On the walls of Donna Bartlett’s home hang photos of her beloved granddaughter, Marcedes Myran.
Messages and memories of Marcedes also hang on the walls.
“She made this when she was in school,” Bartlett said, reading a poem by Marcedes hanging on the wall. “It says friends are like family, because they help you when you need it.”
They’re memories that both Barlett and Marcedes’ mother, Pamela Myran, keep close to their hearts.
“I have this little box; we were at the women’s centre and we were painting boxes,” Pamela told Global News. “She painted a heart with little scribbles around it and a music box.”
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“She said, ‘When I go, Mom, you’ll always be able to hear my heart,’” Pamela said through tears. “It’s like, don’t make jokes like that… That’s the only thing I kept of hers. My mom has the rest, but that’s what I cherish.”
Marcedes’ family remembers her as a happy and kind daughter, mother, sister, granddaughter and friend. They also say Marcedes, a member of Long Plain First Nation, was a bit of a practical joker.
“I always remember her playing jokes. When I’d go visit them at their mom’s, she’d always hide my purse or my shoes so I couldn’t leave. So when it was time for me to go, they were gone. Missing,” Bartlett laughed.
“Whenever she’d get in trouble, she’d ground herself or say, ‘Mom, I’m going to do dishes for a week because I’ve been a bad girl.’ I didn’t have to ground her, she’d ground herself. I thought that was cute,” Pamela said.
“And yeah, she was a pain in the butt; she’d bug her brother and sisters.”
“She was a good kid, I’m not saying she was perfect but she was perfect for us,” Bartlett added. “Too trusting. That’s how that guy got her, because she was too trusting.”
It’s been about one year since the province announced that Marcedes Myran and Morgan Harris were coming home. The remains of both women were found in the Prairie Green landfill, just north of Winnipeg, after they were murdered by a convicted serial killer in 2022.
It’s still vivid in their minds.
“It just made it real. They found 15 per cent of her, that’s all they could find,” Bartlett said. “It just made it real. She’s gone. She will never come in the door again, never be able to hug her or say I love you. Never be able to see her again, see her smile.”
“I had a lot of things in my head, like how she died, what was the last word she said. I wanted to know everything,” Pamela said.
“She’s still over there, that’s her home now, that’s her home…. It just hurts that I don’t get all of her.”
Bartlett says the grief is something that will stay with the family forever, but so will the memories of Marcedes.
“I just wish she was here, because if you would have met her when she was alive, you would have seen how nice she was, what a beautiful person she is,” Bartlett said.
“How much pain this has caused us. How much this has torn our family apart. How much pain her children are going to have when they have to learn to live without her.
“I miss her. And they won’t take that away, they can never take that away. I’ll always miss her.”
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
