It was one of the last times Theresa Shingoose ever heard her daughter speak — and on Friday, the voice of a woman whose identity was unknown for so long rang out across a Winnipeg courtroom, as Ashlee Shingoose’s parents finally got to deliver their victim impact statements and played one of the final messages she sent them before she was murdered by a serial killer in 2022.
“Mom, I’m really trying my best, and I will never stop trying,” the 30-year-old said in the voice message, referencing her struggles with substance use and her hopes to build a better life for her and her children.
“But all I know is people who use, and it’s not easy for me to just stand out. I feel lonely.”
A year after Ashlee Shingoose’s death, her daughter was one of two teens who froze to death in St. Theresa Point Anisininew Nation, their home community in northeastern Manitoba. Her family said at the time the teen had struggled to cope with the loss of her mother.
On Friday, more than a year after the man who killed Ashlee Shingoose was convicted of her murder and three others, her father, Albert Shingoose, told court in a victim impact statement how desperate his family felt when his daughter went missing, and how he travelled from their home in St. Theresa Point to Winnipeg, where he spent months searching the streets for her.
“It felt like no one heard us. No one acted. And for the longest time, Ashlee remained unidentified while we were out here, screaming into silence,” said Albert’s victim impact statement, read by the chief of their First Nation in an unusual hearing.
Morgan Harris, Ashlee Shingoose — who had been given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, before she was finally identified on March 26, 2025 — Marcedes Myran and Rebecca Contois were all victims of serial killer Jeremy Skibicki. (Submitted by Cambria Harris, Winnipeg Police Service, Donna Bartlett, Darryl Contois)
It wasn’t until March of this year that police finally shared publicly what Albert Shingoose said he believed all along: his daughter was the lone unidentified victim of Jeremy Skibicki, who was convicted in July 2024 of murdering four First Nations women in 2022.
“This pain is forever,” Chief Raymond Flett read from the statement, with Shingoose’s parents and other supporters behind him. “What I want, and what I need, is for my daughter to be honoured — her story acknowledged — and for no other family to be left in the dark the way mine has been.”
Theresa Shingoose was emotional as she told court how difficult losing her daughter was — and how it felt to finally have a jacket Ashlee wore returned to her family this week.
“It was a very heavy day for me,” she said in a quiet voice, her husband at times putting his hand on her back and handing her tissues. “It’s so painful, what has happened.”
WATCH | Ashlee Shingoose’s parents read victim impact statement:
‘Her name is Ashlee Shingoose’
Albert and Theresa Shingoose, the parents of Ashlee Shingoose, read to CBC News Albert’s victim impact statement prepared for court about the devastation caused by her disappearance and murder. Ashlee was one of four victims of a serial killer, but the only unidentified one during a trial in 2024. Her identity was discovered after the case concluded.
Prior to being identified by police earlier this year, Ashlee Shingoose was known only as Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, a name given to her by Indigenous community members. The 30-year-old was the first of the four women killed, and is believed to have died in March 2022.
Skibicki was also convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of 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.
While the other women’s families and communities had the opportunity to read impact statements when Skibicki was sentenced in August 2024, members of those families were all in attendance in the crowded courtroom Friday, as Shingoose’s family got their chance to share how their lives were changed by her murder.
Skibicki was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years, after a weeks-long trial last year that heard he targeted vulnerable First Nations women before killing them and disposing of their remains.
‘I want an eye for an eye’
Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal, who also presided over Skibicki’s trial, called the special hearing to allow Shingoose’s family to read impact statements a “necessary and appropriate” one, given the unique circumstances of the case.
“Today’s hearing is intended to provide the Shingoose family with the same opportunity as was provided to the families of Mr. Skibicki’s other victims,” he said, adding the court made the decision to hold the hearing “with an eye to ensuring that today’s proceeding is fair, and that it is not mischaracterized in any way.”
Joyal noted the hearing was not a continuation of Skibicki’s trial or sentencing, and wouldn’t affect his legal jeopardy or the Shingoose family’s ability to make future submissions to the parole board.
“To the extent that this special hearing has given rise to any controversy or confusion, those most basic of facts seem to have been ignored or de-emphasized,” he said.
A photo of Ashlee Shingoose is displayed at the front of the March 2025 news conference where it was announced that she was the woman known as Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe. Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal said Friday’s hearing to give Shingoose’s family a chance to read victim impact statements was ‘necessary and appropriate’ given the unique circumstances of the case. (Tyson Koschik/CBC)
The judge said though Ashlee Shingoose had not yet been identified at the time of Skibicki’s trial or sentencing, “her presence was very much felt by all in this courtroom.”
“This was in no small measure a testament to the efforts of so many people to bear witness on behalf of Buffalo Woman — on behalf of Ashlee — to ensure she was not forgotten, to ensure that she was treated with dignity, to ensure that she was gifted a name,” Joyal said.
Albert Shingoose, in comments he made directly to Joyal before Chief Flett read the victim impact statement, said he was frustrated Skibicki was not at the hearing. Joyal had previously said the court had no jurisdiction to order or insist Skibicki attend.
“If he was here, your honour, I would have said to him, ‘I want an eye for an eye,'” Shingoose said, his booming voice carrying across the large, high-ceilinged courtroom. “He took my Ashlee away.”
Peter Kingsley, the executive director of Legal Aid Manitoba, appeared as counsel for Skibicki at the hearing. He said his client chose not to come to court not as a sign of disrespect, but because “it is his firm belief that his presence in the courtroom would bring further harm” to the women’s families and others.
Skibicki unexpectedly confessed to killing the four women during a police interview in May 2022, after Contois’s partial remains were found in a garbage bin in Winnipeg.
He initially gave police the name of a person who he believed was his first victim, but that woman was found alive, leaving the question of the victim’s true identity to linger.
Police said they were later able to confirm Shingoose’s identity through DNA testing and Skibicki identifying her in a photo.
Sue Caribou drums at a gathering outside the law courts in Winnipeg on Friday. Caribou’s niece, Tanya Nepinak, went missing in 2011 and her remains are believed to be in the Brady Road landfill. The province has said they will search the landfill for her as well as the remains of Ashlee Shingoose. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)
While Contois’s remains were found shortly after her death, and remains belonging to Harris and Myran were discovered more recently during a search of a Winnipeg-area landfill, a search for Shingoose’s remains at the city’s Brady Road landfill has yet to begin.
Premier Wab Kinew has said the test phase has been started in that search.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Kyra Wilson, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, called the case “a prime example of the work that we all have to do together, when it comes to finding solutions to ending the crisis that we’re dealing with, when our women are being targeted.”
And while Ashlee Shingoose’s death reopened old wounds for some in her home community, Chief Flett said people in St. Theresa Point will continue to speak her name and keep her memory alive.
“You have brought darkness,” he said in comments directed toward the man who killed her. “But her light will continue to shine in our hearts forever.”
Family of murdered woman give emotional impact statements
Family members of Ashlee Shingoose gave victim impact statements in a Winnipeg court on Friday, nearly a year after the man who killed her, and three other First Nations women, was sentenced to life in prison. Shingoose was identified earlier this year as the person who had been given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman.