Fugitives

"It really is [the end of the road]. The road ends here in Manitoba. This is the dead-end corner of the world. I see it as the perfect place to get caught."
"To leave, they [the fugitives] would have to backtrack along the road or walk through the forest. The only other routes of travel would be the Nelson River or the train tracks."
"Its doable. People lived here a hundred years ago, so you can do it. People have gone out in the forest and done fine, but it takes a certain kind of person to stick that out. You kind of gotta want to be there. Or need to be there."
"There's a lot of rivers they'd need to cross, a lot of swampy ground. It's wet, vegetative ground. Soft and hard walking. Depending on where you are, you could sink up to your waist."
"Right now, there's berries growing everywhere. I can't walk in my front yard without making jam. It's a bumper year on rabbits. I've never seen so many rabbits."
"Anything that floats will get out there [to Hudson Bay via the Nelson River] but the truth is, if they made it to the bay they would be facing a whole different element."
"They'd be dealing with tide-waters, very large waves and polar bears."
Jesse Taylor, 32, Gillam town employee, wilderness outdoorsman

RCMP search the area near Gillam, Man., for homicide suspects Bryer Schmegelsky and Kam McLeod on Friday. (RCMP/The Canadian Press )

So this is what 19-year-old Kam McLeod and 18-year-old Bryer Schmelgelsky may be coping with in their determination to evade capture as suspects in three grisly murders. Held to be responsible for the shooting deaths of Australian Lucas Fowler, 23, and his 24-year-old American girlfriend, Chynna Deese whose bodies were discovered close by their van as they parked close by the Alaska Highway not far from Liard Hot Springs in British Columbia.

Photos of Bryer Schmegelsky submitted to CBC News by an online gamer at Steam, a video game distribution platform, where the two met. (Submitted)

The two have been charged with second-degree murder in the death of University of British Columbia botany lecturer Leonard Dyck, 64, whose body was found on a turnout south of Dease Lake, B.C., on Highway 37, some 470 kilometres west of the first homicide scene. Their burned-out pickup stood about two kilometres from Mr. Dyck's lifeless body. They were then tracked to northern Saskatchewan and following that to northern Manitoba, a burned-out Toyota they had stolen attesting to their arrival there.

"There have been no confirmed sightings outside of the Gillam area, however we remain open to the possibility."
"Our plea today is that if anyone in and around those communities [of Gillam of and Fox Lake Cree Nation] may have inadvertently helped them get out of the community ... to just please come forward."
RCMP Cpl.Julie Courchaine

Officers comb the wilderness near Gillam, Man., on Thursday. (Gilbert Rowan/CBC)

The two were last reported having been seen in Gillam on the 22nd. Since then police have searched with dogs, drones, helicopters and patrols, hoping to unearth their presence. The military has been brought in for sighting by plane. Asking for help from the public in the hope that some clue might give investigators an idea where they might possibly look. Exiting Gillam would mean leaving the very same way they arrived. But they destroyed the stolen vehicle they arrived with. And there have been no local reports of vehicle theft since then.

At the end of the road there is the vast northern forest. With plentiful food and liquid available in its natural state, in an environment potentially hazardous to the well-being, much less survival of the uninitiated to outdoor survival. The town of Gillam has 1,200 residents, the Fox Lake reserve another 200. Everyone is familiar with everyone else; a strange face is noticed immediately, and noted. There have been no reports of the two fugitives appearing in public for the past week.

Without some kind of human intervention that might give the pair direction, support, advice and practical help of some kind, the mystery is where they might be in the forest with its boggy floor, the presence of bears, and blood-sucking bugs prevalent at this time of year, to drive animals and humans to distraction. If they are there, in the forest, they are not enjoying themselves.

"Everybody in this town knows everybody else and when somebody new comes into town, a new vehicle or a new face, people recognize that right away."
"As unnerving as this whole situation is, in my opinion, it's kind of the best scenario. Everybody knows everybody and there is only one road in and one road out. They'll find them, it's just a matter of time", assures Jesse Taylor, the informative outdoorsman.

In the interim, the hope must be that there be no further encounters with this deadly pair -- that anyone else might lose their lives. Two young men led by demons of destructive violence that only they know of, one entranced by the allure of violent fascism augmenting an already-disturbed psychotic personality, the other an unnervingly willing accomplice whose trail of bloodshed has left a nation stunned. Normal kids, their parents assure the public.