MANHUNT

Canadian Police: Teen Fugitives May Have Gotten ‘Inadvertent’ Help

Police say Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky may have disguised themselves to escape a police dragnet.

Two teenage homicide suspects at the center of a huge manhunt in Canada may have escaped from the small town that police had surrounded by disguising themselves and getting help from an unwitting person, police said Friday. “Kam McLeod & Bryer Schmegelsky MAY have changed their appearance & inadvertently been given assistance to leave the area by someone that was not aware of who they were,” the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Manitoba said on Twitter. At a Friday news conference, Cpl. Julie Courchaine declined to say whether police had any reason to believe this had happened but said “we remain open to the possibility.” Police had concentrated their search efforts in and around the town of Gillam after McLeod, 19, and Schmegelsky, 18, were spotted there earlier this week. The two have been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Leonard Dyck, and they are suspected of killing an Australian man and his American girlfriend, Lucas Fowler and Chynna Deese, on a remote roadside. Police on Friday said they will now intensify their search efforts, with a military aircraft to be used to search from the sky and officers to go door to door in search of new leads.