Western Canada: RCMP say items linked to B.C. murder suspects found along remote Manitoba river

Open this photo in gallery:

Good morning. Wendy Cox in Vancouver here.

A battered rowboat spotted along the shore of the Nelson River in northern Manitoba was the first sign in more than a week that the two young men wanted in the killings of three people along remote British Columbia highways had been in the area.

The rowboat was found Friday, prompting RCMP resources to course back into the Gillam area over the weekend. Divers went into the river Sunday and police set up a roadblock to keep the media away from the search site, an unusual move for investigators who up until that point had been relatively accessible to journalists.

On Tuesday, RCMP reported that police had discovered items “directly linked” to Bryer Schmegelsky and Kam McLeod. The items were not identified and were found about nine kilometres away from where a burned-out vehicle believed to have been driven by the pair was found near Gillam. The discovery is what prompted the dive search, but police said Tuesday nothing relevant further was found.

It was a flurry of activity in a case that otherwise appears frustratingly stalled. In two weeks of searching, the Mounties combed through more than 11,000 square kilometres, 100-plus abandoned buildings and more than 250 tips. Police have used divers, sniffer dogs, drones, helicopters and ATVs in the manhunt. The RCMP also tapped two military aircraft: a Canadian Air Force CC-130H Hercules plane and a CP-140 Aurora outfitted with an infrared camera and imaging-radar systems.

So far, police are no closer to finding the fugitives, RCMP Superintendent Sorab Rupa, district commander for Manitoba North, told Globe reporter Renata D’Aliesio in an interview Tuesday.

“We’ve done every single thing we can,” Supt. Rupa said late Tuesday afternoon. “We have brought a significant amount of resources to bear in locating the two suspects and we have been unable to at this time, for a variety of reasons, some of which we’ll never actually ever know unless we actually make an arrest.” ​

After a tip July 28 that the pair had been seen at the garbage dump of a community a four-hour journey away, a heavily armed police contingent swarmed into York Landing, only to depart as abruptly a few days later. By the end of last week, RCMP had scaled back their presence in Gillam and investigators were sifting through tips. Last Friday night, residents in Gillam and Fox Lake Cree Nation gathered for a community meeting to learn from RCMP what will be done to keep their communities safe.

“Ultimately, we’re still in a state of unknown. Nobody knows where they [the fugitives] are,” Gillam Mayor Dwayne Forman said after the meeting. “So I understand that there’s still going to be fears and it was definitely raised by the community."

Mr. Forman said the town will examine the possibility of re-establishing a citizen patrol group, disbanded a while ago due to a shortage of volunteers.

Mr. Schmegelsky and Mr. McLeod are suspects in the deaths of American Chynna Deese, 24, and her 23-year-old Australian boyfriend Lucas Fowler. The couple were shot to death on the side of a Northern B.C. highway near Liard Hot Springs and found on July 15.

Four days later, the body of Vancouver resident Leonard Dyck, 64, a sessional lecturer in the University of British Columbia’s botany department, was discovered on a road near Dease Lake, about 500 kilometres southwest of the hot springs.

The RCMP have charged Mr. Schmegelsky and Mr. McLeod with second-degree murder in Mr. Dyck’s death, but have not announced any charges in the death of the couple, saying they are working on a case to submit to the Crown in B.C. for a charge decision.

There has not been a verified sighting of the pair since July 22, though a barrage of reported sightings in Ontario, none of them substantiated publicly so far, forced the OPP to set up its own investigative team.

This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief James Keller. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here. This is a new project and we’ll be experimenting as we go, so let us know what you think.

Around the West

MLA PAY CUT: Politicians in Alberta are taking a salary cut as the new United Conservative government attempts to set the tone ahead of expected budget cuts this fall. Premier Jason Kenney promised to cut MLA salaries by 5 per cent and his own salary by 10 per cent. A legislature committee approved the changes yesterday.

DEEPAK OBHRAI: Calgary MP Deepak Obhrai, a longtime Conservative MP who was the first Hindu to be elected to the House of Commons, has died shortly after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. Tributes have been pouring in from his colleagues, including Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, who described Mr. Obhrai as a “constant source of joy inside the Conservative caucus.”

CANNABIS: A community event in Revelstoke, B.C., in which residents open their gardens for public tours, has ended in an RCMP raid and drug charges. The Mounties say an off-duty officer was touring the garden and art walk when he noticed three marijuana plants in one property.

DAVID MILGAARD: It’s been 50 years since David Milgaard was arrested for a murder he didn’t commit, setting off a decades-long fight prove his innocence and win back his freedom. Now 69 years old, Mr. Milgaard wants Canadians to know that his story is not unique as he continues to advocate for the wrongfully convicted.

FORGOTTEN REMAINS: A Vancouver Island funeral home’s recent decision to publish the names of 30 people whose ashes had been left uncollected has underscored the problem of forgotten ashes. People in the industry say that, while relatively rare, it’s a vexing reality at funeral homes across the country.

BEES: With increasingly troubling research about the dangers facing bees, British Columbia’s chief beekeeper is keeping a close eye on the population. Wendy Stueck talked to the province’s chief beekeeper, Paul van Westendorp, who has been watching over over the province’s bees for nearly three decades.

RENTAL HOUSING: Vancouver is the midst of a rental-housing boom, despite warnings from developers that provincial rules made such projects impossible to build. Frances Bula looks at why Vancouver has seen a spike in rental proposals from developers, in part because of uncertainty in the housing market for buyers.

METALLICA: A Vancouver Island woman who credits Metallica with saving her from a cougar got to thank the band personally when frontman James Hetfield called to talk about the encounter.

EDMONTON FOLK FESTIVAL: With the Edmonton Folk Music Festival set to take over Gallagher Park this weekend, Brad Wheeler asked a number performances about the songs they wish they had written.

Opinion

The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on the Surrey SkyTrain extension: “It turns out the existing $1.6-billion will build less than half of the SkyTrain line Mr. [Doug] McCallum imagined. This truncated version will end in Surrey’s Fleetwood neighbourhood, where only 63,000 people live. The Vancouver region’s mayors, however, voted for this plan in late July. Never mind that the 2012 report said that, built in stages, a single SkyTrain line was the worst of all ideas.”