Canadian air force joins search for teen fugitives

Canada’s air force has been called in to a tiny community in northern Manitoba, where two teens suspected of three murders were thought to have been last seen, police said on Monday, as the chase entered a second week.

Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, were believed to have been seen on Sunday outside York Landing, a First Nations community of less than 500 people, 56 miles south of Gillam, Manitoba, where search efforts were previously concentrated.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Manitoba posted on Twitter that they have not been able to substantiate the tip “after a thorough & exhaustive search,” but that resources will remain in the York Landing and Gillum areas.

The sighting is believed to be the first one in several days of Schmegelsky and McLeod, who were first reported missing on July 19 in British Columbia, but were later described as suspects in the killing of Chynna Deese, a 24-year-old American, and her Australian boyfriend, Lucas Fowler, 23.

Police charged McLeod and Schmegelsky last week with second-degree murder in the death of Leonard Dyck, 64, a Vancouver botany professor.

The RCMP said in a briefing on Monday that they could not confirm the identities of the individuals spotted near a town landfill in York Landing, but are deploying significant resources to the area.

The town is accessible only by air or a two-hour ferry from Gillam in the summer; a rail line runs 12 miles to the south.