Canada double homicide; Murdered mother
Mystery surrounds the shooting murder of an Australian
AFTER TRAVELLING THE WORLD together, Australian Lucas Fowler and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese planned a Canadian adventure. Fowler had started working on a cattle ranch in British Columbia, and over several weeks he and Deese aimed to explore the wilderness. “They were deeply in love,” Deese’s brother, British Deese, told the Charlotte Observer of the couple, who met in Croatia in 2017. “They met travelling and that’s just what they did: travel.”
Only a day or so into their road trip things took a horrific turn when the bodies of Fowler, 23, and Deese, 24, were found near their broken down blue 1986 Chevrolet van on the Alaska Highway, about 20km south of Liard Hot Springs, on July 15. They had been shot dead.
Canadian police have released a sketch of a person of interest in the case (see inset above). The man, one of the last people to
speak to Fowler, was described as Caucasian, with darker skin and dark hair, with a possible beard or glasses. A witness, road worker Alandra Hull, says she saw the man in a heated exchange with Fowler and Deese on the highway the night before they were murdered.
The mystery man “kind of looked frustrated or something” as he stood in the middle of the road while Fowler and Deese stood beside their van, Hull told 9News. “If you just get a bad feeling, and that’s what I had, you just don’t stop,” she said.
In further developments, police now believe the couple’s murder could be linked to the disappearance of two teenagers missing in the same province. “It is unusual to have two major investigations of this nature and we recognise the possibility that these could be linked,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokeswoman Corporal Janelle Shoihet told reporters on July 23.
The teenagers, Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, were driving a Dodge utility truck found on fire at an area known as Dease Lake, some 470km from where Fowler and Deese were found. A third body was found near the truck on July 19, sparking fears a serial killer could be on the loose.
Fowler’s devastated father, NSW Police Chief Inspector Stephen Fowler, who is in Canada, said his family is “distraught” over Fowler’s death. “As you know, I may have been an experienced police officer but today I’m standing here as the father of a murder victim,” he said.
An emotional Stephen described his son as a “fun-loving guy” who saved his money to travel the world. He said Fowler and Deese were inseparable since they met. “It’s the worst-ever love story,” he said. “Two young people who had everything ahead of them tragically murdered.” •