Canada - Lucas Fowler, Chynna Deese, and Leonard Dyck, all murdered, Alaska Hwy, BC, Jul 2019 #9

[1987]

if the young men had/has a firearm and if it came from one of their homes what happens to the legal owner if it wasn't secured properly?

 

[otto]

Hard to get internet access out there. Not many newsstands, either. B.C. is known for solar-powered highway signs advising travelers about road closures, chaining up, and amber alerts. Are these on the Alaska Highway? Is there any kind of public notice board, like in national parks, near places like gas stations and stores offering free coffee?

Local news should be available in vehicles. National parks used to post alerts, but it's been a while since I've been near a national park.

 

[copkid]

People keep coming back to why the original victims stayed along the highway with the broken down van. There’s a very good chance that no matter where they were, the van would be where they slept. That’s one advantage of these old vans. They are one if the least expensive ways to travel because they are cheap to buy and you can sleep comfortably in them.

Totally agree with you. JMO but I do not find anything unusual about Lucas & Chynna sleeping in their van, especially if it would not start. People buy these vans specifically for this reason. Provincial Parks are expensive to camp in, these were two young people that were seasoned travellers. They met at a hostel in Croatia. Good chance the van made for better sleeping than some of the hostels they may have slept at previously. JMO

 

[Kurzz10]

Just read this one....

"The York Landing tip included information that the two people sighted were wearing the same clothing — Schmegelsky in a camouflage jacket and McLeod in a blue T-shirt — that they were pictured in on CCTV footage from a hardware store in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan."

Wasn't it stated before that Kam was seen in a grey t-shirt? I remember reading that and being confused because of the video with him wearing a blue one.

I think I read grey sweatshirt.

 

[otto]

People keep coming back to why the original victims stayed along the highway with the broken down van. There’s a very good chance that no matter where they were, the van would be where they slept. That’s one advantage of these old vans. They are one if the least expensive ways to travel because they are cheap to buy and you can sleep comfortably in them.

I posted a link way back at the beginning to BC Highway Safety Regulations. It stated that disabled vehicles must be removed from the highway "forthwith," meaning immediately, for the safety of others. Lucas and Chynna have been described as "free spirits" and as such they probably thought that since they were in no hurry and they weren't bothering anyone, they could remain as long as they wanted. In reality, they needed to remove their vehicle as soon as they realized that the probem was more serious than a flooded engine.

 

[Xyzzia]

I don't expect they would be starting any fires to cook with though.
That would draw A lot of attention to themselves and I think they would have been found by now if they were.

If K & B were out in the bush they wouldn't have to start fires if they took military rations MREs with them. And I have family members who have bought them from military surplus stores and have used them out in the bush. I've had them myself and some of them are quite tasty. And they're all cooked and you just open up the package and eat them. You can heat them up if you want or you can eat them cold.

 

[Deleted member 248860]

if the young men had/has a firearm and if it came from one of their homes what happens to the legal owner if it wasn't secured properly?

I suspect that the RCMP just want to know if either of them got their hands on a firearm belonging to a relative or friend and aren’t terribly focused on storage issues.

 

[otto]

And depending on how the window was broke would also determined where the pieces of glass would have landed. If somebody went up to the window and smashed it with their hand with a rock or something similar then some glass would be on the outside as well as on the inside.
Well in the photo there is some glass on the outside of the van we have no idea how much glass was on the inside. And was it not speculation on the part of the highway worker man who had secured the scene that it looked like it was from the inside out? But the police have not shared the details of that so we really don't know if it was broken from the inside out or the outside in.

Maybe the door was open when the glass was broken, and then glass outside the back door would say nothing.

 

[Jessthinkin]

Totally agree with you. JMO but I do not find anything unusual about Lucas & Chynna sleeping in their van, especially if it would not start. People buy these vans specifically for this reason. Provincial Parks are expensive to camp in, these were two young people that were seasoned travellers. They met at a hostel in Croatia. Good chance the van made for better sleeping than some of the hostels they may have slept at previously. JMO

Agreed, just google #vanlife on SM sites to see how people are living in vans; it's having its moment, sort of an off-shoot of the tiny house movement. Just this Sunday I was at the beach and overheard a teenager telling her friend that as soon as she graduated, she was going to get a van and spend every day parking and living at the beach. So no, I don't think it's strange at all that a young couple would feel comfortable sleeping in the van, and in fact, I agree with you that it was bought with sleeping in mind.

 

[Xyzzia]

Totally agree with you. JMO but I do not find anything unusual about Lucas & Chynna sleeping in their van, especially if it would not start. People buy these vans specifically for this reason. Provincial Parks are expensive to camp in, these were two young people that were seasoned travellers. They met at a hostel in Croatia. Good chance the van made for better sleeping than some of the hostels they may have slept at previously. JMO

Well they had problems with the van and Witnesses have came forward regarding that to the police. But maybe the problem with the van was bigger than just overheating and flooding and it was actually broke down. And l&c decided to spend the night and hope that the van would be working in the morning or would try to get it fixed in the morning. Thus they were stuck on the side of the road and slept there. And then things went awry. I myself have been on that road if not a hundred times or more back and forth and it does have a limited traffic at night time. There's lots of moose and deer and bears Crossing that highway and it's not advisable to travel at night time. Hitting a moose can have devastating effects to not just the Moose but for the people in the vehicle as well. So I'm assuming the vehicle was still broke down at nighttime and they decided to sleep where they were at until morning.

 

[CanadianMade]

I think I read grey sweatshirt.

I'm trying to find it...ughh....there is so much to go through!
I definitely read "grey" somewhere. Could have been sweatshirt. Either way, that article states "blue t-shirt" which is different from the original reporting.
So now I'm thinking even more that it wasn't them spotted.

 

[ldlager]

The guys in york landing could have just been locals who were embarrassed they were looking through the dump.

If so, why didn't the RCMP find them? There aren't that many houses, and going door to door would have easily addressed this. Or asking local residents if they knew who they could be. Unless of course the RCMP didn't bother going door to door because they were too busy chasing the bears away from the dump. There has been nothing to suggest that these 2 individuals were locals.

 

[minn77]

Maybe they stopped their game for ten minutes when one had to run in to the bathroom. Did they actually sleep out there?

Its not a rare thing for boys to go camp in the bush for a few days...weeks or months maybe a bit odd

 

[Link Haze]

I'm trying to find it...ughh....there is so much to go through!
I definitely read "grey" somewhere. Could have been sweatshirt. Either way, that article states "blue t-shirt" which is different from the original reporting.
So now I'm thinking even more that it wasn't them spotted.

It's in this article. Ctrl+F type in "grey" or if that doesn't work scroll down below map in article.
Manhunt for B.C. fugitives moves on as RCMP end search in Manitoba First Nation

 

[CanadianMade]

It's in this article. Ctrl+F type in "grey" or if that doesn't work scroll down below map in article.
Manhunt for B.C. fugitives moves on as RCMP end search in Manitoba First Nation

Thank you! I knew it was out there somewhere.

 

[copkid]

Well they had problems with the van and Witnesses have came forward regarding that to the police. But maybe the problem with the van was bigger than just overheating and flooding and it was actually broke down. And l&c decided to spend the night and hope that the van would be working in the morning or would try to get it fixed in the morning. Thus they were stuck on the side of the road and slept there. And then things went awry. I myself have been on that road if not a hundred times or more back and forth and it does have a limited traffic at night time. There's lots of moose and deer and bears Crossing that highway and it's not advisable to travel at night time. Hitting a moose can have devastating effects to not just the Moose but for the people in the vehicle as well. So I'm assuming the vehicle was still broke down at nighttime and they decided to sleep where they were at until morning.

Moose and other large animals are normally the worst fear when traveling Canada's remote and desolute highways, it breaks my heart that these two beautiful souls encountered such pure evil that fateful night.

 

[ldlager]

Are we sure that the guy that "saw" them at the dump wasn't in fact Jussie Smollett?

 

[copkid]

It might help you to go back and listen to the Press Briefing (2nd one - one that had the cat ears filter on FB which was posted on this thread last night and is on you tube) and the very precise and carefully chosen language used by RCMP.

Its actually stunning to go back and listen to the 2nd and 3rd Press Briefings again and think about what was being said by the RCMP and giving consideration to how the words used would be processed by the traveling public and local residents in terms of decisions they made to travel in the area.

For my money I think these 2 RCMP Press Briefings will be studied in great detail and used as examples of how NOT to handle a public safety announcement of a violent crime. Would the Professor have been taking a nap in his vehicle if he had known about the potential of 2 gun toting individuals coming upon him? We will never know unfortunately.

People rely on LE for safety advice and if you can't trust local LE to give you a 'heads up' on the risks of traveling in an area then I'm not sure who you can trust as a foreigner?

As a non Canadian this entire experience of seeing RCMP in action on a clear public safety issue has been eye opening and sobering. Further, my thoughts on the organization in terms of the quality and the reliability of its travel and safety alerts in particular is something that I don't think I will ever forget. If the RCMP were to made a future statement about the handling of the early communication on the Deese/Fowler case and take responsbility then my thoughts might change.

IMO in the early days of the case the RCMP appeared fixated on precise victim ID and notification of next of kin and public safety was totally a backseat issue until questions were raised by the press and the Aussie announcement was made global. The second Press Briefing makes clear that RCMP didn't think that public safety was a concern. I really wonder how public safety would NOT be a consideration if gun casings were found and the scene and the victims bodies showed the obvious results of bullet wounds. It took the RCMP over 5 days to classify the crime as being related to 'gun violence'.

Very well said!

 

[otto]

It might help you to go back and listen to the Press Briefing (2nd one - one that had the cat ears filter on FB which was posted on this thread last night and is on you tube) and the very precise and carefully chosen language used by RCMP.

Its actually stunning to go back and listen to the 2nd and 3rd Press Briefings again and think about what was being said by the RCMP and giving consideration to how the words used would be processed by the traveling public and local residents in terms of decisions they made to travel in the area.

For my money I think these 2 RCMP Press Briefings will be studied in great detail and used as examples of how NOT to handle a public safety announcement of a violent crime. Would the Professor have been taking a nap in his vehicle if he had known about the potential of 2 gun toting individuals coming upon him? We will never know unfortunately.

People rely on LE for safety advice and if you can't trust local LE to give you a 'heads up' on the risks of traveling in an area then I'm not sure who you can trust as a foreigner?

As a non Canadian this entire experience of seeing RCMP in action on a clear public safety issue has been eye opening and sobering. Further, my thoughts on the organization in terms of the quality and the reliability of its travel and safety alerts in particular is something that I don't think I will ever forget. If the RCMP were to made a future statement about the handling of the early communication on the Deese/Fowler case and take responsbility then my thoughts might change.

IMO in the early days of the case the RCMP appeared fixated on precise victim ID and notification of next of kin and public safety was totally a backseat issue until questions were raised by the press and the Aussie announcement was made global. The second Press Briefing makes clear that RCMP didn't think that public safety was a concern. I really wonder how public safety would NOT be a consideration if gun casings were found and the scene and the victims bodies showed the obvious results of bullet wounds. It took the RCMP over 5 days to classify the crime as being related to 'gun violence'.

It's been posted and linked that information about the double murders was released through local media on July 16. Public safety information was available. Understandably, many people don't listen to local news, but that does not mean that numerous efforts have to be made to connect with those who can't be bothered to pay attention.

Did Alaska post signs and warnings about the murders on the Alaska highway?

 

[Murphy1950]

It's in this article. Ctrl+F type in "grey" or if that doesn't work scroll down below map in article.
Manhunt for B.C. fugitives moves on as RCMP end search in Manitoba First Nation

Handy.....never knew that feature in all the years I've been on a computer. THANKS!!!!

and hear you go......"The men, one clad in a grey sweatshirt and one in a camouflage sweatshirt, bolted into the woods at the sound of the patrol vehicle, Mr. Bighetty said."