Manitoba RCMP said Aug. 2 that they would not be providing any updates Aug.3-4 on the ongoing Northern Manitoba search for B.C. homicide suspects Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky unless there were “significant new developments.”
The search is scaling down, but police will not end their manhunt until there is a resolution, Manitoba RCMP Assistant Commissioner Jane MacLatchy said at a July 31 press conference in Winnipeg.
RCMP began searching the area of Gillam and Fox Lake Cree Nation after the Toyota Rav4 that McLeod, 19, and Schmegelsky, 18 had been driving was found abandoned and burned near the communities July 22. They established two confirmed sightings in the area before that time but have not been able to confirm any sightings since, despite a daylong intensive search in York Landing July 28-29 after a Winnipeg Bear Clan Patrol member said he saw two people matching the suspects’ descriptions at the community’s dump.
McLeod and Schmegelsky are wanted in connection with the killings of Lucas Fowler and Chynna Deese, found dead on the Alaska Highway in B.C. July 15, and have been charged with second-degree murder in the death Leonard Dyck of Vancouver, whose body was found south of Dease Lake, B.C. July 19. Dyck’s body was discovered about two kilometres from a burnt-out truck that McLeod and Schmegelsky had been driving when they left Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, ostensibly on the way to Alberta to look for work.
CBC and other media reported that the pair had been stopped by Tataskweyak Cree Nation band constables after not stopping at a drug and alcohol checkstop at the entrance to the dry First Nation July 22, the day before they were identified as suspects in the three homicides. The Toyota was found that evening.
Manitoba RCMP said July 25 that they believed McLeod and Schmegelsky were still in the Gillam area, based the confirmed sightings and the fact that no vehicles in the area had been reported stolen.
RCMP checkstops on Provincial Road 280 and Provincial Road 290 were removed July 30.
Anyone who spots McLeod and Schmegelsky should call Gillam RCMP at 204-652-2200, Thompson RCMP at 204-677-6911 or 911 or their local police in other areas. Updates on the search will be provided via Manitoba RCMP's social media feeds on Twitter and Facebook as well as on their website.
