VANCOUVER—Mounties are scaling back their search efforts in northern Manitoba for two fugitives after several days of intensive searches in two remote communities, but said it is far from over.RCMP Assistant Commissioner Jane MacLatchy said officers canvassed every home — about 500 in total — and searched every abandoned building in Gillam and Fox Lake Cree Nation in the search for Kam McLeod, 19 and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18. The manhunt, with assistance from the Royal Canadian Air Force, covered 11,000 square kilometres of boggy, densely forested northern Manitoba terrain.“Over the last week, we’ve done everything we can to locate the suspects,” MacLatchy told reporters in Winnipeg on Wednesday.The Port Alberni, B.C., men are the subject of a Canada-wide warrant for their arrest on two second-degree murder charges related to the death of Vancouver man Len Dyck, whose body was found near Highway 37 close to Dease Lake, B.C., on July 19. They are also suspects in the homicides of Australian Lucas Fowler and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese, who were found shot to death at the side of the Alaska Highway south of Liard Hot Springs on July 15.The Toyota RAV4 they were driving was found in flames near Gillam on July 22, and police said there were two confirmed sightings there last week. The RCMP deployed front-line and tactical officers, forensics specialists and police dogs. An RCMP plane outfitted with infrared sensors was part of search efforts, along with drones and helicopters. Officers in boats searched lakes. But McLeod and Schmegelsky remain at large.The RCMP is pulling most of its specialized personnel and equipment out of northern Manitoba over the next week, but MacLatchy said the RCMP will not stop the search. A number of RCMP officers and tactical resources will remain in the Gillam area.“While the search in northern Manitoba is being scaled down, it is not over — not by any means,” MacLatchy said. & ...
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