Authorities in Winnipeg, Manitoba, are conducting a major search in connection with the murders of three Native women.

Tanya Nepinak, 31, Carolyn Sinclair, 25, and Lorna Blacksmith, 18, all went missing from the same area of Winnipeg within a four-month period. The search is taking place in a part of downtown where Sinclair's and Blacksmith's bodies were recently found.

Nepinak's body hasn't been found but authorities believe she is dead. Shawn Cameron Lamb, 52, has been charged with second-degree murder for all three deaths.

"We're just hoping that this man at the Remand Centre speaks up and tells us where Tanya is. That's all I want," her father, Bert Nepinak, told CBC News, at a rally outside the detention facility where Lamb is being held.

Authorities throughout Canada are trying to determine whether Lamb is connected to other cases. He's lived in at least four provinces and has a lengthy criminal record.

There's at least one case of a missing Native woman in Quebec and possibly another in Ontario that are being looked at. But in a tragic twist to the case, Lamb said he suffered sexual and physical abuse at the hands of his foster mother and has been struggling to deal with the trauma.

According to documents obtained by The Winnipeg Free Press, Lamb was taken from his Native mother as part of the “’60s scoop," when thousands of Native children were taken from reserves. He was raised by a non-Native family in Ontario but his band affiliation, if any, wasn't reported.

“Once upon a time there was born a baby boy, a little Indian boy, as sweet and fat-cheeked and gifted by the Creator as any baby anywhere. He was born innocent, as innocent as a puppy,” Lamb wrote in a book he was developing, the paper reported.

Get the Story:
Winnipeg homicides prompt intense police search (CBC 6/28)
Cops search West End for serial killer evidence (The Winnipeg Sun 6/28)
Canines used to search downtown, West End in homicide investigations (The Winnipeg Free Press 6/28)
Accused killer admits anger over abuse at hands of women (The Winnipeg Free Press 6/28)
Other murder links unlikely: expert (The Winnipeg Sun 6/28)
Slain teen's family ask Lamb if he's responsible (The Winnipeg Free Press 6/28)
Winnipeg serial killer case probe expands to other cities (CBC 6/27)

Related Stories:
Man charged with murders of Native women may be serial killer (6/27)
Man charged with murders of 3 Native women from same reserve (6/25)
Native woman who went missing found dead in Manitoba (4/10)
APTN: Three women from same reserve go missing on street (2/17)