RCMP to scale down search efforts for B.C. suspects in northern Manitoba

The RCMP in Manitoba says it will begin to scale down it’s search for two B.C. murder suspects in northern Manitoba.

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Jane MacLatchy says despite searching more than 11,000 square kilometres of wilderness using the best technology available, visiting over 500 homes and receiving over 260 tips in the past seven days, “we have not had any confirmed sightings of the suspects since the burned vehicle was located.”

However, MacLatchy reassured residents they are “not ending this search.”

“I know that today’s news is not what the families of the victims and the communities of northern Manitoba wanted to hear. But when searching for people in vast, remote and rugged locations it’s always a possibility that they’re not going to be immediately located,” said MacLatchy.

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.

Meanwhile, provincial police in Ontario said they were investigating after someone reported seeing two men who looked similar to McLeod and Schmegelsky in the northeastern community of Kapuskasing.

OPP Const. Michelle Coulombe said a suspicious vehicle was reported driving through a construction zone Wednesday morning. Officers hadn’t been able to track it down as of Wednesday afternoon.

John McDonald, Gillam’s deputy mayor, said the longer there are no sightings, the more locals think the suspects have met their fate in the wilderness.

“Without familiarity with the bush around here, I don’t think anybody is giving them much of a chance of survival.”

People in the town are still encouraged to lock their doors and report anything suspicious, McDonald added.

“Until it’s determined one way or another what happened to these guys, this is going to be the new normal.”

The Canadian military is also withdrawing its resources but MacLatchy said they would return “if and when needed.”

Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam McLeod, 19, are charged with second-degree murder in the death of University of British Columbia professor Leonard Dyck near Dease Lake in northern B.C. and are suspected in the fatal shootings of Australian Lucas Fowler and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese.

Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report