Section:GDN 1N PaGe:25 Edition Date:190730 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 29/7/2019 19:30 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Tuesday 30 July 2019 The Guardian •
World^25
CanadaKat Eschner
Toronto
Canadian police yesterday warned res-
idents in York Landing, a community
in the unforgiving north of Manitoba,
to stay inside with doors and windows
locked as the hunt intensifi ed for two
teenagers suspected of three murders
on a remote highway.
Bryer Schmegelsky , 18, and Kam
McLeod , 19, are suspected of having
murdered Leonard Dyck , 64, a botanist
who taught at the University of British
Columbia, as well as Lucas Fowler , 23,
an Australian living in British Colum-
bia, and US citizen Chynna Deese , 24,
who fl ew out from her home in North
Carolina to join Fowler on a road trip
to Alaska in a blue van.
They have been on the run for
a week, bringing Royal Canadian
mounted police with tracker dogs, hi -
tech equipment and crisis negotiators
to a region of the country where they
are rarely seen.
The two fugitives were spotted in
York Landing on Sunday scaveng-
ing for food by two members of the
Bear Clan Patrol, an Indigenous patrol
group based in the provincial capital
of Winnipeg. The sighting has not yet
been confi rmed by RCMP – but unlike
after the other 200 or so tips police
have received since the last con-
fi rmed sighting of the pair on 22 July,
they swiftly responded, moving the
search from the town of Gillam , 200km
(124 miles) away.
“Offi cers searched the York Land-
ing area throughout the night and
continue their eff orts today,” RCMP
Manitoba spokesperson Julie Cour-
chaine said yesterday.
Residents waited uneasily for the
news that fugitives were no longer
in their midst as RCMP searched the
sprawling settlement of about 1,300
people dotted across 2,000 sq km,
knocking on doors and searching the
train that travels through Gillam.
Now, residents of York Landing, a
community of fewer than 500 indi-
viduals and fewer than 120 dwellings,
face the same concerns. “It doesn’t feel
real,” said York Factory Cree Nation
chief Leroy Constant. “It’s very shock-
ing and concerning to know that these
two gentlemen are possibly here.”
If they are, Schmegelsky and
McLeod are likely to be stumbling
through swampland and thick for-
ests of prickly black spruces. In the
region’s brief summer, sandfl ies and
other biting insects make the most of
the warmth by exploding in popula-
tion and feeding on black bears, wolves
and humans.
The manhunt is playing out more
than 1,200 miles from the roadside in
British Columbia where a spasm of vio-
lence ended three lives.
Schmegelsky and McLeod were
this week charged in absentia with
one count of second-degree murder in
the case of Dyck, and they are also sus-
pects in the double murder of Fowler
and Deese, who met in Croatia in 2017.
Two years later, their romance turned
into the “worst ever love story”, in the
words of Fowler’s father, when they
were found shot dead on a remote
Canadian highway.
Days later, Schmegelsky and
McLeod were named as suspects and
the manhunt began.
Eventually, the burn t-out remains
of a car the pair had taken was found
three provinces away.
The scale of the search is thought
to be unparalleled in Canada’s recent
history and has gripped the country,
but there has been criticism that no
such search has ever been launched
after the murder or disappearance ofdozens of Indigenous women along
British Columbia’s infamous Highway
of Tears.
Schmegelsky and McLeod grew up
in Port Alberni , British Columbia, a city
of about 18,000 on Vancouver Island
based around forestry – an industry
whose stability has declined dramati-
cally since the 1980s. Several years ago
the town was named Canada’s worst
to live in, based on a range of factors
including high crime rates, high unem-
ployment and poor weather.
After saving up money by work-
ing at the local Walmart, on 12 July
Schmegelsky and McLeod headed to
Whitehorse, Yukon, looking for work.
It remains unclear if they reached
Whitehorse only to turn around almost
immediately and travel 400 miles to
Liard River Hot Springs , where Fowler
and Deese were believed to have been
killed on 14 or 15 July. To reach Dease
Lake , where Dyck is believed to have
been killed about four days later, they
would have had to retrace their steps
before veering westward.
The families of the three victims
have all released statements express-
ing their deep grief and asking for
privacy.500 miles500 km1 12 July, Port Alberni, British Columbia
Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky leave their
hometown together to look for work in the Yukon
2 Date unknown, Whitehorse, Yukon
The pair arrive in Whitehorse, but leave shortly
thereafter
3 15 July, south of Liard Hot Springs
Bodies of Lucas Fowler and Chynna Deese are
discovered. McLeod and Schmegelsky are both
wanted for questioning by the RCMP in relation to
the murders. The young couple were shot
4 19 July, near the community of Dease Lake
The burnt-out truck previously driven by McLeod
and Schmegelsky is found. The body of Leonard
Dyck is found two kilometres up the road
5 21 July, Cold Lake, Alberta
A resident sees two young men whose 2011Toyota Rav 4 is stuck on a trail behind his house.
Hours after assisting the two in getting back on the
road, he realises they were Schmegelsky and McLeod
6 23 July, Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan
A grey Toyota RAV 4 being driven by the pair is
spotted in northern Saskatchewan, according to
RCMP. Per CBC, the pair were spotted in the
community of Meadow Lake
7 23 July, Gillam, Manitoba
Burnt-out car is found near the town of Gillam,
Manitoba. RCMP tweet that they have “reason to
believe” McLeod and Schmegelsky are in the area of
Gillam
8 28 July, York Landing, Manitoba
The pair were reportedly spotted scavenging food out
of a dump by members of the indigenous volunteer
group Bear Clan Patrol in York LandingVancouverCalgarySaskatoonEdmontonWinnipegManitobaOntarioYukon TerritoryAlaska12
3
4(^56)
8 7
North Pacific Ocean
Hudson
Bay
The fugitives’ trail
Canada
British
Columbia
Alberta Saskatchewan
Country gripped
by hunt for teenage
murder suspects
▼ Police offi cers search a building in
Gillam, Manitoba, for the teenagers
after unconfi rmed sightings
PHOTOGRAPH: ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE
▲ Kam McLeod, left, and Bryer Schmegelsky are suspected of
three murders along a remote highway in British Columbia
▲ Leonard Dyck, 64, was a botanist
at the University of British Columbia
▲ Chynna Deese,
24, and Lucas
Fowler, 23,
pictured left on
CCTV at a petrol
station in British
Columbia, were
on a road trip
to Alaska
PHOTOGRAPH:
AFP/GETTY
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