Grisly discovery leads to first-degree murder charge Accused killer has history of threatening women, court documents show; police say more victims possible By: Erik Pindera and Dean Pritchard Posted: 11:25 AM CDT Thursday, May. 19, 2022 Last Modified: 7:08 PM CDT Friday, May. 20, 2022 Updates

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A Winnipeg man has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of an Indigenous woman, after partial human remains were found in a North Kildonan dumpster — and police believe there could be more victims.

A source told the Free Press investigators had found a severed human head and leg in the bin near an apartment block at 253 Edison Ave.

On Monday, city police said they were investigating what was “believed to be a homicide” in the area between Henderson Highway and Roch Street, after a passerby spotted the remains and phoned law enforcement.

On Thursday, the Winnipeg Police Service publicly identified the remains as Rebecca Contois, 24, and announced an arrest in the case.

Const. Rob Carver called the slaying a “tragedy for the entire community and for the city.”

Angie Tuesday, WPS family resource and support advocate, said she has been in contact with Contois’s family. “They are going through an intense period of grieving right now. This was their loved one, this was their girl… This is not just something awful that happened —this is something awful that’s happening to them at this time.”

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee offered his condolences to the family and the victim’s loved ones.

“Women are sacred and should be treated as such. I’m extremely concerned to hear of the violent passing of Rebecca Contois and my prayers are with her loved ones and her entire community at this time,” Settee said in a statement.

Jeremy Anthony Michael Skibicki, 35, was arrested Wednesday and charged with first-degree murder.

The charge indicates the Crown attorney’s office believes “without question, there was a level of absolute pre-meditation,” Carver told the Free Press.

Carver confirmed the accused and victim knew each other, but would not elaborate further. Police believe the homicide occurred in the area, likely on or around May 16.

“Somebody in the area had spotted something that was of concern and called us,” Carver said of the discovery of human remains, without elaboration. “It is a horrifically grisly scene.”

Ryan Jarvis, 41, lives on Edison Avenue across from the scene. He witnessed police pulling evidence from the dumpster around 8:30 a.m. Monday.

“The van pulls up, two cops got out. They took a ladder to the garbage can, walked up (it)… took pictures and pulled (something) out and put it in a bag… Then crime scene investigators pulled up in their big truck,” Jarvis said, adding officers then went up and down the alley, searching other bins.

On Thursday afternoon, a police presence, including a forensics truck, remained at the four-plex apartment where the accused lived on McKay Street, one block north of Edison Street.

Eight evidence markers, lettered A through H, were placed on single-family city garbage bins in the backyard, which was cordoned off with yellow police tape.

Adolf and Rahel Reimer live on Arby Bay directly across the lane from the accused’s apartment, and first saw officers at the site Wednesday morning.

“It’s always been very quiet,” Adolf, 62, said of the four-plex.

Carver said police have identified another potential scene at the Brady Road landfill, where officers have been investigating since Monday.

Asked what led police to the landfill, the WPS spokesman said: “We were looking at a facility next to the apartment block, it was a garbage dump — the rest, you’re going to have to connect the dots.”

Police have since established a large, general scene at the south Winnipeg landfill, but an actual search has not yet begun, Carver told the Free Press.

The long and intensive grid search will include “all of the resources” at police disposal, likely including drones, the WPS helicopter and police dogs. Carver noted a search of such a site is as “difficult as it could possibly be.”

Homicide detectives have not ruled out the possibility of more victims “due to the nature of the circumstances” of the investigation, Carver said.

He would not elaborate on what led investigators to that conclusion.

“I’m not going to be able to answer that in detail… or give you any answer, at this point… I just can’t,” he told reporters at police headquarters.

“But there are things that are leading investigators to look at that as a potential possibility, for sure.”

Asked whether the accused is known to police, Carver said: “Not really.”

Deborah Hastings, 59, lives on McKay Street, across the back lane from the Edison Avenue apartment. Police arrived at about 6 a.m. Monday, and stayed in the area until at least 9 p.m., she said, adding patrol cars have been making regular rounds since.

“I won’t go out in my backyard now when it’s a little bit dark,” Hastings said, having learned the accused lived on her street. “I don’t care if it’s isolated (incident), it just takes something sketchy to happen and you happen to witness it. Next thing you know, they’re after you.”

Hastings told the Free Press she recognized a photo of Contois as a woman she had past seen walking in the area with a group of friends in the winter.

According to court documents, Skibicki’s ex-wife was granted a three-year protection order against him Sept. 4, 2019.

In a transcript of a hearing before a judicial justice of the peace, the woman said she was “under the influence” when they got married, in what she described as a “shotgun wedding.”

The woman alleged Skibicki restricted her access to her cellphone, didn’t allow her to leave their apartment without his consent, monitored her movements electronically, and forced her to take her “bed meds,” after which he would sexually assault her as she slept.

“He has threatened my family… He has threatened to harm me. And I take that very seriously,” she said. “I’m a possession to him; I’m not a wife. I should have never got married.”

The woman said both she and Skibicki had been methamphetamine users.

In messages to the woman provided to court, Skibicki described himself as a “holy crusader,” and said if he is killed he will be remembered as a “martyr of Jesus Christ.”

“I believe the fear that you have is real,” a judicial justice of the peace said in granting the woman’s protection order.

In December, Skibicki was found not guilty after trial of breaching a no-contact order with the woman and one count of disobeying a court order.

In 2015, a second woman filed a protection order against Skibicki, but it was dismissed by the court. According to court documents, Skibicki and the woman had been living together for a year and were expecting a child.

The woman wrote in an application for the protection order Skibicki allegedly threatened on Facebook to “set (her) up” on criminal charges.

“He is going to make up lies about me to try get me in trouble because I am going to be having my child soon,” she wrote. “He is extremely jealous and is afraid I will find a new partner once my baby is born.”

The woman alleged Skibicki held a knife to her stomach and threatened to kill her unborn child and then jump out her apartment window and kill himself.

The woman said Skibicki assaulted her while pregnant in June 2015. Court records show he pleaded guilty Aug. 26, 2015, to one count of assault causing bodily harm and was sentenced to 66 days time served and two years supervised probation.

As in the case of Skibicki’s ex-wife, the woman alleged Skibicki forced her to take medication that rendered her unconscious and then sexually assaulted her.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera