Third body found on Canadian highway after murders of Australian Lucas Fowler and his US girlfriend
Another body is found following the brutal murders of Australian Lucas Fowler and his US girlfriend.
A third body has been found on a Canadian highway but while authorities are “looking at all of the leads”, they are not linking the death to the mysterious shooting murders of Australian tourist Lucas Fowler and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese.
The body of a man was found near a burning pick-up truck south of the Stikine River Bridge on Highway 37 in northern British Columbia.
Mr Fowler, 23, from Sydney, and Ms Deese, 24, from North Carolina, were found dead on Monday about 750km away on the side of the Alaska Highway after their blue 1986 Chevrolet van broke down.
“Northern BC is a really big area and yet they don’t have a lot of these events,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police corporal Chris Manseau said yesterday.
“Two of them have happened within a couple of days of each and people want to speculate.
“The last I heard there was nothing to tie either of those two together although investigators are looking at all of the leads.”
The discovery of a man’s body on Friday came after Dease Lake RCMP responded to a report of a pick-up truck on fire south of the Stikine River Bridge. There was no one in the vehicle.
A passing motorist later told the officers they had observed what appeared to be a body at a nearby highway pullout area.
When the officers investigated, they found the man’s body.
The RCMP have released few details about the Stikine River Bridge death and the shooting deaths of Mr Fowler and Ms Deese.
They have hosed down speculation a serial killer might be the perpetrator. Mr Fowler and Ms Deese were on a Canadian road trip last Sunday on the Alaska Highway, 20km south of Liard Hot Springs, when their old van broke down. Passing motorists saw them, including Canadian couple Curtis and Sandra Broughton who stopped to offer assistance about 3.20pm on Sunday. Mr Broughton, a mechanic, said he spoke to Mr Fowler but the young Australian seemed to know how to fix the van.
“The vehicle was flooded out and they were going to try and get it going again until they could get the parts they needed,” Mr Broughton said. The Broughtons got back in their car and drove home.
Mr Fowler and Ms Deese were found dead the next day.
RCMP investigators want to speak with anyone who may have been travelling near Liard Hot Springs on Alaska Highway 97 between 4pm Sunday and 8am Monday. They are particularly interested in motorists with dashboard cameras who may have been filming.
RCMP would also like to speak to anyone who was staying at camping sites in the area.
Mr Fowler is the son of one of NSW’s most senior police officers, Stephen Fowler, the chief inspector of Sydney’s northwest Hills district. The Fowlers are making the long, heartbreaking journey from Sydney to British Columbia “to be with our boy and to bring him home”.
One of the last people to see Mr Fowler and Ms Deese alive says the couple was smiling, relaxed and sitting in arm chairs on the side of a Canadian highway.
“Obviously their van had broken down, but they were still happy and smiling,” Curtis Broughton said. “They were having lunch or a bit of a meal when we pulled up.”
“It was terrible,” Mr Broughton, recalling how he later discovered on social media the couple was found dead, said. “We were shocked.”
Mr Broughton said he did not notice anyone suspicious in the area when they stopped.
He called police as soon as he heard the horrifying news and realised he had spoken to the couple.
Ms Deese’s brother, British Deese, told the Charlotte Observer their bodies were so badly beaten the family was told an open casket would not be allowed at his sister’s funeral.
“Something happened on that road, some sort of conflict,” Mr Deese said.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Jones told reporters in Sydney today that Canadian police had confirmed the couple were shot near their van but could not comment any further on the nature of their injuries at the scene.
Mr Fowler’s family, including his father Chief Inspector Stephen Fowler, were now en route to Canada.
“I had the chance to speak to him myself personally yesterday and he and the whole family are absolutely devastated by what’s occurred,” Assistant Commissioner Jones said.
It will be sometime before Mr Fowler’s body can be repatriated back to Australia, due to standard procedures, he said.
Their bodies were found in a secluded area almost 1900 km, or 21 hours’ drive, north of Vancouver, known for the largest natural hot springs in Canada.
“This investigation is in its very infancy and it is not yet clear whether Lucas and Chynna were targeted or is this was a crime of opportunity,” RCMP Sergeant Janelle Shoihet told reporters on Friday.
Some media reports raise the prospect of a serial killer linked to the Highway of Tears murders, but the freeway where more than 40 people have been murdered or went missing is located 1000 km south of where Mr Fowler and Mr Deese were killed.
The RCMP also distanced itself from the serial killer theory.
“At this point, we have nothing to indicate that their deaths are linked to any other active and ongoing investigations in the area, or if there is a heightened risk to public safety,” Sgt Shoihet said.
“I don’t think it’s a serial killer,” Ms Deese’s father, Dwayne, told the Observer.
“I think of someone who has been convicted of violent crimes before, someone on drugs.
“What worries us is that person is still on the loose and they have a head start.
“This is going to happen again.”
Mr Fowler’s father Stephen is the NSW Police chief inspector for Sydney’s north-west Hills district.
Two NSW detectives have flown to Canada to support the Fowler family, but they will not form part of the RCMP investigative team.
Mr Fowler and Ms Deese met at a hostel in Croatia two years ago and fell in love.
The globetrotters were on a road trip across Canada when tragedy struck. The RCMP has asked for anyone who was on the freeway between 4pm Sunday, July 14, and 8am Monday, July 15, and could help with the investigation to come forward.
They are particularly interested in anyone with dashboard cameras.
“To lose someone so young and vibrant, who was travelling the world and just enjoying life to the full, is devastating,” the Fowler family said in a statement issued last night.
“To know his beautiful girlfriend, Chynna Deese of Charlotte, North Carolina also lost her life in this violent event is too cruel. All our love and best wishes go to Chynna’s family and friends.
“We are all now travelling to Canada to be with our boy and to bring him home. Our deepest thanks for all your love and care. At this stage we can only move forward a minute at a time, and those minutes are moving so slowly.”
The family also asked the news be shared “with all those who may have crossed paths anywhere in the world with these beautiful young people.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Friday said they were offering consular assistance to the family.
AAP
Justice Department told Trump in May that his name is among many in the Epstein files
Attorney General Pam Bondi also told the President at the meeting that the department decided to not release more Jeffrey Epstein documents because of the presence of child pornography and the need to protect victims.
Qantas plane makes sudden landing
The aircraft was en route from Mildura to Melbourne before it was forced to make a ‘priority’ landing with 63 passengers on-board.