RCMP scaling down search for murder suspects in northern Manitoba

The RCMP are scaling back the search for two British Columbia murder suspects in remote northern Manitoba.

Assistant Commissioner Jane MacLatchy said over the past week officers have searched more than 11,000 square kilometres of wilderness using the best technology available and have found no sign of Bryer Schmegelsky and Kam McLeod. Police have also canvassed more than 500 homes in the Gillam area, searched abandoned buildings, rail lines and hydro corridors. They have used all-terrain vehicles, drones, helicopters and planes to cover the landscape of muskeg, dense forest, lakes and rivers.

MacLatchy emphasized that the search in the Gillam area is not over, but resources will be scaled down over the next week.

Schmegelsky, 18, and McLeod, 19, are charged with second-degree murder in the death of University of British Columbia professor
Leonard Dyck, whose body was found earlier this month in northern B.C. Police also consider the men suspects in the shooting of
Australian Lucas Fowler and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese, who were found dead on the Alaska Highway near Liard Hot Springs, B.C.

MacLatchy said investigators are open to the possibility that the suspects are dead, or somehow got a ride out of the area and are somewhere else.