The pair of Canadian teenage fugitives wanted for the murder of an American backpacker and her Australian boyfriend have been found dead after two weeks on the run.
Canadian Police announced Wednesday afternoon that two male bodies believed to be Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam McLeod, 19 were found by Nelson River near Gillam, Manitoba, hours earlier.
An autopsy will be performed to confirm their identities and the cause of death.
The discovery of the bodies concludes a 15-day, cross-country manhunt for the teenagers, who were suspected of murdering American Chynna Deese and her Australian boyfriend Lucas Fowler, as well as Vancouver professor Leonard Dyck.
Canadian Police say two male bodies believed to be Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam McLeod, 19, were found by Nelson River near Gillam, Manitoba, on Wednesday morning
The two teens were accused of killing American backpacker Chynna Deese (right) and her Australian boyfriend Lucas Fowler (left)
Police narrowed their search to the town of Sundance, which closed in 1992, and once served as the hideout for a suspected murderer for three years
The bodies were found less than a kilometer away from where investigators found several items linked to the pair on Saturday.
Those items, which were not disclosed, were found less than six miles from where the teens left a burnt-out vehicle on July 22.
On the same day that police found the items, they also discovered a damaged aluminium boat near the river near Gillam, Manitoba.
Police divers spent Sunday searching the frigid waters of the Nelson River for the fugitives’ bodies.
However, the underwater recovery team did not find additional items, police said.
The boat was found about 43 miles north of Gillam and about eight miles from where police believe the teens set light to the grey Toyota RAV4 they were driving two weeks ago.
The search comes after police blocked off roads at Sundance in Manitoba.
Sundance was built in 1975 to house the workers of the Limestone Dam project and their families, and consisted of mostly portable buildings, trailers, with a few small stores and a primary school.
The community was closed in September 1992, and satellite imagery shows empty lots surrounded by roads.
Sundance, Manitoba (pictured) was built in 1975 to house the workers of the Limestone Dam project and their families
Sundance is considered part of the town of Gillam, where the teens were last seen, and is roughly 3,000km from where the bodies of Miss Deese and Mr Fowler were found.
The roadblock has now been taken down, however, officers will remain in the Gillam, area.
The three-week nationwide hunt for Schmegelsky and McLeod began in the western Canadian province of British Columbia and spanned more than 5000km east over three other provinces.
The discovery of their bodies came days after Deese’s family slammed Canadian police for failing to find the teens, and question whether they were even involved in the tragic deaths of the young couple.
Sundance has been deserted for decades, and satellite imagery shows only roads and empty lots (pictured)
Royal Canadian Mounted Police have released photos of a rowboat (pictured) found on the banks of the Nelson River in their search for Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam McLeod, 19. Divers appear to have found nothing in the river though, and police are now focusing their attentions elsewhere
‘It’s taking so long, our family is frustrated the police have not made more progress and we don’t know if it’s even the teenagers who killed my sister and Lucas,’ Miss Deese’s brother Stetson told The Daily Telegraph.
‘Everyone wants to catch them but we don’t even know if they did it. We’re in the dark as much as the public about what happened to Chynna and Lucas.’
Survival experts predict the teenagers would struggle to stay alive if they attempted to hide in the swampy, bug-infested wilderness around Gillam without shelter and equipment.
Deese, 24, and Fowler, 23, were found shot dead in a ditch on the side of a highway in British Columbia on July 15.
The body of botanist Leonard Dyck was discovered four days later on another BC highway and a mile away from an abandoned and burning pick-up truck Schmegelsky and McLeod had been driving.
Schmegelsky and McLeod drove a grey Toyota RAV4 3000km east to Gillam before setting it alight in bushland.
The RCMP had not announced a single confirmed sighting of the duo since.
Schmegelsky and McLeod were the only suspects in the bloody highway murders.
Survival experts predict the teenagers would struggle to stay alive if they attempted to hide in the swampy, bug-infested wilderness around Gillam – an area that includes Sundance – without shelter and equipment
Ms Deese’s brother said his family is becoming frustrated with police, and they are questioning whether the teenage boys are even responsible
Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Royal Canadian Air Force, using teams on the ground and planes in the air with infrared cameras and imaging radar, unsuccessfully searched 11,000 square kilometres around the town of Gillam and surrounding wilderness before scaling back the hunt.
The Ontario Provincial Police announced on Friday it had set up an investigative team to follow up on potential sightings of Schmegelsky and McLeod in their province.
OPP Criminal Investigation Branch Detective Inspector Matt Watson will lead the new investigative team.
The OPP received more than 30 tips in less than eight hours on Thursday.
The search for McLeod and Schmegelsky has spanned weeks and thousands of kilometres, but has produced no result
‘We ask anyone who believes they have observed these two suspects to report it to police immediately,’ Ontario Provincial Police Sergeant Carolle Dionne said.
If the fugitives are in Ontario they have eluded authorities while travelling more than 5000km. That’s 1000km further than the distance between Sydney and Perth.
One unconfirmed sighting of the duo in recent days was of ‘a suspicious’ white vehicle driving through a construction zone on a highway in the small community of Kapuskasing, Ontario.