Two young men thought missing are now suspects in the murders of an American woman and her Australian boyfriend, as well as the death of another man in northern British Columbia, Canadian police said on Tuesday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on Monday had said that they were searching for 19-year-old Kam McLeod and 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky, whose burning car had been discovered south of Dease Lake.
During that investigation, they found the body of an unidentified man about 2km from the car.
That is about 500km along remote highways from the spot where 24-year-old American Chynna Deese and 23-year-old Australian Lucas Fowler were found shot dead more than a week ago.
RCMP Sergeant Janelle Shoihet on Tuesday said that McLeod and Schmegelsky left British Columbia and have been traveling in northern Saskatchewan in a gray 2011 Toyota RAV4.
Later on Tuesday, police said that McLeod and Schmegelsky might be further east in Manitoba after a reported sighting in the remote northern town of Gillam.
“The RCMP are now considering Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky suspects in the Dease Lake suspicious death and the double homicide of Lucas Fowler and Chynna Deese,” Shoihet said.
They are considered dangerous, she said, urging the public not to approach them and to call 911.
Police released surveillance photographs of the two men in Saskatchewan.
The separate discoveries of three bodies and a burning car with missing occupants shook rural northern British Columbia. Murders are rare in the remote region.
The burned vehicle belonged to McLeod and Schmegelsky, both of Port Alberni, British Columbia.
Police on Monday had said that the two were traveling to Whitehorse in the Yukon to look for work and had not been in contact with their families for the past few days.
Police on Tuesday said that they were still working to identify the male body that was found near their burned-out vehicle, but added that he appeared to be in his 50s or 60s.
They released a sketch of the man, with a heavy build with a gray beard and gray hair, and asked for the public’s help in identifying him.
Fowler and Deese were found shot dead along the Alaska Highway near Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park.
Fowler, the son of a chief inspector with the New South Wales Police Department, was living in British Columbia and Deese was visiting him.
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