Security camera images of fugitives Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, are displayed during a news conference. Photo / AP
Security camera images of fugitives Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, are displayed during a news conference. Photo / AP
The post mortem examinations on triple murder fugitives Bryer Schmegelsky and Kam McLeod have been completed with authorities expected to release more details on the case in the next 24 hours.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have so far remained tight-lipped about what killed the teens and have refused to reveal the nature of a mystery object found near their bodies.
But there are reports this morning the British Columbia branch of the force is preparing to make an announcement about the case on Monday morning (tonight Australia time).
Post mortems complete on bodies found in northern Manitoba. Police in B.C. are expected to release details Monday on autopsies conducted on what's believed to be the bodies of teen murder suspects Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky. https://t.co/CER0wtv1HA
RCMP Manitoba spokesman Sergeant Paul Manaigre said police needed to complete formalities relating to the identification of the pair before releasing autopsy details.
"We're just kind of waiting on those formalities to be done and then that information will be shared," he told CBC.
Lifelong friends Schmegelsky, 18, and McLeod, 19, were found dead in thick scrub near the shoreline of the Nelson River in remote northern Manitoba on August 7 — ending a marathon search that made headlines around the world.
While on the run, the pair was charged with the second degree murder of university professor Leonard Dyck, 64, and named prime suspects in the killings of Australian backpacker Lucas Fowler, 23, and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese, 24.
Mr Fowler and Ms Deese were found shot to death on July 15 after their campervan broke down on the Alaska Highway near Liard Hot Springs.
Four days later, Mr Dyck's body was found 500km away on Highway 37, south of the Stikine River Bridge. A burnt out Dodge believed to have been driven by McLeod and Schmegelsky was found two km away but the childhood mates were nowhere to be found.
RCMP initially failed to connect the three crime scenes, treating the teens as missing persons.
On July 23, police dropped a bombshell, charging them with Mr Dyck's death in absentia and officially linking them to the murders of Mr Fowler and Ms Deese.
Australian Lucas Fowler and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese were killed as they set out on a dream road trip to Alaska. Photo / Supplied
By that time, Schmegelsky and McLeod were long gone, having driven more than 4000km in a stolen Toyota Rav4 to rural northern Manitoba, where they ditched and torched the car at Fox Lake Cree nation reserve near Gillam before vanishing into the wilderness.
With the world watching, RCMP threw all available resources at finding the pair, sending SWAT teams in heavily armoured trucks, a military jet, drones, sniffer dogs and hundreds of officers to scour more than 11,000 sqkm of heavily forested, swampy and sometimes treacherous terrain.
Gillam and the nearby town of York Landing — which have a collective population of less than 2000 — were placed in lockdown for days as police conducted door-to-door searches of homes and abandoned buildings.
Police were scaling down their search when they lucked out with not one but two breakthroughs on Friday August 2.
Security camera images recorded in Saskatchewan of Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, are displayed as Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner Kevin Hackett. Photo / AP
The first was the discovery of a damaged aluminium boat, spotted during an aerial search, near the shoreline of the Nelson River. Around the same time, local tour operator Clint Sawchuk called in what he thought was a sleeping bag on the river bank.
That led to the discovery of several items police were able to "directly link" to Schmegelsky and McLeod on the riverbank — just eight km from where they ditched their getaway car.
Police identified the third victim as botanist and university professor Leonard Dyck. Photo / Supplied
Their bodies were found on August 7 in dense scrub, around a km from where the mystery items were recovered. Police have not revealed the nature of those items or another object found near the teens' bodies but there is speculation the latter is some time of weapon.
Survival experts had warned the fugitives were more likely to get "eaten alive" by the swarms of sandflies that plague the region this time of year than attacked by the polar bears, wolves and coyotes that call Manitoba home.
Sgt Manaigre, who took part in the manhunt, said a group of officers from RCMP Manitoba will remain in Gillam indefinitely looking for clues to assist homicide investigators in British Columbia.
"We were describing (the search) over the last couple of weeks as being some pretty dense bush and some pretty remarkable terrain — in my opinion that's almost an understatement," he told a news conference.
"It was incredible. The steep hills, you've got a fast moving river with very little riverbank. It's unimaginable how … you could traverse that type of area."
Sgt Manaigre said police still have no idea why Ms Deese, Mr Fowler and Mr Dyck were killed.
"That's going to be the biggest puzzle to solve in this investigation," he said. "And we hope we can get some answers on that question."
Alan Schmegelsky and son Bryer as a young child. Picture / Supplied
The announcement follows the airing on Sunday in Australia of 60 Minutes' interview with Schmegelsky's father Alan, who apologised to the families of the victims.
Mr Schmegelsky, however, was shown cheering and saying "kudos, boys" when shown CCTV footage of the boys alive and after having successfully passed through a police roadblock.
He said the breakdown of his marriage led to his son becoming "angry" but insisted he would not accept the teenager was a murderer until he had seen the evidence to prove it.
