Bodies of teen suspects Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky found in Gillam, Canada
The final meal of Lucas Fowler and Chynna Deese’s teen thrill killers Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmelgsky has emerged, as autopsies were expected to be performed.
The final meal of teen thrill killers Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmelgsky has emerged as their bodies are expected to undergo an autopsy after being found in Canada’s biggest ever manhunt.
More than a thousand police and military had combed the vast wilderness of Northern Manitoba for the past two weeks, using heat-seeking technology aboard air force planes and police choppers to search for signs of life from the sky, and responding to hundreds of tips, thousands of kilometres apart as spooked Canadians reported they thought they had seen the pair.
But in the end, the fugitives wanted for the murder of young Australian backpacker Lucas Fowler, his American girlfriend Chynna Deese and Canadian botanist Leonard Dyck were found not far from where they had ditched their stolen stolen Toyota RAV4 on July 22.
Half-eaten pork chops and orange peel were found next to the car with cans of sardines, tools and other supplies were left behind.
Fox Lake residents Billy and Tamara Beardy, who found the car told The Globe and Mail they saw “cans of sardines, small propane bottles, forks, orange peels, loose change and partially eaten pork chops”.
Beardy said they wouldn’t have had a chance at survival without access to food and water.
“Unless you have a big sack of food,” he said.
“Half the water around here will give you the beaver fever.”
Police are yet to reveal the cause of their deaths and how long they had survived outside in brutal conditions including bear-plagued woods and voracious summer insects such as sandflies, wasps and mosquitoes. As autopsy is reportedly expected to be done today with the Coroner expected to confirm their identities and determine how they died.
Sheila Deese, the mother of Ms Deese, told News Corp Australia that she was “torn” after hearing the news.
Ms Deese said that while many of the questions surrounding why Chynna and Lucas were killed may now never be answered, the deaths of McLeod and Schmegelsky would not change the reality for her family.
“I was really torn as to wanting them alive or not,” she said.
“This current news does not change my outcome. I remain broken for my family and the Fowler family.”
MORE ON THE BREAKTHROUGH:
Chynna’s mum: ‘I am speechless’
Ms Deese said she and her family were gathered together.
Chynna’s brother British Deese told News Corp Australia that news of the teen’s bodies being discovered was a relief for the family.
“It is certainly a relief for us but also for Canada, for Lucas’ family, for Australia and the rest of this world that this terror has ended. It now gives us all a chance to really start the grieving process,” he said.
Mr Deese said he knows Chynna and Lucas would not want their deaths to stop people from travelling the world and seeking adventure.
“I think their message would be ‘live your life, fall in love, go travelling together, inspire people, create your own love story’ just like Chynna and Lucas did,” he said. “They wouldn’t want people to be deterred from travelling the world because that’s what they loved and that’s what they inspired others to do.”
Mr Deese said his family would forever be kindred with the Fowlers.
“Lucas’ family is very similar to ours and we have become very close to them through this whole ordeal,” he said.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announced they discovered the bodies of fugitives McLeod, 19, and Schmelgsky, 18, in bushland near the Nelson River and the small town of Gillam, Manitoba, ending a 15-day manhunt spanning 5000km — longer than the distance between Sydney and Perth — and three Canadian provinces.
They had dubbed the pair “little Houdinis” after they disappeared a fortnight ago.
RCMP Assistant Commissioner Jane MacLatchy said she is “confident” it is them but an autopsy will confirm the identities.
The remains were transported by jet boat upstream to a boat launch at Limestone Generating Station just before 8pm Wednesday (local time). They were being driven to the Gillam airport to be flown to Winnipeg and delivered to the medical examiner, according to police, The Globe and Mail reports.
Photos show RCMP officers in Gillam carrying metal boxes containing the fugitives’ remains.
McLatchy said the bodies were found by a specialised RCMP group which had been on a foot-search in tough terrain after finding a series of the pair’s belongings near a dented tin runabout at the Nelson River.
“There are no trails, just thick brush, very dense,” she said.
She also defended the time it had taken the RCMP to locate the suspected killers.
“It’s a huge area we were searching before. We didn’t have any information to pinpoint us to a specific search area where we could do a more detailed search.”
The search turned its focus to the Nelson River last Friday, after jet boat operator Clint Sawchuk contacted police to alert them he had spotted what he thought was a sleeping bag along the shore.
Mr Sawchuck told the Canadian national broadcaster CBC he reported the sighting and police started searching soon afterwards.
Police have not yet revealed what other objects they found that were linked to McLeod and Schmegelsky.
“The items we found on the shoreline gave us an opportunity to pinpoint that search and therefore do a more detailed search of the area,” she said.
Mr Fowler, 23, the son of a high-ranking NSW police officer, and his girlfriend Ms Deese, 24, were found shot dead and left in a ditch on the side of a highway on July 15.
Mr Dyck was discovered four days later on another BC highway and 2km away from an abandoned and burning pick-up truck Schmegelsky and McLeod had been driving.
“At 10am (1am AEST) this morning, Manitoba RCMP officers located the bodies of two males, believed to be the BC suspects, near the shoreline of the Nelson River (approx. 8km from the burnt vehicle)” police said in a tweet.
“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,” police said.
“Specialised RCMP teams began searching nearby high-probability areas, leading officers to the discovery of the two male bodies, in the dense brush, within 1km from where the items were found.”
McLatchy said the RCMP would continue to provide support to the families of the victims and fugitives.
“To the families of everyone affected by the series of events in the last few weeks, I know it has been so very difficult, and I hope that today’s announcement can begin to give some closure.”
She also thanked the community for their patience.
“Your lives have been disrupted. Many of you lived with uncertainty and fear,” she said.
She also thanked police for “working night and day”.
The Fowler family has yet to make a statement on the breakthrough.
Mr Fowler’s father, NSW Chief Inspector Stephen Fowler, travelled to Canada last month but returned to Sydney last week for a memorial service for his son.
He bravely fronted a media conference where he spoke about the family’s heartbreak.
“I may be an experienced police officer, but today I am standing here as the father of a murder victim. We are just distraught,” he said.
He appealed to the public to help police adding no tip is too small.
“It’s a love story that has ended tragically … it’s the worst ever love story, because we now have two young people who had everything ahead of them, tragically murdered,” he said.
Police were doubtful that the teens could survive in the swampy, bug-infested wilderness without shelter or assistance from others.
The discovery of items belonging to Kam and Bryer was the first new confirmed physical evidence in the nationwide manhunt since the pair ditched their burnt out car on July 22.
It sparked an underwater search by police divers.
The RCMP said they located the belongings on August 2 and that they had “confirmed that these items are directly linked to the suspects”.
“That same day, a damaged boat was also found along the Nelson River. Based on this information, RCMP Underwater Recovery Team (URT) were immediately deployed.
“On August 4, 2019, URT conducted a thorough underwater search approximately 29 metres around the location where the boat was found.”
The last known location of Kam and Bryer was at the crash site north west of Gillam.
They had been spotted earlier that day 170km away at the tiny indigenous town of Split Lake.
The pair had driven a stolen Toyota Rav4 from the other side of the country where Mr Fowler, Ms Deese and Mr Dyck — a father of two — were killed.
The Canadian air force was part of a 1000-strong team hunting the pair last week, but over the weekend the search was scaled back.
Last month Schmegelsky’s father, Alan Schmegelsky, told Canadian media their son had a troubled upbringing and was “on a suicide mission”.
“They’re going out in a blaze of glory — trust me on this,” Mr Schmegelsky said at the time.
“Bryer. I love you. I’m so sorry all this had to happen.”
Originally published as Bodies of teen suspects Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky found in Gillam, Canada
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