly in their classrooms on the risks they face as First Nations people and the responsibilities they have to protect each other and themselves. "It was heavy," she said. "It's a hard fact to state and explain to children, but they are getting older, and we have to prepare them to be warriors." Indigenous women are 12 times more likely to go missing or be murdered compared to non-Indigenous women in Canada, according to Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. The intent of making kids aware of that is not to instill fear, said McDougall. "I want them to have this awareness, so that they know they are part of challenging that statistic." Red Dress Alert in 1st phase of development There are other initiatives underway to help protect Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people, including the Red Dress Alert system. That system, similar to Amber Alerts used for children, would inform the public when an Indigenous woman or girl goes missing. The federal government announced in October it would contribute $1.3 million over three years for Giganawenimaanaanig, the province's MMIWG2S+ implementation committee, to develop the pilot program for Manitoba. Denise Cook, the project lead for the pilot, says her team hopes to tackle gaps in service that MMIWG families have experienced. "We are doing groundbreaking work that's going to save lives and that is needed, and that is going to give something to the families when they are looking for their loved one," she said. "The tragedy of lots of community and family members is the response that they've received." Cook says the project is still in its first phase, and details on when or through which media the alerts will be communicated haven't been decided. Cellphone alerts, for example, may not be as effective in some northern and rural communities, she said. Her five-person team, some of whom have been impacted by MMIWG, has held nearly two dozen community and family consultations around the province since December, to help address gaps and provide guidance on development, she said. With each community session, a memory table displaying pictures of MMIWG has grown. "We have hit the ground running, and we do have limited time … because we know the urgency of MMWG2S+," Cook said. An interim report on the consultations is expected to be published in June, with hopes the alert system will be ready this fall, Cook said. Its framework could eventually be adapted nationally or serve as a model in other jurisdictions and provinces, she said. WATCH | St. Theresa Point honours MMIWGs on Red Dress Day: St. Theresa Point to honour Ashlee Shingoose, other area MMIWGs 3 minutes ago Duration 2:25 St. Theresa Point First Nation in northeastern Manitoba is holding its first Red Dress Day event on Monday, as the community mourns one of its own. In March, Ashlee Shingoose of was identified as the previously unknown victim of a Winnipeg serial killer. She'd been given the name Buffalo Woman, or Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, by Indigenous community members. On Thursday, the Downtown Community Safety Partnership and the province announced a new specialized team as part of the downtown patrol to help Indigenous women feel safe in Winnipeg. Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said the provincial funding for the team is part of her government's efforts to empower and protect Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse Manitobans, as is an endowment fund to support families who are searching for a loved one. Sixty per cent of the fund will go to Giganawenimaanaanig to manage and disperse to families, Fontaine previously said. The province will distribute the remaining 40 per cent to Indigenous-led events and programming. She said the province would have more to announce on the endowment fund on Monday.
CBC
14-04-2025
- CBC
Why did it take Winnipeg police so long to interview a serial killer in search for victim's identity?
Social Sharing WARNING | This story contains details of violence against Indigenous women. Experts say there doesn't seem to have been anything explicitly preventing Winnipeg police from reinterviewing a serial killer sooner in their mission to identify his unknown victim — but there's a range of possible reasons that could help explain why it took so long to do it. At a news conference last month announcing police had determined the woman previously only known as Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe was 30-year-old Ashlee Christine Shingoose, Deputy Chief Cam Mackid told reporters police drew that conclusion in part because of information gleaned from a second interview they did in December with the serial killer convicted in her murder — more than 2½ years after he first spoke to police. "Unfortunately the way our legal system works, once we interview someone once, we don't get to ask them any further questions until they go to court, unless there's new charges," Mackid said March 26, adding there were "legal concerns" and police didn't want to "do anything that might jeopardize" his convictions. Jeremy Skibicki confessed in May 2022 to killing the woman now known to be Shingoose, who was from St. Theresa Point Anisininew Nation, and three other First Nations women: Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26 — both originally from Long Plain First Nation — and Rebecca Contois, 24, a member of O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation. He was convicted last summer of four counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. WATCH | Ashlee Shingoose's dad speaks of the struggle to find her, bring her home: Ashlee Shingoose's dad speaks of the struggle to find her, bring her home 18 days ago Duration 3:20 Albert Shingoose speaks with CBC in St. Theresa Point in October 2023, a year and a half after his daughter Ashlee's disappearance and a year and a half before her identity was confirmed as one of the four victims of a Winnipeg serial killer. Police said they believe Shingoose's remains were taken to Winnipeg's Brady Road landfill in March 2022, and put in the same area where Contois's partial remains were found shortly after she was killed. Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew has promised to search that landfill for Shingoose's remains. Harris's and Myran's remains were recently found during a search of another landfill. During Skibicki's initial police interview, he only knew the names of some of the women he killed — and initially misidentified the woman now known to be Shingoose as someone who was still alive — leaving detectives struggling to solve the mystery of who she really was. When police did reinterview Skibicki in December, it led them to test DNA from a pair of pants seized during the investigation, and he identified Shingoose as the victim from a series of photographs, allowing investigators to finally confirm her identity last month. Police declined this month to provide more details about what Mackid meant by his comments on why Skibicki wasn't reinterviewed earlier, saying in an email any decisions about that interview "were made through direct and extensive consultations with Manitoba Justice." Legal expert David Milward said while he found the police explanation for why it took them so long to talk to Skibicki again "baffling," it's easy to second-guess decisions made in something as complicated as a homicide investigation. "The police do have to be given some leeway and some understanding on something like this," said Milward, a law professor at the University of Victoria. "But at the same time, I'm not sure if, you know, 'Oh, we didn't want to jeopardize, there was some sort of legal constraint, we could have jeopardized [the case]' — I'm not convinced that that was necessary as a justification." He and other legal and policing experts say they're not aware of any rules or law that would have stopped police from interviewing Skibicki again sooner in their mission to identify his unknown victim. In fact, detectives often interview suspects more than once. However, they also say it's not uncommon for officers to avoid reinterviewing if it's not needed to prosecute, because of the risk it poses. "The prosecutor would be, I think, concerned … if the investigation was still going on behind the scenes, without them being looped in, while they're trying to prosecute a case," said Michael Arntfield, a criminologist and professor at Western University who worked for 16 years as a detective with the London Police Service in Ontario. "If they say they can't interview him, that to me sounds like they've taken direction either from the Crown or from superior officers to not potentially interfere with the prosecution." Skibicki unexpectedly confessed to killing the four women when he was brought in for questioning after Contois's partial remains were found. He ended up giving detectives details about how and when he killed each woman, and what he did with their remains. Police later corroborated some of that information, with evidence including surveillance footage, DNA and computer history. Experts say in cases where police already have the evidence they need to get a conviction, a second interview doesn't stand to do much to help the prosecution — and could instead end up helping the defence, depending on how the interview plays out. "There's just no predicting how that will unfold and what will come out, and what the impact of what comes out will be on the person's trial," said Robert Diab, a law professor at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C. A person's answers in a second interview could, for example, call into question things said or done earlier in the investigation, or create a new avenue of defence for the suspect, Diab said. And depending on how far away the trial is, a second interview could also risk making the case exceed strict timelines governing how long a person can wait to be tried in Canada, if it creates the need to speak to more witnesses or secure court time that's not readily available. WATCH | Landfill search can't happen soon enough for parents of Ashlee Shingoose: Landfill search can't happen soon enough for parents of Ashlee Shingoose 17 days ago Duration 2:36 The mother and father of Ashlee Shingoose called for a quick start to the Brady Road landfill search for her remains during a news conference in Winnipeg. Shingoose was identified this week as Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, who was previously the only unidentified victim of a convicted serial killer. "It is not out of the realm of possibility, in many cases, that the whole trial can be jeopardized," Diab said. "So it's out of an abundance of caution that the Crown and the police don't want to derail the certainty and the plans that are set in place by conducting an interview that could give rise to a lot of, you know, uncertainty and unpredictability." On top of that, suspects also have to "be apprised of their rights to counsel, and can presumably refuse to be reinterviewed or terminate the interview at any time," criminologist Arntfield said. Even after a person's been convicted, a second interview could, in theory, uncover new evidence that could be used to reopen avenues of appeal. However, Diab called that more of a "remote possibility," considering the facts of Skibicki's case — something the University of Victoria's Milward said he agrees with. "They just had him solid," Milward said. "So I didn't see any possibility that … interviewing him after this would suddenly lead to some sort of putting his previous conviction in danger." Law Prof. Diab said there's also no guarantee that an earlier reinterview would have gotten the same results it got in December — police may not have had all the information they have now, and Skibicki may not have been willing to speak to officers, for example. "Sometimes it just takes time for circumstances to come together, you know, for enough information to come to light," Diab said. Crown attorney Chris Vanderhooft, one of the lawyers who prosecuted Skibicki, said in an email that after a suspect has been interviewed by police and processed, they can't be rearrested for the same charge — and any subsequent interview would be voluntary, "and not something police would normally do in a particular case." Vanderhooft said it's also "highly unusual" for police to interview someone about their crimes after they've been convicted. As Winnipeg police tried to identify Shingoose, "they took care to make sure any post-conviction interview was conducted in a way that would not cause any issue that could lead to any legal problem, and we certainly consulted with them in that regard," he said. Vanderhooft would not say what those potential legal problems were, and said he couldn't answer questions about what "privileged legal advice, direction or requests" prosecutors gave police about their interview with Skibicki. Trying to weigh the kinds of considerations that come up in a case like this is what Arntfield called "the tough part" of being a detective. It can be a stressful balancing act between "the frustration of wanting to resolve this and identify this murdered individual," and the overarching need to ensure "due process is followed and this person is successfully put away and can't hurt other people," he said. Grand Chief Kyra Wilson, who's been closely involved with victims' families in the case as the current head of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and in her past role as chief of Long Plain First Nation, said she wonders if there's a way for the justice system to do a better job balancing those kinds of elements, with victims and their families more at the forefront. "Right now what we see is, you know, a whole system that is set up to prioritize conviction, which I do believe should definitely be a priority," Wilson said. "But we also, I believe, can support victims and support families together as well. I don't think that one is more or less than. We can do that together and make sure that we are prioritizing both of those." Wilson said she hopes to sit down soon with Winnipeg police and victim family members to get more information about detectives' efforts on the case. It's understandable that police can only share limited information during an investigation, she said, but after that process is over, and "maybe in this case with the conviction, you can share with the families some of that process so they understand, you know, why certain decisions were made." Wilson also hopes to get more details about police efforts to identify the other women whose DNA was found in Skibicki's apartment during the investigation. While some samples were identified — including Shingoose's DNA — others were not. But even with some details still unknown, Wilson is glad to finally have the answer about Shingoose's identity that so many people waited so long for. "Maybe it took a lot longer than we would have liked, from a community perspective. But we don't know the inner workings or process for Winnipeg police," she said. "I know that our community is grateful that they received some of those answers — especially one of our families now, the Shingoose family, has some closure." Support is available for anyone affected by these reports and the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous people. Immediate emotional assistance and crisis support are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through a national hotline at 1-844-413-6649. You can also access, through the government of Canada, health support services such as mental health counselling, community-based support and cultural services, and some travel costs to see elders and traditional healers. Family members seeking information about a missing or murdered loved one can access Family Information Liaison Units.
