Manitoba RCMP dive team to search Nelson River near Gillam for B.C. murder suspects

by Craig Takeuchi on August 3rd, 2019 at 11:57 PM

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Update (August 5): The dive mission has been completed and an RCMP roadblock has been set up near Sundance, Manitoba. For more information, see this article.

Although the search for two B.C. murder suspects shifted from the Manitoban town of Gillam to other locations, attention is now returning to Gillam once again.

Manitoba RCMP announced today (August 3) in a news release that their Underwater Recovery Team (URT) was scheduled to arrive in Gillam tonight.

URT divers, using advanced equipment to aid their search, are being deployed to begin searching the Nelson River on August 4.

RCMP stated that media won’t be allowed to access the dive area or the divers and no further specific information is being released by the RCMP about the URT mission.

However, the Globe and Mail reported that the search was prompted by a damaged row boat that had washed ashore on the afternoon of August 2 and that police will be searching to determine who is linked to the boat.

RCMP had been sent on July 28 to search York Landing, Manitoba, after a reported sighting there but police were unable to find any evidence that the two teens, 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky and 19-year-old Kam McLeod, had been there.

Ontario Provincial Police announced on August 2 that they assigned a team specifically devoted to following up an influx of tips they have been receiving about sightings of the two suspects within the province. None of these tips have been confirmed, including one in Kapuskasing.

The pair is wanted as suspects in the deaths of Vancouver botany instructor Leonard Dyck, who was found near Dease Lake, B.C., and Australia’s Lucas Fowler and North Carolina’s Chynna Deese, who were found near Liard Hot Springs, B.C.