No wonder we get confused with all the conflicting information.
Tataskweyak Cree Nation band officer revealed the teens were wearing different clothes to those shown on their wanted posters — none of it camouflage gear.
24 hours after RCMP issued a nationwide alert, they were pulled over after failing to stop at a checkpoint just outside the dry community in Split Lake. They said they had come from Vancouver and the driver said he was sorry for failing to stop. They apologised repeatedly before
standing aside to let him look inside the RAV 4 SUV.
And what he found — or didn’t find — was surprising: “Just two boxes and a suit”.
Bombshell reports on Tuesday claimed Constable Saunders had seen camping equipment and several maps inside the car — indicating the teens were prepared for the elements and in for the long haul, but in an interview with CBC’s Austin Grabish, the officer denied having sighted anything of the kind. He said,
“I didn’t see no camping gear, no maps, no weapons, no drugs or alcohol”. “They seemed paranoid when I was talking to that guy there, the driver.” “Not even an hour later they left here towards Gillam.”
They went on to buy $20 worth of fuel at a local gas station at around 4pm. where they were served by attendant Mychelle Keeper at around 4pm. Like the band constable, the attendant did not recognise the pair until the following day when she saw the updated poster naming them as suspects in three murders.
Puzzlingly, she told police the pair were dressed in exactly the same clothes they were wearing in the CCTV vision, contradicting Constable Saunder’s account.
Sometime that evening, the SUV was found abandoned and alight in dense bush near a rail line at a First Nation reserve 70km from Gillam.
A volunteer firefighter was called to extinguish the SUV, presumed the vehicle ran out of fuel. He said it appeared the fugitives were so keen to flee
they left behind camping equipment and canned sardines or oysters that would help them survive in the bush. He said, “There were a few pots and pans in there, a few canned foods, a crowbar”. There has been speculation the food and camping gear belonged to Prof Leonard Dyck who is believed to have been the car’s owner.
What cop really found in teen murder spree suspects’ car
I guess it all depends on what you consider to be camping gear. I've been a camper all my life so pots and pans, yes, but in that environment I'd be thinking more like sleeping bags if I was planning to camp even if it was in a vehicle. Len Dyck was a camper so it would make sense that they took whatever they thought would be useful. Maybe it was never their intention to camp when they left home, but then there were the murders. If they're innocent, all they had to do was surrender and explain.
