Police: Teenage murder suspects found dead

The mystery had riveted Canadians: A young couple and a botanist shot dead in a violent rampage in British Columbia. Two young suspects who disappeared without a trace. A crosscountry manhunt in a remote, swampy area of northern Manitoba that appeared to be turning up few clues.

Then on Wednesday, the Canadian police said they believed they had found the bodies of the two teenagers suspected in the killings.

Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, had been the subject of an intense two-week cross-province manhunt that brought a sense of noirish fear to Manitoba, where some residents said they had been afraid to leave their homes. The case drew international attention to an area unused to getting much notice.

An autopsy was underway to confirm the identities of the bodies, Assistant Commissioner Jane MacLatchy, the commanding officer of the Manitoba Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said at a news conference.

But she said the police were confident the bodies belonged to the teenagers.

MacLatchy said a breakthrough in the investigation came Friday after police officers discovered personal items belonging to the suspects on the shore of the Nelson River. The police also found a damaged aluminum boat.

The police described the breakthrough on Twitter. “Our officers knew we needed just one piece of evidence to move the search forward & on Friday, August 2nd, the items found on the shoreline of the Nelson River & directly linked to the suspects, enables officers to narrow down the search,” RCMP Manitoba wrote.

The discovery of the items led officers into a dense area of brush less than a mile away, where they found the bodies, the assistant commissioner said.

The youths were suspected of killing Leonard Dyck, a 64-yearold University of British Columbia lecturer; Lucas Fowler, 23, an Australian; and his girlfriend, Chynna Deese, 24, of Charlotte, North Carolina.

The police said they remained baffled about a motive.

McLeod and Schmegelsky had been friends since elementary school.

The latter reportedly collected Nazi paraphernalia and may have been sympathetic to Nazi ideology, but his father, Al Schmegelsky, denied that. He told the Canadian news media that his son had been on “a suicide mission.”