An RCMP underwater dive team has joined the search in Manitoba for two teens suspected in three B.C. deaths after police found a damaged boat in the Nelson River area Saturday, Aug.3.
The abandoned aluminum boat was spotted on a riverbank by a search helicopter. The Nelson River is nearly 650 kilometres long and runs southwest from Hudson Bay, through Gillam, and south of Split Lake.
"Based on this new information, five members of the RCMP Underwater Recovery Team were immediately deployed," RCMP said. "They arrived in Gillam on Saturday, August 3rd, and are expected to conduct a thorough underwater search of significant areas of interest today."
Canada-wide warrants have been issued for Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, who are charged with second-degree murder in connection to the death of University of B.C. professor Leonard Dyck, who was found a few kilometres from the teens' burned-out pickup truck on Highway 37 near Dease Lake July 19.
The Port Alberni childhood friends are also suspects in the killings of American Chynna Deese and Australian Lucas Fowler. Their bodies were found along the Alaska Highway on July 15 near a van they had been travelling in.
Charges have yet to be announced in that investigation.
The pair was spotted in Saskatchewan early last week and then a car reportedly connected to them was found torched near Gillam. A house-to-house search was undertaken before forces moved to Nearby York Factory last Sunday after an unconfirmed sighting of two men scavenging in the town dump.
The sighting led to a community lockdown and heavy search. A similar search was done of the Gillam area.
