Canada murders: abandoned rowboat provides new lead in manhunt

Underwater team being sent to search river in Gillam after ‘significantly damaged’ rowboat discovered

The Guardian /Kate Eschner

Canadian police are sending an underwater search team to northern Manitoba after a rowboat that detectives believe triple murder suspects Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, may have used to evade a manhunt was discovered on a river.

The boat was spotted on Friday afternoon on the Nelson river near the town of Gillam where the search for the pair had been concentrated, the Globe and Mail reports. “It had gone through some rapids and had been significantly damaged,” a police inspector told the Globe. A water jug was found nearby.

Although the boat is not definitively linked to McLeod and Schmegelsky, Royal Canadian Mounted Police will be searching the area near where it was found for anyone linked to the boat, he said.

A team of RCMP divers will also be searching the relevant section of the river. The team arrived in Gillam on Saturday night and will begin searching the river on Sunday.

McLeod and Schmegelsky have been missing for more than two weeks and have been the focus of an intensive manhunt for much of that time. On 23 July, the pair were named suspects in the double murder of Australian Lucas Fowler, 23, and US citizen Chynna Deese, 24. The pair were found shot to death near their blue van on 15 July.

On 25 July, they were each charged with one count of second-degree murder in the death of Canadian Leonard “Len” Dyck, whose body was found on 19 July near the burned-out remains of Schmegelsky and McLeod’s van. Police have not released a cause or time of death for Dyck.

The manhunt for the two suspects has touched five provinces (sightings of the pair in northern Ontario have not been substantiated) and involved RCMP, local police, the military and an Indigenous community safety group.

However, there has been no confirmed sighting of the pair since 23 July in the remote town of Gillam.

Topics:Canada/Americas/news

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