Canadian police have found the bodies believed to be those of two teen fugitives suspected of murdering three people, authorities said.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RMCP) announced Wednesday that Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam McLeod, 19 — both subjects of a nationwide manhunt after being accused of murdering a young couple and a 64-year-old man — were found dead on the Nelson River shoreline near Manitoba.
“The search is over. At 10am this morning, Manitoba RCMP officers located the bodies of two males, believed to be the BC suspects, near the shoreline of the Nelson River,” officials with the RMCP of Manitoba tweeted Wednesday.
“At this time, we are confident that these are the bodies of the two suspects wanted in connection with the homicides in British Columbia,” Assistant Commissioner Jane MacLatchy told reporters during a Wednesday news conference in Winnipeg.
Authorities said that they found items linked to the two teens near the shore five days before they found their bodies. Police have also ordered autopsies of the two bodies to confirm their identities.
The teens are accused of murdering University of British Columbia lecturer Leonard Dyck, 64, whose body was found next to their torched pickup truck last week. They are also accused of slaying Lucas Fowler, a 24-year-old Australian, and his 24-year-old American girlfriend, Chynna Deese.
Fowler and Deese were believed to have been killed while taking a two-week road trip through Canada.