Loved ones repeat calls for province to not forget Tanya Nepinak as Brady Landfill search approaches

The aunt of a woman missing for over a decade stood at the steps of the Manitoba Legislature on Saturday echoing her calls on the province to include Tanya Nepinak, 31, in a targeted search of Winnipeg’s Brady Landfill.

Sue Caribou held up an optimistic letter she wrote to her missing niece after a meeting with Premier Wab Kinew this spring, while others held signs at the legislative building that read: “Search for Tanya Nepinak.”

“When they did mention they were going to search the Brady Landfill, again, they didn’t mention my niece,” Nepinak said through tears. “Why do they keep throwing her under the rug? Doesn’t she matter?”

The NDP government announced this week the search of Prairie Green Landfill north of the city officially ended July 9, months after the partial remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran — both from Long Plain First Nation — were discovered there in February. 

The women were among four First Nations women killed by Jeremy Skibicki in 2022. He was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder in their deaths last year. Rebecca Contois and Ashlee Shingoose were the other two victims.

Contois’ partial remains were discovered first in a garbage bin near Skibicki’s apartment in Winnipeg’s North Kildonan neighbourhood. More were uncovered at Brady Landfill in June 2022.

That’s also where some of Shingoose’s remains are believed to be, and that’s where searchers are expected to continue looking soon. 

Brady Landfill is also where investigators believe Nepinak’s remains were taken after she went missing. 

Nepinak, originally from Pine Creek First Nation, has been missing more than 13 years. She was last seen leaving her home on Sherbrook Street in Winnipeg in September 2011.

Shawn Lamb was charged with second-degree murder in her death in 2012, though those charges were later stayed. Lamb was then convicted of manslaughter in the deaths of Carolyn Sinclair and Lorna Blacksmith.

Nepinak’s remains were believed to be in Brady Landfill at the time. There was a brief search that wrapped in six days, without success, in 2012.

Caribou has persisted in her quest to pressure successive government leadership to resume the search for Nepinak’s remains. 

In April, Caribou led a march that wound through the legislature ahead of a meeting she had with Kinew.

At the time, she felt a renewed sense of confidence.

“Good things happen when you keep moving forward in a good way. Finally got to chat with the premier,” reads a line from a letter Caribou wrote to Nepinak following that meeting. “I was so grateful.”

But that feeling was short-lived.

Nepinak said Saturday that meetings she expected to have with the premier or staff were cancelled or rescheduled several times in the ensuing months, with one explanation being due to wildfire season.

Manitoba is in the grips of its worst wildfires in 30 years, which have displaced thousands of evacuees, most of them residents of northern First Nation communities.

Many have been put in shelters and hotels in Winnipeg and elsewhere in the south.

Nepinak said she understands how pressing the wildfire situation is for the province to attend to, but she feels announcements about the forthcoming search of Brady Landfill are failing to mention her niece, and she feels ignored. 

She also feels, with thousands of evacuees stuck in Winnipeg currently, that the Manitoba government has an opportunity before it.

“This is a perfect time for our people to help each other,” said Caribou, adding the province should pay evacuees to search the landfill for her niece. 

“Let the evacuees make some money while they’re here and not fall into all kinds of trouble. We can all make history and we can all help each other.”

She wants to move forward but is getting frustrated and angered “when they mention Brady Landfill and mention Ashlee [Shingoose] but not Tanya.”

“That just breaks my heart,” she said. “Let’s help one another.”

Jennifer Rocchio, a relative of Tanya’s, said she made Nepinak’s father a promise on his deathbed that she would keep showing up for his daughter.

“There needs to be some accountability to the First Nations community,” she said. “We have to hold them accountable.”

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