Canadian police are swarming the tiny settlement of York Landing in Manitoba after a tip-off that the fugitive teenagers suspected of three shooting deaths have been seen in the area.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said early on Monday that “multiple resources” were being sent to the remote community of about 500 people.
“A heavy police presence can be expected in the area,” the RCMP wrote on Twitter.
Multiple RCMP resources are being sent to York Landing, MB, to investigate a tip that the two suspects are possibly in, or near, the community. A heavy police presence can be expected in the area. We will continue to update you as information becomes available.
— RCMP Manitoba (@rcmpmb) July 28, 2019
A huge Canadian police and military contingent has been searching the Gillam area for Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, for days.
They are suspected of shooting dead Australian tourist Lucas Fowler, his US girlfriend and a university botanist.
Reports of Monday’s development came as the RCMP urged people to stop posting tips about potential sightings to social media. It said Investigators had received more than 200 tips in the past five days but the manhunt might be hampered if tips were not reported straight to police.
McLeod and Schmegelsky have been on the run since the bodies of Mr Fowler, 23, from Sydney, and his North Carolina girlfriend Chynna Deese, 24, were found dead on the side of a highway 3000 kilometres away in Canada’s west on July 14.
Locals around Gillam predicted the teenagers would face extreme challenges – polar and black bears, wolves, irritating black flies and mosquitos, dense scrub and swamps – if they did, as suspected by the RCMP, enter bushland a week ago, after setting fire to their stolen getaway Toyota RAV-4.
On Saturday, the RCMP distributed a photo of a polar bear encountered by searchers 200 kilometres north of Gillam.
“A polar bear was spotted during the search for suspects earlier today,” police wrote in a tweet.
“Just some of the wildlife that can be found in northern Manitoba.”
The nearby town of Churchill is on a polar bear migration route.
Again, absolutely no confirmation the two #Canadamanhunt suspects from #PortAlberni have been caught. There is social media conjecture. What we do know… @rcmpmb are acting on a new tip in this area. pic.twitter.com/eqGbzPL7WI
— Bruce Claggett (@BruceClaggett) July 29, 2019
The Canadian government, desperate to catch the fugitives, immediately approved the RCMP’s request for military support.
On the ground authorities went door-to-door canvassing locals in their homes and searching abandoned buildings in the hope of finding the duo or picking up clues.
The sweep included an abandoned hydroelectric building with 600 rooms.
The RCMP surmised the teenagers torched their RAV-4 and fled on foot in Gillam because there have been no reports of stolen cars or carjackings in the area.
After days of fruitless searching, the RCMP on Friday admitted that it was “exploring the possibility” the teenagers might have fled Gillam with the help of a third person unaware the two were fugitives.
McLeod and Schmegelsky, long-time school friends from Vancouver Island, allegedly embarked on their killing spree on July 14 near Liard Host Springs, in northern British Columbia, when they encountered Mr Fowler and Ms Deese.
The old Chevrolet van Mr Fowler and Ms Deese were driving broke down on the Alaska Highway and left them stranded.
Their bullet-riddled bodies were found in a ditch near the van.
Four days later and 470 kilometres away, University of British Columbia botanist Leonard Dyck was found dead on another highway.
-with AAP
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