Landfill search for Ontario man proves it's possible, but Manitoba lacks political will: former police officer

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

A former deputy police chief who led the successful hunt for a homicide victim's partial remains after they were thrown into a dumpster says a similar search for two homicide victims at a Manitoba landfill can be done safely.

"It can be done. It's just a matter of somebody having the political will to do it," said Sean Sparling, who's now CEO of Investigative Solutions Network Maskwa, an Indigenous-owned investigative firm in Ontario that contributed to a federally funded Manitoba landfill search feasibility study.

Police believe the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran — two of four victims police allege were killed by one man — were deposited last year at the Prairie Green landfill northwest of Winnipeg.

Research done by the committee that studied whether a search of Prairie Green would be feasible already addressed safety concerns cited by the provincial government as a reason not to help pay for the search, committee members said at a news conference on Monday.

Sparling was the major case manager of the Sault Ste. Marie police investigation into the 2011 killing of Wesley Hallam, 29, who was fatally stabbed at a house party in the Ontario city before his body was dismembered.

Police searched for Hallam's remains by hand at three separate landfills in and around Sault Ste. Marie, including one in Michigan, before transport trucks carried excavated material from those landfills to a modified recycling processing plant.

Officers lined each side of a conveyor belt system at the processing plant to sort and search the excavated materials for Hallam, and were able to find some of his remains, Sparling said.

The search took three months and cost $1 million, former Sault Ste. Marie police chief Robert Keetch previously said. 

Hallam's partial remains were key pieces of evidence for the investigation into his death.

"Winnipeg is dealing with two to potentially three victims in the same landfill, and the tonnage is greater than the [Hallam] case, but other than that — the circumstances, the landfill, the process and everything are identical," and time and money are the only different factors, Sparling told CBC News on Monday.

The 29-year-old's partial remains had barely decomposed when they were found because they were compacted at the landfill and deprived of oxygen, which Sparling called "remarkable."

Police did not release Hallam's remains to his mother until five years after he was killed.

"He was a good kid. He was so loving," Sandra Hallam said in an interview on Monday.

She was surprised to learn that Manitoba refused to support a potential landfill search for the remains of Harris and Myran, asking how one government could allow a search for her son and another could deny a search for others.

Her advice to the families fighting to find their loved ones believed to be at Prairie Green is "to keep pushing."

However, she said burying some of her son's remains did not give her full closure, and the families of Harris and Myran could experience the same if their remains are found, "because then you're going to wonder why somebody put them there."

Sparling said the province's decision not to fund a search for the women at Prairie Green was "troubling and disrespectful to the families," and the search for Hallam proved they can be successful.

In June 2022, Prairie Green paused any further loads from being dumped in the specific section the landfill operator suspects holds the load police say contained the remains of Harris and Myran.

There were about five weeks of trash deposited in that section before dumping stopped, totalling approximately 10,000 loads of debris and including 1,500 tonnes of animal remains, police previously said.

"It's not a needle in the haystack — they know where they're going to look," Sparling said.

Safety concerns associated with a search of Prairie Green would not be any higher than what the waste management industry typically deals with, he said.

"For the provincial government to say that it's not possible and that it's dangerous for the workers is simply not true."

Winnipeg police previously said they believe the remains of Harris and Myran were transported to Prairie Green after the two women were killed in May 2022, but it wasn't feasible to search by the time they came to that conclusion in June due to additional materials dumped there.

The tragedy and grief surrounding the deaths of Harris and Myran are intensified by the provincial government's decision not to search Prairie Green, Sparling said.

"At least in our case, we had strong support from the municipality, and we had strong support from the province and our provincial partners to do it."

Support is available for anyone affected by details of this case. If you require support, you can contact Ka Ni Kanichihk's Medicine Bear Counselling, Support and Elder Services at 204-594-6500, ext. 102 or 104 (within Winnipeg), or 1-888-953-5264 (outside Winnipeg).

Support is also available via Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Liaison unit at 1-800-442-0488 or 204-677-1648.

People outside Manitoba can call 1-844-413-6649, an independent, national, toll-free support call line that provides emotional assistance.