Police going door to door in northern Manitoba hunt for B.C. homicide suspects

GILLAM, Man. — More personnel and equipment are being poured into the gruelling hunt for two B.C. homicide suspects in the bug infested and bog strewn landscape surrounding the tiny northern Manitoba community of Gillam.

As the nearly week-long search for Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and 19-year-old Kam McLeod continued Sunday the RCMP said there had been no new sightings of the pair and no new information to indicate they have left the area.

The two Port Alberni, B.C., residents are wanted in connection with three homicides earlier this month in northern British Columbia.

Police, aided by tracking dogs and drones, have been going door to door, checking every residence and abandoned building in and around Gillam as townsfolk maintain their own stressful vigil for the fugitives.

The aerial search effort got a boost Saturday with the arrival of a Canadian Air Force CC-130H Hercules aircraft equipped with high tech thermal detection gear.

In addition, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said that it had requested help from the Bear Clan Patrol, an Indigenous-led neighbourhood watch group, and was co-ordinating teams to fly to First Nations communities including Fox Lake Cree Nation, York Factory First Nation, and War Lake First Nation.

Schmegelsky and McLeod are charged with second-degree murder in the death of University of British Columbia professor Leonard Dyck and are also suspects in the fatal shootings of Australian Lucas Fowler and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese.

A burned-out Toyota RAV4 the teens were travelling in was found near Gillam last week and police have said there have been no reports of stolen vehicles since then.

However, the RCMP are still asking anyone who may have unwittingly helped the two in their travels to come forward.