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Autopsy Reveals That Canadian Teen Murder Suspects Died By Suicide Days Before Bodies Were Found
Teen fugitives Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky were found in Manitoba with two firearms by their bodies, authorities say.
The two Canadian teen murder suspects that were found dead after a weeks-long manhunt died of suicide, their autopsy reveals.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced last week that the manhunt for Kam McLeod, 19 and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, who were wanted in connection with three murders across Canada, was over after their bodies were discovered near a Manitoba river.
The two childhood friends-turned-fugitives "died in what appears to be suicides by gunfire," the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Monday.
“While both individuals were deceased for a number of days before they were found, the exact time and date of their deaths are not known,” police said. “However, there are strong indications that they had been alive for a few days since last seen in July and during the extensive search efforts in the Gillam area.”
For a while, it was believed that the pair was hiding in some dense wilderness outside of the Manitoba town of Gillam.
Two firearms were found with the teens’ bodies, according to police.
“Forensic analysis is underway in order to definitively confirm that these weapons are connected with the northern BC homicide investigations,” they wrote.
The two teens were suspected of killing American woman Chynna Deese, 24, and her Australian boyfriend, Lucas Fowler, 23, whose bodies were found outside a remote community in northwest British Columbia on July 15. The body of a third victim, 64-year-old Vancouver resident Leonard Dyck, was found on the side of the highway, roughly 290 miles away from where the couple was found dead. McLeod and Schmegelsky’s camper, which had been burned out, was discovered nearby.
The suspects have been described as best friends who met in elementary school. Schmegelsky's dad, Al Schmegelsky, said his son and McLeod had been working at Walmart together for more than a month, but were not satisfied with the job, so they hit the road in search of something better.
After learning of the murders, Al Schmegelsky revealed his son was troubled and predicted that his time on the run was a “suicide mission, according to the Canadian Press.
It now appears that is true.
