Canadian ‘killers’ could be dead in wilderness as military joins hunt
Alexis Daish
19 hrs ago
Black bears, wolves, insatiable bugs, swampy, sodden ground and dense woody forest is what surrounds the town of Gillam. Oh, and polar bears.
“Really?” I asked a police officer in Gillam today. I didn’t even think of polar bears until police mentioned them.
Local officers explain that it’s mating season, so they’re out and about at the moment. If you come across one of them in the forest here, you don’t stand a chance.
And right now that’s where Canadian authorities are still throwing all their resources in the nationwide manhunt for teen fugitives Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky.
This morning, tactical officers in camouflage uniforms set out on quad bikes to search along the trails. The military are now providing search support, with a camera-equipped Hercules aircraft arriving in Gillam as well.
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And yet it seems police aren’t so confident they’re here anymore, with Corporal Julie Courchaine revealing they believe someone may have inadvertently helped them slip the net.
In order to do so, these boys – suspected of killing Australian man Lucas Fowler, his American girlfriend and a Vancouver professor – may have changed their appearances.
This is the latest possible scenario police have gone public with in a press conference held at Winnipeg. It’s an interesting move by police to go public with this theory and could serve two purposes.
Firstly, police may genuinely have information to suggest they’ve lured someone into helping them flee Gillam, and police want to speak to that person.
Alternatively, police may be trying to lead the suspects into a false sense of complacency.
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If McLeod and Schmegelsky are watching the media coverage from somewhere in the Gillam area, hearing this theory may very well give them confidence that police are losing track of them.
That’s something that could help police too: establishing whether the pair are following the media coverage on this nationwide manhunt.
Like any massive search, police will no doubt be trying to track their movements via phone records, social media use and credit cards. But thus far, it doesn’t seem to be yielding anything.
We now know the accused triple killers have already managed to trick someone into helping them escape across Canada.
In Cold Lake, Alberta, a local spotted the suspects’ Toyota at the back of their home. Two men, believed to be the suspects, were standing outside the vehicle, which was stuck on the path.
The local helped them get their car moving again before McLeod and Schmegelsky left. This sighting was on July 21 at 9.30am – the same day the pair were later seen one province east in Saskatchewan.
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