Canadian police deploy dogs, air surveillance in hunt for murder suspects

Montreal: Heavily armed police with tracker dogs were searching a remote and densely forested area of northern Canada where a pair of teens wanted in three murders are thought to be holed up.

Canadians Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, are sought in the murders of Australian Lucas Fowler and his American girlfriend, Chynna Deese.

The pair have also been charged with the second-degree murder of a third person, identified by police as Leonard Dyck.

All the victims were discovered in northern British Columbia earlier this month, but the suspects have now been tracked three provinces and hundreds of miles (kilometers) away to the northern Manitoba town of Gillam, police said.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have sent "a significant amount of resources" to the Gillam area, including tracker dogs, air surveillance, emergency response teams and crisis negotiators, spokeswoman Julie Courchaine said Thursday.

"We believe they are still in the area," Courchaine said, citing two separate sightings of the suspects in the Gillam area.

Television footage showed heavily armed officers in camouflage with dogs combing the woods and searching vehicles at road checkpoints.

In an interview with Canadian Press, Schmegelsky's father said his son was deeply troubled and "(wanted) his pain to end." "He's on a suicide mission... he's going to be dead today or tomorrow," Alan Schmegelsky said of his son, explaining

Bryer never recovered emotionally from his parents' divorce in 2005. "Rest in peace, Bryer. I love you," said the older Schmegelsky, in tears.