Murders, teen vanishings: The three serious crimes unfolding on Canada’s Alaska Highway
As police hunt the killer responsible for the murders of Australian tourist Lucas Fowler and his girlfriend Chynna Deese, two other serious crimes also happened on the same stretch of road in the past week.
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Canadian police are investigating a dead body and two missing teenagers who disappeared on the same stretch of road where Australian tourist Lucas Fowler was murdered with his girlfriend Chynna Deese.
All three incidents took place in remote, northern British Columbia in the past week prompting authorities to ask the public to “remain vigilant”.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police have repeatedly dismissed speculation that a serial killer is on the loose in the area.
“There are growing community concerns about the ongoing homicide investigations in northern BC,” RCMP spokesman Dawn Roberts said.
“At this time, investigators are sharing information and police would like to ensure awareness around both investigations.
“The RCMP would ask the public to continue to take any general safety precautions and remain vigilant at this time. We also remind travellers to share your plans with family and friends, establish check-in times and notify someone if your plans change.”
LUCAS FOWLER AND CHYNNA DEESE
Mr Fowler, 23, the son of NSW Police Chief Inspector Stephen Fowler, and his American girlfriend Ms Deese, 24, were shot dead after their blue 1986 Chevrolet van broke down on the side of the Alaska Highway, 20km south of Liard Hot Springs a week ago.
Chief Inspector Fowler and his family have flown from NSW to Canada with two homicide detectives. His son met Ms Deese while backpacking in Croatia two years ago.
The couple fell madly for each other and headed to Canada for a road trip in the Chevrolet van.
Passing drivers said they noticed the stranded couple alongside the broken down van.
Canadian couple Curtis and Sandra Broughton stopped to offer help about 3.20pm last Sunday.
Mr Broughton, a mechanic, told AAP he spoke to Mr Fowler but the young Australian seemed to know how to fix the van so the Broughtons left.
Road worker Alandra Hull told Nine News she saw a couple, believed to be Mr Fowler and Ms Deese, on the highway the night before they were found dead.
Ms Hull claimed they were talking to a mystery bearded man who “kind of looked frustrated or something”. Ms Hull was helping investigators to provide a sketch of the mystery man.
Meanwhile new photos of the couple’s van surfaced, showing the rear window had been smashed.
Another road worker, Trevor, told Nine News he had seen the van with a smashed window.
He was the one who found the couple’s bodies the next day.
Trevor said he saw the young lady “in the ditch”, with the man “five metres behind”.
“He had no shoes. The young lady had one.”
He said both bodies were in identical positions in the dirt.
Trevor claimed when he saw the van the back right window of it had been smashed and both right doors were left open.
He told Nine he rushed to the couple’s bodies to see if they could be saved and that what he saw is still vivid in his mind.
Their van has since been towed to the town of Fort Nelson, BC.
NEW PHOTOS: Here’s a look at the van recovered at the scene where Lucas Fowler and Chynna Deese were found. â¦@GlobalBCâ© pic.twitter.com/ZbByI4HUPJ
— Nadia Stewart (@nadia_stewart) July 21, 2019
Devon Boynton, the owner operator of Archie’s Towing who brought the van back to Fort Nelson with John Wright said: “I got a call at lunchtime on July 16th to go get it and bring it back to Fort Nelson.
“The bodies had been picked up before we got there and were taken away,” he said.
“I don’t know where they were taken, maybe taken to the hospital.
“It was fairly clean but the back window was smashed open.
“I couldn’t see through the windows of the vehicle and we weren’t allowed to touch it.
“I don’t know what to make of the murders, it’s so strange.”
MORE: Mystery man ‘argued’ with couple before murders
MORE: Aussie murdered on ‘Highway of Tears’
Wright told local media they didn’t know they would be handling evidence in a murder investigation until he arrived on the scene.
“(The officers) didn’t let me touch anything, they wouldn’t let me go around to the back of the vehicle until I got it onto the truck to tie it on,” he said.
Mr Wright noticed the rear window was smashed, but couldn’t say whether it was shot out. He also couldn’t see anything inside the van.
ANOTHER BODY 470KM AWAY
Talk of a serial killer began when another man’s body was found on Friday almost seven hours drive away near a burning red and grey Dodge pick-up truck that had a distinctive sleeping camper attached. That body has not been identified. It was found near Dease Lake, approximately 470km away from where Mr Fowler and Ms Deese were found dead.
KAM MCLEOD AND BRYER SCHMEGELSKY
The Dodge truck found near the unidentified body was being driven by missing teenagers 19-year-old Kam McLeod and 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky from Port Alberni, British Columbia.
Mountain Police said neither Mr McLeod or Mr Schmegelsky had been in contact with family in the last few days but confirmed that neither of them were the discovered body.
The two teenagers were travelling through British Columbia headed to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory to look for work. Investigators said it’s unclear what their travel plans were.
“Kam and Bryer have periodically connected with family and friends over the past week and it is possible that they are now in an area without cell coverage,” Ms Roberts said.
“However, we have found their vehicle and have not been able to locate either of them at this time. We are asking for Kam or Bryer to connect with police right away and let us know you are okay.
“Or we ask that anyone who may have spoken to or seen them over the last few days to call police so we can get a better understanding as to where they might be or their plans.”
Police were not sure how the dead man found near their truck might be connected to the burning Dodge or the two missing teens.
‘LOSS TO SO MANY’
Meanwhile, Mr Fowler’s grief stricken family arrived in Canada as investigators vowed to solve the murders.
Chief Inspector Fowler told Nine News his son was “just a wonderful boy”.
“He’s a loss to so many people. And his girlfriend also — it’s just devastating. And our heart goes out to the whole of her family,” Chief Insp Fowler said.
“We are just crushed.”
Ms Deese’s father, Dwayne Deese told The Charlotte Observer he didn’t believe a serial killer was on the loose.
“I don’t think it’s a serial killer,” Mr Deese he told the US paper.
“I think of someone who has been convicted of violent crimes before, someone on drugs. That fits the profile better.
“What worries us is that person is still on the loose and they have a head start. This is going to happen again. There needs to be some kind of a warning system in place for tourists.”
Ms Deese’s brother British Deese spoke with Sunrise this morning from his home in Charlotte, North Carolina, revealing details of the couple’s plans.
He said the trip they were on was no different to previous adventures.
“They have gone on road trips around the country, across North and South America. This is just what they did and loved doing together,” he said.
“This wasn’t any different … it wasn’t really anything different from what they have done for the past one-and-a-half years. In seeing all the national parks and travelling up the Alaskan highway seeing what they can.”
Mr Deese said something went horribly wrong and the family was struggling to get answers.
“I know there was at least somebody who saw them while they were breaking and pulled off the side of the road and asked if they needed help,” Mr Deese told Sunrise.
“Maybe the van overheated and they were waiting for it to cool down. They were planning on getting back on the road and they didn’t feel like they needed help or anything.”
“Something happened and it was unexplained after that. That is the extent of what anyone knows for the most part. It is really very frustrating.”
Her mother Sheila Deese told CBC News coverage of her daughter’s death has been haunting her.
She said she dropped her daughter off at the airport on July 6. Chynna texted her throughout the journey with updates. On July 13, she texted to say they were packing up and getting ready to leave. Their bodies were found two days later.
“While I want to know the details, it’s not going to change my outcome at all. My outcome is I have one less child,” the grieving mum told CBC News over the phone from her home in Charlotte.
When the couple met in Croatia they travelled together, then kept in touch when Ms Deese continued on her journey and eventually returned to the US.
Her mother said Ms Deese kept telling her about an “Aussie boy.”
Mr Fowler came and spent three months with the family during the thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
“He was part of our family immediately,” Ms Deese said.
“Lucas was wonderful. They were a kindred spirit.”
Ms Deese had been planning to meet Mr Fowler’s family in Australia.
She said her daughter was a “giver” having volunteered at her local hospital and working with special needs children at a summer camp.
“She was a giver. She volunteered, she loved people — all cultures,” she says.
“I’m trying to hold on to my memories and really not let my mind get much past that.”
The night before Lucas Fowler and his gf were found dead beside their van, Alandra saw the couple in a heated exchange with a bearded man in the middle of the Alaska Highway. She says couple seemed bothered and mystery man had walked towards them from his grey car.@9NewsAUS pic.twitter.com/PdWif8ctiI
— Alexis Daish (@LexiDaish) July 21, 2019
Road worker Trevor who found victims of double homicide on the side of the highway in British Columbia says the back right window of Lucas’ van was smashed and both right doors left open.@9NewsAUS pic.twitter.com/lldEeGfQOj
— Alexis Daish (@LexiDaish) July 21, 2019
The latest development comes as police are believed to know the car driven by the double killer who shot the couple.
Investigators are also said to know that the suspect fled north, meaning he would have headed in the direction of where the unidentified body was found near the burning Dodge.
Earlier police ruled out a connection between that death and the couple.
Matt Moon, cook at the Double G Service cafe and lodge on the Alaska Highway, said: “There is talk that the police know the shooter’s car.
“There is also talk that the killer headed north.
“It comes from questions the police have been asking local people.
“They haven’t found the car yet but they’re looking for it.
“It’s pretty crazy.
“This kind of thing doesn’t happen too often up here.
“Shootings happen elsewhere in the world but you don’t think it can be on your doorstep.
“We’re all scared because there’s a double killer out there and anyone on that road could be another victim.”
FOOLISH PRESS CONFERENCE
Canadian police were left looking foolish when they lifestreamed a press conference on the couple’s murder.
According to the New York Post, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were giving a very serious press conference into the brutal killing of the young couple — but someone had left a cat filter on the live feed.
The ridiculous result was to give the chief officer cats ears and whiskers.
The B.C. RCMP are giving a press conference on the two people murdered on the Alaska Highway, and they have the cat ear filter on. pic.twitter.com/j8GvkvKA4u
— Tyler Dawson (@tylerrdawson) July 19, 2019
Sergeant Janelle Shoihet was left with pink ears along with a black nose and whiskers, according to Fox News.
“Yes we are aware and addressing it as it’s an automatic setting,” the force quickly tweeted after a barrage of messages drawing attention to the silly sight.
“Thank you, we will rectify and issue a video shortly,” the RCMP added, with a cleaned-up video posted later.
It did not end the online teasing, with many stressing that such filters are not automatic settings.
“Honestly, devastated families are watching these clowns beclown themselves; they’re reliant on them to solve the murders,” tweeted one commentator.
Originally published as Murders, teen vanishings: The three serious crimes unfolding on Canada’s Alaska Highway
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