Canadians warned to be on alert after three deaths and reports two teenagers are missing
Three weeks before Australian tourist Lucas Fowler and his American girlfriend were killed, a Texas murder suspect is believed to have crossed the Canadian border — and he looks remarkably similar to the sketch released by police.
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It is a shocking murder mystery that is gripping two nations on opposite sides of the world.
A loved-up young couple from Australia and the US travelling across Canada are shot dead in horrific circumstances and left on the side of a remote highway in Alaska.
Just days later another body is found. This time it’s an unidentified man also found on the side of a road not far from a burning truck.
Even stranger, the two teenage men known to be driving that truck heading to the Yukon region looking for work — are missing. Their families have not heard from them for several days before their truck is discovered. It seems their last contact may have been early last week, roughly around the same time Sydney traveller and son of a senior NSW Police officer, Lucas Fowler, 23 and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese, 24, were shot to death.
Are all of these events linked? Is there a killer on the rampage in British Columbia, Canada?
Is it the work of a murder suspect from Texas, Derek Whisenand who police are already hunting and is known to have slipped into Canada in mid-June — and is now the subject of an arrest warrant?
Police warned the public earlier this month that 27-year-old Whisenand — who looks remarkably similar to the sketch of a man wanted for questioning in relation to Fowler’s murder — was possibly armed and dangerous and illegally crossed the Canadian border south of Winkler.
Theories abound and Canadian communities around Fort Nelson and the Alaska Highway are shocked, concerned and afraid there may be a serial killer on the loose.
Canadian police at first were hosing down speculation that a serial killer may be responsible or even that the different cases may be linked.
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But on Tuesday a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) spokeswoman Sgt Janelle Shoihet confirmed the two cases are being looked at by investigators.
“We are looking into the possibility that they may be linked,” she said. “This is unusual to have two major investigations of this nature in northern B.C. (British Columbia) at the same time so we recognise that these two investigations may be linked.”
She also issued a warning to travellers in the region, saying people should stick to campsites and keep family and friends posted on their whereabouts.
“We share the concerns that are being raised given the tragic and unusual nature of these two investigations that we have underway,” said Sgt Shoinet.
“We would like to stress the importance of heightened vigilance and awareness for anyone travelling in and around that area. We encourage people to camp in known or established locations. In additional, make sure your family is aware of your plans. Establish check-in plans and stick to those plans.”
The last known pictures of Lucas and Chynna hugging as they bought petrol and cleaned their blue, Chevy van at a Fort Nelson service station were released yesterday as police also published an identikit picture of a bearded man wanted for questioning over their murders.
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They were last seen on the side of the road with their broken road van. A local couple stopped to ask if they were OK and were assured by Lucas that he had the situation under control, they left.
The next sighting was a bit further down the highway. They appeared to be broken down again and a passing road worker saw them in a heated exchange with the mystery bearded man. That was the night before their bodies were found.
Alandra Hull told Nine News she noticed a couple in a “heated exchange with a bearded man” in the middle of the Alaska Highway.
She said the couple seemed bothered by the man who had approached them from a grey car.
The next morning, another road worker, Trevor Pierre told Nine News he found the couple’s bodies.
Mr Pierre said “in the ditch was the young lady and maybe five metres behind was the gentleman. He had no shoes. The young lady had one.”
He said disturbingly 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 said 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.
The family of Lucas Fowler have flown from Sydney to Canada with two NSW police officers to help with the investigation and to bring their son home.
Their return journey could be some days away as the bodies of Lucas and Chynna are undergoing forensic examination in Vancouver by the Coroner as the authorities search for any clues that could lead to their killer.
Their van is being examined by police in Fort Nelson while police in Dease Lake try to identify the man found dead there and locate the two missing teenagers who were driving the truck, Kam McLeod, 19, and 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky.
Matt Moon, cook at the Double G Service cafe and lodge on the Alaska Highway, said “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,” he said.
“We’re all scared because there’s a double killer out there and anyone on that road could be another victim.”
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