Canada highway murders: Police confirm two sightings of teen suspects. Video / CBS This Morning
First Nations police in rural Canada stopped two teens suspected of a murder spree as they were fleeing, only to let them go.
The bombshell revelation was made today as frustrated police continue their manhunt for Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam McLeod, 19, after a possible sighting in the remote river town of York Landing.
Canadian news outlet Global News spoke with Nathan Neckoway, a Band councillor from the Tataskweyak Cree Nation near Split Lake, 169km from Gillam, Manitoba, where the teens were believed to be hiding earlier this week.
As some have pointed out there is a Manitoba Hydro transmission line which runs past York Landing and also rail line. Areas which could provide a potential route for someone on foot outside the unforgiving wilderness terrain of northern MB.
Cr Neckaway says Band constables — whose job it is to enforce specific provincial bylaws — stopped the two men last Monday for a routine alcohol check. Split Lake is a dry community.
When they didn't find any alcohol, they let the pair go, Cr Neckoway says.
"We weren't aware of their status, of them being wanted," he said. "Apparently after they came to our community that's when they sent out that wanted status."
The sighting is supported by previous reports that Schmegelsky and McLeod stopped for petrol in Split Lake where the question about alcohol was raised.
Police are closing in on Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky. Photo / Supplied
Last week, service station attendant Mychelle Keeper said McLeod paid for $20 worth of petrol but Schmegelsky asked casually whether he could consume alcohol in the dry community.
"The guy who paid for the gas — he was quiet, he didn't say anything, he was just looking down," she said.
"They seemed like, I don't know, normal. I'm just so nervous right now thinking about it."
The teens were named as suspects the following day.
As officers tried to close the net, they found the pair's torched car near Gillam but they were nowhere to be found.
FUGITIVE TEENS' ONLY ROUTE TO SECOND 'SIGHTING'
The manhunt for Schmegelsky and McLeod — wanted over the brutal Canadian highway slayings of three people, including Australian Lucas Fowler — took a dramatic turn yesterday.
Chynna Deese and Luca Fowler were on the trip of a lifetime when they were killed. Photo / AP
Authorities received a tip-off about a possible sighting in York Landing, 90km from the existing search area in Gillam and 1000km north of the provincial capital of Winnipeg.
Two people were spotted rummaging through landfill not far from the tiny remote river town and fled when they saw they were being watched.
An exhaustive search of the area failed to locate the duo who had either managed another miraculous escape or were never there in the first place.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. Julie Courchaine speaks to media about the ongoing search for the British Columbia murder suspects Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam McLeod, 19. Photo / AP
But if it was Schmegelsky and McLeod searching for food, those closest to the hunt say the path they took to get there is littered with obstacles that would make hiding near impossible and very unpleasant.
They would've trekked through forest so dense and so challenging that they'd be lucky to make the journey alive.
Bear Clan member Travis Bighetty, who made the sighting, is part of the community-based policing group tasked with chasing down the accused killers at the request of Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Mr Bighetty told public broadcaster CBC the area is "very unforgiving" and "you'd have to be determined".
Security camera images of Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, displayed during a news conference in Surrey, British Columbia. Photo / AP
"I'm not quite sure how they got there," he said.
Others have very plausible theories. York Landing is largely cut off from Gillam in the summer and is "only accessible by air or via a two-hour ferry crossing in the summer," according to RCMP Corporal Julie Courchaine.
There are no train tracks from Gillam to York Landing but the two towns are connected by hydro lines.
The lines carry electricity from hydro-electric dams to homes in Manitoba and are connected by pylons that traverse the dense terrain.
The hydro lines are visible on Google Earth, but experts say following them would be fraught with danger.
Survival expert Sherman Kong told Global News it would be a risky proposition, but the teens are desperate.
"It's dense, it's foggy, it's swampy, (there are) tonnes of bugs," he said.
"They're going to have to maintain the ability to find shelter, water, fire, food. I would imagine that the consideration of food is now becoming problematic for them."
The area is also full of bears. Officers searching the landfill site today had to scare away bears in the area.
If the teens did make it to York Landing, they are not there now. Resources that flooded the town yesterday have largely been sent back to Gillam after authorities were "unable to substantiate the tip", police said in a statement.
"RCMP resources will continue to be in the York Landing & Gillam areas.
"We thank the community for their patience & understanding & ask them to continue to be vigilant."
