Good Samaritan aided suspect killers

Two teenagers wanted for the murders of Lucas Fowler and his girlfriend Chynna Deese were aided by a good Samaritan.

A Canadian policeman prepares to search an area in Gillam, Manitoba, near where the burnt-out car of the murder suspects was found. Picture: Angus Mordant

Two teenagers wanted for the murders of Lucas Fowler and his girlfriend Chynna Deese were aided by an unsuspecting good ­Samaritan, who helped get their bogged vehicle out of a muddy field.

“Mum and dad’s going to be pissed,” Tommy Ste-Croix told the fugitives as he came across their stranded Toyota RAV4 in Cold Lake, Alberta.

Mr Ste-Croix encountered the teenagers, Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam McLeod, 19, on Sunday, July 21. The “polite” pair shook his hand and told him their real names, he said.

It comes after confirmation authorities stopped the duo for a routine alcohol check as they drove through the dry Manitoba reserve of the Tataskweyak Cree Nation on July 22, releasing them after noticing nothing amiss.

The following day, July 23, Royal Canadian Mounted Police declared the teenagers suspects in the murders of Mr Fowler, from Sydney, and Ms Deese, from North Carolina, and charged them with the separate murder of university lecturer Leonard Dyck.

The RCMP had earlier said only that the teens were missing, and are yet to explain what led to their dramatic change in stance.

Schmegelsky and McLeod remained on the run last night, with searches continuing near remote Gillam, Manitoba, where there were confirmed sightings.

A memorial service will be held for Mr Fowler, 23, at Turramurra Uniting Church in Sydney tomorrow. The service for Mr Fowler, son of senior NSW policeman Stephen Fowler, will begin at 11am and will be open to the public.

Two homicide detectives who had travelled to Canada as family liaison officers had returned home, a NSW police spokes­woman said.

Ms Deese’s mother yesterday said she was constantly replaying CCTV footage of her 24-year-old daughter and Mr Fowler together at a service station.

It was recorded just days ­before they were found shot dead by the side of the Alaska Highway in British ­Columbia on July 15.

“That video, being the last thing, is a gift to me, of how happy they were,” Sheila Deese told Canada’s Globe and Mail.