Even in death, Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky remained elusive.

The search for the two young fugitives, who led authorities on a manhunt across Western Canada’s vast terrain, ended Wednesday morning with the discovery of a pair of bodies near the shores of Manitoba’s Nelson River.

The find marked an end to “exhaustive” efforts by the RCMP and military but left agonizing questions unanswered — perhaps forever — about the two friends from Vancouver Island and the crimes they’re believed to have committed.

RCMP announced that two bodies located in northern Manitoba are believed to be British Columbia murder suspects. Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky, from Port Alberni, B.C., were facing a second-degree murder charge in the death of a Vancouver man. They were also suspects in the shooting death of an American woman and her Australian boyfriend. RCMP say they found important evidence Friday and located the bodies a kilometre away in dense brush on Wednesday morning. (The Canadian Press)

What prompted the two B.C. teenagers to allegedly kill a young couple, not much older than they were, along the Alaska Highway or a middle-aged University of British Columbia botany instructor? How did they avoid a sophisticated search by RCMP officers and Canadian Armed Forces personnel through the boggy, dense bush of northern Manitoba?

“It’s going to be extremely difficult for us to ascertain definitively what the motive was,” acknowledged Assistant Commissioner Kevin Hackett of the British Columbia RCMP. “Obviously, we will not have the opportunity to speak with these individuals.”

There was, nonetheless, relief.

Doris Fleck, the sister of slain UBC instructor Leonard Dyck, said Wednesday she was “sobbing when (she) heard the news” that two bodies had been recovered.

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“It is a relief, and at the same time, it has been such a needless loss of life,” she wrote in a post to her Facebook page. “We cannot change what happened but we can remember (Leonard) for his dry sense of humour, his generosity and love.”

She declined an interview.

The bodies were found by RCMP officers doing a foot search through dense brush around 10 a.m. Wednesday, roughly eight kilometres from where a burned-out Toyota RAV4 used by the pair was found in the Gillam area.

An autopsy will be held in Winnipeg to formally identify the bodies and to determine the cause of death, but Assistant Commissioner Jane MacLatchy of the Manitoba RCMP said authorities were confident the remains are those of McLeod, 19, and Schmegelsky, 18.

In McLeod and Schmegelsky’s hometown of Port Alberni, a city of about 17,000 people in the centre of Vancouver Island, news that the bodies were found came on a sunny day when many folks were gathered outside in the quay.

At the home where Schmegelsky lived with his grandmother Carol Starkey, a sign posted to the front door asked media to “respect our privacy at this time.”

An elderly woman yelled at reporters through a window to get off the property and not take any pictures.

At the McLeod family home in a rural area outside Port Alberni, there was little sign of activity. Two “No Trespassing” signs stood sentry at the entrance to the long gravel driveway.

Mud Edward, a 19-year-old Port Alberni local who didn’t know Schmegelsky or McLeod personally but had seen them in town, said he wasn’t surprised to hear the latest news.

“I honestly thought they were dead a while ago,” he said sitting on a dock rail in the harbour quay.

“They’re kids, they’re my age — same age as me. It’s messed up. I feel no remorse for them. I feel bad for the families.”

Edward said that since the story made headlines, his brothers have noticed a chill among locals when they hitchhike. Drivers, he said, are more wary of whom they’re picking up.

Tom Carrier, another local, said the fact that the pair had apparently been found dead was “sad for everybody involved.”

Port Alberni has been through hard times in the past decade, with job losses in the logging industry, and is rebuilding.

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“For a small community like this, you’re trying to grow the community, get more people to come here, and then something like this happens. It’s almost like it’s a step back,” Carrier said.

The RCMP’s MacLatchy said the discovery of “items directly linked to the suspects” on Friday along the shores of the Nelson River helped officers narrow the search. The bodies were found roughly a kilometre away from the items, she told reporters.

At first, McLeod and Schmegelsky weren’t suspects at all. The two left their hometown on July 12 for Whitehorse, ostensibly to look for work. Schmegelsky’s father, Alan, has said in media interviews the young man was dissatisfied with his job at the local Walmart.

On the following day, Chynna Deese, a 24-year-old American woman, and her boyfriend, 23-year-old Australian Lucas Fowler, stopped at a gas station in Fort Nelson, B.C. News outlets reported the couple was seen on the side of the road in a broken-down van on July 14. Witnesses said they saw a man speaking with Fowler on Hwy. 97 that evening.

The next day, officers with the B.C. RCMP found Fowler’s and Deese’s bodies along the Alaska Highway, about 20 kilometres south of Liard Hot Springs, close to the B.C-Yukon border. They’d been shot dead.

Four days later, on July 19, the RCMP found a truck on fire on Hwy. 37 — around seven hours away from where Fowler’s and Deese’s bodies had been found. McLeod and Schmegelsky had been driving it. The body of Dyck, the UBC instructor, lay around two kilometres from the truck fire.

At the time, the RCMP described the pair as missing and said there was no indication the two incidents were connected.

Sporadic sightings of the pair occurred over the course of the next few days. On July 21, McLeod and Schmegelsky were seen by a resident of Cold Lake, Alta., who helped free a Toyota RAV4 they were driving from a trail behind his home. Later that day, the two would be seen driving it in Meadow Lake, Sask.

The two were spotted in Gillam, Man., on July 22. A burned-out Toyota RAV4 was later reported near the small Manitoba community.

The following day, the RCMP declared Schmegelsky and McLeod suspects in the deaths of Fowler, Deese and Dyck.

Throughout the manhunt, critics have questioned how McLeod and Schmegelsky eluded the RCMP and military for so long. Hackett said the force is always open to improving its operations but stood by its response. He compared the manhunt’s length to the distance between London and Moscow and noted much of it took place in very remote parts of Canada.

“I don’t think I need to educate anyone on the geography of this country — but it’s a huge country,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

The hunt had focused mainly on the town of Gillam and surrounding communities in northern Manitoba. At its peak, the search included dogs, drones and planes. Military aircraft assisted with a massive aerial search, eventually covering 11,000 square kilometres of northern Manitoba. Meanwhile, local residents found themselves on edge, wondering if two murder suspects were lingering nearby.

Schmegelsky’s own father predicted a grim end to the manhunt in a stunning interview with The Canadian Press. Alan Schmegelsky said his son had struggled through his parents’ acrimonious split in 2005 and was in very serious pain. During the interview, he described Bryer Schmegelsky as lacking good influences.

Before the manhunt concluded, Alan Schmegelsky anticipated his son would die in a “blaze of glory” with police.

“Basically, he’s going to be dead today or tomorrow. I know that,” he said during the emotional July 24 interview. “Rest in peace, Bryer. I love you. I’m so sorry all this had to happen.”

Despite Wednesday’s findings, the investigation into the killings isn’t over. Hackett said the file will remain open. He told reporters Wednesday afternoon that investigators need to ensure that their findings continue to confirm their theory of what happened — and eliminate any other possibilities or suspects.

“Until that is completed, we will not conclude this file,” he said.

Hackett said the killings of Deese, Fowler and Dyck did not appear to be targeted.

He said police believe nothing links all three victims. But he said there was significant evidence to link McLeod and Schmegelsky to both homicide scenes, though he did not go into details.

MacLatchy offered the RCMP’s condolences to the families of “everyone affected by this series of events over the last few weeks.” She said the discovery of the two bodies would bring a sense of relief to communities affected by the search.

“It’s huge to be able to hopefully give some people an opportunity to exhale — and hopefully, eventually, go back to normal and not be afraid of who’s out in the woods anymore.”

With files from Tessa Vikander, Alex McKeen , Rosa Saba, Kevin Maimann, Jesse Winter and The Canadian Press

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