Questions pile up as manhunt for teens continues
One suspect described as an ‘oddball’ who spoke highly of far-right group
PORT ALBERNI, B.C. There are so many unanswered questions, chief among them, why?
But that’s only the first question about how 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky and 19-year-old Kam Mcleod became Canada’s most wanted fugitives, leading authorities on a 3,000-kilometre chase from northern B.C. into the northeastern Manitoba wilderness.
“I just hope they get them before anybody else gets hurt and they can answer everybody’s questions because there are so many questions that need answering,” Lisa Lucas said.
Schmegelsky and Mcleod have not been sighted since Monday in Gillam, Man. The pair were spotted in the Cold Lake area of northern Alberta on Sunday when a resident unknowingly helped them free the Toyota RAV4 vehicle which was stuck on a trail behind his residence. A RAV4 was later found burned out near Gillam, Man.
Lucas lives across the street from where Schmegelsky lived with his grandmother in Port Alberni. When he was younger Schmegelsky hung out at Lucas’s house with one of her sons of the same age, up to about four years ago, she said.
“Bryer never did anything to cause me alarm. He was a little shy and was an oddball kid at 11, 12, 13. He was here a lot, he had a sh--ty home life, this was his fun house,” she said. “As he got older he started to get really serious with odd comments while gaming, comments that made my son feel uncomfortable.”
Lucas is one of many who wonders under what circumstances the three victims died.
The story has focused international and unwanted media attention on Port Alberni, which relies on tourism for much of its economy. Britain’s Daily Mail sent two reporters from its California bureau, CNN has carried live streaming of the police search outside of Gillam and Fox Lake Cree Nation in Manitoba.
Maclean’s, the Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, CBC and, of course, Postmedia are also in Port Alberni trying to find answers.
The coverage has amounted to harassment, particularly of Kam Mcleod’s family, said William Collett, CEO of the Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce.
“The outcome could be horrific for his parents,” Collett said.
He had just got off the phone with someone close to the Mcleods.
“The family is wrestling with how best to navigate this. They don’t know what to do, they have no idea how to respond. There is no script to follow.”
A woman who answered the phone at the home of Schmegelsky’s mother Deborah Sweeney and her partner said Thursday the couple had left town because they felt besieged.
One Port Alberni resident, who agreed to comment on the condition of anonymity, said he met Mcleod and Schmegelsky through a mutual friend and stayed in touch because of their mutual interest in online gaming.
He described the pair as “normal guys” but added that Schmegelsky could come across as “edgy.”
“(It’s) hard to explain, kind of like he talks about darker stuff that most would consider maybe not appropriate, but in the gaming community that can be very commonplace as people act differently for attention,” he said via Facebook messenger.
One time, the acquaintance asked Schmegelsky about his profile picture on the online gaming platform Steam. It depicts a logo that resembles a swastika which appears to be from the far-right Ukrainian group Azov Battalion, which formed in 2014.
Another gamer said Schmegelsky “spoke highly” of the Azov Battalion. Over time, they got the impression Schmegelsky was trying to get them interested in the neo-nazi group.
Schmegelsky’s father told The Canadian Press on Thursday his son was not a Nazi sympathizer, but did think Nazi memorabilia was cool.
Alan Schmegelsky said his son took him to an army surplus store in Port Alberni, where the teen was excited about Nazi artifacts.
“I was disgusted and dragged him out,” the father said. “My grandparents fled Ukraine with three small children during the Second World War.”
Gillam is the end of the road. Almost literally and, perhaps, figuratively as a manhunt for a pair of fugitives accused of killing three people continues in the remote, inhospitable area of northern Manitoba.
“It really is. The road ends here in Manitoba. This is the dead-end corner of the world,” said Jesse Taylor, a town employee who spends his free time in the wilderness that stretches in all directions around Gillam and nearby Fox Lake Cree Nation.
“I see it as the perfect place to get caught.”
That is a feature unlikely to have drawn Kam Mcleod,
19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18. If there was a plan beyond desperate flight and a road — any road — away, it might have been an attraction to the edge of the frontier. It may sound easier to disappear on a road that disappears.
And, after days of police searching with dogs, drones, helicopters and patrols, the RCMP said Friday afternoon, that might be what the two fugitives have managed to do.
RCMP Cpl. Julie Courchaine said there have been no confirmed sightings of Mcleod and Schmegelsky since Monday in the Gillam area and the search is still focused there, but she raised the possibility they’ve left.
The question is how? Police know how they got there.
The road east from Thompson, Manitoba Provincial Road 280, ends in a T-junction with Road 290. If you turn right, it leads into Gillam’s small core.
If you turn left, it leads to the Fox Lake reserve. That intersection is where the pair’s SUV was found Monday, abandoned and burned.
Gillam, with about 1,200 people, and Fox Lake, with about 200 people, are approximately 1,000 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
It is also 3,000 kilometres from the fugitives’ homes in Port Alberni, B.C.
Along the way, police suspect they killed an Australian man and an American woman, who were travelling together, and a Vancouver man, in two separate incidents in northern B.C.
Getting into Gillam with an SUV isn’t hard.
Getting out without one is.
“To leave, they would have to backtrack along the road or walk through the forest. The only other routes of travel would be the Nelson River or the train tracks,” said Taylor, 32, an avid outdoorsman.
“It’s doable. People lived here 100 years ago, so you can do it. People have gone out in the forest and done fine, but it takes a certain kind of person to stick that out. You kind of gotta want to be there. Or need to be there.
“There’s a lot of rivers they’d need to cross, a lot of swampy ground. It’s wet, vegetative ground. Soft and hard walking. Depending on where you are, you could sink up to your waist.”
It is dangerous, as Taylor knows. Last month he was hunting when his tent was torn up by a bear. And the bugs can drive you insane, he said.
However, anyone in the rugged terrain could find plenty of fresh water in rivers and lakes, especially if they have filtering gear. And a lot of food to keep them going.
“Right now, there’s berries growing everywhere. I can’t walk in my front yard without making jam. It’s a bumper year on rabbits. I’ve never seen so many rabbits,” said Taylor.
The Nelson River, near where the SUV was abandoned, flows to Hudson Bay.
“Anything that floats will get you out there but the truth is, if they made it to the bay they would be facing a whole different element. They’d be dealing with tidewaters, very large waves and polar bears,” Taylor said.
Just 100 kilometres outside of Gillam heading toward the bay you start seeing polar bears, he said. The closer you get to the bay, the more you see.
The rail line through Gillam runs north 200 kilometres to Churchill, Man., but that has been closely watched.
Taylor said the insular nature of Gillam would help ensure the pair would be noticed if they resurfaced there.
“Everybody in this town knows everybody else and when somebody new comes into town, a new vehicle or a new face, people recognize that right away.
“As unnerving as this whole situation is, in my opinion, it’s kind of the best scenario. Everybody knows everybody and there is only one road in and one road out. They’ll find them, it’s just a matter of time.”
That’s assuming they didn’t already leave before the massive search started.
After hearing of the RCMP’S appeal for anyone who may have helped the pair without realizing who they were to come forward, Taylor said he can see that happening too.
“Pretty friendly people up here, so that wouldn’t surprise me.”
People tend to help other people in need, especially when they are on the edge of the frontier.