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Photo by RCMP

RCMP said they were also continuing their search for two teens from Port Alberni, B.C. — Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18 — who had been driving the red and grey Dodge pickup truck.

According to police, the two young men had set off in search of work in the Yukon. The pair had been in contact with family and friends periodically over the past week but had since gone quiet, police said. It was not clear why they had returned to the province.

At this point they are classified as “missing persons,” police said.

While police didn’t share any information directly linking the various cases, they said it was a possible there was a nexus.

“Our investigators are speaking to each other, sharing information and certainly looking at the possibility they may be linked,” Shoihet told reporters.

“It’s unusual to have two major investigations undergoing of this nature in northern B.C. at the same time.”

Some communities had already been taking extra precautions.

Photo by RCMP

In the First Nations community of Iskut, south of Dease Lake, Chief Maria Quock wrote in a Facebook post over the weekend that people were volunteering to patrol the area at night by car.

“We are having two of our young men patrolling our community tonight from Dusk until Dawn,” Quock wrote on Sunday.

The patrols, she wrote, would continue for the next few nights to “put our community members’ minds at ease and hopefully people will have a better rest.”

Quock told the National Post Monday that a lot of residents are living in fear.

“There’s been a lot of fear because this has never happened before in this area. Nobody knows what’s going on,” she said, adding that there is no RCMP detachment in the immediate area.

Meanwhile, another post made the rounds on Facebook groups for outdoor enthusiasts Monday, seeking the public’s help in locating an overdue family that was driving from Alaska back to Alberta. The family was found by mid-day, but the messages highlighted growing fears about travel in the region.

RCMP urged travellers to camp in established locations and to make sure family and friends were aware of travel plans and check-in times.