Canada: Police think they have found the bodies of the two fugitives

The end of a vast manhunt? On Wednesday, Canadian police announced they found the bodies of two men in northern Manitoba and said they were "confident" that they were 19-year-old Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky. , 18, two Canadians wanted since Tuesday, July 23 for the killings of three people in the west of the country.

"Today, around 10 am, the federal police found the bodies of two men" 8 km from the place where the vehicle of the two suspects was found calcined in late July, said Jane MacLatchy, the spokesman of the police. A vehicle that belonged to one of the three victims, the botany teacher, revealed a little later at a press point Deputy Commissioner Kevin Hackett, spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. British Columbia in charge of the investigation.

"We are confident that these bodies are those of the two wanted suspects in connection with the homicides in British Columbia" last month, she said. An autopsy will be performed Thursday in Winnipeg, Manitoba "to confirm their identities and determine the cause of death."

On Tuesday, investigators said they had found in the Gillam area, the epicenter of research for two weeks in Manitoba, "several objects directly related" to the two teenagers, Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky. They also found a damaged boat on the banks of the Nelson River, a portion of which was searched by police divers on Sunday, with no results.

The end of a deadly run across Canada

If the autopsy confirms the identity of the two fugitives, it would be the end of a 3000 km run, started in mid-July. On July 15, the bodies of Lucas Fowlerun, a 23-year-old Australian, and his 24-year-old American friend Chynna Deese are found along a road in northern British Columbia. Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky are believed to have killed them for an unknown reason.

A few days later, the two young men reportedly killed a 64-year-old botany professor, Leonard Dyck, who was teaching in British Columbia, who was found dead on July 19. It was then that the two suspects embarked on a 3,000-kilometer drive to finally reach the Gillam area, in the very inhospitable region of Manitoba, in central Canada.

On July 23, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Canada's federal police, launch a large and intense manhunt with the deployment of two air force planes, armored vehicles, a drone and tracking dogs in northern Manitoba in a forest infested with bears, wolves and mosquitoes. In the opinion of all the experts, the two teenagers, even if they were followers of survivalism according to their relatives, had little chance of staying very long in such a hostile environment.

A mysterious mobile

Asked Wednesday afternoon by the press about the possible motives of these three murders, Kevin Hackett admitted not having the answer. "It will be extremely difficult to establish with certainty the motive. Obviously, we will not have the opportunity to question the two suspects, "said the deputy commissioner, hoping that material elements found in Manitoba could help to understand their actions.

The two teenagers' personalities had been extensively dissected by the Canadian and international media who covered this extraordinary hunt. In an interview, Bryer Schmegelsky's father said that his son, who never recovered from his parents' divorce, was "on a suicide mission" and risked putting his life in danger. He was probably not mistaken.