The InCredible Vanishing Act

"Our only road comes in the winter-time."
"If they don't make us that road after the ferry stops, we're stuck here until we can pass over the ice on snowmobiles."
"We're an isolated community, eh. We only have the air and the ferry."
"[The entire community is on edge]. Some people are scared, I mean, I am."
"Everyone is keeping their children inside. No one is out walking around at all. It's eerily quiet."
Judy Sinclair, resident, York Landing

"You have to know the land to get around here. If you don't, it will eat you up."
"It's heavily, heavily wooded area. Terrain is swamp and heavy woods. We're thinking of scenarios of how they made the trek here."
"They'd be noticed and pointed out immediately."
"We have our local First Nations Safety Officers that do searches for drugs and alcohol and just question persons entering the community about what their intentions are here."
"No possibility [attempting to travel from Gillam by the Nelson River, to York Landing], they'd be sucked into the current; they are very strong. You can't sit on a floater and drift down the river. There are hydro dams."
"No updates as to any sightings since yesterday. There's really a huge effort here to locate them."
"RCMP have notified us to remain vigilant and to report any information or tips you may have directly to the authorities."
Leroy Constant, chief, York Factory First Nation

Police continue to comb the wilderness near Gillam, Man., last week. The RCMP regrouped in the small community on Tuesday, searching for B.C. murder suspects Bryer Schmegelsky and Kam McLeod. (Gilbert Rowan/CBC)

The RCMP thoroughly investigated the possibility that the two fugitives, Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, of Port Albini in British Columbia wanted as suspects in three murders in northern British Columbia might be in York Landing, an inaccessible, remote community about 90 kilometres from Gillam, Manitoba, where police have been hunting for the two for the past week.
The exhaustive search yielded no clues whatever to their whereabouts, leading the RCMP to pack up and return to Gillam.

There had been a sighting by a band safety officer, a member of the Bear Clan Patrol watch group, of two men at the town garbage dump who fled into the nearby forest when they realized they had been spotted. That news, relayed to the RCMP in Gillam, spurred them to respond. And since the only way they could travel to York Landing was by air or sea, it took an hour by ferry for the first contingent of RCMP officers with their search gear to arrive. After which an intensive house-to-house search of the residences of the 500 Cree inhabitants commenced.



It was a mysterious enough conundrum where the two might have got to in Gillam, the last stop on the sole road leading to it and the only road leading out. The two had torched the vehicle they had stolen, on their arrival at Gillam, and then just disappeared. Both Gillam and York Landing are isolated communities, where everyone knows everyone else. Strangers would immediately be noticed, their presence eliciting curiosity at best, and in the instance of the two fugitives an immediate alert of the police.

Presumably the two fugitive teens have retained the firearm they used to shoot dead Australian tourist Lucas Fowler, 24 and his 25-year-old American girlfriend, Chynna Deese, as well as the killing of University of British Columbia biology lecturer Leonard Dyck, for whose death they have been charged with second-degree murder. They are not seasoned, outdoorsmen and hunters, with limitless experience in wilderness camping and making use of resources available for those who can recognize them, to avoid starvation.

They would be  undergoing privation and danger of types they would likely never before have encountered as urban youth. If this is a hide-and-seek game they are playing at for excitement that their online gaming practise has prepared them for, they're succeeding admirably in evading capture by experienced hunters of psychopaths, well equipped and presumably more than capable of hunting down their lawful prey. The police are heavily armed, they have all-terrain quads, pickup trucks.



There is a Canadian Air Force Hercules at their disposal with thermal detecting devices to aid in the search. The RCMP search teams have re-assembled in Gillam, their search in York Landing concluded with no results gained whatever, no hints gleaned that might lead to the apprehension of two murderers. They are determinedly resuming their intensive search in Gillam and surrounding area, particularly the vast northern forest surrounding the community.

"I guess we're back to Square One."
"I just ultimately want everyone to still stay safe and vigilant to make sure that they still keep an eye out. You don't know if they're in the area or not." 
Dwayne Forman, mayor, Gillam

The RCMP are ending a checkstop of vehicles on the road leading to Gillam. (Lyzaville Sale/CBC)