RCMP are preparing to release details on Friday of the investigations into three murders in northern B.C. that sparked a massive manhunt for two suspects from Port Alberni.
A press conference is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. PST at BC RCMP headquarters in Surrey.
The update comes more than seven weeks after 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky and 19-year-old Kam McLeod were found dead of self-inflicted gunshot wounds in northern Manitoba.
Police said two firearms were found with the dead men.
Before their deaths, the teens were charged with the murder of Leonard Dyck, a University of British Columbia botany lecturer, and were also suspects in the deaths of American Chynna Deese and her Australian boyfriend Lucas Fowler.
A two-week manhunt began July 23 when police announced Schmegelsky and McLeod were suspects in the deaths.
The young men had initially been considered missing persons when a truck and camper they were driving was found burned a few kilometres from where Dyck’s body was discovered at a highway pullout on July 19.
The bodies of Deese and Fowler were found on July 15 near the Alaska Highway, 470 kilometres from where Dyck’s body was discovered.
The manhunt for McLeod and Schmegelsky led to Gillam, Man., where Dyck’s Toyota Rav 4 was found burned. Officers converged on the area to begin a search.
Police used drones, dogs and even had help from the Canadian Armed Forces to scour the remote area.
The search was scaled back July 31 and a few days later a damaged rowboat was found in the Nelson River. A search of the river turned up little of interest, police said.
On Aug. 6, police said some items linked to Schmegelsky and McLeod were found on the river’s shore. The bodies were discovered the next day, about a kilometre from where police said they found the items.
with files from Canadian Press
CHEK News
