Ont. police investigate report of 'suspicious' car as hunt for B.C. murder suspects continues
Provincial police are investigating a report of two young males resembling the B.C. murder suspects travelling in a suspicious vehicle in a northern Ontario town.
Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) said they received a tip on Wednesday morning about a small white car driving through a construction zone on Hwy. 11 in Kapuskasing, Ont., located nearly 500 kilometres north of Sudbury and more than 2,300 kilometres southeast of the fugitives’ last known location in Gillam, Man.
Acting Staff Sgt. Shona Camirand told CTVNews.ca in an emailed statement Thursday that the complainant considered the vehicle “suspicious” because its occupants resembled Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam McLeod, 19, who are wanted on a second-degree murder charge for the death of a 64-year-old Vancouver man and are suspects in the shooting deaths of a young tourist couple in northern B.C. more than two weeks ago.
However, police stressed they have been unable to locate the car or confirm the identities of its occupants.
Staff Sgt. Carolle Dionne said it’s probable the white car is unrelated to Schmegelsky and McLeod, but they’re not ruling anything out. She said they’ve received reports about the suspects from “across the province,” however, there is still no confirmed sighting of the two men in Ontario.
On Thursday, Manitoba RCMP announced they were scaling down their search efforts around the small town of Gillam in a remote northern part of the province after an exhaustive manhunt in the community and surrounding wilderness failed to locate the fugitives.
"They're still keeping a presence within our community and keeping our community safe and at a moment's notice they can definitely get to an area if there's any spotting,” Gillam Mayor Dwayne Forman told CTV News.
Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister thanked the police and the volunteers for their help in what he called a frightening situation in Gillam.
"Thank you for your hard work. Thank you for protecting us,” he said. “We appreciate it very much."
Gillam became a focal point in the search following the discovery of a burned-out vehicle used by Schmegelsky and McLeod outside of town on July 22.The town’s 1,200 residents have been on edge ever since.
Darryl Dick, a Gillam resident of 10 years, said his community has been shaken because of the whole ordeal and that people remain on high alert.
"It's in the back of my mind, still thinking: ‘They could be anywhere,’” he said.
With the police presence now winding down, Forman is planning to host a community gathering in the coming days to make sure everyone gets the help they might need, including any mental health or counselling services.
"(We’ll) let the town ask questions so they can get their answers,” Forman said. “Obviously if they're going to ask where the people are -- the two fugitives -- we're obviously not going to answer because we don't know."
Forman isn’t the only one with few answers as to the location of Schmegelsky and McLeod, as investigators are unsure if the fugitives are still in the dense bush in northern Manitoba, if they’re alive, or if they’ve travelled elsewhere.
Dick, also an avid hunter and trapper with lots experience in the brush, said if the two men are indeed still hiding in the Manitoba wilderness, it won’t be long before they turn up.
"I think soon enough they're going to come out," he said.
Investigators continue to encourage the public to report any suspicious vehicles or activity to their local police stations.
With a report from CTV News Winnipeg's Josh Crabb
