Police dogs search downtown, West End in homicide investigations

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This article was published 28/06/2012 (4891 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg Police continue to scour the West End and downtown in connection with the investigation of alleged serial killer Shawn Lamb.

Policemen walk the streets of Simcoe Street off of Sargent Avenue with rescue dog.

Simcoe resident Charlie watches her three-year-old daughter Bella play as the police sift through garbage cans and backyards.

“I don’t want to raise my kids around here,” said Charlie as she sits on her front porch watching Bella. “I grew up around this crime and I don’t want the same for my daughter.”

Constable Jason Michalyshen said they’re searching an area between Maryland and Arlington and Ellice and Notre Dame as well an unspecified area downtown, because of two bodies found in and around these areas.

Shawn Lamb is accused of killing three women, Carolyn Sinclair, Lorna Blacksmith and Tanya Nepinak.

Michalyshen would not specify what they were looking for but that they would be talking to residents and searching yards and possibly dumpsters.

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“There is an element of unknown to what we could find,” he said.

“In light of what we found over the past week… and because of the recent arrest and information, we have gathered, we believe this the best way to move on and move forward with this investigation.”

The body of Sinclair, 25, was found in March in a Dumpster in a back lane near Notre Dame Avenue and Toronto Street. Sinclair had been missing for three months at the time, and court records indicate she was killed almost immediately after disappearing.

Blacksmith, 18, had last been seen Jan. 11 in the West End. Court records indicate she was killed the very next day. Her body was discovered Thursday night on Simcoe Street, reportedly near a Dumpster and wrapped in plastic.

Nepinak, a 31-year-old mother of two, was last seen around Sherbrook Street and Ellice Avenue on Sept 13. Court records indicate that is the day police believe she died. The search for her body is ongoing.