Police in Canada released their findings in the manhunt for two suspected killers. Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam McLeod, 19, admitted to three murders in a series of videos before executing a suicide pact, Royal Canadian Mounted Police assistant commissioner Kevin Hackett told reporters in a press conference. In one clip, they voiced plans to hijack a boat in Hudson Bay, and escape to either Europe or Africa. They didn’t go through with this. The duo ended their lives in Canada, cops said. In the final video, they asked that their remains be cremated. It is believed that McLeod shot Schmegelsky before committing suicide.
Their deaths marked the end of a nationwide manhunt in Canada.
“While we have been able to gain greater clarity on the movements and actions of the two accused, we respect that the answers have not reduced the trauma and the grief experienced by the families of Lucas Fowler, Chynna Deese, and Leonard Dyck,” said Hackett.
He described the three murders as random “crimes of opportunity with no known motive.” North Carolina native Chynna Deese was traveling with her Australian boyfriend Lucas Fowler in British Columbia when they were shot and killed.
According to Hackett, the investigative theory is that the killers came across Fowler’s van, and targeted the couple for unknown reasons.
After the murders, Schmegelsky and McLeod traveled north to the Yukon, then returned to British Columbia over vehicle issues. They came across their third victim, Leonard Dyck, by Dease Lake, and fatally shot him. The killers burned their vehicle to get rid of evidence, and stole Dyck’s vehicle, money, and other items. They escaped to eastern Canada, and burned the stolen vehicle before continuing on foot.
Cops found two rifles with the dead suspects, Hackett said. These were the weapons used to kill all three victims, cops said.
Schmegelsky and McLeod left behind six videos and three images on Dyck’s phone. In it, they confessed to the murders, showed no remorse, expressed their desire to commit suicide, left behind their “last will and testament,” and expressed a desire to kill more people, Hackett said. But they never explained why they killed Deese, Fowler, and Dyck in the first place.
[Images via Royal Canadian Mounted Police]
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