B.C. KILLERS HATCHED PLAN TO HIJACK BOAT, ESCAPE TO AFRICA
PAIR SHOWED NO REMORSE, OFFERED NO HINT OF MOTIVE IN VIDEOS, RCMP SAYS
After eluding police for more than two weeks, triple homicide suspects Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky had reached rural northern Manitoba with a fantastical, movie-like idea of escape: hijack a boat and then make their way to Europe or Africa.
But they would not get far in pursuing that far-fetched idea: they hit a dead end when they reached the large, fast-flowing Nelson River and they were at the bottom of a steep embankment that was impossible to climb back up.
So they decided to make a suicide pact instead. Before turning their rifles on themselves, they shaved their heads and admitted, in a series of videos, responsibility for three murders in northern B.C., and asked that their bodies be cremated. But the friends from Port Alberni, B.C., would show “no remorse,” police said, and offered no hints as to what had led them to go on a killing spree.
“If there was in fact a motive, it’s gone with the accused,” Assistant Commissioner Kevin Hackett told reporters Friday. “Nothing from our investigation has helped us determine what the motive was.”
But while motive remained a mystery, RCMP provided for the first time a detailed timeline of the sequence of events leading up to the pair’s deaths Aug. 7, as well as information about how investigators linked them to two crime scenes in northern B.C. Evidence included spent ammunition rounds, candy wrappers and a mystery witness who came forward to police to say they believed the young men were capable of murder.
Schmegelsky, 18, and McLeod, 19, had been the subjects of an intense manhunt that stretched over two weeks and gripped the nation. They were charged with the second-degree murder of Leonard Dyck, a University of British Columbia botany lecturer, and were declared suspects in the deaths of American Chynna Deese and her Australian boyfriend Lucas Fowler.
According to police, the pair — best friends since a young age — left their homes on July 12, telling family they were off in search of work in the Yukon. That same day, they bought an SKS semi-automatic rifle and a box of 20 rounds of ammunition from a Nanaimo sporting goods store. McLeod had a legal possession and acquisition licence.
On the morning of July 15, the first two victims — Deese and Fowler — were found near their van off of Highway 97 south of Liard River Hot Springs, B.C. It appeared, police said, they had been shot multiple times. Police would later learn their van had broken down.
Police found spent and unspent casings with specific markers: head stamps indicating “101” (the factory where they were produced) and “75” (the year they were produced).
Police would also uncover surveillance footage that captured the pair driving their Dodge pickup truck and camper in the general area. On July 14, for instance, they had stopped to get gas, food and a cowboy hat at a gas station in Fort Nelson.
On the morning of July 19, the body of the third victim, Dyck, was found in a highway pullout south of Dease Lake, B.C., about 500 kilometres west of the first crime scene. He, too, had been shot. His body was located near a burning truck — the one Schmegelsky and McLeod had been driving.
Investigators found a spent casing near the body bearing the same head stamps as they had found earlier: “101” and “75.”
As with the first crime scene, investigators uncovered critical surveillance footage from a Dease Lake store that showed the pair buying various items — doughnuts, a Coffee Crisp chocolate bar and two pairs of gloves — the day before.
Remnants of those items were found near the crime scene, police said, along with a damaged SIM card belonging to McLeod and his Walmart employee ID card.
The young men had initially been considered missing persons. Their families told police they were “good kids” who had sent photos of their travels and texted they had vehicle troubles.
But on July 23, they were declared suspects. A search of the burnt truck uncovered a metal ammunition container containing rounds with head stamps matching those found at the crime scenes.
A witness had also come forward, police said, to say that they knew the pair and “believed the boys may have been involved in the murders.”
Surveillance video captured the pair as they stopped at a gas station on July 21 in Meadow Lake, Sask. They were driving Dyck’s Toyota RAV4.
They were spotted again at a McDonald’s on July 22. That same day they were briefly stopped at a checkpoint by a band constable in Split Lake, Man. The constable later recalled they had maps out inside the car and their fuel light was on — they were running close to empty. They were allowed to continue on.
The manhunt converged on Gillam, Man., where Dyck’s Toyota RAV4 was found burning.
On Aug. 1, they discovered McLeod’s backpack containing a box of ammunition, his wallet and clothing.
The trail led to the bodies on Aug. 7. Two SKS semi-automatic rifles were found nearby, believed to be the same ones used in the three homicides.
McLeod had shot Schmegelsky before shooting himself.
According to police, a digital camera found by the suspects’ bodies contained six video clips and three still images.
The longest video clip — about a minute long — consists of the two acknowledging their roles in the murders and then discussing their plan to “march to Hudson Bay where they planned to hijack a boat and go to Europe and Africa,” the RCMP briefing notes say.
But in subsequent videos they realize they’ve hit a dead end and have nowhere to go. “(They) state this is their last will and testament and express their wish to be cremated,” says the police summary.
Hackett declined to go into detail about the composure of McLeod and Schmegelsky on the videos, though he said investigators believe one or two of the videos were shot before they arrived at the spot where they died.
“They were cold, they were remorseless,” he said.
National Post