Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky died by suicide gunfire

The teenage serial-murder suspects found dead after a nearly three-week manhunt fatally shot themselves, Canadian police said Monday.

The Manitoba Medical Examiner confirmed the corpses found Wednesday in dense brush near the shoreline of the Nelson River in Gillam are Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam McLeod, 19, who were wanted in the murders of three people.

The cause of death appeared to be suicides by gunfire, the medical examiner found.

The former fugitives were initially feared missing when their burned-out truck was found July 22 on the side of a remote highway.

They were then charged with second-degree murder in the death of Leonard Dyck, 64, a University of British Columbia professor whose body was found about a mile from their truck.

The teens were also suspects in the deaths of Charlotte, North Carolina, woman Chynna Deese, 24, and her boyfriend, Lucas Fowler, 23, of Sydney, Australia, who were found fatally shot July 15, along the same highway.

A manhunt for the pair stretched across three rural Canadian provinces, ending near the river last week, after a police helicopter spotted a beat-up boat on the shoreline.

A follow-up search of the area uncovered items linked to the teens and eventually to their bodies.

Schmegelsky’s father, Alan Schmegelsky, said earlier he had expected the nationwide manhunt to end in his son’s death, who he said was on a “suicide mission.”

He also gave his son and his son’s accomplice “kudos” for evading authorities last month at a checkpoint in Manitoba.

The teens grew up on Vancouver Island and worked together at a local Walmart before taking off on what their parents believed was a trip to Yukon for work.

Alan Schmegelsky said his son “was raised by YouTube and video games.”

“He had a lot of time with very little attention given to him and I know that,” the dad said, admitting: “He could have had a better upbringing.”

Police were investigating photographs Bryer Schmegelsky allegedly sent of a swastika armband and a Hitler Youth knife to an online friend on the video game network Steam.

His dad said he didn’t think his son was a neo-Nazi, just that he thought Nazi memorabilia was “cool.”

In an interview Sunday night, the dad said he wasn’t ready to believe his son was a killer without proof.

“We’ll never know the answer,” he told Australia’s “60 Minutes.” “Everyone’s so quick to judge … he might be a victim in all of this for all we know.”

With Post wires

Credit: Source link

The post Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky died by suicide gunfire appeared first on Fox USA Live.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2OSyUNS