Searchers find suspects’ bodies
Canada
Canadian police said yesterday they believe two fugitives suspected of killing a North Carolina woman and her Australian boyfriend as well as another man have been found dead in dense bush in northern Manitoba.
Authorities located two male bodies and are confident they are 19-year-old Kam Mcleod and 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner Jane Maclatchy. She said an autopsy will confirm their identities and causes of death.
Critical evidence found last week when police discovered items directly linked to the suspects on the shoreline of the Nelson River helped locate the bodies, Maclatchy said. Following that discovery, authorities were able to narrow down the search.
Police sent in specialised teams and began searching highprobability areas. Yesterday morning, police located the two bodies within 1km from where the items were found and approximately 9km from where they left a burnt-out vehicle on July 22.
‘‘We are confident that these are the bodies of the two suspects wanted in connection with the homicides in British Columbia,’’ Maclatchy said.
Mcleod and Schmegelsky were charged with second-degree murder in the death of Leonard Dyck, a University of British Columbia lecturer whose body was found July 19 along a highway in British Columbia.
They were also suspects in the fatal shootings of Australian Lucas Fowler and Chynna Deese of Charlotte, North Carolina, whose bodies were found July 15 along the Alaska Highway about 500km from where Dyck was killed.
A manhunt for the pair had spread across three provinces and included the Canadian military.
The suspects had not been seen since the burned-out car was found on July 22.
The bodies were found near Gillam, Manitoba – more than 3200km from northern British Columbia. –AP