I agree, armed, approaching a van parked on the side of the road in the middle of the night suggests they were anticipating sleeping occupants to be inside. It’s the victims who suffered panic/fear/stress not the perpetrators! If murder wasn’t in their realm of possibilities, they had the opportunity to order L&C out of the van by gunpoint, taking whatever they wanted, driving away and leaving them alive.
After the murders, they had at least 4 days think about their next steps and maybe just hightail it back home, feigning disappointment over the lack of jobs up north. Or at that point if remorse was a factor at play at all they could’ve confessed or ended their lives then.
But nobody knew they were killers at that point in time. Maybe they were becoming antsy because police hadn’t figured it out yet? Because it was the murder of LD that drew attention to them, by burning their truck and camper close to his body on the side of the road. As LD was noted to be a pacifist, after they stole his vehicle they could’ve left him stranded walking down the side of the highway. No way was his murder a result of fear or panic a second time. The 2nd degree murder charges filed earlier indicates there is evidence of intent.
Then came the flight from police after the two left their calling card - the torched truck and camper. I think there’s a real possibility they intentionally instigated the manhunt and it was involved in their motive to murder innocent people on the onset. “A catch us if you can” setup.
Had the RCMP been unsuccessful in learning their whereabouts at almost a dead end road in Northern Manitoba and had they not employed significant resources including involvement of the military, does anyone really believe the two would’ve been found dead at that remote location, on the banks of the Nelson River? I don’t think so, they died by suicide to avoid capture because they never intended to be voluntarily arrested, exactly as AS had predicted. It really seems to me to have been a suicide mission from the onset, but only if they lost “the game”, as they obviously placed no more value on the lives of others than they did their own.
JMO