Canadian Police: Fugitives Died Days Before Being Found

Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky apparently took their own lives
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 13, 2019 1:01 AM CDT
Canadian Police: Fugitives Died Days Before Being Found
In this July 23, 2019 file photo, security camera images of fugitives Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, are displayed during a news conference in Surrey, British Columbia.   (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP File)

Police say the two Canadian teens who are believed to have killed three people in British Columbia likely took a final pair of lives—their own. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed on Monday that the bodies found Wednesday in northern Manitoba belong to Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky. The autopsies indicated the two died in suicides by gunfire days before they were found, but they did not establish a precise timeline. The Toronto Star reports guns were found next to the teens' bodies, which were located nearly 2,000 miles from the murders they're believed to have committed. Police hope the weapons will provide a "definitive" link to the deaths of Leonard Dyck, Lucas Fowler, and Chynna Deese.

Manitoba RCMP Sgt. Paul Manaigre says police will try to uncover the motive for the homicides and tells the CBC that the descriptions of how challenging the search had been were "almost an understatement. ... The steep hills, you've got a fast moving river with very little riverbank.... It's unimaginable how ... you could traverse that type of area." A rep for the RCMP tells the Globe and Mail that investigators are working to "tighten" the timeline and that police will provide their revised version of what they think happened within the next several weeks. (An alert river guide helped end the hunt for the fugitives.)

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