Alleged Serial Killer Accused of Murdering 4 Indigenous Women

A man arrested in Canada earlier this year is now believed to be a serial killer with at least four victims, all of them Indigenous women. Jeremy Skibicki, a 35-year-old resident of Winnipeg, Manitoba, was charged in May with the murder of 24-year-old Rebecca Contois, a member of the Crane River First Nation, CNN reports. He has now been charged with the murders of Morgan Beatrice Harris, Marcedes Myran, and a fourth woman who has not been identified. Harris, 39, was killed on May 1 and Myran, 26, was killed on May 4, investigators say. Both women were members of the Long Plain First Nation. The fourth woman was killed on or around March 15, Winnipeg police said in a news release.

After Contois' partial remains were found in a garbage can near Skibicki's home on May 16, more remains were found in a landfill. The bodies of the other victims have not been recovered but police say they have enough evidence—including DNA evidence—to charge Skibicki with their murders. The CBC reports that Skibicki's Facebook page is "rife with violent sentiments," along with misogynistic and white supremacist content. In his Facebook bio, he describes himself as an official member of "Holy Europe," a fringe far-right group that calls for the "re-Christianization" of Europe and the "preservation of European race." Police did not disclose a motive for the killings or say whether they believe Skibicki targeted Indigenous women.

Skibicki has been in custody since his May arrest. Hours after the new charges were announced Thursday, dozens of people gathered for a vigil to mourn the victims, the Winnipeg Free Press reports. "I am so angry that this continues to happen to our women,” said provincial lawmaker Bernadette Smith, an Indigenous woman whose sister disappeared in 2008. "We’ve been doing this work for a long time and we shouldn’t have to keep coming together in this way," she said. "This affects all of us. It’s not just an Indigenous issue, it’s not just a woman’s issue … it’s a human issue." (More Canada stories.)