Burnt-out vehicle found in hunt for Canada murder suspects
Toronto: Canadian police say the suspects in the murders of an American woman and her Australian boyfriend as well as the death of another man in northern British Columbia left a burnt-out vehicle two provinces over in Manitoba.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Corporal Julie Courchaine said on Wednesday a burned vehicle they were travelling in was found in the remote northern town of Gillam.
Police had said on Monday they were searching for 19-year-old Kam McLeod and 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky, whose other burnt-out car had been discovered in northern British Columbia.
During that investigation, they found the body of an unidentified man roughly 2 kilometres from the car.
It's about 500 kilometers from where 24-year-old American Chynna Deese and 23-year-old Australian Lucas Fowler were found shot dead.
Earlier, surveillance camera photos of the duo and a grey 2011 Toyota RAV4 they were believed to be driving have been released by the RCMP in the hope of generating leads.
The manhunt for the teenage duo suspected has zeroed in on the small town of Gillam, Manitoba.
Gillam, in a wild and remote area of northern Canada with a population of just 1265, is so isolated the mayor describes it as "the end of the road".
Royal Canadian Mounted Police are swarming the area and locals, some who believe they have encountered the duo in recent days, have been warned to be careful.
"An all-night patrol for the community has been prepared as a caution," Lake Cree First Nation Chief Walter Spence told residents.
"The RCMP are carefully conducting their work with a large presence and I would like to ask all community members to report anything of concern directly to RCMP."
Gillam is 2943 km east of Liard Hot Springs, British Columbia, where Fowler, 23, from Sydney, and Deese, 24, from North Carolina, were found shot dead and left in a ditch near their broken down van nine days ago.
McLeod and Schmegelsky are also suspects in the death of a man whose body was found near a British Columbia highway.
The identity of the man is yet to be confirmed.
McLeod and Schmegelsky first came on the RCMP's radar on Friday when their Dodge pickup truck was found burning near the dead man and the duo were missing.
On Tuesday, the RCMP named the teenagers as suspects in what appears to be a murderous rampage across northern Canada.
A petrol station attendant at Split Lake, Manitoba, about a two-hour drive west of Gillam, told CBC News she served the teenagers.
McLeod paid for C$20 of fuel while Schmegelsky asked if they could consume alcohol in the community.
The community is dry.
"The guy who paid for the gas - he was quiet, he didn't say anything, he was just looking down," Mychelle Keeper said.
"They seemed like, I don't know, normal.
"I'm just so nervous right now thinking about it."
Gillam mayor Dwayne Forman told the National Post he was surprised the suspects chose to drive to Gillam because to get out of the town, they would have to turn around and go back along the provincial road they drove in on.
Or they could catch a train north to the town of Churchill.
"We're the end of the road," Forman said.
"You can't go any further beyond us."
Mr Fowler, the son of a senior NSW police inspector, and Ms Deese were on a Canadian road trip when their van broke down.
AAP