Canada police seek teens over couple's killing
July 24, 2019
Canada's Royal Mounted Police on Tuesday said a search was underway for two young men who it warned were an ongoing danger to the public.
The pair, wanted in connection with the deaths of a couple in British Columbia, were also wanted for questioning over the death of a third person.
Officials said 19-year-old Kam McLeod and 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky had been reported missing before becoming the subject of a manhunt.
Police are seeking the pair after the bodies of 24-year-old American Chynna Deese and her 23-year-old Australian boyfriend Lucas Fowler were found in the remote north of British Columbia province on July 15. The couple had been shot dead.
Police made an appeal for sightings of the two men, but warned the public not to approach them.
The third victim, an as yet unidentified man in his 50s or 60s, is believed to have been killed late last week. His body was found near a torched pick-up truck that was thought to have been used by the suspects. The burned vehicle was discovered some 470 kilometers (300 miles) from the bodies of Deese and Fowler.
Read more: Mounties' muskrat hats pit animal rights against tradition
Making the link clear, police said it was "unusual" to have two such major investigations in that part of British Columbia.
"We believe that they're likely continuing to travel. We don't have a possible destination," police spokeswoman Sergeant Janelle Shoihet told journalists.
Fowler, the son of a senior police officer in the New South Wales Police Department, was living in British Columbia and Deese was visiting him.
The couple had met at a hostel in Croatia and had since traveled together to destinations such as the US, Mexico and Peru.