VANCOUVER—Two burnt cars. Surveillance footage more than two weeks old. “Several items” found along a Manitoba shoreline.

These are the scant traces of Bryer Schmegelsky, 18, and Kam McLeod, 19, the B.C. fugitives charged with second-degree murder in the death of B.C. lecturer Leonard Dyck and suspected in the killing of two tourists, American Chynna Deese and her Australian boyfriend Lucas Fowler.

The details shared by police aren’t enough for Deese’s family to begin to understand the reasons for her death, her brother Stetson Deese said on Tuesday. Yet, like the general public, it’s all they’ve heard since Deese and Fowler were found shot to death on the side of the Alaska Highway on July 15.

“I’d say the best word for it is confusing,” said Stetson, 30, in a telephone interview from Charlotte, N.C. “These kids aren’t going to turn themselves in and we’re never really going to know why this happened.”

The uncertainty about the suspects’ whereabouts and the possibility that they may never be found alive is weighing on the Deese family, many of whom have yet to return to work due to the trauma caused by her sudden death.

“Everybody is having trouble accepting it. It’s just one of the hardest things to accept,” Stetson said. “She was perfectly healthy, she had what probably would have been her husband who she was travelling with.”

RCMP officers, local police and the military centred their search for Schmegelsky and McLeod on Gillam, Man. The town sits on the southeast shore of Stephens Lake, a reservoir created by the Kettle Dam where the Nelson River continues its journey north into the Hudson Bay. Early in the manhunt, officers found a burned-out Toyota Rav4 in the area that the young men had been driving.

Searchers have combed about 11,000 square kilometres of boggy, bush and forest around Gillam for any sign of the pair. Experts have said whether McLeod and Schmegelsky survived is “anyone’s guess.”

The RCMP have been in regular contact with the Deese family, Stetson said, but the information they have received has not allowed them to make sense of Chynna’s death. Sometimes he hears about developments in the investigation through the media before getting updates from police.

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Stetson, the oldest of four siblings, said Chynna, 24, was the youngest. He described her as a “free spirit” who radiated happiness and travelled freely.

“It’s been tough,” he said. “We won’t really know why (the suspects) did it.”

Staff Sgt. Janelle Shoihet of the BC RCMP said a family liaison officer has been assigned to provide regular updates in the case to family contacts.

“It has always been a priority to ensure the families are aware of developments and progress throughout the investigation and respect that those additional notifications may take longer than anticipated,” Shoihet wrote in an email on Tuesday.

Jessica Lowe, program manager of the B.C. Bereavement Helpline who lost a family member to homicide, said lack of information or explanation aggravates the intense grief that accompanies the death of a loved one.

“You don’t have that standard ‘normal’ process of death where you may be able to be with the person, you’re able to see the body or participate in funeral arrangements,” Lowe said. “It’s all very up in the air and unsettled.”

The shock and pain of being involved in a police investigation and sudden publicity of the death also complicate things.

“The family is often left out of this whole process because it’s not designed for them,” Lowe said. “It’s designed to find the perpetrator.”

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Victims services supplied by police or independent support groups like the bereavement helpline can help families work toward a “new normal,” she said.

Some information has reached Deese’s family through an unexpected source — Canadians who are alerting them to new tips through private messages on social media.

“It’s comforting. It shows there’s a lot of Canadians that really care,” Stetson said. In the meantime, the family is eager for as much “inside information” they can get from the police, like updates on locations they searched every day.

With files from Rosa Saba and Brennan Doherty

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