RCMP find item that may be connected to B.C. murder investigation

Search efforts were directed back to the Gillam, Man. area after a fruitless tip that two murder suspects might be elsewhere in Manitoba.

GILLAM, Man. -- RCMP say they've found an item that could be relevant to their investigation into two murder suspects whose bodies they believe they located earlier in the week.

Sgt. Paul Manaigre says in an email that six officers completed a ground search on Friday around the area on the Nelson River near Gillam where Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, are believed to have been found dead on Wednesday.

Autopsies are still being conducted in Winnipeg to confirm the identities.

Manaigre says the area of the search extended to where a burned-out vehicle the pair travelled in was dumped, about eight kilometres from where the bodies were found.

He did not say what the item found Friday was, but says it "may be of interest to the investigation" and "will have to be examined to determine its relevance."

McLeod and Schmegelsky were charged with second-degree murder in the death of a University of British Columbia botany lecturer and were also wanted in the murder of a young tourist couple in northern B.C.

The bodies of the three were found in mid-July near highways in northern B.C., and a manhunt lasting two weeks followed.